Digital Missions Launchpad

EMQ » July–September 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 3

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Summary: The Cru Digital Strategies team has been building digital training programs to equip the body of Christ for digital missions. Through their programs, they are training cohorts of digital missionaries to fill missional gaps helping the gospel to spread further and faster.  

By Ace Pendon 

With the rise of online learning platforms and cohort programs like Udemy and Coursera, people are looking into digital spaces for training and equipping. The ​​​​Cru Digital Strategies team from Cru Philippines built the Digital Missions Launchpad (discipleship.space/digitalmissionslaunchpad) as a 3-week course to equip the body of Christ for digital missions.  

The program activates digital missionaries to fill missional gaps. We’ve identified these gaps as communities and audiences which lack enough multiplying disciples to effectively reach their community with the gospel. Course participants complete lessons asynchronously on an online platform. Weekly group discussions are provided for interaction and to consolidate the week’s lessons. 

Vision and Inspiration 

In November 2021, the International Graduate School of Leadership, a seminary in the Philippines, asked our team to create a learning module for their Foundations for Christian Leadership (FCL) program. We gathered trusted partners from different mission groups, namely JP Arceno (Lead Pastor, Union Community Bible Church), Patrick Tan (Digital Specialist, Asia Pacific Media), and Matthew Velasquez (Digital Creator and host of the Grow Deep Podcast) to help craft the lessons.  

Through this project, we realized that many Christian leaders lack proper understanding of the digital strategies available. We wanted to help them effectively use these tools for fruitful ministry. 

In February 2022, when Cru Philippines began mobilizing people to participate in their annual summer missions trips, we saw another opportunity to share our knowledge and experience. They already partnered with the local churches in training and application of evangelism and discipleship. Our team desired to help by providing relevant training and resources so that digital strategies could be incorporated into their mission trips.  

We began by reviewing the work we did for FCL, and then investigated available resources within Cru that we thought would help Christians doing missions. A few team members participated in the Innovation Launchpad Masterclass offered by OneHope which provided us further inspiration.  

We quickly implemented one of the best practices they learned in that class: having weekly online meetings. These helped build community and provided our team with an avenue to learn from one another. Loaded with caffeine, excitement, and drive, the team went to build Digital Missions Launchpad at the end of February 2022. 

Test Launch 

Thirty-two participants signed up for the first run of Digital Missions Launchpad, including a few students from other countries. We included the following topics in the training:  

• Digital Theology: What does the Bible say about the use of technology for ministry, new ways of applying biblical truths in the digital age. 

• Digital Missions: How to define missional gaps, ways to do online evangelism, and stories and case studies of teams who have done digital missions. 
• Known and Moving: How to know your target audience, what next steps to offer to them in relation to spiritual growth, and digital discipleship. 

This first batch of participants gave us a better understanding of the needs and pain points of our students. Weekly video calls encouraged them to get to know each other and provided a place for them to ask questions about the topics. At the end of this first run, we gained a new perspective on how we can equip the body of Christ and empower them towards digital missions.  

The Digital Missions Launchpad provided a space for collaborative learning that joined different people together to be mutually empowered to fulfill the Great Commission. Cru Philippines highly values continuous innovation to increase ministry effectiveness and celebrated our progress on this new learning platform. 

We recognize that Cru Philippines is one of the few Christian groups in our country equipping Christians to maximize digital spaces. Many church and mission leaders in the Philippines remain unaware of the countless opportunities that digital provides for evangelism and discipleship. The Digital Missions Launchpad is helping to change this. 

One pastor who completed the Digital Missions Launchpad training started exploring short-format social media videos (Facebook ​​Reels) right away. He wanted to use these to bring the message of Jesus to an entirely new audience aside from the social media platform they were currently using. 

Succeeding Iterations 

For our second run in September 2022, we prayed for another 30 people to sign up. God had other plans. Instead, 60 people from 17 Philippines provinces and 9 other countries enrolled. We also added case studies and activities to our students’ learning journey. 

