A lot of choices bombard our generation. We have limitless access to just about anything. The Information Age has so reduced our world to a place where people are endlessly glued to the computer, oblivious to the realities around them. We’re in the Internet Age.
The internet technology has improved our world many times over. Let’s take, for example, Christians taking their role in the Great Commission seriously. Where missionaries are denied access elsewhere in the globe, the internet has become the alternative.
Sharing the gospel in 24 different time zones around the globe is possible with just a laptop and internet connection.
Why not go then where the people are? Where millions are online 24/7? Why not talk to them where barriers no longer exist, where threats of persecution or of being killed for one’s faith is almost nil?
Digital Day of Outreach
The Digital Day of Outreach (DDO) is one of Campus Crusade for Christ’s strategies to share the gospel to nations in 24 different time zones. Using WatchThinkChat, one can easily talk to someone about Jesus. Sharing the Gospel online is easier, with less pressure compared to a one-on-one conversation with a potential believer.
The DDO has been successfully used in the Philippines. According to a Globe Index research, Filipinos are digitally active, spending an average of 4.5 hours daily in social media alone.
In June 2014, the first ever DDO was held at the PCCC Center for Evangelism & Discipleship in Quezon City where around 120 people gathered. Most of them were students. That was only the beginning. It was repeated many times throughout the year and re-echoed to those in different provinces. Some where held in churches. One was in a TV network and another in a seminary with pastors, church members and student leaders. Many asked the local CCC to help set up their own DDO.
DDO catches on
Malaysia and the Fiji Islands caught the DDO fever, hosting their own version of Digital Day of Outreach. One mega-church in the Philippines, Greenhills Christian Fellowship, partnering with PCCC, hosted a DDO in October 2014. Participating members experienced first-hand people coming to Christ after watching the film Falling Plates. The following week the same people saw those whom they chatted with attend the church Discipleship Group. Amazing indeed that those who came online took a further step.
Clem Guillermo, pastor and popular radio host, heard about DDO and adopted the WatchThinkChat strategy for his church. They’re on their way to their second DDO after seeing many come to Christ in the first.
Simple e-conversations indeed open doors for people—otherwise unreachable through other means—to come to Christ.
We have also seen that this simple yet effective strategy has brought different churches, organizations and local ministries as partners—using the simple tool WatchThinkChat—to reach different sectors of society.
The Internet Age is here to stay. We might as well use it to point people to Christ. Find out how you can host your own Digital Day of Outreach.