The Gospel for Every Church on the Web
The stated Vision of The aXiom Network is to recruit 100,000 Churches who are committed to making the Gospel available online? Some have asked “is that realistic?”
We are well aware of the obstacles, both natural and spiritual, that would hinder the greatest mobilization of Churches in history who are committed to the principle that the world should have access to the Good News of Jesus Christ. We have studied many of the great faith movements in Church history. Doubts didn’t stop William Carey as he surveyed the task of evangelizing India, or George Whitfield and John Wesley reaching out to the American colonies with the Gospel.
And, we appreciate the vision of Samuel E. Hill and others who founded The Gideons(TM), who are very much our inspiration, with a desire to place the Scriptures in every hotel room to be used by the Spirit to minister to those who find themselves, at critical times in their lives, in need of spiritual succor. Despite the “odds” of making a difference we doubt they ever entertained the notion that the millions of hours, volunteers, Bibles and other resources were ever wasted on the Gospel.
We would not count ourselves as equals in our own willingness to trust God for the unimaginable. However, perhaps we do share these attributes: we simply see the need and the opportunity. We also understand that the Web is where this and future generations will go for spiritual help and we believe the Church, at an absolute minimum, should be there waiting with the Gospel of Hope. Currently, with 14,000,000 individuals weekly going online looking for help the odds of them finding hope from the online ministry of Churches is roughly 0: 14,000,000.
With 100,000 Churches with the Gospel to point them to Christ the odds narrow considerably to 1:140. Still, too few considering the task.
We think these improved odds should provide motivation enough for Churches who proclaim the Gospel, believe they can be effective participants in The Great Commission and see the World “Wild” Web as the greatest communication tool in the history of mankind.
Our desire is simply to help Churches be faithful to their calling, be more effective at its Purpose (See Matthew 28:18-20) and trust the results to God. We sincerely hope you’ll join us and thousands of others who are committed to: “Changing Hearts, Growing Churches, Transforming the Web”.
The Development of The aXiom Network / A Brief Bio:
A few years ago we realized very few Churches even had websites (the situation is only slightly better today) so we developed a group to build websites for U.S. Churches. Over the years we began to realize the tremendous potential for Churches online to do evangelism but our research showed that less than 1% of “evangelical” Churches had made the Gospel available online.
After all, other “experts” were suggesting a grocery list of how to use the web for evangelism including sermon videos, videos of Christian plays/dramas, website SEO, building “relevant” sites and more. While everyone else seemed to be talking about ways of leading up to (outreach) and away from (follow-up discipleship technigues) the Gospel we felt the biggest piece of the online evangelism puzzle was missing; eg THE GOSPEL! See Headlines for our take on this issue.
Yet, confusion came as a result of realizing that no one had even attempted this before. We were also confronted with the reality that evangelical Churches portrayed themselves as believers in the Gospel yet virtually no Churches included the Gospel on their websites. Those few that did offered only a “monologue” Gospel; ie. only the Church could communicate. There was no way for the person who made a decision for Christ to communicate with the Church that made it possible. So, we developed the “Online Decision Card” where the Gospel page visitor could not only read the Gospel and make a decision for Christ but with the Decision Card he/she could inform the church of their decision, submit questions, request prayer, etc.
Which Gospel?
We contacted Parachurch organizations but were told their Gospel presentations were copyrighted and sighting legal reasons they preferred not to allow others, including us, to use them.
Not to be undone we had all used the “Romans Road” Gospel over the years to share our faith and since it wasn’t copyrighted why not update it? It was very well-known, Biblically faithful and simple to use.
So, we digitized it and offered it to Churches for their online ministries. But, there was a problem. Our Gospel presentation was only a monologue like others we saw.
We soon realized that the most obvious changes occurring around us should be integrated into the webpages themselves; eg. Christian holidays, seasons, months, important periods throughout the year, etc. So, we designed a process so header images would “cascade” throughout the world on member Road Swaps(TM). That’s when we soon added the term “Swaps” to the Romans Road Gospel presentation. Eventually, shortening it to “Road Swaps” for a slightly more updated name.
We Started a Dialogue
We spent many months researching and developing a database tool and ministry model that included a simple registration process so Churches could utilize a secure, Gospel that encouraged dialogue between them and the New Christian at the critical point of conversion.
At the same time we realized larger Churches might need more than one Email forwarded to a key person in the church for followup so we offered our Premium PLUS alternative.
Apparently, we were right that it was not only possible to create such an important tool for the Gospel believing Church but it was necessary. Numerous Christian leaders who have previewed this ministry model have endorsed it and for praised its simplicity, timeliness and value to the local Church and The Great Commission.
For them, for our small but passionate team of “Christian Geeks” and for you, I am profoundly grateful to share our vision for “Changing Hearts, Growing Churches and Transforming the Web”. We take God at His Word when He says, “I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know…”.
I would be flattered to hear from you and your comments, suggestions and ideas for improvement. Please go to Contact Us.
Serving with you,
Rev. Don Walley, Director
The aXiom Network
* An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Liddel & Scott, Oxford Press, p.85