My New Call

I am not going to finish my highly political series. Few are interested and more are annoyed and I really don't want to annoy people. So let's talk about happier things.

When I went back to school beginning in 2001, I believed that the end goal was to teach at the college level. A couple of problems came up though. First, it took me about two years longer to graduate with the PhD than I anticipated so instead of graduating at 50, I was 52. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but I think it matters to those who are looking to hire a professor for his first teaching job. The fact that I'm almost 56 isn't making that problem any easier.

The second problem is that the economy crashed one year before graduation. This created a lot of problems for a lot of people. In my situation, it meant that college endowment funds (heavily invested in the stock market and real estate) were hit hard. This meant great cutbacks. Even when  a professor would retire, often the position would remain unfilled and part-time adjuncts would be hired to cover the classes.

So what now? This question has been my constant companion for three years.  A year ago, God moved us to Springfield. I thought that this might mean that he would open up something in one of our schools, but nothing happened in my first year here. So, what now?

(I hope you don't me just talking about this for a little bit. I like to tell stories and I think that the context they provide helps.)

A fellow minister at church asked me if I would be a guinea-pig and evaluate his new fundraising pitch. I agreed. He explained the ministry of Network 211.

Let's digress for a minute so I can tell you about this ministry. Network 211 is internet evangelism. The 211 in the name represents using 21st century technology to present the first century gospel. They buy Google ads on keywords like "anxiety," "brokenness," and "fear," in eight different languages. When people search on these words, journeyanswers.com comes up in the search engine. There a short video explains how Jesus is the answer. A button is provided if they have more questions or want to commit to Jesus. When they click the button and fill out the form, a person contacts them via email.

Sounds great, but does it work? When Dr. George Flattery (founder of ICI and Global University) started Network 211, he felt that God impressed him to believe that they could reach 10,000,000 people with the gospel over 10 years. The ministry just passed the four year mark and has already reached more than 5.3 million unique visitors (they keep track of which computer accessed the web site to prevent double counting--this means that 5.3 million people visited). At the rate people are visiting (more than 11,000 per day), they will reach 10,000,000 about 14 months from now.

As far as actual conversions, 7% of those who visit respond. This means that nearly 400,000 have responded in just a little over 4 years. For up to the minute numbers and locations from where people are responding, go to project10million.com.

Do you see why I got excited about this? There are many countries that do not allow missionaries; others have become frightfully expensive to house a missionary. The recent revolutions across the Middle East were fueled by the internet. There are literally people in poor countries who don't have running water but who have a smart phone with internet access. The potential reach of this ministry is incredible and has already demonstrated that it works.

Back to what I'm doing. My missionary friend went back to his boss at Network 211 and told him about my background and excitement. The next thing I know, they invited me to join the team. Their business administrator is on furlough for a year and they need someone (say someone with accounting background like me) to cover that. They also need lots and lots of content to be written for some of the other pages like whojesusis.com or the discipleship and theology pages on globalchristiancenter.com (the online church page for those who are not near a church).

Well, these are the kinds of things that I do. I jumped at the chance and so here I sit in training to become a Missionary Associate with the Assemblies of God. MAs assist other missionaries or missions agencies and that's what I will be doing. Since Network 211 has its offices and computers here in Springfield, MO, I won't actually be going anywhere. So I don't have to raise money to go anywhere, but I do have to raise money to live. Just like a full-fledged missionary, I have to raise my own funds; money that comes into Network 211 goes to the ministry work. Tina is a wonderful worker, but what she makes comes up just a little short of what we need. Furthermore, I need to start making payments on my student loans. So my fund-raising will start soon and you will be hearing from me. :)

This is an exciting adventure for us. After commissioning this Friday, I will officially move onto the Missionary Associate rolls. I honestly never thought this would happen. I am not adventurous and never saw myself as a missionary. I still don't think of myself in the same class as those who have left home and family to live abroad for years at a time, but I am honored to be a small part of the team.

So that's what I've been hinting at for a couple of months. I am excited and honored for the opportunity to serve and look forward to being a blessing to others.