mobile ministry « Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM)

Posts Tagged ‘mobile ministry’

Be Like Dad

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

church, here’s your challenge: don’t make another social network, media site, app generator, [app, website, TV program, radio program, concert, music genre, school], or digital library; be like Dad, create something new

Genesis 1:3, Genesis 1:27, Jeremiah 1:5, Romans 8:29

Tags: devotional, mobile in spiritual/theological/psychological, mobile ministry, spiritual implications
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Not sure when the idea hit (I’d need to look back at notes and such). But, at one point during 2011, during one of the many calls had with several members of the Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF), I got the idea to just make a small website that had essentially all of the information points that the MMF aims for, but also serves as an example of a non-app approach to being an information point. The resulting actvity is simply named MobMin.Info (http://mobmin.info).

A Portal and A Reference
MobMin.Info is simply a portal page pointing to much of the resources and research that’s been done to date in the area of mobile ministry.

The URL was grabbed as a result of conversations around the #mobmin Twitter search term and the search tendencies of those looking for information about mobile ministry.

Structure
MobMin.Info is a single-page website (11K) site broken into separate sections:

Websites
Case Studies/Research
Bible Apps
Dev & Services
Articles, News, and Discussions
About the Mobile Ministry Forum

Each section simply links to the content from sites already involved in the Mobile Ministry Forum.

It is designed using HTML5 (Modernizr template) along with jQuery. It was completely developed on an iPad using Textastic.

Why Is This Relevant
One of the issues that some have had with the MMF is that it is quite difficult to find what information is out there for mobile ministry. There’s been a good bit published, and much of it is and isn’t quite in a format that some have needed for it to be in order for it to be actionable. A single destination that points to clearly defined resources is much more actionable.

The other reason for doing this is that Mobile Ministry Magazine is in dire need of a redesign itself. In the process of cleaning up information structures on the backend for an eventual redesign, it just made sense to take some of what we’d done so far and make that available, along with others in the mobile ministry space who have been steadily putting out content and resources. Given that our brand is quite strong, and the Mobile Ministry Forum is so closely aligned in both brand activity and name, it made sense to just go ahead and make this. The redesign for this site will follow a format more along the lines of existing content and the (hopefully this year) pending release of a mobile ministry methodology.

Sharing, Feedback, Future Directions
Ideally, MobMin.Info would be what you’d put into your mobile device’s browser and leave it there as a favorite/bookmark. Anything that’s happening in this mobile ministry space, that’s being referenced in this space, should be accessible from this URL. So, use it as a primary link or just as the one you have to share what happens in mobile ministry if someone where asking you what this is all about.

Your feedback is welcome, but aside from adding additional content streams from MMF members, there’s not too much that’s going to happen to this design (for example, its not getting published in an app store, its not getting a PC or tablet-optimized view, etc.). Not that your feedback isn’t worth it, but this is something that would be best served if MobMin.Info were sitting outside of the brand/authority of Mobile Ministry Magazine. Feel free to leave your comment here, or to post it at the Mobile Ministry Forum discussion board.

Future directions:

Handover of the MobMin.Info site and domain to the MMF
Possible change of this into a WordPress (or other CMS) template
Added offline capacity (its almost there, its made using HTML5)

Ok folks, so no excuses for not having something in your head regarding how to find information about mobile ministry. Add MobMin.Info to your (portable) resources.

Tags: definition of mobile ministry, experiments, HTML5, MMF, Mobile in Analytics/Development/Marketing, mobile in development, mobile in moment/personal, mobile ministry, Mobile Ministry Forum, mobile websites, web apps
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Carnival of the Mobilists No. 256 at theFonecast

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

2012 brings back the Carnival of the Mobilists in a weekly format, and that should get back to some persistent and mind-stretching writing about mobile devices, the mobile industry, and mobile innovations.

