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Above all, we’d love to see churches devoting a few minutes to share the practical opportunities that are now available. Here are 14 things your church can do on IE Day.
A changed world
The digital world has changed remarkably in the last year or two. Although a part of Internet Evangelism Day’s emphasis has always been to mobilize individual Christians into digital evangelism, until recently the options we could suggest were quite limited. Writers might be drawn to blogging, or create a website if they felt technically competent. Those good at thinking on their feet could share in chat rooms and bulletin boards. But most of these suggestions were time-intensive and intentional initiatives only suitable for a small minority.
What has changed? The emergence of the ‘three-fold cord’ of social networking allied to video shorts and mobile phones. At last it has become remarkably easy for any Jesus-follower to build relationships and discuss truth appropriately, especially within social networking platforms. Our digital communication culture has become highly visual and dialogue-based, and the sharing of conversation-starting video shorts on Facebook and Twitter is as easy as a mouse-click, though only if we know where to find them: http://ieday.net/video
Phone apps
There are few smartphone apps that are genuinely aimed at outsiders, that can be shared one-to-one, or in a small discussion group. UK team Damaris has just released a strategic iPhone app called Talking About Jesus (Android version coming soon.)
A second new evangelism-related web app is called God’s GPS. Its purpose is to equip Christians to share faith appropriately and conversationally. It is not intended for non-yet-followers to download or look at: http://ieday.net/blog/archives/7677
Curation
Pinterest.com allows anyone to create a very visual set of curated recommendations, within their own chosen areas of interest, with no tech knowledge needed. http://ieday.net/blog/archives/6977
There’s one message that we need to write on our hearts: THINK MOBILE. Whether you’re a web designer, church, social networker, bible or book publisher, or mission agency, mobiles are a vital key to evangelism and discipleship.
Chris White of ChrisWhiteMinistries.com explains the incredibly opportunities for mobile phones in Africa and Asia. National church leaders and members, mission agencies: this is happening now! It’s not the future. Even old cheap ‘feature phones’, in countries where smartphones are not yet common, can handle java-based Bible and other downloads: learn more. Check this story of an Indian evangelist sharing videos with a muslim taxi-driver. See also our other posts on mobiles.
Mobile apps
There’s huge potential for evangelistic phone apps. We recently featured the new Talking About Jesus app for iPhone, one of very few evangelistic apps.
Jan Korpegård of HJCB Sweden writes, “I have developed an Android app, which presents the Easter week bible texts in real time during the Easter week.” The app is just released on the Android Market (now renamed Google Play). You’ll need to use your phone’s Menu button to switch off the audible alerts of new texts being posted!
Web-based apps
In the headlong rush for mobile apps, you may encounter some described as web-based apps. These are not ‘native’ apps in the normal sense, obtained from iTunes or the Android app market, and which often function without a data connection.
Web-based apps however, run within a browser, and are essentially a mobile-friendly web-site, which usually needs a data connection to function. Antoine Wright, of Mobile Ministry Magazine, has written a detailed explanation of web-based apps, and how they differ from normal ‘native’ apps.
Antoine is available for consultancy on all aspects of mobile phone ministry.
You may not necessarily associate the terms curator and curation with the Internet, thinking of them as applying primarily to museums and art galleries. A museum curator has to be an expert and enthusiast in her field, and want to share that with others.
A curator classifies and displays precious objects or pictures, placing them in context with each other, and explaining their story and significance.
Incidentally the root and origin of these words is the same as that of church curate, from the Latin curatus meaning care. The Puritan Divines, and other church traditions, often spoke of the cure of souls which really meant spiritual care. That’s a nice resonance for this discussion.
Back in the day
In 1995, when the Web was only just out of the egg, students Jerry Yang and David Filo created an online guide to the then relatively limited range of websites. They called it Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web and it evolved into Yahoo!
This was a hierarchical directory of websites, with subtopics nested within main topics. Bizarrely, it still exists, though no one knows about it, and it’s wildly out of date. A similar open-source directory DMoz still also exists, with volunteer topic editors, though most people have never heard of it. It is likewise very limited and mostly out-of-date.
These are effectively dead because it is a significant task to maintain a ‘best of’ topic area, add new websites, and weed out old ones. And because Google is perhaps the most successful automated curation system ever, it has replaced most such directories. Within limits, Google search results, based on algorithms that factor in the known popularity of web-page, can sometimes by a reasonable ‘best of’ list.
