Its probably not great taste to keep turning emails into content, but this is another one of those cases where it just makes sense. Especially if you are interested in using QR Codes in ministry.

QR Codes in Ministry

QR Codes have been used for more than a decade in Japan and SK. Essentially, its an old technology now, as much so that even many on the side of ministry and tech have essentially moved past simply using QR codes and integrating them into fuller, mixed media efforts.
 
We’ve published several articles on the subject. As for a getting started guide, there aren’t any – you can go to several websites to create QR codes such as Mobile Barcodes, Kaywa, and even Google. From there, implementation takes on whatever makes sense for your organization.

As for applications of it, there’s been QR codes used in tracts, business cards/flyers,cover art and bulletins, and even bibles. If you are doing to do something useful with it, make it distinct, and do more than simply point to a link. The effects of these kinds of augmented digital expereinces tend to have effects beyond what we design.

To that end, we enjoy working with QR codes and other trans-meta media tech. There’s always a neat conversation that develops when we are able to instigate different behaviors by the way we use mobile tech.

General mobile topics are not usually items MMM steers towards, especially since there are always several folks reporting on these and we value a bit of something that’s not always as-heard. Still, you get those moments when there are stories compelling enough that it makes sense to bring it up, and hopefully incite some fruitful conversations.

For example, Helen Keegan (LinkedIn, Twitter) is a well-known name in mobile circles – one for all of the gems she finds in terms of news, but also because of how much value she’s added to companies who want to have some sense of direction towards mobile activities. Over at her blog, she posted about 9 reasons why you might have a poor signal on your mobile device, and none of these are the ones you find in advertisements:

I’ve often wondered myself why my phone varies in performance. I get that different networks will have an impact, but I hadn’t really thought what the other issues might be. John explains it in his recent newsletter which I’ve copied below for you (with permission). I’m interested to know what you think. How much do these factors affect performance and are there other things that can affect it? I welcome your thoughts and comments.

“Various reports from around the world over the last three years note that have consumers increasingly experience poor coverage with their smartphones. The challenge for mobile operators is that the perceived coverage rarely reflects the quality of the network that the operators build and run, but rather the quality of the smartphones that people use. As a new ground-breaking study shows, the quality of the smartphone combined with how it is used and configured is more to blame that the mobile network.

Of course, that tends to lead us down the path that much of the conversation in the USA has been taking when it comes to mobile. Frankly, people are cutting costs, and mobile contracts are catching part of that wave. Over at the NY Times, an Alina Tugend talks about some of the decisions that people have to make concerning going to mobiles w/o contracts, and some of the false perceptions that having such mobiles brings out:

No-contract phones — or prepaid, which is essentially the same thing — have been around for quite some time, but most consumers thought they were “for people who couldn’t afford a better phone or couldn’t pass a credit check,” said Jayne Wallace, a spokeswoman for the Sprint Prepaid Group, which was formed in 2010. Sprint owns Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, both of which offer no-contract phones.

The Great Recession shook things up, though, as people started looking at where they could cut back on monthly bills — and began to investigate new cellphone options. At the same time, good phones were getting cheaper.

Its not simply a matter of just having a mobile, but its about knowing the kind of environment that you have around that mobile, and then what’s conductive to keep or lose inside of that. Part of that indeed has to do with where you live, and the mobile device. Another part has to do with what’s in your wallet to keep things going. As stories go, mobiles continue to shape the ones we make. Stories like these two are part of the mosaic, even if they don’t expressly state an intersection of faith that we are used to looking for.

Today marks the beginning of the Lenten season in much of the Church. As is the case every time this season rolls around, I’m reminded of my youth and the years spent within the Roman Catholic tradition. Whether you were Catholic or not (I was not), you had to attend service at some point during the day, and then opt whether to receive ashes on your forehead. Depending on the moment, I’d say yes, understanding some of the significance of those ashes. And then there was the humor of trying to figure out what it was on our foreheads when it didn’t look like a cross. Funny moments, and certainly one of those moments where these days, I wonder how the common occurrences of mobile tech with kids could turn both that tradition and humor on its head.