At the same time, people who had finished the training started asking for more.  Our team runs a relationship advice podcast that had nearly 700 thousand listeners by January 2023. In each podcast episode, listeners are encouraged to visit social media platforms to continue to interact with the podcast hosts. From there, volunteers have opportunities to share the gospel to them. Because of this experience, we decided to offer lessons on podcasting.  

Jared and his team run the media and digital strategies of a missions group in Malaysia. They finished the Digital Missions Launchpad course in September 2022. When they heard about the success of our podcast, they were interested to learn more.  
 
We began talking with Jared and his team at a global digital strategies gathering in South Korea. Several of Jared’s team members explained that they wanted to minister to families through an online platform that would not compromise the security and operations of their ministry. Because Malaysia is predominantly Muslim, they thought an audio medium, like podcasting, would be ideal for maintaining anonymity without compromising impact.   

A 2-part training on podcasting – including an online course and an in-person workshop –resulted from these discussions. The online training covered the basics of podcasting. This was critical background that helped them craft their first podcast episode during the in-person workshop.  

This experience opened the door for our team and our partners to expand the Digital Missions Launchpad. Our existing topics (Digital Theology, Digital Missions, and Known and Moving) became the course foundation. To this we added advanced courses to sharpen our digital missionaries’ skills.  

We showcased the Digital Missions Launchpad in a church media conference in the Philippines in February 2023. A significant number of people were interested to know more about the program and some even signed up on the spot. We were overwhelmed to see how eager these mission-minded believers were to be equipped for the digital harvest field. 

In March 2023, we celebrated our first anniversary and commenced the third run of Digital Missions Launchpad. We now have 164 students across 5 courses from 14 countries and 32 provinces in the Philippines. The topics in the Digital Missions Launchpad became our introductory course. Our newly released advanced courses were added, and they include:  

• Podcast and Missions: Learn how to launch your first podcast episode that will reach your audience and engage them in their spiritual journey. 
• The Ministry of Design: Create solutions to effectively tell God’s message through various forms of communication.  
• Navigating Change in a Dynamic Environment: Apply leadership and change management principles in the context of your ministry. 
• Social Media 101 (in partnership with WEA Converge): Understand what social media is about and how to use social media from a biblical perspective. 

Some of our students initially shared that they were skeptical about digital missions. However, through our training, they saw how valuable these strategies and tools are for the ministry which God has entrusted to them.  

Thirdie, a pastor who completed the Digital Missions Launchpad introductory course, said, “I praise God for the opportunity to learn from this course and for the people God is using to mobilize more Christians to reach and share the gospel with people digitally! I … look forward to applying what I have learned in this course in my current ministry.”  

Others were empowered to make full use of design and podcasting as tools in declaring God’s goodness and love.  

“The course is presented well with examples and is easy to understand,” explained Vanessa, a church communications leader who completed The Ministry of Design course. “The questions to be answered are a simple but effective way to include some interaction.” 

Church leaders have also embraced new paradigms of leading well in a digital mission field. 

“Highly recommended for new leaders like me, who would want to expand their knowledge more in terms of leading,” shared Luisa, a church media team leader who finished Navigating Change in a Dynamic Environment. 

Some previous training participants have become champions of digital missions, dedicating time to facilitate our courses and assist others in applying and imparting what they’ve learned, even outside of the Digital Missions Launchpad.  

Digital Missions Ready 

We continue to work on refining our current course offerings, and plan to release a few more advanced courses. We are also exploring the possibility of creating next-level training for advanced course finishers. It is our desire and prayer that our initiatives and steps of faith bless the body of Christ and at the same time help fill missional gaps. 

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Possible Pull-Quotes Include

• … many Christian leaders lack proper understanding of the digital strategies available. 
• The Digital Missions Launchpad provided a space for collaborative learning that joined different people together to be mutually empowered to fulfill the Great Commission.  

• Could be shortened to: The Digital Missions Launchpad provided a space for collaborative learning … .  

• We were overwhelmed to see how eager these mission-minded believers were to be equipped for the digital harvest field. 

EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 3. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.