However, even Google cannot achieve what a human can – create a carefully chosen ‘best of’ list for a specific topic and context, perhaps with reviews and impartial explanations.
And in a digital world with zillions of websites and deafening ‘noise’ (unneeded and useless information washing around), curation is increasingly essential.
Examples of curation
Internet Evangelism Day’s resources are, in part, an attempt to curate useful resources and set them in context. For some Twitter users (those who like to function as mavens), their tweet stream is mostly a rolling curation of recommended resources and ideas. Social bookmarking and blogging can be examples of content curation. ‘Best of’ tweet streams can be amalgamated into a Paper.li daily/weekly online newspaper. However, social networking curation has a short half-life – ie. after a day or two, it is lost, buried by newer stuff.
Pinterest enables you to create a very visual and personal set of permanently curated images and resources, with the advantage that it is incredibly easy to use.
If someone we trust says that something is good and useful, we believe it. The web is one big crowd-sourcing device, where we can do the spade-work for each other, and share the good stuff.
What can I curate?
Almost anything! There is a big need in the fields of evangelism, discipleship and missions, to offer people a ‘best of’ list of resources, perhaps with added value advice too, especially as a permanent set of pages that can be easily found, rather than merely Twitter or Facebook streams, which have a half-life of minutes.
Here are a few potential areas (for which I am not aware that anyone has created a webpage – if you know of any, please add in the comments section), with reasons why they are so strategic:
Discipleship and group Bible-study free ebooks, suitable for pastors and leaders in the majority world. There is a huge shortage of such culturally appropriate and balanced ebooks, either in easy international English or other languages. I do not know any listing that draws together what is available, with reviews of contents and target readers.
Another majority world need: a one-stop list of the relatively limited number of evangelistic full-length videos for Africa, Mid East and Asia, available either as DVDs, digital downloads or streamed. (YesHEIs.com is a curated list of video shorts in multiple languages.)
List and review of discipleship and evangelistic smartphone apps. There are very few of the latter. This is a huge area of opportunity. It could also include pages of advice and resources on how to build apps.
How to script, shoot and edit an evangelistic YouTube short, with best links to free or cheap resources for each component of the task.
In the world of Christian books, I know of no list of evangelistic titles that are truly suitable for outsiders, including explanations of who they’d be most appropriate for. This is a huge need.
How to write, proofread, edit and publish an ebook, including getting it listed on Amazon as a Kindle book.
There are vast numbers of similar niches – some to help Jesus followers in evangelism or discipleship, others to directly engage with not-yet-followers.
If you are a relative expert in a niche area, you like sharing good things with others, and have time to keep a curated list up-to-date, this could be for you.
It’s worth highlighting that a ‘best of’ list is precisely that. If you build one, many people will write asking for their web-pages to be included. A resource like this is of value precisely because it excludes the mediocre, maybe even the only moderately good. A “10 best” is vastly more valuable than an off-puttingly large “50 half-decent”. And
don’t be afraid to classify into sub-categories containing manageable numbers of focused recommendations.
Direct evangelism
You can also use curation for direct online evangelism, by including appropriate evangelistic, conversation-starting pages on life issues, popular culture etc, testimonies or similarvideo-clips within a wider range of secular recommendations. You can do this using Pinterest, and on many other web platforms.
It is one of the keys to appropriate evangelism – connecting with people on the basis of their common interests and felt needs.
Read more
Read a very clear explanation by Rohit Bhargava of content curation and why it is increasingly significant, and also this EContent page.
Please add your comments on areas you think need a curated ‘best of’ or ‘how to’ page.
Photo: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. Credit: geograph.co.uk | Creative Commons
Internet Evangelism Day is set for 29 April, as the culmination of Digital Outreach Month.
IE Day is both an annual focus day and year-round resource guide for digital outreach. It has always been our suggestion that churches build a digital evangelism focus into their events or service sheets on (or near) that day. In previous years, although this could be an eye-opening challenge, actual involvement in digital evangelism or ministry was not something that many church members were likely to take up. The options were somewhat limited, time-consuming, and needed technical or writing gifts.
