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“Toto, I have the feeling we are not in Kansas any more” - Dorothy, in Wizard of Oz
In a rapidly changing world, we need to make frequent conceptual leaps for effective ministry.
A few years back, a European manufacturer of industrial drilling machines was suffering badly with competition from products manufactured in the Far East. Wisely, they called in consultants to help them see a way forward. “So, how would you describe your business,” asked the consultants. “Well, we sell drilling machines, of course,” they replied. “Well, actually, you don’t,” said the consultants. “You enable people to make holes.” This new way of perceiving their role led them to switch to making laser-equipment for cutting holes, with renewed business success.
Lateral thinking is so often a key to success. For instance, food-processing engineers were trying to create a machine that could crack nuts. Problem was to adjust the squeeze according to the exact size of the nut and the strength of its shell. Unless they could precisely calibrate the exact pressure needed for each nut, many were damaged. As so often, the answer was completely different: put the nuts in a vacuum and the shells would just burst off with zero damage or loss.
Often, what we believe to be our goals are in fact merely strategies. We can change strategies radically in order to reach the same ultimate goals, as this cartoon demonstrates:
The world is changing faster than ever. Those of us born in the 50s, 60s and 70s grew up in the tailend of the ‘print communication culture’ that had been launched by Gutenberg’s printing press; and before postmodernism had changed public understanding of ‘truth’ from absolute and universal to relative and personal.
Wired up differently
The brains of people brought up in an oral culture, a print culture or the new digital culture are actually wired up differently. They process information differently. They perceive the world differently. Visual story is becoming integral to effective communication in this new cultural environment. Digital communication culture in fact has much in common with oral communication.
Story is everything, as Daniel Taylor explains in this short video. (View more videos from Professor Taylor, including a longer presentation at the Desiring God conference.)
Even those gifted with an evangelistic apologetics ministry, such as Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel, claim that they must now embed their apologetics material within personal story in order to get a hearing. Does this not sound faintly familiar? Jesus’ primary means of spoken communication to the ‘unchurched’ was to embed truth within visual story (’visual’ in the sense that he painted pictures in words). And, of course, this was in the context of hanging out with people socially. All. The. Time. (See Luke 15:2, Matthew 9:11, Mark 2:16 and John Piper’s comments.) He was building relationships and meeting felt needs.
The question should no longer even be, “How can I embed some short illustrations into my presentation of propositional truths?” but “How can I embed essential truth into a memorable visual story?”
One increasingly strategic way of telling a visual story is a the video short. And it no longer needs expensive equipment and lots of training, as this useful presentation explains:
Traditional story-telling has become a popular movement in many countries. A local festival in our county town always has a story-telling tent, where amateur story-tellers can hold me spell-bound for hours: just the tradional folk story genre we knew as kids.
Our stories can be positioned according to the spiritual awareness of the listeners on the Gray Matrix. There is special value in creating stories that start people thinking and asking questions: check some amazing video shorts. These have growing evangelistic value, not only as embeds in websites and blogs, but also installed on mobile phones.
The Joshua Project has expressed progress in world evangelism using a Global Progress Scale. Different colors represent evangelism status.
It would be interesting to create an overlay for this map showing digital penetration in the red (unreached) areas, because many of these have medium to high use of the Web and/or mobile phone ownership:
This detailed analysis by Ugandan evangelist Kato Mivule demonstrates the current usefulness and growing importance of mobile communication in Africa.
Mobiles are equally strategic in technologically-advanced countries such as Japan, where more web access and emailing is done by mobile phone than fixed computer. There is a growing trend in Africa to use mobiles for web access, because of the shortage of fixed phone-lines.
This YouTube presentation explains the opportunities that mobiles offer to missions and evangelists in the non-West (slight sound problem on part of video, to be soon corrected):
Watch a rather long (45-min) secular vox-pop documentary on mobile use in Zanzibar, with introductory article.
As Greg Atkinson has observed, “Think global and mobile.” If you are interested in these possibilities, join Visual Story Network, follow Mobile Ministry Magazine and check our resources about mobiles. We trust that the strategic Lausanne Conference later this year will give full weight to these incredible opportunities.
If your mobile phone will support video clips, store a portfolio of ‘conversation starter’ clips such as these, that you can share when you have the opportunity. (There are many easy ways to download YouTube videos onto your own computer or phone.)
If you have stories to share of effective mobile opportunities, please use the comment link below.
