Last week on Twitter, I posed a question that was grounded in something of an experiment done last year at the Mobile Ministry Forum Conference:
If most persons in your community has a personal screen in fellowship activities, would u consider ditching the projector?
In that talk at the MMF Conference (Tablets in Mobile Ministry – Post | Slides | Sketchnote: PDF, JPG), I went with the option of simply putting on a whiteboard a short URL to the presentation, and then encouraged the audience to take their personal mobile devices (smartphone, tablets, and laptops) and view the presentation as I talked. On my end, I had my tablet with the same presentation on there. This is something that I’d thought about doing a few times, and having a few failed experiments with Idea Flight (my issue, not the app). Besides getting a funny look from the participants, I noticed that I was a lot freer to talk to the eyes of the audience, as there was almost this sense that “if we keep our eyes down too long, we’ll miss connecting with the speaker.” It was one of those things that kind of stuck with me, and therefore this kind of bubbling up of the question in the tweet.
So I think… if we are in small(ish) groups where almost every person has their own screen. By screen, I mean everything from feature phone, to smartphone, to tablets, to wireless-enabled MP3 players, to laptops. Each with a screen, and a means (somehow, either by a narrowcast Bluetooth/WiFi signal, or a session where folks who might be “plants” were to share the content with others around them, showing them how to share with more people. And after that, a call to order, and then the person who is speaking literally leads by saying “open that file/document/link you were just sent, as I’ll be talking from the points on your screen there.”
To me, it sounds in part like going back to the time before projectors were a common occurrence in fellowship halls. It also sounds like Slient Frisco but magnified beyond just the audio experience. What does such a change to this idea of a podium or even lead-speaker do to these kind of community engagements? Could it foster something different and longer lasting than simply “well, he preached good?”
One of the responses to the Twitter question asked if this is something I could see in a large (think TED) setting. I had to answer honestly, I could. I don’t see any reason why everyone needs to be fixated on a large screen when there is someone in front of you passionately detailing whatever it is that moves them/moves you. I do think that the large screen community experience works great when we are talking of movies and performances – it makes no sense to go to a shared-viewing event only to stick your head in your own screen. But, presentations (sermons even) are different. The projected content (can, not always does) accents the speaker. And if the speaker is worth their passion in being heard, the slides don’t matter as much as their believe-ability does.
Could you see a future where the projector leaves your fellowships for the direct contact of seeing the person speaking? Could you stand to be that presenter not relying on a projector for context? I did it, and frankly, I’d like to continue the practice.
Around this point, barring anything having happened to me while on the road in the past 24 hours, we’re almost starting with a presentation titled From the Toilet to the Pulpit at 
Got a rash of items on the plate in the coming months which might pique your interest. These have been (and will be continue to be) talked about on Twitter (
This past Monday, I got a chance to present at the 7Ms meeting in VA Beach. Its always a pleasure to connect with and hear the stories of what is happening around the world from missionaries who are in and out of the states, and this meeting was no different – even with us having the space to present about MMM.
7 Years Online, 2 Years Full-Time, What It Looks Like Today
Friday, April 27th, 2012One of the questions that comes not long after giving a description about MMM and its activities is, “how does it enable you to make a living?” I’m not married, and so that’s an easy question (some months are much harder than others). But, seeing that today is one of those days where I’m engaged with a client -this post, as with many others, has been written at least a week in advance of it posting – I thought it good to talk a bit about how MMM exists beyond the articles published, and what could be coming down the pipe to help things further for all interested parties.
Training and Consulting
MMM is a very low-overhead operation. Much of the output that comes from this endeavor comes as a result of using the mental capacities of me (Antoine, the founder). One of the ways this capacity is leveraged is in training and consulting opportunities.
Training usually happens with small and medium-sized businesses whom are looking to implement a technology or series of technologies to a team or several teams. To that end, I work with a few companies and groups local to NC and PA to be an available trainer for software and the occasional mobile implementation. That has been as simple as BlackBerry training, and as complicated as training project managers to use MS Project for their specific brand of project management processes/workflows.
