Of Missionaries on the Field
In the times I’ve attended 7Ms, there have been several stories by those who’ve been serving in places such as India, Libya, Egypt, Central America, Ecuador, and SE Asia. Suing this meeting, we got to hear about what has been happening in Thailand with those who speak (and are now learning to write) in the Diao language. Two videos were presented, the first showing the changes that have been happening as a result of missionaries giving Thai an ability to write and learn about the world in their own language. And the the second showing how it really has been more a matter of prayer than anything else that has been the best supporting and enabling action (not to say that people and finances aren’t needed, only that even with those, it was the increase in prayer that merited the most direct change).
OMF International was the organization that this presenter worked with. Though we are in knowledge of several groups working alongside them in that region and many others as the Gospel’s ability to not just save souls, but to improve the quality of life, for so many is being felt (and in some cases, encouraged on national levels).
Of the Presentation Itself
As usual, I present from a mobile phone where possible. And, to what has seemed like it’s been happening more often than not lately, there’s been some issue with that happening. So instead of the presentation getting the benefit of a few slides, I had to walk from memory and interaction.
A few of the points that we raised which might resonate with some:
- There are three reasons why we see mobile’s prominence in areas where missions activities happen: communication, safety, and opportunity. Any use of mobile, whether evangelism, health, learning, etc. has to become relevant to people personally on that wise. It is a very true statement that “technology is only relevant when it is personal.” On the mission field, this is increasingly the case.
- While there is a generation gap, and economic/affluence gap, when it comes to the types of devices and activities, base usage remains the same: high usage of text messaging, need for great battery life, and use of low-cost mobiles and pre-paid accounts.
- There are several examples of activities happening utilizing mobile in ministry, a few we highlighted on the deck include the mLearning Project, Door 43, and Kiosk Evangelism. There’s a need to catalog more stories though, and to do so while keeping the integrity of the mission and the safety of missionaries in mind.
That’s a good summary of things. You can see the presentation, and others, in our Issues and Presentations section of the site.
Always a pleasure to connect with 7Ms, and looking forward to giving them an update as to our doings in future meetings. To connect with 7Ms, you are probably best to either catch a member on Facebook or just show up on a Monday morning.
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Understanding and Differences Between Internet Ministry and Mobile Ministry
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011Am writing this a few hours after listening to Dr. Markus Pfeffier from Regent University give a talk on the implications of the Internet and virtual environments. Much of this talk I’d already known, but both the speaker and audience were more unfamiliar (association and generational differences). As I listened, I wrote a bit of notes on items covered and not covered and realized by the end that much of what has been, and will happen, when mobile is added to the list for many of you, is that you will draw mobile into the same body of work as you do Internet ministry activities. There is some overlap, but not quite the same.
Let me summarize by restating the tweets (@mobileminmag) that relate to this point published before the writing of this piece:
Yea, that was a lot of tweets. And if you saw that stream in the middle of it going up, things might not have made as much sense. But, now looking at the whole statement, we can start to draw some of those needed conclusions that lend towards understanding both Internet and Mobile Ministry efforts.
First, know that there is already a Body of discussion happening about Internet and mobile ministries. Web efforts such as Internet Evangelism Day, Jesus.net, eDot Geek, ministries such as Every Student, Cru, and LifeChurch are some of those voices, and associations such as GCIA, ICCM, the Center for Church Communication, and Catalyst do a great effort towards enabling and facilitating the discussion about Internet ministry (evangelism, marketing, discipleship, etc). On the Mobile Ministry side, there’s MMM, IE Day, Cybermissions, Mobile Advance, and the groups partnering within the Mobile Ministry Forum.
Second, Internet and mobile ministries are subject to cultural, contextual, and generational differences. I don’t subscribe to the terms digital native/digital immigrant (mainly because there is no validated research to prove it, and it’s an assumption based on 100% equal access and ability which is totally not the case). I do subscribe to the differences which can be and continue to be understood when we look at economic class, gender differences, cultural transformations, urbanization/environmentalism, commodities management, change management, and other social sciences which tend to do a decent job of describing the differences that lead to our different uses and applications of communications technologies (yes, that’s supposed to be communications with an ‘s’). You have to understand those pieces in respect to the unique qualities of Internet or mobile. Generally speaking, mobile builds on what you understand about Internet when viewing both as participatory/event communication mediums. Trends point to being able to understand this data, then creating the avenues for appropriate products and services to be developed/enhanced.
About Internet ministry being visual: I am being mean, but truthful. Curent Internet ministry efforts start with visuals. This is either the readability needed for engaging in text-driven Bible apps, social networks, or multimedia streams (ever wonder why audio ministries rely on you needing to read text to download an audio message), or the implementing of the structures which foster digital story creations. Unfortunately, this leaves out those who might have access, but cannot read. Or, leaves out those who don’t have access because they don’t have the terminal with which to engage Internet-first ministries. Mobile, being that it has built on the Internet as a participat-media channel, does much of the same. However it’s not, nor should it be limited to visual-first efforts. That’s worth another article to dive into. But it starts at a basic question, whom are you limiting access to the Gospel to because of what you know or don’t know about those who touch that channel? And if you are going to go visual, at least follow accessibility best practices for the web.
The global reach for mobile is currently almost 3x that of Internet. The purchasing power of mobile is collectively greater than that of Internet. The logistical savy of Internet-based efforts is more mature than that of mobile, as are the tools, services, practices, and standards that make those happen. This means that specific engagements on the Internet have a better chance of success towards some groups more than others. However, you are limited by being online. Unless the effort starts online and is able to get offline, it can only have an effect in that virtual space (the Kiosk Evangelism Project, Door 43, and Open Church projects actually seeks to address this specific limitation/opportunity of Internet efforts).
Therefore, how you (your culture, your generation, your bias) defines minstry will determine how Internet or mobile ministry can play a part in your efforts. It’s possible to do both, but not possible to pigeon-hole yourself so long into one that the other isn’t relevant.
Taking from Dr. Pfeffier and Tomi Ahonen, Internet is the first participatory mass media in the history of humanity (you can argue the performance stage was its precursor), mobile is the second. What Internet ministry cannot do in terms of personalized (not algorithmic) attention, mobile can. What mobile cannot do in terms of being standardized across every device, Internet evangelism efforts can. They aren’t the same. Yet, in order to see digital spaces here and beyond (augmented reality, virtual reality, and cybernetics for example) as opportunities for ministry efforts, knowing this is key to making the most of your time and resources.
Tags: 7Ms, Campus Crusade, Campus Crusade International, Catalyst, Center for Church Communication, Cru, Cybemissons, definition of mobile ministry, digital immigrant, digital native, Dr. Markus Pfeffier, eDot Geek, Every Student, GCIA, ICCM, IE Day, Jesus.net, Kiosk Evangelism, LifeChurch.tv, Mobile Advance, Mobile Ministry Forum, Regent University
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