This document discusses the potential of mobile devices to spread the gospel message globally. It notes that over 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions exist, corresponding to 96% global penetration, providing unprecedented access to share faith content. However, barriers include focusing only on smartphones and internet-based outreach, neglecting the billions who lack internet access. The document calls for a "no phone left behind" approach and enabling local media production. It highlights reasons for hope like crowd-sourcing translations and viral sharing, but stresses sustainability remains the most likely point of failure without trusting in God.
6. 86% or more of these
religionists [Buddhists,
Hindus and Muslims] globally
do not personally know a
Christian.
7. In 2013, the number of mobile-
cellular subscriptions reaches
6.8 billion, corresponding to a
global penetration of 96%
International Telecommunications Union
8. For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of
the glory of the LORD as
the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14
23. The Vision
That every unreached
person have the chance to
encounter Jesus and His
kingdom in a compelling,
contextualized fashion
through their personal
mobile device by the end
of 2020.
48. The Vision
That every unreached
person have the chance to
encounter Jesus and His
kingdom in a compelling,
contextualized fashion
through their personal
mobile device by the end
of 2020.
54. Potential Barriers
2) Focusing on internet-based
outreach and leaving behind those
living “beyond the internet”
0
1
2
3
4
5
Internet (most
optimistic)
Mobile (low-
estimate)
Number of
Users (in
billions)
55. Potential Barriers
2) Focusing on internet-based
outreach and leaving behind those
living “beyond the internet”
0
1
2
3
4
5
Internet (most
optimistic)
Mobile (low-
estimate)
Number of
Users (in
billions)
56.
57. Potential Barriers
There are somewhere between 1.7 and
2.2 BILLION souls who have a mobile
but are not accessing the internet!
0
1
2
3
4
5
Internet (most
optimistic)
Mobile (low-
estimate)
Number of
Users (in
billions)
62. Potential Barriers
4) Security issues that can prevent us
from implementing mobile ministry
and threaten those reached
through it.
63.
64.
65. Potential Barriers
5) Copyright restrictions that keep the
Bible and other outreach media
locked down so that it cannot:
a) Be modified to work on phones,
put into audio form, translated,
etc.
b) Flow freely from phone to phone
Could it be that mobile technology could be one of the ways God intends to fulfill this promise?
A wonderful 35 hour dramatized “mini-Bible” was developed for one outreach but was not able to be utilized after it was belatedly realized that the intended recipients did not have access to working audio players- whether tape or CD
The nomads, whose lives were still very similar to Abraham’s of the Old Testament, were changing. One proof was that sometimes, rather than them riding their camels, their camels now rode in pickups.
The nomads stopped setting up their tents where they could find water and started setting them up where they could find phone coverage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyc7c6nUtMM
When we sent the materials we had been using in the Arab worldto Chad a local Quranic teacher got so excited about the videos that he started selling them from his kiosk store!
While we had come to see that the nomads we were working with had begun setting up their tents where they could get phone reception rather than where they could find water, it was interesting to find that the same thing was happening halfway around the world in Mongolia as they set up their yurts where they could find cell phone reception.
Mobile Advance is a “one man band” operation within WEC International.
A small cog in a large “machine”
First mobile phone is sold.
Caveat that seven billion mobile phone subscriptions doesn’t mean seven billion mobile phone users- that number is closer to 4.3 billion and somewhere around 5.2 billion phones in use.
The $25 Firefox smartphone that was just announced. Potential game-changer BUT will they be able to produce it in massive quantities? Will they be able to distribute it across dozens of countries?
Dumb phones and feature phones provide plenty of tools that the Church can take advantage of even without apps
Don’t leave him behind!
Kyrgyz herders in the mountains of Afghanistan. Their phone isn’t a phone to them. It’s a media player as there is no cell coverage, nor internet coverage where they are. Yet it is a cherished device for them for the media capabilities it brings with it.
But what about all the wild and crazy plans to cover the earth with internet with satellites, balloons, solar powered planes, etc. that will transmit internet signal to the last and the least (efforts led by Google and Facebook)? I was told at this same conference in 2010 that the world would be covered with internet by the end of 2010 due to efforts like these- how’s that working out for you? I can tell you lots of places and peoples that still have no internet.
The most common rationale for the need for copyright that I hear is that it is needed so ministries can recoup expenses/gain cash flow that will enable ongoing and future ministry.
Does restricting God’s word from going out now to enable it to go out further later fit in with this verse? Are we not putting the cart of “all these things will be given to you as well” before the horse of “seek first his kingdom”?
Copyright restrictions will be the most likely cause of the MMF’s 2020 vision not being realized.
Please take this rewriting of the verse with a sense of humor but also as a reminder that our trust MUST always be in God Himself, not anything of this earth.
