Gosh, its been a long time since a post has gone up. More than a month really, and that’s not even counting that latest experiment with Dave Winer’s Fargo. Lots of thoughts about going forward, and in the meantime, trying to keep at task with some of the items at hand.

There’s a bit of a resetting to the entire site that’s being undertaken. I don’t even know that the blog will stay when its all said and done. I’m feeling that one of the original goals for MMM – to find out what the Body is doing at the intersection of faith and mobile tech – has mostly been met. And if so, its possible that MMM serves better in a capacity like MobMin.Info rather than the ruminations and observations of primarily one person.

Nothing has been decided yet. And like the tweet says, there are items still on the plate and things which need to be completed regardless of the decision. Its been a long time since simply posing the question and letting it speak for itself. Perhaps, this is something that time must now assign to my plate again as well.

At the intersection of faith and mobile, how do you respond?

This time where WordPress has been acting up has given me a good deal to think about in reference to MMM. Part of that has had to do with the actual activity that goes into MMM – from research, to networking, to writing. That’s a lot of work. But, this site, or at least an aspect of how things have evolved, has been as a destination and “searching-from” point. That’s meant for several changes and evolutions over the years, and with one change in particular that seems like its a better evolution for MMM than some other items: MobMin.Info

MobMin.Info started as a response to a few comments and questions from the conversations and meetings that ended up becoming the Mobile Ministry Forum. While there was not a lot of information about mobile ministry (#mobmin) out there, there was a difficulty in finding that information and then acting on it. I took a look at everything that I’d done with MMM to date, and then cross-referenced it with the actions of a few other notable sites that specifically focused on mobile ministry, and then created this (simple-ish) page. Its actually a page that can sit on one’s mobile device until they clear their browser cache (aka, it acts like an app even though its a webpage). This made a lot of sense.

It is a good starting point. I was able to take that work and even evolve aspects of MMM into its own HTML web app (replacing the attention we paid to making apps for each and every platform out there). Making that page also seemed to endear some good-will towards other folks who are doing mobile ministry activities, but not quite at that place of having something that was ready to be released. In a sense, they know if it was able to be found by something on MobMin.Info, they’d be found.

Then, earlier this week, a friend poked that they had an issue getting to MobMin.Info. I had not realized that some of the server issues might have effected that page as well – specifically many of the links that pointed to MMM’s content on that page. That made for a deeper look into why things are down, and a refreshed look the reasons for MMM and why MobMin.Info makes a lot of sense from a key-destination standpoint.

Many people just want the answer now. They want it packaged. And in some cases, they want someone else to have already done the work. MobMin.Info was a lot like getting to that point. It makes sense for the person who just needs to get on board quickly and have a contact point to move forward. As I look at what it will take for MMM to get back on deck, perhaps I need to also pay attention to resetting the starting point of the conversation. From there, being not just info, but info that points to the purpose of moving the conversation forward more directly.

Speaking a bit towards one of our resolutions for 2013, we’d like to highlight and partners that have joined with MMM over the past year, and later open the door for you or your organization to partner with us.

The last two years have certainly been heavy ones in terms of ministries becoming more aware of the power of text messaging (SMS) for communications, giving, and outreach. To that end, it was great for us to partner with Mobile Cause (@mobilecause). Mobile Cause is a company which has a focus towards Text-to-Give Services, and has their own mobile giving and fundraising platform that’s able to take nearly any kind of intention, and make it accessible by SMS giving. Stay tuned for some exceptional case studies from them being highlighted here, as well as possible offers towards engaging with Mobile Cause directly.

The other request that comes this way pretty often is to ask if we do any development. MMM sticks to journalism and strategy, and keeps project management and mobile development work highlighted in the hands of groups like IT Hands (@ithands). IT Hands is a full-circle IT services company – this means they design, implement, support, and maintain custom internet solutions for nearly any sized organization. Technology consulting, software development, internet marketing, mobile apps/services, and even print design falls under the specialties offered by IT Hands. We’ll also be having some case studies from them, and possibly some collaborative projects we’ll be able to talk about.

The latest partner that we connected with, and are very excited to see more work alongside, is Symbiota The Fluid Ministry. The Fluid Ministry is a one part an IT consulting firm, and another part a multi-layered communications platform for ministries who are looking to capitalize on mobile, website, branding, and social media activities. The Fluid Ministry has a platform (CrossMRKT) that we are still learning the bits and bolts towards, and offers several webinars monthly which point to areas of enablement, interest, and opportunity around their platform and service offerings. Look forward to those webinars being added to the Mobile Ministry Event Calendar, in addition to other shared events and projects between us upcoming.

Partnering with MMM

As you can tell, we’ve been deliberate in engaging with these partnerships. One of the goals for these partnerships is to bring light to some of the folks whom are working on not just the strategy and theology of mobile ministry, but are helping to make those ideas come to life. On our end, MMM offers over 7 years of experience and leadership in mobile ministry, and more than a 20 years of experience in web and mobile combined towards pushing these efforts forward. Its truly our hope that as a leading voice for what’s happening in mobile ministry, that you can be confident that if we are putting our name with the organization, that we’ve taken the time to pray and investigate why it makes sense to go that route.

That all said, we’ve got some notable gaps, and obvious opportunities. We’d love to partner with organizations who are doing multi-language projects (software, education, or media), cross-media producers/outlets, and even individuals who don’t just have interest in being heard in this space, but who have been able to carve out a niche of demonstrating definitive value for this type of audience. We keep a constant conversation with many groups, and not all might become recommended partners, but many do at least make it to some mention on our site.

Supporting MMM

The other side of partnership is simply supporting MMM. As you can tell, we’ve stayed away from adding ads to the site, and do our best to keep sponsored content from distracting from the purpose of this site to question, move, and experiment at the intersection of faith and mobile technology. However, this is a solo effort, and a good bit of time goes into not just making the content, but developing the relationships, maintaining mobile hardware (we are blessed to have someone who has donated a server and admin of a full WordPress install), and traveling to engagements that point to opportunities. Those things cost, and over the past two years of this being a full-time adventure, there are many items that have fallen off the plate simply because attention had to be taken off of MMM, and put onto keeping a roof over the head. If you would like to contribute financially, there’s a PayPal Donate button in the sidebar, and also on the About page.

Prayer is also appreciated as a means of support. I can’t tell you just how much its meant for many people over the years to just send a message that they’ve prayed for MMM and the work here. Its totally understood that MMM is groundbreaking work for many of you and you would love for God to not just continue things here, but with other groups such as the Mobile Ministry Forum. Prayer and encouragement are daily needs and I (personally) thank you in advance for keeping MMM and the entire mobile ministry effort in mind.

With that said, we’re getting back to the work of things here. Got some neat stuff coming, and many resolutions to hash out. Thanks for joining us at this intersection, and see you the next time the Light causes us to stop and take a look around.