Beginning the recaps of the time at the 2010 BibleTech Conference, I’d like to start with talking some about the first presentation: Mobile in the Next 10yrs (The Churchy Version).

One of the reasons for doing this presentation was to set some of the (needed) perspective to what is clearly in the mind and code snippets of many in the software and publishing industries. This year, there was a lot of talk about mobile (and the iPad) and what it has meant as there’s clearly a change in what’s possible when not just data is available, but it needs to be constructed to fit contextual situations as well.

For MMM’s presentation, these were these five speaking points:

• Mobile will be the primary avenue for telling the church’s story over the next 10yrs
• Mobile increases the church’s need to have cross-functional knowledge of culture and context
• Censorship and copyright will drive mobile sharing of religious texts to innovative solutions
• Mobile will be vilified and affirmed by traditionally-minded church and lay leaders
• Education + genuine faith + mobile = education and community redefined (Africa, SE Asia, and Global South)

Aside from a technical glitch (red and yellow are different colors, doh), I believe that it set the stage very well towards what will be better understood not just in respect to Bible software and studies, but how the Body responds to the context of people who get, learn, and assume that information is a commodity.

The last two bullets are better understood in the context of the change of generations and economics. Those who are leaders in spirit and business within the Body need to not just understand these changes, but also (in some cases) adapt to the reality that language, innovation, education, and even enterprise will not start with the former leaders, but those who learned from previous generations/leaders.

The hope was that presentation would set the ground also for the second – and main – presentation. As this was demo night, there was only 10 minutes to present what MMM knows best (Proverbs 4:7-8). I only wish that I had not rushed it – demonstrating any kind of knowledge needs to keep room open for conversation – of which there was a lot of at BibleTech. You can bet that I learned a quick lesson that night, and at the same time gained some insight towards what some in the Body are looking towards mobile for. Suffice to say, there’s a lot out there, and excitement of all kinds.

Stay tuned for part two of the MMM BibleTech Recap where some of these meetings and conversations will be talked about. And after that, we’ll talk about the main presentation, and some of the changes that it will cause for MMM.

View the presentation: The 5 Areas Where Mobile and the Church Intersect/Mobile in the Next 10 Years (The Churchy Version)

There’s some additional conversation about these points over at the Visual Story Network’s Mobile Ministry forums.