How effective do you think this is?

[aaron]

I clicked an old bookmark just now and got forwarded to this site for some reason. How effective do you think these kinds of messages are? If someone (on the internet) was looking for this kind of message, would you point them to this site?

http://www.getsaved.com/

[fuzzis]

I think it's probably about as effective as those automated calls I get at work, wanting me to switch phone services...or refinance my house.

[mac]

I watched it. At the end, it says "Read this out loud" and then has the prayer. Then it asks if you prayed it, and then it says, "Welcome to the family of God. Thank you for visiting this site." It seems to imply that the experience is over once you finish reading something out loud. I think that even if a person did follow those instructions with all sincerity, they would be left feeling a little silly there at the end.

I just don't think that simply reading something out loud is the key because just because you read something out loud doesn't mean you're actually even understanding it or experiencing the desire...

Stuff like that just over simplifies things. I understand they're trying to make it easy for people to become Christians, but I think it's much, much more important for people to truly have that internal experience and to understand it than it is for them to just go through some motions and then be handed a pamphlet or whatever. It trivializes something that's not supposed to be trivial.

For some reason I am having a hard time putting my thoughts on this into words today. Hopefully you know what I'm getting at.

[threekidspa]

I clicked an old bookmark just now and got forwarded to this site for some reason. How effective do you think these kinds of messages are? If someone (on the internet) was looking for this kind of message, would you point them to this site?

http://www.getsaved.com/

Probably, if I had been talking to someone about it and they were looking for more, I'd give it to them, but I don't know if I'd put a link like that on my blog by itself just for a random navigator. I don't know how effective it is. To me, a person kinda has to already be looking and thinking they're missing something for this kind of internet evangelism to work, but that's true if you're doing it in person as well. BUT...if it helps just one person, and they get to the end and can honestly click 'yes', then its a win.

[virgo]

I think it's probably about as effective as those automated calls I get at work, wanting me to switch phone services...or refinance my house.

And just like those automated calls I get to switch phone services or refinance the house, I won't give sites lke this any of my valuable time. So to answer your question, I say they are not effective at all. And that does not mean that I am not a Christian. It just means that I don't need sites to remind me of what I already know and/or believe.

[threekidspa]

I agree with mac. Jesus didn't say, "go out and save a bunch of people." He didn't say, "go out and get a bunch of people to say the Sinner's Prayer."

He said, "go and make disciples..." If someone truly said that prayer, this website would leave them on the vine to wither and die. It also, as mac points out, that all you have to do to live a life of faith is say a simple prayer and thin "cha-ching" your life is different. That is so inaccuate to the point of irresponsible.

I agree, they could have ended it better. A lot of new Christians fall by the wayside simply because they don't get connected with someone to answer all of the questions that always come up. That's probably my big concern with internet evangelism.

[TheKing]

its about as effective as those retarded ass slogans on the signs of every two bit church in south mississippi -- or the billboards.

[threekidspa]

Not just internet evangelism. When Team Impact was here, they did no follow up with people who professed faith and did not have a procedure in place to plug them into a local church. It was, "here's a Bible, now good luck."

My experience with Promise Keepers was pretty similar. Good stuff while you were there, but once went home, you didn't hear from them again until time to register for the next one. Sorry for getting close to OT...

[timforjesus]

nothing is as effective as a good prayin holiness preacher...:-D

[Hermione]

The internet is being used very effectively for witness, primarily through individual blogs. Much of the present unrest in my own church today is because the laity now have a way to find out what's really going on across the country and around the world, not just what's published in "official" church publications. It's person-to-person, though, not institution-to-institution. And there is a fair amount of nuttiness as there is with ALL human endeavors.

And frankly, as a member of a church where most members are well-educated and somewhat sophisticated, please give me a good prayin holiness preacher, or a two-bit Mississippi church any day over bishops who deny the Resurrection and the divinity of Jesus, like some of the terribly educated and sophisticated in my church. (Not in my local church or my own bishop, thank God.)

[Elle May]

I don't think it is very effective at all just as those emails that say if you love God you will send this to everyone on your address list or those that say you will have bad luck if you do not forward this to ten people. If I read something that I think might benefit someone then I will forward it to them but it doesn't always apply to anyone else. And if I am gonna have bad luck because I didn't forward to 10 people, so be it. There is a huge difference between being a witness and being a bully whether it is in person, on the internet or on the phone.

[Astra]

Ellie May, I hate those stupid things with a passion.

I don't care if you want me to convert, be your very best friend, have seven years of good luck, or hold some money for a wealthy Nigerian: if you send it to me via an idiotic email, it goes straight to the trash bin.

The WORST is when people send you stuff that shows they are just sending it to everyone in their address book with no regard to the contents of the email. A friend of my mother's sent out a very nasty, racist, all-around offensive email regarding Hurricane Katrina that scored very high on the BS-meter... and he included my parents' on the list. She tore that thing apart, listed off all the mistakes, and mentioned how funny it was that someone sitting in Indiana was telling her (in Mississippi) what was really happening. Then she sent it to everyone he'd sent it out to.

Now when it comes to sites like this one, I don't see them doing a lot of good. Looks like it was created by someone with good intentions, but not a whole lot of thought about how to get people to follow up on it. I know people who put a HUGE emphasis on trying to get people to say they are Christians, or to get baptized, or to get "saved," yet they don't really add anything to their message about what one should do after those events. It's all about the event and not the overall lifestyle.