IAUA End Time Ministry
Preparing for the End of Time
The Lord is Coming! Are you ready?
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Mon Dec 6 09:48:06 EST 2004
Dear Brethren, Greetings. This newsletter is going out early because my wife and I are traveling to Terra Bella for a week to visit with Elder John VanDenburgh. We are leaving early tomorrow morning (Tuesday). I am not taking my computer with me. We will not return until very late next Tuesday. I have done some thinking about modern communication of the gospel message to the world. There are so many methods to communicate to the world in this modern age. The final message will spread far and wide very swiftly. The earliest technology of modern mass communication is actually not modern. The printing press has advanced from its humble origins to its modern stature. The book is a vital source of the original spread of the Three Angels' Message and its current mainstay. Communication to larger numbers of people at lower cost accelerated with the advent of radio. Then the television became the primary method of mass communication. Television and radio suffer from a temporary nature. It is true that cassette, video, CD, and now DVD have corrected this but with greater costs both to the presenter and the receiver. While the cost of publishing and distributing a book has dropped the cost of radio and tv has soared. The cost of an evangelistic presentation has also soared. These media have all suffered in their religious use by seductive traps. The first trap is rampant commercialism. The presenter often gets entangled in expenses for the presentation of the message. The elements of merchandising, greed, and profit have a way of slipping in. Pleas are made for donations while books, tapes, and videos are sold to raise money. Ellen White made some very interesting observations about this problem with book publishing. The second trap is a tendency to be caught up in the presentation with detriment to the message. Style and attractiveness become over emphasized as the presenter gets sucked up into the trap of trying to compete with the world. When you try to make the message look good you are fighting a losing battle giving in to the devil. The devil has all the allurements to sin which we should never try to match. The internet is the newest and I believe best medium. The traps still exist but the cost to provide and receive the message have dropped. There is only a small cost to make information available on the internet. A skilled Webmaster will spend less than $100 a year for a complete website. I am currently spending $35 a year. I probably could spend less, if I tried hard enough. Millions can be reached for this minor cost. I find it so much more effective to hand someone a card with a web address rather than try to sell them a book or bear the cost of providing a "free" tract or book. All these things have their special place. There is a cost to get on the internet. You have to have a computer, which has many other uses. There are still some who do not use a computer (I admire them.) but their numbers are decreasing as the cost drops. A new computer can easily be had for less than $400. Used computer systems can be found for much less, sometimes free. New computer systems typically provide introductory access to the internet for free. The cost after that is about $10 a month. Higher speed access and additional features cost more. Email and internet alone are sufficient reason to get a computer. High speed communication and the flood of information on the internet are modern mainstays. A critical part of presenting the gospel is personal interaction. The original and still best presentation of the gospel is as a personal experience. The mass presentation is only the start to enter into a personal interaction. Preaching must lead to ongoing teaching and study. Witnessing must lead to discipling. From the first century, the personal presentation of the gospel has been augmented with letters. Letters are a personal communication which leads to group reading and presentation which leads to books. This was still the case in 1844. The telephone is a modern supplement to personal communication. Its value as fast, interactive, and personal is only bettered by being there. Long distance by telephone can be expensive. The email is almost as fast as a phone call but costs nothing to those who already use a computer on the internet. The email is just as good as a letter but faster and therefore more interactive. The unfortunate result is that spam has replaced junk mail as a modern trial. But even spam can be deleted faster and with less mess than junk mail. I hope these thoughts and information are of value to those eager to spread the gospel message.
Frank T. Clark
Next: 2004-12-17 Misdirected obsession |
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Revised 2004-12-19 |