Vlaardingen, the Netherlands – In 2000, 24 percent of the Netherland’s 16 million people used the Internet. In 2010, that number had grown to 88 percent (www.internetworldstats.com). According to comScore, the Dutch logged an average of 32 hours online in August alone, visiting more than 3,000 web pages each.

It seems that meeting people where they are may include finding them online.

That’s why a group of Nazarenes involved with Vlaardingen Church of the Nazarene is developing a social media tool to meet people online by getting involved in helping to find answers to their problems.

GRIB.nu is still in the development stage, but the project team has high hopes for the site when it is expected to go live early in 2012.

Divided into three sections, GRIB will invite visitors to post questions or problems regarding the “hands,” the “head” and the “heart.” In the first two sections, other users will be allowed to throw out their own ideas and solutions to “hand” problems like how to fix a leaky pipe or work out a gardening obstacle and “head” problems involving how to deal something or how things work; in the “heart” section, which will likely have questions of a more personal or intimate nature, designated moderators from the group will privately correspond with users’ posted questions and problems.

“At the end of the day, people will ask, ‘Why are you doing this, why are you helping?’” said Rik Op den Op den Brouw, one of the GRIB founders. “Then the one who gives the help can say, ‘I believe in Jesus and Jesus wants to help you. From that point maybe things will come further.”

Although the Netherlands has a long history of devout Christianity, Op den Brouw and his colleagues say that traditional evangelism styles are no longer attractive to Dutch people, who have largely lost interest in religion in the past five or so decades.

“People were told they were bad, but in church they had to behave like they never sinned or made mistakes. In the minds of a lot of people there was a lot of hypocrisy,” Op den Brouw said. “Even the word ‘church’ makes them reject it; they stop listening.”

He wants the transformative Wesleyan theology of the Nazarene church, which wooed him to the denomination in 1995, to reach the minds and hearts of more Dutch people.

Thus, GRIB.nu will not be a straightforward evangelistic website; the development team want to start where the user is coming from – a simple wish to talk to someone about a problem.

Op den Brouw and the team have a vision to reach 500,000 people, quite a leap from the 5,000 who attend or are associated with the Vlaardingen church.

“If people say that’s a little bit too much, I say ‘No, that is my lowest estimate.’”

The team envisions “holiness cells” sprouting up among users whose seeking through the site eventually leads them to a saving belief in Jesus Christ and the need for fellowship with other believers. The church would help to shepherd the groups and form them into church plants or integrate them into a nearby church.

Geography isn’t a limitation when reaching people via the Internet. According to the project proposal, “Because a website makes it possible to reach people at distance, via e-mail, chat or video, there is no limitation caused by the location of a church building. People can attend services and bible studies via the Internet. We are able to broadcast services via streaming video or podcast. Seekers can organize themselves in holiness cells all over the country. The current churches can act as base camps.”

The Vlaardingen church already broadcasts its services over the web, drawing as many as 80 viewers for one stream, GRIB project manager Gerard de Zwart said.

Rolf Noordhof, assistant to the Netherlands district superintendent, said the district is supporting the website ministry plan because it will provide another means for church members to connect with the society around them and “practice their love to neighbors.”

De Zwart echoed that aim.

“If you look at the life of Jesus, He was always telling people but He also was doing things -- He did miracles, He did actions,” de Zwart said. “This provides a possibility for a lot of Christians to not only speak about their religion and their faith, but also give them a possibility to act like him.”