No longer! Social networking enables any online Christian to naturally share resources that explain some aspect of the good news, and start conversations with those they are already linked with. So at last, an IE Day presentation can suggest practical ideas and opportunities that most church members can use right now. There is a hugely significant three-fold intertwined cord of social networking, video shorts and mobile phones.
However, we must understand the nature of social networking to use it effectively. If we think of it as one-way publicity, we are will be ineffective and irritating. Social networking is people and two-way relationships. Think ‘cafe’, not ‘pulpit’.
14 digital ideas to share with your church on IE Day
Showcase live the new Talking About Jesus iPhone app (you can plug an audio jack into the phone for a clear audio feed) and discuss/demonstrate other ways that mobile phones can be used to share the good news.
Start a discussion on whether your church could appoint a Digital Advocate to resource the fellowship, if you do not already have someone fulfilling this role.
Recognize and honor any in your fellowship who are already involved in some area of digital ministry, including the church website, and ask them to share their stories. Pray for them publicly.
Project a live online demonstration of using a Pinterest account and add content to it including appropriate evangelistic/conversation-starting material.
Encourage small home-groups to discuss and investigate various digital evangelism opportunities.
Suggest to the youth group the possibility of creating some evangelistic YouTube shorts.
If you only have time for a 5-10 minute spot using one or two of the above suggestions, consider regular brief spots on different days. Or even create an entire service or meeting around digital evangelism, and integrate some music and a short drama.
If you have never done this, consider explaining the crucial issue of how members can stay safe and accountable online, and also highlight protection software for children. And why not create a few ongoing classes on how to use some of these 14 options, or even some basic web training for online newcomers?
We need you! Internet Evangelism Day has no publicity budget and can only be made known more widely by word of mouth. Please help leverage these incredible opportunities for evangelism by tweeting, Facebook, blogging etc. or republishing this article online or in print, in any way you wish. Ready-made Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other sharing buttons are available below.
These easy options could indirectly change many lives if we can share them widely.
Latest incarnation of Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics ‘state of social media’ video. (Follow his blog at Socialnomics.net.) It’s also available to download so you can show it in meetings or seminars to explain just how far digital communication extends.
Social networking means ‘people’ and ‘relational’. The potential to share good news worldwide is immense and growing. At the same time, we must not fall in love with the medium. It’s all about people!
Regular readers of this blog will have noticed an occasional tendency to enthuse about the Japanese animé films from Studio Ghibli. So here we go again! Arrietty is their latest.
Released in Japan in 2010, it came to Europe in early 2011 and UK/Australia in July. Now, finally, North America gets it too – released on 17 February, under the US title The Secret World of Arrietty. The delay must be in part because Disney, for better or worse, has rejected the existing English soundtrack and started again with different, American, actors. Actually, when watching Studio Ghibli I generally prefer to switch to the Japanese-language version and read the English subtitles.
Because it is a sheer delight. Pure treasure. The artwork and soundtrack are beautiful, detailed and subtle. At one point, you can even hear the sound of a ladybird’s wings starting to open. The story-telling is gently paced and harmonious. The opening song and other music from French Breton celtic singer and harpist Cécile Corbel a joy – see video below. (Lyric: English | Japanese) Indeed, Ghibli theme music is usually haunting and first class, as this orchestral medley demonstrates.
True to the book
If you have read Mary Norton’s The Borrowers books or seen the BBC serial, you’ll recognize the first two books’ narrative as retold in the Ghibli version, although it is slimmed down and placed in a Japanese setting. It is very true to the spirit of the original, unlike the Jim Broadbent/John Goodman 2007 film which was pure gung-ho Tom and Jerry action. The BBC made a new 90-minute TV version with Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, and Christopher Eccleston, shown Christmas 2011. BBC also aired two mini-series in 1992-3. All three are available on DVD.
If you want to come to the story fresh, skip the spoiler synopsis in the Wikipedia article, which has lots of helpful information about the film. For a sensitive and detailed review, see Helen McCarthy’s article. McCarthy is a foremost expert, writing and speaker on many areas of Japanese culture including animé. You can watch her lectureFrom Nausicaa to Ashitaka: The development of the heroic ideal in the 20th century works of Hayao Miyazaki at the University of Maryland.
