A good friend of mine and I were talking the other day about mobile and an epiphany that he had concerning mobile ministry. This person has know me longer than MMM has existed, so he’s seen me push and prod folks in the Body to understand this media/arena a lot sooner than some others, and at the same time, he (admited to me in that conversation) that much of what I said just went over his head.
Our conversation took place as he was in the midst of wrapping up a 10 week pastorial internship and he was not long from preaching for Sunday service. In the surrounding context of a church community that leans heavily towards being older, witha sizable teenage member base, he spoke up saying, “I think I finally get the need for mobile ministry. With information at people’s fingertips, we’d do well to teach people how to get it, use it, and skillfully live with it.”
I smiled because it has been this think of thinking that has been a part of some conversations recently as I’ve gone out and about talking about MMM and why such a perspective is relevant.
When we think about this idea of being skilled, or having a proficiency in something, very rarely do we (on this side of the economic world) think about picking up a fork to eat as a skill, or even typing on a keyboard. We take for granted that because we are embedded into a culture that does these actions that learning will happen, and what’s right and wrong about how we learned those actions will be tuned over time and social development.
With mobile, things are a bit different. Right now, we have this digital life playing the role of something being layered over the experiences of the primary age groups and cultures. Things that some do easily in a digital domain (develop applications, search and read news, etc.) are items that are still foreign to the general understanding towards how we live. And because its not native to many, we have a number of these instances where we are trying to learn how best to handle not just the use of the digital tool, but the implications of the digital-associated behaviors.
The grounds for mobile ministry therefore takes on two perspecives: an understanding of the technology and tools to relevant audiences, and an understanding and maturing of behaviors related to the implications of digital-associated behaviors in the lens of a Christ-centric lifestyle. Here, there’s room for both perspectives, and a hopeful sharing of the awareness that learning has to happen faster to match the tools and behaviors which have also changed.
To my friend, mobile ministry takes on a context of being a part of the glue a multi-generational church can use to knit the experiences of the older, with the zealous energy of the younger (Titus 2:1-8). To another, mobile ministry takes on the context of methodologies and standards which allow for the economic transformation of communities which might not have an infrastructure in place for traditional social services. In any respect, mobile ministry endears a response to life and community, thru the lens of the Gospel – meeting the needs of others, to display the hope for this life and the life beyond.