Over at Mobile Advance, a weekly list of links to news and happenings in and around mobile is posted. Here’s a snippet of what’s in Weekly Web Watch #25:
Security/Privacy
Over the weekend, I have had a number of conversations about MMM and what we are about. A great place to start has been the recently posted sketchnote/mindmap. In many respects, it’s a very wide and deep explanation towards how this idea of “what happens at the intersection of faith and mobile technology” has evolved. Being so wide and deep, it should be explained some.
So, if you are taking a look at it, whether the image or PDF versions, start in the middle. I the middle we have the pod of mobile (in) ministry. In previous articles we have defined mobile (in) ministry as the application of any technology that sits under the term “mobile” and then ministry as those religious practices which forward the tenants of a faith practice. At the intersection of these technologies and faith practices we have the pod mobile (in) ministry.
When you say “mobile” there are many things that come to mind. For some that would be devices, for others that can be a service brokered or an experience (result). To understand this intersection, we need to understand all three of those components: devices, services, and experiences. So it is thru those three layers that we ask the question “where has mobile technology been used in a ministry context?”
So far, we have identified six areas in which mobile technology has been used directly in a ministry context. These areas we have been describing in increasing detail since the beginning of the year, but in a summary look like:
– Mobile in moment /personal: personal use of connected services and applications;
– Mobile in discipleship/education: curriculum development and educational explorations;
– Mobile in marketing/analytics: trends, development, statistics, and practices within mobile channels;
– Mobile in media: mobile content, applications, and services alongside broadcast channels;
– Mobile in missions/evangelism: contextualizing Gospel messages;
– Spiritual and psychological implications: theological and psychological/cultural effects of mobile vs other personal/connected technology media elements
In those six areas there are device, service, and experience components. Each has elements which can be asked or must be answered in the case of using the technology or deriving the theological benefits. In the sketchnote/mindmap this is essentially what is mapped.
As you pass through the layers, the context of that specific application of mobile is detailed. Sometimes, that is easily seen, other times, that’s seething with approaches which have yet to be fully explored whether in religious or secular domains. Here, we explore the entire picture. There are others which focus on specific streams.
I will admit that it makes the subject of mobile (in) ministry a wide and deep area. That’s what we get for asking a question.
We can continue to unpack this as questions and revelations come. What are some of the questions or comments that you have about this sketchnote/mindmap or about mobile (in) ministry that this brings to mind for you?
Taking some of the lessons learned over the past few sketchnotes, here is one that I did recently which is representative of how I see mobile ministry and how it spokes into it’s relevant contexts.
View image this in PDF format.
A few notes about what you are looking at:
Lastly, this is simply my brain conceptualizing much of what has been learned and what’s been posted here over the years. By no means is it an exhaustive reference (though its close).
In my opinion, this would be better served as an interactive Visio or Flash sheet that can be populated and made a bit more like a wiki than simply an image. That said, it looks great to zoom in and out of Adobe Ideas (used to create this) to see areas become clearer as you dive deeper.
There’s a lot of information here. What might be some thoughts you have about some of the ‘pods’ or areas mentioned on here? What might you move or add? Did anything surprise you? Let’s discuss 🙂
Just a headsup up that we have begun our Muther Hackaton Giveaway tweets. To see the questions and win your chance at a free pass to this event, follow us on Twitter (@mobileminmag).
Over at Mobile Advance, a weekly list of links to news and happenings in and around mobile is posted. Here’s a snippet of what’s in Weekly Web Watch #24:
Mobile Ministry
This past weekend, Matt Miller opined that the new HTC Flyer Tablet might make for the right approach to being a digital bible replacement because of it’s inking ability. During this specific look at the HTC Flyer, Matt notes just how well the ability to ink on the screen adds to the experience that many Bible reading applications already offer.
Spending much of my reading time on a tablet, I can relate to how well this can work within many application environments and communities. And as Matt also shows, using a service like Evernote along with is could also pull some of those behaviors that some are used to (writing in margins, etc.) into a digital domain to take advantage of some of the capabilities that paper just wouldn’t have.
This is a use case more centric to tablet (and even laptop) use. And so we should be careful not extrapolating it to every mobile device that can handle ink. Inking, specifically as we are looking at it here, takes advantage of the larger screen spaces tablets offer, and could also blend some spatial interfaces not used as well on small mobiles.
If inking could work, what are some ways that you could see the exploration of Scripture draw someone into a better understanding of it, or even help a small community better understand how to study the bible together (a community sketchnote if you will)?
Over at the Laridian blog, a post about using a print bible alongside a digital bible caught my eye. Here is a snippet:
This year was different though. Maybe it was the fact that we were going through the book of Isaiah or maybe I’m not so rigid anymore, but towards the end of the year I dusted off my print Bible and started using it both in answering my lessons and in class, along with my phone. I really liked having the whole passage open for review. That is the one thing missing on my phone (although an iPad could help with that).
