By Sharon Mager, BCM/D Correspondent
GLEN BURNIE, Md.—Robert Morrison, a member of Faith Church in Glen Burnie, would love to go out and knock on doors to share the Gospel, but his knees just aren’t what they used to be. While many Christians might use this as an excuse to sit and wait for God to bring unbelievers to them, Morrison is not one to be easily deterred. He recently discovered a unique way to be obedient to the Great Commission and reach the world for Christ-all from behind his computer screen. Instead of knocking on doors he’s answering doors-cyber doors. He’s a missionary for Global Media Outreach (GMO), an online ministry.
According to GMO, every day about two million people seek spiritual information on the Internet. They type “Is there really a God?;” “Was Jesus really God’s son?” and similar questions. Global Mission Outreach has hundreds of sites and chances are, when the responses to the searches appear, one of them is a GMO site. Those queries are funneled to trained GMO missionaries anonymously and the missionaries respond to the searchers. Sometimes that results in a decision for Christ, encouragement and/ possibly an online relationship that provides opportunities for Christian counseling, sharing the Gospel and discipleship.
Morrison leads a GMO “community” at Faith, a group of online missionaries who will invest the time to answer several email inquiries each week. Three other Faith members are participating and interest is growing.
“This fulfills a real need for me,” Morrison said. “When I found out all I could do with this I was really excited.”
Morrison has already ministered to people in the United States, Asia, Africa and Canada. He has fielded an assortment of general questions about Christianity as well as specific needs such as spousal abuse.
Greg Mitchell, a member of Morrison’s team, has built an online relationship with a man from Nigeria. “He calls me ‘Uncle Greg’ and he’s really fired up for Jesus,” Mitchell said. “One guy is facing prison time for a murder he committed two years ago in an African country and is currently in the process of court hearings. We have exchanged e-mails and I have been able to encourage him a lot from what he tells me.” Mitchell also ministers to an Asian man who has been reading his Bible since he was ten years old. “They all ask questions and seem to really appreciate ‘someone’ taking the time to ‘speak’ with them.
GMO missionaries are screened and trained before handling online queries. In addition to learning basic online ministry strategies, they are taught when to pass emails to ‘specialists’ who deal with specific needs and how to minister to people living in closed countries hostile to Christianity.
Morrison, also a member of Faith’s Prime Timers group sees online ministry as a wonderful opportunity for computer savvy senior saints to share their wealth of knowledge and be able to, like him, reach the world they may no longer be able to physically travel to.
Morrison plans to have regular times of sharing and fellowship to build community among Internet missionaries.
As the whole world embraces the Internet, millions of people will continually ask questions and seek spiritual encouragement on their computers, tablets and cell phones. GMO believes Christians must be waiting there to meet them to lovingly provide answers and to point them to Christ.
For more information about Global Outreach visit their website at www.globalmediaoutreach.com.