The man whom I was looking for soon appeared. He sat down. He was a part of the connection group happening with the two guy already sat down. Being the common person between us, he introduced me to them and we began to talk. These guys were retired, they’d traveled to places and in means I’ve only heard in stories or seen in movies. There was a sense that they enjoyed their years, and look forward to those that come behind them finding their own trails.
At one point, the conversation turned back to technology. But, not mobiles and web, radios. They started in just talking about how they used to have to tune the radio to find a program. One guy looked at me and said, “you don’t know anything about that do you?” I do. I used to have fun turning the nobs, listening for whatever wasn’t too filled with static – and hopefully not a commercial. I found plenty of music that way. These guys weren’t talking about tuning the radio for music though – its was about finding those comics and dramas that sparked their imagination.
Then they started naming shows, The Shadow, and several others of which I’ve heard of, but never had that experience of sitting in a living room, with the family around, just to take in the story together. They talked about how the stories were just audible, just enough sound to make your mind create the scene. And the best stories, how they left you in some sense of suspense and surprise, yea, that was how they remembered having their imagination stroked.
“But, not today,” the last gentleman who came in spoke. “Today, the TV does all the imagining for you. The pictures are made for you. And its so immersive. Now, there’s 3D…” He tailed off. I smiled. It was his generation that gave us these home and personal moving pictures, but now he was pushing back against it. Where it was helpful for connecting, it was detrimental for imagination. Without that imagination, there was no vision for living better. Where there was no vision for living better, there was so solid work ethic.
And so the conversation switched again, as it did several times in that hour or two that I sat there with them. These men, men how married and lost, fought in wars and strove for better lives in peace, were tuning my radio. I couldn’t be sure that I’d ever have their perspective towards the value of analog or “simpler” technologies. But, I could see how they appreciated moments enough to be sure that I got to hear what about the former media was good to hold onto, and not lose as we do move forward.
On Twitter recently, Gordon Marcy and I had a brief convo where I was asking about the value of broadcast communications (TV, radio, etc.) compared to participatory communications (web, mobile, and social). He alluded to the trust relationship that people have with broadcast communications compared to participatory. There’s not much tuning needed with those, there’s a reputation that’s assumed when those channels are used. But, with web, mobile, and social, there’s some tuning needed. People are still looking for what makes the channels necessary, valid, worthwhile. And if they are worthwhile, does that mean worth making things better for consumers or advertisers? Who’s imagination gets stroked to improve life around them?
It is a jump to say that web, social, and mobile are good enough. They are in some respects. But, when they take over the imagination or abiltiy for people to connect the dots themselves to see the depth and beauty of this faith, then maybe its not as valuable. Maybe, at that point it needs to be tuned a bit differently. And when it is, to be open to the signals coming as well as the signals going. We’d like to have this work for the Kingdom yes, but only if the Spirit compells, not if we wedge them into this.
In some recent conversations with clients/friends, I was asked if I would check out a few pieces of mobile software that were looking to be utilized for a few different mobile ministry projects. I used to not mind doing so, but this time I did. A few pieces of the software that I was being asked to investigate/review were core to the goals of those projects. In addition, the persons asking that I’d take the time to investigate those mobile applications had seen in projects or used similar mobile devices to the ones which would be utilized in those projects. They’d essentially be relying on my disconnected use of the software on a device and platform they had little familiarity with in order to roll out a solution that they felt met the needs of their project. 
We said a bit of something on Twitter in the past week which may have come across as prideful and arrogant:
Cybermissions has 
Tomi Ahonen has been quoted 
9(unknown*no*no*1)&guid=ON&x_utmac=MO-16595840-1){kind=small}
May is Digital Outreach Month
Sunday, May 1st, 2011News Release: “You have an incredible gift at your fingertips – literally. Your keyboard,” says the team at Internet Evangelism Day. They claim there is growing potential to share the good news online in a variety of ways. Christians can investigate these options during May, which has been designated Digital Outreach Month. At its center is the worldwide annual focus Sunday, Internet Evangelism Day itself, on May 15.
“You do not need to be technical,” says Tony Whittaker, IE Day coordinator. “There are many simple yet fulfilling ways of being salt and light in cyberspace.”
On May 15, IE Day is partnering with several major publishers to offer free e-book downloads of Christian titles which are normally pay-for. These cover web evangelism, social networking and other areas of effective communication.
“This is a great opportunity to explore digital evangelism. I encourage Christians everywhere to take advantage of these free downloads to learn how to effectively share their faith in the digital world,” says Naomi Frizzell, Chief Communications Officer of The Lausanne Movement.
IE Day encourages churches and other groups to focus on digital evangelism during May, at any level they choose. As a minimum, IE Day can be featured in a church bulletin, so that members can investigate its resource website. Alternatively, focus spots can be created during meetings using IE Day’s free downloadable video clips or PowerPoint, or even perform a drama sketch that relates to online evangelism. Two new video-clip resource sites could be showcased live by projection, to demonstrate how to add an evangelistic video to Facebook with one click. These videos can also be downloaded to a mobile phone to share face-to-face.
IE Day’s site includes pages on using mobile phones for evangelism, creating ‘outsider-friendly’ church websites and introductory videos, social networking, how to blog or build a website, and much else. Explore www.IEDay.net to learn more.
Tags: evangelism, IE Day, laptop, lausanne, Lausanne Global Congress, mobile, outreach, social networking
Posted in Commentary | No Comments »