Websites for Outreach
From the Field September 8, 2016
We live in a modern world that our ancestors one hundred years ago could not have imagined. The modern means of transportation and communication we want to use for the sake of spreading the Word of God. With the airplane we can whisk off to any part of the world to speak His Word. It no longer takes weeks and months but only hours to get to a destination. As I travelled in France and Germany recently the cell phone was ever present to enable us to phone ahead and arrange a meeting with interested parties. The train system there connects through inter city lines and local ones all the places we were headed for. By getting a train pass the travel is easily expedited without having to buy tickets at every stop. So much of this people take for granted. When we consider service to the Lord in reaching out, we thank Him for these means that He has given us to make the work easier.
The social media are a great avenue for reaching out if we cannot be in a certain place. Four of our overseas brethren have websites available for people to view and learn of the teachings of God’s Word. The Church of the Lutheran Confession of India has maintained one in India for some time with Pastor Jyothi Benjamin in charge. With the return of Pastor Raju to Nepal their website will also continue to be a fine way to reach out. In France for some time now Pastor Jean-Pierre Blanchard has had a website to promote Lutheranism in that country which has such a history of Catholicism and rationalism. He has had contacts through it and most recently with a man in Alsace who is going through a systematic theology study as well as other studies to grow more in the Lutheran faith.
The newest website is in Germany created by David Weiss. It is klb-clc.tumblr.com. The klb stands for the German name of the CLC, the Kirche des lutherisches Bekenntnisses. Within ten days of starting to post German materials on it there had been contacts who have entered into dialogue with Weiss. While he is very often in western Germany near Cologne, these contacts are in eastern Germany in Saxony and in Austria. We pray that this will lead to face to face contact to further discuss the Word.
We are hopeful that we can have a Skype conference call with a man in Germany to discuss outreach there and what his group has been doing. It is not just the phone, but then the cell phone and now video calls. As men use their God-given wisdom to invent and improve, we should be ready to take advantage of this progress to better communicate God’s Word.
France – identitelutherienne.hautetfort.com
Germany -klb-clc.tumblr.com
India – www.clci.in
Nepal – nepalchristians.com