Mobile phones and other devices
The potential for evangelism
The desire to be in touch with people and information 24/7 has led to the huge growth in
mobile cell phones and other
mobile devices. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_device]
80% of the world’s population now lives within a
mobile reception area, [www.picturebusinessmag.com/story/story.bsp?sid=40913&var=story]
a figure likely to increase to 90% by 2010.
Mobile phone subscriptions passed the 3.3 billion point at the end of 2007 (i.e. equivalent to half the world’s population) and many of these are in non-western or developing
10/40 Window [http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/1040.htm]
countries. There are more mobile phones used in Africa than USA. The mobile systems in
Japan
and Korea are more advanced than almost anywhere. It is a
hugely significant [http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/putting_27_bill.html]
medium. Unlike a computer, a mobile is always with you – an integrated part of you and your lifestyle.
Key articles relating to significance of mobile devices in the non-Westerm world: 1 [http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=330661]
Convergence and capabilities
There has been striking convergence between the capabilities of different types of mobile devices. Although simple base-level phones are still available, devices increasingly offer a range of functions way beyond phone-calls and SMS [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service] text-messaging:- web browsing
- MP3/video player
- radio/TV reception
- global positioning and maps, buddy location and parental child monitoring
- still/video camera
- games console
- book reading
- word-processing and other Smartphone [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service] capabilities
- low-value vending machine purchases, barcode scanning
- e-ticketing with barcode ticket sent by SMS
- diary, planner and appointment reminder
- wifi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi] connectivity when in a wifi hotspot
- Bluetooth capability [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth]
Using mobile devices for evangelism
When any new medium arises, we should ask: how can this be used for outreach and discipleship? We must work with the strengths of any new medium, rather than try to make it fit the mould of a previous medium. For instance, when Christian radio began, it was only perceived as a means of delivering church service-style presentations: hymns, prayers and sermons, which is simply not the way radio communicates best. We see huge potential for evangelism in these areas:Downloadable Bibles and books
A wide range of Bibles is available [www.snipr.com/mobilev] for installation on different mobile devices, including the Apple iPod. Thus a Christian can now have access to a Bible at all times because mobile devices are so convenient to carry. You can call up individual verses to share during a face-to-face discussion, or email/text them to others. You can also download and install books to read on some mobile devices using Mobipocket. [www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsReader.asp]Inquirers may also wish to download Bibles or books onto mobile devices. This may have a particular significance in countries where it is not wise to be seen reading a Bible. In the Middle East, many thousands of online Bibles are downloaded onto PCs each month.
For not-yet-Christians, it will be strategic to produce seeker-friendly materials with jargon-free introductions and explanations. For instance, a mobile version of John’s gospel (often given away in print form in evangelism) could have an introduction appropriate to seekers, in the way that Pocket Testament League include in their printed gospels.
Of particular potential for outreach is the comic book. These can be loaded onto mobile devices
as sequential picture blocks, complete with sound:
full story. [http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2289162.ece]
In the West, comic stories can reach children effectively. In some countries, they are also
highly popular among adults, particularly the
Manga-style [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga]
in Japan.
Training in cartooning, comic production and animation for evangelism is offered by
Rox35Media. [http//comix35.gospelcom.net]
Video clips and mini-presentations
Many mobile devices have the capability to download and store video clips, or even full-length videos. These can be downloaded from the Internet onto a PC (possibly via podcast) and then transferred to the mobile device, or downloaded directly by the device itself. The huge growth of the video short is amazing, since the arrival of YouTube in 2006. In an increasingly oral communication world, the video clip is a major means of communication and evangelism. A clip may be a short parable-like story, an animated cartoon, [http://comix35.gospelcom.net/Animation_Comp.html] or a ‘talking-head’ person. Zany humor is very appropriate for video clips.A Christian can maintain a portfolio of video clips on a mobile device, to demonstrate to a friend in person, or pass on virally [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing] to friends’ devices.
Video clips which are sufficiently amusing, compelling and ‘unreligious’ in style, may also be passed on by not-yet-Christians to their friends. They may also be inclined to view or share video material which addresses felt needs and life issues.