Dr Bex Lewis has produced a valuable overview of social networking (she has called it elseshere a ‘cheat sheet’) on her blog Digital Fingerprint. Check out the rest of the blog for many insights into the nature of social networking,
What is appropriate use of social media? What is just plain bad manners – and therefore counter-productive in Christian ministry? Author and social networking expert Tamar Weinberg explains.
Mikey Lynch highlights the importance of your Facebook page not being ‘too Christianized’ if you want it to relate properly to non-Christians. For the same reason, he has two blogs – one with Christian perspectives for a Christian readership, and a second one for not-yet-Christians.
There is a case for also having two Facebook pages. Many of us in ministry have Facebook sites plastered with ministry connections and content, totally unsuitable and off-putting for others to connect with.
First, here’s Alma, a prize-winning (secular) animation by Rodrigo Blaas that is hugely compelling. And chilling. A visual metaphor of entrapment. A real discussion starter – it would be useful to show, for example, to a youth group. Or as a embedded clip within a website, asking questions. There is so much to see and analyze within it, with spiritual parallels and warnings. You’ll need to watch it several times, in full screen. (That’s the second control from the right, in the toolbar under the video.)
Then check the excellent new video resources from Global Short Film Network. These take the same approach – thought-provoking, question-starting video shorts. They are for sale at minimal cost, with free offers. Soon, they will be available for embedding; bookmark this site and use these incredible outreach resources.
Why are these videos so strategic? And biblical? Will you ever forget the storyline of Alma? What lessons did it smuggle into your heart? What dangers might you be more alive to, as a result? (Add your comments below.)
A story becomes a parable, or provides a parallel, only when we provide an appropriate “this is like”. The stories that Jesus told were very culturally appropriate, but without His “this is like”, they would have remained just whimsical stories, with the embedded meanings un-noticed. With that connection, they were his main means of evangelism to the ‘un-churched’ non-synagogue goers.
“The last 15 years have changed our world for ever,” claims Tony Whittaker, co-ordinator of Internet Evangelism Day. “Digital media are transforming the way we communicate, behave and even think. If Facebook was a country, it would have the fourth largest population in the world.”
Internet Evangelism Day is a strategic resource to help the worldwide church understand these issues and use the Web to share the good news. It is both a year-round online guide and an annual focus day – to be held this year on Sunday 25 April.
Churches are encouraged to use Internet Evangelism Day resources to create a presentation for their members on or near that Sunday (or at any other time they choose). The IE Day site offers free downloads: PowerPoint, video clips, handouts, drama scripts, music and posters. These enable any church (or homegroup, college, or conference) to build a customized program, lasting from five minutes to fifty.
2010’s focus day will be the sixth to be used by churches around the world since the initiative’s launch in 2005. Over this period, digital media have developed dramatically, with the advent of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and the growing use of mobile phones to access online services. The outreach opportunities have multiplied too.
IE Day’s website is also a one-stop resource covering many subjects, including how to build a church website that is ‘outsider friendly’, using Twitter in evangelism, and blogging. Perhaps surprisingly, you do not need to be technical to share your faith online. There are also many opportunities to volunteer as an email mentor to inquirers with several large online outreach ministries.
Internet Evangelism Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton. It is supported by a wide range of leaders and groups. “I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day,” says John Stott.
All IE Day’s resource articles and blog postings are free to reproduce online and in print.
IE Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, an umbrella group of online ministries based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton. It is completely free and has no fund-raising component.
Probably the most important trends in the context of evangelism and ministry are those that already have enormous momentum:
the growth of mobile phone use (often with web access) especially in the non-Western world. (Africa has more mobile users than any other continent.) Read more.
Facebook and other social networking sites. If Facebook was a country, it would the fourth largest in the world. Many web users spend the majority of their time on Facebook as a one-stop connection point with friends and family. Social networking sites are hugely popular outside the West. Read more.
Visual story is a key part of our digital communication culture, including the short video clip on YouTube and embedded into blogs and other web sites. Read more.
Looking back at 2009, these were the top 12 of our blog posts:
Also turn your eyes to the right of this page. Our ‘blog roll’ is not a list of links to blogs who may have linked to this one. It is a carefully chosen selection of some of the most insightful and strategic blogs available, in the area of digital media, evangelism, and church ministry.
