Online “Coaches” and Newly-Developed Church Database Helping Visitors to Grow in their Faith
CHARLOTTE, N.C., — This week the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s (BGEA) online evangelism ministry, Search for Jesus, recorded its 7 millionth registered decision for Jesus Christ. The ministry, which was launched in April of 2011, has shared the Gospel with people around the globe, including significant traffic from hard-to-reach countries in the Middle East.
The key interface for the ministry is PeaceWithGod.net, which uses Bible passages and compelling video presentations to share the Gospel with visitors.
“Every one of those 7 Million represents a person who has viewed and indicated a response to the Gospel,” said Mark Appleton, BGEA’s Director of Internet Evangelism. “It’s motivating and exciting that God would allow us the opportunity to engage with so many. The Internet is a massive mission field.”
While the bulk of the Gospel proclamation is taking place online through the content of PeaceWithGod.net, the organization has also implemented multiple tools to help the person cultivate their faith.
“We’ve developed a network of more than 400 volunteers – we call them coaches – who are online to help the visitor take the next steps on our English- and Spanish-language sites,” said Appleton. “Chat coaches are online nearly 24/7 to answer questions that people may have, e-mail coaches respond to all of the messages that are left on the site, and discipleship coaches actually mentor people one-on-one in a Bible study at courses.goingfarther.net.”
With a goal of moving visitors from online evangelism to personal relationships and spiritual growth, Search for Jesus has also unveiled a new searchable database of churches. The database, which is found at churches.goingfarther.net, lists congregations that have actively worked with the BGEA on past evangelism efforts such as Crusades or My Hope. Partnering churches have also gone through special training and made a commitment to support Search for Jesus inquirers.
For more information on the BGEA’s online evangelism efforts, visit SearchForJesus.net (English) or enbuscadejesus.net (Spanish).

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