Mobile Ministry Magazine

Continuing the discussion on the implications of mobile/web technology. Here are some more questions to spark the discussion. Remember, you can answer here or over at Twitter.

• How does the globalization of mobile/web effect the perception of community?
• Does it matter on a local level where the affluence of mobile/web isn't as felt?
• What are the negatives of mobile/web? How do we adjust?
• What legislation has helped or hindered the Body's ability to respond to these negative issues, and what are the future challenges?

Ok, that's all that I'll throw out there for now. Let's open the box and come to terms with what is the now of this intersection of faith and mobile tech. And start talking about how we'll address these items.

Labels: communication, community, tech

After the last post about moving to Google Wave, I thought that it would be good to open the box a bit more as ask the open question about the implications of mobile/web in the Body. I'll throw out a few questions now, and a few more in the next post. Its an open sounding board, so fee free to respond here or via Twitter.

• What are some of the implications from the perspective of simply being connected?
• What are the good and bad points?
• What are the implications on family and social structures? How does the Bible assist in addressing this?
• Or, is this something where we'd need to become more knowledgeable in cross-disciplines such as psychology, sociology, etc. so that Bible application is done in light of Biblical truth, not just guesswork?

More to come in the next post.

Labels: communication, tech

Great article over at Christian Computing Magazine (CCM) talking about Digital Bible Studying and how its evolved with now a near-digital/mobile-native approach that's able to be taken towards Bible studying. Here's a snippet:

...It is truly a great time to be a student of God's word. If you use a computer, smart phone, or book reader, then you have more tools available for studying the Word of God then at any time in history. And I think the best thing this does for us is not cut the time it takes to do our studying, but rather it helps us go much deeper. If your primary goal for doing Bible study on any of these platforms is to cut minutes or hours off your time in the Word, then you are missing the greatest benefit. Instead your goal should be to go deeper in the same amount of time...

Read of the rest of Digital Bible Study Is Breaking the Banks of the Personal Computer at Christian Computing Magazine (CCM).

In terms of a comment from MMM's perspective, I'll repeat a question that was stated in a post a few weeks ago:

So what does it mean to have believers who have instant access to multiple resource and communities, who seek answers to the questions of faith and life, evaluating sources in real-time through online and offline relationships, instead of waiting for a sermon or preacher to smooth the message.

If you will, we've got the ease in getting to the resource now. So what does the Body do in terms of teaching those analytical and spatial-search skills that will enable believers and non-believers alike to engage the Bible, and the people of the Bible, in God-edifying ways? Yes, these are indeed exciting times, but the implications of being able to do digital Bible studies means that we've also got to tweak our methods of teaching and living with one another. Are we up for the challenge, because, its for these implications that these times are exciting too.

Labels: Bible, CCM, communication, community, software, study

In some ways, this piece is framed as a part 2 to the post titled "Responding to the Pope's Message." Think of it as a call-to-action before action is needed kind of post.

In the summers of 2002, 2003, and 2004, I taught a few summer classes for the Upward Bound program at Millersville University. One class was about using PDAs as a function of time management, the other was a multimedia and web design class. In the last summer of my teaching, the PDA class was swapped out for teaching a class on developing and learning how to navigate the Internet. In this class, I walked the students how to do things such as evaluate web sources when they are doing research, how to use keywords for searching, how to setup and investigate domain names, and how to create simple web sites.

Now, I started teaching the classes because I wanted to see the potential of mobile in education. What happened though is that I began to understand what it was that students were getting in respect to the technological side of their education. And to be honest, I'm largely self-taught when it comes to tech; so knowing what they were getting would better prepare me for those whom I'd encounter in the world outside of me.

What I saw in that last summer is that students were ill-prepared to deal with the realities of a connected culture. The university library was still teaching - yes in 2004 - that you only knew a veritable web resource because it had a .org or .edu name on the URL. There was little to no understanding at all towards this sphere at all. And that was very scary.

Coming into MMM, one of the statements that gets thrown this way is the idea that learning and applying the Bible will continue in the same ways that it always has. That despite the technology, that there will be the same core skills. And to some extent that's correct and incorrect at the same time.

In this piece at the Britannica blog the question is asked if technology is going to evolve to the point where the written language will become obsolete? And if it does render the written language as such, what are the skillsets that would have to be understood - not only in education, but all of life - towards maneuvering this ultra-connected space?

A few items from this piece jumped out, but this one really nailed things:

...It's not enough for new devices, systems, and gizmos to simply be more expedient than what they are replacing... We owe it to posterity to demand proof that people’s communications will be more intelligent, persuasive, and constructive when they occur over digital media." When confronted by the statistic that fewer than 50% of high-school seniors could differentiate between an objective Web site and a biased source, Norvig replied that he did perceive it as a problem, and astonishingly suggested that the solution was to get rid of reading instruction altogether. "We’re used to teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic; now we should be teaching these evaluation skills in school," Norvig told me. "Some of it could be just-in-time. Education, search engines themselves should be providing clues for this...

Framed in the spirit of this site's mission (the intersection of faith and mobile technology), we could say (as framed in the reflective post some days ago):

So what does it mean to have believers who have instant access to multiple resource and communities, who seek answers to the questions of faith and life, evaluating sources in real-time through online and offline relationships, instead of waiting for a sermon or preacher to smooth the message.

I'm speaking of this connected space where the conversation is just as important as the reading itself. What are we doing to prepare religion/faith for that kind of transformation? Or rather, should be we preparing for that kind of transformation?

The Word of God - the Bible - is the probably most consistent piece of oral/written/digital communication used by Westernized nations. Its literally the thread that holds spiritual, moral, legal, and sociological bonds (am not debating whether a person is a Christian or not, only that the Christian influence has been that pervasive). When the fabric of how we transmit the message of the Gospel is purely digital (text, audio, and video) and native to the generation that is using it, does the way that we teach also get a new pair of clothes?

Let me be clear, I'm not advocating that we change the Bible, traditions of the faith, nor the tenants of local and para-churches. I'm asking - as I sat in a class with kids who are now graduates of college in many cases today - are we teaching Biblical literacy in light of the abilities of the generation, or holding fast to something older, and not so effective, because of some fear of irrelevance?

And if we are on-point in teaching Biblical points and principles correctly for this generation and the one(s) to come, should we be asking the same of the institutions and culture in which we live whom may not have adapted such?