The beauty of blogs like these is that we can connect with the minds of some of the world’s most foremost thinkers in these areas, and consider challenging questions as well as read feedback and dialogue with others.
Hover links to see a preview of their latest posting. Consider using a blog reader such as Google Reader so that you can view all the blogs you wish to follow, in one place.
Hmm. Until last Sunday, I had spent a lifetime not knowing that the Bethlehem shepherds were not just ordinary shepherds. And the lambs they raised were not just ordinary lambs. At least, the first-born males weren’t. For the hill country around Bethlehem was the breeding area of lambs for the Temple sacrifices. So there’s added resonance for David’s city as the birthplace of his greater descendant, plus striking significance that these shepherds were the first people to see The Lamb.
Which reminds me of a cartoon, by the great political cartoonist Papas, that appeared in UK’s Manchester Guardian paper circa 1960. Santa Claus is telling the Christmas story to a child, who asks, “But how did it end.” The un-noticed backdrop to the scene: the Cross.
May you and your family know a special touch of blessing and peace this Christmas.
Twitter has taken personal sharing to a whole new level. It is the intimate aspect that people find so compelling. By contrast, businesses who have started Twitter streams about their products get minimal interest. But well-known people who Twitter can get zillions of followers.
The attraction of Twitter (to those who have space in their lives for yet more electronic messages) is its brief immediacy and apparent intimacy. People share their moment by moment emotions in a raw way that they would probably not do in the more thoughtful environment of a normal blog. ‘Tweets’ are more like talking than writing. And of course, every tweet is available online for the whole world to read, should it so wish. (See background information on Twitter.)
This means that you can search for tweets that contain keywords about a particular subject. This is a valuable strategy being used by Paul Watson of Reaching the Online Generation. Doubtless as marketers start to use similar strategies, it may lose its effectiveness. But for now, it means that you can easily connect with people on any topic you wish. This can include people who are tweeting about a personal life problem, enabling you to contact them and sensitively offer help.
Because you can also filter tweets by postal code origin, a church can even locate hurting people in its area! Paul explains how to do this below. Also scroll down past his technical explanation to read a moving example of compassion and ministry flowing through Twitter.
Here is an excerpt from the book I’m writing (publication due early 2010, working title The Six Strategic Elements for Starting an Online Ministry) that explains how to use Seesmic and Search.Twitter.com to ‘listen to the lost’.
Here is one quick way using the Seesmic desktop:
Sign up for a free Twitter account, if you do not already have one.
Download the free Seesmic desktop program and install it. (Note that Seesmic can help Twitter users in many other ways that described here.)
Add your Twitter account in the Seesmic desktop program.
In the top right hand corner of the Seesmic desktop, you will find a search box. Type in a word connected with a social object or social marker. I usually tell people to type ‘photography’, ‘picture,’ or other words related to photography, as an easy example to use.
Seesmic will search Twitter for any tweets using the word you entered into the search box. It will create a column for that word that automatically updates anytime someone uses that term.
If you want, you can click on their username in the Seesmic desktop and then again on their profile picture to visit their Twitter profile online. Then you can read their bio and perhaps visit their blog or website, if they list one.
If you don’t want to download the Seesmic desktop, you can use Search.Twitter.Com to do the same thing.
Go to http://search.twitter.com.
Enter your keyword in the search box and hit enter. Search.Twitter.Com will display tweets containing that search word.
Click on a username to visit that person’s Twitter profile.
If you use the ‘Advanced Search’ feature on the Search.Twitter.Com page, you can set your filter to pull tweets from people living in specific cities or countries. This is especially valuable if your organization wants to focus on connecting with, and meeting the needs of, people living nearby. You use the same listening strategies as above to listen to the needs of these geographically close communities. You can also use the same tactics to meet their needs, but you are more likely to connect in person.
On http://search.twitter.com, click on the ‘Advanced Search’ link next to the search box.
Type your search term in the ‘All of These Words’ box.
Scroll down to ‘Places’ and enter your zip code or city. Set ‘Within this Distance’ to something that makes sense to you.
Click on the ‘Search’ button at the bottom of the screen.
Paul goes on to give a moving example of the power of Twitter to connect hurting people with encouragement:
When I started listening online, I used the keywords ‘pray’ and ‘prayer’ to filter the Twitter stream. I wanted to see if people – Christian or not – asked for prayer when they faced crisis. They did, and I was quickly overwhelmed. I didn’t have enough time to listen to all the requests.
