Lessons in Ministry from A Mobile Phone Researcher
One of the things that I most enjoy about mobile technology is looking and asking people why they use a particular device, or what they would rather see in a device. I even go as far as putting devices in the hands of various people and asking them their initial impressions (usually without telling them even how to turn it on). I am looking for how they make connections with the device and the world around them. From there, I usually ask questions and get insight as to how they not only would use such a device (if they would) but how they see their world.
In a recent article at the BBC News website (via Textually), a Nokia researcher talks about how he goes about developing mobile phones. It's an engagement of both the psychology of an area and the design considerations of a person/community/culture.
When we talk about missions and being relevant in bringing the Gospel in Word and deed to others, we look at how people view religion, faith, and their lifestyle. We look for connections, perspectives, and objectives. Sometimes, we make a good call and the Gospel is well received and communities are changed. Other times we do not do as well, and it takes a bit of work to undo what we or a previous generation had done. But all in all, in being accessible to people, we look for those ways and places where the Gospel fits, and then we move accordingly.
Remember in the Scriptures how Jesus' response to people was one part governed by what had to be said, but also by whom he was speaking to. In daring to be relevant to our friends and families, both online and offline, we must take that perspective that Mr. Chipchase has:
"...The question is how can we do our job as a large corporation and show people we interact with sufficient respect."
Or more directly, how can we do our job as members of Christ's Body, and show to people the honor and respect that leads to them taking on Christ's calling for their own lives.
posted by Antoine @ 5/30/2007 05:39:00 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
This article poses some very interesting questions for me especially about being relevant to your audience. My whole world has changed in that past few months. I went from being a network administrator for a large ISP in the mid-west, to being on a help desk in a very large hospital out east, and one of the biggest adjustments I've had to make frankly, is in how I think about things mobile. My customer base is very different now, and the two groups define mobile use very, very differently.
It's an idea that's been rattling around in my head for the past year or so, and it's something that I hope to address and expand upon when my head stops spinning from this whole huge life changing event I've undertaken, but here at MMM there's a focus on mobile technology, like hand held devices. And certainly people like our fearless leader "Ant One" (ask him to tell you that story some time...) certainly uses the technology in ways that frankly would probably never come to mind for some one like me. Part of that I'm sure has to do with geography, and living in a major metropolitan area vs. someplace as rural as Iowa or Vermont, but there are other aspects to it as well I think.
Recently I've been blessed to be able to preview an alpha release of a piece of software that I'm not allowed to speak about yet, but that too got me thinking about mobility and technology, and whether that's just our PDAs and Blackberry's and N800's and so on, or could it be something like maybe a U3 enabled thumb drive and a PC at a public library? Does mobile technology have to mean that the technology is mobile itself or could it mean something like a mobile user, who uses technology where he is?
Again, this is something I hope to go into more in the coming weeks and months, Lord willing, but with the advent of some of the Google tools that are out there, docs, and spreadsheets, calendars and so forth, it really is becoming increasingly more practical (and more possible) to "travel light" and connect to something where you are.
Recently I was blessed to be given an iPod Nano, and I usually keep it loaded with pod casts from a few of my favorite speakers, but I also keep contacts in it, and I've been able to look things up there when (gasp!) my Palm wasn't with me!
Perhaps another facet of this and then I'll close this "response" which should probably be it's own post, is that when I look around at the big players in the PDA market, Palm, iPaq (or compatible) and Blackberry, I really haven't seen anything truly revolutionary in a long, long time, and to be honest, I'm not optimistic about the way that industry is headed, which is just one more thing that makes me think about other aspects of "mobile", and "ministry" and how that goes together.
Grace and peace.
A. Jay
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