Depending on your intent or audience, the rise in the use of Facebook on a global scale can indeed be a phenomenial thing. At the same that such a service is rising in use and monetary valuation, there’s also this implicit desire by faith groups to ride the wave so to speak and make sure that the key ideas and traditions of those faith practices aren’t lost in the shuttle to the walls, fan pages, and likes.

Excapite is a website where many times, that which seems sensible is thrown against the wall and asked if it truly sticks. In a recent post there, Nigel posted a graph comparing the faith book (participation in a weekly religious activity) to activity on Facebook. Well, I’ll first let the graphic speak:

Interesting picture isn’t it? Nigel prefaces this graphic saying:

You see when I crunch of the numbers and I review all the theories and exhortations from the Social Media experts and Tech Gurus about the wonders of social media and the mythical network effect I am left with the only one conclusion. This is not science. This is not economics. This is not mathematics. This is a belief system.

And so I wonder to myself. If it is a new belief system. What belief system is it disrupting? What is disappearing to make way for the great social network revolution?

Strong statement right? Faceboook as a belief system. You’ve read the terms of service, its nothing more than a cannon of beliefs and conditions, none of which were negociated – but agreed to. Similar could be said for nearly any web service that asks for you to invest some amount of time, narrative, and finances. That’s a strong pull, and a common one to many society’s ideas about civilization and interaction. Could Facebook be equated with being a religion? Can the Bible or any religion turn into something more attractive for spiritual, social, and financial growth than Facebook (not ignoring the rich tradition of the Talmud and how it constantly evolves)?

I asked a pastor one time about his perspectives on Facebook after hearing him remind his church community about the announcements and other information they leave to a Facebook fan page rather than a conventional website. Of note, I asked, “are you teaching about Facebook addition with the same energy that you are using to tell people to go there and engage with your community?” He looked at me with a gleam in his eye as if that was one of the best questions that he’s never heard. His response was no – it never cross his mind that Facebook addiction would be something that intense to talk about.

Then there’s that graphic above. I wonder…

I will admit that I’ve only thought on this end of things here and there. But, its there. And at least in respect to thinking about these implications of mobile, it makes sense to at least broach the subject: what if we look at mobile the same way we look at animals? What would the ministry implication look like in that respect?

What Got Me Down This Line
Of those implications to mobility, and evolutions within this space, one of the areas I see coming down the pipe is that of cybernetics and AI. This idea that technologies can be grafted onto the organic/natural facilities that we have, and with some kind of computational nature that goes a bit beyond what we might have realized within ourselves. Its not a prediction of where things are going so much as it is an observation. And as such, insights on the subject have interested me beyond the fictional accounts of future-scapes that I read often as a child:

…Donna Haraway, theorist on our transformation into cyborgs, published ‘The Companion Species Manifesto’ in 2003. It addresses the relationship between domestic dogs and humans, but there is much in there to inspire designers of smartphones, apps and agents.

“Cyborgs and companion species each bring together the human and non-human, the organic and technological, carbon and silicon, freedom and structure, history and myth, the rich and the poor, the state and the subject, diversity and depletion, modernity and postmodernity, and nature and culture in unexpected ways.”

Using inspirations from theory such as Haraway, and fiction – such as Philip Pullman’s ‘Daemons’ from his ‘Dark Materials’ books – we can perhaps imagine a near-future that is richer and weirder than the current share-everything-all-the-time/total-gamified-personal-productivity obsessions of silicon valley.

A future of digital daemons would be one of close relationships with software that learned and acted intuitively – perhaps inscrutably at first, but with a maxim of ‘do no harm, with maximum charm’…

Read the rest of Berg London’s snippet of ‘Companion Species’.

With my mobile, as highlighted in a piece about contextual UIs at my personal website, there’s this interpleay between the context of my environment (day, night, connection of Bluetooth accessories, etc.) which alters the state of my mobile. Even so much that its basically now a matter of “just keeping it fed” with power of cellular connectivity, that makes it just as much a living accessory to my life as it does a tool to enable activities. I can see this perspective that a mobile is very much adapting and adjusting to its environment, and I’m its caretaker. Which leads me to wonder what implications that has when it is a tool for more than just notification of some communication event.