If you missed it as a movie in Europe/Australasia, the English DVD (Region 2) is available in UK and many other countries. Release in North America is mid-2012 after its movie theater run. You can already buy the Japanese-language version (all-regions DVD with English subtitles) from good Asian suppliers such as ZoomMovie with cheap delivery charges. You may also prefer the British dub to the Disney US English dub (which inexplicably has removed Cecile Corbel’s song).
Gift ideas
Studio Ghibli DVDs make great presents! Individual titles are relatively cheap on Amazon. A boxed set (DVDs work in all regions) of all 14 movies is available from specialist animé dealers such as Anime United and often from independent sellers within Amazon.
If you don’t know the genre, start with the less fantastical Studio Ghbili titles such as Only Yesterday, The Cat Returns, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa, Whisper of the Heart, and Ponyo. The pre-Ghibli Castle of Cagliostro and (for younger children) Panda Go Panda are also fun. A further pre-Ghibli gem directed by Hayao Miyazaki is the 1978 26-episode made-for-TV Future Boy Conan. It’s not distributed in the West, but can be easily found on eBay or Asian anime suppliers. Similar films in the Ghibli style include The Girl Who Jumped Through Time, and Mai Mai Miracle. Most Ghibli films relate to any age group, through perhaps Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Grave of the Fireflies are too esoteric/scary (and Grave is sad) for younger ones. For teens and adults, check animations by the late great Satoshi Kon, such as Millennium Actress. You can find trailers for all these films on YouTube.
Christian parallels
Popular culture frequently gives us spiritual parallels and starting points for conversation. What can we see in Arrietty?
The main theme is the need to escape from an untenable situation with a journey to an unknown freedom. This resonates clearly with the Exodus story (itself reflected so tragically right through Jewish history), which the Bible clearly positions as both a historical physical escape and a figurative parallel of spiritual journey into new life.
The restricted enclosed world in which the Borrower family has lived in reasonable safety (due to wise precautions) is finally compromised. Likewise we may live for years within a limited or non-existent understanding of ourselves in relation to God’s purpose and plan for us. Sometimes it needs a crisis to jump-start us into a spiritual journey, to search for who God really is and how Jesus fits into this picture.
You may see other parallels too? Please add them using the ‘Comment’ link below.
7 reasons to like Studio Ghibli films
They are tender and gentle, not in-your-face, all constant action, noise and smart-guy banter. They don’t try to doll up a thin story with a thrill a minute.
They appeal to people of any age. Before she was five, our youngest granddaughter could easily understand Nausicaä – Valley of the Wind, and proclaimed it her best movie. Yet they are not ‘children’s stories’. In Japan, these are mainstream adult viewing as befits their deeper levels of complexity.
They reflect the many attractive facets of Japanese culture, where politeness, harmony and understated gentleness are key. (Japanese cuisine is like this too – cooking is a delight of subtle harmonious flavors.)
Many Ghibli films tell their story through the eyes of a child or young person, who is learning to face challenges in the wider world. Frequently, this is a girl, in contrast to Western animations where, with the exception of princess stories, it’s normally a male lead (as The Guardiandiscusses in an excellent article).
Using Christopher Booker’s Seven Basic Plots definitions, Ghibli stories frequently include the ‘Voyage and Return’ theme. ‘The Quest’ and ‘Overcoming the Monster’ themes are common too. (Review of Seven Basic Plots book)
Ghibli films demonstrate a far-reaching contrast to Western ‘me-centered’ individualistic culture. Consider, for instance, most of our favorite Disney princess-themed stories. It’s all about the heroine and a her journey to get her life-goal – usually a prince and freedom. She may receive and give help to others along the way. But the big prize is exclusively hers. (See hard-hitting cartoon and discussion on Disney princesses, which happily does not criticise the saintly Belle!)
Eastern culture is different – the community is more important than the individual. Ghibli heroes and heroines are not about getting, but giving. They usually bring redemptive help to others around them, rather as Vianne channels healing to her repressed village in Chocolat. Indeed, their main prize is the satisfaction of having helped others, while gaining maturity and wisdom from the life lessons in this journey.
I wonder which is the more biblical?
Villains are not usually portrayed as utterly evil, but honestly nuanced with at least some good motives or traits, and they frequently find a measure of redemptive resolution through the leading character. (Again, compare with Chocolat.)
The central character is also honestly depicted, often with flaws or other issues. They are not cutesy, stereotyped or cloyingly sweet.
