THE INTERNET TO THE RESCUE

RETURN  TO  MENU

     I always thought that if time travel could ever get beyond high-tech simulation, it would indeed be fascinating.  But when I got a chance to experience the real thing, believe me fascination was not on the agenda.  After traveling back 25 years, I was quickly overcome by shock, sadness, and personal loss.  I might have felt better if I had known that something called the Internet might possibly make things different.    

     It was like homecoming when I arrived back in the present.  I touched down in the city of Barcelona, Spain, and that's where the homecoming ended.  Shock was again followed by sadness.  After a month in Barcelona, I made my way to Madrid.  In this city, there was no way to escape a sense of overwhelming personal loss.

     It's true that my time travel happened in an ordinary 747, and the instantaneous jump through twenty-five years took place inside my head.  But I could actually see, side by side, the Spain I once knew and the one I was getting to know now.      

     I remembered so clearly that women would walk the streets of Madrid at night with no fear.  Divorce was rare.  All my friends had great respect for family values and great disdain for the immoral behavior of American students.       

     How could the Spain I had grown to love now be corrupted by drugs, immorality, and violence?   How could the solid family people I knew in a different decade now tolerate full exposure striptease on television?  I soon realized that what happened in Spain is hardly different from what happened in America.  It's just less shocking when you live through the incremental changes.  Getting them all at once was staggering. The factors, of course, are similar:  godless opinion makers got control of mass media in Spain just as they did here.

Awesome Power

     Television, alone, has played a major role in shifting the moral values in many developed countries and moving us all toward a post-Christian world view.  According to the American Life League, our average American child between the ages of 3 and 18 "spends an incredible 30,000 hours watching television."  During this time he or she takes in an estimated "20,000 sex acts, 30,000 obscenities, and 20,000 acts of violence."  

     In an article entitled Parents Want Help Fighting The Pop Culture, Robert  Maginnis reports on the views of 18 to 30 year olds. When asked how much today's movies, television, and music lyrics encourage teenage sex:  63 percent answered "quite a lot" or "a great deal."     

     If we could really travel in time say two-and-a-half decades arriving at the present, we would be shocked to find that out-of-wedlock births had jumped from 1 out of 10 to 1 out of 3.  We would be saddened to find 71% of teen mothers unmarried and a new teen pregnancy occurring every 30 seconds.  We would cry for the 1 out of 5 that become sexually active before they even finish their 14th year.  And we would grieve for that new teen who attempts suicide every 70 seconds.   

     If we kept looking, We would discover a hundred other disturbing facts, but right now we need to gag only once.  I assume that's enough to keep any among us from casually dismissing the power of mass media.   

     I found a funny blooper among tons of negative statistics, and laughter jarred me back to reality.  As you read it, notice the stark contrast between the threatening statistic and the humorous double entendre.  In laughing at the humor, we can also laugh at the threat because we know the end of the story, and we know the One who wrote it amidst horrible suffering at Calvary.

     "If current trends continue, by the year 2015 half of all American children will be born to a single mother."

     Fortunately, most Christian leaders have seen enough of the facts to maintain a healthy respect for media influence, and well they should:  It's about to become exponentially more powerful.

The Age of the Internet

     Some Christian leaders see the Internet as a valuable but a rather limited tool.  Others see it as mostly hype, but the facts speak for themselves.  The Internet will soon be at least as powerful as music, radio, television, cable, video, and print combined because it will deliver music, radio, television, cable, video, and print combined.  Not a bad beginning, but there's more.  Much more. 

     For starters, it will involve its participants in interactive mass media, live chat, multi-player games, educational entertainment, and other activities which will lead to the building of online communities.  Understanding this will enable us to discover why the new media platform will be so much more powerful than anything we're facing now.

     We have seen that traditional media has been effective in changing behavior.  For the most part, however, it does not change behavior directly.  Instead, it develops roll models that create a pop culture, and it's the cultural change that brings about drastic behavioral change. 

     The interactive capacity of the new media platform will give it the power to build online communities.  Each community will develop a culture.  Internet culture will eventually include the entire complex pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior. It will also include the part of culture that carries the unspoken beliefs, the hidden presuppositions, and the unwritten behavioral rules on which we hang our lives.   

     We have witnessed an incredible change because these elements are already present in music, radio, television, cable, video, and print, the media group that is already supplanting the traditional conveyers of culture.     

     They are not, however, conveying the culture of the majority.  Each one has been hijacked by a group of talented individuals who do not represent the beliefs, presuppositions, and behavior of the previous generation.  Culture is no longer passed from the previous generation to the next generation but rather from the media studio to the next generation.    