Consulting is another area that’s used (not as often as I’d like, but hey, that’s the economy for you) to fund things here. Consulting takes place around two core communication technologies – web design/development and Microsoft’s SharePoint product. That’s my background, and given the scope of work that I’ve done in development, administration, and analysis around web and projects, it makes for a suitable engagement point for fundable activities. What that can look like for you can be any number of things – minus building your mobile app for you – as it is a wide and deep set of skills.
At any given point, there may be zero to four companies that I’m engaged with at a time (not including those just talking to to develop the relationship). The bulk of that work is developing the relationships, and (the slow process of) turning that into compensated work. Much of this work is short term (hours to days), and so there’s no need to be present in a cubicle for months on end – the flexibility allows for the consistency of content that you see on the magazine, and the constant pressing forward of skills and knowledge. It does allow for an office that can be nearly anywhere (#todaysoffice), which is its own source of market visibility.
Presenting and Speaking
Another means of bringing in income to fund living comes from presenting and speaking. I will admit that this has probably been the hardest aspect of things because to be recognized as a speaker you have to (a) be seen speaking and (b) have something unique enough to talk about that people will pay you to do it. There aren’t as many opportunities to do this as I’d like – some say its because there’s been no formal book published (!!) – but as things move forward with not only the magazine, but the subject of mobile ministry, there are those opportunities which present themselves.
Unfortunately, some of the hindrances with the presenting and speaking comes of the very wide geographical, theological, and political applications of mobile ministry. I just can’t afford to travel as much as some do, and working on grants and sponsorship takes as much time as living. Don’t get me wrong, there’s opportunities to leverage the technologies of the moment to get to some places (as done with BibleTech in 2011), but that’s not always the case and you miss those connections that should turn into those training, consulting, and speaking engagements when you do. For a recent example, I missed being in on the Mobile Ministry Forum webinar that happened yesterday, because of ork scheduled that was needed to put food on the table. The folks whom are missionaries and constantly going between raising support and not fainting from their ministry work have taught me a ton because of this.
Other Stuff
Beyond these activities, there are actually some friends and family who have been quite generous for some of the living needs. I know that some have gotten tired of my monthly calls for prayer to make sure that I make the budget for the next month (its honestly hard for some of them to understand why I’d ocntinue with MMM rather than get a “regular” job – that whole “calling” thing is not normal language to some). Perhaps things will improve on over time as mobile and ministry are seen to have a more implicit intersection beyond “let’s get that app done.”. I’m not sure. But, that’s just to say that I’m not resting on just getting the four activites described above as the main pieces of the puzzle. I’m always looking for additional avenues where the knowledge and understanding gained from MMM pushes the Body forward, and keeps compensated work flowing.
Truth is, I never wanted to do this with the intention of making a dollar, I just needed an answer to a question that no one was looking to answer… in 2004. Perhaps the value in that is all that should be gained from this for me… What you and those who have written or visited here over the past have gained is another thing – of which I hope has been very valuable to forwarding your understanding of the faith and the technology lens of mobile alongside it.
There is some rumbling towards partnerships with other ministries and companies with whom this venue is a suitable launching pad towards their audiences. Stay tuned for that, or get in touch if that’s something you/your organization might find suitable.
That’s pretty much it. I’ll continue to push along here until something else happens that means that this shift is no longer needed to be pushed from this person/angle. This magazine has been online 7 years (as of a few days ago), with about 3000 articles/posts published, a methodology finalized, and a number of experiments. If this it continues, that means that these and other avenues will present themselves. If not, and this is how it ends, well, I can’t say that I didn’t do my part in seeing search engines as intended. I just hope that when you leave this site, whether you’ve read one or several pieces, that you’ve come away with a perspective to understanding the implications of mobile and technology that puts your best faith forward.
Tags: Antoine RJ Wright, consulting, experiments, financing, partnerships, presentations, SharePoint, speaking, stewardship, tech, training
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