IT Missionaries and the Internet

Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM, first reflects back on the expansion of God's Kingdom via communications advances of the past, and then expresses his heart for seeing the global Church exploit the internet's massive potential to do the same... only with far greater impact.

A welcome reflection on the role of Internet-based evangelism.

Watch the podcast.

From the Perspectives Course Alumni eNewsletter "Perspectives in Practice" April 2008.

Some of the places I watch for Internet and Mobile Ministry info

The Internet and Mobile Ministry world is a fascinating place, full of new developments all the time. So I find it helps to scan these sites, blogs and tech columns, along with others. Happy hunting! (Listed alphabetically; listing does not necessarily endorse the site.)

• Appsafari's Religion iPhone Webapps - http://appsafari.com/categories/religion
• Christian Web Trends Blog - http://blog.ourchurch.com/
• BBC Tech - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/default.stm
• Brooding Savage Blog - http://www.broodingsavage.com/
• Business Week Tech - http://www.businessweek.com/technology/
• ComputerWorld's Mobile News Index - http://www.computerworld.com/taxonomy/000/000/000/taxonomy_000000015_index.jsp
• ComputerWorld's Network and Internet News Index - http://www.computerworld.com/taxonomy/000/000/000/taxonomy_000000016_index.jsp
• ForwardThinking Blog - http://forwardthinkingforchrist.blogspot.com/
• Geeks and God Blog - http://geeksandgod.com/
• Int'l Herald Tribune Tech - http://www.iht.com/pages/technology/index.php
• JK on the Run Blog - http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/
• KillerApps - http://www.killerstartups.com/
• Korea Herald Tech - http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/infotech/index.asp
• London Times Tech - http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/
• MediaBistro Mobile Content - http://mediabistro.com/mobilecontenttoday/
• Mobile Ministry Magazine - http://mobileministrymagazine.com/
  
• Textually - http://www.textually.org/
  

Nine in 10 U.S. adults have a mobile

Harris Interactive reports that according to a recent survey, nine in 10 adults (89%) in the U.S. Have a wireless or cellphone. (Seattle Times, 4/14/08)

TiddlyWiki for iPhone

I'm playing around with TiddlyWiki for iPhone, a free web application that lets you construct an iPhone-optimized website that TiddlyWiki will even host for free.

If you have a website, you can download the whole TiddlyWiki software to put on the server so that it operates on your own domain name.

But that's not necessary if you don't mind having an address such as "http://itw.bidix.info/YourTitle". Heck, you could even use Snipr to make that an even shorter address, "http://snipr.com/YourTitle".

The whole idea of TiddlyWiki is that you're supposed to be able to construct a whole site right from your mobile phone's browser. Amazing. But it works.

IE Day's Mobile Outreach Site

The most complete write-up on mobile outreach anywhere that I know of is the mobile outreach section of the Internet Evangelism Day website. Take a while and browse through his explanation of various facets of mobile outreach.

Tony Whittaker, the guy behind the IE Day site, is a remarkable advocate for all things web and mobile evangelism and has provided an ongoing and growing resource.

Mobile Ministry Magazine & iPhone Bibles

This week I've had a wonderful discussion with Antoine, who runs Mobile Ministry Magazine . Check out his posts for a treasure trove of mobile ministry information.

I've especially appreciated his updated section on Bibles for your iPhone.

Way to go, Antoine!

Mobile Evangelism Wiki

For a starter, here's a link to my Mobile Evangelism Wiki, where I have attempted to categorize a large number of approaches Christians are using to harness the mobile phone platform for ministry. I'm amazed at the variety and creativity people are using.

It doesn't matter to me that some are for-profit and others non-profit - that is, whether they charge you to use the site or tool. Often this simply reflects people's funding model. Or it might reflect the view (pretty well documented) that people value a service or tool more if they pay some amount for it.

At this point I've identified about 17 different approaches to the use of the mobile for ministry.

Tracking mobile ministry

This blog is meant to be a place to track the emerging use of the mobile phone as a Christian ministry platform.

I will be putting up links on these topics, and more, and I'll be tagging them with these labels:

• Ways to use the mobile for a Christian audience (discipleship)
  
• Ways to use the mobile for a non-Christian audience (evangelism)
• Tools to use to have a mobile ministry (applications)
  
• Websites to use to announce a mobile ministry (distribution)
• Strategies and perspectives for a mobile ministry (strategy)
• Mobile haiku (well, maybe)
  

Let's get on with some links!