Ministry Offers Tech Help to Christians, Outreach to Lost Professionals
by Allie Martin
August 22, 2005
(AgapePress) - A North Carolina-based ministry is using business, technological and leadership education to overcome barriers in reaching the world for Christ. The Christian organization is doing this not only by helping other ministries but also by extending its resources to non-Christian professionals through training and outreach opportunities.Wide Net International Ministries was founded earlier this year by Jason Williamson, who says the ministry has two main goals. First of all, he explains, "We're here to provide world-class technology consulting development services to other Christian ministries so that they can get their mission done cheaper, faster, and better."
The second thing Wide Net International is "here for," Williamson says, "is to use technology and business and leadership education as a platform to reach the professionals, the influencers -- the movers and shakers that so often our mission efforts tend to overlook around the world."
Recently on Mission Network News, the CEO of the North Carolina-based ministry pointed out that many individuals are coming to Christ as a result of its tech conferences. "In May we went down to Venezuela," he said, "and we brought down a team of technologists and business leaders from the United States. We had a three-day conference, and the most exciting thing about this is that a lot of these people were totally unchurched."
Wide Net made the most of the outreach opportunity the conference afforded. Williamson recalls, "We had people at the end of the conference coming up to us, saying, 'Is there a place that we can go and study the Bible?' And as a result of that we had about 40 people come to make a decision for Christ as a result of relationship-based Bible study."
The technology ministry's founder says the vision for the organization grew out of the increasing need to fill the technology leadership void that currently exists within the Church worldwide. He believes the training and services Wide Net offers create an effective platform for affecting what he considers to be one of the most challenging population segments in the urban centers of the world -- lost professionals.
While funding is always an issue, Williamson emphasizes that the Christians at Wide Net have another prayer. They are asking God to "raise up those leaders who have a heart for helping the church get to where it needs to be from a technology perspective," he says, as well as for God to lead men and women who "have a heart to reach professionals and influencers in the world and want to partner with us" to do that.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