     Fortunately, the new and even more powerful media platform has not yet been hijacked.  Does this mean our culture can be rescued by the Internet?  That depends on how we respond to the present challenge.  Certainly it gives us a fighting chance, and if we are willing to revisit our own cultural roots, we can also gain a critical advantage. 

Culture--Priority One  

     Have you thought about the authentic Christian culture that we should be living?  Fortunately, Jesus didn't leave this important matter to speculation.  His teaching on the subject is radical, unambiguous, and raises a standard that's too high for mere human strength.   

     The early church was a one-body culture founded on love.  It  started as a small island surrounded by a larger competitive culture founded on control.  The difference between these cultures was advantageous for the early church.  Christians were living in a culture designed to meet human needs; non-Christians were living in a culture designed to frustrate these needs. 

     This contrast added a persuasive force to the Christian message.     Jesus knew we would need this force.  That's why He prayed for our unity, requesting of the Father that we might be one with the same kind of unity that He had with the Father.  That's where the standard goes off our radar screen.  But Jesus prayed it with a particular end in view, "that the world might believe that thou hast sent me."   

     The same kind of contrast that existed between the culture of the early church and the surrounding pagan culture can exist again today if we can reinstate the true Christian culture which so effectively served our forefathers. 

     This is a culture given to us by God Himself.  It is the right culture not just for Christians but for everybody.  It's also the culture everybody wants. 

     It's like a beautiful flower that is universally attractive.  Everybody who gets close enough to smell the aroma will want this flower to decorate their life.  To explore this properly, we will devote a full chapter to an anthropological analysis of the culture Jesus taught.

Stark Contrast--Strategic Advantage  

     American culture is being pulled downward lower and lower by a thirsty vortex swirling from the media sewer.  It has reached a critical mass, and people are frightened.  Frightened by a threat to their family and children.  Frightened by the mixture of drugs, AIDS, immorality, and violence.  Frightened by the provoking of race, class, and gender hatred.  It's a culture in disarray waiting to be healed or destroyed.

     The label "pop culture," is unfortunate because it gives the impression that we are dealing with a temporary passing fad.  This is not the case, culture doesn't just change.  It changes only when it is forced to change by good and evil forces that affect it.   

     In a way it's to our advantage that the pendulum has swung so far so fast.  Millions of non-Christians are already concerned, and surprisingly, they seem to have an intuitive understanding of the root problem. 

     Even back in the mid eighties, a pole conducted by Glamour magazine registered 64% who responded that there is too little mention of God and religion in the public sector.  When asked if students should be allowed to meet on school property off hours for prayer and Bible classes, 75% answered yes.     

     Thus the rapid abandonment of moral values has given us allies who are inwardly pleading for change.  They are fed up by the evil manipulation of their children.  Many have been prepared to embrace the true Christian culture, if and when we can properly exemplify it for them. 

     As our common cause opens new doors of friendship and cooperation, these allies may also be prepared to embrace our faith. 

The Power of the WEB   

     I was in New Orleans 2,000 miles away from home waiting at a bus stop.  A prominent professor from Germany, 8,000 miles from home, was waiting for the same bus.  He had been invited to America to present a scientific paper and was in New Orleans for a little sight seeing before returning home.  I had spent the week at a trade show, and was now heading on to Chicago and Cincinnati to confer with some of our radio broadcasters.  The chances were good that we would never meet again. 

     I asked how far he would be taking this bus and judged from his answer that we might have 15 minutes to talk.  So I plunged into the priority topic by asking what the students in Germany believe these days.  "Do they still believe in God?"  His answer was vague, so I asked about his own belief.  Again his answer was vague, but he quickly asked me what I believed.    

     Quietly thanking God for the open invitation, I began to phrase my testimony in language that would make sense to a scientist.  He started to express interest, but by this time we were nearing the stop that would end our conversation. 

     I had no New Testament to give him, no Four Spiritual Laws, nothing but a piece of paper to write on.  Thankfully, I could write something that would interest him greatly.  It was the simple address of our Internet site where he could hear his choice of 85 Christian radio programs anytime he chose in the convenience of his own home or office. I simply wrote my website address. 

     We are awe-stricken by the power of traditional media, but now, for the first time in the history of broadcasting, something we call the World Wide Web is wooing people away from television while at the same time it is amazingly giving Christians equal broadcast opportunity. 

     People who have experienced the best of the Web, already know that it's more interesting than television, and recent surveys confirm that on-line families are only half as likely as the average to find something on TV they want to watch.    

