Digital Evangelism Issues

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

We hear a lot about ‘left-brain’ and ‘right-brain’ these days. Below is a helpful infographic summary. Of course, most of us are a mixture of both sets of characteristics, depending on our personality, gender and the culture we live in. But one side may tend to predominate.

A huge significance to these differences: our digital communication culture, and therefore the biggest influence on the way we all think and communicate, is much more ‘right-brain’ than the print communication it is rapidly replacing. Len Sweet’s book Viral is a useful exposition of this dramatic shift.

In what ways can you see this change taking place? Please add your thoughts on the Comments section.

Click on image to open in new tab, then use browser + size increase to display full size (and/or print).

Thanks to OnlineCollege.org for this infographic.

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.

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

1. Announce or publish a short item about IE Day in newsletters/service sheets.
2. Download and project a short testimony demonstrating the effectiveness of the Web for outreach, eg. Kimberley’s Story | more videos.
3. Download and project a video about social networking evangelism on Facebook, and consider also this dramatic overview of the current state of social networking.
4. Demonstrate live on screen how to post video clips from eg. YesHEIs.com | GlobalShortFilmNetwork.com | Focus.org.uk directly into a Facebook page.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Project a live online demonstration of using a Pinterest account and add content to it including appropriate evangelistic/conversation-starting material.
9. Encourage small home-groups to discuss and investigate various digital evangelism opportunities.
10. Suggest to the youth group the possibility of creating some evangelistic YouTube shorts.
11. Tell your church about IE Day’s free ebooks and key book recommendations.
12. 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.
13. Encourage the leadership team to consider digital outreach initiatives that might be implemented this year, such as using social media to connect the fellowship with the community, and testing the outsider-friendliness of the church website.
14. 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?

March 13 sees the publication of a very significant book, available in paperback and Kindle:

Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival
Len Sweet
Waterbrook Press
229 pages paperback
ISBN 978-0-307-45915-2

What’s it about?

About 10-15 years ago, you and I were relocated from our comfortable familiar home to a new land. Not necessarily unwillingly, like the Jewish exiles taken to Babylon. Not necessarily a worse new homeland. Some of us ran ahead. But others left trails of a resistant struggle. A few may have barely noticed they’ve been moved at all.

It was … the huge move from print communication culture to digital. Len Sweet styles those of us who grew up in a print culture as ‘Gutenbergers’, and those who grew up in, or have whole-heartedly adopted digital, as ‘Googlers’. It’s an apt and helpful simplification for a social revolution as far-reaching as Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.

His book is probably the best and most insightful explanation of these two communication cultures, the tension between them, and the huge implications for Christians, the church and especially the retelling of the good news. We just cannot continue doing the stuff we used to do, because it won’t work any more. So this book really is mission critical.

And – there’s a clue in the title – he believes that online relationships and social networking can share the good news powerfully in ways there were never possible before. It is likely to be the most significant book on digital ministry to be published all year.

For this reason, it is the chosen book recommendation for Digital Outreach Month.

You can preview 22 pages of the book below, using the arrows at the bottom right of the frame below:

One of the properties of our anytime/everywhere Internet is that even small blocks of time can be used productively in ways that weren’t possible before. Of course, the downside of this is that we may never relax or unhook from being totally available 24/7. Learn to disconnect too!

However the Web does allow us to crowd-source or cooperate on projects from home, or when we are on the move. Even tweeting can be effectively a crowd-sourcing sharing of resources that others might not otherwise ever hear of.

Offering to serve as an e-mentor to inquirers is also a great way to use short blocks of time.

Clay Shirky highlights what is possible with online collaborative initiatives:

The definitive book on ministry collaboration Well Connected is now available free. Just sign up for news of Power of Connecting (link at end of their page) and you’ll get the PDF download link for this free book.

It’s amazing what a difference 60 seconds make.

Go-Gulf.com has a range of infographics on web facts and trends, here are just two of them:

Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers View graphic fullsize

Infographic by- GO-Gulf.com Web Design Company View graphic fullsize

In this 18-min lecture, TED’s Chris Anderson explains the power of online video in learning and online communication. He suggests that video is a game-changer as significant as the invention of print. Throughout human history, most people have learned things visually, not through print. Video takes us back to that oral communication culture, while leveraging interaction and learning on an unprecedented scale.

The implications for the Kingdom are incredible, especially as a majority of people (even outside the West) will own a video-equipped mobile phone within five years.

Take time to explore the TED site. It offers short talks by some of the world’s most significant thinkers and innovators on a wide variety of subjects.

Making video

Making video is not as hard as you think. Check the highly-recommended book How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suckby Steve Stockman. “Like two years of film school in 248 pages.”

Churches can put introductory videos on the site homepage, as Coton Green Church has done. They did it in-house with their own people, at minimal cost. It’s well-made (perhaps just a few small tech issues), neither offputtingly slick and an advertising sales pitch, nor preachy. A masterclass in good communication.

Interesting world map compares population with IP addresses (click to see full size):

Check also the world map showing Facebook friendship pairs, which points up the huge potential for relationships and networking. Read more about map production and implications. Click map below for full-size graphic.

See a map of the world on the World Christians blog with country areas modified in proportion to population.

Finally, by the end of October, a baby will be born who will make up the numbers of humans on earth to 7 billion. Check the countdown, and other stat tickers, at Worldometers.

Where did Twitter come from? Where are they going? Mashable’s infographic takes us there: