The initial plan was to create a set of videos for use in a forth-coming guide for new believers.  Each 60- to 90-second video will be integrated in a web page covering core concepts of the Christian faith over the course of 30 days. This trial project is part of our growing efforts to effectively disciple those we’re reaching online.

Earlier this year, I began planning the Japanese translations of our “core content” videos — one gospel presentation and 16 follow-up video messages. Rev. Suzuki, a Japanese pastor in the Los Angeles area, agreed to be our presenter. Once the follow-up project began coming together, it made sense to arrange for him to come down to the San Diego area to do the recordings. This was also the first time I’ve managed the whole translation process, which was very much an “educational experience.”

The third project was one of those “while we’re at it” things — a 10-part video series on prayer that will be part of an upcoming evangelism and discipleship site designed for a youth audience.

For the follow-up and prayer videos, we decided to use outdoor environments to create the feeling of two friends talking in a park. We also used some new equipment to create a “film look” for the videos — most noticeably, a shallower “depth of field” that allows the background to be out of focus. While these tools and locations let us achieve a new level of production quality, it also added significant complexity to the effort.

Every spiritual advance happens in the face of spiritual opposition. I’m convinced that when you commit an endeavor, big or small, to God’s will and protection, that nothing happens by chance — whether, in this case, it’s an equipment breakdown, scheduling conflicts, or a pesky cold virus. Before leaving on this trip, I e-mailed my partners and friends a reminder to pray for this production trip. And I’m convinced this made all the difference. Thank you for your faithful prayer support!

When the disciples asked about the end times, Jesus responded, in Matthew 24:14, “The Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.” Looking at Jesus’ words in the larger context of Scripture, we realize that while the exact timing and details are still a mystery, the outcome is clear. One way or another, every nation will be reached with the good news of God’s forgiveness and redemption in Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:16-17 says, “For by him [Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Walt Wilson, GMO’s founder, points out that “all things” includes bits, the most basic form of digital data. Bits form bytes, and bytes form text, images, video, and audio that we use to communicate the Good News. The opportunities we have for sharing the gospel in the Internet era didn’t surprise Jesus; He planned it from the beginning.

Other Great Commission efforts are also accelerating. Wycliffe Bible Translators can now, in a two-year timeframe, translate enough Scriptures to plant a church in a language group. OneStory (a partnership between Campus Crusade, Wycliffe, and other ministries) is creating Bible-based stories that can be easily learned and repeated in oral-learning cultures. There so many things I hear about God doing around the world; in faith, I believe He’s doing even more that is still unreported.

As I write this, Global Media Outreach is currently seeing as many as 24,000 indicated decisions for Christ each day — double what we were seeing just 6 months ago. This is due solely to the power of the Holy Spirit that is unleashed through our obedience to God’s will. Yet I am convinced that we have many, many more steps to take before God’s intentions for Spirit-powered, Internet-facilitated ministry are fully revealed.

Within the next decade, perhaps sooner, some 95% of the world’s population will be digitally connected — many of them through digital media devices using cell-phone networks. One thing is clear from the brief history of online ministry: wherever digital data can be accessed, we can share the gospel.

God’s redemptive plan, centered in the person of Jesus Christ, continues with full force in our present day. The clouds gathering on the horizon suggest that something big is brewing… yet while we see indications of what God might do, we won’t know for sure until it happens. Still, I can say with 100% certainty that each day brings us one step closer to the plan’s fulfillment.

Countless believers have faithfully and obediently been part of the Great Commission. To think that we could be witnessing God’s grand finalé — let alone actively participating in it — is humbling, challenging… and motivating.

Please pray for accelerated development of effective discipleship resources for new believers; specifically, pray for wisdom in developing experimental online learning course. As the number of indicated decisions for Christ through our online outreaches continues to increase, so also does our need to provide effective discipleship resources for new believers. I’ve been interested for a long time in the potential for online learning (aka “distance learning” or “e-learning”) as a discipleship tool. Last fall, a co-worker and I began developing a course on essential principles of spiritual growth. Though the project was delayed by other needs — we got the first draft lesson done last month — we’re hoping to soon complete the first four lessons and release them for a public trial.

Pray for the creation of a new 30-day guide for new believers and my role in producing videos that will cover topics for each day. Video production continues to be a major aspect of my work with GMO. I’m planning a major production trip to San Diego in early May. In addition to helping with the script writing, I’ll be shooting 30 one- or two-minute video segments for this guide. I may also be shooting for two other video projects during this same trip.

Pray for the people, means, and opportunities needed to translate and record the remaining language videos for our key web sites sites. My immediate focus is getting the videos created in Japanese. Recently, I was wondering how we could get the scripts translated… and two hours later, a Japanese-speaking volunteer walks into our office! I’m hoping that we can complete the other remaining languages this year — Portuguese, Russian, Italian, and German. This means GMO will be able to share online a gospel presentation and basic follow-up materials, in text and video, for the top 10 languages used on the Internet. These languages represent 90% of the world’s online population.