It’s a name getting increasing recognition across the Web. No, it is not a fan page for the late British playwright Harold Pinter.
Pinterest is the latest expression of social networking and sharing [introduction] and has been described as a visual bookmarking site. After its ‘closed beta’ launch in March 2010 it became one of the top 10 social networks by the end of the year. It is now claimed to be fifth largest source of referral traffic on the Web, even though it is still in ‘open beta’ phase. Although currently you must request an invite to join, confirmation comes through within hours. Pinterest has gained critical mass and in a way that no other previous bookmarking system (such as Del.ici.us, Tumblr, Stumbledupon) ever did. It seems to be much more than just a fad, and is ticking all the right boxes. For a slide presentation and short video explaining Pinterest, scroll down to end.
It defines itself as a ‘pinboard’ – somewhere to post and share images or resources you find interesting. Think of it as a cross between the original Del.icio.us online bookmarking concept, Twitter and Facebook, with Stumbledupon, Flickr, Paper.li and Blogger thrown in. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, where your postings are ephemeral and have an effective ‘half-life’ of visibility measured in 1-3 hours, Pinterest posts remain permanently visible on your personal pinboard.
You may have heard that it is only a way of sharing images, and indeed it is very image-led. But because you can link the image back to its original site, and also write your own comments, you are effectively creating a personal directory of categorized websites recommendations. (See tips about this lower down.)
How it works
You can…
post any photo, graphic or video within existing categories provided by Pinterest, or (far better) create your own more-specific custom categories.
install a one-click ‘bookmarklet’ onto Firefox’s toolbar for easy posting of what they call new ‘pins’.
when using this bookmarklet, or Pinterest’s Add + link, you can choose any graphic from the webpage being ‘pinned’ (as you can with Facebook). However, it will not add a ready-made text description. You provide this yourself. So posting to Pinterest is much more intentional and curated than the frequent random posts we make on Facebook or Twitter. It is not a place to share ongoing personal news, like Facebook.
click on ‘Pin it’ buttons that we are beginning to see alongside other one-click social-networking share links on websites and blogs. Using these, you do get a pre-chosen graphic and description (which you can edit), though you’ll still need to choose a ‘board’ ie. topic area.
install ‘Pin it’ buttons on your own website or blog (example in footer of this blog post) using the code available on the Pinterest site. Currently, if you put their button coding into a site-wide include, it can only carry the generic site info with homepage graphic and URL, rather than page-specific details, as Facebook and Twitter one-click share links do. However, it would be an easy Javascript fix to make the code draw down an individual page URL and grab the title tag wording as a description, and this flexibility will surely come available soon, if only as third-party coding solutions. (I can’t currently find one online – do you know of one?)
invite people to follow your Pinterest page by adding a ‘follow’ button to your website or blog.
follow other Pinterest uses (‘pinners’) or if you choose, follow individual boards within their site. So if someone is active on Pinterest and is adding resources to, say, 10 subject areas, but only one of these interests you, you can follow that one alone.
add your comments to anyone’s ‘pin’ (similar to commenting in Facebook).
‘repin’ someone else’s pin onto your own board, in the same way as you ‘share’ a Facebook posting across to your own FB Wall.
Pinterest integrates with Facebook, Twitter and email, so you, or visitors to your pinboards, can share a pin with one click, or also use ready-made HTML to embed the pin into their own blogs. Your Pinterest activity can also be displayed on your Facebook page in a display box, or automatically tweeted.
Pinterest lays out the ‘pins’ on your page in a 4-column layout (or one column in smartphones) with their graphics in full size (not small thumbnails), with your description below them. (This strong visual/graphic emphasis is a core value for Pinterest, as it was conceived primarily as a means to share images.) Your most recent pins are at the top of the page, so when a board get too big, it may be advisable to split boards into two or more related sections. (It is easy to ‘repin’ (move) a pin to a new board.) However, there is currently no way to ‘nest’ subsection areas within a single board topic. (When you have a number of boards, they are shrunk in size on your homepage, with thumbnail size graphics.) I suspect that as users build up larger numbers of pins and create many different boards, there will be demand for an interface that accommodates this.
