Most Christian websites are written purely for Christians. Only a small percentage of Christian websites are evangelistic – written primarily to address the questions and concerns of non-Christians, but even they can only help the small percentage of people who are actively seeking God. What about the rest of the world? One way to effectively reach unbelievers who are not spiritually seeking is through a “bridge site.”
What’s a bridge site?
A bridge site is a website focused on a non-spiritual topic which then provides an opportunity for visitors to “cross the bridge” to a spiritual topic. The focus of the site can be anything that interests you, the creator of the site. Some suggestions include:
- Sport
- Health
- Sex and relationships
- Hobbies
- Humor
- Music, TV, or movies
- News-related topics
How do you cross the bridge?
Some possible ways to cross the bridge from the secular topic to spiritual topics are:
- Your testimonial – Include an “About Me” page. Make sure you write it in a way that understandable to non-Christians and free of Christian jargon.
- Meaning of life pages – Create pages with titles like “What is the meaning of life?” or “Looking for real fulfillment.” It’s important that these pages not be arrogant or judgmental but gracious and offering hope.
- Bridge pages – Write pages that are relate the site topic to a spiritual topic. For example, if you create a sports related site you might look for the testimony of a famous sports figure and give it an appealing title like The secret to Tony Dungy’s success. Or if you manage a health-related site, you might create a page called “Overcoming worry” in which you talk about how hard it is when you don’t know how things are going to turn out and how you were able to overcome worry through faith in God.
What’s the best way to build and manage a bridge site?
While there are several website formats that could work, in my opinion a blog is the best way to go for several reasons.
- A blog is easy to create – You can start a blog for free in minutes on any number of blogging sites like blogger.com and wordpress.com. It’s also relatively easy to create a blog using WordPress in any web hosting account.
- A blog is interactive – A blog allows people to comment on your articles and posts. You can also comment on other blogs related to your topic and as a result easily draw new visitors from those blogs.
- A blog will bring visitors from search engines – One of the keys to ranking well in search engines is having unique content and the more of it the better. If you blog at least once a week that means more than 50 new, original content pages added to your site each year and 50 new opportunities for people to find your site.
Bridge sites are not for everyone
While creating and managing a bridge site is relatively easy it can be time-consuming. If you start a bridge site, you want to be able to update and add to it regularly. You also want to respond to people who might comment on articles or contact you. If you are a busy person or anticipate you would be unavailable sometimes for weeks at a time a better option might be for you to hook up with an existing bridge site. Be an occasional guest blogger. Participate in forums.
Some additional resources concerning bridge sites:
- http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/bridge-strategy.php
- http://ied.gospelcom.net/outreach.php
- http://www.internetminister.org/bridge_sites_internet_evangelism.html
Do you have a bridge site? If so, post a link and let us know how it’s going. Got questions or comments about bridge sites? Post ‘em in a comment.
And join us in the OCC Christian Forums for more discussion of Internet evangelism topics, all part of our Internet Evangelism Month focus.
If you enjoyed this article or found it interesting, vote for it at Blogs4God so others can see it as well.
5 Comments
I wholeheartedly agree with what you say.
My own site does not fit the traditional ‘bridge’ model you describe, but it still works that way.
Most of the material on our web site is intended for Christians, but there is a section with articles of a more general nature. I provide opportunities for people to respond to what they read, and get a good number of responses – including a fair number of non-Christians responding to the Christian articles.
I put a reasonable amount of work into communicating Christian truth without the jargon, and this approach gets a good response. People keep telling me there are too few sites attempting this!
Pingback: » Internet Evangelism Day in the news April 8-14
Living Water Home Spa Shop (http://www.homespashop.com) is a bridge site as you described it . . we are attempting to help people to understand that true refreshment can not come from a spa treatments or salons, but only by relaxing, seeking God and building a personal relationship with our Savior.
Our “About” page explains the concept, and we have a “Dedicate Your life to Jesus Christ” page that includes links and information to help people understand who Jesus is and how to commit their life to His purposes. (http://www.homespashop.com/jesus). We also have a Christian Stress Relief page that links to a stress relief prayer page.
We sell home spa and home decor products on the site. Product descriptions include scripture to help visitors become familiar with the Word, and the inspiration, life, and hope promised to all believers. We also place our links in some non-traditional places for Christian businesses purposefully to “fish” for the lost.
We get hits on our “Jesus” page each day . . . We believe our day would not be complete unless we knew at least one seeker found a place to get answers.
Would love to share ideas with other bridge sites. Have a Blessed & Fruitful Day!
I am sorry. This is the type web site I wanted to come up with some time back unfortunately I could no measure up to the rate at which you required me to build it and the time resource I had to build it up was too limited otherwise I give a go ahead to the idea. I believe one day this dream of mine will come to reality.
God bless you
Your Website Evangelist
Thank you for visiting The Glory Land. Please leave a short message with your name or your site. I also want to thank you for spreading the Word of this website. My goals are to lead people to Christ and to disciple them in the right path. I strongly believe in soul winning” Salvation through faith and Grace of GOD. And that Jesus Christ is the only way.
http://thegloryland.com