CHARISMATICA » Internet Ministry

-Internet Evangelism Day

Michael — Mon, 16 May 2011 04:45:35 +0000

Sunday May 15 is Internet Evangelism Day.

The organizers of the day offer more than 20 eBooks for free plus lots of other resources on doing ministry on the Internet.

The titles include:

NetCasters: Using the Internet to Make Fishers of Men by Craig von Buseck
God Space: where spiritual conversations happen naturally by Doug Pollock
Effective Church Websites for Emerging Generations by Frank Johnson
Several books by church communications trainer Yvon Prehn

Check out the full list here: Free Internet Evangelism Day Books

-Internet the Key to Fulfilling the Great Commission?

Michael — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 07:34:23 +0000

: Image by Ben Dodson via Flickr

Here’s is an observation made by Walt Wilson, founder and CEO of Global Media Outreach during a recent conference at Biola University:

“By 2015 there will be WiFi everywhere on the face of the earth.”

“We are the first generation in all of human history to hold within our hands the technology to reach every man, woman, and child on the earth by 2020. Our generation has within its grasp everything that is required to fulfill the Great Commission.”

The Internet is changing everything. No this is not an exaggeration and I happen to believe that in spite of all the controversy God is behind it all. Just like the Roman peace, road system, and universal use of the Greek language made it possible for Christianity to spread across the known world in the first generation. Today the internet is doing the same thing in this generation—actually making it possible for folks to begin to talk about fulfilling the Great Commission of taking the Gospel to every nation.

Right now I know of several Christian ministries that are targeting unreached cultures and people nations through the Internet—places where it is impossible and illegal for missionaries to go. Nevertheless people in those nations are coming to Christ and new churches are being planted.

It is pretty incredible how the Net has made the world a much smaller place. The Islamic autocrats can no longer keep their folks from finding out the truth about Jesus. One Click with the browser and you can get the best Bible teaching of all time no matter where you live. In fact my blogs including this one have been visited by folks from nearly every country on Earth—196 to date. We are living in exciting times. *Top

Bishop Weeks Seeks New Wife on the Web!

Michael — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:01:13 +0000

Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, is seeking his 3rd wife on the web. The good Bishop is going to document his effort in 10 streaming video “Web Episodes” of his reality show “WHO WILL BE THE NEXT MRS. WEEKS” on his website.

Thomas is the ex-husband of televangelist Juanita Bynum.

Response: I really did think that this was some kind of joke at first. All I can do is just shake my head and wonder how any part of the American church has come down to this in my lifetime. *Top

An Anniversary Belatedly Observed

Michael — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:28:42 +0000

The 2nd Anniversary of this blog went unnoticed while I was flat on my back nursing some kind of bug. Charismatica Blog started two years ago on April 2, 2006.

This actually makes me a ‘tweener’ in the blogosphere. The ‘ancient sages’ came before 2003, the ‘mature’ webloggers started in 2004-5, then came the popular deluge of blogs starting in 2005-6 -’the adults’. The path was already well worn when I started in 2006, yet so much has happened since in the blogosphere it will be interesting to see what comes next–we are really still at the beginning of this web genre.

This was actually my 2nd blog. I started blogging at ANSWERS For The Faith a month earlier on March 5, 2006. My original idea for CHARISMATICA was to make a website with referral links (See: “Referral Pages: Revival Ministries-links”) to all the different ministries that had come through my home church at one time or another. Ministries that I wanted to keep up on.

Later, I started adding sites of ministries that they were linked to in some way or another– Revival or church Renewal was the prevailing theme that linked all these folk together. To round out this site, I started adding announcements, articles, book reviews, testimonies, and personal commentary, all with a focus on Revival. My latest project, began in December 2006, was to start a Directory of ‘everything Vineyard’ on the Internet, including a new blogroll.

The name ‘Charismatica’ came to me while I was worshipping Sunday morning April 2, 2006. I got home and found that the domain name- charismatica.com was available and grabbed it, added a WordPress blogging platform and started in.

The next day I ‘googled’ ‘charismatica’ to see what else might be out there with the same name on the web. I found a music group and then page after page of archived articles (literally 100′s of articles) that were all against anything and everything that was Charismatic or Pentecostal. All of it on a website called ‘Charismatica’ @charismatica.com—my new domain. Apparently they had just quit that week and hadn’t renewed the domain. I was horrified and ready to flush the whole thing.