Final important issue: although you can include an URL to make a graphic clickable to reach the related webpage, it is not very obvious to users that this is the case. Although the domain of your link is displayed in gray beneath description, it is not totally clear that this is a full direct URL linking to that webpage rather than the overall site. Furthermore, if you click on that pin to find more, or comment, the visible link is not then displayed.
So in your descriptive text below the graphic, include words such as ‘please click picture to read more’. (It is not possible to embed HTML links into the descriptive text, or into the comments section about a pin.)
Don’t however write this if the illustrative graphic from a pinned webpage is a YouTube video, because clicking on a video always takes you to YouTube itself.
Sharing the good news appropriately
There are a growing number of online guides to using Pinterest, and some specifically relate to using it for marketing:
While appropriate relational evangelism is not exactly the same as secular marketing, their practical tips are hugely helpful and apply to any Pinterest user.
Pinterest etiquette demands that most of your pins are not self-promotion for your own website (this is true of Twitter too). Your page will only have credibility if it contains a wide variety of carefully-chosen third-party pages. You will also gain respect by demonstrating that you are following a number of other ‘pinners’ and functioning as part of a community.
Pinterest is an ideal platform to create a page of community resources for your town or area.
Churches can use Pinterest: see articles by Center for Church Communication
and Social Media in the Church though see Angela’s comments on church strategy. I’d strongly urge a church Pinterest page to include many mainly-secular boards relating to the local town/area/community, sports and hobbies, family, health etc. But not, please not, contentious social and political issues.
As an individual, you can set up a Pinterest page and share your faith appropriately. Here’s how it might look:
Choose a number of ‘boards’ from Pinterest’s ready-made secular-interest topics, or preferably create others of specific interest to you. (Your own chosen topic areas should be also linked with Pinterest’s own default topics. They do not currently have one for ‘faith’.)
Consider a non-confrontational title for any specifically Christian-content boards, eg. ‘faith’.
In your secular-topic boards, post the best secular web resources, including videos, that you can find. Your board should be genuinely valuable to readers, and demonstrate your enthusiasm for the topic.
However, there may also be Bridge Strategy Christian pages available on secular topics. These could be videos clips, blog posts, or pages from, for example, Power to Change. The availability of topics for which there are good ‘bridge’ pages could influence your naming of ‘boards’, by covering ‘felt need’ and life issues, or hobbies/sport.
As with Facebook, people can comment on your pins, so there is the opportunity for you to enter into sensitive non-preachy dialogue.
Often raise questions rather than posting answers.
Tell your story
Are you a Pinterest ‘pinner’? Please share your story with us using the Comments section below. And are there good Pinterest guides or other resources that you recommend?
Pinterest is a major new opportunity to share faith appropriately. It’s also very easy to use. If you’ve struggled, for instance, to install apps on Facebook, or even work out byzantine levels of FB privacy, you’ll love the intuitive and simple operations.
Not another network!
Don’t think, “Not another social network to get involved in!” No one surely wants to run more than one network, two perhaps if you count Twitter. (This is probably the reason that Google+ may not succeed in the end.) Think instead, “A free website for me, networked and searchable with thousands of others, and easier to use than any other web creation system, even Blogger. And which requires of me minimal writing!”
Just published – a new book by mediastrategist Dan Henrich: Evangelism in the Digital Age: Media Case Studies (Volume 1).
The book is a series of case study reports on various film, radio, web and mobile phone initiatives in Africa, S America and Asia in the last few years. And read a sample chapter in PDF format.
Digital media are hugely strategic for evangelism and discipleship in the Majority World, as well as the West. Our new ‘Digital Communication Culture’ is strongly audio-visual rather than print-based, and therefore resonates with oral cultures and those who are not necessarily functionally literate (or lack access to printed books). Furthermore, digital is a seamless robe, whereby video shorts, full-length film, radio, MP3s, ebooks and ebibles, comics, social networking and webpages, mobile phones, computers and media players all integrate with each other, to empower believers and engage with outsiders in amazing ways that have never before been possible.
Henrich’s experience on the ground – developing or enabling film and web initiatives for Asia – makes him an ideal compiler for this series of case studies. Such studies are vitally important, as they honestly analyze past effectiveness or problems, illustrate the potential of digital media, and implicitly envision future projects.
Who should read it?
