Digital Mission Consortia
Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, in partnership with OneHope and other gospel ministries, has convened a “Digital Mission Consortia” to collectively leverage technology to accelerate our mission of showing and sharing the gospel, making disciples of all nations.
An Emerging Digital Mission Field
According to recent Barna research…
If U.S. adults have a question about Christianity, they are more likely to ask the Internet than a friend
Half of churched Christians would like to be coached on or given tools for digitally sharing their faith with non-Christians
Only 27% of non-Christians say they would be interested in any invitation to a digital church activity or group.[1]
Pioneering ministries have entered the space of digital evangelism and discipleship, surfacing new challenges and opportunities. The recent global pandemic accelerated the field of digital discipleship, as churches and ministries faced limits on in-person services and gatherings. Society overall looked online for connection and hope. Before churches and ministries too quickly return to “normal” after the pandemic, we are presented with a unique inflection point for learning and innovation.
Together, we believe complex problems require large-scale partnerships. No one ministry can do this alone. This will take the best thinking from a global community of digital ministry leaders, funders, churches, researchers, and missiologists to identify best practices, spread innovation, and recommend standards to guide digital ministry for the coming decades.
[1] Barna Group, Five Changing Contexts for Digital Evangelism, 2020.
Preliminary Research Questions
Digital mission is raising new questions:
- Which ministries are emerging as leaders in evangelism and what are they learning?
- What best practices can we discover and disperse to accelerate impact? What can we collectively do better?
- What practices and paradigms from the analog ministry world should be adjusted or abandoned in a digital world?
- What innovations and opportunities can be curated and mutually developed with the majority world of Christians outside North America?
- Where are overlapping or redundant ministry investments being made? Where is funding needed that would deliver a high return on ministry investment?
Echoes of History
While the questions are new, similar challenges have been faced by pastors, church leaders, and missiologists in previous eras. On October 24, 1948, as Christian revivals entered a postwar boom, Billy Graham and his ministry team established the Modesto Manifesto, a series of commitments to protect the integrity of Christian ministry, including commitments about sexual and financial integrity, a commitment to work in partnership with local churches, follow-up on decisions, and accurately report attendance numbers at their rallies.[1] These collective commitments supported the integrity and credibility of gospel witness for a generation. As we enter this new digital era, what similar commitments and ideas would preserve the integrity of digital discipleship?
[1] Graham, Billy. Just As I Am, online excerpt and article (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, October 24, 2017).