Pray for students interning with GMO during the Silicon Valley Summer Project. I’ve been asked to help recruit interns as a way of raising up the people GMO needs to carry out our mission. I’m planning to direct our ministry’s first-ever summer project this June and July. We’re hoping to have four to six students work as interns in GMO’s Silicon Valley office. We’re trusting God to bring the right students to us, and provide for all the logistics that go into this type of endeavor.

I’ve said many times that I’m often aware — in some way — that people are praying for me and my ministry. Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer! It is futile to expect supernatural results without supernatural power, which only comes when we ask for it in prayer. I’m going to be setting up a special, semi-private prayer request page on my website and emailing a web link to it. If you are not already receiving my email updates, you may subscribe using this form.

A unique attribute of digital, internet-enabled ministry is that we can collect an abundance of data that reveals what God is doing through us. Last October, Global Media Outreach recorded the 2,000,000th indicated first-time or recommittment decision for Christ in 2008 — our goal for the whole year. Yet that was just the beginning of what God was going to do. While our efforts remained largely unchanged, the Lord caused the results to grow at ever increasing rates. In December alone, GMO saw over 494,000 indicated decisions (more than all of 2006!)

The final result for 2008 was 3,097,355 indicated decisions for Christ! We had over 17,459,221 visits to our web sites, from both computer and cell phone users in 191 different countries. Our ministry has seen God exceed goals in previous years — but I don’t think anyone even thought a 154% result even remotely possible.

With 669,449 email contacts, 2008 was also a banner year for our growing community of “online missionaries.” And this number does not include any follow-up messages that may have been sent or received. In these messages we continue to see that our numbers represent real people with real spiritual needs who are searching for truth answers.

“I’m very grateful that I’ve been given the chance to know God and accept Jesus as my personal Savior.”
– J, Indonesia

“just want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to accept christ back in to my life again.  – A, Georgia (USA)

“i want to deep study bible in a profound manner and [learn] the exact meaning of it! and would want to convert from hindu to a christian!” — N, India

“what should i do to accept God with all my heart.” — J, Philippines

“how can i make my faith more deep?” — J, Lebanon

“I happen to be a muslim but thanks be to God I have accepted Christ as my saviour help me be more powerful in the Lord; spiritually strong in my Christian life.” – H, Ghana

Each year God is bringing an increasingly abundant harvest as a result of internet-enabled media ministry. This boom in evangelism makes our growing discipleship focus all the more important. I look forward to the day when, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we see more and more people come to faith in Christ, grow in their relationship with God, and then go out and reach even more people.

The vision of Global Media Outreach is to give everyone on earth multiple opportunities to know Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith. This is what we “ask or imagine” — but God, through His power within us, can do immeasurably more “…to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.” The Lord said to Abram, “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree — some of the people of Israel — have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. (Adapted from Genesis 12:3; Romans 11:17)

“The Savior — yes, the Messiah, the Lord — has been born today…” The Lord God said to the serpent, “I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” When the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. (From Genesis 3:14, Galatians 4:4, 1 John 3:8)

“…in Bethlehem, the City of David!” You, O Bethlehem, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. Say to my servant David, “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has declared: Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.”  His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. (Micah 5:2, 2 Samuel 7:8,16, Isaiah 9:7)

“You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means “God is with us”). And she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. (Isaiah 7:14, Luke 2:7)

“Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others — the armies of heaven — praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.’”

The Christmas story unfolds as part of God’s larger plan to redeem His creation. It was announced in the devastation of the Fall; promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David; prophesied by Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets; embodied and completed in the person of Jesus Christ. And God’s plan continues today in us, the Church, as we joyfully labor to fulfill the Great Commission.

The angels saw the majesty of God’s plan — and they rejoiced. The shepherds beheld God’s plan, in infant form, and they rejoiced — and then went to tell others. The more I understand God’s redemptive plan, the more I am captivated by His love and awed by His glory — and the more I motivated to proclaim it. While we see in Scripture and history the hand of God carrying out His plan, I believe there is much we don’t yet see. I anticipate the day when we, the Redeemed, shall know and experience the fullness of what God has done for us. And in our joyous response we will even drown out the angels.

Global Media Outreach recently launched new evangelism websites so that we are now providing an online gospel presentation in each of the most common internet languages (English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, and Russian) plus Swedish. A part of this effort is to eventually provide brief online videos in each language. This includes one gospel message video for evangelism, and 16 follow-up videos for discipleship. Last May I produce the French version of these videos. This past September we added Spanish; October brought us Chinese; and this month… Arabic!

Producing each translation of the videos is a significant undertaking. Even before I get involved, my co-workers have been busy getting the scripts translated and finding “talent” to present them on camera. My job is to produce the highest quality video possible, so I invest a lot of effort in the process. (And getting our tele-prompter program to display Chinese and Arabic text was a feat!)  From a professional standpoint, these are simple talking head videos. But what is truly exciting — what often comes to mind when I hit the “record” button — is how God can use these videos to impact people in these language groups with the message of Christ.

