Refocusing of mission potential in using Internet-related technologies has led two lay ministries—Three Angels Global Networking, Inc., or TAGnet, and Hart Research Center—to combine expertise at bringing greater Internet access to Hart’s clients, as well as Hart’s marketing expertise to TAGnet. The two organizations are longtime supporters of the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“We’re interested in seeing us build a communication system where every local church is interconnected to share resources as a whole. I’m very excited about where I see this going,” said Dan Houghton, president of Hart Research Center, in an interview.

Added TAGnet co-founder Sean Carney, “We’re going to see a lot more major Internet evangelistic developments coming out of this” combination.

The move cements a relationship going back a decade: TAGnet co-founders Carney and Gordon Harty made their first call seeking assistance to Houghton, an active member and officer of Adventist-laymens Services and Industries (ASI), a group of lay members whose goal is sharing Christ in the marketplace. This, Houghton said, was in 1994, when the idea for an Internet platform for Adventist lay ministries was born; TAGnet “went live,” as it’s said in the industry, the following year, July 4, 1995. Houghton has served on TAGnet’s board since that time.

Houghton suggested—and won approval for—a U.S. $15,000 grant to TAGnet, which enabled the fledgling firm to upgrade its Sun SPARC computers. From those small beginnings, TAGnet has grown to hosting more than 2,000 publishing members, delivering 2.45 terabytes of data to 1.8 million unique Web visitors every quarter. Scores of local churches worldwide have used TAGnet’s technology and support to establish local Web sites.

He said the new duo—TAGnet will become a unit of Hart Research while retaining its own board of directors—will enable both groups to “renew our focus and use our strength to reach out and touch the future” via the Internet.

Houghton said the two groups “will offer what we can to collaborate with other ministries,” adding that their focus is on supporting the ministry of the church: “We’re not into business-building, we’re Kingdom-building.”

Hart Research is noted as a supplier of evangelistic resources for Adventist congregations, and is also a noted publisher and distributor of Christian art, featuring the work of Nathan Greene. The organization is based in Fallbrook, California. TAGnet, based in Mountain View, California, exists to enable and empower Seventh-day Adventist churches, schools, organizations, and ministries wanting to have a presence on the World Wide Web.