The post quoted here is from Britannica's Leaning & Literacy in the Digital Age blog series. There's a lot more that can be said given the depth of materials posted in this series, but I leave it to you the reader to intersect with the entirety of this content.

Labels: commentary, communication, education, literacy, tech

It the last weekend in January - when a number of churches on the East Cost of the USA have canceled services due to snow and ice that has blanketed the region. What follows are my thoughts on getting around the weather to continue the fellowship in the respect to biblical models and traditions.

Sitting on Twitter, I saw that my former church had canceled service due to the snow/icy conditions that hit Charlotte. This makes a lot of sense, and I'm pretty sure that many churches are doing the same, since the conditions don't make it pleasant to drive safely.

However, I did have a question in respect to the sermon. Many people attend church for the sermon and the fellowship. Missing one of these for a Sunday usually isn't a problem, but both of those present a bit of a challenge for many believers. And so I ended up tweeting the following (two messages):

Given the state of mobile/web, weather shouldn't impact the ability to preach a message (tweet)? But weather can and does impact the ability to fellowship; how does the church create/use virtual ties when impacts happen (tweet)?

Now, Wellspring's pastor did say that he would be recording and posting the sermon - and this is good. But the second question remains, how can we skillfully and appropriately use mobile/web technology in order to keep the ties of fellowship when weather or other conditions dictate otherwise?

I've got a few ideas:

• Skype or other type of video/conference call
• Sharing an iTunes/Pandora/last.fm/Spotfy/last.fm/etc. playlist at a certain time for "praise and worship," - adding the element of an accompanying blog post on the church blog for those who'd like to post their prayers, "amens," etc.
• (Nearly)-Live streaming of the small groups who are able to meet in the home for worship, fellowship, and prayer

Do any of you employ these methods when weather or some other circumstance interrupts the usual flow of fellowship/worship? And if so, what have been some of the positives and negatives of doing this?

Weather is indeed a limitation of fellowship in the traditional face-to-face sense. But, is the traditional means of fellowship strong enough to deny the versatility of the technology that's now at our fingertips?

Note: I'm not specifically asking about a full internet church experience or internet church campus. I am speaking specifically towards using the mobile and web arenas when normal fellowship and worship methods are interrupted. When we speak on an internet church, we can start talking the fun stuff like location-displacement of elements of the fellowship - which is a good bit different when it happens on a continual basis.

Labels: accessiblity, church, communication, community, flexibility, tech

Saw this article over at Mobile Active and thought that it would be really good to link to considering all the attention paid to SMS here lately. Here's a snippet:

...Smart texting is an advanced form of keyword response in which an incoming text message triggers a complex interaction. This may include calling external programmes to process the message, or requesting further information from the user. It can also be used to run an SMS information service, in which the incoming SMS contains a query ('WEATHER cape town', 'CROP PRICES cofimvaba') and the response is retrieved from a database or the web. Example: A basic citizen reporting system could work as follows: Someone texts the word “REPORT” and a description of the incident to a widely publicised mobile number...

Read the rest at Mobile Active.

In what ways could you enable your organizations, or even missions teams, to utilizing this technology (both the SMS and knowledge sharing) as a means to demonstrating the Gospel's effectiveness?

Labels: communication, development, SMS

Was forwarded a note about another group SMS service for ministries called Ez Texting.

Similar to other SMS services, Ez Texting enables an organization to setup a custom keyword for subscribing. Once a keyword is generated, an organization can begin to use features such as multiple subscription lists, website/blog widgets, and group management features in order to communicate messages and announcements.

Like some others, Ez Texting is limited to US and Canadian audiences. There are monthly subscription plans, and a free trial is available.

For more information, visit the Ez Texting website or interact with them on Twitter (@eztexting) .

Labels: communication, SMS, subscription

Here's a press release about a new product called Twext from the folks at Church Community Builder (CCB). Seems like a solid product for those organizations who'd like to add the additional broadcast layers of Twitter and texting to their church/organizational communications.

Colorado Springs, CO, JANUARY 4, 2010—Church Community Builder (CCB) (http://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com), the pioneer of socially-based church management (ChMS), has released an innovative new communications tool that combines Text Messaging and Twitter - called CCB Twext - that will provide church and small group leaders with leading edge communications capabilities.

"Effective communication tools are critical for all churches. Because CCB highly values the interactive social nature of church communities, adding Text Messaging as a communication option was a no-brainer for us," states Steve Caton, VP of Sales and Marketing. "However, we really wanted to take the next step by providing a way to seamlessly integrate texting with Twitter, thereby adding yet another communications vehicle to the mix where appropriate."

CCB Twext™ Offers the Following Benefits:

Group Texting: In addition to email and mail merge, every Group Leader has the option to communicate with their Group participants via Text Messaging.

Twitter Integration: If a group within the church has its own Twitter account, the Group Leader can add that account to their CCB Group. When utilized, a Text Message sent to the group will also immediately post as a Tweet on the group Twitter™ feed. This further extends the reach of the Text Message to those who may not receive text messages but are a member of the Twitter group.

Member Controlled: Group members have full control over their ability to receive text messages. They must proactively edit their CCB profile before receiving them. This ensures people don’t end up paying for text messages they do not wish to receive.

CCB Twext represents another major milestone and differentiator for CCB’s innovative church management solution. In addition to providing benefits to the entire congregation, CCB also offers the most robust communication tools to your leadership so they can remain connected to those they serve in the most relevant manner possible. For more information or to speak with someone at Church Community Builder about this and other valuable functionality, email sales@churchcommunitybuilder.com or call 1-866-242-1199.

Labels: ChMS, Church IT, communication, community, SMS, twitter, Web

Let's start off this year on the right foot with a simple question (reposted from MMM's Twitter actually)

How does mobile change the behavior of living out the message in between the Sundays?

Since Time Online is calling 2010 the year of the mobile - maybe I was two years early in my prediction - this would be an apt question with which to frame our thoughts behind mobile/web use and how our faith is shaped with/by it.

Labels: communication, community, faith, mobility

A few days ago, jumped onto the Twitter Lists bandwagon by setting up a list called Mobile Ministry Contacts.

This list is designed to be a contact and connection area for those (on Twitter) who are interested in or work within the area of mobile ministry.

