The New Frontier for Proclaiming The Gospel: Part 2

What if making disciples of all nations could now happen at digital speed, reaching seekers worldwide through story, connection, and Scripture?

At the end of his ministry, our Lord left us with a huge mandate and a probing question. The mandate (what many call the Great Commission) is this: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19). The question has echoed across the centuries: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke. 18:8). The Williamsburg Christadelphian Foundation (WCF) has launched a major initiative that helps to carry forward the mandate and help disciples supply a positive answer to this burning question.

We refer to this effort as The Big Leap Project. Bro. Geoffrey Smith described the first element of the project in the October issue. This companion article describes the other key elements and explains how you can participate in the effort and contribute to its advancement.

The Opportunity and the Need

This initiative stems from a recognition that the community’s traditional methods of outreach are having a smaller impact, even as there is a concurrent exodus of our youth in many parts of North America and beyond. The urgency of our times, with Israel at the very center of the global stage, calls for an innovative approach to outreach.

By His grace, we now have tools to reach more people far faster than the apostles could have ever imagined when they first heard the Lord’s command to go forth and spread the Gospel. YouTube has 2.8 billion subscribers worldwide. If only 0.1% of that number respond to seek faith, it would be an overwhelming (and praiseworthy!) response. What other approach can reach every corner of the world, and all at once?

In short, we see an incredible opportunity for witness. The time is now. But we cannot do this without your prayers and support. The Big Leap is a big task, with many opportunities to serve. Your faith stories will beckon more people to seek faith. Your love for others and deep understanding of the Bible can make faith real by transforming a digital connection into a personal one. Your financial support can help us take this vital outreach effort to every corner of the world.

The Key Elements of Big Leap

The Big Leap aims to help guide faith seekers around the world to a lifetime of faith. It has three sequential elements.

1. The Gateway. Step one is the YouTube channel that Bro. Geoffrey described in the last article. Authentic faith stories pique the interest of people who wonder if there is more to life than their daily experience can offer. In short, this channel is the critical gateway for faith seekers. It opens a door to faith, something some viewers may seek but may not have shape or form yet. The gateway is helpful to us, too, as it lets us know who in our world wants help in their faith quest.
This step is well underway, with six videos on the channel. To date, we’ve had about 120,000 views and 3,420 subscribers. Those subscribers represent an early indicator of real faith seekers.

2. The Digital Library. Step two is the Big Leap website. It is a comprehensive digital library of faith content. The goal in this step is to guide faith seekers to a transformative life of discipleship in Jesus. To achieve this, we are constructing the site with two guiding principles.

• Curation. We curate material for every stage of a faith journey—from curiosity to the commitment of baptism, to a deepening trust that lets God transform us. Specifically, this digital library has six “rooms,” each corresponding to an upward progression in faith and discipleship: Seek, Know, Believe, Trust, Belong, Be Transformed. Each room contains faith content appropriate to that distinct stage of faith development.
  
• That’s where the curation matters. Someone who has just watched a YouTube faith video is not ready for a first principles Bible class. Someone who understands Biblical principles but now looks to the commitment of baptism needs something altogether different.
  We see a great opportunity to leverage our community’s extensive faith resources to have a significant impact in the Big Leap “library.” We welcome discussions that bring forward faith content and material. We also welcome your help in curating it for the right “room.”
  
• Navigation. A rich library of faith content is a good thing, but not if faith seekers get lost in its vast expanse. Equally vital to good content is navigating faith seekers to the right content for the current stage in their journey. As one means of doing that, we are leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create a group of digital Faith Companions. After passing through the YouTube gateway, each visitor entering the Big Leap site can select a virtual guide to lead them to the right room, and even the right content in that room. These Faith Companions will be designated from the worthy list of Hebrews 11, including Abraham, Sarah, Ruth, and others.
  The digital library has two content cornerstones—Gospel 101 and Faith 101. These are interactive online masterclasses that correspond to the two major phases of making disciples. Discipleship begins with understanding Biblical principles and the hope of the gospel message. But it also demands more than knowledge. It calls for commitment, a heartfelt belief, and a decision to be baptized. That’s the whole purpose of Gospel 101. Put another way, this class helps understand the first requirement Jesus described in his conversation with Nicodemus to be born again of water.
  Discipleship also calls for walking with our Lord for a lifetime and deepening our trust in him and our Father. This commitment is to put faith in motion through all the ups and downs of life. It’s about entrusting our lives to God’s hands, letting Him mold our characters into a more abundant display of His divine traits—bearing the fruit of the Spirit, as it were. It’s about realizing faith is not a solitary journey, but a shared one that calls us to lift up and inspire our brothers and sisters on their journey. These topics are all part of Faith 101 and correspond to the second requirement Jesus gave Nicodemus to be born of the Spirit.
  
