Members Play an Important Role in Sharing Gospel Online

  • 5 November 2010

The Internet offers new opportunities to share the gospel and help people understand what being a “Mormon” really means.

Article Highlights

  • Internet search results are up to 80 percent positive in some countries
  • Members have many venues to express their beliefs online
  • Elder Ballard has asked members to share the gospel online

Because of how members are using it, the Internet is bringing people to the full-time missionaries rather than driving them away.

Missionaries across the world have encountered a problem in recent years: after only a visit or two, an investigator who had shown real interest cuts off contact. Researchers have found that most of those investigators have one thing in common: they lose interest after finding negative, inaccurate information about the Church online.

Six years ago 80 percent of search engine results for the term “Mormon” were negative or inaccurate. Today the situation has improved. In some countries, Internet search results for “Mormon” are now up to 80 percent positive.

Why the significant change? In addition to official Church websites, unofficial websites sharing positive information about the Church are spreading across the Web. Individuals are using blogs to share their values, and gospel messages are making appearances on social networking sites. In short, because of how members are using it, the Internet is bringing people to the full-time missionaries rather than driving them away.

Many Church members have been inspired by the counsel of Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on using the Internet: “May I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration.”1

Here is a look at some of the ways members of the Church are using the Internet to spread the gospel in simple yet meaningful ways. Find out more about sharing the gospel online.

New Mormon.org

Mormon.org, an official Church website and a well-established missionary tool, has been redesigned to connect users directly with Church members using personal profiles.

The new Mormon.org allows members to create a Mormon.org profile explaining their beliefs and lifestyle. Visitors can view these profile pages and learn more about the Church directly from its members.

“We want visitors to get to know members of the Church and interact with them,” said Ron Wilson, manager of Internet and marketing in the Church’s Missionary Department.

The More Good Foundation

The More Good Foundation is a nonprofit organization created by Church members that works to give the Church a positive online presence. Though the foundation is not directed or sponsored by the Church, it has played an important part in improving the Church’s online presence.

The founders of the More Good Foundation began to study search engines and how they selected results. They learned that Google, a popular Internet search engine, limits the number of results one site can return on any search. That means that even if ChurchofJesusChrist.org has hundreds of relevant pages, only a handful will appear as search results. That left a lot of open space for negative sites, and people often gravitate to sites that are unrelated to the Church as an institution.

“They’re looking for their peers’ perspectives rather than trusting the organization’s,” said Jonathan Johnson, president of the More Good Foundation. “If we understand that principle, we will understand why our leaders say we as members can be more effective. We avoid the walls that are created when people see someone in an official capacity.”

The More Good Foundation gained rights to over 1,400 URLs and enlisted Church members to create websites that discuss gospel principles. They have developed 320 gospel-related websites in as many as 12 languages. They have also posted over 1,900 Mormon-related videos on YouTube, giving people searching for the Church many more chances to find the truth.

Blogs

For members who don’t have the time or skills to create an entire website, blogging offers a convenient alternative. Blogs (short for “weblogs”) are simple websites that are easy to maintain and usually free.

Hundreds of members of the Church throughout the world are using their blogs to share the gospel with family and friends. It’s normal for bloggers to share things that are important to them, so it’s a natural place to talk about the gospel.

One young mother who shares her faith online has developed a loyal following. Stephanie Nielson started a blog that chronicled her life as a stay-at-home mom. She continued updating her blog after she survived a plane crash in 2008 that left her visibly scarred but spiritually rededicated.

A Mormon Messages video titled “My New Life” relates Stephanie’s story and her message of motherhood and beauty. “They’re the same thing to me,” Stephanie says on the video. Stephanie shares the gospel on her blog through her posts and includes a large button with a link to ChurchofJesusChrist.org. She also offers visitors a free copy of her “favorite book”—the Book of Mormon—that she will send “anywhere in the world . . . anywhere!”

Find out more about sharing via blogs.

Social Media Websites

Millions of people are connecting on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and Church members are sharing the gospel there too.

Information tends to spread quickly and easily on social networks, which makes it an appealing way to share the gospel. At ChurchofJesusChrist.org, all items in the Gospel Library section feature a “Share” tool, as do most pages on new.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, allowing users to easily share links to Church magazine articles, general conference talks, and lesson manuals on various social media sites.

Social network users can also become a fan of the Church’s official Facebook pages, such as Facebook.com/LDS and Facebook.com/Mormon. The Church has more than 380,000 fans, the Book of Mormon has more than 233,000 fans, and thousands more users have joined other Church-affiliated pages. When a Facebook user joins and participates in a group, his or her friends are notified. Thus, the friends of hundreds of thousands of Facebook users have been exposed to the Church through Facebook.

Church members are also using Twitter, a social networking website used to send brief messages (“tweets”) via the Internet, to share the gospel. Most notably, general conference was Twitter’s top trend in April 2009,2 meaning general conference was mentioned in more tweets than any other subject. There are official LDS Church Twitter pages such as Twitter.com/ldschurch and Twitter.com/Mormonorg as well.

The Church has also established a presence on YouTube, a popular video posting website, which has generated a positive reaction from members and nonmembers alike. Every Mormon Messages video, like all others posted to YouTube, can be easily posted on a blog or shared via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter.

Find ideas on how to share the gospel online via social media.

These efforts are all in line with a perspective voiced by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “Ultimately it is my responsibility and your responsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach. Missionaries are full-time teachers; you and I are full-time finders.”3

The Internet provides a way for Church members to find people in ways unimaginable a generation ago, and as technologies improve, so will Church members’ ability to share the gospel.

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