EMQ » January–March 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 1
By Brian James, Clyde Taber, and Keith Williams
Amira and Donna were unlikely friends. They met in India. Donna was a home-schooling mom from a western country whose husband was a foreign worker. Amira was a widow and mother of two making ends meet in a low paying job. Even among her neighbors, Amira was considered poor. Yet life was about to change. A new upgraded phone brought her endless hours of Bollywood entertainment. Her friend Donna saw an opportunity to share the gospel.
Donna gave Amira a memory card filled with audio and video stories of Jesus in Amira’s language – Urdu. Amira took the card and loaded it to her phone. Through those materials, Amira met Jesus. Donna and Amira still meet regularly. They encourage one another to obey what they are learning in the Bible. Amira now prays for her neighbors and looks for ways to share the media on her phone so they, too, can meet the one who changed her life forever.
Virtually everywhere you travel today you will find mobile phones in people’s pockets and hands. In a rainforest clearing in Papua New Guinea a group gathers around a glimmering mobile screen watching newly downloaded videos. Farmers in Uganda[1] use their smartphones to decide when they should harvest and determine which town markets are currently offering top prices for their produce. Protesters in Hong Kong use their phones to share updates using encrypted messaging apps.
Among almost every people group, whether reached or unengaged, mobile technology disrupts and reconstructs age-old patterns of life. We believe that God is neither surprised nor taken aback by this. Rather, he is committed to redeeming these billions of new mobile phone connections for his kingdom and glory.
Mobile Technology as Missions Tool
The Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF) is a movement that seeks to expand mobile ministry to the ends of the earth. We are a network of missional innovators fostering a mobile ministry movement so that every unreached person will have an opportunity to encounter, experience, and grow in Christ through their personal mobile device.
MMF’s four core functions are to:
- Advocate: Challenge the global Church toward use of mobile ministry.
- Catalyze: Resource the body of Christ to get started in mobile ministry.
- Equip: Equip the Church to harness the full potential of the mobile revolution.
- Collaborate: Foster multi-organizational collaboration in mobile ministry initiatives.
- Anticipate: Identify and promote current and potential aspects of mobile media ministry.
We define mobile ministry as the use of mobile technology for the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) and the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37–9). An important focus for MMF is promoting wider recognition of the missional value of mobile technology. Seeking to advance mobile ministry practice, MMF conducts online and in-person training, researches, and shares findings about new tools and techniques that empower ministry strategies.
The network grew out of a series of multi-agency online group calls that began in 2009 and resulted in a gathering of sixteen mission agency leaders in 2010. Today, MMF counts over two thousand participants from more than two hundred ministries around the world. Participation is voluntary and ranges anywhere from receiving regular MMF updates to taking part in network leadership. The leadership team consists of eight individuals from seven organizations. The primary qualifications for leadership are a demonstrated commitment to mobile ministry, previous participation in the forum, and the willingness and ability to sacrificially serve the MMF community without compensation.
A growing number of events and learning communities interested in using new technology and media for the Great Commission started during the past two decades. Other networks with a similar focus include Indigitous (indigitous.org), the International Conference on Computing and Mission (iccm.org), Visual Story Network (visualstory.org), FaithTech (faithtech.com) and the Augmented and Virtual Reality Network (facebook.com/groups/1014626692006554).
Collaboration and Resource Sharing
MMF is a trusted resource for mission practitioners seeking to investigate or strengthen their use of mobile and new media for ministry. We regularly post new articles on our website (mobileministryforum.org). We have produced a number of guides and tutorials as well as conducted an online class. We have presented numerous webinars and held six consultations that typically gathering together more than one hundred field workers, technologists, and mission agency leaders for two to three days of networking, teaching, and collaboration. MMF leaders also present at other conferences and consultations. Through the MMF’s efforts, thousands of mission practitioners and leaders have been trained and equipped for more fruitful digital outreach.
One area in which MMF-led collaboration has been instrumental is through online education and training (mobileministryforum.org/training/). Resources developed through collaborative, inter-agency partnerships include the Your Phone – God’s Glory guide, Social Media for Missions guide, Mobiles Media & Missions curriculum, Mission Media Coach YouTube channel and Mission Media U eLearning platform. Each of these efforts sprang from conversations at MMF gatherings, were developed by multi-agency teams of volunteers, and have been promoted and distributed by MMF.
