Last year, we composed an account of this Easter weekend, but told through the perspective of what things could look like if mobile was a part of the story. Here’s a snippet of the story:

It was only a 30 second clip. But that was all that we needed to see. There he was, I think. In the face it looked like him, but the body was badily bruised. He had something on his head, but I couldn’t tell – I’ve got a simple mobile without a good screen. It looked like he nearly fell with some beam on his back, but then some other guy grabs the beam from him and then the scene cuts. We all looked at one another terrified. We knew what was next. This kind of message only comes out for certain kinds of capital punishments.

My mobile had been off for a few hours. I needed to relocate and didn’t need any cell towers tracking my movements. Better that myIMEI simply shows up in a different region with a different SIM than traveling across regions. It was around noon when mine and all the mobile around me beeped again. There was another MMS. This one felt different. The sky had darkened before it came in. I had this feeling in my stomach that I lost something very important.

Read the rest of Good Friday, Narrated Through a Mobile Lens, this story continues on Easter Sunday.

If you’ve not seen this already in our redesigned sidebar, and in keeping with that 2012 resolution in keeping on top of conferences and such which might be beneficial to those following mobile (in) ministry, there’s now a public Google Calendar showing a smattering of #mobmin events for 2012 and beyond.

This calendar actually started as a personal calendar that’s now public, with some members of the Mobile Ministry Forum having the ability to add to this calendar. I’ve gone the route of putting many of the major events that we talked about before on there. As the year goes forward, you will also be able to see some smaller calls and conferences as they happen appear on here. The link to this calendar will show on our mobile site(s) soon-ish.

If there’s an event that needs updated information, needs to be added/removed, just let us know.

This post was submitted by Garrett Johnson of MinistryOps (@ministryops)

The big promise of apps is that they’ll promote themselves. Just by getting your church or ministry into the iTunes store, or the Google Play, millions of users will magically come to find, use and enjoy your app. And based on research showing increased media consumption by app users, and longer user engagement why wouldn’t you?

The untold story is the friction of 500,000+ apps in the iTunes store and the noise they make as they’re looking for installs. A simple search for “church” in an app store (for example at Google Play) gives results for church organ apps, church bingo, guitar chords, poker… and that’s just the first page. Apart from celebrity mega-churches, and directly searching your church name, getting found in the app store is going to significantly limit your install base.

The Walled Garden Effect

A native app, no matter how well designed, requires visiting an app store, finding the app, and downloading the app. It doesn’t matter how simple you make the QR code or easy the bit.ly link is; unless a user regularly attends your church, or consumes your content elsewhere, they’re unlikely to find and install your app. So, if the content provided in the app isn’t  easily accessible without installing an app, you’ve built a walled garden protecting (and limiting) your content, that’s just for your insiders.

Instead ministries should consider building on the platform that’s preinstalled on every mobile device and can be found on Google, shared on Facebook, and sent in an SMS message. The web is the ultimate platform for mobile; a URL needs no explanation or installation, works on the desktop and mobile, and can point to every piece of content your ministry has ever published. It might not seem as glamorous as an app store, but the web reaches the people where they’re at. Your mobile strategy might end up looking a lot like your current site, or just enhancing with CSS media queries, or a custom mobile site.

Whatever decision you make, mobile is just a methodology for communicating the Gospel. It’s not the only way, it’s not the best way, it’s a way. Don’t be fooled by slick marketing or articles, you don’t need an app. You need to equip people to go out on mission with the Gospel. Do it in the best way you can.

I’ve added my All Books Project to Github for those who might be interested in taking a look as to what I’ve been working on. Right now, that’s just the UX. I’ll get the ReadMe and Wiki updated in time.

As of now, I’m not really planning to do much more to it before I finish some lessons with JavaScript and figure out the speed issues on my Nokia N8. But, if you’ve got ideas, or want to jump in, well, there it is.

Oh… the colors, measurements, and arrangement is all for a reason. That all comes in the documentation… stay tuned.

A few weeks ago, I was in the lineup as one of the speakers for Ignite Charlotte 4. The experience was pretty cool (5min, 20 auto-slides, talk about something you are passionate about), and afterwards, I received a ton of kudos for my talk and this branded, USB bracelet (picture). I thought that was a cool gift, as I’d been looking at acquiring a similar-functioning RoadID band for sometime. Yet, as I thought about it some more, I realized that something as simple as a branded bracelet that has some memory storage could be a very effective (passive) mobile ministry tool.

Remember back when we gave the definition of mobile ministry, there’s a piece of that definition that plays part here – technology and behaviors that forward the key ideals and traditions of (a) faith. What we have in this bracelet is a 1GB, computer connected, digital archive – with (!) branding and attention to livability (waterproof, shock resistant). Instead of simply handing me a pen with your church’s name on it, how much more powerful would a bracelet, that has a small archive of sermons, possibly a bible reader, and perhaps the contact information of the church (vCard or hCard format)?

There’s already the context of using microSD cards with materials on them as part of one’s mobile ministry strategy. But, what if we take out the expectation that a mobile device, or even a computer that’s owned, is the destination? What if we assume that someone might only want to engage with their faith-based software in the security of removable storage? Or better, what if it makes sense to those in our community whom are not as quick to think about what to do with a memory key or memory card, but could easily see the benefit (and fashion sense) of something like this bracelet which has unobtrusive branding, but underneath shows (by what’s included within) the attention to that person’s continued spiritual growth?

We’ve said in times past that wearable computing is one of the steps beyond mobile. Could you, or your community see something like this as the route forward towards marketing, engagement, and spiritual development?

[Release from Internet Evangelism Day] Internet Evangelism Day is April 29. Here’s some of what you can look forward to on that day from the Internet Evangelism Day website:

A Changed World
The digital world has changed remarkably in the last year or two. Although a part of Internet Evangelism Day’s emphasis has always been to mobilize individual Christians into digital evangelism, until recently the options we could suggest were quite limited. Writers might be drawn to blogging, or create a website if they felt technically competent. Those good at thinking on their feet could share in chat rooms and bulletin boards. But most of these suggestions were time-intensive and intentional initiatives only suitable for a small minority.

What has changed? The emergence of the ‘three-fold cord’ of social networking allied with video shorts and mobile phones. At last it has become remarkably easy for any Jesus-follower to build relationships and discuss truth appropriately, especially within social networking platforms. Our digital communication culture has become highly visual and dialogue-based, and the sharing of conversation-starting video shorts on Facebook and Twitter is as easy as a mouse-click, though only if we know where to find them. Read this article in full.

Phone Apps
There are now a few smartphone apps that are genuinely aimed at outsiders, that can be shared one-to-one or in a small discussion group. UK team Damaris has just released a strategic iPhone app called Talking About Jesus (Android version coming soon). Read more about the Talking About Jesus app.

Curation
Pinterest.com allows anyone to create a very visual set of curated recommendations, within their own chosen areas of interest, with no tech knowledge needed. Read more about Curation w/Pinterest

Books and Giveaways
Like last year, we’ll be offering normally pay-for evangelism/communication ebooks free on IE Day, plus the chance to win others.

For more information/Contact
For radio or telephone interview with an IE Day representative in US, Canada, Australia or UK, see contact details.

With 2.3 billion people online and 4 billion mobile phone users, including increasing numbers in the Majority World, the opportunities are ever expanding!