Summary of MMM: Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM) was started in the Fall of 2004 as a response to joblessness, and a heart to do more with my growing knowledge of mobile technology beyond the reviews and editorials that I was writing for BarganPDA (later Brighthand). The first issue was produced for a small audience of 50 persons who agreed to test out the magazine's delivery and format. However, none of the 50 persons read it, nor gave feedback. The project was shelved untli the Spring of April 2005 when in response to repentence, MMM was given a dual home as a downloadable magazine and a (near-daily) website. The magazine would soon morph into a blog-only offering, and successive site changes and downloadable issues later, would become featured around the web for its notable difference in how it presented mobile technology. For a long time, it was one of a few sites that would even broach the topic of faith and technology in a manner which was a bit more enjoyable than traditional publications. Several posts and topics gained attention, including attention from the BBC, Dallas Morning News, National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) and more. MMM's brand has remained a pecular one, even with much of the world now paying more attention to mobile. And indeed, the early question of what is happening with the church and mobile techhnology is being addressed by several entities. Currently, MMM provides an alternate perspective on matters of mobile/social web technology and faith through its team of writers, and maintains resource listings of software, services, and research articles which point to existing contributions which further the understanding of mobile as a ministry tool. MMM has also expanded ot offer training, speaking, and consulting services to those wishing to engage the practice of mobile ministry, in whatsoever capacity they are looking to be involved.
Mobile, whether we are talking about the technology or the media channel, is a very unique and new world. In some respects, its an extension of what we've understood about the Internet and broadcast media, but its is also something a good bit closer to how we uniquely and collectively communicate and connect with one another.
In addition to the report linked above (the barcode), I would also recommend the following bodies of information for review and analysis.
Mobile Ministry Magazine, as well as other groups which are named later in the presentation, are working on solidifying a definition of mobile (in) ministry that will satisfy efforts to conduct ministry, track practices, and develop materials suitable for this channel. The definition given above is curated from the MMM post on the topic. Later development of the definition, in addition to analytics across all of mobile led to the acknowledging of specific ministry activities which directly utilized mobile and later a disection of mobile according to its tendencies.
These are by no means the only actives which are happening in the mobile (in) ministry space. They are highlighted here as they represent some of the efforts happening which have direct correlation to activities which are similar to the testimonies and needs which have been presented at previous 7Ms meetings/emails.
Despite what is shared in this presentation, there's more information and discussions happening around the topic of mobile (in) ministry. Using the above websites presents the fastest way to get into the conversation and see what's happening. It isn't the most comprehensive subject area as of yet ‐ mobile is a young technology and channel. However, these are the leading voices towards this charge and are all working toegether to bring to mind the potential and applications of mobile in ministry settings.
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