Watching the web
Stephen Doggett
This August the World Wide Web was 15 years old.
Britain’s Observer newspaper, commemorating this event, likened the influence the web has had on the world with that of Johannes Gutenberg’s 15th-century invention of movable-type printing, which enabled the Bible to be mass-produced (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1843263,00.html).
There are similarities. Both inventions have brought about massive cultural and social revolutions by taking knowledge and power away from an elite and giving it to the masses. But whereas the former empowered people by opening their eyes and teaching them how they should live, the latter is arguably less impressive, governed as it is by the user’s own whims.
Watching the web
Stephen Doggett
Regular readers of this column may recall the inaugural International Evangelism Day (IED) launched last year by the Internet Evangelism Coalition (IEC), an umbrella group of Christian ministries based at the Billy Graham Center in Illinois, to promote the internet as a tool for evangelism.
The second IED is scheduled to take place this year on Sunday May 7. So the IEC hopes that the day will serve to encourage churches worldwide to consider how they can develop or support web-based ministries. The organisers have created http://ied.gospelcom.net/publicity.php#news with various resources to inform churches about the potential of the internet and includes specific material which can be incorporated into church services or notice sheets on or around May 7.