Global Impact

Global evangelism and digital media

Posted: 01 Feb 2010 04:33 AM PST

The Joshua Project has expressed progress in world evangelism using a Global Progress Scale. Different colors represent evangelism status.

It would be interesting to create an overlay for this map showing digital penetration in the red (unreached) areas, because many of these have medium to high use of the Web and/or mobile phone ownership:

• web usage stats
• mobile penetration data

This detailed analysis by Ugandan evangelist Kato Mivule demonstrates the current usefulness and growing importance of mobile communication in Africa.

Mobiles are equally strategic in technologically-advanced countries such as Japan, where more web access and emailing is done by mobile phone than fixed computer. There is a growing trend in Africa to use mobiles for web access, because of the shortage of fixed phone-lines.

• Mobiles and email in Japan
• Report from Morgan Stanley predicts that soon, there will be twice as much mobile web access as using fixed computers.

This YouTube presentation explains the opportunities that mobiles offer to missions and evangelists in the non-West (slight sound problem on part of video, to be soon corrected):

Watch a rather long (45-min) secular vox-pop documentary on mobile use in Zanzibar, with introductory article.

As Greg Atkinson has observed, “Think global and mobile.” If you are interested in these possibilities, join Visual Story Network, follow Mobile Ministry Magazine and check our resources about mobiles. We trust that the strategic Lausanne Conference later this year will give full weight to these incredible opportunities.

If your mobile phone will support video clips, store a portfolio of ‘conversation starter’ clips such as these, that you can share when you have the opportunity. (There are many easy ways to download YouTube videos onto your own computer or phone.)

If you have stories to share of effective mobile opportunities, please use the comment link below.