Printing press, Radio, Television, World Wide Web – technological advances that have extended the reach of information.  All of these have also be instrumental in further advancing the gospel and helping grow the church.  The World Wide Web, or just Web for short, combines the written word of the printing press, the audio of the radio and the visual image of television into the most influential medium now in existence.  

Even though it is practically indispensable, the Web has not really been around all that long.  Here is a basic timeline of the World Wide Webs short history…

1990    World Wide Web comes into existence

1993    First graphical browser (Mosaic) is launched

1994    Yahoo launched

1995    Amazon, Ebay and Craigslists launched

1998    Google starts

2001    Wikipedia´s first post

2002    Blogs start becoming popular

2003    Skype beta launched

2004    Beta versions of Yahoo mail and Gmail released

2004    Facebook started

2005    Podcasts emerge

2005    YouTube created

2005    Google Earth

2006    Mobile Web for cell phones

I got most of these dates from an article on MSN…

http://tech.msn.com/products/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=5586501&page=1

The rest came from Wikipedia articles.

These technological advances are having a significant impact on the spread of Christian “Information” in places where access to such information is restricted.  Books can be outlawed, radio frequencies can be jammed but the internet is practically impossible to control.

More than ever before the world is experiencing the free flow of information.  Of course the percentage of people with access to the internet is much higher in developed countries but the developing countries are also moving into the cyberage at a rapid pace.  It is now quite common for immigrants in Europe to video conference with their families back home over Skype at a cybercafe.

For a number of years now Christian groups and individuals have been taking advantage of each of these new technologies as they have appeared (as have other religious movements).  These sites are being used to provide education, discipleship, personal enrichment, friendship, match making, etc. and to bring the message of the gospel to those who are not Christians.

Since 2005 North Africa Venture has been developing several Arabic language websites.  Content such as Bible study lessons, audio messages, articles and surveys in Arabic are being made available to any Arabic speaker in the world with access to the Web.
Filed under: Web ministry