At the moment, this is a public list. I am totally aware that there are some of you who might not get onto this list for regional/political reasons. I'm hoping that there will be news later that would be able to assist you in finding the tools, resources, and connections you need - without putting yourselves in unwise positions.

To get connected, check out Mobile Minsitry Contacts on Twitter.

Labels: communication, twitter

Here's part two of one user's experience with mobile devices and its intersection with their life. Check out Part One of this story and then submit yours.

Then I heard about the upcoming [Nokia] N95. And I wanted it. That wasn't ideal as I found that Orange had sneakily locked me in for an extra 6 months (actually, they've gone and done that again this time, now I think about it, by a different method). I bought out of the contract and got me a new Nokia N95 on the day of release. Some people had all sorts of problems with the device, but mine has been going strong with regular daily use for over two and a half years. There's no silver left on some of the buttons (and hasn't been for a long time). But it's still up and running.

The N95 uses the Symbian operating system, which brought me back into the realm of available software: Olive Tree Bible means I can always turn up a reference when requested. E-Reader saves me taking a case full of books when I travel (or it did – these days everything I want seems to require a US credit card). A card full of MP3 files means I am never without a range of music (and I have a cable to connect it to the car radio). I don't carry files - data protection is a hot topic within my circles.

Then last autumn, I invested in a netbook. In conjunction with a phone dongle, I now have the full internet anywhere there's a signal. I chose the netbook with windows on because of the dongle plug and play, and it has given me access to anything I can possibly need: Open Office, Firefox browser, email, and I can run the Methodist liturgy programme and such things. I even use it as a music player for dance practice. On holiday, I carry a camera cable, and turn my blog into a travelogue. The netbook nicely fits into my handbag.

And these days my primary phone is a c905. (The N95 has my work sim-card). I have to say I am not impressed. It has all the limitations of the k750i but has none of the advantages: the build quality extremely poor, and the camera, while boasting a wealth of megapixels lacks either the excellent software of the k750i or the optical lens of the N95.

Which brings me to where I am now... looking for something to replace the c905 as my primary phone (because the case it broken, the earpiece doesn't work and it's now having problems charging). I've looked at the Sony Ericsson Satio (but I'm wary of SE after the c905), I've looked at the HTC HD2 (But I actively dislike the capacitive screen, and the camera is weak). So I've almost settled on a Nokia N900. If I could just get the nerve up to click that 'buy now' button.

As for using devices for 'my ministry', I suppose I'm not sure how that works for two reasons. Firstly because I'm nervous of pretending that my history of gadgets is anything other than a closet materialism that just enjoys toys. It can be easy to make 'holy' noises to cover up the bits of our humanity we're less proud of, and I wouldn't want to do that. And secondly, I'm not sure I make a distinction between my 'ministry' and other aspects of my life. If I support someone who's having a tough time over Twitter or Skype, is that 'ministry'?

If my teddy bear chats to children struggling with understanding a death in the family, or offers his stories free for worship leaders and teachers on his website, is that ministry? Is my presence in various communities 'ministry'? To me, it's all just me, being the person I am called to be wherever I am, online or off. Loving people and God to the best of my (limited) ability in whatever environment. And enjoying playing with the tools God has blessed me with. ;-)

Labels: communication, community, HTC, minister, N95, Olivetree, sony ericsson

You ever have one of those moments when you have a presentation, but moments before you go up, you realize that one of the analogies that you wanted to use to frame your presentation was way off?

That happened to me while in LA for the VSN Summit. And it was probably the best thing that could have happened - as I've been able to reflect on things. You see, even though I had this nice slide deck ready to go. I really was a stranger in the mist of this group of media vetrans and innovators. That is, until I started introducing myself to them.

When it came time for me to speak (#3 of the first day), I had the exact metaphor that worked not only for the presentation topic, but for exactly the impression that I think people should be getting from a mobile-enabled lifestyle: a handshake.

One of the things about a handshake is that it is almost like getting a second chance for a first impression. Someone might look a particular way, but once you've been introduced and the handshake happens, your perceptions adapt and change. That's a good thing, physical and personal interactions should cause us to change our perceptions of people and the world around us. Its my hope that one of the uses of mobiles within the Body would follow along a similar action-set. That the introduction of mobile enabled services and applications would extend another chance for someone to get to know us just as much as we want to introduce them to our faith.

And to be honest, I think its something that could work - just given the response from those at the summit. You see, I don't think that its just about the development environment, bling, applications, or even the ability of us to be connected that makes the point that mobile is useful in ministry. Its that avenue with mobile that we take that invites others to want to change their perceptions of us.

This is something that can happen with mobile devices, apps, or whatever. But we go to others in full confidence that God will take our faith in that moment and produce something that will someday turn into a part of life that glorifies Him. We go into those communicative events hands open so to speak. Our hands - while holding a mobile device - are open with the possibilities that someone wants to connect with us and see just how our lives are intersecting with theirs at that point.

Its just an idea, and it could be fleshed out in so many ways - hence the title being called an idea. But, its something that I think many times, if we just grasp the fact that our mobiles are a part of just presenting an open handshake to Christ, that we could have that second chance to use that fourth screen for a first impression that just might take us all to an eternal joy. Your thoughts?

Labels: communication, community, mobility, tech, VSN

I wonder sometimes what would happen if there was ever a situation where the publicly available Internet were unavailable. Where you would only be able to get on the Internet to Google or wherever with some kind of token, and even then, you were being tracked and led down roads where you might think are free to go, but are really dead ends.

Truthfully, I do see this happening sooner rather than never. And for some people that visit MMM, I've been told that this is their reality now. That the networks while "open" are really being monitored and tweaked so that the Word doesn't get out. I keep wondering if there is a way around or through this that is legal, and only come to one really solid conclusion - mesh networking can be a short term, short distance solution.

Now, what I mean by mesh networking is that there are people whose computing devices are designated as the main connections - if you will, like a teacher in a classroom as the gateway point to inserting knowledge into a session. The other students (computers) would be able to connect to that computer over what is called an ad-hoc connection. Ad-hoc being a connection that is computer to computer, and does not have a router or third party network in-between.

Once connected, those computers would share that connection, and that main computer would have the information needed by the others to collaborate, share, and edify. Once that session is over, all persons with a computer would have that information, and then go to other places to be a node and share information with others. In a sense, creating a network that multiplies itself through the introduction of a "fellowship" event.

