Missions Catalyst 01.09.08 – Practical Mobilization

In This Issue: Communication, the Mobilizer’s Megatool

  • Readers Tell Us What They’d Write
  • The Best and Worst Communicators of 2007
  • New Communication Technologies

Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!

Practical Mobilization by Shane Bennett is published once a month.

Dear Readers,

This month’s edition of Practical Mobilization looks at a variety of communication tools and asks how we might use them to communicate the fire God has put in our bones. Enjoy!

Cheers,
Shane Bennett

Readers Tell Us What They’d Write

By Shane Bennett

Last month I posed the question: If you could write just one thing in 2008, what would it be, and who would you write it for? If you recall, I mentioned I’d like to write a monthly column for Relevant Magazine. Bill, my good friend from Paris and Fayetteville (what a combination!), responded by saying he would write a letter (to me), telling me to do the dirty work of querying Relevant and pitching the column idea to them. (I’ll keep you posted!) If Bill doesn’t mind, I’ll make his challenge a class-action for all of us who’d like to write this year. Let’s seek God’s direction, and then get to work! We have an amazing message to convey. Let’s find powerful and winsome ways to get the word out.

Please join me in praying for the Missions Catalyst readers who responded with specific ideas of what they’d like to write this year:

David says he’d write to college students and recent grads, the audience he sees as taking hold of the message and running with it. He’d write about the basic principles found in the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course, (especially) that the Bible is a unified book and that we’re blessed to be a blessing.

Renee would tell stories from the lives of believers in Ukraine. She adds, “I served there for five years and was amazed at how God was working in their lives. Some of the believers are from the persecuted church from Communist days while others are new believers within the last generation. These stories need to be recorded and told.”

John, New Personnel Director at Christar, says, “If I could write only one article this year, it would be ‘God Is More Important than Missions.’ I would highlight Psalm 27:4: One thing I have asked, that I shall also seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord (not ‘that I would be an effective missionary’) all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple. I would also highlight how Jesus praises Mary’s choice of the ‘good thing’ of sitting at his feet while Martha bustled about (like a good missionary, busy at her task of serving). Jesus says ‘only one thing is necessary’ and that ‘one thing’ is drinking deeply of him, out of which we flow to the nations; see Isaiah 12:3-4.”

Missions Catalyst readers would be blessed and challenged by such an article.

Finally, Kari lets us in on her thoughts: “It’s not like I’d ever make time to write this, but an idea’s been floating around in my life for about 10 years. It’s gotten some focus recently, and your question/challenge helped. I’d like to write a fictional story about a preteen Afghan girl that is based on the story of Jairus’ daughter.” Look out, Khaled Hosseini!

Father God, I lift these friends and their ideas before you. Please give them your direction and wisdom. Help them to write words that will honor you and invite people to join in your global purposes. Give them courage and perseverance. And open doors of opportunity for them. Thank you. Amen.

The Best and Worst Communicators of 2007

Written words have a staying power and a flexibility not found in sermons, talks, and presentations. But maybe speaking is your communications tool of choice. Let’s face it, there’s something potent about giving a face-to-face message to live people.

There’s also something scary. Speaking isn’t for sissies. Just ask Jeremiah. If you, like Jeremiah, submit your content choice to God, you pretty much have to say what he gives you.

Even so, we can aim to communicate his message with excellence. If you’re interested in learning lessons from some of the best and worst, check out this interesting list from Bert Decker, speaker and speaking-coach extraordinaire.

New Communication Technologies

I’ve been wondering lately how we as mobilizers might employ some of the newer communication technologies to get the word out that God wants to be followed by all peoples.

1. How about YouTube?

How can we make use of this phenomenon to encourage our friends to consider what God’s up to? Perennial mobilizing genius George Verwer is giving it a go. Check out his fun and challenging clips here.

Here are some other ideas:

a. Post selections of great talks. Someday in the (hopefully distant) future Dr. Ralph Winter will no longer be with us. I would love to be able to hear and see him do the some of the Perspectives history content. This is all the Ralph I could find on YouTube. Steve Hawthorne rocks. Why is he not on YouTube?

b. Can we do virtual prayer walks? The clip would look like a nice travelogue of an interesting city, accompanied by some nice ambient music. The actual prayer commentary, which might raise security concerns paired online with the visuals, would be downloaded from a website or sent by email.

c. Skits! In the mid-1980’s the now dearly departed Caleb Project gave birth to some insightful, compelling skits. Unless we’ve entered a post-skit era, I’d love to see some new missions dramas written, produced, and posted on YouTube for all of us to copy and use.

I’d love to hear your ideas and see links to good examples of using YouTube for mobilization.

2. How about Facebook?

Is there a way to use Facebook to advance God’s purposes? I’ve read recently about setting up Facebook groups for newly emerging books. Would it be helpful to start some Facebook groups for people interested in underevangelized peoples? To experiment with this, I started a group yesterday called FOAN, Friends of All Nations. You are welcome to join. Since it was started yesterday, you’re not going to find a ton of good content, but it’s a beginning. What else do you see on Facebook that is or could be helpful in mobilization?

3. Blogs

I’d love to hear about your favorite mobilization blogs. I’m starting a blog in 2008 and would like to know the competition! (I’m kidding about the competition, but not about starting a blog.)

4. Texting

I fear I may be too old to even comment about this emerging technology. Any thoughts?

5. What else?

What are the yet-to-be-mainstream communications tools that we should get in on now? I remember in the early nineties, at a Caleb Project staff retreat, my friend Dave said, “We should get in on this new World Wide Web thing. It’s going to be huge.” I said something like, “World wide what? What’s that?” Really, I did. I had no clue. I assume there are many things emerging right now of which I have no clue. Help me out. Help us out. If you see into the communication future, let us know how to get prepared.

6. Finally …

And for the Luddites in our tribe (who are reading this column because a friend printed it out on an actual piece of paper and gave it to them): I agree, face-to-face, hand-in-hand communication still often is the best kind. As such, please look forward to next month’s column on the Five Love Languages of Mobilization. (If you happen to know Gary Smalley, please don’t alert him to this!)

Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.

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