While holding satellite evangelism meetings and passing out tracts has its place in helping the Seventh-day Adventist Church share the Gospel, the church wants to continue reaching the millions of people who log on to the Internet daily.

Looking to increase awareness to the potential of the Internet to further enhance evangelism and ministry, world church leaders and lay people will meet in Bangkok (Siam City Hotel), Thailand for its third Global Internet Evangelism Forum September 1 to 4. 2005

"This is a group of mostly young professionals initiating a much closer dialogue with the church and how we use the Internet to reach people," says Mark Finley, vice president of evangelism for the world church and sponsor of the Forum. "I'm absolutely delighted groups of lay people are doing something for Christ."

The Forum is a cooperative effort between church employees and lay people to find new ways to apply Internet technology, says John T. Banks, associate communication director for the Adventist world church and co-chair of the meetings along with Dan Houghton of the Hart Research Center.

"Internet evangelism gives those who work at the computer, people who you wouldn't think of as frontline missionaries, an opportunity to play a very large role in evangelism," said Houghton. "In the times that we live in, it is critical to utilize the latest technology for the purpose of spreading the Gospel to all corners of the earth. God expects it."

Andrew DePaula, associate director of Bibleinfo.com -- one of the first Adventist Web sites -- attended last year's forum and is looking forward to the next one. "Bibleinfo.com has been going strong for about 10 years and have been doing what can be safely called 'Internet evangelism' since," he says.

He explained that there are millions on the Internet who are not interested in connecting with a church in a more traditional way, and Internet evangelism is the first link.

"We provide a comfortable environment for them to learn what the Bible has to say in their own language," DePaula said. "We know of several hundreds who have been baptized through our Web site and get 50,000 to 80,000 visitors to our site each month."

DePaula's experience, Banks says, is why the Forum is necessary. The meeting will provide an opportunity for attendees to "share ideas and resources rather than reinventing the wheel."

The meeting is the first outside of North America, he adds, and will create awareness in developing countries, like Thailand, for developing Internet evangelism in different cultural contexts.

The Forum will attract approximately 75 people from seven of the 13 world regions of the Adventist Church including Inter-America, South America, Euro-Africa, Trans-Europe, South Pacific, Southern Asia-Pacific and the Northern Asia-Pacific regions.

"Internet technology has a legitimate role and function in the future of the church," said Banks. He added that the Internet reaches beyond borders and goes to places that the church often cannot reach easily.

A draft program of the third Global Internet Evangelism Forum is available on the Web Site: http://gien.adventist.org/forum2005/draft_program.pdf [Taashi Rowe and Christian B. Schaeffler for ANN/APD]