The average U.S. church will see just one unsaved person come to faith in a typical calendar year, according to research from the Barna Group. Groundwire.net will welcome about 250,000 into the kingdom of God this year alone, its president says.

Sean Dunn’s organization led more than 116,000 mostly teens and young adults to Christ in 2020 — and is already on track to double that number this year.

How? By leveraging the very technology many adults point to as a distraction at best, harmful at worst to today’s youth.

“Young people are drowning, and dying, in this culture that strips them of joy, peace and direction,” Dunn explains. “But if they are approached in the right way, with the right message, they discover that Jesus can answer all of life’s meaningful questions.”

To communicate the gospel in a relevant and authentic way, the group uses the same kind of technology that floods your Facebook page with shoe ads if you chat with a friend online about your new Nikes.

Groundwire responds in real time with videos and other online content that offer youth immediate encouragement and hope, accompanied by an invitation to chat with a Groundwire volunteer — called a coach — who offers a listening ear and an understanding heart.

“It’s in our coaching chats that connection happens, that change happens,” Dunn says. “Our goal is to lead each person to a commitment to Christ.”

A total of 28,301 made that decision in 2017. Salvations have increased each year since: 44,895 in 2018, 83,970 in 2019, and 116,437 last year. Already in 2021, with just a third of the year passed, Groundwire has seen almost 50,000 decisions for Christ.

Groundwire has hundreds of volunteer coaches across the globe who respond when alerted to an opportunity to engage a lost or hurting person online. Each coach undergoes rigorous training and work with a mentor before chatting solo. The ministry is the first of its kind to be staffed around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Dunn says.

“What so many are seeking via social media we can offer them face-to-face in our relationships with them,” Dunn notes. “They want to be friended.  They want to be seen. They want to be liked. They may attribute a like on a profile to actual affection, but that is shallow and temporary.

“Point out that God not only likes them, but He loves them with an unconditional and unending love, he adds. “The most powerful force in the universe is the aggressive and unyielding love of the Creator of the universe.  When it is realized and embraced, it protects, shapes and directs a life.”

Learn more at Groundwire.net.