Category Archives: Mobile in Personal/Moment

Identity and Depth

The other day, a friend and I were talking about the use of a call-in service for Bible searching, reading, and evangelism. In a sense, looking at the market of those folks who might be still tied to a paradigm of looking towards a voice for information (rather than having content on a screen, sent passively, or directly searched). One of the things that was striking in the midst of this conversation is how he stated that at his church, that the age and culture of the population poses some resistance towards those who use electronic devices for Bible reading in the community (a trait that John Dyer once spoke towards very well). In that, I wondered a lot about this idea about the identity of the Christian in this changing society and if there is something to be said towards these devices, services, and experiences that are gathered about these days.

You see, for those of us who pay attention to these things, there’s a clear sense that the identity of the Christian is being challenged on several fronts. Emotionally, there’s a drawing towards more expressive (some would call this transparent, others would call it performance) means of showing one’s views/feelings. Socially, there’s a bent towards urban centers in some metropolitan areas with pockets of intentional communities. While in more rural areas, there’s a bent towards a (romantic) preservation of the community and faith that was remembered by those who haven’t moved to urban centers. Theologically, it seems that just about every branch of the Church has not only gone through revisions of the text into a common language, but seen a shift from the leanings of the West towards something more charismatic and dynamic – moving south and east while doing so. All of this is happening in different shades across at least three existent generations of people groups. That’s a lot of shift to account for.

And yet, here is that nearly always present mobile. I like how Jan Chipcase squares this topic of identity alongside this totem we carry:

Much like the paradox of the toga in ancient Rome, some objects can connote high status in one culture and low status in another. A suntan on someone who lives in London or New York is a sign to others that that person can afford a tropical vacation, or at least a trip to the tanning salon. On the other hand, a tan in China or Thailand is a mark of peasants who toil in the fields. Thus on the shelves of pharmacies in Bangkok you’ll find dozens of skin products with whitening ingredients; in the United States, expensive moisturisers are tinted. Does this mean that the people who use these products are all that different from one another?

What are we saying if we are affirming or denying the use of mobile devices in community gatherings? What if part of the impact of what we are saying is that your identity has to have more depth than what you carry? We could stand to have a faith that does that. It would mean though that those making such a declaration have to be able to been seen without their totems as well.

Or, what if we said that you can carry it, but that it has to have an influence beyond just being your own screen? What does it mean when we cultivate the personal content and activity of a mobile device, but in some social situations mandate that it has an open or community-accessible aspect to it? Not just “you can see the photos I just uploaded to Facebook either,” but a more sincere – “here, let me help you understand why I took that kind of note” kind of feature.

What I thought about my friend’s declaration about his church’s specific culture is that they asked for folks to affirm the church’s identity, but gave nothing in return to those who needed a bridge to become that manifested character. If you will, “live the way I tell you, but I won’t give you my eyes to do it.” For many today, their identity is tied very tightly to what’s in their palms. The style of phone, the case on it, the ringtone, and even the applications preferred are a part of who they are. When we ask them to remove the device from the presence, we are asking them to set aside themselves for something they are not. In a sense, ignoring the traditional declaration of “come as you are.”

If I am also what happens on this little screen, then to engage the depth of who I am means that you have to be as willing to dive into me, as you want for me to unplug into you.

May Videocast

In this month’s video, Mobile Ministry Magazine’s Antoine RJ Wright tackles a user submitted question on mobile phone research, talks about some upcoming events, and expresses a bit of sadness at a broken tablet.

Bible Bloom’s Daily Bible Challenge

Bible Bloom homescreen
We are very late in getting this up, but given the site issues and just how popular our review of Bible Bloom has been, its about time that we make a note about something new happening with Bible Bloom called the Daily Bible Challenge.

Now, you’ve been a part of reading plans before, but this one offers a bit more. And combined with the pleasant UI of BIble Bloom’s app, could make for a neat reason to use this Bible app versus to others.

Here’s more about the Bible Challenge:

The Big Idea
The Bible Bloom Daily Challenge is a journey that will stretch and strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ. The concept is very simple but the impact is profound: each day we’ll issue a new challenge to experience Jesus. You can try it, skip it, or share it. Some challenges will be easy and others will stretch you. But every challenge will grow your faith, glorify Jesus, and advance the kingdom of heaven.

What is even more exciting is that Christians all over the world will take the same challenge at the same time. Now imagine the revelation of Jesus that will enter your life through a daily challenge multiplied by tens of thousands of Christians all over the world. Together we will ask for a greater revelation of Jesus, pray against injustices like human trafficking and abortion, bless Israel, and activate our faith through evangelism. There are 365 inspiring, thought provoking, and fun challenges to stretch your faith.