Then I believe the Lord clearly spoke to me saying that he gave me that name and domain in order to redeem it. After all, anything named ‘charismatica’ (things of the Spirit), should be for the work of the Holy Spirit and not against it. Today if you google ‘charismatica’ all of those ‘anti’ articles are long gone.

Along the way, my original vision has expanded to include 8 different blogs. Usually I am way over my head with all the technical stuff. Sometimes I have gotten off track and have forgotten the original vision. Sometimes it has been more like a hobby. Sometimes it has been a burden. But sometimes I remember to include the Lord in what I am doing and it is actually a blessing. It has definitely been an interesting ride so far. There have been ups and downs, but mostly ups and many blessings in the process.

The greatest blessing that has come my way has been the opportunity to meet so many of you on the web. It is my hope that in the last 2 years that something on this blog has been helpful to someone along the way. At least I can say that I’ve been richly blessed by all of you who have visited and stopped to dialogue. God Bless! PS: I’m still hoping, looking, and praying for revival to come to this land and major revival to sweep across the nations. *Top

Join The War on Terror -Pray for a Terrorist!

Michael — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:16:13 +0000

This is not an April fool’s day joke! There is a new Internet ministry, Adopt a Terrorist for Prayer (ATFP), which is urging Christians to adopt a terrorist and pray for them. Just as Jesus Christ instructed his disciples to love and pray for their enemies.

The ministry has pictures of all the major known terrorists and suggests that you select one (adopt) to pray for. As ATFP founder Dr. Thomas Bruce states:

“People can go to www.myatfp.org to learn about nearly a hundred prominent at-large and captured individuals identified by the FBI and State Department as either terrorists or terrorism sponsors,” the ministry founder said.

He added, “Visitors can then find a terrorist to pray for, as well as see how many others are praying for them. It’s all about connecting these prayer warriors to each other to see how others are praying, to encourage each other, to spread the word, and fight this War on Terrorism in a powerful and spiritual way.”

Response: The on-going battle and clash against Islamic terror is more of a spiritual battle against principalities and powers than most people realize. I believe that prayer could be a more powerful weapon in the War on Terror than thousands of armed forces and could actually bring about changes that can’t necessarily be accomplished through natural means. Here’s a link to their website. *Top

Day One: GodblogCon 2007 and BlogWorld Expo

Michael — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:37:31 +0000

Greetings from Las Vegas, Nevada, I am here at the Blogworld & New Media Expo and GodblogCon 2007, along with thousands of fellow bloggers. Today has been an eye opening experience. I am like a kid in a candy store. < Read the rest on my AFTF blog>

Note: Podcasts of the GodblogCon sessions are available @ ScriptoriumDaily.com
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“Forgive Me Whomever?” -A look a Internet Confession

Michael — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 15:47:30 +0000

Until I read this article, I had no idea that thousands of people everyday were confessing their sins on the internet. Thousands sense a lack and a need in their lives and are turning to the internet for answers and absolution?

My first reaction is horror and sadness that so many are really seeking God in their lives and don’t really know it. Instead they find some kind of human band aid to pacify the hurt and receive some kind of justification and faux forgiveness through the comments of other online seekers.

Finally though, I see a vast potential for true revival to come and bring the reality of God into the lives of countless thousands who do not currently know Jesus or a faithful representation of his church.

Update: Here is an article posted today about a Christian confession site that stresses prayer and confession directly to God.

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Worship on the Internet

Michael — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:09:39 +0000

Here’s a real interesting article about religion on the internet. It starts out talking about religion in general on the internet and presents some awesome statistics:

“…the number of Web pages dealing with God, religion and churches increased from 14 million in 1999 to 200 million in 2004. Religion now nearly rivals sex as a topic on the Internet: A search for “sex” on Google returns about 408 million hits, while a search for “God” yields 396 million. “

Then the majority of the article talks about India and how popular the internet has become to the younger set in searching for religion, prayers, and Hindu services. It even explores the popularity of Indian religious sites with Indians who are living out of the country in places like the UK or USA.

After reading the article, I believe that there could be a real opportunity to spread the gospel in India through the internet, particularly among the young.