Every day, in 191 countries, our ministry is seeing the living realization of Jesus’ words in John 4:35-36: “The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!” What a joy it is to be involved in developing these new videos, these “harvest tools” that God can use to bring people to eternal life! What a joy God has when people respond to His love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ!

But what is joy? One source defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being… good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” If this is right, then joy is the natural condition of those whose lives are “hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3) We, the formerly lost and broken, have been redeemed in Christ and adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters – if that’s not good fortune, I don’t know what is! And if the true desire of every heart is to know and have relationship with God… check!

Just before His betrayal to the Jewish leaders, Jesus told His disciples to have true joy. “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” (John 15:9-11, NLT, emphasis mine) The joy given to Christ-followers comes from the very heart of God. It is our emotional response to God’s love.

In the spiritual war that we’re fighting, our enemy knows that he can’t defeat the infinitely superior power God gives His soldiers. So he goes after our joy. Without it, we become weary, unmotivated soldiers lacking the will to fight.

To kill our joy, the enemy uses his oldest and most effective ploy: getting us to doubt God’s heart and intent. This is, after all, how he killed mankind’s original joy in Eden. The path to Adam and Eve’s sin began with accepting that God might withhold something “good” (the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil) from them.

A line in another book, The Shack by William Young, helped me see the relationship between my understanding of God’s love and my joy: “Paradigms power perception and perceptions power emotions.” A paradigm is what one believes to be true about reality. I believe that the sovereign and wise God, creator and master of the universe, is personally interested in my heart and deeply loves and cares for me. If this is the “lens” through which I see, or perceive, everything around and in my life then I am full of joy. But if the enemy can blur or obstruct my view, changing my perception, then my joy becomes elusive or disappears altogether.

The joy that God gives his children is something that no circumstance, possession, or person can give or take away – unless we let it. Zealous, unshakeable, overflowing joy is rooted in knowing and trusting God’s heart. Whatever the war brings today or tomorrow, the truth is that not only is the joy of the Lord our strength – it’s also one of our best weapons.

As I’ve reflected on that experience and other things lately, God has helped me realize that it’s not so much about my technical skills but my heart. The fact is that any competent video professional could have done as well, or even better, in recording the audio and video. But what Dorman, his family, and I were engaged is was above all a spiritual endeavor. God didn’t send me there as a videographer working for a ministry; He sent me there to be a missionary committed to fulfilling the Great Commission. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in my heart and giving me drive and passion, was more important than the training or talent I brought to that tiny, ancient church.

Exodus 31:1-6 is a passage often referred to in the context of technical and creative ministry.

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, ³and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts ⁴to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, ⁵to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. ⁶Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you…

The Bible is often very particular in the order it lists things, and the first thing Bezalel received was the Holy Spirit! God chose Bezalel because He know his heart. Bezalel wasn’t just a good craftsman — he was committed to God’s purposes. Even if there were technically superior craftsmen among the tribe of Israel, Bezalel was called because he had the heart for the task. What Bezalel created was as much a result of his heart as his hands.

I sometimes describe myself as a digital renaissance man: there’s many different areas in the realm of digital media and internet technologies that I have God has given me both an interest and resonable level of competence. I say that humbly, because I don’t merit it — and I think denying one’s talent is as much an afront to God as being prideful about it. Yet nothing can come of it that doesn’t first begin with the Holy Spirit in my heart.

A couple of years ago, the Lord gave Dorman (who is both a businessman and former pastor) and his wife, Blythe, the idea of creating these one- to two- minute Bible summaries. After Dorman’s company moved him from California to Europe, God brought together the necessary pieces. I was blessed to have a role in helping bring this vision into reality.

God was supernaturally present throughout the whole process. There were the “normal” unexpected hassles — a delayed bag of equipment, and a mixup with our rented lighting gear that forced a last-minute scramble (the Friday before a holiday weekend, no less!) We also had trouble deciding on a place to shoot, until the rector of a nearby church enthusiastically offered to let us use the building. Founded in the 11th century, parts of the current structure date from the 12th and 13th centuries.

The end result was some great content presented in a unique and beautiful setting. As we worked — modern technology set amidst ancient pews — I imagined that the generations of Believers who had worshiped there would have been surprised, and proud, of what we were doing in their humble sanctuary.

Oxford has been home to many great men of the faith, and I was humbled to realize how our work was connected in both spirit and purpose with theirs. Listening to Dorman present each summary, I was reminded anew of how the Bible reveals a single theme: God’s plan to redeem His beloved race of man. I’m excited that millions of people around the world will soon have access to this content and, as a result, be captivated and transformed by God’s living word.

This was my first international ministry trip, first shoot overseas — and first time to the United Kingdom! I enjoyed exploring Oxford — a place where you literally trip over history at every turn. I even got to have lunch in the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien met with their fellow “Inklings.” I was also able to spend two days on my own doing the tourist thing in London before heading home. I’ve posted additional photos of the shoot and my tour of Oxford and days London.