Read more about the Bible Bloom Daily Bible Challenge

Sounds like something worth taking part in? Good stuff. Let’s sweeten the deal for you here.

Bible Bloom has given us two promo-codes that we’ll give away to anyone who wants to try out the Bible Bloom app. Its only available on Apple’s iOS devices (made for the iPhone, but will work on the iPad) so sorry about that end of things. But for those of you looking to try something a bit different, or get a friend or family member to try something different, this is a great idea. If you are interested in the promo code, shoot us a message via Twitter including BibleBloom in a hashtag (for example, “hey @mobileminmag, I’d like to try that #BibleBloom app”). If we get a large number of tweets, we’ll choose at random; if not, we’ll just go by the responses. Let’s say that we give about 3 days to get a response from you all on that.

Until that point, stay tuned to MMM for more bible app reviews, commentary, or other potential giveaways.

How Do You Use Study Resources

screenshot of Olive Tree Bible Study App when using concordance resources
The other day while going through email, I noticed a newsletter from the good folks over at Olive Tree Bible Software. As I read, I saw a neat piece in there about how to use a concordance with their software. Here’s a snippet:

…As you can see, the Olive Tree Concordances are much more than a list of cross references for each word in the Bible. With dictionary information tied to the original language, these resources are valuable tools for Bible study. Each concordance comes with a copy of the Bible in the selected translation…

Read the rest of Using A Concordance in the Bible Study App at the Olive Tree Blog

That piece got me thinking back to how I used to use print resources, then print and web, and then later web and mobile resources in order to do my studies. A good deal of the work that went into feature suggestions and the design of Palm Bible+ app which accelerated my travels in this space. It was very important then to not just have access to the resource, but have it in such a way that it didn’t interrupt the reading flow, but was there when needed. Now then, we did things with the PalmOS Graffiti system, and even the keyboard on Treo devices to make that happen. These days with touch and more consistent connectivity, designing these resources into an app is a bigger challenge.

Even with that challenge, its still a suitable flow of use. So, let’s open question that titles this post (how do you use study resources) with a few qualifiers:

  • For those of you who might use commentaries, concordances, etc. in your private reading, how do you do it? What could be done better?
  • For those of you who use those resources while teaching, what kinds of challenges do you run into either from the side of teaching or the side of sharing the sources of that info with students?
  • For those wh might use these resources to teach, but don’t share them with your students/audiences, why?

There you have a few ways to frame an answer. Let’s hear what you have to say towards using study resources, especially with your mobile-enabled audiences.

How Would Jesus Use (Compter/Connected) Technology

Was browsing over at Symbiota and came across a really interesting question worth discussion on several levels: How would Jesus use technology?

…I think Jesus would have used the technology in a couple of ways. One, I think because we see Jesus working primarily with his group of 12. He talk crowds, he healed and he walked through cities and really impacted a lot of people. But he concentrated, he put a lot of his leadership training in his 12. So I think Jesus would have really used technology to train his core leaders to give them the tools. I think of the story when Jesus send 70, 2 by 2. I can imagine, you know, hypothetically if I can use my imagination them being in the field and asking Jesus the question and having Jesus on Skype or on Google Hangout and he’s saying, OK this is how I would do the situation if I were you.

So I think he would primarily use it in training his core leaders but also because he was impacting so many people, he would make sure that the gospel was broadcasted as far and as wide as possible…

Read the rest of the Interview with Pierre Quinn over at Symbiota

Personally, I don’t know that Jesus would have used tech in that manner. At least not when it came time for ministry. If we look at the text, we see very little of the carpenter in the text, but we do see the effects of his work in terms of social movements, behaviors, and responses.

Its an interesting one, and makes us really think about how we navigate and move in this space. Perhaps its less about the tech, and more about the process after the tech we should pay attention to?

Disclaimer: Symbiota is one of several partner groups to MMM. Interested in partnering with MMM?

Psst… Pass It On

Its been a bit of a slow news week, but there are always notes being passed this worth passing along to you.

