Eclipsing the Son: An assessment of online witness and evangelism during the 2024 solar eclipse

The solar eclipse that was visible across North America on 8 April 2024 was the impetus for numerous social media posts relating to Christian witness and evangelism. Collecting and analyzing posts revealed that they could be divided into four categories: 1. Using the eclipse as the basis for in-person evangelistic engagement. 2. Proclaiming God as Creator. 3. Teaching object lessons about God’s relationship to humanity. 4. Declaring the eclipse was a message from God to humanity that demanded action. The posts in each category were then assessed using current Protestant and ecumenical evangelism theory. This yielded three results. First, it showed that most Christians did not adhere to a specific theoretical approach to evangelism. Second, it provided insight into how effective the posts might be in reaching their target audiences. Third, in some cases it suggested how the nature and limitations of online media can affect the ways Christians discuss or engage in evangelism.