A series of articles that sit near my reading pane have me thinking a bit. I want to knit them into a question that I feel mobile and internet ministry need to solve that’s more important than spreading the Gospel.
“Shape the digital world or robots will do it for you”
That sounds like something out of science fiction novel, or a futurists’ website. Its really from the latter, because the former is no longer fiction. The abiltiy to build and program machines to do transitional tasks isn’t reserved for a particular person or people group. Its something that anyone can do. When we go about creating more and more of thse automated spaces, then we have to come to another bump in the road: are we the product of what we program, or does what we program project who we want to be?
“…If there’s an enormous problem with the world, and we can convince ourselves that over some long but not unreasonable period of time we can make that problem go away, then we don’t need a business plan,” Teller says. “We should be focused on making the world a better place, and once we do that, the money will come back and find us.”
I’m sitting at some kind of cross-roads where I know that I want to continue on this course with MMM, but not as it was done before. I want to be like Google X is described as in this Business Week piece, a place where its not just building or disecting mobility in ministry for the sake of it, but actually challenging and answering the problems that present themselves most at this intersection of faith and mobile tech. For example, why does someone need to know how to read in order to receive the Scripture? Shouldn’t all they need to know is how to ask from their device and the representative services make the answers available in the best possible manner. That’s how John Dyer’s Bib.ly service works in terms of presenting various sources for Bible verses. Why isn’t that pushed even further so that I’m not spending time trying to figure out how to translate, but how to share a recipe for a favorite dish that makes the salvation conversation something that just happens to save a whole house.?
“From my point of view, technology is not only your computer on your desk anymore, it’s part of your life. It made sense to me to have a design that felt more accessible, that didn’t make you feel all the time that you’re just reading a tech magazine…”
I feel the same way about reading a bible on a mobile device. I’ll use my Sermon/Bible Study Notes archive as an example. I don’t need to necessarily read the Scripture again, but I do want to experience what was going on when I did read it. I want to have the pictures, images, and even video that speaks what is going on, just as much as I want the links to the content from encyclopedias, news articles, and academic journals that challenge the very thoughts that I’m being exposed to. And then when all I do want is a basic instruction before leaving earth note, can it come to me in a way that is accessible to the moment, not one that makes me change into someone else’s designed point of view.
If all we are doing is repacking the printing press or radio broadcast, then we aren’t doing anything that gets people closer to God. We are called to be like moons and reflect the light of the Son. How about we start designing, collaborating, and connecting using the web and mobile tech as if we are reaching for something more? What are the moonshots in this space?
Let’s start with one that I can’t believe has never been designed: turning a mobile phone into a magnifying glass for your Bible (there are magnifying glass apps, just none that purpose into helping folks read those nice small print bibles, go figure). What happens if in the effort to teach people about mobile in ministry, we simply just enable them to see?