A Perspective
The reading that comes to mind is found in Genesis 1:28:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The materials that make up mobiles are found in the earth. The ores and knitting together of them by electrons and other ingenoius methods have made something that was once not “living” into something so attached ot our daily lives that to some degree, it is now given life. We speak to our mobiles and they respond (Apple’s Siri as a recent example). We personalize them custom ringtones, themes, and such. Then we add abilities to them with the applications we install (like that scene in the Matrix where Neo was trained by simply downloading the knowledge into his brain). They aren’t sentient, but there is some aspect of stewardship to these devices that very much mimics how we manage our associations with animals and other entities on this planet.

But, mobiles aren’t like this you say? Aren’t they? Don’t you cradle your’s in a case, maybe even a near-personalized one? Perhaps you went for a lesser case for the mobile, but have that custom ringtone or ring-back tone – you know, that song that’s createed by you, or has some knd of meaning because its like someone or something close to you? Wallpapers, alert settings, even the arrangemetn of the apps that you use, carefully curated and managed on something that doesn’t live… or does it?

I’m not making the argument that at some point devices will be much more llife-like. In some respects, they will be, and they won’t be called mobiles. But, in the methods and behaviors of use that we have, there is this almost lfe-like attention we pay to them as if they were compensated assistants. To that, we must ask the question that goes beyond tools to something more like accountability and stewardship – if your mobile could talk about you, what would it say about how you’ve treated it and what you do with it?

Some weeks back, we put out a thought asking if the use of 4Sq and similar location-broadcasting social networks could minimize the need for pastors to have offices and add some accountability to the activity of intermissional ministry (this post)? It met with some comments via Twitter, but I think it took some of the in-person chats in an interesting direction. While many people responded that it probably wasn’t a bad idea for a pastor to not have an office, they weren’t sure how other ministral functions would be effected. That’s fair – we only talked about the behavior and activity of the pastor, not those who support their ability to be prepared, present, and preaching.

So, let’s take it a bit further, and address the idea of presence and then see what we can do to build into digital spaces the perspective and behaviors that make sense for pastorial contexts.

Location, Location, Location
We’ll start with the aspect of this idea of an office that usually/rightly gets the most traction. Location. Well, its not so much the where of location that people are looking for as much as it is a sense that they can spatially orient themselves to your time and presence. Once someone is able to resolve this spatial relationshp, everything else tends to make sense.

This is the first aspect of this idea of digital/virtual pastoring that seems to throw folks off. Not so much that they will always access the pastor in that space, but that they know that in such a space, that person has a posture of availability. When that space is thrown into a virtual perspective, its hard to resolve “oh yea, pastor can help me becuase they are where I am.”

Show Me Your Face
Pardon me for saying, but I always find the story of Moses asking to see God’s face one of humor and obsuveness (is that a word) by God. For one, he mooned Moses (“I’ll show you my hinder parts,” funniest thought ever). Then, it wasn’t even that Moses got to see God’s face, he engaged with his voice, but not the entirity of His identity. That’s what Moses wanted to engage, and I’m not sure God was quite up to letting Moses do that.

The parallel comes in when we are using technologies such as email, instant messaging, and SMS where we also have some baseline communication with one another, but each party isn’t on the same plane – they aren’t looking one another in the eye. Yes, the communication might be honest, but (to quote a friend), “I can’t believe you unless I can look into your eyes.” Video chat helps here (Skype, Facetime, video calling, etc.), but there’s still that break in the physical space that’s harder for some people to get over than others when it comes to matters of talking, teaching, or counseling.

Reach Out and Touch Someone
With each communication technology, we seem to want to get closer to the experience that’s so well felt when we are in front of one another face to face. Improvements in the performance of wired and wireless networks (speed, latency, resolution, etc.) as well as what we can do on those networks are simply a matter of trying to make that experience of communication as engaged as touch. And yet, it never quite matches. As mentioned in the previous section, each connection, device, application, and protocol adds a layer to the interaction that isn’t our skin (smell could probably be added here too).

And so the virtual office fails to be a point of touch in a literal sense. But, there is language, emoticons, and output interfaces (haptic feedback, electromagnetic waves, etc) which we put in place to imply that experience. Sometimes its successful; SOMETIMES WE WONDER WHAT IN THE WORLD FOLKS ARE THINKING (using all caps means what again). We get the connection, but not exactly the fullness of connecting that our senses are built for.

So, with those items in mind, how can we create a digital space – or even virtual one that takes into account the needs of the office of pastor-teacher, while at the same time embracing some of the positive value of these digital technologies?

