Today, I’m attending the first of two funerals for a family member that recently passed. As with many sudden deaths, there’s a bit of a scramble to make sure that the deceased’s estate is taken care of. When my mother and I sat to talk about this passing versus my father’s passing over a decade ago, we talked about things such as “where is your emergency information” and “how would my mother notify my ‘digital relationships’ about my passing.”

Those are certainly some important questions and caused me to make sure that my digital information and archives are put in a position that emergency personnel and my family/friends are able to make the right decisions concerning my properties. But, I was left at a bit of a loss when I thought about that effect in terms of digital spaces. Especially since I do a lot online (where I’m usually the teacher to my friends/family) and what I do I actually hope that it has more of an effect when I’m done than when I’m working in it.

The last part is what I’d want to open the door to. We have books like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs or even various commentaries and quotations of those who heard many fathers/mothers of the faith and recorded them. This is great, and has left for us an amazing wealth of knowledge and perspectives with which to mature our walk of faith. When we go digital, or our ministry is mobile (mobile = portable, action-oriented instead of doctrine-defining), how much of that becomes left into the residue that becomes the following generations of faith?

For example, you’ve taken Netcasters (read our review) to heart and have created a space where you’ve discipled several believers from various regions on how to create and share Gospel-centered literature. Your legacy looks like that of a pastor-teacher or evangelist, however the fruit of your labors isn’t that people copy your materials to others, but that they develop materials themselves to which is passed on. Does it matter if your name is written into the faithfulness of that effort? Does it matter if you did or didn’t do all you could to make this effort more successful? If you will, can your digital actions create – really, continue – in the rich history of using various technologies to share the impact of the love of Christ to the world?

I often ask, “in 100 years, when someone looks back on my life, will they be able to measure my life/actions against Scripture and it be clear that I am doing something in the same line of faith and love that the Bible records? Or, is what I do and how I live so far off that I’d be considered apostate and a sign of what not to do?” Does mobile (in) ministry look like the fruit of the faith? I surely hope so, but really, that’s something that will be judged better when I’m gone than when I’m here.

Netcasters is a short yet deep read (12 chapters, about 175 pages). In it, The author (Craig von Buseck, @churchwatch) dives into the question of “why” it’s important to consider digital spaces as applicable for missional, teaching, and discipleship activities. He then describes some of the activities happening online such as EveryStudent.com and Internet Evangelism Day. He then goes into some practical steps that computer savvy and not-so-savvy ministers and lay persons can take towards casting their net online. The content focuses more on social networking and pull-marketing-like methods in order to find, reach, and enable online ministry – though mobile and SMS is mentioned in passing.

Normally, I don’t have much a problem going into reading a book. I can usually get around everything from opinions to facts and simply enjoy the read. With Netcasters, the challenge was a lot different than I was accustomed to in respect to reading. Not only was I reading a subject that I have proficiency in, but I was reading a lot of the same information that I have posted here. It very much felt at times as if I was reading my own writings – and to anyone who knows that feeling of listening to your own voice, you can only take that so long before you need to put your ears into a different place.

That said, I came away from Netcasters feeling that this is still a timely read and useful resource for ministers who might otherwise be feeling overwhelmed with the pace and utilization of Internet technologies in faith, as well as general social contexts. von Buseck’s assessment of the potential for technology to play a part in ministry engagements is in one part still coming to pass, and in other respects is playing out exactly as he and others have foreseen. The challenge, as he notes several times in the last chapter taking about the crossroads of technology and faith, is that we don’t get discouraged as to what we have or don’t have, but just set ourselves towards this digital mission field and start/continue plowing forward.

Netcasters can be considered an old book in respect to writings on technology (published in 2010). When faith is added, there aren’t many solid materials in the faith-technology intersection and therefore this book finds itself as a solid resource guide for those looking to wrap their hearts and minds around the intersection of faith and technology, and what’s possible in this space. I would recommend this to any one with an inkling that digital spaces are ripe for ministry. But, not to stop at simply reading this, take some of the lessons and either join an existing effort or cast a net of your own to further ministry effectiveness in this space.

Netcasters: Using the Internet to Make Fishers of Men
Author: Craig von Buseck
© 2010, B&H Publishing Group
Print and eBook versions available via Amaon, CBN, B&N Publishing, and more

The other day I had a brief twitter conversation with @johndyer (whom all my readers should follow) about technology in the Church. John often hears complaints that churches are “five years behind the rest of the world” technology-wise and, being a thoughtful technologist remind the complainers, “Look, its 2011 and George Lucas has JUST gotten Star Was on Blue Ray.” It’s a good point, the rest of the world is sometimes not as far ahead as we think.In our exchange however, I pointed out that the irony was that Blue Ray was a DOA medium anyway, so John may have picked a better example. His response was, “Doesn’t that make it a better point?” Again, he has a good thought, people are so keen on “catching up” that we end up running blindly into dead ends. I agree, which is why I think that John wasn’t really talking about the “five year lag” at all. Our conversation ended with me asserting that the real problem facing churches is not a five year lag in technology, but rather the continued assumption that technology is just another gimmick “to get young people in.” Full disclosure, the quoted segment made no appearance in our twitter exchange – I was thinking it, but didn’t write it.