This idea of mesh networking to share ideas isn't really new. In terms of how we pass information from one to another, its pretty much how we've always done it. But in the context of those communities where the Internet is so heavily censored that passing this "Body knowledge" over the web is hazadorous, using computing devices within these fellowhsip events to share information and push out the Body might be a solid idea.

This isn't the first time I've had this thought, but a conversation brought it back up as something that the Body might be good to understand better, and then take advantage of. And who knows, this might be the future of how we have to pass our electronic bibles from one person to another.

Labels: communication, community, networking

Great article over at GigaOM talking about the differences between two styles of education. The really interesting this is the tie-in to web/mobile-based education and the ways that we have traditionally gone about teaching. This article highlights that there could be a better way if the technology was better utilized, and the focus taken off of memorization and scoring and put into contextualization, comprehension, and application.

I know that to me this is very interesting stuff. I personally tend to try all kinds of learning/teaching methods in order to see what works for me/groups and what doesn't. I've found out a lot about myself in doing so. I've also found that some people just don't like change, no matter how ineffective a current method is.

When we start doing things with web and mobile, there's a chance to reassess how we learn and teach, and then seek to find better solutions to common problems. In light of this, has there been anything that web or mobile technology has exposed to you as an issue in teaching/being taught by others? Or, has web/mobile been a solution for you where other paradigms weren't as useful?

Labels: commentary, communication, community, education, mobility, tech, Web

Your church should be using SMS a lot more. Seriously. You should have groups that get notified by SMS for church-wide announcements, offerings/tithe payments via SMS, etc. There's no reason to not be doing this right now. Most of you have communities where over 95% of the people have a mobile phone and some type of SMS plan to them. Use it? Become the point of reference towards using the technology in a manner that's relevant to the needs of your community. Then sit back and watch interaction happen. Its not that hard really. You should just do it.

Or maybe that was too blunt. Its really easy to take a service like Twitter, add your church, and teach people how to subscribe to Twitter via SMS. Then you have a means for broadcasting announcements and other items, that's always from a single verified place, and promotes interaction with those who want to be interactive.

I'm simply saying that instead of wondering how this tech could work, SMS is an easy and relatively pain-free means to trying something new. Why not?

Labels: communication, community, SMS

Picked this up from Strategic Digital Outreach:

Dave Hackett, will be leading a conference call tonight on "Sharing God's Message Intimately - Online and On Phone."

The conference call will be held on tonight at 7 p.m. CDT (5 p.m. Pacific and 8 p.m. Eastern). Dave will inform us about the growing influence and practice of digital evangelism and newly emerging issues of online/on-phone evangelism, and time will allow for questions and answers. All are welcomed to join in on this call.

The presentation will use an audio conference call and an online presentation to be accessed simultaneously.

Voice Conference Call

Join the audio call by calling the Conference Call line at 1-616-597-8000. Enter the Participant Access Code 258593#. This audio call will be recorded and the call will be available for playback beginning Wednesday by calling 641-715-3443 and entering Access Code 258593#.

Presentation Site
To view the PowerPoint that Dave Hackett will present during the call, please have this Google Docs [presentation] up on your screen at the time of the presentation.

Labels: communication, community, conference call, mobility, presentations

This is another great post series that has been going on and has recently concluded. Over at Challies the topic of discussion is simply titled "Don't Take Your iPod to Church." The series is in multiple parts (Part 1, Part 1.5, and Part 2), but all are some great reading.

And you can bet that I've made a post there. Here's my comment towards what was written in Part Two. Hope to see you commenting there (and here) :D

Labels: communication, education, iPhone, iPod, study, tech

I've been trying to figure out how to best comment on Google Wave, but really, all I can say is that it would be great that if as a web destination, that the conversations and interactivity here could mimic what was demonstrated with Google Wave. I think that in terms of conversations, connecting, and communication, that this is the kind of rich functionality that we should be looking towards here.

That being said, doing such things is near impossible at this point. There are too many variables that need to be taken into account (I think). Not to say that its impossible, but in this case, finding out how to beat impossible is fun and taxing.

That being said, I do think that Opera Unite points a direction as to how this could be done. It would have to be something in respect to making literal connections, but allowing collaboration and shared learning to be the thread moreso than it is now.

I see the content here as a smattering of social objects that we take like pieces of Legos then going back and forth crafting out appropriate uses of them. Commenting in places; literally dialoging in others; but all together making the conversation named MMM. While all the subjects within these conversations uses these elements to further empower people and communities towards seeing "Jesus with skin on" beyond this intersection of faith and mobile tech.

Labels: collaboration, communication, community, Google Wave, messaging, Opera Unite, sharing, social objects

I embarked on a bit of communication cleansing this week. In the early part of the week, I answered some questions relating to ministry activities. Then some items at work had be both flustered and prayerful. And then the (near) big thing; I made a call to eliminate email from my life.

Now let me say this. Its almost impossible to do so due to MMM, Brighthand, and work responsibilities. However, personally, I can do this, and it would be hard, but possible. So I set about forwarding various personal email addresses to my mobile phone number's email address. Every mobile phone number is an email address, and messages sent to it would become SMS (text) messages.

I then set up some autoresponders for those email addresses letting people know that its best from this point out to contact me via SMS and/or IM. And because I'm stingy with both SMS and IM, I know (based on relationship to me) whom will contact me how.

So I made this change and you know the first thing I noticed? I get way too much email that I don't read. I'm speaking of newsletters and such. I just don't read them. And getting these extremely long messages as SMSes didn't help one bit to make me read them. So I've set about unsubscribing from them all.

Of course, not everything was that simple. I needed to also change the email addresses for those entities that I like to the mobile email/SMS address. That was harder than I thought it would be because I needed to click on links to verify the change, but the links were usually broken. So I had to type (copy) the link down in Notepad and then click on it in another web browser so that I could make that change. Thankfully, that only had to be done twice.

Lastly, its responding to people. Already I've had some people message me asking what is the correct email address because a SMS is too small; I simply responded that if it can't be said in 160 characters, then you probably are saying too much, or should call/visit to discuss it.

Sounds harsh, but there's a point I'm trying to make with this. We have all noticed that (certain types of) tech has gotten to the point where its ruling our lives. Where we are bending-over-backwards-and-above to see who is contacting us when, and a lot of times the messages can wait or be better prioritized. Because SMS is about as pervasive as messaging gets and not web-based, I ensure that I get the message, but the response time is still up to me. If you will, I'm changing my behavior to address the content/context, not the will of the technology.

