Church Army launches an exciting new website
Church Army has just launched a free website www.nowachristian.org to help and excite Christians as they begin their adventure with God.
Now a Christian is a five week e-mail-based programme to help new Christians explore the implications and understand the delights and complexities of what it is to follow Christ. The website backs this up with activities that allow the user to interact with fellow travellers on this journey.
The site is for people who have made a decision to follow Jesus, even if it is a tentative one and are asking the question: "What next?" It helps those who are taking the first step of a long journey and are looking for a signpost.
Now A Christian builds on the successful New to Christianity programme that Church Army ran for nine years as part of Word on the Web. It is the latest of their growing online ministries and combines e-mail with website content. It recognises that not every new Christian is ready to join a group or undertake an Alpha course until they have explored a little more about their new faith for themselves, in a safe and non-threatening way. It helps people who are embracing a new way of life, but want to think about how that works in practice. On day four of each week, there will be a link in the e-mail to relevant material on the website. Visually, Now A Christian takes you on a journey through a city where you can post questions, get rid of 'rubbish' in your life, switch lights on in a building and, in week five, grow a tree from a seed!
The most enjoyable part of it is an interactive virtual landscape, where people can record their thoughts in response to the daily e-mails, and find out what other people who are using the scheme are thinking.
The subject headings include "Giving God a chance" and "Making the most of faith". This will encourage discussion as to what a Christian can do as part of their discipleship, but also get to grips with why bad things happen in God's world. The idea is to enable a Christian to investigate the challenges they face, learn from others' struggles and opinions, and ask important questions without fear of embarrassment.
(Source: Inspire Magazine)