Book Review: Netcasters: Using the Internet to Make Fishers of Men by Craig von Buseck

Extending a Biblical Metaphor into the Digital Age
By Lauren Yarger
The tools of the trade and even the scope of the catch might have changed since Jesus shared his promise to make His followers fishers among men, but the principal is the same and thanks to Craig von Buseck’s latest book "Netcasters: How to Use the Internet to Make Fishers of Men" (2010 B&H Publishing Group), the metaphor gets extended into the digital age.

In "Netcasters," Dr. von Buseck, ministries director for CBN.com, compiles a thorough study of the Internet and how individuals and churches can use it to reach out. If you don’t know what the terms blog, SEO, Twitter or podcast mean, this book might be over your head, but if you already have a web presence, “Netcasters” will help you expand it and use it for outreach purposes, even if you’ve been online for a while. I’m pretty knowledgeable, but von Buseck offered a number of examples that I’d only briefly touched on, or hadn’t heard of at all, so it was very helpful to learn more.

Von Buseck sees the internet as a tool – just one of many that have been used over the centuries – to communicate the Gospel. He provides practical warnings about some of the dangers out there in cyberspace, but his excitement about the medium is evident throughout.

“The wonderful thing about the internet is that once the language barriers are overcome, it becomes possible for any believer to reach one-fourth of the world’s population from a laptop on their dining room table! And now, with mobile digital devices in the hands of three billion people worldwide … any net caster is potentially connected with half of the people living on planet earth!”

Social networks like Facebook are just communities of people, von Buseck explains, and after all, that’s how we reach people for Christ – through the communities of which we are part. He offers practical tips for setting up a web page or posting on a blog and even how to improve your SEO (what makes it easier for people to find you on the internet) for the best “fish finding.” The fish/net metaphor is continued in the chapter titles like “Weaving the Nets: Building Your Internet Presence” or “The Fishing Village: Who’s Catching Them?”

The book isn’t just a lecture on how to work the internet, however. Von Buseck uses statistics and interviews with people like Tony Whittaker, coordinator of Internet Evangelism Day and editor of the web evangelism bulletin , David Brice of Hollywood Jesus.com and Christy Talbert of TeenSpaceColumbus.com to broaden the perspective. He shares stories of how people have found faith through contact with people online and it’s quite fascinating.

“All indications are that we are at a dramatic crossroads at the dawn of this new millennium – and much of the impetus for this revolution can be connected to the opening of conversations worldwide through the internet.”

If you want your ministry or if your church wants to reach the most people possible, “Netcasters” is a must-read. You can purchase it at http://www.christianbook.com/netcasters-using-internet-make-fishers-men/craig-von-buseck/9780805447842/pd/447840#curr.

Follow von Buseck’s popular Church Watch blog at http://blogs.cbn.com/ChurchWatch/Default.aspx

(An online review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.)