Given this story, I'd like to encourage you to think about your use of technology. It may very well be that you need certain types of interactions for your life/work. However, if you are letting the Facebooks, tweets, emails, SMSes, IMs, and voice calls rule you, then you are no more than one of Pavlov's dogs, simply responding to a bell, rather than using your will to delegate the importance of the communication. Find better filters; then change your response to messages with them. You have only so-large of a bucket of things you can take in (directly and indirectly).

To those messaging you, they too should respect context. Not everything needs to be said in three pages (like this post), and many things need more than 160 characters. Find a balance, and then clearly communicate which methods are best for them to best reach you. You might not get rid of all the junk that comes your way, but the reduction in stress will allow you to better serve Christ and others with the tech you've resigned yourself to use.

Labels: communication, community, SMS, tech

Something that many of us who are leaders and innovators grapple with is this constant pull of being ahead of the call, and at the same time behind in profitable use. Over at Brighthand, my latest editorial titled Ahead and Behind at the Same Time speaks to this. Here's a snippet:

...There's the grapple with those of us at the utter edge of technology that is just perpetual and never-ceasing: we are ahead of the curve. We learn and apply, do and administrate, faster than analysts can analyze. And at the same time we are laughed at and called fools because we see technology now as it will eventually be seen by others -- years later...

Read the entire piece at Brighthand.

Speaking with a pastor friend recently, this is something that's just hard to come to grips with. We want to be ahead. Its literally a spiritual, mental, and physical leaning that we want to try new things and be ahead. And at the same time, this press to be ahead puts us behind the skillful use that many people simply need.

Something that I always found amazing about Jesus' approach towards "innovating" in his time was that he'd use parables - clearly expounding on things that were far and beyond the grasp of normal understanding, and at the same time packed so simply that it remained relevant to people whether they received him or not. Oh how to be ahead and behind in the same way with this tech, even moreso towards using it as a means to displaying God's eternal truths by solving simple, everyday issues.

Labels: communication, community, innovation, mobility, tech

Christianity Today talks about technology and its positive and negative implications in an interview with Shane Hipps. Here's a snippet of that article:

...No, because it is impossible. It's like resisting the wind and the tides. Everything around me is a technology. It's silly to resist. But you can try to understand it. Christians are quick to critique it or adapt it or reject it
without understanding it. My interest is to have deep discernment, to understand the actual power of these things, and then decide whether or not a technology is useful. I didn't own a cell phone until five months ago because of the way I feared it would shape my soul. I have to be disciplined about how this thing shapes me...

Read the rest of the article at Christianity Today.

Its obvious that technology has positive and negative implications; what are you doing to enable you and your community to better understand it in light of the tech that has come before, and the tech that will come afterwards?

Labels: Christianity Today, commentary, communication, interview, tech

...it's important and right for us to think morally and attempt to use technology for morally good ends while also guarding against immorality like sexting. However, thinking Christians must resist the temptation to limit their thinking to only moral terms which so commonly leads to what McLuhan called “technological idiocy."

Otherwise, it will only be those outside the faith community who are limited in their categories doing all the hard, thoughtful work on technology and culture (see Nicholas Carr, Andrew Keen, Steven Johnson, and others). If we are truly concerned with "engaging culture," we will have to remove the morality throttle on our mental bandwidth so we can discuss media and technology at a deeper, more thoughtful level.

Context is important; read the entire post at Don't Eat the Fruit.

Labels: commentary, communication

Just a few mobile-oriented questions that have been stirring in my head today:

• I see more and more pastor-teachers opting to carry information-centric mobiles such as BlackBerries. What are some of the top reasons that you use such a device, and what would make using it more effective for your needs?
• To those of you who use a smartphone in addition to other office software, what do you to manage information that is ministry/business in nature, but you are notified during personal times (days-off, evening family time, etc.)?

Labels: BlackBerry, communication, mobility, Personal, smartphone

BibleTech 2009 is in a few weeks and I'm in the mist of preparing. Unfortunately, that plus a new project have really sapped the energies needed to push out content here. I won't leave you all totally devoid though, here's a snippet of what's going to be part of the BibleTech presentation:

In April 2005, MMM launched as a website and expounding on various approaches towards looking at mobile devices and connected technologies - reviewing them, asking questions, tying the understanding and reflection of Scripture, trying and failing at several types of communication solutions, and connecting with others in the Body who share similar passions - in order to demonstrate and create a baseline of knowledge that will enable current and new leaders the ability to discern how to correctly apply these and future technologies in ways that mirror that first passing of a lesson by word-of-mouth.

In effect, look at MMM as a signpost signifying that from this point on, things change.

Like I said, just a piece ;). If I make my goal this weekend, I'll post another piece of the presentation, and something that I hope to get you thinking more about what's in your hand and how that intersects with God's heart.

Labels: BibleTech, communication, community

One of the points that I picked up in reading Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media is that mobility can be defined in a number of ways. One really effective way to look at things is in respect to the time it takes to do tasks - or as it was stated there, 30 second and 30 minute tasks.

There are some things that we just do since its immediate: check weather, look at a calendar, sports scores, etc. There are other things that we do in longer durations: read and reply to email, watch videos, blog, etc. For some of these tasks, mobile devices can be pretty effective. When you need information right now, SMS search services and the mobile internet can be pretty effective. However, as many of those systems are built, if you want to do something like invite people to something, it takes sitting down and patching information from many places - turning that 30sec task into a 30min one.

Now, let's frame this in the context of some of the things we do in the Body. For example, we have various services and meetings. For many of us, we'd do well to have those meetings near us in some kind of calendar, and maybe even a reminder. How about then your church having a service where in addition to a church calendar that you can view from your normal browser, that you can elect to get SMS alerts for the most upcoming events?

Or let's make it even better. Suppose you are at that point in the service where the pastor will be preaching in a few minutes. A notification is made (voice or big screen) that you can dial a shortcode in order to get the outline sent to you via SMS before the pastor starts preaching. To those who are visiting a new church who aren't in that church's directory, they are made aware that they will get a second SMS asking if they want to opt-in to other announcements. Those who are on that list already would just continue with having the outline on one screen, notes and Bible on others (or not).

The idea is simply that with mobile devices in the hands of most of us, we can start looking at better enabling those types of content that can fit within 30sec stints, instead of forcing them into 30min ones.