MMM has been included within the first slate of posts for 2012′s entries for the Carnival of the Mobilists (#256 being hosting at theFronecast) – our 2012 resolution on mobiles in education being highlighted with the other entries. There are enough entries for this week to keep you reading for a few sesssions. I’d certainly recommend that you do set aside the time to read the thoguhts from the contributors to the Carnival of the Mobilists each week. In addition to getting that opt-ed viewpoint of those things mobile, you’d also get a better handle on the opportunities in mobile which can be an entry point for your mobile ministry endeavors.

So, grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy this week’s reads at theFonecast.

If you would like your posts to be considered for inclusion within the Carnival of the Mobilists, follow the instructions and just wait for the notification that your post as been accepted. Once you have submitted and been included three (3) times, you can submit to be a Carnival host – which is a great way to get some addition eyeballs to your website’s content and mission. So consider it, and see what happens.

Tags: Carnival of the Mobilists, Mobile in Discipleship/Education, mobile in education, mobile in personal/moment, mobile ministry, opt-ed, The Mobilists
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Nokia Conversations: Should Mobiles do God?

Monday, December 26th, 2011

Personally, I love it when companies as large as Nokia speak into moments of tech and faith. And when the conversation goes beyond applications, then it is somehting that really piques interest. Here’s a snippet of their latest article on the topic App-aggedon – Should mobiles do God?:

…Religion has never been afraid of making the most of modern technology. The printing press drove popular readings of the Bible and spread the Protestant Reformation across Europe, and, more recently, the US has become the home of TV evangelists. So it makes sense that the next stage of ‘spreading the word’ would happen on mobile phones.

Bible apps and guides are some of the most popular reference downloads from the Nokia Store, and Nokia’s team in Pakistan have run a successful campaign to tell people about a host of Ramadan apps. The new Nokia font, Nokia Pure, was specifically designed to accommodate both the Torah and the Koran.

Mobile technology is a useful tool for anyone wanting to connect with a large congregation, and it can create a powerful sense of a global community – but are mobiles changing the nature of religion…

Read the rest of App-aggedon – Should mobiles do God? At the Nokia Conversations blog, and put your voice into the conversation. What is the place of mobile tech when it comes to faith, and why should we broker that conversation beyond apps and evangelism?

Note: the image in this post turns to a now defunt service (TruthText); we have pointed to some SMS (text) service providers which are up and able to do similar services. If you have others we should be highlighting, do poke us (contact page, Twitter).

Tags: #mobmin, definition of mobile ministry, faith, mobile in personal/moment, mobile ministry, nokia, Nokia Conversations, spiritual implications, tech
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Communication Arts: Learning to Be Happy

Monday, December 19th, 2011

When I started reading the Communication Arts article Learning to Be Happy, I had not expected to leave it with a huge smile on my face. Personally, it was because the author, DK Holland, was able to hit on so many points about technology, language, education, culture, and even religion, that I couldn’t help but to be tickled to a sense of joy about the core goals for MMM.

I’d wager that some of you might find similar reasons to smile after reading this – even if there are points in this piece that you don’t agree with. To be challenged to take ownership of the implications of technology and culture is how we truly learn to be happy. And then what you do with what you own… well, that is a story we well know which has its own set of results.

Tags: Communication Arts, DK Holland, From the Garden to the City, language, Marshall McLuhan, mobile ministry, sociology
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Mobile Advance 10 Questions Series: Antoine RJ Wright

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Over at Mobile Advance continues their 10 Questions interview series of people involved in and around mobile ministry activities.

The latest of these interviews is with Antoine RJ Wright (wait, that’s the guy who runs this place). Here’s a snippet of that interview:

5. What are some of the biggest obstacles to implementing effective mobile ministry? For you/your ministry? For the Christian world in general?

Mobile is still very new for many ministries. Some have just figured out how to get on the Internet train consistently, and mobile adds a layer of knowledge and engagement that should be familiar, but has unique challenges many aren’t ready to answer. For MMM, our challenge is getting people to talk about their challenges and successes with mobile. We’d be just fine if there was an easier way to get folks to document what they are attempting. For the Christian world, mobile is just big. And its unique in every instance. Many don’t focus on discipleship as much as they do activity and teaching, and so they miss that personalized level of life that mobile and discipleship tend to sit on. Mobile requires that kind of on-the-ground relationship…

Read the rest of this interview at Mobile Advance.

