Category Archives: Mobile As Infrastructure

Mobile and Social Tools for Small Groups

This year, I found myself back moving back to an area of the United States where I previously had strong ties of a large, local church. One of the reasons those ties were so strong was the intentionality that ministry had on making sure that all members (and guests) could connect to the community through small groups. While small groups are not new, what I have found is that making the connection point relatable to the individual goes a long way to ensure that they develop socially, mentally, and spiritually.

Read the rest of Developing and Maintaining Small Groups with Mobile and Social Tools at Church Tech Today

Visualizing the Next Decade of Church Tech

I thought it good to take a look at four areas of tech currently in the news and relate them to how the church community might engage or respond to them: messaging, Virtual Reality/Artificial Reality, wearables, and AI. Some of what I consider cutting edge might actually happen. Other thoughts might just be ramblings that come from thinking too early about these and other topics. Nevertheless, when we engage the potential for the church to transform culture, it’s never too early to consider what might be with the tools coming up in front of us now.

Read the rest of 4 Areas of Focus to Visualize Church Tech’s Next Decade at Church Tech Today

Church Tech Takeaways from CES

A little after the New Year celebrations ended, I attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This was my third time attending this annual trade show and exhibition, this time as an exhibitor with the Dutch company IamProgrez. Even though I was acting in a different role, I still came away with refreshing insights into the future several areas of consumer electronics. While there were no churches represented in any of the products or services I saw at the show, I did come away with some takeaways for those in the church tech space who deal with church and community technologies.

Read the rest of 3 Tech Takeaways from the Consumer Electronics Show at Church Tech Today

Bonus:

ICCM Australia Keynote 3: Exploring the Shift from Content to Context

Its been great sharing with you the various keynote sessions shared at the 2015 ICCM Australia Confernce. In this third keynote, we open up the technical sessions of the day by talking towards the shift in computing from simply serving content to embracing the context of use.

Continue reading

ICCM Australia 2015 Keynote: A Future of Everything

The past two weeks has seen me in the Land Down Under – Australia – participating with several organizations whom are responsible for organizing and putting on the ICCM Australia Conference.

Continue reading

Resurrecting the Reasons for Mobile Ministry

Experimenting with A Different Mobile Filter

Its truly been a long while since writing a post of substance here. Part of that has been a sense of focusing on other channels. Another part of that has been a sense that MMM might have run its course. 10 years of discovering, observing, relating, and releasing this idea called mobile ministry is a long time. Others have stepped up in this space (very much appreciated to see the other voices), some have faded away. Mobile ministry is still a niche. And its still very much needed to be talked about. Continue reading

Issue 3: Holy Week

This issue of Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM) is deliberately begin set against the backdrop of Holy Week. The tools and technology should always take a backseat to the faith and its impacts, but as we find even in this famous week – the tools used (the whip, crown of thorns, nails, cross, and stone) speak just as loudly as the participants in the story.

Continue reading

2014 Issue 1: Making It Simple

Welcome to a refreshed Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM). Starting this year, we are going back to the simplicity of the issue format. Each month we will be hitting on those points where you can discover, observe, relate, or be released into mobile ministry (#mobmin) efforts. It’s a packed issue, let’s get into it.

Continue reading

A Few in the Tabs

I’ve got a few pieces sitting in the tabs that I’ve wanted to expound on, but just haven’t made the time to do so. Here are some of those items sitting under that extended contemplation:

…One of the things I love most about technology is the space it allows us to dream and innovate. There’s always an opportunity for something new and people are hungry for it. So, if mobile technology has truly expanded to become a part of our daily life, how can we use this to reach people with the truth of Jesus Christ?

Read the rest of Mobile Technology and the Church at The Issachar Initiative

…Second, I’d like to point you to a great little book called Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology by Derek Shuurman, a computer science professor at Redeemer University College in Canada…

Read the rest of TheoMedia and Other Great, New Books on Technology at Don’t Eat the Fruit

…Vision must be aligned to the company’s mission: What is great about the drones is that they actually make a lot of sense given Amazon’s core business model. As I wrote previously in Amazon’s Dominant Strategy

Read the rest of Amazon and the Benefits of Vision at Stratechery

…this points to how important research triangulation is to make good decisions based on insights, not just data. Real insights are found at the intersection of different research methods. Not over in the corner with just one method…

Read the rest of Conversions Are Not People at Elezea

In the case of the touchscreen, the spatial and visual meaning is not exactly gone, but is now floating and inflated. The touchscreen has multiple screens—each screen, a unique landscape. The single smooth surface offers itself for multiple landscapes and constantly changing meanings. At one moment, a swipe will unlock the phone; the next, the same swipe will answer an incoming call. Same motion, same locations, different meanings. The touchscreen’s agnosticism permits multiplied meanings.

Read the rest of Unbuttoned: The Meaning of Buttons in a Touchscreen World at The Second Eclectic

…Digicel built its business model around going to small, difficult countries that larger companies would avoid. These countries are challenging environments that “you’d run a mile from” because they don’t seem to have the resources to afford mobile telephony, says Colm Delves, Digicel’s CEO…

Read the rest of This Company Brought Cell Service to the Remotest Countries on Earth — and Then It Ran Out of Places to Go at Quartz

These all might read like stars on a cloudy night. But, I’ve had them set because these all speak to various points about mobile ministry which might elevate opportunity, best practice, caution, or surprise. I don’t know what might consist of those items on your reading list, but these are just a few of mine. As you walk though the holiday – and a slower news cycle – perhaps part of what stays open in your tabs provokes your imagination or sense of opportunity.

Using Mobile, The Skeleton of Twitter

A simple question came to mind while reading an article at Bloomberg Businessweek talking about the technology behind Twitter. Here’s the part which poked at that question:

…Another of Twitter’s discoveries was that mobile phones could work as a broadcast platform. This was something of a miracle of timing: A massive proportion of its traffic today comes from mobile devices. The short length of the tweet was perfect for celebrities in limousines to communicate with thousands, and later millions, of followers. The tiny payload of tweets could be easily jammed into narrow mobile phone data streams, giving people a real-time flow of information…

The article is really clear and simple about what’s going on behind Twitter in terms of how its technically designed. And here comes the question – specifically for those building mobile ministry projects?

Do you understand the depth of interactions that happen on mobile? Does your mobile ministry solution build on the basic behavior, or on top of another’s technology that does?

Post your comments here or on Twitter (@mobileminmag or use #mobmin in your response)