It is also possible to create personal presentations for friends containing images and audio, using the free GotZapp. [www.gotzapp.com]
Groups such as American Tract Society produce emailable digitracts [www.atstracts.org/internet/digitracts.php] which can also be used with mobile devices.
MP3 audio can also be downloaded (including by podcast) and passed on virally. This can include music, radio programs, or audio shorts specifically made for mobiles. See further discussion on MP3s in section 7.
Outreach street teams, Christian bookshops and churches will increasingly be able to offer such downloads to passers-by using Wifi, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi] BlueTooth (see below) or Short Code Service [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_code] autoresponder text message. Web outreach sites can also partner with such teams by offering a Short Code autoresponder number that the team can publicize. (Unfortunately, Short Code numbers are usually country-specific.)
BlueTooth local broadcasting
BlueTooth-equipped mobile devices can pick up locally-transmitted messages over a range of typically 100 meters, though up to 300 meters is possible. This allows you to offer opt-in short presentations within the vicinity of a church, Christian bookshop, or any outdoor event. The potential is enormous:
- BlueTooth Location-Based Mobile Ministry [http://forwardthinkingforchrist.blogspot.com/2008/02/blue-tooth-location-based-mobile.html]
- Part 2 of above article [http://forwardthinkingforchrist.blogspot.com/2008/02/follow-up-to-blue-tooth-marketing-post.html]
- Bluetooth Introduction [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth]
- BlueTooth Broadcast [http://www.broadcastbluetooth.co.uk]
- Gabriel Communicator [http://dulverton-ramblings.blogspot.com/2008/05/holy-phone-spammer.html]
Text messaging
There are many ‘verse of the day’ or mini-devotionals available to subscribe by text message (eg. FourteenFloor). [www.fourteenfloor.com] In most countries, these are currently limited to 160 characters. (In Korea however, a service is now available which as well as color graphics and embedded audio, allows 1000 characters.) Of course, portable devices with email capability can bypass this restriction.While Christians are the predominant users of such services, it is also possible that inquirers may subscribe too, especially if the content is positioned to be seeker-friendly and jargon-free. In addition, Christians can share such messages with friends, through their network of relationships.
Text messaging is being increasingly used in the secular world to share information. Company adverts frequently offer a mobile Short Code number which will automatically send product
information to the user. This gives us the potential to offer contact numbers in order to
receive Christian information. For instance, church street-side notice-boards (and press advertising or contact cards) can display a
Short Code number which will automatically send an invitation and details of the church’s activities. Many mobile
users, especially in non-western countries, do not have access to the Web.
Shirts That Text Back [http://reactee.com]
is an example of this approach.
Text messaging is also used as a followup/inquiry medium in some countries. For instance, 70% of follow-up inquiries for radio programming from FEBA [www.febaradio.info/] come in as text messages, often with two-way texting discussion for a time after each program. Because many radio listeners, especially in the non-western world, have no easy access to the Web, and snail-mail letter-writing is both tedious and often very expensive, we commend this mode of follow-up to any radio ministry (ideally using Short Code numbers).
An outreach ministry in Thailand writes, “One of the strategies we are developing in Thailand with our Never Too Late radio soap is to offer our listeners daily wise sayings in text messages from the main character, Annop, on finance and family matters... These wise sayings are really from the Bible.”
It is interesting how the short abbreviations and acronyms used in text messaging (in order to send messages quickly and in less than 140 characters) are actually influencing language use in many countries.
Wallpaper (screen backgrounds)
Installing an eye-catching
wallpaper [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_wallpaper]
on your cellphone can be a conversation starter with friends, in the same way that our outreach
screensaver is intended to do. Wallpaper
can display a thought-provoking slogan, quotation or cartoon; or a visible URL of an outreach site. A small number of Christian wallpapers are
available [www.snipr.com/mobilev]
– some might seem rather ‘cheesy’ or ‘churchy’ in your culture, yet work well in another.
We would like to see a much larger choice of wallpapers, especially those designed to
relate to not-yet-Christians. Graphic designers and cartoonists: get working! We can link to your work
here and on Mobilev. [www.snipr.com/mobilev]
Games, ringtones, wallpapers as enticements
There are increasing numbers of mobile games [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_game] available for mobile devices. How might these be used in an evangelism context?- Church or outreach websites can distribute a free games, maybe branded with their name.