Read the rest at Painfully Hopeful

Some weeks ago, we asked the question “what are some of your little-used mobile features”? The hope there was to get some feedback from you as to what features you have on your mobile device, but get little to no use from.

Let’s take that question and go a step further:

How does mobile technology factor into your day-to-day ministry work?

Let’s hear from you in the comments.

Of the many items on the plate, putting together a workshop for ministers with the iPad as the centerpiece is on deck. We’ve got an outline getting put together, and some prospective locations in conversation. Here’s a peek as to what’s to come:

Sessions

• Getting to Know Your Tablet
• Sermon/Bible Study (Prep, Preaching, and Sharing) with Mobiles/Tablets
• Overview of Bible Apps/Notes Apps and Methods
• Creating Quick Notes Docs for Sharing/Reference

These sessions will be totally hands-on and require having an iPad to take advantage of this. Doing similar for other mobiles is also in play, and a good bit easier to do, but getting those classes together in a non-online fashion is considerably much harder.

Again, this is only part of things, but we are working towards having at least one of these sessions in September (location totally to be determined). If one of these sessions interests you, and you’ve got the location or people who’d be interested, let us know so that we can put it on the calendar and get ministers equipped.

For the past year, I’ve essentially used coffeeshops all over NC, VA, PA, as well as my car seat and several residences as office places. And for the most part its been a good challenge to have a consistent routine no matter where I plant myself for an “office” moment. That said, it took a little while for me to get out of the mindset that I had to have “an office” as much as I just needed to make sure that I had enough space in the day to get done internal, collaborative, and community tasks.

To that degree, mobile has been a great enabler of “office anywhere.” I’m only limited by whatever software I have on the device(s) that I choose to carry and the amount of power that device has. I’m pretty much at the point now where working anywhere is a matter of discipline not technology.

That said, I’ve got a question to many of you whom are pastors, missionaries, etc. who might be grappling with that decision for having an office to do “ministry” and “admin” work? If you’ve got the laptop, mobile, and software to work anywhere, what stops you from making anywhere your office? Is it a matter of the office environment being needed so that you can focus better, or, is it a fear of letting go of previous accompaninments that might not be helping you to do ministry or admin at all?

Many of you might have seen the news last week, and for those of you who didn’t, please consider this a really small summary – Amazon released a web-based version of its Kindle application last week. Unlike the previously existing effort where you would be able to read your Kindle books in a PC/Mac web browser (Chrome, IE, Opera, or Firefox), Kindle Cloud (accessed by going to the URL https://read.amazon.com/) is designed so that mobile devices with HTML5-compatible web browsers – currently the iPhone and iPad Safari Mobile browsers – are able to essentially work similar to the Kindle application.

In a very simple sense, you don’t need an application to read your Kindle books. And outside of the initial connection, you don’t even need to be online as you can utilize the feature of HTML5 local storage to read selected books when offline.

Sound great right? Well, its a jump ahead for sure, and with many analysts predicting that there could be over 2 billion mobile devices with HTML5 browsers by 2016, it would seem to speak more relevance to the days being numbered for native applications.

Now, I’ve moved to using Kindle Cloud Reader and have to say that with the exception of page animations and copy/paste, I really don’t miss the native app much at all. Its good enough for my needs, and considering that I normally am using my iPad in a connected setting (I have a WiFi-only iPad), its not a bad idea to use for this kind of application.

So here’s the question, and the implication that people are going to ask if more applications go this route – what Bible readers are conductive to this approach? Are Bible readers conductive to this approached?

Many Bible applications have taken the approach to having a native application that has some Internet connected pieces (Facebook/Twitter sharing, downloading on-demand, backup, etc.). Would it make sense at some point in the near future for them to go the route of HTML5-like web apps like Amazon’s Kindle, Financial Times, etc. are not simply niche publications that are trying this, they have considerable followings and in many cases people willing to pay for increased access to greater depth of content and coverage – its literally a similar palette.

If this begins to happen in critical mass – given Apple’s rules for subscriptions with iTunes, Android’s fragmentation concerns across device types, and increasingly cheaper connectivity options for some mobile users – will your mobile Bible/religious publication approach stay with a native approach, or go this route? Will your users care and stay with you or move to someone else, even if it means they lose your support or content offerings?

Well, it was an unexpected and needed time away from the writing/working aspects of MMM this last week, and therefore the Twitter timeline and RSS feeds got a bit filled some some interesting notes. Here are a few items that we made sure to star for later conversations:

Church Mag: Clips is  an iPhone/iPad application that enables small group leaders and Bible study teachers to use clips of movies for a teaching aide. Really neat project and one definitely a bit more than the conventional Bible app.

ReadWriteWeb: UCLA is offering a course in Digital Humanities. Not the first time we are seeing a course offering like this, but this is one that evangelists and missionaries might want to take a good look at this offering.

MobiThinking: Recently, Barcelona was declared as GSMA’s Mobile World Capital. In this article, MobiThinking takes a look at what makes up the DNA of a “mobile world capital,” and how some of these lessons can translate to other cities, regions, and mobile-infused industries.