• Personal/ecclesial connections. The Big Leap platform can open the door to faith for people around the world. It can be a digital resource to help people find hope and purpose in God’s Word. But at some point, every faith seeker wants a personal connection—a one-on-one discussion or feeling the embrace of an ecclesial Meeting.

This feeling creates a big, exciting opportunity for our community to offer personal witness. The Big Leap will offer a personal connection to those who want it. This step can be with local individuals and/or ecclesias. In some cases, it may need to be virtual simply because the faith seeker may live in a remote location. In every case, language skills will be vital to provide the best faith support because this is truly a global outreach.

We Need Your Help

The Big Leap is a big task. WCF has launched the project, but a lot of work lies ahead. You can help in several ways:

• Promote the YouTube channel @thebigleapproject. Our goal is to share the Gospel message with as many faith seekers around the globe as we can reach. YouTube uses an algorithm to share videos with a wider audience of potential viewers. The algorithm is complex, but you can help with each of the main factors: How many new people watch a video and how many view it to the end. Please watch the videos; share them with friends. Please watch them through to the end. By doing so, you help put the videos in front of more faith seekers worldwide.
• Expand our pipeline of YouTube faith videos. Our Christadelphian community has an amazing number of faith stories, but many are never heard. Please consider sharing how faith has made a difference in your life. Or you can nominate someone you think has a remarkable life story to share. Not every story is suitable for YouTube. However, as more of us share how faith changes life for the better, the more people we help seek faith for themselves. Please contact Bro. Geoffrey Smith if you can suggest yourself or someone else (gsmith@wcfoundation.org).
• Volunteer to mentor faith seekers who want to know more about the Bible and being a disciple of Jesus. We need a legion of faithful witnesses in all corners of the globe. Some of these seekers may be in your backyard, which provides a great opportunity to witness for you and/or your ecclesia. Others may be in areas far removed from any ecclesia. Brothers and sisters who can meet digitally or have foreign language skills will be especially valuable. If you’d like to be part of this support network, please contact the WCF Volunteer Coordinator, Sis. Amy Lagasse (alagasse@wcfoundation.org).
• Help fund the initiative. This project will require significant financial resources to launch and maintain. Please consider a personal or ecclesial donation to help us share the gospel message around the world. We welcome gifts of all sizes, and are especially grateful for legacy gifts and ongoing donations. For more information, please visit our donation page: wcfoundation.org/thebigleap.

An Urgent Time

There is an urgency to our time. The whole world is watching Israel. Meanwhile, despair reigns in many corners of the globe as the limitations of human governments become increasingly apparent. Our Lord’s mandate to share the Gospel has never been more important. The encouraging news is that many people, and perhaps surprisingly, many young people, now want to learn more about Jesus and the Bible. For instance, Barna research shows that Millennials and Gen Z now attend church more often than Baby Boomers.¹ Another study shows that over half of all teens surveyed are very motivated to learn more about Jesus (and another 25% are somewhat motivated).²

YouTube provides a platform that can reach about a third of the world’s population at a time when a growing number are searching for faith. The Big Leap is squarely aimed at helping these faith seekers, no matter where they are or whatever stage their faith may be.

This project is a new frontier for making disciples. The Almighty has provided the tools to reach a global audience at once, and with digital speed. The question for all of us is how to capitalize on this enormous opportunity.

The Big Leap begins with the very model of our Lord’s outreach—touching people where they are through the power of story, inviting faith seekers to start their journey. It continues with a digital library that is curated to every stage of faith development those just beginning and those walking the hills and valleys of life. It brings people together to realize that faith is a shared journey, where one person’s witness is another person’s inspiration.

A lot of work lies ahead. We hope you’ll be part of it. When we share the gospel message in powerful new ways and the Lord makes disciples for life, we are all better for it.

Mark Drabenstott,
Kansas City CGAF Ecclesia, MO

1. www.barna.com/research/young-adults-lead-resurgence-in-church-attendance/
2. www.barna.com/trends/teens-curious-about-jesus/