Yes, there is always that case where you will want to do more. I'm not saying that you cannot. I am saying that skilfully using this technology means that we start looking at better ways to do simple tasks. Its in doing this that we start to see the potential for mobile-enabled devices and services to come alongside what we are already familiar with, and create that 4th screen (or 7th dimension) to a fuller expression of unity in Christ and beyond.

Small additional note: Tomi Ahonen expounded on this from the perspective of mobile on a post at Communities Dominate Brands today.

Labels: communication, community, innovation, mobility, SMS

From time to time, I'll get a chance to speak with people about MMM, the idea behind it, and why its such a passionate area for me. Most people say they end up with a headache. I sort of apologize, but the scale of what is mobile/web and how that influences so many aspects of our lives is easily overlooked because of its pervasiveness.

So I'm trying to work-down my conversations to settle into some managable scales. If you will, some numbers that make sense, but don't belitte the utter size that is mobile/web and its implicaitons. Some numbers at a recent post at Communities Dominate Brands illustrates one part of this scale of thought:

Lets start with comparisons. Newspapers? the total circulation of all daily newspapers worldwide is about 480 milllion. Cars? There are about 800 million cars on the planet. Cable and satellite TV subscriptions? About 850 million. Personal computers including desktops, laptops and netbooks, about 1 billion. Fixed landline telephone connections, about 1.2 billion. eMail users about 1.3 billion. Internet users about 1.4 billion. Television sets about 1.5 billion. And credit cards? About 1.7 billion people carry at least one credit card in their wallet.

But there are 4 billion mobile phone subscriptions now in January 2009. More than twice the number of credit card owners, 2.5 times the number of TV sets or internet uses, approx 3 times the number of email users of total landline phones and yes, four times the number of personal computers. This is a monster sized industry, totally towering over all others.

I really implore you to take a look at this article in its enterity. But simply stated, mobile technology is bigger than anything else out there and endeavoring to understand what it means not only as a tool within The Faith, but the implicaitons of such devices and technology on a generation of people who only knew mobile and internet is huge.

At every intersection, you look down the road to get an idea of what's coming your way so that you can move on. Just think of that scale of things concerning mobile/web and faith.

Labels: commentary, communication, mobility

As many of you have probably read already, Google has released an enhancement to its Google Maps and Google Maps Mobile services called Latitude. Essentially, Latitude allows one to share their location with others (via an opt-in process; and not publically to all) via a widget or mobile application.

And while I do think that Google Latitude is a solid product - for example, for families on the go, this can be an inexpensive teather. I do think that it hearlds a change in mindset towards privacy that some people don't mind, and others (loudly) loathe.

So what is the problem? For some, they will tell you that such services are bad because they are open invitations to even less privacy. To that point I only agree if you believe that you have had total privacy to begin with.

For some, they might say that such services point towards singular digital identies that will make it easier for you to be tracked and monitored. This too is true, if you want to ignore that since the late 1800s that behavioral tracking has been a huge scientific, militaristic, and governmental practice.

But then there are others that will say that this is the inevitible end of technology, specifcally mobile and web technologies that are more engraned than ever. And I'll agree in part there too; just as paper, boats, written language, money, radio, TV... changed life as we knew it too.

I don't think though that we can just look at the negative connoations of this and then dismiss it. As I've stated in previous posts, we need to understand both the positive and negative ramifications of technology before completly accepting or dismissing it. Only with that wisdom can we say that we are really being good stewards of these creative juices.

Google Latitude has a lesson (or more) about privacy written all over it. There's the lesson of "who do you want to know your digital footprint (Google, friends, etc.)?" There's the lesson of "how does one manage location in a mobile context, under the constraints of power consumption and realisitc us?" There's the lesson of "reading the terms of service to determine what Google or its partners can do with my location data."

Then there is that obvious lesson: understanding the role of these presence-enabled services in a very loud, connected world - and maintaining privacy of some kind in the process.

Of this latter lesson, Google Latitude offers one of the best solutions, and the most surefire way to execute it - you can turn it off. Because you use Google Maps doesn't mean you have to use Latitude. Because you have a GMail address doesn't mean that you have to continue to push forward the Google ad engine. You can (and should) turn things off.

While it is that I am more connected than many around me, I've realized that if I truly want to keep private, I have to make the conscious and unplanned decisions to turn things off. Whether that is in a small way by limiting access to some digital assets, or the biggie of just turning off my mobile - privacy isn't so much just a right, its a choice. And one that not everything that we are invoved with will allow.

At the intersection of tech and faith, I yearn for that place where Jesus said that I can close the door and speak with the Father alone. There's nothing in that verse that said I needed to take my phone in there to tweet it. I choose privacy, even if the technology wants to impose something different.

Labels: commentary, communication, community, Google Maps, mobility

Now this is a really impressive application of mobile technology to address a need. A company named The Extraordinaries has a service where they are able to utilize a framework for people and organizations to package and deliver their needs to the mobile phones of high-expertise volunteers, making them more able to serve by taking advantage of the immediacy of mobile communication and the lack of free time many have to volunteer.

According to their website, this service "turns spare time into social good by delivering volunteer opportunities, on-demand, to mobile phones, which can be performed on mobile phones in 20 minutes or less."

Though currently undergoing pilot testing, here is some information on how the service works:

• Download the application to your smart phone.
• Whenever you have free time, click "Be Extraordinary" to launch the application.
• You will be presented with a list of opportunities that you can perform on-the-spot via your mobile phone. If you choose to provide profile information, we'll match the opportunities to your expertise.
• You will get points for each task completed.
• When each task is done, you'll be able to rate the experience and the person or organization that you helped will be able to rate you.
• When you earn more than 250 points, you can donate them to a non-profit organization of your choice and we'll cut them a check in dollars for that amount.

If you think about it, this is a pretty cool idea, and should really help a lot of organizations who would want to support more non-profit and volunteer functions, but the business day tends to get in the way.

For more information, visit The Extraordinaries' website.

As ministries and organizations find themselves with more and more mobile-enabled persons in their mist, how likely is a service like this to be an idea need?

~ via SmartMobs

Labels: communication, community, mobility, volunteer

Some days ago, I was reading this article about 2D bar code scanning and mobile devices over at ReadWriteWeb and it struck me that this might be a neat way to make it easier for people to add information about church locations, events, etc. right to their mobile phone.

