Mobile Ministry Magazine

An Alternate Means of Distribution
Greetings all. A lot that has been going thru my mind lately in the area of how to best use mobile devices in ministry settings takes the thought of how to take a current process and make it more seemless. If you will, in what areas would using mobile technology actually be a benefit, not just a "neat add-on?"

One area that I'd like to see mobile devices better used is in church (service) settings. Granted, there are many who would shun me for saying this, but I do think that many Western (and probably a lot more than many Eastern) churches are ready to give up handing out paper bulletins. No, not because they are not effective and litter the floor once service is over, but because there is a more efficient means of content delievery in SMS that can get people the information they want, and integrated into a device that will remind them that there is something going on.

Imagine if you will, the day before service you get a text message asking if you want to receive the week's announcements via email or text message (or by paper), and then before service, or right after you reply (opt-in), you receive the announcement bulletin right on your phone or as an email into your laptop. There are no pictures in the SMS version, but there are links to add things to you calendar. Same thing in the email, but there are a few pictures to keep it pretty. You also get the option to downlaod an outline of the sermon message and can bring in your own notepad ;)

Of course, thinking like this leaves out the visitor. In that instance, you would have a much smaller number of printed bulletins with the message during the service and in the bulletin that they can sign up for text/email alerts on a weekly basis.

This is something that I thought about as I visited a church this past Sunday and noted how the bulletin waas nicely printed, but even now, it sits in front of me having only been glanced at. I would have probably paid a bit more attention to it if I came via SMS, and especially if I could add some of the events to my calendar immediatly, saving me from having to type it in.

Of course, I also think about using R codes while in art galleries to get more information about a piece of work. Or, using mobile photo blogging as a means to get youth involved with sharing the Gospel in their communities. I just think that the tech is here for us to do a lot more than we are letting ourselves do, and its not that we are suffering, but it is that there is a lot of wasted energy. Is there a chance that some of that energy can be reclaimed so that we can have more time doing the ministry instead of administering to it?
posted via Mo:Blog