Tags: Antoine RJ Wright, Bible, discipleship, education, interview, Mobile Advance, mobile ministry
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How to Find Out What’s Happening with Mobile Ministry

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

How do you keep up with the topic of mobile ministry? Some people have asked this and there’s no real science to it, we basically just keep our ear to the ground and spend sufficient time reading what’s there, reaching for what isn’t, and relating to what makes sense.

Of course, we’ll also get the statement, “who has time to do that?” And so, here’s one tip towards keeping track of the conversation: follow what’s being talked about in the following Twitter searches:

So now you have the searches, what can you do with them?

First, if you have a Twitter account, these are searches that you will want to save and just make a part of your daily/weekly timeline. Simply seeing the discussions and bringing those items to the forefront in your organizations (meetings, conversations, etc.) will help enable conversation and activity in mobile ministry.

Second, you might not have a Twitter account, so here you can take advantage of RSS to keep you informed on these conversations. RSS is a format used online for syndicated data. In reference to these searches, they have an RSS (news)feed available in which you can use your browser (like Firefox, Opera, etc.) or a web service (like Google Reader, Netvibes, etc.) to save each of these searches and you’d have them for reference.

Third, you can save the links into the favorites/bookmarks area of your browser. This way you can just peek in on the conversations as they happen to have interest for you.

Now, the aspect of interpreting that data and turning it into actionable items is something that you will have to discern against your organization’s goals, issues, and available resources. You can’t expect all of your questions to be answered at this juncture – mobile ministry is a wide, not deep, conversation. But, there are elements of understanding what’s possible, what has happened, and what you can do if you engage some of the conversations taking place.

If you have other ways in which you keep up with conversations about mobile ministry, feel free to drop those in the comments as others will want to glean from your methods and share some of their own.

Tags: conversations, mobile ministry, mobility, research, RSS, search, tech, Twitter
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Research and Call for Interest-Expressions for Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) in Mobile/Tech

Friday, September 30th, 2011

One of the commonly heard statements when I speak with various ministries and organizations is that there’s a lack of case studies and research towards the use of mobile in ministry practices (#mobmin) or just mobile technology as it relates to various community/culture initiatives (#mhealth, #ict4d, #m4d). Part of that is because many who are doing the projects haven’t published their data yet, and part of that is because there’s interest for more. Here are two items that jumped on the reading list this week which may help both of those parts become whole information.

Movirtu: Life at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) Study

Life at the BoP study is a joint work of the team here at Movirtu and our strategic research partners TNS. We listened in detail to nearly a hundred end users in Senegal, Tanzania and India during the course of this work. We selected ‘leading edge’ users: those likely to be engaged with and influential in technology. We spoke with women entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers, and youth.

There are many stories and characters here: a Senegalese student who lives far from her family, prays every day and is as rapturously devout in her study as she is in her life. There are a group of teens in Coimbatore, a city akin to the UK’s Manchester, where boys can quote you an ad for the latest megapixel phone. Women entrepreneurs in Senegal shake their heads and commiserate about the increased cost of living.

Read the rest of this study

Call for Expressions of Interest for case studies of Mobile use at the Base of the Pyramid

infoDev is looking for organizations with experience in rigorous research directly related to the topic and who are able to design and execute the studies from start to finish. Please note that we will shortlist proposals for Kenya and South Africa first, as these studies will be completed in the first phase of the project, with the remaining proposals (for Armenia, Pakistan and Vietnam) shortlisted later. Organizations may submit proposals for any number of the selected countries.

This request for expressions of interest (EOI) concerns research and production of five case studies (one each in Kenya, South Africa, Armenia, Pakistan and Vietnam) to examine the economic and social potential of mobile devices in the “base of the pyramid” market segment, i.e. among the poor who live on less than $2.50 a day. infoDev is looking for organizations with experience in rigorous research directly related to the topic and who are able to design and execute the studies from start to finish. Please note that we will shortlist proposals for Kenya and South Africa first, as these studies will be completed in the first phase of the project, with the remaining proposals (for Armenia, Pakistan and Vietnam) shortlisted later. Organizations may submit proposals for any number of the selected countries.

