Bible Schools Online

Christianity continues to be the fastest growing religion in the world, with an estimated 16 000 conversions a day in India and higher figures in China and Latin America. Here the demand for basic Christian education exceeds the supply by far. In many of the wealthier nations Christianity is experiencing explosive growth in new media, books and educational institutions. Christian chain stores such as the Family Christian Bookshop now appear in malls across the United States. The number of Christian publishing houses and authors producing material continues to grow. Yet much of the content continues to cover the same topics and often lacks depth when it comes to issues specifically relevant to living in the post-modern world.

The Internet has opened up new possibilities for the dissemination of information and provides Christians with a vast array of Christian literature. More and more people are turning to the Internet for information, commerce, entertainment and education. Many are preferring to stay at home to work or study rather than face the inconvenience of commuting. However, Internet sites often lack structured material on which the Christian can build to grow in his or her faith. The result is that most people still seek out respectable educational facilities for effective Bible study. The main difficulty that Christians experience when seeking an educational institution or Bible School is that most of these institutions are geared to prepare people for full time ministry. Yet most Christians desire to learn more about how their faith and how the Bible can be practically applied to their work, relationships and family. The demand is not for seminaries and monasteries, but for Bible schools that will equip them to face life's daily challenges.

The ever-increasing demands on time leaves many mothers and fathers with little time for their families, let alone for attending a Bible school, no matter how much they desire to get a solid grounding in the Word. Even with many Bible schools offering evening classes, fitting it all into a week is close to impossible for many. The limited number of options leaves many Christian with a dilemma.

Certain worldwide institutions have successfully manuvoured around these cultural changes and are making use of evening courses on local university campuses to give practical Christian teaching in structured part time programmes. Going one step further, one particular institution has taken its Bible School curriculum onto the Internet with a combination of Multimedia technology and CD-ROMs.

The use of technology is the obvious next step in Christian education. Most universities have realised that the world has moved into the era of distance education and that the ideal medium for this is the Internet. It is a bold attempt to use the power of the Internet for administration and overcome the Internet's bandwidth problems by sending material on CD-ROM's.

While the Internet proliferates in the developed world, Christianity's growth is most exceptional in the regions of the world that do not have great Internet infrastructure. The dilemma of Christian educators in trying to harness the power of new technologies remains in finding the balance between what Western Christians consider an exceptional product and what many Christians living in the East, on the African continent or in the South Americas can utilize based on their limited resources. Having broken through into cyberspace education, the next challenge for Christian institutions is to develop new and innovative ways in which to meet the overwhelming demands for Christian education in the less-developed nations, where more and more people are coming to a saving knowledge of Christ.

His People Christian Ministries - Online Bible School on: http://www.hispeople.com.