Digital Evangelism Issues

When people are seeking spiritual answers, why would we not try to listen to them and start engaging in the terms and language they are using, rather than defaulting to some standardizedformulaic gospel presentation?

Listening to the society around us is not optional. John Stott called it ‘double listening’. Tony Watkins has written on double listening in relation to popular culture.

Below, Sheridan Voysey explains some vital issues in understanding a country’s soul. This is one of a series of key video clips; please take time to follow the others on his blog.

Australia is probably similar in religious attitudes to most European countries, and Canada. Check the detailed infographic below of Australian views.

There are similar figures available for Europe from the Eurobarometer and Gallup Polls – unfortunately these do not measure animosity/hostility as such, though this may overlap considerably with the percent of non-theists in their research results.

USA is numerically very different, but George Barna Research recently reported that over the last decade, as a percentage of the population, there was zero gain in the number of Christians in America, despite the fact that $500 billion was spent on domestic ministry during that same period!

Some of our failures may be attributed to failing to understand the current context. This explanation and chart of ‘withreach’ versus ‘outreach’ is hugely helpful.

Note that around 20% of people in Australia claim a mild to strong animosity to Christianity. Understanding people’s attitude is a key to effective evangelism, and the Gray Matrix concept (a modification of the Engel Scale) is hugely helpful in visualizing this:

The church has historically fished in a very small pool – that of ‘churched’ people, ie. those with some degree of Christian background. We have often barely connected the other far larger segments of the popular, as this short story Emlyn and the Far Pools suggests. (Read in text form – available to freely reproduce.)

In 21st Century evangelism, there are four overarching principles that must inform what we do, worldwide:

1. Think digital
   The vast majority of people are wired – to the web or mobile phones. It is part of their lives. Any form of evangelism or discipleship which does not acknowledge, use or integrate digital into ministry is missing out.

2. Think social
   Digital culture is increasingly social, discussion and relationship based. (And post-Christian/postmodern.) Stop thinking ‘one-way proclamational preaching’ and start thinking ‘two-way dialogue’. And their preferred discussion topics are often their felt needs, popular culture or other interests.

3. Think mobile
   The mobile revolution means that people are connected 24/7, not just when they sit in front of a computer. For many in the Majority World, a mobile is the only electronic equipment they will own or aspire to. The mobile is unlocking opportunities for the good news that would have been impossible until recently.

4. Think storytelling
   The digital age is a storytelling age. Evangelism that does not ‘get’ story is not going to connect well in the 21st century, if ever it did.

   Visual Story Network’s 3-minute video highlights this:

You can download this video for seminars and meetings.

Storytelling is everything

Whatever we wish to communicate, we need story rather than abstract truths. Apologists such as Lee Stobel and Josh McDowell say they now need to embed the truths they communicate within story.

Secular documentary film-makers says the same:

A secular storyteller explains why storytelling is vital:

Jay O’Callahan: The Power of Storytelling from 99% on Vimeo.

Picture credit GregAtkinson.com

In UK, we have a builders merchants called Travis Perkins. They are a great place to buy timber and other materials, and doubtless a business of the utmost probity, named after two companies that merged.

But it is interesting to consider the hidden color, the resonance, in this name. No word exists in a vacuum. Words only have life because they create an image in our minds. And this image, different for each of us, will be an amalgam of our previous personal experience plus an overlay from our history and culture.

‘Travis Perkins’, a British broadcaster has pointed out, sounds like a rakish West Country sailor in 18th century Britain. (Phonetically he’d be ‘TRARviz PURRRkinz’!) Ostensibly a fisherman, but not averse to fixing a deal in Old Jake’s harborside bar to bring over a cargo of French brandy, dodge the Revenue cutters (patrol boats) and land the smuggled goods in a remote cave!

Not, perhaps, quite a pirate, but hey, this is an unmissable chance to bring you a classic radio comedy sketch about pirates! Scroll down to play.

Alternative words

Although Shakespeare wrote: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, the experimental truth is that it would not – if the other name had not yet built up the memories and associations of ‘rose’.

Many Christian terms may indeed smell sweet to you, but to others, they may reek of negative things due to people’s past experience. Yet rephrase them in neutral or contextualized language, and we can immediately transform them into a positive sweetness for others too. In evangelism, we need to be acutely aware of how our words and tone are perceived by others, and wherever possible avoid christianese and jargon, and choose neutral meaningful alternatives.

