For years, the telephone number 1-888-JESUS-2000 has been published in Bibles, newsletters, ads and other media to reach seekers in need of spiritual encouragement. Now a new generation can find that same encouragement online, thanks in part to an Alabama Baptist pastor.
The Evangelism Response Center (ERC), a ministry of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, coordinates the JESUS-2000 phone line. A few years ago, Elbert Charpie, pastor of First Baptist Church, Citronelle, in Mobile Baptist Association, attended an ERC training at Mobile Association and heard about plans to develop a chat feature to reach seekers online.
“I got real excited about that, because I saw it as a step in using media to reach out globally,” Charpie said.
So when N.S.R.K. Ravi, coordinator of the ERC, contacted Charpie and asked for his help in designing the web chat module, Charpie drew from his background in technology and got to work.
Charpie developed both the chat tool and a training program for volunteers, according to Ravi, expanding both the reach of the ERC to spiritual seekers and the witnessing opportunities for ERC volunteers, called encouragers.
“The chat tool is really exciting, because it is geared to young people who are much more interested in technology,” Ravi said. “It can be put on any Web page or even on smartphones and blogs.”
The chat tool is easy for web designers to incorporate as well, since all that is required is cutting and pasting a code from the website, www.nambercchat.com, into a webpage or Facebook profile. Many seminary students include the chat tool on their blogs, Ravi said, and he hopes more associations, churches, pastors and even businesses and individuals will add the free tool to their websites as well.
More than 26,000 seekers called the phone lines last year alone, and Charpie believes the chat tool has the potential to reach even more because of the ever-increasing time people spend online.
“Technology keeps moving forward, and the online chat is another way to bring the timeless message of the gospel using modern technology,” Charpie said.
Follow-up is important too, so individuals who make a decision either by telephone or by chat receive a Bible from the ERC and are connected with a local association or church as quickly as possible, Ravi said. Churches can partner with the ERC as covenant churches and receive referrals from the ERC, an important step in the process of reaching out to seekers.
Covenant churches agree to call or visit individuals referred by the ERC within three days, the critical period after a decision for connecting an individual to a local church, Ravi said. More than 1,200 churches across the nation have signed up to be covenant churches, 40 of those in Alabama. Like the phone and chat lines, ERC referrals are provided for free.
However, Ravi said the ERC does expect churches to follow up quickly and report that contact to the ERC.
In addition to more covenant churches and more access to the chat feature, Charpie said the ERC needs more encouragers to staff the chat line. He emphasized that both telephone and online evangelism are great for people who have never been involved in evangelism before, because “someone is coming to you who is interested in talking.”
Training for encouragers is free and offered in several locations each year as well as online. Encouragers need dedication, though. Volunteers are asked to commit at least two and a half hours each month to the ministry. That means there could be shifts where no one makes contact.
“You can put a phone number up and 10,000 people may see it, but only three people may call,” he said. “Online, an encourager may be available for two hours and not get a chat request. It’s easy to get discouraged.”
Still, he said, volunteering as an ERC encourager offers great rewards for anyone who wants to share the gospel with others and has just a little bit of Internet savvy.
“There are lots of folks who get on Facebook and surf the Web,” Charpie said. “It doesn’t take a whole lot more to get on the chat line, and it’s something you can do for the kingdom of God.”
For more information on volunteer opportunities with the ERC or instructions on how to add the chat tool to your website, visit www.erconline.net or call Linda Tramley at 770-410-6383. To find the code for the spiritual help chat tool, visit www.nambercchat.com.
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