that a Pioneers team decided to air on national television in a predominately Muslim country in Southeast Asia. After the showing, 65,000 viewers responded with text messages requesting additional information, according to a recent
. These viewers were then directed to a YouTube video entitled "The Secret Life," which encourages viewers to explore their religious beliefs.
A short segment after the video clip encouraged viewers to send text messages requesting a copy of the Injil, the Muslim term for the New Testament. Many made such requests. Of the 6,500 Muslims who asked for the New Testament, 85 made professions of faith. Of the 85, 25 were not individuals but groups that met to study the Injil together.
According to Dwight McGuire, the Pioneers missiologist, media often proves to be an inadequate conversion tool. However, in this case, media helped the Pioneers to identify seekers.
"Research has shown that mass media is poor at persuading people to consider other religions, but it is effective at identifying people who are in the searching mode," McGuire said. "By switching our focus to looking for seekers, we often had over 100,000 respondents, eventually leading to dozens of discussion groups--precursors to cell churches."
Part of the Pioneers' mission is to make use of mass media to reach people who have never been touched by the Gospel message.
Although on a much smaller scale, I have seen other ministries use mass media as an evangelism tool. One afternoon, I had just gotten out of my last class and was walking through the Student Union at my university. All of a sudden, a young man who appeared to be a fellow student handed me a card with pictures of three or four college students. Underneath their pictures was the Web site,
thensomethinghappened.com. The curious person that I am, as soon as I returned to my dorm that afternoon, I immediately visited the Web site. It didn't take long for me to discover that the Web site was operated by a ministry called
Vintage run by a church near my campus. I watched several videos created by the youth leaders at Vintage who shared their stories of loneliness, heartache and brokenness and how they ultimately found Christ. I'm not certain about the kind of effect these videos would have on a non-believer, but even for me as a Christian, they were heart-wrenching and helped me to reevaluate whether or not I was truly staying in step with God.
Underneath each video, there is a "more info" button, which directs viewers to this page. At the bottom of the page, one can make a decision to follow Jesus.
Do you think evangelism through media is effective? Do you think it does a good job in helping to identify seekers? Do you think media can draw non-believers in to considering Christianity?
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims tuned in to Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ that a Pioneers team decided to air on national television in a predominately Muslim country in Southeast Asia. After the showing, 65,000 viewers responded with text messages requesting additional information, according to a recent press release. These viewers were then directed to a YouTube video entitled "The Secret Life," which encourages viewers to explore their religious beliefs.A short segment after the video clip encouraged viewers to send text messages requesting a copy of the Injil, the Muslim term for the New Testament. Many made such requests. Of the 6,500 Muslims who asked for the New Testament, 85 made professions of faith. Of the 85, 25 were not individuals but groups that met to study the Injil together.
Comments (10)
I've never heard of anyone who got saved from a movie, but I'm sure it's definitely possible. At the very least, it could plant a seed and get people thinking. But with the example of the Passion of the Christ, which I saw long before I ever considered becoming a Christian, the excessive amount of violence detracted from the real meaning of the story.
I get that the film makers wanted to be realistic about Jesus' suffering, but in the end I walked away feeling nauseated rather than grateful of His sacrifice because the graphic content took center stage over the actual plot. In fact, a lot of people I know went to see that movie strictly for the gore factor, and not because they gave a crap that it was all for them.
@sarahzthoughts@xanga - God used the "Jesus of Nazareth" mini series to bring someone I know to Christ; he'd heard Christian teaching growing up, but he'd not been saved until that time.
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From the original post: "mass media is poor at persuading people to consider other religions..."
The thing we have to remember is that the mass media or men or any human means in and of itself has no power to draw men to Christ. That is the sovereign work of God through His Holy Spirit. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16). He can draw people to Christ through means we might not fathom because He works immeasurably above all we can ask or imagine.
@naphtali_deer@xanga - I meant that just because I didn't know anyone who got saved from a movie or mini series or whatever, doesn't mean that it's not possible for other people. I'm glad it worked for your friend.
Media is just another avenue of communication. It can be effective, harmful, neutral, etc. Personally, I don't think it can replace relationships, but I believe it has its place. Ofc, if it's done, it should be done well.
I think it can be useful, but it is really impersonal...
@stuartandabby@xanga - Agreed!
Used properly, media can be extremely effective in directing behavior. Marketing is a multibillion dollar business. If it were not effective, it would not be used.
We are a consumer-based culture largely because of the continuous, pounding by media. It took less than 20 years to turn Americans from savers to consumers (1945-1960) .
Media could be a block buster tool for the spread of Chrisianity if it were used properly.
It appeared to be quite useful in this case.
Mel Gibson is a hero. Yes I do. The problem I see with christian television is some of the TV evangelists believe there is someone watching that the particular message at that particular time is for. Maybe so but maybe not. Some of the TV evangelists I've seen don't seem to have a clue. But not all of them. There are some very effective christian TV programs. One of my problems, though with TV prayer is when the praying seems to be directed at the camera. There is one TV ministry whose ministry seems to be their TV ministry, so give them money so they can keep their TV program going so they can ask for more money.
As long as it's kept Biblical, definitely.
To answe the posted question...yes