  I believe facebook is one of the greatest tools given to any generation to reach people for Christ. It just takes a little bit of creative thinking of how to use it. Did you know that the entire world has access to the internet? Did you know that India has more mobile phone (and access to facebook) than they do toilets! It may cost 2,500 to fly over to India and then I may only get to share the gospel with a handful of people. But with that same amount of money you can reach thousands if not millions. Is your mind blown yet? Here's a little exerpt from a book (Reach; How to Use your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God) my friend and I wrote about the potential of social media to reach people for Christ. "In the summer of 2011, my husband took a few guys to a closed Middle Eastern country to help fulfill the Great Commission. While they were there, they set up a simple website using Weebly. They put up a picture of the team with a little bit about them and their contact info. They created a quick Facebook advertisement encouraging people to click to find out more about Jesus. Facebook allows you to target a specific audience, so they targeted college aged students in the town they were in since they were spending most of their time on a college campus. In the few hours that their ad was live on Facebook 771 students clicked on the link to find out more about Christ. A handful of students even e-mailed the team to ask more questions about who Jesus was. When was the last time you were exposed to 771 Muslim students from a closed country? God used the tiny step of faith of Austin and his team to reach hundreds of students at once! The same God that multiplied the disciples’ small offering of seven loaves and a few fish to feed four thousand will multiply your influence online to help reach the world for Christ... This is the Most Exciting Time in the History of the World Roger Hershey wrote an amazing book called The Finishers in which he says, “Like a relay race with thousands of legs, the baton of world evangelism and discipleship has been passed from generation to generation, each one carrying forward the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ in every nation. Some generations have taken the baton a great distance, others only inches, based on their obedience to Christ’s command and reliance upon His Spirit. Yet there will be one generation who will serve as the anchor leg, the one who will carry the baton across the finish line. We don’t know which generation will have that privilege, but we know it’s a certainty.” This is the first time in the history of the world that it is visibly possible to accomplish the mission God has set before us. And when the all people groups have heard, the end will come. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14 And the awesome thing about the end coming is that all the pain and suffering. And all the girls sold into brothels by their parents in Cambodia. Their pain will end. The potential to accomplish and finish, the mission is real. This generation has the potential to be the last generation... This generation has been referred to as the “Microwave” Generation. Everything is done in an instant. What used to take hours can be accomplished instantaneously. Cooking a meal used to take hours or even days, but can now be purchased and consumed within minutes. 100 years ago traveling across the ocean took weeks and now can be done in about 8 hours. 30 years ago, if your friend moved to Indonesia you said goodbye forever. Now, you can have daily chats via Skype. This generation, our generation, has been gifted with time. We have more available time than any past generation. But, with great privilege comes great responsibility. So, it is not a coincidence that the Lord gave us modern conveniences freeing up more of our time at the same exact moment that we have more people alive than all previous generations combined. We have the responsibility of having the most time to reach the most people to accomplish the mission God has set before us. In years past, the “Coal Generation”, everything took longer. You had to wake up, bake your own bread, find your own wood to cook on, sew your own clothes to wear and so on. The free time that you might have had was incredibly limited, and the chances you knew more than 100-150 people were slim. Now, you can wake up, throw on some clothes you bought at Target, pop in a Toaster Strudel, and you’re ready to go. Your circle of influence is likely much larger. The average Facebook user has between 130-190 friends. That’s not counting people you know who might not be your Facebook friend- the bank teller, your professor or boss, and extended family who don’t “do” Facebook. The relationship between our free time and our connectedness is not a coincidence... The Lord chose you to exist in this generation, at this very point in history, with access to social media, for His glory. Imagine the impact of hundreds of thousands of people using social media to brag on God: people using their influence to make God seem like the greatness He is." Not long ago the Lord gave me an idea to try a facebook ad. I wrote about what I did here, but here's the gist. I placed an ad on Facebook for two days pointed solely to the cities in India where the Ansari people live, a group of over 10 million people where there is not one known believer. Since India's people have more mobile phones with access to the Internet than they do toilets, what an opportunity to reach them. The ad was in Urdu, their language, and directed them to GotQuestions.org, an evangelistic website. The article the ad took people to explained who Jesus was and shared the gospel. In 2 days 90 (most likely Ansari) people clicked on the ad and got to read the gospel for the very first time in their language. The most shocking thing is that the cost to reach 90 Ansari people with the gospel was not the cost of a few thousand dollar plane ticket and time learning the language, it was a total of 20-30 minutes and $12, our cap which enabled the ad to run for two days. I was so encouraged whenJoshua Project heard about it and reposted my article and then tried it themselves. Here's what they did. Since then I've received emails of people who have tried it and the results are mind blowing! This one literally brought me to tears. "I first ran an Ad for about a week in Pakistan targeting the Hindko language (Jesus Film). Since then I’ve expanded to the 5 countries (listed above) – one language each – and have been running at a $12/day spend level for a little over a month. - Results: $455 spent, ~1.7 million impressions, ~10,000 clicks to view the movie, ~6,000 “likes” on facebook, ~475 Jesus Film webpage “likes”, ~370 shared the movie link on facebook with others, ~100 comments - Average cost per click to view the movie was ~$0.045 (4.5 cents). I set the spend level per day and the max price on click through to watch the movie on a per-country or campaign level (at $.03-$.06) depending on the country ad rates (India, for example, is more expensive that the other countries I listed) - KEY: I find that 85% of my results are coming through the Newsfeeds, rather than the sidebar Ads. (I allow both in my campaigns). The other advantages of listing in the newsfeeds (other than just higher visibility) are that: 1) Allows one to engage in social activity with the people seeing the post (comment discussions back and forth) 2) Allows one to see how many shared the link with others, 3) Encourages those seeing the Ad more overall social activity regarding the Ad links." Stu Holy cow!!! Using the Jesus Film! What a great idea!! So, here's a printable to make it easy for you to make your own ad to reach unreached people through facebook. Feel free to print and share it. The more people using facebook to reach unreached the better!! Could you imagine a multitude of people in heaven because of a tiny faith step of thousands of people who were willing to invest 20 minutes and a tiny bit of money in this way. The potential is great friends!
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