     Consider for a moment the new concept called "on demand."  Why would anybody turn on the television to watch what’s on when they can logon to the Web and determine for themselves what's on?     

     If we can establish a major radio presence on the Web now, we can not only position ourselves to do the same for television, but we can also use the interactive nature of the web to pioneer a whole new era of broadcasting.

     Possibly you have been looking at the Internet as just the Internet rather than seeing it as a media platform accessible through wireless links as well as telephone lines form all parts of the globe. 

     Maybe you haven't compared radio and television's need for multiple transmitters to the Web's capacity for world-wide coverage from a single web site.  Perhaps you haven't realized that radio and television need additional hardware to broadcast each additional language while the web can broadcast simultaneously in every language of the world.  Certainly, most of us have not yet evaluated the significance of new technology that in the future will give us the ability to broadcast a given program in whatever language the listener selects.  

     But I'm sure you do understand how the best in Christian programming on demand can be a valuable tool for first contact or follow-up, even if you only have 15 minutes to give your testimony.  It could enable you to recommend programs that would greatly interest your new friend, and even lead to regular email correspondence.     

     In closing this section I invite you to also consider entertainment-based education as a means for reaching a generation that has lost it's spiritual moorings.  It may give us the opportunity and the means to prepare highly qualified men and women to become the Godly leaders we need in the critical years ahead.

Where Leaders Hang Out 

     Present Web demographics give us an unparalleled opportunity.  Imagine an audience composed of the world's top 10%.  Then consider that 25% of these are at, or above, the $80,000 a year income level and an additional 40% are under the age of 16. 

     Reaching these leaders and future leaders is a strategic necessity.  The high percentage of young people is particularly significant in light of surveys conducted by George Barna which indicate that the majority of Americans who become Christians do so before age 19.     

     Think of what it could mean to reach the attractive, upscale, highly-educated, successful men and women who will undoubtedly influence the cultures of all the developed countries.  

     These leaders can help us reach other leaders who can multiply the effectiveness of all global outreach activity.  We can train them no matter where they live.  Without leaving their home, they can participate in interactive audio classrooms, group Bible study, or pastoral training programs.    

     We can teach Christians to give testimony in chat rooms where associated audio resources make witnessing natural.  We can provide a non-threatening environment that can turn non-witnessing Christians into skilled spokesmen for our Lord who can easily converse with the world's top 10%.

     It is, of course, to our advantage that this 10% is growing at a phenomenal rate.  Web penetration into the home has doubled during the last six months.  Web sites are increasing geometrically with a new home page coming online every four seconds. 

     Kevin Kelly, executive editor of Wired, says "I don't know if we have ever seen technology exhibit that sort of growth."  And industry insiders like Bill Gates of Microsoft are literally betting billions of dollars that the Web is going to become the major mass-communications medium of the future.

A Call To Unified Action    

     Many Christians working day and night have already made the Internet a vast storehouse of Christian resources.  Through the efforts of a number of forward-looking ministries, we have also given the Internet a credible introduction to Christian radio and audio programs.  This has been the focus of Radioh.net.   

     Most of the Christian Internet content  has been developed by individuals, individual ministries, and individual businesses.  There have been some notable efforts to unify these endeavors, but by and large they remain diverse and individualistic.  So far, there is little central guidance or cooperative planning.   To see how much our diversity hurts and how much our unity could help, we need only to ponder the facts.  

     It would take the average person an estimated 11,000 years just to browse the 80 million web sites already on the Internet.  It's likely that 10%, or 8 million of these, are Christian.  If it were possible to instantly locate these sites without searching the entire 80 million, the average person would still need over 1000 years just to look them over.  In reality, the sheer number of these sites means most will remain out of reach to the average person.

     Our Lord's teaching about one-body culture could lead us to a marvelous solution.  Let's assume that approximately a million of the Christian sites are sponsored  by dedicated individuals who have the same heart, mind, vision,  beliefs, and standard of excellence.  Strategic cooperation could create the Internet's largest resource. 

     Imagine the possibilities of well organized content rivaling that of a major online service but having a million doorways, a million promoters, an emphasis on high-impact multimedia programming, and no monthly fee.

     Radioh.net will use every means at its disposal to inspire like-minded Christians to join forces for greater outreach, but this is only the first step.  The larger goal and purpose of this book will be to outline and illustrate the specific steps we must take to introduce the world to authentic Christian culture both online and off line in an environment where we can all win and where together we can win the world.

     We conclude that a combination of factors now exist which can be leveraged by the church to produce a great harvest.  How big could this harvest be?  Nobody knows, but the stage may be set and the script may be written for a drama bigger than anything we have yet imagined.