Who’d be a Bible translator?

Translating Hebrew and Koine Greek into other languages, even English, and especially non-European languages, is a hugely challenging task. Many words have no direct equivalent in the target language, or alternatively have multiple nuances which one word cannot capture. (That’s why the Amplified Bible brackets or square-brackets additional meanings or definitions.)

Every year it seems, somewhere in the world Christians have a public and sometimes vitriolic dispute about Bible translation issues. And often translators 50 or 100 years ago, with the best motives, made translation decisions which communicated poorly or were even glaringly inaccurate or misleading. Yet national Christians sometimes resist much more accurate modern translations as somehow tampering with God’s Word.

Christians who have not learned a second language can fail to understand that word-for-word translation between any two languages, even closely-related ones, is often misleading and sometimes impossible, and that languages are constantly evolving.

Here’s an abridged article from the International Journal of Frontier Missions which explains some of these complexities. See also Can You Get Here From There? and Persistent Problems Confronting Bible Translators.

For in-depth books on translation issues, see The Challenge of Bible Translation and Bible Translation. It is a hugely complex and sensitive task.

In fact, the Bible is surprisingly resistant to sub-optimal translation. (And of course, all translations are inevitably sub-optimal.) Around 80% is broadly narrative story, wisdom or poetry, in which truth is embedded rather than presented as systematic apologetics/life instruction. It’s more like a hologram than a normal photo. Chop off half a photograph and you’ve probably lost essential information which cannot be inferred from the surviving half. Cut a hologram transparency in half, and the image remains intact, though at lower definition.

Photo: Smugglers Inn, Holcombe, Devon. Used under Creative Commons from Geograph.co.uk

Take your index finger, and draw an imaginary letter ‘E’ on your forehead. Or have fun with some friends and use washable finger paint or marker, to make the letter visible. Do it now, before you read any further.

Recent research from Kellogg School of Management [more] has suggested that the way you do this expresses something about your perception of yourself in relation to others.

Of course, there are two ways of doing it, making the letter:

• a readable right-way-round ‘E’ to people looking at you
• ‘readable’ from inside your head, and therefore backwards to everyone else

My point is not to attach much significance to this as an individual personality test, but to suggest that a readable-to-others ‘E’ is a simple memorable symbol and reminder of others-centered outsider-friendly communication.

Me-centered communication takes no account of the needs of others, their level of understanding of the issues being discussed, their grasp of language, etc. Others-centered communication of the good news (or anything else) is jargon-free, understands the culture, is gentle, sensitive, empathetic, two-way, un-manipulative, flexible, contextualized, and much more.

Video it?

It would be a valuable fun exercise to demonstrate the ‘E test’ with paint/marker and volunteers, as part of a communication seminar, church service or youth group, because the embedded others-centered principle is so memorable. (Of course, participants must not already be aware of the nature of the test.)

If you do this, please video it, and post to YouTube. None are yet online. Tell us, and we’ll post it here!

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

Spielberg’s latest movie is getting rave reviews. And rightly so. The popular children’s book by Michael Morpurgo has been faithfully adapted: read story of the film and its making. (Trailer below.)

And there are many redemptive echoes embedded in it. Here are a few (spoiler warnings):

• Joey the horse is sold into, essentially, slavery on the Western Front, for the biblically-resonant 30 currency units (Zechariah 11:12-13), having already been bought – extravagantly – for that price by Devon farmer Ted. This brings huge pain to the farmer’s son Albert, who has trained the horse and has a deep master/horse relationship with him.
• Joey’s desire for home and his master survives ‘slavery’ on both sides of the war. His escape across no-mans land is stirring. By now, Albert has volunteered for the army and is being treated for temporary blindness from a gas attack in the trenches. Joey’s ability to respond to his master’s call (a simulated owl call) saves his life, and hastens Albert’s healing.
• Albert then attempts to buy him back at the end of the war for the same 30 pounds, but is outbid at 100 pounds by the French farmer whose now-deceased grand-daughter had previously found and cared for Joey and stablemate Topthorn when they escaped from the German lines. In a gesture of extravagant grace, after learning of Albert’s deeper claim, he gifts Joey to him.
• In different ways, the horse also brings bravery, reconciliation, healing and resolution to other characters in the story.

