For a number of years in looking at mobile ministry, there’s this question of “where are the opportunities in mobile or ministry” that comes up. And lots of times, identifying these areas aren’t so simple, mainly because we look at defining opportunities in the terms of fulfilling an organizational mission, not a personal one.
But, we live now in a time where people are connected and more apt to resolve to initiatives that come across them directly. Starting from just the simple point that we look at our mobile devices several (tens) of times each hour – its logical to think that if ministry opportunities were as readily available as the moment we touch devices, there could be more opportunities capitalized on – without the red tape of vetting through every organizational process (some are necessary, I will admit). See these stories recently published at Businessweek towards a shift in temp work that’s happening in metro areas in the USA:
In our context, that would just be accounting for those people who are looking for ministry opportunities That might not be all too many of persons in the grander scheme of things. So, could another recent note about an Android lock-screen app point to how ministries could get in front the the eyes of these mobile and connected opportunity points?
So here, we are utilizing some of the unique characteristics of mobile devices to not just make folks known about ministry opportunities (broadcasting), but we are also taking advantage of the time and spatial constraints in which mobile performs best. And at least in the case of Locket, people are being compensated by just making themselves open to seeing ministry opportunities on their mobile screens a few times each day.
We’re not saying that a person has to be compensated for acting on a ministry endeavor, but it doesn’t hurt to do something like that. What we are putting forth is that it should be a lot easier, given the depth and breadth of connected devices and the spaces we inhabit, to make those ministry opportunities known – without needing to wait until the Sunday church announcement, or being pushed to a Facebook page. Shouldn’t some aspect of how we do digital evangelism make it easier for me to see that if I went to lunch a few blocks away from where someone in my community was in a hospital, that they would be open for a visit? Shouldn’t organizations and behaviors like BeRemedy be normal to the way we function in this digital, missional age?
I wonder what it would look like for mobile ministry, or just online ministry in general, if opportunities were able to be found and acted upon like someone would do temp work. Those articles in Businessweek and TechCrunch showed how the presence of mobile-connected devices are marking the way towards a new type of worker – could similar be done here?