As with most things, this would require that the mobile have the ability to read the bar code (Inigma, Kaywa, etc. provide this solution, Sprint is starting to include it as an optional download for their devices too). But then it would be just a matter of making sure that something was printed on the flyer, business card, etc. that would indicate that the information could be scanned with a phone camera.

Something like "scan this code to add this event to your phone's calendar." This could even work in some of those assemblies where people display information via a projector - make the announcement, show the slide/screen of the QR-code, and give a minute for everyone who can to scan it. Sure, it would make for a lot of clicking, but it would make it easier for people to grab and keep attention to needed information.

What are your thoughts? Is this something, in a small or large capacity, that would have a way of working. Especially in light of printing costs not getting any cheaper, and the attention rate for flyers and announcements being low.

To read the QR Code shown, download the Kaywa QR Code reader (or use another) to your mobile, then take the picture using the software.

Labels: church, communication, community, paperless, QR Code

As one who is always looking for ways to have mobile devices be a more effective aspect to the communication process, a recent demonstration by Nokia of a service/feature called Point and Find got me thinking of that ole bulleting board, and how something as simple as a mobile phone camera can make your church/organization's website more like a portal of information.

Let's start with the bulletin board. Almost every church has one. And most times, that information is pretty static. Things such as fund raisers, prayer lists, and upcoming events are pretty much the norm. Using Point and Find and a mobile phone, the idea of posters that connect to the church/org website can now be explored.

Much like the You Tube demonstration shows for movie posters, one could use this same idea to not only allow one to snap information of an upcoming item, but also get more information to that item, directions, social network profiles, or even subscribe to events that are happening.

For Nokia, this was a demonstration of a possiblity of the way we live next. I think that for the Body (and organizations in general), this kind of thinking - merging online and print worlds - could lead to some interesting connections between people and events that technology sometimes allows us too easily to forget.

What are your thoughts? Is this something that could work for a ministry/org that you are involved with? Why or why not?

Labels: camera, communication, community, mobility

The Nokia Conversations blog has highlighted an article and its source post speaking about internet etiquette education in [South] Korea. Being that mobile and internet use is very high in terms of use and lifestyle in [South] Korea, its almost appropriate that they would be one of the first to take a whole sale approach to addressing use and ethics for parents, youth, and culture.

This quote speaks to why this matters and why as a Body we need to jump in and learn/apply these same lessons:

...many children including myself go through the phase when they relate their identity to imaginary or fictional characters. i am no expert in this area so i do wonder how future children would discover and exploit the fact that they can be the imaginary character to a certain extent if they want to, aided by other ‘people’ in the digital world, not just by their own imagination while they are going through the blossoming age of developing their social perception and individual identity. it is up to whether the child will be able to master the delicate skill set of constructing and maintaining the perception of a world in a non-physical form...

This is a subject that begs discussion on so many levels, not the least of which is because the technology moves so fast that education can sometimes be seen as a chore and something that holds it back. I disagree with this notion, and therefore discussions and policies like these are needed so that we don't end up with a culture that has a jaded sense of what is real versus what is virtual - or in other words find their identity in more than just the social programs they are engaged in.

Check out the posts at Nokia Conversations and Nokia Design Researcher Younghee Jung, and then the original Korean article (its in Korean) speaking about these policies for more insight and backstory on this.

As leaders and parents, how do you teach ethics, while allowing the technology to be a place where imaginations can form maturely?

Labels: children, church, communication, community, computer, education, parenting, teaching, tech, teens

One of the comments and observations that I get around these days is that people do not look at discipliship (apprenticeship) as they used to. Part of that is indeed due to the speed of life and the technology that has gone along with it. However, I'm the last person to say ditch the tech because we cannot do things the way we used to; there's a response to being more successful in the context of discipliship given these days and times. It's up to us to figure that out, and then make sure that people don't miss Christ, no matter how fast they are able to SMS.

Identifying the issue means only that we know what the problem is - how do we effectively disciple one another in a culture where instant information and communication leaves little room for patient wisdom to take root? Thankfully, there are some examples of things we can do, and the tech that we have is a good tool to facilitate it.

The personal approach (John 4:1-42):

We are indeed familiar with the story of the Samaritian woman at the well. But unlike those times, we are apt to catch people in all manners of uncomfortable times. Here we take a slow yet open approach to discipliship: confront with the truth, speak slowly, and then before the person leaves your presence give contact information (phone, email, IM, blog, etc.) that will enable them to keep that point of contact with what you have given them. No, there's not much you can do until they reach back out to you, but in this kind of in-and-out engagement, the approach is to keep it personal and not push the person towards anything but the truth of the Gospel. Use the tech in order for them to have a teather towards affirming your works as on Jesus' team.

The Community Approach (Exodus 18)

This story also remarks of being familiar, however one of those questions do tend to remain to those who might not have studied this text throughly - how did Moses keep up with the smaller group of folks that he assigned as managers? In this case the tools of phone, email, and SMS would come in handy. However, it would also be smart to be like a cartographer and get a map mashup of those areas that are in play so that in terms of a physical understanding of the scope of ministry that one doesn't lose heart with the boundaries and the aims.

The other aspect of that map mashup comes in play for those being led, they can see the scope and followup from the inside with issues that might not be as aparent from your top-down view.

These are just a few applications of where modern tech doesn't mitigate the responsiblity of disciplship, it makes it more granular. We can utilize mobile and internet services and devices in order to facilitate communications in the way that they were designed to do. And at the same time, understand that we don't have to know everything. The models of discipliship that we used to use still stand, we just have more avenues towards making sure we don't miss something.

Labels: communication, community, culture, discipliship, people, tech

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a few of the live concerts put on by MixxMaster's Studio Lounge. On Thursday night I went to see JR (who is on the Cross Movement label) and on Saturday there was Edward Long II and a group named M2B (Made to Believe). One of the things I noticed though was that there were a lot of teens and young adults, but not as much focus after the show towards keeping them enaged beyond giving them a MySpace page link.

So, par the course of my normal way of thinking, I started wondering how an event like that, plus the churches that were involved, can utilize mobile devices and services to not just enhance participation, but also make a way to connect with the youth in ways that lead to discipliship.

