Author Archives: Mobile Advance

Mobile Ministry Made Easy: A Simple Guide to Begin or Advance Your Use of Mobiles

Amazon Kindle Touch in hand
Previously posted at Mobile Advance

Several months back [Mobile Advance] was contacted by a friend in the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) and asked if [Mobile Advance] could collaborate with one of their workers who was developing a guide to mobile ministry.  I happily agreed and read through the first draft, providing feedback where I thought most helpful.  Last week, a number of months after receiving the initial draft and after working through several further drafts, I was blessed to be given the opportunity to make the first public introduction of the final edition of Mobile Ministry Made Easy: A Simple Guide to Begin or Advance Your Use of Mobiles at a missions conference I was speaking at in Europe.

I am exceedingly happy to be able to make this 40 page guide available to you today and trust that the advice and experience you find in this guide will help you in successfully implementing mobile ministries in your outreach.

Many thanks to the IMB and to “Stan” (not his real name) who put many many hours into not only getting the best information together but also putting it together and formatting it in a way that makes the guide a pleasure to read.

Reviewing Missions-Ready Mobile Devices

Nokia Asha 303As MMM has pointed out a few times in recent articles, not every mobile situation will merit the latest smartphone, or the most consistent of connectivity speeds, or even a connection at all. In many cases, specifically when the #mobmin (mobile ministry) focus turns missional, the attraction for mobile devices takes on a different component:

  • Is the device generous with battery life (multiple days)
  • How many SIM cards can it take
  • How easy is the device to repair
  • Is there a memory card slot
  • Is there Bluetooth
  • Is there a FM radio

As well as several other factors related to security, cost of device and service, and multimedia abilities. You can go to a website such as GSM Arena and in using their Phone Finder page, choose a manufacturer, and then according to the listing here, begin to filter models down to getting to something that works for you (for example, starting with Nokia and a price of no more than $200 USD, here’s the results of a search for available mobiles).

Mobile Advance took at look at a few low-end mobiles (these would be described as feature phones) some weeks back. The devices that were looked at (Nokia X2-02 and Samsung Hero E3213) consider the above points and more – for those persons doing missions work where mobile connectivity is a near-necessity:

My wife and I both needed phones upon getting here.  After  testing out a few in the stores, we decided to get two similar, yet different models- the Nokia X2-02 and theSamsung Hero E3213. Both cost the same- approximately 64 USD. I thought I’d send on our observations upon using both phones, especially since one of them is the update of the XpressMusic [mobile which was a past recommendation]…

Read the rest of  A Comparative Review of Two Mobile Ministry Ready Feature Phones at Mobile Advance

Mobiles like these can be purchased from websites such as Amazon, Expansys, Carphone Warehouse, and Wallmart. Depending on your region, you might also find some smaller local wireless retailers selling these or find listings for some of these mobiles on sites like eBay and Craigslist. Lastly, a good place to find a mission-ready mobile is a pawn shop. Regardless of the place you find these, make sure that you wipe the device completely, then do a full system restore using the accompanying PC/Mac software suite if available.

Once you have gotten the mobile cleaned up, and before you start adding your favorite or needed contacts and apps, take a look at the listing of security and privacy apps listed over at SaferMobile. For many of you in missions, it might not be your mobile that you need protected as much as it is the communications on it, or the lives of those whom you might also let access your device. Take a look at SaferMobile’s listings, then pursue wisdom in your missional mobile activities.

Guide to Producing Video on/for Mobile at Mobile Advance

Parlaying their learning of video production and mobile media, Mobile Advance has recently published a comprehensive guide to video production to and for mobile devices that should find its way onto your bookmarks if this is where your interests in mobile lie.

This is a researched and vetted pointer to existing resources, and so some of it might be deeper in some sections more than others. Nevertheless, if you are producing content for mobile, or looking trying to figure out why your media projects towards mobile and mobile ministry might have failed, this is probably one of the better resources you can grab.

2011 Mobile Ministry Consultation Executive Summary

2011 Mobile Ministry Forum Consultation - Share on Ovi

50 mission strategists representing 40 organizations* participated in the second Mobile Ministry Consultation sponsored by the Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF). Presentations and discussions addressed a wide variety of issues critical to the use of mobile devices in ministry (see the topic list below). Collaborative outcomes of the consultation include plans to develop training resources to equip ministries and local believers to implement mobile ministry, publish online courses in “feature phone” formats, develop a taxonomy for mobile ministry, develop a Smartphone app for SMS crowd-sourced broadcasting, and a hold “hack-a-thon” competition to develop an evangelistic app for mobile devices.

View the entire executive summary, including links to presentations (slides, media, and audio), and contact information to the Mobile Ministry Forum at Mobile Advance.

Mobile Advance 10 Questions Series: Antoine RJ Wright

Mobile Ministry Forum - Share on OviOver at Mobile Advance continues their 10 Questions interview series of people involved in and around mobile ministry activities.

The latest of these interviews is with Antoine RJ Wright (wait, that’s the guy who runs this place). Here’s a snippet of that interview:

5. What are some of the biggest obstacles to implementing effective mobile ministry? For you/your ministry? For the Christian world in general?
 
Mobile is still very new for many ministries. Some have just figured out how to get on the Internet train consistently, and mobile adds a layer of knowledge and engagement that should be familiar, but has unique challenges many aren’t ready to answer. For MMM, our challenge is getting people to talk about their challenges and successes with mobile. We’d be just fine if there was an easier way to get folks to document what they are attempting. For the Christian world, mobile is just big. And its unique in every instance. Many don’t focus on discipleship as much as they do activity and teaching, and so they miss that personalized level of life that mobile and discipleship tend to sit on. Mobile requires that kind of on-the-ground relationship…

Read the rest of this interview at Mobile Advance.