The ashes though aren’t the end of the experience. Even in those youthful moments, teachers and parents would ask “what are you going to be fasting for Lent?” Some classes got competitive with the fasting – with classes logging who’s not watching TV or students cleaning up their language for 40 days. There are those folks who’ve taken to making those 40 days into 40 acts of kindness. And then there are those folks who look at pushing just a bit further, deriving that idea of a Lenten fast from the framework of the perspective in Isaiah 58 – removing something from your life but putting that into another’s life.

No matter how you spend those 40 days, if you are observing Lent, then do more than just fast for the sake of it, or serve just for the sake of it. As our friends over at Church Mag made note of the other day, “it isn’t just about the “giving up,” it’s about getting ourselves mentally and spiritually ready for Easter.”

We’ve got a list of apps to also assist on your Lenten activities. But, you don’t need an app, just a dedication towards some time to contemplate on what the resurrection means inside and beyond our traditions.

Doing a video article last month was pretty fun, and so I wanted to continue with using voice as a means of talking about some of the issues that relate to mobile ministry. In this video, I talk about the big picture of mobile apps in ministry, based on a few emails received and conferences that are upcoming.

If there’s a topic that you think would be a good fit for this format, get in contact with us with the topic and reason why and from there let’s get a discussion going.

One of the complaints that I hear from time to time is how religious apps (and services) are functional, but lack beauty. If you will, many are pretty in functionality, but not always in asthetics. That’s not always the case, but it happens often enough that one has to wonder what happened to all of those skills that did the Sistine Chapel and other works of art we admire so much.

Per my usual travels through the web, I wandered into Communication Arts Magazine and some of the events/competitions they have going on this year. I made it through a few items and started wondering when we’ll start seeing mobile apps from faith/religious organizations get nominated (in the Interactive category). As we talked about before, there are several design trends that do mark some items, but I wonder when we’ll see some more.

Some beautiful apps/services in this domain? Here are a few:

• Bible Bloom
• John Dyer’s Bib.ly
• Mars Hill’s Windows Phone App
• TabTale’s Children’s Books for iPad

Those are just a few which come to mind. I’m sure there are others (well-know and not so). What are some of those beautiful apps and services to you?

Earlier this week, I recorded a new video post that was supposed to go up today, but since I’ve been a bit lazy in terms of uploading it to our current stable of videos, I’m swapping it out for an appearance earlier this week as the featured co-host for this week’s edition (episode 35) of The Voicemail. Here’s a snippet about what The Voicemail is about:

James Whatley and Stefan Constantinescu get together every week for 30 minutes to talk about the mobile industry and anything else they might fancy.

And here’s what Episode 35 is about:

This week James is joined by long time listener and mobile blogger, Antoine RJ Wright. Antoine writes about the nexus of mobile technology and faith at Mobile Ministry Magazine; he and James have been fans of each others’ work and have talking online for many, many years. Stefan’s a fan too, and man, will he be pissed when he finds out he missed him…

This week: more Blackberry coverage, some MWC previews, and a rather interesting piece of news on graphene (seriously).

Now, don’t let me hold you back from taking a listen (about 35min). Once you do, definitely make sure to rate it on iTunes, give it +1 on Google+, and subscribe to the podcast (RSS) to hear James, Stefan, and the other featured co-hosts of this mobile-focused podcast.

