Mobile Ministry Magazine

Just a reminder that you can meet up with Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM) and many other bloggers, ministers, teachers, and organizations from all over the world at this year's BibleTech Conference. There are tons of topics being covered over the two day event, and if anything like last year the backchat (Twitter, Facebook, and in the hallways) will be just as engaging.

This year, MMM's topic will be Mobile's Christ-Led Encounters (last year's was called Mobile Technology and Connecting Communities) . Here's the presentation abstract/summary:

Mobile has now taken hold as a main fixture within the regular consciousness of most mainstream technical thought. From sociology to psychology, transportation to entertainment, Facebook to the Good Book, mobile is now at the tip of every tongue in being that next great area of opportunity, engagement, division, and law. Still a new media, mobile suffers from the same growing pains centering around the question: "what's its relevance?" Through the Body of Christ, we can point to some examples of mobile taking root in engagement, evangelistic, and opportunistic measures. We will look at some of these areas as a means to describe what has happened, but also in light of what can still be explored with mobile. It is from this lens that we can engage audiences towards utilizing their mobiles-in-hand as a handshake to open the door for an engaging Christ-encounter.

Hopefully, that has you a bit excited towards what's to come - and not just from MMM. Be sure to register and get your hotel reserved as soon as possible. There's a conference discount for the room, and you don't need to worry about food. It will be in San Jose this year, and so we might get more than the 20min of sun we saw last year ;)

Looking forward to reconnecting with many of you, and seeing some others for the first time in person. But, don't let conferences be the only time you choose to connect with MMM. We are on Twitter, engage the local Charlotte, NC community with Digital Disciples, and are available for other presentations and engagements through Inner-Linked. Suffice to say, we're mobile - and at BibleTech, you'll hear more about this mobile lens and how you can respond to it. See you there!

Labels: BibleTech, conferences, Inner-Linked, twitter

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

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

Just in case you've missed the posting over at Twitter, the chatter about developing an open source Bible reader for the newly announced Nokia N900 has started back up. Good comments in there, as well as some developers talking about what it would take to do so. Join the discussion, and maybe even assist in the effort.

And by the way of this discussion, if anyone knows of any open source (free or low-cost) multi-lingual dictionaries, please point out a few in the comments. There's a need for this for this Bible effort and other ministry efforts going on currently. Thanks in advance.

Labels: Bible, dictionary, Maemo, multi-lingual, N900, open source, software, twitter

Apparently I am not the only one taking it as a serious matter that we should be asking core questions towards our use of social networking. Here's some words from Jim Taylor, who has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and pretty much comes to the same conclusions that I do:

...brilliant minds will continue to develop amazing new technologies that will change our world. At the same time, equally brilliant minds must be encouraged to collaborate in this development to understand the impact of these changes, so that the benefits can be maximized and the costs minimized.

I encourage you to read the full post over at Computerworld, and then really take inventory of your use of mobile and social networking technologies. Its not enough that we just use this stuff, we need to understand the positive and negative implications of this so that we can make best use of it.

Link credit to IntoMobile

Labels: psychology, social networking, twitter

For some people in the Body, they are just learning about social networks, others are hitting a point of being burnt out, and worse yet, issues not within our control have caused some interesting reactions to the inability to access social networks (language warning). There's something up here, and we need to start asking core questions about the "why," "how," and "what" of social networks.

I initially had this as a scheduled post here, but caught a small rash of wisdom and put this over on my personal website. Nevertheless, I think that this is a very important topic that not only needs to be brought up, but there needs to be an sizable amount of learning towards the purpose, use, and effectiveness of the Body and social networks. Here's a snippet:

...When we absolve ourselves to use social networking platforms, as believers we have a responsibility to understand [this point], and then to bend the technology accordingly - as much as possible. And especially if we are leaders, we need to understand the entire scope of the technology - its positive and negative implications - and then react to it accordingly.

This doesn't mean that we shy away from it, but it does mean that we use wisdom and understanding before advocating it as the best thing since sliced bread. With these social networks comes a very powerful and targeted set of responsibilities; number one being that God has to be very present in our use and demonstration of it...

Read the rest of this post over at my personal site; use your own discretion towards where to place the comments.

