Christian Organization World Wide Christian Web - First Religious Virtual Reality Site on Internet

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." Christian organizations have taken this "Great Commission" to heart by expanding their efforts to the high-tech realm of the Internet.

"It is estimated that 25 to 35 million people use the Internet regularly," according to Mark Harpt, Editor and Founder of the World Wide Christian Web, "and thousands of new users are being added to those numbers every day!"

As many religious organizations are finding out, the Internet lends itself well to high-tech, graphical evangelism. Until recently, when an Internet user discovered a religious organization's Internet site, he or she might see graphics, read text or even hear music. This has all changed with the invention of Virtual Reality (VRML) on the Internet.

Virtual Reality allows the visitor to literally "enter" an Internet site. He or she moves through 3-D computer generated scenes such as buildings, streets, etc. According to one Internet Virtual Reality designer, "the possibilities are limitless."

Technology is growing by leaps and bounds on the Internet and Christian organizations are keeping pace. In some cases, they are even leading the pack. This is evidenced by the first religious Virtual Reality site on the Internet - The World Wide Christian Web in 3-D.

Upon first visiting the World Wide Christian Web in 3-D, the visitor is placed in front of two openings in a giant cross. He is faced with a choice. Should he choose the wide opening or the narrow opening (alluding to Matthew 7:13)? After making his choice, he travels down a long hallway. He notices pictures on the wall; an image here, a quotation there. He continues on and eventually finds himself in a large room where he is presented with more choices. The choices he makes in that room may change his life forever, just as the Internet is changing Christian evangelism forever.

New Online Guide To Web Evangelism

SOON Gospel Literature, a UK-based literature ministry, report that in the last year their evangelistic online Web magazine (http://www.soon.org.uk) has received half a million visitors. 1500+ people visit this Web-site daily from an exciting range of countries.

Convinced that the Internet is a new opportunity which Christians need to exploit for the Gospel, SOON has produced a new 'how-to' guide on using the Web for evangelism at: http://www.webauthors.org/guide

The guide covers: learning more about the Internet, how Web evangelism differs from the printed page, principles of writing pages and testimonies that will communicate to non-Christians, creative approaches for page subjects, producing church homepages, and the use of different languages. It also explains how to use search engines to bring visitors to a web-site, using newsgroups and chat rooms to witness. There are many links to other helpful resource sites and tutorials.

The SOON team say, 'If only someone had given us such a guide a year ago! We don’t want others to spend a year re-inventing the wheel.' They believe that Internet outreach is a vital new tool for the church. What’s more, it can be used by anyone, and not just evangelistic organizations. Individual Christians can reach the world from their spare room. Here is an open door for anyone with time and a computer!

Patrick Johnstone, author of Operation World writes, 'Here are many lessons... that I trust will prove beneficial to other Christians embarking on such an outreach ministry...'