My secret weapon though is still my iPhone. While we can’t consult commentaries and reference material, I have a variety of translations installed on my iPhone. When the NIV leaves me wondering, I can quickly review a verse or passage in the Amplified, NLT or Message and I’m not cheating one bit. I also do that when I’m working on my lesson at home for the following week. And it is still much more convenient to look up related passages using my phone than to flip around the Bible.
Read the rest at the Laridian Blog.
How about you? Have you gone from print to digital to a hybrid mix of both? If so, what were your reasons?
We talked last week about some of the groups MMM is associated with, and here’s one of the events that we’d definitely encourage you and your team to consider checking out.
WIP (the Wireless Industry Parternetship is putting on The Muther of all Hackathons on June 24-25 at Devcon. The goal of this hackathon is to create 100 apps in 24 hours – and to even get some of them into a few AppStores.
Normally, a hackathon means to just encourage development on a single platform or for a single purpose (education, security, etc.), the Muther is encouraging development on every mobile platform and the choice of application is totally up to the developer/team of developers participating.
So, do you think you or your team can code the best application? Or, do you have a killer app idea that you’d love to see a Muther participant take a crack at. Sign up for The Muther now or…
MMM Muther Giveaway
MMM is participating in getting the word out about The Muther and we’re going to make it easier for you to get involved. We’ve got some passes to give away, and we’ll do so over the coming weeks. How do you get one of these passes?
We are going to throw some questions relating to The Muther and MMM out on Twitter (@mobileminmag). All you have to do is follow us and answer the questions as they come. You don’t know when the questions are coming, so you’d need to stay tuned.
The MMM Muther Giveaway will happen over the next three (3) weeks, so you’ll have plenty of time to follow and get your hands on one of the passes.
It’s Sunday. Where is the world? where is the Christian?
I had to think about this for a bit, but history agrees with me: media has contributied to (and oftentimes accelerated) the disembodiment of those things we consider “spiritual” and those things we consider “life.”
We look at the term Christian and some see it as a form of language, style of dress, political views, or even just the signifiers of people based on a common location and behaviors on a few days a week. Some see it as all of the above. When the phrase Christian was termed, its was first a slander for a sect within Judiasm who happended to also be persecuted physically, economicaly, and socially. Peter took this title and used it as a point of empowerment (1 Peter 4:16).
From then on, it would seem that the early church saw it as connection – a unity defined by love for one another, demonstrated as love for their world that effectively preached the hope of reconciled unity with God. Location was only part of it. Behaviors were a contentious part of it. They maintained an identity not because of location or behaviors though, they thrived because they werent limited by either. There were various contact points, the Scriptures, letters from disciples and other community/church leaders, meetings places, and events. These were Christians, ever being pushed, pursued, and transformed. Constantly finding their place within layers of life, defining themselves by a layer of a life that reaches beyond.
Last week’s article from CNN throws some fuel onto the discussion. The author postulates that while remembering the democracy and effective changing of the world by the printing of the King James Bible is good, we should also be calling to question whether we have been as present with the faith (as a Body) as the technology has allowed us to be. To borrow from several streams of discussion over the past weeks: are we Christians because of what we do, or because of whom we are connected to?
A person noted on Twitter (and several retweeted) that they disagree with the title and conclusion of that CNN piece. I can see how they might disagree with the title, it takes a strong and pecular-to-the-age kind of faith to agree with the point that a technology is stripping the leaves off of what we might have defined as Christian for several generations. However, the fact of the matter is that efforts like YouVersion, BeRemedy, Jesus.net, the Lausanne Global Conversatioins sites, and thousands of others are making the concluding statement of that article a point that has to be understood as an implication to those efforts:
…When Bible study can be done on Facebook as easily as in the church basement, and a favorite preacher can teach lessons via podcast, the necessity of physically gathering each week in the same place with the same people turns remote. Without a doubt, this represents a new crisis for organized religion, a challenge to think again about what it means to be a “body” of believers.
You cannot give people personal access to the Bible (or any tome of knowledge) without it later redefining their relationship to it and to others. If we do not understand this, but hold onto models of Christianity which are imperial/behavioral, then we are the worst hypocrites – plunging digital behaviors into a box they don’t fit, constraining a faith that was never meant to fit in a box (Exodus 20, John 4:21-24).
Lives that are unified (John 17:20-26) and knit by love (Deut. 6:4-8) and identified by love for one another (John 13:34-35) preach the Gospel. The CNN article says as much in that conclusion, as we should all be saying with our endeavors in this digital faith space.
So then, where is the Body? Is it cloistered on this mountain or that mountain (John 4:19-24)? Or, is it knowable by a select few (Mark 6:1-3) and therefore found only in specific social contexts? Or, is it identified only by a certain association (Mark 9:38-40) that’s unable to be recognized unless it runs with the clique? Or, is it Body that speaks to the one who saves (John 17:1-10) that connects where-ever, influencing a world how-ever, espousing the same message (1 John 4:2) no matter the context?