As I ‘listened,’ several of the requests moved me to prayer. Eventually, prayer wasn’t enough. I had to respond somehow and let these people know that someone cared enough to pray. More importantly, I wanted them to understand that there was a God who loved them and cared about what was going on in their life.
About the time I decided to jump into the conversation, a heartbreaking tweet came up on my monitor:
“Must stave off breakdown. It’s too much knowing my daughter’s going blind. I pray she sees her baby girl before that happens; if it must. March 30, 2008″
That tweet broke me. I knew I needed to respond, but how do you respond to something like that in 140 characters in a way that doesn’t come across as religious and trite. I prayed hard and then replied:
“@[her name] – God brought your tweet to my attention. He loves you. Praying for you and your daughter.”
To my surprise, she replied and thanked me for my prayers. Later on that evening she tweeted:
“Night y’all. Thanks for your care & prayers for my daughter [daughter's name]. I pray her blindness/migraines stop & she’ll see her baby being born. March 30, 2008″
I followed her on Twitter so that I could keep up with her and her daughter and see how God was going to answer my prayer. A few weeks later she tweeted:
“[Baby's name] was born @ 9:58 PM on 04/22/08. She’s a beautiful, healthy girl & [daughter's name] doing well. Thanks y’all for your best wishes. April 23, 2008″
She communicated that her daughter was able to hold her baby and see her when she was born. I was so excited. I remembered that 1 Chronicles 16:8 says, “Give thanks to the LORD; call on His name; proclaim His deeds among the peoples.” Basically that means that we get to point to things God does and shout, “Look at what God did! Isn’t He amazing!” I wanted to obey this passage, so I replied,
“@[her name] – Congratulations! Praise the Lord for answering our prayers! Glad she could see her baby!”
Later on that night she replied to everyone,
“I’m so tired. You’d think I had the baby. I truly thank everyone for your prayers, good wishes & support for [daughter's name] during her difficulty April 23, 2008″
A couple of weeks later she tweeted,
“My daughter’s eyesight is returning to normal since the birth of [her baby] on Earth Day (04/22/08). I appreciate all the prayers & love. Thanks May 05, 2008″
I praise the Lord for what He did in that woman’s life. After reading her bio and website, I realized she was probably not a Christian, even though she came from a Christian culture. I’ve long since lost contact with her, but I hope God continues to work in her life and draw her to Christ.
After that, I knew that the Holy Spirit wasn’t going to let me simply listen to what was going on online. I had to jump into the conversation.
Of course, it is possible to use a comparable approach with conventional blogs, using Google alerts to search for blog postings on specific personal needs or affinity interests, then gently and sensitively respond direct to the blog owner or by add a blog comment to the posting where appropriate.
Superlatives reign. Movie director Cameron does it again: probably the most expensive film ever made. And in 3D. Took 14 years to make. With its own language to out-Klingon Klingon. Getting rave reviews since release the week before Christmas. Avatar. Will its appeal extend beyond testosterone-charged teenage boys and ‘grown-up’ men? Will the romance between hero Jake and planet Pandora’s computer-generated (cgi) heroine Neytiri make it a two-box Kleenex chick flick too? Do cgi faces look expressionless and botoxed? Are the Na’vi tribe’s pointy ears better than Dr Spock’s? Or Galadriel’s?
Cameron says his inspiration is “every single science fiction book I read as a kid”. Visit official movie site with trailer.
“In his first movie since Titanic, James Cameron has made it worth the wait with a stunning milestone in film-making – and a storyline surprisingly rich in political and spiritual undertones,” says Christianity Today in their review.
Take the opportunity. Find the parallels, write about them, blog about them.
Share your insights about this movie using the ‘comment’ link below.
The one-day London conference organized by UK’s Evangelical Alliance and Facing the Challenge on 1 December, is now available in MP3 (except, sadly, Shane Hipps’ video-link contribution, which worked well at the time, but did not record). The sessions are short, clear and thought-provoking.
But you can listen to a previous 30-minute interview with Hipps: go to his NeueMinistry recording. Check also our review of Flickering Pixels by Hipps; the page includes other video interviews and links.
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When I started listening online, I used the keywords ‘pray’ and ‘prayer’ to filter the Twitter stream. I wanted to see if people – Christian or not – asked for prayer when they faced crisis. They did, and I was quickly overwhelmed. I didn’t have enough time to listen to all the requests. 
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