Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM)

I have been struggling to get back into writing since I talked to Antoine about contributing to MMM. It seems like I have found any excuse and distraction to keep putting it off, until now. The message given at my church this past Sunday really struck a chord with me and is helping me shuffle around the priorities in my life. The message was based on “running the race” that Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 4:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

One of the main points mentioned in the message was that while running the race, we actually have to participate if we expect to win. I have been a reader of MMM for a few years now and it always helped me put my mobile tech hobby in perspective. I am honored that Antoine is showing faith in me by allowing me to contribute to the site, so I am going to do my best to stay true to the course that God has put me on, including the ministry here.

Now, when I was on my way home from church on Sunday, I started thinking about the concept of running as it applies to faith and also the physical act of running. I have noticed lately on Twitter and in my daily RSS feeds that running is becoming more social. I get tweets when my friends finish their runs and record the course they ran using an app on their phone. Sports Tracker, a tracking application for your exercise activities, just went live with their online services. Lifehacker recently published a list of what they consider to be the five best mobile fitness apps which included apps that let you share and summarize your work outs.

I asked myself, where are the services that make it easy for us to share the status of our race for faith? I know that some Bible apps like YouVersion will let you share Bible passages or notes using Facebook or Twitter, but this does not give us the depth that these new crop of mobile fitness apps give. If I am trying to get my faith into tip-top shape, it would be great to have an easy way to share my daily activities with a brother/mentor that is helping me be accountable and helping me stay on course. How about a phone or mobile computer that can be setup to send a SMS or an email when I stray off course by going to a website, looking at YouTube videos, or listening to music that could lead me off the course that has been laid out for me? In this time where people share more than most people want to know, how about enabling our mobile devices to share the things that are vital to us finishing the race and receiving the prize that God has waiting for us at the finish line?

This is a call to all of the talented developers out there to think about building features into devices, apps, or web services that can be used to track more than just the physical exercise, but also the spiritual exercise that is needed to live an obedient life and to finish the race with our heads held high.