Architecting the Digital/Virtual Pastor’s Office
Remember, we are starting from the idea that there is no (leased, rented) physical office.

In terms of location, we could use public spaces such as a library, coffeeshop, train/bus terminal, or even a city park. If we are simply working on administrative tasks, perhaps the quieter the better. If meeting with people one-on-one (virtual office hours), then perhaps we are meeting in a small business eatery that’s inside of the community of the local fellowship, or even owned by one of the members. Some churches have their own hotspots within their churches, perhaps these could be leveraged as location points as well?

Once the physical location is established, its up to the individual minister to set some ground rules: how long will you be available in this space; what topics are ok to discuss in public, and which need a more private affair. I’d like to think that from an IT perspective that there’s some consideration to data privacy, content management, and maybe even how you might be getting online. I’ve always liked the idea of using your mobile to be the hotspot, so that you have some sense of control and management over the connection in this case (might be an additional expense, so that’s got to come into consideration as well).

You’ve got your space, now what about your face? Perhaps in this digital office, you are setting aside a specific amount of time to respond to text-only messages. Emails, IMs, etc. might get some kind of priority ranking, in case you might be in that virtual space for admin reasons. If you are looking at doing video (video counseling, collaboration moments), then maybe you are in that more private place, but also not in such a public space that you’re speakers or voice are transmitting to those around you the confidental details of the conversation you are keeping. Though, you do publish it (“virtual office hours on Google Hangout from 10AM to 12PM on Tuesdays” kind of thing).

As for touch, I’d say that you’d do similar to what you do with the video and admin time, making it clear which times in that virtual space that you would be available for people to walk up to you and say hello for pastor-centric items, being open to the random conversations of the space in other times. We all want to be touched by the literal presence of someone else, and so to keep that in place allows some bit of leveraging what works digitally (announcing that you are there), and the best methods of people getting that touch if they are coming to you. If you are bringing the mountain to them (so to speak), then perhaps that’s an instance of muting or turning off the ability to be contacted by all except the most important contacts, making sure that you stay present in the presence of whom you are with.

In a post last year, we talked about a pastor going to this model; its good to look in and see the challenges and opportunites that have happened since.

Present and Presence as the Digital Thumbtack
The model of life here is that we can live and work by using mobile and digital technologies quite effectively if we take into account the environment, costs, needs, and audience. Within this space of mobile ministry, we are also inclined to take into account the implications of the technology to those we interact with. Its not so much a different balance than going without digital, but there are these items that we can do, which if we don’t consider the results could be a hindrance rather than a help.

While writing this, I’m sitting in a coffeeshop interacting with people coming in and out, sitting and reading, and such. I’m in my office, using things digital and virtual in nature, but staying aware and open to the senses God built in us in order better demonstrate the connection to Him and one another.

Mobile Advance has been putting together a series of How-To articles for doing mobile ministry. Here’s a snippet of How-To #7: Obtaining Video for Mobile Ministry:

…Watch, and get copies of the videos people in your host culture are already watching on their phones. This can help in several ways:

• You’ll get a better sense of what people like and are interested in. This will help you as you look for, or create your own, outreach media. You can also learn a lot about a people by examining what media they choose to watch and have on their phones.
• You may discover some videos that they are already watching that you can use redemptively
• You’ll learn how to transfer video between phones via Bluetooth.
• You and your contacts will become used to watching and sharing media with each other, making it much more natural when you start sharing ministry videos with them.
• The amount of local media on your phone will obscure and reduce the impact of having ministry media on your phone should authorities take an interest in what you’re doing.

Read the rest of How-To #7: Obtaining Video for Mobile Ministry and read other How-To articles at Mobile Advance (or, use RSS to always have the latest listings).

LaRosa Johnson has been a longtime friend to MMM, and has even contributed a few posts here. He and I recently connected for some fellowship and that turned into a small clip of him sharing some of what he does with Wordsearch Corp (now a subsidiary of Lifeway Publishing) and his mobile activities.

