How to
Use Chat Rooms
for Contacts
From our perspective,
connecting with the online community is what Internet Evangelism is all
about... telecommunication in real time with real people all around
the world! Using the Chat Room feature is one of the most
effective ways to make contact and impact the lives of hundreds, even
thousands of Netizens with God’s truth and love, challenging
them with issues that have eternal consequences.
We suggest that you start in
one of the Christian Chat Rooms (Beliefs Christian, Christian
Fellowship, etc). Not only are they a good place to
start...for most of us they're a great place to stay.
Not everyone in a Christian Chat
Room is a believer. While most are, there are always those who
want to make trouble, mock believers, and criticize the faith.
Parity of access and freedom of expression don’t necessarily promote
honor and virtue. Thieves, scoundrels and even predators find this
medium to be just as inviting as do scholars and innocent children and
teens. Chat Rooms attract a diverse community warranting scrutiny
under the strongest of light.
When you enter a Room spend
several minutes
checking
out the-lay-of-the-land. Your screen
will be full of chat scrolling by. Some is indecipherable. Some is
scurrilous. And some is from participants just as confounded as
you are!
It is perfectly all right
to enter a room and just observe for a while...just as it is perfectly
natural for people to sit in a lobby and watch other people. In
fact we recommend it. This gives you a chance to adapt to the pace
of the conversation and get an idea of who’s in the room.
Try to follow the
comments of two or three screen names. Believe it or not, you can
actually pick up on several conversations in a relatively short amount of
time.
To the right of the Chat
Room window is a listing of People Here. You will
want to scroll down the list to become familiar with some of the screen
names. If you double click on any name, you are given the option
of getting their Profile (if they have one), or sending them an Instant
Message.
Screen names, like
nicknames, can tell you a lot about a person. The
information in their Profile can also give you additional information
about the person's experiences, life perspectives, and even beliefs
about eternal issues. Couple this information with the comments an
individual is making in the Room, and you have several points-of-interest
from which you can open a conversation.
If you're patient in Chat
Rooms and seek God's help, you will often find those who are genuinely
looking for help, hope and someone they can trust. Like the time I
was just about ready to leave a Christian Chat Room when a message
scrolled up, "I need to talk to someone."
Surprisingly, no one
responded to the individual. Usually that's not the case in a Chat
Room. Once again the individual asked if anyone in the Room was
willing to talk. I couldn't believe it when there was still no
response. Apparently God wanted me to respond!
So I sent an Instant
Message asking if I could be of help. The teenager responded and we
chatted online for over an hour about some extremely serious family
problems he was facing, coming from a broken home. Our
conversation had come down to Ryan (his real name) taking time to pray
and receive Christ at 1:00am (Iowa time) there in his bedroom. He
then responded:
- WBN15:
AMEN
- preachalways:
Ryan, were you able to talk to God in your own words about receiving
Christ's forgiveness and leadership in your life?
- WBN15:
YEAH
- preachalways:
Then may I be the first to say "Welcome Brother" to the
family of God!!!
- WBN15:
OK!!!
- preachalways:
The Bible tells us that whenever someone accepts Christ ... all
heaven rejoices… kind of like throwing a party!
- WBN15:
GREAT! WHO'S BRINGIN' THE BEER..... JUST KIDDING :-)
- preachalways: What
do you feel like?
- WBN15: I
AM KIND OF TIRED BUT FEEL LIKE A WEIGHT IS OFF MY SHOULDERS.
WITH THE LORD'S HELP I THINK I CAN DO IT NOW.