Labels: commentary, Facebook, social networking, twitter

I responded to another of Gabe's insightful posts (Twittering in Church) because its a subject that I think needs all kinds of abilities to understand. Afterwards, I wanted to post the response here - as this is a slightly different audience - and continue some of that discussion because it hits on areas of contention that have been had online and off. At the same time, this is the kind of discussion that we should be having as a gathering (here @ MMM) of tech-enabled, worshipers of God. Here's the comment (please do read the blog posting and comments afterwards for the complete context):

Teaching what is appropriate and not is a cultural and social function [of technology]; this should be something that is done independent of the technology trends [for example in discipleship], and at the same time it [the teaching/discipling] should mind those trends and give wisdom where needed.

Simply saying that "because a pastor is preaching doesn't mean you should be texting and tweeting" is not a remedy for the issue – that is, you are only addressing symptoms of a greater thought that most likely wasn't taught. Namely: ethics (re: Proverbs and Ecc.).

It is only after teaching these ethical issues of social, technology, and culture that one can sit and make the rules that others suppose should be the case of this digitally native and very social generation. I’m sorry folks, but most of you commenting are more like myself where you sit as a late Gen X or early Gen Y-er; you aren’t native to this way of communitating and therefore your "rules" and "perceptions" will cause more problems than they solve.

To those peeved that people can text better than they can recite books and doctrine, do a better job discipling and then maybe you won't have the tech issue to harp on as loudly. And yes, I very much practice what I preach – Gabe can totally vouch for that much.

Lastly, I too am of the opinion that "church" is what happens in-between the Sunday worship gatherings. That the active acts of creating community with people in and outside of the Christian faith should be what defines church. If this action is spilling over into our use of tech, and moreso into those worship gatherings, then we need to (a) redefine and further emphasize what it means to be a gathering of worshippers, and (b) do a much better job of discipling one another towards healthy boundaries and margins, making sure that we don't miss that knowledge and understanding of this specific time and space towards technology, while sharing the implications of this change and what it needs to mean for us and those around us as we engage in this thing called church.

Labels: church, community, mobility, SMS, twitter

This was pointed out to me a few days ago and is a pretty neat service for those of you looking to share Bible verses with folks on Twitter, and would like to have them actually link to the verse.

The service is called Ref.ly (http://ref.ly) and is by the folks over at Logos. Basically, its a URL shortening service just for Bible verses.

Sure, there's a pretty narrow need for something like this, but there is a need. And the best part is that this works whether you are just posting the links to twitter, or looking for a short URL to send to someone via SMS.

Check it out and let us know (via twitter - @mobileminmag) what you think of Ref.ly. And, can you think of other uses for this kind of service?

Labels: Bible, SMS, tech, twitter

New contest going on over at Laridian (via the Laridian blog). Here are the details:

Laridian is announcing our first "How Do You Use PocketBible" contest. (If you use MyBible or iPocketBible or Noah... feel free to enter as well, it's just easier to say "PocketBible" instead of "PocketBible, MyBible, iPocketBible and/or Noah.") It's simple to enter and you can enter three different places (but you can only win once)...

Blog site: Leave a comment right here on this blog post (we will not read any entries sent via email). Laridian staff will go through and pick our favorite as the winner. We will only read the first entry from each person, so it will not help you to post more than once... just make your first post really good!

Facebook: Our fans on Facebook can leave a comment on our wall. The winner on Facebook will be the person with the most "Like" clicks on their comment (so get your friends to vote for your post). This one will be more difficult than the blog site as there is a restriction to the number of characters you may use (Facebook restriction, not a Laridian restriction). Again... only the first comment will count (if you don't like your comment, delete it and comment again). You will not win if there is more than one comment from your account.

Twitter: This will be the most difficult. Be creative! Twitter PocketBible with your 140 character description of how you use PocketBible. Laridian staff will pick our favorite. And like the blog site and Facebook, we will only read the first Tweet from each person... so make it good.

Winners for each of the social networks will receive a PocketBible for Windows Gold Edition on USB Memory Key. A pretty cool prize and worthwhile effort.

For more information, visit the Laridian website and get your entries in on Twitter, Facebook, and the Laridian blog.

Labels: contests, Facebook, Laridian, twitter

Just stretching things out in respect to making MMM walk more in that purpose of connecting and leading at the intersection of faith and technology. We've added a Twitter channel to things so that you can follow, tweet, and whatever else yon' twitterlings do :)

Connect with MMM on Twitter via the name @mobileminmag. Please know that all connection requests there are moderated - and it seems Twitter doesn't like my phone's browser for accepting connections (bah).

Labels: twitter