  • WorldBibles is a website that has a collection of text and audio Bibles in a few thousand languages. Much of the content is sourced from other websites, but its all collected in one place with a decent search facility
  • In an article over at Fast Company, its talked about why good intentions aren’t enough to make people use your app. That’s a lesson that many in the faith space don’t want to hear (that there’s not as much demand for this content as we want folks to believe). The solution is in part better marketing, but another part building stuff that matters before building the rationale for traditional messaging
  • Also at Fast Company, a article looks at problem solving electronic toys for kids and how one solution points at ways that existing software and hardware can be better purposed for engaging brains and activities… not just entertainment or passive learning as is usually the case
  • Continuing down the kids meme, the Huffington Post looks at tech in schools when kids are able to bring their own device and how that fosters different expectations and results in terms of the tech and lessons from those kids. Lessons here for missions work as well as understanding the educational advantages and constraints of mobile (in ministry).

There are a good deal more articles out there. Much of the week’s notes have already been passed along via Twitter (use the hastag #mobmin to see these). What news and notes have you found worth sharing?

[Video] April Mobile Minsitry Notes

As we’ve done the past months, here’s a video(cast) about those things related to mobile ministry. We talk a bit about the Mobile Ministry Forum, as well as some newly acquired tech and how that’s being used here at MMM. Take a peek and let us know what you think of these videos.

Watch previous months videocasts:

Also, you can check out other videos about mobile ministry.

Mobile and Disruptive Events

As the USA has witnesses in light of the Boston Marathon bombing, there are some signifiant failings towards mobile that tend to rear their heads. And certainly there are things that can (and won’t) be done to address that. Fast Company went through a litnay of possible ways that carriers have addressed the issue of call/data/messaging volume during emergencies in a recent article:

…Mobile networks have bandwidth that is more than sufficient 99% of the time. However, when disaster strikes, the decentralized nature of the network means that whole geographic regions can be knocked out by increased call volume. Whenever the generous-but-finite bandwidth at carrier site buildings are strained, users are prevented from making voice calls. Because SMS text messages take up far less bandwidth, mobile carriers instead encourage users to text message each other. As Pica put it to Fast Company, “text requires less dedicated real-time capacity than voice. Data networks including LTE and EVDO were not impacted due to the nature of the way data systems are used.”…

Read the rest of Why Your Phone Doesn’t Work During Disasters and How to Fix It at Fast Company

As much as I liked the idea of the article, and have thought about similar here in light of the recent bombings in Boston and Bagdad, I don’t necessarily think of the nature of the network in the same way. In emergency situations, I think of communications channelling going from utility-controlled to P2P-types of methods. We talked about the quick-setup and versatile voice/data network put up at the Burning Man festival each year. And have also talked about the mesh-networking-based product Serval – which acts a lot like the way Skype used to work (several nodes connecting to each other rather than all pointing to a single node).

In many of the conversations about mobile ministry in the missions and security spaces, this idea of P2P communications gets a slightly larger share of attention (from IT folks) than it does in the general conversation. Manily because our normal behaviors have been shaped to expect utilities to be managed from a regional or govermental central point. And indeed, the governance and poolicies set on those levels creates a quality of service level that just isn’t matched by other methods. However, when there aree emergencies, this central-focus becomes a failure point to which its literally a tech and behavior shift to do something different.

In some respects, I’m proposing that we start doing things like sharing communications over Bluetooth (passing notes, contact cards, events, etc.) in normal situations so that when emergencies do come up such as Boston/Bagdad that we are more or less equipped to keep going, rather than feel like the tech limits us to wait until a gatekeeper says its ok to connect in a specific way.

FaithVilliage’s 10 Recommended Apps

mobile device in cradle, via FaithVilliage

While its rare that we do these lists, its something that comes up from time to time from our partners. The latest of these recomended apps listings comes from FaithVilliage, with many apps on here that we’ve not seen highlighted as often before (which is good). Here’s a snippet:

4. Postagram: iPhone / Android

There’s nothing spiritual about the free Postagram app, per se, but we love to send encouraging postcards to our friends through it. The way it works: You choose a picture from your camera roll, upload it to Postagram, add a message, and Postagram will create the postcard and mail it to the recipient for 99 cents. They’re just a fun way to tell someone you’re thinking about them, praying for them or for sending them a verse of encouragement.

5. OverDrive: iPhone / Android

This free app allows you to download books from your public, school, or college library. The cool part, though, is not that it’s an eReader, but it’s also an audio book reader. So if you’re on a road trip or commuting to work, you can find your library (over 18,000 libraries use OverDrive), check out a title (you need a valid library card first), and listen to it while you drive. While school libraries might not have Christian literature, public libraries often do. What’s even better: You don’t have to worry about returning the title. It expires at the end of the lending period.

Readof the rest of 10 Highly Recommended Mobile Apps for Christians at FaithVilliage

Disclaimer: MMM’s content is syndicated at FaithVilliage. They are a content partner.