Personal Information and How CWM Was Started
Visions and Goals for CWM and the Internet
Closing words of encouragement
How did C-W-M get started?
A: About two years ago, after much seeking, I defined my mission and passion statement as: To help Christian individuals and organizations Create, Advance, and Expound faith in Jesus through web technology.
Having been part of webmaster communities on the web, I began to seek out Christian webmaster communities. At the time I didn't find any (although there are some good ones out there, I just missed them). So I figured a beginning step in my mission could be to develop a Christian webmaster community where Christian webmasters could gather for fellowship and co-mentoring. My thinking was, by helping Christian webmasters grow in their gifts, this would go a long way towards impacting the Internet for Christ.
I also wanted to communicate to other Christian webmasters a freedom I found when I discovered that it was okay, and even God-given, to have a passion for a medium (a technology) like the Internet.
What kind of obstacles did you face before starting C-W-M?
A: Depression. Discouragement. Frustration. Time. Wondering if it was really needed.
Yet God has been faithful, and showed me many times that He must be the builder and the One who watches over C-W-M.
What do you invision as the ultimate goal for C-W-M?
A: My ultimate vision is seeing a large active community that inspires passion for the web and its use for the Kingdom of God. A place of training and mentoring for people to grow in their gifts. And eventually a productive community, that works together on projects that can be given to, or subscribed to by, Christian individuals and organizations so they can fulfill their God-given vision for the web.
How important a role do you see the Internet playing in the evangelization efforts of the 21st century church? Please explain.
A: Some of my more detailed response to this question is in the recent article I wrote on the Internet Mission Field and will be in the follow-up articles in the series.
My top-of-mind thoughts are: Lots of people are going on the web each day. The stats are amazing. People while on the net are most often in information seeking mode. Key-word: Seeking. I believe Christians can meet these people with the message of Christ's salvation while they are seeking. This can be done through information sites, entertainment sites, and direct evangelism sites.
I just heard the other day that China is the second fasted country (next to the US) to have people going on to the net daily. Million of Chinese are on the net now. Sadly the most active pursuit is online gambling. I'd like to see Christian organizations having massive online campaigns to reach people with something better than online gambling.
The net will also be a place in the 21st century for Christian training and discipleship. Online learning is a huge trend. I expect Christian organizations will catch up to this trend and begin to put out great online learning and Christian discipleship sites.
Finally, if I have my way, the net will also become a place where people from all over can pray for each other over the net. More to come on this later this year.
David (CWM Community Member: prayerman)
http://www.eternal-ink.comKn... that he was called to the ministry, but, not knowing how -- David wandered in a desert of uncertainty for many years. The Lord had him in His grip all the time. One day, David's pastor visited him -- concluding that visit with a prayer.
Through that prayer and the intercession of many others, David was impregnated with a burden for the Internet Generation. Soon after, Eternal Ink (www.eternal-ink.com) was born.