Churches and ministries around the world are finding new ways to make an impact from a distance using digital missions. But for many, the transition hasn’t been easy. Many churches, ministries, and individual Christians just aren’t sure how to get started. Indigitous recently invited Nick Parker, Community Manager for CV Africa, to speak at our Ministry from a Distance webinar and share practical tips that others can follow.
CV is an early adopter when it comes to digital missions. They have always used mass media for evangelism, previously focusing on using radio programs to broadcast the Gospel around the world. Right now, their primary focus is digital evangelism.
“Think of years ago when you have individuals like Reinhard Bonnke or Billy Graham coming and speaking to a whole bunch of people at a given time,” Nick says. “Well, we use the same model except we just do it in a digital setup.”
Evangelism campaigns
Their primary strategy involves taking content, some made by their ministry, some by partners, and some open-source content, and marketing it on social media, specifically targeting non-Christians. One example was a campaign called Middle of the Night, which they ran on social media only between midnight and 3:00am. In the video, a woman says, “I have no idea what’s keeping you awake, I don’t know what you’re looking for” and then goes on to say that God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you.
During each of their campaigns, CV aims not only to help someone come to follow Christ, but also to get plugged into their local church. “We believe discipleship, community, and growth happens within the context of the local church,” Nick says.
To help achieve that, they use a platform called CV Outreach. The platform, which is free for churches, helps connect churches with people who need to hear the Gospel. Whenever someone responds to one of CV’s campaigns, such as the Middle of the Night video, the CV Outreach platform is able to tell that person’s location and send the response to a local church in their community for follow up.
For churches and missions organizations, CV offers CV Resources, a free library of downloadable high-quality Christian videos. They are essentially giving churches access to every video that CV has produced, which can be filtered by topic, language, and more. These videos can be used in Sunday services, small groups, campaigns, and more.
equipping individuals
CV doesn’t just want to do the digital evangelism themselves, though. They also work to equip individuals to share their faith with their friends and other contacts through the free yesHEis app. Many Christians avoid having spiritual conversations because they feel awkward and don’t know how to start. The yesHEis app is designed to help Christians gain confidence, learn from others, challenge themselves, get advice, and more. Sharing your faith using yesHEis can be as simple as sharing a video and asking a question about it. “What we’re really trying to do is get conversations started around Christianity and around faith,” Nick says.
Run
Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. (Habakkuk 2:2)
- Use the yesHEis app to start a spiritual conversation with someone you know.
- Use videos from CV Resources in a campaign or in your church content.
- Partner with CV through CV Outreach to help people be connected to your church.