Digital Evangelism Issues

Cardboard testimonies are a highly visual, often moving, way of briefly sharing the story of God’s hand in people’s life stories. They are relatively easy to plan and film.

It’s another way of creating video shorts that can be shared in Facebook, Twitter, on a church web site, etc. Of course, just as in writing out a longer testimony for outsiders, avoid jargon and exaggeration or overclaim: read more.

• Watch more YouTube cardboard testimonies
• Sharing faith on Facebook
• How churches can use social media
• See our other recent posts about social networking

We are honored to release the 2012 version by Mobile Advance of their 5-minute video explaining the opportunities for mobile ministry in the Majority World.

Please also check our range of FREE ebooks, normally pay-for, that you can download now, on our ebook page.

Download video for use in meetings and seminars: WMV 15.5MB

Check our other news about mobile phones and digital opportunities for cross-cultural missions.

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.)

Since its launch in 2005 (history), YouTube has grown to be the definitive place to find and share video shorts. By 2012, 60 minutes of new video content were being posted to YouTube every minute, with over 2 billion videos viewed worldwide each day. It’s the default place to post short clips, with Vimeo as a distant second for longer videos. YouTube is now the world’s second-largest search interface, after Google.

The ‘print communication culture’ that lasted since the invention of the printing press is being rapidly superceded by the new ‘digital communication culture’. The differences are far-reaching and transformative, because not only are digital media a different means to communicate, but they are transforming the way our culture thinks. For a detailed unpacking of this ongoing change, read Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival by Len Sweet.

Print culture was, naturally, text-based, but also tended to be ‘left-brain’ and analytical. Digital culture is visual ‘right-brain’ intuitive, and story-based. In many ways, it is nearer to the oral communication cultures of many countries outside the West. Indeed Christians, being generally bookish people, do not realise the extent to which many even in the West read little, especially books, and have always learned orally via TV and film.

Video shorts are therefore a natural expression of digital culture, and hugely significant for ‘unexpected’ social-networking evangelism. (For an intentional audience, longer films up to feature length are also strategic.)

There is huge potential, both in sharing conversation-starting video clips on Facebook and other social networking systems, and in creating new video shorts.

Read more…

Please share your experience of video shorts using Add a comment section below.

In all the hype about the Oscars, and the deserved accolades for The Artist, you may have missed the Oscar for best animation. It went to The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, a quirky allegory about the healing nature of story. (And due to be released as a bookand phone app.) Watch the full 15-minute animation below, and after it, prizewinning The Porcelain Unicorn.

Both stories reflect a truth also demonstrated in The Artist – that it is possibly to tell effective stories with (virtually) no words. Immediately, this enables films to communicate across language barriers – making conversation-starting and evangelistic film usable in a wider range of contexts.

Indeed, in watching The Artist, I noticed that because our brains do not have to simultaneously process sound, color, 3D, crane shots/fast pans (ie. acting as dual-core or quad-core processors), there is more space to process the essentials of the story.

Alma is another compelling prizewinning silent animation. All three contain conversation-starting parallels that point to eternal truths.

Tell It Your Way contest

Legendary British film director Sir Ridley Scott launched a global film making contest for aspiring directors, titled “Tell It Your Way”. There were over 600 entries.

The film could be no longer than three minutes, contain only six lines of narrative and be a compelling story. The winner was Porcelain Unicorn from American director Keegan Wilcox. It’s a story of the lifetimes of two people who are totally opposite, yet, very much the same – all told in three minutes. You can see why it won – enjoy!

Watch below or at the Porcelain Unicorn site.

Animation is a powerful medium, either for starting discussion, or creating directly evangelistic material. Read more.

Perhaps God will call you to make animations or other forms of storytelling? There are a huge opportunity. One place to learn more is the School of Cartooning and Animation.

You could try making a stop-motion short, with modelling clay or Lego models, even as a youth group project. It is surprisingly easy, with a normal digital camera, tripod, and careful lighting.

