For other evangelists, GodTube is also a godsend. When a friend sent her a link to the "Lifehouse Everything" video, Kristin Furr, 27, says, "I watched that, thinking, `Wow, what an incredible resource. What a great place to share your faith journey with other people."
GodTube demonstrates that "Christianity isn't just sitting in a church on Sunday morning. It's something that everybody lives by every day," Furr says. "GodTube has really shown me that for some people [the link to Christianity] is music, for some it's drama, for some it's a little girl reciting Psalm 23."
Furr, a marketing project manager with a Frederick firm, has sent GodTube video links to friends and colleagues as a way of gently nudging them toward her faith. "It makes for a much easier and a much more modern way to reach out to those people in my life who are kind of on the fence and unsure of their faith and who God is," she says.
Furr and her husband belong to Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, where she volunteers as communications director. In that capacity, Furr is arranging to have Sunday sermons streamed live on GodTube, a free Web site service.
Baltimorean Terry King, 48, has uploaded her own video promoting the Children's Mite, an organization that aids a Zambian orphanage. While hits on her video have yet to exceed double digits, King isn't fazed. "I told my husband I'm proud of my little 45 times. It shows me the Lord is leading someone to listen to what I have to say."
Godtube is "an avenue that gives everybody an opportunity to share their personal experience, what God is doing in their lives," King says. "We get encouragement from one another and that continues to build the body of Christ."
`Kind of heretical'
Supported by advertising and financial partners in business and the ministry, GodTube reflects a range of Christian convictions. "I think people who use the service can pick and choose their message, much like people who `shop' for religious services," says Kelly Baker, an instructor and doctoral candidate in American religious history at Florida State University.
"People can find the videos that appeal to them and include them in their faith practices, and perhaps, this is why it could function as evangelistic outreach," Baker says in an e-mail message. "The medium allows for a variety of messages to which people can relate, but I am not sure if this will provide more converts to Christianity or just bolster the faith of religious users."