- Games which lead users through life choices, or create questions in their minds, obviously have a low-key evangelistic potential. Of course, few not-yet-Christians will wish to play a Bible knowledge game.
- Mobile devices with access to the Web can access a wide range of online games and there is now an application enabling mobile devices to access the virtual SecondLife parallel universe.
- Some ministries offer mobile ring-tones. An outreach ministry in Poland has offered free ring-tones as an enticement to draw people to their outreach sites. Other free downloads, eg. games and software, can draw people into a site. UCB Mobile [http://www.ucbmobile.co.uk/web/home/] is an example.
- Wallpapers can also be offered for download.
Web Access
Mobile internet access [www.w3.org/Mobile] has been available for some years, but take-up and usability has been limited and patchy for a range of reasons. One problem was that normal websites, designed for a monitor at least 800 pixels wide, were often hard to use on a screen the size of a postage stamp, and there were many other usability issues too.At last, most of these issues are solved. Fast web access is available and mobile devices are able to over-ride a website’s style sheet, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets] and impose a style which creates a usable web experience within the much smaller screen area. It is also possible for site owners to include a mobile style sheet [http://www.htmldog.com/ptg/archives/000055.php] within their website, which will be active on a mobile device. We urge evangelistic and discipleship websites to test their websites within a range of mobile devices, and research whether a mobile stylesheet is needed too. (Eg. National Community Church [http://theaterchurch.com/] claims to have optimized their site for mobile.) The Firefox Developer’s Toolbar [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60] also allows you to approximately simulate how your site may look in a mobile device. Better though to use the ready.mobi [http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN] page testing tool, and then use dev.mobi [http://dev.mobi/] for ways to improve its mobile usability.
Additionally, it may be appropriate to develop a mobile-friendly version of a site – perhaps with less text or other options – which will be easier to read on a mobile. A link on the homepage to ‘mobile version’ can be hidden using a normal style sheet, but made visible on mobile devices; or preferably the use of a mobile style sheet can seamlessly change the appearance and visible links on the homepage to automatically lead users into the mobile version pages.
It is particularly important to consider a mobile-enabled church-site or youth-group site to target young people, for whom mobile connections are a second-nature instinct.
Wapple [http://go.wapple.net] is one of many tools for creating mobile-only dynamic sites.
In China, Korea and Japan, the majority of internet access is already via mobile phones. These countries are very high in the International Telecommunication Union’s Digital Opportunity Index. [www.itu.int/osg/spu/statistics/DOI/index.phtml] This trend will be increasingly seen in other countries too.
In developing nations
Mobile phones are transforming development and grass-roots trading in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions:- Economist article [www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8597377] – overview of African mobile situation.
- Times article [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article610480.ece] – Ugandans have a creative way of using mobiles for money transfer. M-PESA [www.safaricom.co.ke/m-pesa/] is a similar service operated by Safaricom and Vodafone in Kenya.
- BBC article [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6339671.stm] – Mobile phone lifeline for world’s poor.
- World Resources Institute article [www.nextbillion.net/newsroom/2006/11/09/mobile-phone-banking-a-boost-for-the-poor] – Cell phones may help ‘save’ Africa; mobile phone banking a boost for the poor.
- Footsteps article [http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07july-footsteps] – Christian NGO Tearfund reports on teacher training via mobile phone.
- The Mobile Web in Developing Countries [www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/public.html] – white paper from W3C, which also discusses the one laptop [www.laptop.org] initiative.
Prices of mobiles in these nations are dramatically less than in the West and ownership is widespread.
As MP3-capable phones become common, this enables the distribution of MP3 recordings with evangelistic or discipleship messages to people who may not own CD or tape players, and without the costs of duplication and distribution. ‘Listen again’ Christian radio downloads and audio Bibles can be distributed this way too. There are several major advantages:
- Non-western nations are largely oral communication cultures.
- Many people may have limited reading skills; [http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12874&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html] note however that illiterate people have little problem in using mobile phones.