One idea that came to mind was to simply make available ringtones of those who were performing. To work with MediaComm (the parent company to Steelroots and MixxMaster's) to secure that licensed content where youth can type a text message to a shortcode and then get the ringtone. But instead of stopping there, reply with the ringtone that someone is on the other end to pray for them if they have a prayer request. That other end would be made up of leaders and volunteers from local churches who would pray for those youth.

I also had the idea of sitting down with the youth before the show in small groups asking them about what they listen to and how they respond to what they hear. Give them a place to be open whether they get music legally or not, and then at the end of the talk give them music, electronic bibles, etc. that would enable them to have a healthy view of using mobile devices for those things they enjoy.

These are just ideas though; Saturday night I took advantage to diffuse a situation by speaking to one of the youth leaders. We exchanged informatoin via mobile and I showed up at his church this Sunday. Nothing special, but making connections so that folks in the Body know that whether via mobile tech, or just footwork, we are connected and tilling this ground together.

Labels: communication, community, mobiles, music, outreach, teens

One of the things that I've tried to do, even before starting Mobile Ministry Magazine, has been to reduce my computing needs to the bare essentials as much as possible. A big reason for doing so is because I've been one to travel a good bit and besides taking long trips, I tend to have taken many trips. Ironically, this weekend, I hit 100,000 miles in my 3yr old Civic.

Knowing what I can do with as few physical materials as possible is something that is a bit of an aim of being mobile. To skillfully and effective utilize the environment and services offered so that one can get a job done and connect. Andy Abramson, CEO of Comunicano, Inc. (an advertising, marketing and public relations agency based in Del Mar, CA), tends to do writes a blog called Working Anywhere and in a recent post talks about some of the tools that he uses as a global nomad.

...Basically, I've built the company (and am now rebuilding my house) by being the executive who works anywhere but the traditional office, allowing for a business lifestyle that is highly productive, and mostly more effortless than many people would ever imagine. For example right now I'm in Europe, floating between Lisbon, Portugal, Barcelona, Paris and London over a two-week period. After that I’ll be on the East Coast, the West Coast, back to the East Coast, into the Midwest, all before August 9, when I finally move back into my house. Along the way I’m staying in very business executive work-friendly and amazingly artistic, modern and well run hotels, all of which offer very high-quality Internet and many of the comforts and services a business traveler needs...

That's a good deal of traveling and the really good thing about this post is that while many of us might not have his resources, we can utilize some of the behaviors and services in our own capacities to make traveling less of an issue, or in the case of missions work, less a chore of logistics and more of just going and serving.

Check out the rest of the post The Tools of The Global Nomad at Working Everywhere and let's chat about some of the tools or behaviors that you have found sufficient in those times when you've been more nomad than settler.

Disclosure: Comunicano has worked with MMM in the past through the Nokia Blogger Relations program to provide devices and notification of services that may or may not be relevant to our community.

Labels: communication, community, computer, data, devices, environment, flexibility, mobile, mobile accessories, mobility, Nokia, resources, stewardship, sustainability, tools, usability

I had an editorial/article posted at Brighthand that also has some merit here in terms of getting a bit of an understanding as to where computing is going. The subject is called "cloud computing" and is usually characterized by applications, data, or some combination of both being stored on a network and accessible through the Internet (wired or wireless connection). While many in corporate settings might be familiar with this, other than email, most people are not aware of some of the positives and negatives, nor of the types of cloud computing options.

This article is more of an overview than something very technical. But especially for parents, teachers, and those in IT settings, you will want to understand this so that you can use and point those under your influence in a direction that speaks towards their needs, moreso than towards the market's desires.

Here is a snippet:

A term being bantered about a good deal since Apple's iPhone 3G release has been that of "cloud computing." Essentially cloud computing is when the data that you work with -- contacts, bookmarks, email, calendaring, etc. -- is accessible though an Internet connection and with several devices.

There are three ways of taking advantage of this idea of cloud computing: data completely in the cloud, local applications that utilize some data in the clouds with some local, and being your own cloud where you provide the local data from your device to a service.

Read the rest of The Three States of Cloud Computing at Brighthand.

Labels: communication, community, information technology, Internet, software, tech

I am nearing 30, but I do not have kids of my own. I do tend to play with them a lot, and mobile technology is very much a part of our time. Especially with teens, mobile tech (phones usually) are seen as independence and personal items. They go as far to color them, add screens/ringtones, and do other things that make the mobile theirs, even when they are not even paying the bill for it.

However, parents have an issue with this. And I totally understand. For many of them, the technology has moved as fast as their kids in terms of growth and its harder to know what they are doing versus just shutting it down completly. Some parents have a handle of being able to use mobile tech in a rewards system, being able to emphasize that mobile tech is a priveledge, not a need.

So I want to open up some discussion, and maybe this can give me (personally) some insight into parenting, and you (parents, pastors, and teachers) some insight as to how to better understand what it is your teens are doing with mobile tech. Becuase we don't want statistics like these becoming more common; we'd rather Godliness speak louder than debauchery ya know.

Labels: communication, community, mobile, parenting, teens, usability

Ok, I am probably the last person to want to say that we want to elevate the Christian experience over the truth of the word - as this is a recent marketing thing that pretty much bugs me (and a few others) - but I do want to highlight that that if done in concert with discipliship and accountability, speaking and relating our Christian experience can have some value.

Getting back to that experience thing in a more content-neutral fashion (I hope), I like to see how others are making connections with the Body and enabling the testimonies of God to go further and further than ever before.

There is one post over at digital.leadnet that speaks about a holographic pastor as a means of relating the Word. As much as that's very much affluent and something in the future, it does speak to where tech can go in terms of making the sharing of the Gosple something where boundaries don't have to be an issue.

Then again, we can keep things in a more relevant light and look at the recent Mojo experiement that Nokia is doing in South Africa. Similar to the Reuter's experiment, this is exploring the use of mobile technology to create content and do so in a means that works with the environment instead of above it. I really like that Nokia is doing this and like them, I think that being careful crafters of content in this day and age is something that is also worth teaching.

What I like about the Mojo project is that it gets students involved and teaches them how to tell stories. A lot of time, we want to relate to others about what it means to be a Christian, or even talk about some important social speaking points, but have gain little in the way of training. I see a solution like this as being beneficial towards helping people to see their identity in Christ as something that can empower their communities. Pretty neat, and not so far into the future at all right?

Labels: communication, community, N95, Nokia, virtual