How big is your audience? Maybe you are looking to connect your church and ministries with people ten miles away, or even your entire city. Here's a thought: let the whole earth be your audience. Why limit yourself to hundreds or thousands or even millions of people? When you begin to look at the world itself as your target--the people you want to talk to and connect with--it changes the way you approach communications ministry.

It seems outrageous and impractical, but it's God's heart, and a perfect response to His command. In Mathew 28:19-20 we are told to "make disciples of all nations." All nations--including our own--but thinking beyond just "here" all the way to "there." If you have a desire to see the entire United States reached for Christ--if that’s the extent of your vision--then you are focused on just 5% of the world. This is a big thing to grasp--God cares about the other 95%, and He expects you to care too.

Right now, we live in an age where any church in North America with an internet connection can access about 650 million English-speaking web users. If you go as far as to work with translators to bring teaching and Bible study to other languages, you can access a total of 2.4 billion people who access the web worldwide. That's 1/3 of the people on earth that you have the potential of touching for Christ. If your communications reached just 0.001%--one thousandth of one percent of an audience, and your vision was as big as, say, Atlanta (population 4 million), then you could potentially reach 4,000 people. But if you could reach just 0.001% of the earth, just over the internet alone, you’d be touching 2.4 million people.

Did you ever stop to think that perhaps, just maybe, you were placed right here, at this time and with these technologies, for just such a grand purpose? Twenty years ago, evangelist Billy Graham dreamed of this kind of reach. During his lifetime he preached to more than 215 million people in 185 countries and saw 2.5 million come to faith in Christ. It took him 50 years to realize that kind of reach. Why did God not allow Billy Graham to be born 25 years later, so that he would be in the prime of his ministry today, right in the center of these incredible new communications technologies? For that matter, why did God not save Paul the Apostle for such a time as now?

Because God has you and me. And we understand how these technologies work. All it takes is a vision to see beyond our church, our neighborhoods, our city, even our nation. Do you want to reach the world itself? Do you want your one life to have an impact for Christ on the whole planet? Stop limiting yourself. The earth is your audience--speak to it!

About the Author. Eugene L. Mason has more than two decades of experience in ministry communications and technologies. More...