Sharing on social networks

One-click posting of conversation-starting video shorts onto Facebook and other social network pages, is a great way to share faith. Videos at YesHEIs.com, GlobalShortFilmNetwork, and Focus are intended for this.

You can also download video shorts onto smartphones. And the Talking About Jesus iPhone app draws together some video shorts from key international speakers.

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:

• Hubspot’s Marketing with Pinterest.
• WebProNews’ Marketing Your Business with Pinterest and How to Use Pinterest.
• CopyBlogger’s 56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest is an essential and clear guide.
• Social Media Examiner’s 26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business – more useful tips for anyone, not just business users.

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.

Here are 10 examples of non-profits and other business/charity examples using Pinterest.

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.
• Like Facebook, you can post YouTube video clips. This gives you the opportunity to choose conversation-starting video clips from YesHEIs.com, GlobalShortFilmNetwork and God: New Evidence, Damaris Culturewatch and elsewhere, including outsider-friendly life-stories. As explained above, there can be no clickthrough link for a video, except to its own YouTube page.
• 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!”

Finally, infographic from Sandbox

The 24/7 always-on searchable Internet is an ideal match for a seeker. Here, Kimberley tells her story of seeking and finding.

To watch Kimberley’s story in Dutch, and other life stories from visitors to the Netherlands outreach Jesus.net site, go here.

Note how:

• she found the page because she was already a seeker. The Internet did not initiate the seeking mindset (although a Bridge Strategy page can achieve this).
• a period of interaction and question-asking within relationships (an Alpha course) was an integral part of her journey.
• her story is jargon-free, with no creepy insincerity, over-claim or triumphalism.
• good camera-work – panning, close-ups, varied angles, etc, makes even a simple talking-head story more effective and memorable.

Check our pages on writing testimonies and avoiding Christianese jargon.

Please add your thoughts on the comment link below.

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

In the Celtic Christian tradition, ‘thin spaces’ are times and places where the spiritual and the natural world intersect – occasions when it is possible to reach out and be touched by God.

Christmas, even in our post-christendom world, is such a thin space. Even despite the western consumer-fest of Christmas, even in countries with no Christian tradition, even with all the schmaltz and sparkle, there is often a remarkable focus on the story of God born as man.

It is the one time in the year when many, with no apparent interest in faith, will attend a church, or read the Christmas story – perhaps as part of their attempt to recapture something of the wonder of their childhood.

“But how did it end?”

Cartoon credit: Papas/Manchester Guardian. Used with permission of Guardian Newspapers

Staggering numbers of people use Google to find out more of the Christmas story. Websites which have outsider-friendly explanations of Christmas will receive hundreds, often thousands, of hits during December. It’s not too late to add pages to your church website, for example. Rusty Wright’s Christmas articles, along with some of our recommended embedded video clips, would be a quick ready-made way to go, and can put the Christmas story into the context of the entire Good News.

In UK last year, the usually secular BBC produced a compelling 4-part TV drama series retelling the Christmas story with great power.

Using video

Gateway Church has produced a very creative video to express the reason Jesus was born. Their team spent 80 hours in production and animation on this project. For this purpose, they’ve stripped any branding for the church to make it available for others to use. You can embed it on Facebook or blogs, or download an HD copy to use in a church meeting. Here’s the five-minute video:

Creative ideas

Christmas videos can go viral, especially if they have a new slant or way of presentation. The Beatbox Nativity video produced by a UK pastor has been featured in the national press because of its unique style, and has just won a national UK competition sponsored by TV company ITN.

Damaris resources on Christmas are another effective way of using this opportunity – see below. And check our other Christmas videos and stories and Power to Change’s Santa’s Greatest Gift.

Dizzying stats about the extent of social media usage. And a few figures are already out of date: YouTube now uploads 48 hours of video per minute, and delivers 3.5 billion daily views!

Video can be easily downloaded for seminars etc.