- Printed material is often expensive to buy and hard to obtain. In many languages, there is little printed Christian material available. But radio ministries usually possess a big reservoir of previously-broadcast programming in many languages, just waiting to be redistributed in MP3 format! Global Recordings [http://globalrecordings.net/topic/download] also offer gospel presentation MP3 downloads in many languages.
We urge radio ministries to consider developing specific MP3-download web-pages of selected programmes which have a permanent non-time-sensitive value, especially in cultures where there is little printed material. These should explain how to place MP3 downloads onto mobile devices and ways to use and share them virally. Spotlight Radio [www.spotlightradio.net] and SOON Ministries [www.soon.org/ephesians.php] offer MP3 downloads in easy-English.
Parts of the JESUS Film [www.jesusfilm.org/podcasting/02.html] are available in MP3 audio by podcast in a range of languages.
There are also electronic talk-back players and augio-bibles such as Talking Bibles [www.talkingbibles.org] Global Recordings [http://globalrecordings.net/topic/download] Faith Comes By Hearing [www.faithcomesbyhearing.com] and other types of chip-based ‘talking tracts’.
A pastor writes, “I am working as ondinary pastor with Church of North India in rural area. It is good for me that I download your worship and outreach sogs on my pc and through that to my mobile, to show the rural people how to worship by heart.”
Relationships – the heart of communication
Whatever else it may be, a mobile device is at root a means to sustain relationships. Our primary role in the world is to be an incarnational presence to those around us, [1] [www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07070178.htm] [2] [www.greatcom.org/resources/tell_it_often_tell_it_well/chap13/default.htm] with whom we should be building relationships. John Stott’s final sermon [www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07070178.htm] called for incarnational evangelism to “turn the world upside down”.It is an ongoing problem that we tend to create relationships only with other Christians, and retreat into a Christian ghetto which we may fondly hope will somehow attract others in.
However, if you take time to ask a range of people how they came to faith in Christ, their spiritual journey almost always includes prolonged relationships with praying Christians. Instances where someone finds a tract or Bible, or listens to a radio program, and come to faith through that means alone, are notable for their rarity. Effective outreach websites which are bearing fruit normally use a network of email mentors to build relationships with inquirers.
Mobile devices help us maintain relationships with friends, whether or not we use options listed on this page. Don’t underestimate the eternal value of a five-word text message to a friend, saying for example, ”Praying for you this morning,” or even just “Well done yesterday.” Mobile phone numbers are also highlighted as a means of relating to your friends in networking sites such as FaceBook.
The Gray Matrix provides a useful representation of the pathway that God normally uses to draw people to faith.
See our graphical presentation of the great lack of outreach material available. The challenge is to find creative approaches that can reach down and touch those who are apathetic or hostile.
Key resources for mobile development
Christians developing different mobile options have often worked in isolation, unaware of what others might be doing or how to network with them. There have already been cases where different groups have ‘re-invented the wheel’ and wasted time by developing an application that someone had already done.
- Mobilev [www.snipr.com/mobilev]
is a one-stop resource for every aspect of using mobile devices in outreach. It’s
an information-sharing wiki with links and discussion forums where you can
find or add resource links, and ask questions.
- Mobile Ministry Magazine [http://mobileministrymagazine.com]
is a regular online publication with many resource links and partner groups specializing in
different types of mobile ministry. It lists resources which will help you use many of the strategies described on this page.
- Tracking Mobile Ministry Blog [http://davehackett.blogspot.com] – latest news and ideas for the growing potential of mobile ministry.
For more technical advice and news, see Christian Mobile Tech [http://christianmobiletech.net] and the very many secular sources such as MobileTechNews (feed at right of this page), Cellular-News, [www.phonecontent.com/bm/news/index-1.shtml] MobileContentToday [http://mediabistro.com/mobilecontenttoday/] and PhoneContent. [www.phonecontent.com/bm/news/index-1.shtml] Learning of new secular applications may provide ideas for appropriate mobile evangelism.
Please also send us ideas and share your experiences and encouraging results of any aspect of mobile evangelism and discipleship.
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