Lausanne World Pulse – Mobile, Glocal & Evangelism

June 2007

By Jonathan Petersen

“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 ranks the US twenty-first in the world (Korea tops the list). “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 US.

Organizations exist or are being formed to aid in advancing mobile evangelism and discipleship. The Global Christian Internet Alliance (GCIA) provides convenient access to quality Christian Internet resources in all the major languages of the world. While the Internet Evangelism Coalition focuses primarily on English Web evangelism, the GCIA and the IEC have been involved in the formation of the International Internet Evangelism Network (IIEN) to create a worldwide network of web evangelism pioneers who work in languages other than English. Hackett expects a non-English mobile evangelism group will emerge as a sub-network of IIEN. “As we’ve tried to develop the web evangelism side, we’ve run headstrong 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 is 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 are going to be effective in reaching this postmodern age with the gospel.

Jonathan Petersen is director of Internet Marketing for Zondervan. He has worked in network broadcast journalism, print journalism, media relations, corporate reputation management, strategic marketing, retail and direct marketing, Internet marketing, customer relationship management and speech writing. Prior to Zondervan, he was founding religion news editor for United Press International Radio Network in Washington, D.C. (USA). He can be reached at [email protected].

Comments on this article

One issue that has to be addressed somewhere (I know it’s not the purpose of this article) is the impact of technology and the expectations it creates from co-workers and the people we minister to of immediate response on the spirituality and stress levels of Christian leaders when coupled to our vocation as servants of others.

Alonso Duncan :: 2 Jun 2007