Let’s just take their word for it that their ad comes up in those cases.

I somehow came across this article from the Sydney Morning-Herald about (what else) virtual churches. Of course I’m still not convinced about these things, though one of the things I’m planning on doing is attending a few virtual services so I can better gauge them and report back first-hand experiences. But I would like to highlight one cool idea I saw in there that LifeChurch.tv, the poster child of this trend, is implementing. They purchased some Google AdWords for their site; this means that when someone searches on Google for those specific words, LifeChurch.tv text ads will show up on the right side of the page. What I thought was innovative, though, was WHAT terms they used: “sex”, “naked ladies”, and probably others. So someone engaging in “thoroughly un-Christian behavior” online would see, when searching with those terms, an ad with an invitation to worship at LifeChurch.tv. This must have a few effects. If the person is Christian, it’s a reminder that they’re engaging in sinful activity – and might be enough of a deterrent to stop the behavior. If they are not, they might be struggling with an addiction to such content and the open invitation might be enough for them to seek help from and ultimately start a new Christian life. This approach could be used for other vices, I’m sure – online gambling comes to mind.

I know we certainly preach the part when it comes to decrying the sinful ways of our world today – but this is a reminder that sometimes we can do even more, given some creativity and some understanding of today’s technology.