Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church voted Feb. 7 to establish a Coordinating Committee for Internet Ministries, aimed at serving the world church and its regions.

The committee, to be chaired by world church vice president Mark Finley, who heads the church's Center for Global Evangelism, will focus on facilitating initiatives and services for global Internet evangelism and ministries, including allocation of funding as available, making recommendations to church administration.

The panel will also oversee content development for the church's online presence; initiate and coordinate use of Internet technology and services by the church and support lay ministries; promote and support use of new technologies in fostering the church's mission; develop guidelines for corporate identity and standards for the world church's web presence and that of regions and other entities; and develop procedures for the registration and management of world church and regional Internet domain names.

"With the exploding interest in the Internet internationally, the world church's administrative committee took a progressive step forward in establishing a coordinating committee for Internet ministries," Finley told ANN in an interview. "The committee will facilitate initiatives and services for global Internet evangelism, as well as bring together church and lay entities in a concentrated focus to reach people for Christ through the Internet."

"There is no doubt in my mind that Internet evangelism is going to give us a possibility that far exceeds what we've been able to do through the other media. I think that our opportunities in Internet evangelism are really, virtually, unlimited," Pastor Jan Paulsen, world church president, said in a recent broadcast interview.

It is anticipated that the committee will oversee the current outreach initiatives, international Internet forum and will facilitate networking among the growing number of church sites and ministries in different parts of the world. "The growing involvement of the church in Internet presence and outreach calls for a greater intentionality to make it attractive and effective," said the world church's communication director, Rajmund Dabrowski, named as a vice chair of the committee.

The growth of the Internet, particularly during the past 10 years, has been astonishing; according to InternetWorldStats.com, usage has grown 182 percent between 2000 and 2005. As of Dec. 31, 2005, documented Internet world usage according to the Internet World Stats database is 1.018 billion people. This figure corresponds to a 15.7 percent penetration rate of the world's population of 6.5 billion, and there appears to be little end in sight.