Proposals need to be submitted by October 10; read more about this call for interest/proposals at infoDev.

Additional Cases Studies and Research Materials

We also have a listing here of several cases studies, statistics, and other types of research material. Yes, there’s not a lot, but again, that’s because there’s not been a lot written to date. View our resources and if you have something that should be noted here, submit it to us or point to it using the #mobmin, #ict4d, and #m4d Twitter hashtags so that it can be searchable and shared to all.

Tags: BoP, bottom of the pyramid, case studies, ict4d, Life at the Bottom of the Pyramid Study, m4d, mHealth, mobile ministry, Movirtu, research
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The Disconnect Between Relationships and Publishing in Mobile Ministry

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Overhearing a recent conversation about media, I listened to the disconnect – in a good way – between relationships and publishing when we start talking about mobile (in) ministry.

There are many people who minister to others by meeting some physical, emotional, or economic need. If you will, their focuses lie on building relationships and behaviors which foster literal demonstrations of Christ’s love between one another. Then we have others who facilitate the activites of ministry by publishing or serving in areas which support those end behaviors.

Now, what happens between believers is a lot of times, we see this disconnect as a negative. Publishers and relationship builders see the need for one another, but they rarely agree with one another’s methods. What’s been very interesting about mobile is that this disconnect tends to be where you find the most positive and willing opportunities.

I described it to my friend like this:

When we talk about the Great Commission, we look at three connected but separate-functioning elements: go, teach, and disciple. In these applications of living with the gospel, there are aspects in it which we build the relationships that lead to a life that looks like Christ. Sometimes that’s a direct relationship with someone and other times that’s propping up the efforts of another. Both work towards the same Gospel and shouldn’t be dismissed. And neither is more important than the other. What happens in the Body is that we sometimes aren’t mature in that dealing with one another when our perspectives are on one side and another’s is on the other. While it’s hard to do so, we should seek that connection point where those relationships or support activities pour into fruitful expressions of life in Christ. And when we see that, we can esteem one another, rather than leaving one another in a state where we are discounting the ability of the Spirit to knit himself into our lives.

Mobile is special. It’s got a boatload of unique qualities, and it’s levels of application can be wide and deep or short and impactful. There is a disconnect between mobile activities that peruse relationships and mobile activities which support or publish those items that support or enrich those relationships. That disconnect is healthy. But the knitting of the Spirit between those is where our focus and fruit of these activities need to lie.

Tags: content creation, content management, discipleship, mentoring, mobile ministry, publishing, relationships
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Mobile Advance 10 Questions Series: James Thomas of GRN

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Over at Mobile Advance a new interview series called 10 Questions has started. Here, Mobile Advance will be interviewing several people involved in and around mobile ministry activities.

The first of these interviews is with James Thomas of Global Recording Networks (GRN). Here’s a snippet of that interview:

2. How and why did you become involved with mobile ministry?

Global Recordings Network sees mobile devices as being an important distribution medium for their audio and video content. Mobile phones (cell phones) are prolific in the developing world. Phones with media player capability provide a personal means for unreached oral communicators to hear the story about Jesus in their heart language. It is for these reasons and the fact that I recently joined GRN coming from a mobile engineering background that I became involved with mobile ministry.

Read the rest of this interview at Mobile Advance.

Tags: Global Recording Networks, GRN, interview, Mobile Advance, mobile ministry
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Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM)

Posts Tagged ‘mobile ministry’

Be Like Dad

Carnival of the Mobilists No. 256 at theFonecast

Communication Arts: Learning to Be Happy

Mobile Advance 10 Questions Series: Antoine RJ Wright

How to Find Out What’s Happening with Mobile Ministry

Research and Call for Interest-Expressions for Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) in Mobile/Tech

Mobile Advance 10 Questions Series: James Thomas of GRN

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