(from a Christian Magazine editor, November 2000):

The Work Of John Mark Ministries:

Its purpose:

To be a resource to pastors, ex-pastors, church leaders and their spouses…

Its audience:

The church across all denominations within Australia and beyond; in terms of evangelism on the ‘Net – a huge disenchanted audience of thoughtful people who’ve mainly given up on the church but want answers to Big Questions…

Its success rate – (can it be measured in terms of success?)

Not easily. We try to help. In terms of counseling, many hopefully go away feeling encouraged.

Stories of hope?

See the case studies on the website – particularly ‘One Woman’s Story’ in the Retreats section http://jmm.org.au/articles/8053.htm

Do you work alone, or with others?

Counseling sometimes happens with my wife Jan – also an ordained Baptist pastor. I’m accountable to a very supportive Board and to a supervisor…

Pastors In The Church

What % of pastors are burning out each year?

Difficult to put a percentage on it – but most would feel emotionally and spiritually drained a lot of the time…

Has this got worse in the last 10 years?

Yes: more demands are being placed on pastors to satisfy the expectations of a wider range of customers… oops parishioners…

What can the Christian community do to assist?

See the article How to Encourage your Pastor on our website. When that first went out in a World Vision GRID leadership letter we got a record number of responses…

What else to pastors look to JMM for?

Help in times of pastoral and personal crisis; ideas for surviving in a rigorously demanding ministry; occasionally theological and spiritual insights for their personal journey…

Have the issues changed in the last 10 years?

Only in degree: we’re more ‘commercialized’ and communicators are finding it more difficult to compete with television…

Desert Sabbatical

‘Cos it’s biblical: the sabbath principle is a very important part of the way God’s made us. For R & R. To appreciate something of Australia’s natural beauty and grandeur. Four months.

Did you learn profound things or was that not the point?

It wasn’t the main point. But yes I learned that the devil (pardon my fundamentalism at this point) gets to you to try to destroy your confidence when you’re away from the ‘daily grind.’ I talked to a priest-cum-spiritual director at a Monastery where we stayed. His best advice: ‘Give your guardian angel a nickname’. Now figure that out!

Would you do it again?

Yep, for longer…

Has it changed you?

Yes, life is in better perspective, and I’m enjoying slowing down…

If so, how?

Saying no to more things. Referring most counseling clients to others…

About Your Website

Would you call your webstie a form of ministry?

Most definitely – evangelistic, teaching, encouraging…

If so, why?

The feedback we’re getting indicates that people who visit, as well as those who read our offerings on our clergy/leaders’ mail-list, and on newsgroups are helped in many ways…

If not, what would you call it?

How many hits a day do you receive?

Last count: 12,000 hits a day.

What are people most interested in?

Varies. The highest hit-rate is on articles about homosexuality, masturbation etc. People have questions about these and feel the church can’t get its act together on them. Most popular section: Humour (it now is approaching 1,000 funny stories!).

Who have you encountered on the web since putting your information up?

Friends all over the world. I’ve visited some of them; conducting a wedding of two people who I met on the ‘Net (and who met each other there) etc. etc.

Websites As A Resource For People

Can a website pastor people?

Not directly I guess. The pastoring happens in about 50 emails I get each day…

Are conversations over the net as good as communicating face to face? Do they supersede the old way of relating?

No they don’t: and it’s a delight to meet the people I encounter on the ‘Net in the flesh. However for introverts like me it’s a very relaxing way of communicating with lots of people without having to be so emotionally involved as in face-to-face counseling.

What are the challenges and advantages of using technology as a means of interface?

You have to watch the addiction factor of course. Many of my counseling clients use the Web as a resource to feed their sexual addictions…

What examples can you give of how you’ve used the net to communicate with people about faith issues?

In my inbox today: a pastor who’s living with another woman, the wife of a homosexual man who got no help from hewr church, a young person who wants to be a Christian in a non-Christian home… the list is endless…

Can Christians utlise the internet better or are they doing a good job already?

Dr Negroponte (‘father of the Internet’) says the Internet is the only piece of technology where the reality outstrips the dream… I don’t know about that, but to have the biggest and best library in the history of humankind is somewhat awesome! I’m encouraging people to subscribe to one of the Texts for Today lists, and maybe visit our Devotional section first thing each day…

Can you give examples?

Lots of ideas but here’s one: Try mastering a search engine like Google: it’s terrific…

Is website developing perpetrating the whole issue of people suffering information overload, or is it allievating this problem?

Depends if you are selective. When you go into a huge public library it’s the same experience: you go to the corners where you get what you need….

Your Future Plans For John Mark Ministries

Yes: to find a person to replace me in Victoria and a few other states…

Do you have a dream or a passion to use the net further?

Only in degree: I’d see the John Mark Ministries website as a portal through which Australians can visit other places on the Net, and as a resource (with perhaps 10,000 articles) on most of the issues they’re likely to need…

In what capacity, and why?

What are the pressing issues of our time – for the church and for the wider world?

For the church: to figure out how to live like Jesus in the world…

For the world: the hunger problem is the greatest macro-issue, followed closely by the injustices perpetrated by the powerful against the poor. (So everyone out there: click on the two hunger sites on our frontpage every day, eh?) Then, as I’m an evangelist, I pray that more and more people will come into an experience of authentic faith in the living Lord!