The development of off-line local area media distribution is another area where we can look back and see foundational MMF-generated collaboration. Staff from a ministry that develops and distributes audiovisual media players – including MP3 audio players and JESUS Film projection kits – attended one of the initial MMF conferences. Inspired by what they heard about the possibilities of mobile media distribution, they connected with two visionaries in the field as well as a software engineer. They collaboratively created a WiFi/Bluetooth/microSD card media distribution unit. MMF then partnered with this organization and funded a pilot release of twelve units. They helped gather pilot teams from around the world and funded the units and training. As a result, this ministry shifted to largely focus on mobile ministry technologies. They became one of the primary producers of WiFi outreach hubs and distributors of ministry microSD cards. Later, another ministry developed a lower cost WiFi-only media distribution hub, and an MMF webinar was one of the initial ways through which that ministry shared about the device and helped it gain recognition.
A Far-Reaching Influence Despite of Challenges
We continue to work towards our vision but recognize several key challenges that can hinder progress. As mentioned previously, membership and leadership are voluntary. The primary responsibility for MMF members and leaders remains with their mission agency. They can only give as much time to MMF as allowed by that agency (or personal time). Mobile technology remains a rapidly evolving and expanding field. Maintaining a leadership edge requires a tremendous time investment! Funding is also a challenge. While God has provided for particular projects through grants, most costs for leadership meetings, conferences, etc. are absorbed by the participants, speakers, and leaders themselves. Therefore, some ideas for projects, activities, and promotions have remained dormant due to insufficient funding.
Another challenge MMF faces is developing community among participants. Staying relevant to the needs of our core audience is difficult when many have security constraints that limit their engagement with MMF. After trying Facebook, Slack, and other channels, we still do not have a suitable platform for ongoing forum conversation that meets our financial and security constraints.
However, despite these challenges, MMF has enabled the global church to gain a two-to-three-year head start on leveraging mobile and new media technology. MMF has done this by identifying and highlighting media outreach technologies, techniques, and strategies; providing a platform for diverse experts and philosophies of ministry; and connecting on-the-ground practitioners with technologists, media producers, and funders.
Seminaries and Bible colleges in South America and Europe now use MMF training materials to prepare their students for ministry in the digital world. Secular expert and Forbes’ number one rated mobile influencer Tomi Ahonen[2] presented at multiple MMF gatherings. His ideas inspired several technologists to join MMF. Others caught the vision after hearing a worker serving among nomads share how mobile technology revolutionized her outreach work. Through MMF’s efforts, individuals and ministries share experiences and resources. And as a result, multiple collaborative efforts occur affecting outreach among dozens of unreached people groups.
Connect with Us
Working together in community, members and leaders in the Mobile Ministry Forum made a significant contribution to global missions. However, much is still required to give every unreached person the chance to encounter Jesus and connect with his Church via their personal mobile device. To learn more and join this effort, connect with MMF via the following channels: Newsletter (mobmin.org/signup), Internet (MobileMinistryForum.org), Twitter (twitter.com/mobmin), Facebook (facebook.com/mobileministryforum).
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Brian James (pseudonym) directs Frontiers’ Mobiles & Media department, having previously served in Central Asia.
Clyde Taber is the Director of the Visual Story Network and founder of Mission Media U after formerly heading new media development for The JESUS Film Project.
Keith Williams (pseudonym) serves as the director of WEC International’s Mobile Advance initiative, having previously served in the Arab world.
Notes
[1] “Ugandan farmers use mobile apps to sell and buy produce,” AfricaNews, March 2, 2016, https://www.africanews.com/2016/02/03/ugandan-farmers-use-mobile-apps-to-sell-and-buy-produce/.
[2] Haydn Shaughnessy, “Who Are the Top 10 Power Influencers in Mobile?” Forbes, January 3, 2012, https://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2012/01/03/who-are-the-top-10-power-influencers-in-mobile/#7374de10d2e0.
