The Life Project
Have you ever heard of any of the digital ministries coming out of Power to Change, Cru Global’s Canadian office? Our digital ministries have gone through several name changes, so here’s the summary. For the longest time, our ministry team was called TruthMedia. A couple of years ago we were renamed The Life Project (we’re led by Sheldon Kotyk who is also part of the Global Digital Strategies Team). Our mission is: “The world is online. We help them know Jesus”.
Our ministry maintains a number of websites with content that invites readers to talk with an online mentor. We average about 20,000 incoming messages per quarter, making up over 5000 conversations per month. The articles and videos are written from a Christian viewpoint. There are pre-evangelistic sites and content as well as overtly evangelistic sites and content. The topics range far and wide, from the purely spiritual, to the intimately relational.
We have several sites which are the most active:
- thelife.com – encouragement and challenge for spiritual growth for Christians
- powertochange.com – a mix of content for pre-Christians and Christians
- issuesiface.com – for everyone; strictly issues based, and whenever possible, incoming messages are matched with mentors who are willing to talk about those specific issues.
Volunteer as an Online Missionary
Through these websites, we desire for the Lord to move in people’s hearts to correspond with an online mentor about what they’re going through. Conversations are one-on-one, and private within our online software, with safety factors built in to keep identities hidden (both mentors’ and mentees’). A volunteer mentor is someone who knows Jesus personally, is 25+ years old and has a good spiritual reference. To mentor teens and those in crisis, we require a criminal background check.
Volunteers apply online at The Mentor Center and then go through some required online training modules, which cover everything from mentoring strategy to evangelism and discipleship. Volunteers don’t have to finish all the modules in one sitting. Ultimately, we want to take our online visitor from the spiritual stage they’re currently at, to the next one, which is done according to the timing and discernment of the Holy Spirit. Most people writing into our sites are in a world of hurt, and a mentor’s empathy and attention to the issue they write about is paramount.
From the time they begin the training modules through to after they begin conversations with people, online mentors have both online resources and support staff online to help them out when it’s needed. Perhaps the most exciting feedback we get from our mentors is often the Lord uses mentoring to help change our volunteers’ mindset and boldness in sharing their faith. Beyond mentoring, our volunteers are becoming bolder about sharing God’s love and grace in their own online social media channels as well as in face-to-face relationships. Online mentoring is a low barrier entry to offering God’s love and truth to others and is a great way to help the average person experience the Holy Spirit connecting someone they don’t see, with the eternal Saviour, all through their keyboard!
Currently, training is in English and French; we also have Arabic ministry leaders who take volunteers through it. Please go to www.tmm.io to read what mentoring is and to start training to become an online mentor. Begin mentoring at the Intro level in literally minutes (choosing from preselected responses) or go on to apply and finish Basic mentor training modules in an hour (composing your own replies).
Please check us out here: www.thelifeproject.com and feel free to write and ask questions (email: kim dot koteles at p2c dot com).
Guest Post by Kim Koteles
Kim Koteles has served with her husband Peter with Power to Change, Canada, since 1996. They spent the first nine years in Ukraine implementing “Youth at the CrossRoads”, an internationally-recognized, Biblically-based character development curriculum for public schools. Since 2005, they have served out of the Power to Change headquarters office in Langley, British Columbia. Kim serves in Mentor Training and Support with The Life Project, helping volunteer Christians worldwide to become online mentors with The Mentor Center software and supporting the current 700+ mentors in prayer and mentor coaching. These mentors offer God’s hope and love to thousands of people every month.
Contact Kim at kim dot koteles at p2c dot com.
NOTES:
- Some of The Life Project websites include:
- The image for this post is a screenshot of Priscilla, one of Power to Change’s mentors. Grab a tissue and click on over to the home page of The Life Project to watch her testimony of volunteering for twelve years as an online missionary.
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