This year, I found myself back moving back to an area of the United States where I previously had strong ties of a large, local church. One of the reasons those ties were so strong was the intentionality that ministry had on making sure that all members (and guests) could connect to the community through small groups. While small groups are not new, what I have found is that making the connection point relatable to the individual goes a long way to ensure that they develop socially, mentally, and spiritually.
Tag Archives: mobile apps
Bible Apps for Memorization and Spiritual Growth at Church Tech Today
While it’s true that the writing here has not met the frequency of previous years, that doesn’t mean that MMM isn’t publishing. Of one of the arenas to find MMM contributing, Church Tech Today, sits pretty highly. In our most recent contribution, we talk about apps and approaches for bible memorization and spiritual growth:
For many people, reading the Bible is enjoyable, but trying to get to that point where you can remember specific verses which talk about specific subjects is not something that happens quickly. Because it was a little easier for me, it took a long time before I realized that there were certain learning methods, or just ways that I was reading and studying the scripture that made it possible for me to have such an active recall. Now that we are firmly into the mobile [age], scripture recall has become another subject where people are looking for ways of improving on old methods.
ICCM Australia Keynote 3: Exploring the Shift from Content to Context
Its been great sharing with you the various keynote sessions shared at the 2015 ICCM Australia Confernce. In this third keynote, we open up the technical sessions of the day by talking towards the shift in computing from simply serving content to embracing the context of use.
Updates on the Side of Bible Apps
Years ago, the question that provoked many to first come to MMM had to do with finding a bible application. We answered that one in a manner that’s still not see as clearly in this age of app stores. There’s still something to be said about updates and new releases to various Bible platforms. Here are a few that have had a recent update: Continue reading
November Videocast & Kolo Group Mobile App Video
Two videos this month to profile. The first is our monthly videocast, titled Mobile Experiences:
The second comes from the folks at the Kolo Group talking about the app and the mobile evangelism opportunity with it:
Check them out and if there are other videos we should be profiling, get in touch with us, or share via social networks so that we can promote those along with you.
Stupid Uses of Paper?
Some weeks back, there was an Evernote conference and the CEO Phil Libin said something that’s really stuck out in the discussion of being paperless.
“The goal is to get rid of stupid uses of paper”
Now, he said this in respect to a new partnership that Evernote announced with 3M (see WSJ article). But, I think its a very profound way of looking at how we are treating digitally native experiences versus those behaviors which might have had a better context in print. Evernote’s association with 3M is looking at the use of Post-It Notes and making those small notes digital. I’m thinking similar, and sparked by a conversation with LJ of Urban Scholar, I think we might have some other “stupid uses of paper” to consider.
LJ was telling me about a men’s group that he engages in and they are reading the book Why Church Matters: Discovering Your Place in the Family of God and I asked him if he’s making notes in Amazon’s Kindle service or reading in print. His response is that he’s reading the print version for not just that book, but also for other books that the group is reading. I wondered, in the case of a group of men sharing insights and progress if that’s really a smart use of paper. In contexts like this, we usually share items and it would seem that digital is the appropriate place for this part of the interaction.
I guess that I have to make the appropriate statements concerning digital texts: cost of devices and services, access versus ownership, and those folks who would rather have that page turning, ambient lit action. Eh… you know those already if you are reading here.
What matters isn’t so much our comfort, but what we enable as a result of the activities we pursue. If when we are getting together, we spend more time passing out materials and reviewing the instructions on them, than we spend in making sense of what those materials mean.
Concerning #mobmin apps/services: does it cause you to spend less time with admin, and more time in Him?
— Antoine RJ Wright (@ARJWright) October 16, 2013
I don’t mean that there’s not a place for paper. I mean that when we have digital text available, we should probably take advantage of what digital offers instead of constraining it to what we only know from a paper context. If that means displacing the time when text is contemplated from the group meeting, then we make the meeting time profitable for things that digital can’t do as well – like cohesive, corporate prayer. And when we do those things that digital does do well, our experiences through the faith grows past stupid uses into something that more authentic, and viable to living by Christ.