To the discussion that the CNN piece raises, we’ve got to let go of elements of what we’ve used to define Christian in the past. They were layers then, and hindrances now. The technologies of our time can help push those things away, but we shouldn’t let those contact points define who or where Christians are. A life that connects, lives by love defines the Christian. Were in print and digital faith are those contact points?
Over the past three weeks (or more), MMM has been in several venues connecting with others who are doing work in ministry, IT, education, and other industries. For many of those persons, those conversations were their introductions to MMM. That might also be the case for you visiting, so I’d like to just take today’s post in just summarizing what MMM is, how we got here, and where you come in.
What is MMM?
Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM) is a web-based magazine that looks to answer the question, “what happens at the intersection of faith and mobile technology?” As with any magazine, we have articles which pose this question in a number of ways – with the end result of us being a place where we are already sending or receiving the information to help answer that question.
The front-face of the MMM is this blog. We use the term magazine but define it as story. On this end, we talk about mobile ministry through the lenses of mobile devices, mobile services, best practices, social engagement activities, and theological/philosophical commentary.
Behind the scenes, we research, train, speak, and consult with ministers, ministries, and organizations whom are looking to best utilize mobile as a part of their communications and ministry strategies. The “stories” of the challenges and successes from these is what you usually see presented in the items that are posted. In addition, we have a running list of resources and case studies, which are more specific to various aspects of mobile as it can be used for ministry needs.
How Did We Get Here?
MMM was started in October 2004 first as a PDF magazine. It was initially designed to be a resource for pastors as a means for them to have something that was accessible specifically to them towards the in-coming mobile technology use. Now, one question that we’ve mentioned often is, “what were you doing with mobile in 2004?” That’s the vision-set that MMM started from, and it was from that use that MMM got started.
In April 2005, MMM restarted in a blog-based format, and through two content management systems (Blogger and now WordPress) and over 2300 posts between them, we’ve become one of the leading voices in the mobile community asking questions, presenting approaches, and occasionally experimenting with mobile as it relates to digital faith engagements.
Yes, a small question has some large ramifications. Most of which were unseen when started. But like any good lesson, you learn and adapt. Whereas we used to concentrate mainly on bible applications and how people used them, these days the entire experience of mobile brokers our conversations: devices, services, and experiences. So, we end up not just covering devices, but how services (social networks, programming languages, etc.) and experiences (user interfaces, theological questions, media/political ramifications) factor into this intersection of faith and mobile.
Who is MMM?
MMM has a few hands keeping things going. Antoine RJ Wright (the guy writing this) serves as the primary voice to MMM. I asked the initial question and therefore dive into as many layers of life as possible in order to better understand and relate those items into content here. Being the primary voice also makes me the only paid person “on staff.” MMM is supported by the speaking, training, and consulting engagements that are gained in-between the research and writing times.
We’ve got a other contributors, Brad, Brett, Melissa, and LaRosa who chime in from time with perspectives on mobile based on their experiences and concentrations. And then we repost content (with author attribution) from Wes Allen and Mobile Active – both have their own sites with focuses, yet many times their work intersects with ours and we’d like for them to have attribution to their work.
We are a part of several groups/associations including the Mobile Ministry Forum, Internet Evangelism Day, the Visual Story Network, GCIA, and Wireless Industry Partnership, with a good deal of the networking and training practices taking place because of these group associations. We’ve got some more work to do here in terms of connecting with other associations more frequently, and that is sure to continue to happen.
Where You Come In?
From you, we look to build a relationship either because you are interested in mobile and would like to learn more about its intersection with digital faith efforts or because you’ve got activity in mobile that’s relevant to digital faith efforts locally, regionally, or globally. That might be a hello on Twitter, that might be something more substantial like asking us to present or consult with you towards specific mobile needs you might have. We are here to hear your story, or help you create one, let’s talk and see how we can work together.
You might be a budding writer or technologist and have content which might be of a benefit to a greater community, and we’d definitely receive your works. There is a lot of the world, especially the non-English speaking word, which needs to know what is happening with digital faith efforts, and how to move forward. Just about 45% of our site’s visitors come from outside the US/UK, we’ve got work to do there. So send what you’ve got, we’ll work with you to get it posted.
And lastly, we could use your prayers. Maybe its just one of those weeks, but it seems like our entire team has been hit with something personal over the past weeks. If you could keep MMM, and all of its contributors and partners in your prayers, that would be greatly appreciated.
That’s Our Story, Here’s Our Goal
So, that’s our story (in short). And where we are right now. Lord willing, we’d get to go a bit further, building with the Body of Christ, and helping to send and receive those mobile tech leanings which might help us see one another in a better light.