Who should read this book? Any mission executive. Any missionary hoping to enhance outreach on the ground by leveraging these God-given tools. Anyone involved in film, radio, or animation, or considering training in these areas, who hopes to impact the
two-thirds world. National church pastors and leaders. Web and mobile phone strategists. Bible college students. Trainers. Funding agencies and donors. And more!
May this book catalyze many new media initiatives. Learn more.
It is available from Amazon US as a paperback, Amazon UK and all other Amazon national stores, plus Kindle version.
Dan’s project consultancy advice
Veteran media consultant Dan Henrich would like to offer a free consultation to any person or organization interested in using media more effectively. Using his 35 years of experience in Christian media, he can help you in both the beginning stages through analysis after you have done your project. Henrich has experience is in all areas of media from radio to social media.
“In my experience, media projects fall into one of the following stages,” says Henrich, and here is how I can help you think through your project and make it better.
“THE IDEA STAGE: In this formative stage, I can help you develop a more focused full-fledged media concept, helping you identify the target audience and how to reach the target audience.
THE SCRIPT STAGE: I can look at your existing script and give you some verbal ideas on how to make it better.
THE PRODUCTION STAGE: Helping you think through getting the ideas on videotape or in a website.
And, at the ANALYSIS STAGE: I can watch your video or look at an existing site and can talk through ways to analysis its effectiveness.”
Here’s how it would work.
You send Henrich an email at info (at) comresources.org explaining the project. He will read it and make an appointment to Skype. After about an about an hour talking this will hopefully help you focus on making a more effective media project that will bring glory to God. In the event if you want more of his time you can talk. However, this is a free consultation and there is no obligation.
You are very welcome to republish this review, or Dan’s consultancy offer, in any print or online missions-related newsletter
Digital technology years seem to run seven times faster than real time, like dog lives. What developments may be significant for us in 2012?
The three-fold cord of mobile phones, social networking and video shorts will surely continue to grow in significance. India will have 200 million new mobile accounts during the year, and release the $50 Tablet for Schools.
A 4-week distance-learning course in mobile ministry starts this week – there is still time to sign up. Also still open for booking: the 8-11 Feb ICCM conference in Netherlands.
April 29 will be Internet Evangelism Day, and the whole month of April is designated Digital Outreach Month. (Here’s a ready-made short news item to use in print or online.) This is a great time for churches to investigate the huge potential of digital, and perhaps also consider whether to appoint a Digital Advocate.
2012 will surely be a year of great uncertainty and stress for many people, and there are many ways that we can connect with them online.
For years, churches have frequently appointed a missions advocate (by whatever name) to be a channel for information and challenge to the fellowship about worldwide missions. Coordinators for other areas of ministry are also commonplace.
There is now surely the same opportunity for churches to appoint someone to be the church advocate for the use of digital media in evangelism and discipleship.
Mavens needed?
Such a person would obviously need to be a web maven – a networker who knows a wide variety of online Christian resources/strategies and loves sharing them. They might function like this:
be available to consult about ideas and resources
write about digital opportunities and resources in the church newsletter
share resources in a short focus spot from time to time during meetings
explain how church members can use Facebook effectively, especially in relation to sharing the good news appropriately, including how to use the video-clip sharing resource YesHEIs.com
encourage people to load online bibles and other resources on their smartphones
suggest to those with the appropriate gifts that they consider volunteering as e-mentors with big outreach teams such as TruthMedia.com and GMO
point people to, for example, the best online study or youth discipleship resources
help the leadership team consider ways the fellowship can develop online strategies
This is a role very distinct from that of an existing missions coordinator or church webmaster, and there should be no automatic assumption that this is something extra that should be placed on them.
A digital advocate should surely not be perceived as a representative for a single website or organization. However, if you produce web content, then it this is surely an ideal opportunity to increase your effectiveness. You could ask your friends and supporters to consider the potential to become an advocate in their own churches, with your content as one of the many resources they might highlight.
Your say
Has your church already recognized such a person?
If so, what title have you given him or her?
How does it work in practice?
Or do you think this is a useful concept to consider?
And do you have suggestions for a meaningful title for this vital role, soneone who really ‘gets’ digital and can share that knowledge and enthusiasm:
“Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, should direct the music, for he understood it” 1 Chr 15:22
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Although Internet Evangelism Day is now over, of course any church can create a focus spot about the opportunities.
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