Damaris study guides

Culturewatch ministry Damaris has produced a study guide and analysis of the film. Join to subscribe to their email newsletter and receive regular commentary on movies and other resources, eg. Iron Lady. (Advance notice: they will soon be publishing free resources for the February release of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Judy Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup.)

Using movies as a ‘good-news discussion starter’

Movie themes are a great way to start conversations, whether on Facebook or face-to-face. They also work very well in a planned group situation, as Krish Kandiah (UK Evangelical Alliance) recounts in relation to a recent student discussion of Shawshank Redemption. This approach works equally effectively in a poor inner-city area of London, where Pastor Michael Kosmas has made a film discussion club integral to his church-planting strategy.

Check Tony Watkins’ excellent guide on running a film discussion evening.

And see our other posts on movies.

We’ve seen a crop of good movies already this year – Hugo, War Horse, The Artist, and The Iron Lady.

Culturewatch team Damaris has produced a range of free discussion materials about life issues (not political issues) raised by the film:

Check also their summary article Fading Dreams.

To paraphrase the 1990′s election slogan (in response to the unspoken question “What’s the priority?”), we might respond to “What’s the key to effective evangelism?” with the answer: “It’s the relationships, silly.”

Most lasting conversions are the result of an ongoing relationship with one or more believers (see research study). And around 50% of people start their spiritual journey at least in part due to a serious life problem, such as relationship problems, illness/bereavement or debt. Any online outreach must be geared to offering ongoing email support to all those who want advice and help at any level.

Canada’s TruthMedia online outreach team uses hundreds of volunteer e-mentors to build email relationships with inquirers or those with life problems. (Learn about volunteering here. TruthMedia can also now share their follow-up software system with other ministries – read more about the Mentor Center.)

Karen writes…

Karen Schenk, TruthMedia’s National Director of Media Strategies, shares some insights from their ministry:

‘In the past few months, TruthMedia has seen incredible growth in both ministry impact and reach.

I’m becoming more convinced than ever that the key to sharing the Gospel in our culture is addressing relationship needs. No matter who they are or what they do for a living, people all around the globe have relational issues and want help and insight into how to address them.

One of our websites had 400,000 visits this past month alone and of those visits, more than 50% of the content that was viewed and the messages we received were about relationship issues. People want help and perspective for their families, kids, marriages, dating, and workplace. As we connect with people about their relationship issues, we are in a position where we can share the hope of Christ. The mentors who share with these people are also being directly impacted. Here are some of their stories:

A father asks for help: “I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I’m failing, I’m hurting myself, I’m becoming more violent, more judgmental of myself, and I’m pretty much giving up on having any future. What can I do to change myself? I have no goals in life other than to raise a child and be a father.”

A lonely person who found hope through a mentor now helps others: “First of all thank you for that wonderful message. I think this is an awesome ministry. It was a life saver for me, and now I hope I can help it be for others. When I came to this site over a year ago, it helped change my life forever. I felt so alone, had sunk to the bottom of the sea. Since I found this site and my wonderful mentor and friend, my life just continues to get more and more blessed. I have recovered the joy and happiness I didn’t ever think I would find again. You got me through one of the most devastating times in my life. And now the blessings continue as now I can be a mentor and understand how some of these people are feeling. They not only acquire a friend, but I also. For me, just having someone I can be honest with, vent to, and know they are listening is the best therapy I have had. I am so thankful I could be part of this. Thank you.”

A believer learns to share her faith: “I feel I’m really growing in my faith also and it is mostly because of Power to Change, Truth Media and all you guys helping me to get started as a mentor. This is such a great ministry, and I’m sharing my small part in it every chance I get. Last week I spent 30 minutes in our local supermarket sharing with a lady about Jesus and what we all are doing to carry His word around the world. Happiness is bubbling over in my life right now.”

Source: TruthMedia newsletter. Used with permission. Subscribe to their newsletters

Tim Stevens’ book has a valuable message.

Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage Pop Culture? – valuable challenge on why and how to use popular culture for evangelism and ministry. Stevens presents the biblical mandate for this, and gives examples from his ministry.

“Pop Goes the Church should be read by every pastor, church leader, and layperson who wants to connect people to Jesus but is finding it hard to be heard in our media-saturated culture,” says Bill Hybels. “You have to get your hands on this book.” – Terry Johnson.

Watch Ed Stetzer interview Tim Stevens:

Author: Tim Stevens
Publisher: Power Publishing, ISBN 0979017491
Review