We shouldn’t wonder about the reach of technology, nor just what can come across its lines, but as an editorial in a recent edition of Christian Computing Magazine explains, being exposed to new behaviors because of mobile and other technology doesn’t take away the need people have to connect with this faith. Here’s a snippet of the editorial:

…I do my best to keep up, even in areas that I am not comfortable using, such as texting (I still think a phone call is a much better way to go). However, last month I received a simple text to my phone that said, “Is this Steve Hewitt?” I replied, “Yes”. The mystery person then texted, “Can I ask you about how to become a Christian?”  I spent the next two hours, slowly sending text messages back and forth with this person, answering their questions, and eventually texting them a prayer they could say to accept Christ as their savior. After it was over, they revealed who they were…

• Read this rest of Steve Hewitt’s editorial for the March 2012 edition of Christian Computing Magazine (PDF)
• Read March 2012’s Christian Computing Magazine (PDF)
• Visit the Christian Computing Magazine website

Aside: there’s also a neat article in that issue about stepping into digital evangelism (PDF) which might light a fire under some of your efforts to get others involved in this space.

This editorial took place by simply sharing one’s mobile number and being open to the contact. That’s not something which can be stated too much – its not just having the tech, but using it in the space of being available. The 1st characteristic for mobile is that its personal. Don’t lose out on this point. You don’t just broadcast and wait, you engage (consistently, openly, honestly).

For wider and more administrative means for using SMS/MMS in ministry, check out our listing of services/service providers. Just, be open for the contact that you didn’t script.

MinistryOps is back, continuing the discoverabiltiy theme from their previous post.

Here are five ways in which you can think about mission and being intermissional with mobile technologies and behaviors as part of your toolkit:

1. Recognize needs
   By studying our community, we can serve our community. Go to a coffee shop, buy a drink, and meet your community. Find out what people are doing with their phones. If everyone has 4G you probably don’t need to optimize for speed, but if there’s spotty coverage you might want to figure out how to make your content work offline.
2. Start small
   Instead of blowing up your entire site in the quest for mobile, take incremental steps towards reaching mobile users. Start removing flash content, adjusting drop down menus to work on touch devices. In the process take note of where mobile users are spending time on your existing site, that information will be invaluable in determining your future direction.
3. Remove friction
   Whenever possible your web app should take advantage of native features. Start with the basics by considering how screen size, and touch interface will affect your design.  Then start looking at how native device features and HTML5 can make life easier.
4. Insiders know, outsiders Google
   If content can’t be crawled by search engines, it’s not going to be found by outsiders. For audio & video content consider using video sitemaps and creating transcripts to increase visibility of your content.

5. Cast a wide net
   Test your site on the worst devices you can find. It’s tempting to only test on the latest and greatest devices, but it’s important to make sure that the site is just as usable on older devices.

Today is the day after Easter/Resurrection Sunday. Many businesses opt for this as the day off to observe the holiday and to allow for their workers/participants to get a bit of time to stop and reflect after the last many weeks of activity (especially if you have been observing Lent, alongside the rest of the seasons’ concerns – taxes, spring breaks, etc.).

In the midst of this, we’d like to kind of remind you that stopping and reflecting shouldn’t be the opposite of the instant communications and technologies that you have in your hands right now. Surely, there are statistics and commentaries aplenty which describe how we’ve let the speed and access to faster and more targeted communications tear away at our ability to reflect, rest, and demonstrate a keener awareness of concern for one another.

If anything, let the below graphic be a reminder of that point. You don’t have to go so fast, but you do need to stop in order to see a life that’s risen (click on graphic to see entire graphic [clipped], in new window):

~via Instant Gratification of America

Last year, we published an account of Good Friday and Easter/Resurrection Sunday in the context of what that story would look like if mobile were present. Here’s a snippet of what happened on Easter/Resurrection Sunday in that story:

…The brothers planned to meet near the place were ate with Jesus last. The keeper of that room also received the message from the women and assured us that we would be taken care of and fine there. We had to think and act quickly. And somehow, if Jesus is risen, get in contact with him. I’m sure that he couldn’t get a mobile – but I’ve seen him produce all kinds of things out of thin air, anything is possible with him.

The plans came along quickly. This was much different than in times past. It seemed like this time that we just wanted to be on one accord. Some of us reclined in our seats to breathe, some had been on the run a lot longer than just the past three days. Then something strange happened. The mobiles in the center of the table turned on at the same time, then vibrated, then turned off. That was weird, and we all seemed to see it at the same time. It got quiet, really quiet…

Read the rest of Easter/Resurrection Sunday, Narrated Through a Mobile Lens, and the previous installment, Good Friday Narrated Through a Mobile Lens