I was struck today with some of the reasons that it is important that ministries have some sort of online outreach. I hope you will allow me some of your time , and a little personal reflection to explain how important it is to reach people where they are.

While working on a project, I tuned into The Pentecostals of Alexandria, and the gentleman speaking there brought up one of his friends in a wheel chair and proceeded to tell a little bit of her story.

Her unrealized dreams, her hopes, and her plans that were struck down by some situation in her life to where now she is bound to a wheelchair. Her plans and her story were changed due to circumstances out of her control, and yet she came to the realization that she could be a witness regardless of what happened in her own life. A couple weeks ago while she was giving a bible study in the center she attends because of her disability, two of her friends began to speak in other tongues. She reached people where they were.

While I am not in a wheelchair, I have had my own experiences with health issues, and not being able to attend church always. The feelings of abandonment, loneliness, and lost feeling would grow increasingly worse as you feel isolated from others and God, but the circumstances are out of your control. At times, laying in a hospital bed, other times spending time in front of my computer at home, I was encouraged and my life was made different because of the witness I found online.

I wasn’t always this way. I used to be one of the first people to church. I was an evangelist, a Sunday school director, and grew up on church pews. It was all I knew. But let a little adversity come along in life, and you find out who is real in your life and who isn’t. You really find out how strong you are and how much you can endure without the fellowship of the saints and an encouraging word.

It is sad that people will walk out of our lives when we are facing hardship, but it is a fact of life. I have seen it happen to others, and I have experienced it myself.

I grew up in church, so I do have maybe more strength than some, but the fact remains I too feel alone and lost when I don’t have a place to call my church. I know how it feels to wonder where God is.

And what about those who have never heard the message one time?

They too go through the same struggles we all do, and yet, they may not have anyone to be a witness, or to give them that needed hug. What are they supposed to do? Drown their disappointments and sorrow in a bottle and drugs?

Let’s face it. We don’t knock doors like we used to. We don’t hand out tracts at the supermarket, or set up some sort of witness at the mall. Most of us make a conscious decision to not wear our church on our sleeve or our face, and many people we meet on a daily basis, or even work with will never know we are a Christian. Are we ashamed of God? Are we afraid of being identified because someone will think we are strange? We don’t want anyone thinking we are crazy. God forbid.

And yet, even for those who still make the effort to be a witness on a daily basis, even then there are many in our cities and communities that we do not reach. It isn’t that we are not trying, we just don’t have the time, or the ability to reach them all.

I live in an area where there is around 100,000 people in a thirty mile radius, and there is ONE spirit filled church in over 100 miles. There was a time when everyone in the valley knew where this church was, but now, not many people could find it if you asked them on the street. Some people have moved away, some have just quit attending, and still others, well, they have their reasons.

There is no way that all these people can be reached when none of the other area communities even have a church, most of them don’t even have a family in the area that believes the truth. So, how do we reach them?

We have to use the tools available to all of us.

Did you know that there are more than half of a billion active users on Facebook?  Latest statistics say that Twitter has more than 100 million, and on a daily basis, 50 million plus tweets go out to the internet to friends, followers, and other people.

Four out of five people online (2007) go online in search of businesses, churches, or other needs instead of word of mouth, phone books, or local directories. I am sure by now the number is even greater than that. I haven’t even covered texting or cell phones, and only God knows how many of those there are.

And yet, most Apostolic-Pentecostal churches, evangelists, missionaries, and ministries do not have some sort of online presence. Why?

I would dare to say more than half of your congregation is on Facebook or Twitter on a daily basis, but your community doesn't even have a map to your church, even if they know that you are there.

So are you reaching them?

I know we can’t all be like the POA. I know we do not have budgets that can hire professional designers to make us some flashy site. Most of us think we could never afford to broadcast live over the internet, even if it meant saving our cities.

And in some respects that is true. But really if you check into it, the price isn’t as great as you would imagine. Maybe you aren’t very tech-savvy and just do not know how to do it. You would do more if you only knew how or if you had the time.

There are solutions that are much simpler than you would imagine. There are affordable, even free ways to have an online impact that maybe you have not thought about. You just have to be willing to reach out and ask for help, or do a little research and before you know it, you will be touching lives that you did not even know existed.

Reaching into homes, offices, cell phones; on the streets, in places you never dreamed you could be a witness.

Jesus said for us to “Go Ye into ALL the World and preach the Gospel to every creature.” That sounds impossible, but with the knowledge and technology we have now, it is possible to reach everyone, WHERE THEY ARE. “Go into the highways, byways, hedges, and get the halt, the lame, those who may never hear?”

Are you ready to reach them? To reach outside the four walls of your building, your comfort zone, your own perceptions?

Reach them where they are.