Using technology to communicate about religious topics
David March 14th, 2008
For years the use of technology to communicate about religion has been more on a grass roots level. It was done all time, but religious leaders were risk averse to providing their own content. Now we are seeing it more and more as these leaders have come to recognize the importance of using this medium of the internet.
With the success of mormon.org and similar sites, the LDS Church has continued to try new things… even if they are “old hat” to those who frequent YouTube. The video on this site (http://specialmagazine.lds.org/) is the latest expansion into what the LDS Church has done in this area.
[…] my last post, I mentioned that people who frequent YouTube may not know about the current efforts of the LDS […]
Should the Book of Mormon be distributed online, or is it already there?
Would it be helpful to have a church sponsored website to ask members of the Church worldwide whether they need copies of the Book of Mormon to share with their family members and friends?
A coordinated net-centric website could measure needs for copies of the Book of Mormon in every country of the world. Donating members from anywhere could send money to church distribution centers around to the world to purchase copies of the Book of Mormon to to help poor church members needing copies of the Book of Mormon in a particular country who don’t have the money to purchase them.
I bought a web location last year that I’ve named “floodtheearth.org”. In compliance with the Church request not to create our own websites for the church, I’ve left it empty so the Church can use it if they would like to. Pls let me know whether this site would be useful to the Church.
FYI. Here are a number of ways I’ve learned to flood with many thousands of copies of the Book of Mormon over the years:
1. Leave a stack of 5-10 copies of the Book of Mormon, or a case or many cases, on a table when teaching or participating in a Church class or fireside. Or on occasion when sharing presentations on flooding with the Book of Mormon. In this manner, I have shared many thousands of copies of the Book of Mormon, and havd seen many, many people join the Church. often I have shared 5-10 or many from many, many would share 5-10 copies of the Book of Mormon each week.
2. Place cases of copies of the Book of Mormon around the Church in which you live, in Sunday School Classsroom (particularly Gospel Doctrine and Gospel Essentials, and also in Priesthood and Relief Society Rooms).
3. Encourage every family to have at least one case of copies of the Book of Mormon, and to have them in several languages. It’s impossible to have a flood without plenty of backwaters to create the flood. We must have many copies of the book of mormon in order to be generous with them and truly flood.
4. Don’t only share copies of the Book of Mormon with non-members, but with members as well, with an invitation like the following or one of your own:
“Please accept and share two or three or more copies of the Book of Mormon with non-member family members or friends, or with other members of the Church. Please come to Church, or to my home for a discussion with the missionaries.”
I have personally invited many into my home to learn about the gospel. More than half of them have joined the Church. The apostle Paul learned a great technical lesson that he relates in the following verses in his Book of ACTS, chapter 28.
“30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,
31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”
Here we see why Paul was such a great missionary. He taught many within the walls of his own home, in all confidence.
@Robert
The Book of Mormon can be purchased online through LDS Distribution Services or obtained free of charge through Mormon.org. That doesn’t mean that you can’t set up a personal web site expressing your views of the Book of Mormon. As long as you indicate that your site isn’t officially sponsored by the Church as a whole or representative of a specific congregation of the Church, you should be fine. Also, be careful when using images owned by the LDS Church. You would need to get approval to do so. (They may offer limited rights in some cases, depending on the use)