In Lubbock, Warren Martin's International Institute for Truth & Grace is breaking new ground in the development of software that will enable individuals across the country to join interactive small study groups via the Internet.

Martin will lead the courses from his office in Lubbock. The test run was successfully completed a couple of weeks ago, and the program will be offered to the public in May. A second course, aimed at teenagers, will be launched in June.

The Rev. Chuck Williams, pastor of Live Oak Community Church, said that Martin and his business partner, Bill Stewart, are doing the "cutting-edge work that other ministries will be doing 10 years from now."

Interactive Internet groups will not replace the one-on-one human touch that conveys love and caring, Williams warned.

"I think Warren and Bill are real aware of that," Williams said. "The Institute is not to replace the church, but to reach out to people in four corners of the world who may be having a tough time and need (to study) a particular issue. It dovetails nicely into the church, making the most of what can be done on the Internet now."

Martin said the target group for their ministry is primarily people who do not or would not go to church, but he would hope the studies would lead them into a church relationship.

One thing missing among radio and television broadcasting tools is the ability to build relationships, Martin said. The software will add the real-time communication between group members and leader.

"We are combining relationships with broadcast to develop small groups on the Internet. We just completed our first course with people from Florida, New York, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico making up the test group. The course is titled 'FACE Your Future: Creating your Portrait of Success!' "

FACE is an acronym for "Focus on the truth, Accept responsibility, Choose to be who you were created to be, Embrace the extraordinary."

"As we go through the study, we look at David, Elisha and Joseph," Martin said. "The unifying theme is that each one was able to FACE the future."

Martin also began a blog this week called "Time-Out for Truth," an extension of online devotionals that he made available in book form a few years ago. Also, in May, Martin will work with Stewart, who will teach a business leadership course online to 80 offices across the country using the same software.

"It won't be a course, but it will have a Christian foundational focus," he said. "Some broadcast like that, but we are keying in on small-group training and will give those people an opportunity to join small groups. We have done this before, but this is the first time we've done it online using the computer. Adding the Internet allows the video feature of seeing the instructor and the outline. All it takes is an Internet connection."

In June, the second course in his discipleship courses will be launched, aimed at teenagers and titled "Choose Your Destiny."

"I'm hoping to relate to them all about how to make biblical choices no matter what profession you are in," Martin said.

"One of the features on the software is that we are recording some of these small-group sessions to give two options - to join a live small group or to join and pay for a pre-recorded group, which is not the preferred way."

He said he plans to develop and train discussion leaders so that more course instructors may be available by the end of the summer. Within a few hours of putting out the information, Martin had 38 people from across the country sign up for the May course, which is limited to three groups that meet via the Internet on different days.

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