Mobile Far Bigger than Any Other

"...[I]n Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the Developing parts of Asia, mobile is alone, far far bigger than any other. There are

• nine times more mobile phone accounts than cars,
  
• seven times more mobile phones than personal computers,
  
• nine times more mobile phone accounts than home or office PCs that are connected to the internet,
• seven times more mobile phone accounts than fixed landline telephone connections, and
  
• five times more mobile phone users than total number of TV sets in use.

Even radio, there are 2.5 times more mobile phone subscribers than all FM radios in use in the Developing World."
-- Quote from "The Digital Divide in Numbers".

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.

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 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!