Today’s Roman road

The gospel spread quickly and widely during early church times. This can largely be attributed to the Roman road system, which runs for more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. These long stretches of road connected all the major towns and cities of the empire, helping Jesus’ followers to spread his message and establish churches.

Nearly 1500 years later, the invention of the printing press was another revolutionary tool. More people than ever learned to read and had access to the Bible. This resulted in many people coming to faith in Christ.

Today’s equivalent of these two ‘game changers’ is digital communication. It has transformed the way we engage with information. Our computers and mobile devices provide access to virtually unlimited resources. Marketing strategies tailor the messages to our interests.

A high percentage of young adult Arabic speakers are online. From a ministry point of view, the internet allows those who are seeking out spiritual answers to find the information they’re looking for and to connect with our online responders, who are ready to walk with them in their spiritual journey to faith in Jesus.

A ministry model

Paul is well known as the man who took the gospel to the gentiles, but did you notice that he did this by preaching in synagogues? Why would he go to a Jewish place of worship to reach gentiles? Because he was looking for a specific group of gentiles: those who were God-fearing (see Acts 17:4).

This model of ministry is the same one we follow today, only we’re doing it online. Although our Arabic website and social media pages attract thousands of visitors each month, that’s not actually important. We’re looking for specific people, such as those disillusioned with Islam, atheists or refugees.

The internet, in this instance, is our synagogue. It is our platform for identifying these specific, God-fearing people who already have an openness to receiving the truth. The content we produce is tailor made to each group and this strategic method is proving highly successful.

If you want to know more about what we’re doing and who we are, head to our Resources section where you’ll find articles, videos and more.