A lot of times, you can look at the news and mounds of information that come from various sources and its just so pessemistic. I bet that to some degree that we are guilty of that here, MMM hasn’t always been the most chipper place. And yet there is some good news out there if you are looking for it. For example, take this series of data points shared by Anil Dash:

• The percentage of people in the world living on less than $1.25 per day has been cut in half since 1990, ahead of the schedule of the Millennium Development Goals which hoped to reach this target by 2015.
• The number of deaths to tuberculosis has been cut 40% in the past twenty years.
• The consumption of ozone-depleting substances has been cut 85% globally in the last thirty years.
• The percentage of urban dwellers living in slums globally has been cut from 46.2% to 32.7% in the last twenty years.

Read of the rest of The World is Getting Better at Anil Dash’s website… and pick up your perspective towards what’s really changing in the midst this powerful time of life.

Its always a joy when other ministries jump into the area of mobile ministry and begin to take their unique content or audiences and do something familiar and different at the same time. One of the most recent examples of this comes from our friends at Renew Outreach. As you might recall, about a year ago, we interviewed the founder/president of Renew (David Palusky), and now we are seeing some of outgrowth of parts of that conversation that were not covered on-camera.

What now appears on the Renew Outreach website is a section dedicated to the topic of mobile evangelism. Besides the previously linked video, there’s also a decent explanation towards the methods used in mobile evangelism. Here’s a snippet from that page towards what this section is aiming to do:

Currently, there are around six billion mobile phones (cellphones) worldwide. Most of these devices are capable of playing audio and video files that tell the Gospel story. Renew World Outreach has created these training videos to empower mobile evangelists so that they can make use of the three main tools for distributing Gospel content – such as audio Bibles or the Jesus Film – to mobile phones in rural areas. To begin the video training series, start with the Bluetooth Intro video…

Renew is also good friends with the folks over at the Kiosk Evangelism Project and so its not too surprising to see some of the same methods and tactics used here in order to share the faith and extend the viability of content production efforts.

For more information, in addition to utilizing the mobile evangelism efforts for your own teams, visit the Mobile Evangelism section at Renew Outreach. If you, or someone you know, is involved with missions to the literal ends of the earth – areas where we are just beginning to explore – then I’d recommend Renew Outreach’s expertise here as well – they specialize in audio, video, and solar technologies that speak to the conditions faced at the edge.

Over at Church Tech Today, we recently contributed an article looking at mobile computing trends for pastors. We took a look at it from a different perspective than what you might find on other sites which might talk about ministry and technology. Here’s a snippet:

…First off, a maturing of some of the best of the genre in terms of Bible applications. Logos 5 and Olive Tree were released in the 2nd half of last year and present themselves well able to take your studies and sermons into the most necessary topics of the new year. I’m also hearing a good bit of chatter about non-English content in these and other platforms for study, which is going to be key for many ministries who have made a goal of discipleship for this year.

Social networks are entrenched, and its a good idea to continue investments with Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and others. However, you might be surprised to see the direction these networks trend this year. Whereas pastors were looking to add to the signal and noise, I see 2013 as being the year where pastors will pull back from being present in so many networks and doing more towards being effective in conversation and communication. There’s going to still be some confusion amongst some pastors as to which networks work best, but I see 2013 and 2014 as being those years where these matters are figured out…

Read the rest of Mobile Ministry Trends for Pastors at Church Tech Today.

Do you have trends that you see coming? What about if these might feel a bit further along than where you might be thinking – are you prepared or are you stepping ahead?

Last week, ministries gathered in the Netherlands for the 2013 iteration of the ICCM Europe Conference. While we were invited, finances and scheduling kept us from being able to attend. Nevertheless, there was a very healthy slate of presentations and conversations covering topics related to mobile ministry, missions/evangelism tech, internet evangelism, non-English language content, and security in tech.

Last week, we were also passed a note of two of the presentations from the 2012 MMF Consultation, here links to those:

• Implementing SMS Outreach
• Preparing for the Post Mobile World of 2019

If we get a  notification of additional topics, we’ll update this post with the links to those presentations. In the meanwhile, check out Mobile Advance and GEM eDOT for more info about those presentation topics and to collaborate/contract their services for getting setup.