Carnival of the Mobilists: The 251st Carnival of the Mobilists has been published at Mobile Web Company. Lots of insightful readings from around mobile. Be sure to have your submissions ready for the next submission time. Follow @COTMobilists on Twitter to be up to date on the next submission time.

Mobile Groove: Also in the Twitter-like mindset, Mobile Groove is taking the #FF (Follow Friday) format and turning it into an interview series. Catch up with the latest interview and if you are involved with mobile in any aspect, see about getting on the list to be interviewed.

Mobile Advance: Mobile Advance has continued its interview series with Tony Whittaker of IE Day and Allen Derksen of Telemensahe.

MeeBible: For those interested in lending a hand to an open source Bible application that looks off to a great start, MeeBible for MeeGo and MeeGo Hamarattan devices is underway. Check out the project page for more information and to join in the effort.

Aaron M. Carter: There’s another great article out there talking about using iPad devices in pastoral functions. Check out Aaron M. Carter’s iPad for Pastors article. Great tips and apps noted here.

WIP Connector: There’s an open survey that’s aggregating research for successful mobile applications over at WIP Connector. Please offer your responses as this contributes to a larger research project on successful mobile application development.

TED: There’s a conversation going on where a TED Fellow is looking at the effect of mobile internet on emerging economies. The conversation is open for a few days longer, so do check it out and contribute your insights.

There’s been more, and we’ve tweeted some. Stay tuned this week as we get back into the regular flow of things, and crack open some of the lessons learned in a (forced) vacation.

One of the things that I like about many Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches – that is, the really old ones –  is the purity of form and function. Everything from the stained glass to the arrangement of the seating, to even the weight of the doors, conveys to you some sense that you aren’t in a normal space. And of course, I’m always smiling when I see a sign asking people to please put their mobiles on silent when even visiting. Sound carries, and its jarring to the environment when something breaks that experience of those forms and moments.

In much the same way, I look at augmented reality (AR) as a step towards reclaiming some of that purity of the forms and environments around us. AR is a technology that utilizes the camera, GPS, Internet connection, and sometimes even surrounding sounds, to augment the view in front of you with a digital layer. This layer could be something as simple as a compass point for directing you to a destination, or could be more involved such as a game board across which two people are playing a game that can only be seen through the screens on their mobiles. In any effect, there’s an attempt to not litter the visual space with marketing or other data, but to leave your ability to see it as part of the treasure.

Recently, a company that specializes in AR technologies – Layar – released a new product called Layar Vision. From their website:

Layar Vision allows the creation of layers and applications that recognize real world objects and display digital experiences on top of them… Layar Vision uses detection, tracking and computer vision techniques to augment objects in the physical world. It can tell which objects in the real world are augmented because the visual fingerprints of the objects are preloaded into the application based on the user’s layer selection.

So, you in effect get something that’s a step beyond what we’ve seen with QR codes and MS Tag – there’s a recognition of objects in the real world, and then on top of those objects is something additional, something digital. In just watching the video, it seems pretty neat and something that could come in handy in some situations (though, if I had a computer in my glasses, I’m sure that I’d be using this like a fighter pilot uses their heads-up-display).

Now, about those churches and environments. Some more modern churches (than what I referenced earlier) have a different simplicity to their designs. Sure, there is this “Apple-like ethos” about the with gradients, lighting effects, and the occasional whiteboard with something scribbled on it near an office door. But, generally speaking, the worship space looks cluttered. Could AR technologies like Layar Vision point to a different using of the space than what we do now?

For example, imagine that there was a small group that wanted to meet on the beach for a concert. However, the performer was actually doing the concert overseas. Those who had the URL would be able to enjoy the concert as many would a YouTube video now, passively watching. Or, they could take a route with Layar Vision where they’d go to a specific spot on the beach and then the concert would be “projected” in front of them seen only through their mobile’s cameras, but able also to be listened to through their headphones. And depending on where they were standing, they’d experience the concert differently. When a certain number of people congregated to the same spot for this, a digital sign would appear over their heads, again, only viewable by Layar Vision or something similar. You’d have people enjoying a “silent” concert, but a means for people to find out what’s going on and even join them.

Now, I could imagine the reaction to this scene. It would probably look a lot like the reaction that the apostles received after that incident with the flaming tongues and them talking a bit differently than normal (Acts 2).

AR, at least how it can be looked at, gives us the ability to see things differently, and probably get back to appreciating environments and forms that we would normally find littered with much visual distractions. We might be a ways away from a scenario like the above being normal, but I do wonder what we’ll see when we do get there.

Over at Mobile Advance a new interview series called 10 Questions. Here, Mobile Advance interviews people involved in and around mobile ministry activities.

The latest of these interviews is with Brad Rhodes (MAF Learning Technologies). Here’s a snippet of that interview:

6.    What is one recommendation you could make that would help an individual or ministry be better able to move forward in mobile ministry?

Focus on voice and video even if a large percentage of your audience has smart phones. But remember that video is much riskier to use cross culturally…

Read the rest of this interview at Mobile Advance.