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Advertising bots like those used by FAO Schwarz and eBay do not yet impose on IM users. They cannot pop up and initiate conversation. Instead, surfers have to add the buddies to their buddy list and send the first message.

David Campbell, founder of Fish the Net and Ark Webs Ministries, lists the IM buddy names for himself and ministry volunteers at the end of online tracts. He said that an automated buddy could be used as one of those to provide information, as long as users know it is not a person.

"Every tool we can get is appropriate," Campbell says. "This could provide a more direct answer to what is on your mind than any online presentation. I like live interaction, but if at the end of bot's program it says, 'You can call this number or go to this chatroom,' then it could work."

For purely informational purposes, some evangelistic sites already use automated software. Many chatrooms use bots that act as moderators. In eMinistry: Connecting with the Net Generation, Andrew Careaga tells about one chatroom that uses JesusFrk, a computer programmed "Bible bot" to deliver Scripture on command.

"For members of the Net Generation, the Bible bot is as integral a part of the faith experience as hymnals and pews were to an earlier generation of believers," Careaga writes. "With the advent of the Internet and all of its trappings, the church is being pressed to rethink, and perhaps expand, its definition of itself."

Todd Hertz is assistant online editor for Christianity Today.

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August (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46