The world is on the move. People can't stand still: there are more than 600 million motor vehicles worldwide; global bicycle production in 2000 alone totaled 101 million; over 30,000 commercial airline flights occur every day in just the United States, and an endless number of buses and trains depart from countless depots 24/7 the world over.
With that physical mobility comes the need for technology to follow. People want to stay in touch, keep up-to-date, remain informed where ever they find themselves.
Mobile TV, handheld PCs, and cell phones are the norm, no longer the exception. Communication is boundary-less. Wireless broadband, also known as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), is one industrial breakthrough that's making limitless Internet access possible. The number of Wi-Fi hotspots and users continues to skyrocket, particularly in Western Europe and Asia Pacific.
GLOCAL
The world is flat, seamlessly integrating the local and the global ("glocal"). In his book Glocalization: How Followers of Jesus Engage a Flat World, (2007, Zondervan), (www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Product/ProductDetail.htm?ProdID=com.zondervan.9780310267188) Bob Roberts, Jr., says "we must orientate ourselves to this strange new 'flat' world in which we find ourselves - where we're closer and more connected than ever before . . . Glocalization creates a massive opportunity for the church. The world has changed and opened like never before."
Now is the time for churches and ministries to expand our vision beyond our mainstream websites. If we're going to continue reaching the world with the message of salvation, we must embrace the mobility of the world and communicate with people where they are and in ways expected by those people. Some are already doing this, such as Campus Crusade with "The Four Spiritual Laws" (www.billbright.com/fourlaws%2Dhandheld), "Would You Lie To Know God Personally?" (www.billbright.com/knowgodpersonally/), "The Spirit-Filled Life" (www.billbright.com/spirit/), RBC Ministries with "Our Daily Bread" (http://rbc.gospelcom.net/odb/togo/toc.html ), and Back to the Bible's "Lessons on Living" (www.backtothebible.org/custom/executequery-31.html ). Another method is what Words of Hope is doing: using text messaging to share the hope of Jesus with citizens of countries that are closed to the open sharing of the gospel.
According to an article by Walt Wilson in the March 2007 issue of Christian Computing Magazine, deep social change is about to happen because of mobile technology, altering the habits of how people listen to music, get information, blog, and pay for purchases.
MOBILITY AND MINISTRY
Some ministry organizations have already seen the burgeoning power of mobility and have channeled their resources there. Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kansas City, MO USA offers a sermon, worship times, meditative reflections, and directions to the church on its mobile website (www.ghtc-kc.org/mobile/). The Coptic Orthodox Church Network offers a Bible verse of the day for subscribers' cell phones (www.copticchurch.net/cell_add.html). The Church of Christ in Singapore uses a mobile site to communicate with its members about prayer concerns, news, mission updates, service information, and contact help (www.ppcoc.org/ppps.htm).
Tony Whittaker heads up InternetEvangelismDay.com and is editor of www.web-evangelism.com which has a helpful mobile advice component (http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/mobile.php). He suggests churches produce evangelistic video clips that people can share with their friends on their cell phones, and text messaging that integrates the timeless gospel with timely and relevant current events. "It's easy to produce things which will be read, or used, almost entirely by Christians. Probably 99% of Christian websites fall into this category," Whittaker says. "To reach most non-Christians, who are not in any sense seekers, we cannot therefore expect them to seek out Christian resources. So we need to build bridges using material that relates to them, on topics that interest them. To do this for mobile devices is at least as great a challenge as to do it for normal computers. And it cannot be divorced from the area of relationships. People share things with other people - if the content is good enough, others will look at it."
Associate Director of visionSynergy.net (a collaboration ministry think-tank), Rev. Dave Hackett, is the co-facilitator of mobilev (http://mobilev.pbwiki.com/FrontPage), a mobile evangelism wiki. He says with such strides in technology as Microsoft's pending release of Deepfish (http://labs.live.com/deepfish) and Google's site for optimizing any website for mobile functionality (www.google.com/gwt/n), mobile Internet surfing is only going to expand. Hackett points out that 6.2 million people already watch video clips on their phones, up from 2.5 million in early 2006, according to the consulting firm Telephia.
"If you want to see where mobile evangelism and use is heading, look to Korea," recommends Hackett. "Churches there have done far more to adapt to the Internet age than Western churches." According to the World Factbook, 26% of South Korea's 49 million population is Christian (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ks.html). "Several Korean churches have homepages just for cell phones so visitors and members can receive messages from the pastor, information about church events, and more," says Hackett. "And they have studios inside their churches where they produce Christian videos to stream over the Web and to cell phones." An active Korean Christian website he recommends is www.Godpia.com that includes a mobile evangelism section.
"We can't assume the American experience is at the top of the technology curve," Hackett says. "We're down in the pack." The Digital Opportunity Index (www.itu.int/osg/spu/statistics/DOI/index.phtml) ranks the U.S. 21st in the world (Korea is #1). "Many nations, including developing countries, are ahead of us," Hackett reports. "Because of their small geography, they can leapfrog America in broadband coverage." He says it may be frustrating news for Americans, but it offers vast opportunities for mobile evangelism outside the U.S.
Organizations exist or are being formed to aid in advancing mobile evangelism and discipleship. The Global Christian Internet Alliance (GCIA) (www.christianitytoday.com/international/features/info.html) provides convenient access to quality Christian Internet resources in all the major languages of the world. While the Internet Evangelism Coalition (www.webevangelism.com) focuses primarily on English language Web evangelism, the GCIA and the IEC have been involved in the formation of the International Internet Evangelism Network (IIEN) (discussed in the article at www.lausanneworldpulse.com/worldreports/60) to create a worldwide network of Web evangelism pioneers who work in languages other than English. Hackett expects a non-English language mobile evangelism group will emerge as a sub-network of IIEN. "As we've tried to develop the Web evangelism side, we've run headlong into mobile evangelism," Hackett says. "The synergy between them is high; they're two sides of the same coin. Mobile application is tightly tied in with Web applications." Hackett is also bringing that kind of collaboration and integration together with the new website www.powerofconnecting.net .
Since the communication landscape is fast becoming more mobile, it's up to more churches and ministries to harness this "technological bronco" that is the mobile Internet and purposefully ride it to meet the spiritual needs of the mobile, if we're going to be effective in reaching this postmodern age with the gospel.
(This is an edited version of an article that appears in the June issue of Lausanne World Pulse - www.lausanneworldpulse.com/worldreports/735)
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Jonathan Petersen is director of Internet Marketing for Zondervan. He can be reached at jonathan.petersen@zondervan.com.
