India: Urban Youth

While many of us are accustomed to hearing about extreme poverty in India, there’s a growing demographic that you might not be as familiar with: the middle class urban youth. This is a group that’s globally connected. They’re not only being influenced by input from around the world, they are influencing and adding to that input as well.

These are the people it’s possible to reach right now using media and technology. In the past, you might have heard me say, “There are more people alive today than at any other point in human history, and they are more connected now than at any time in the past.” India is at the very center of that…both from a population standpoint, and in terms of being globally connected.

We have an incredible opportunity in front of us to reach this population, but we’ll need to move beyond conventional methods. That’s one of the reasons we’re so excited about India being the country with the largest attendance at Church Online. With just a few clicks, these globally connected youth can experience a message of hope and salvation from across the world.

Several churches have adopted experiences at Church Online as an online mission project. We’re in the process of adding more experiences, so if you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity check out this post from Church Online.

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India: Technology in a Thatch Hut

During our recent travels, we spent some time in India learning more about the cultural landscape and the great work some ministries are doing there. While we were visiting different areas, I took this picture. Located in a poor village, this thatch hut has no running water or sewer, yet it does have satellite TV.

The government has created some initiatives that help make televisions more widely available, but the contrast is still surprising. It makes me wonder how having access to information might change poverty over the course of generations.

It also got me thinking…someone living in these conditions could be exposed to the Gospel while watching their satellite television. From a thatch hut in India, the poorest of the poor could hear a message of hope from somewhere across the globe.

If that’s possible, then what could that mean for the future possibility of using technology to share Christ with the world? This experience only increases my resolve to use these tools to reach the world, whether it’s satellite TV in a thatch hut in India or a mobile phone in the middle of Africa.

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Tracking the Intangible

I’ve been traveling for a few weeks and made my last stop this weekend in Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Interactive technology conference. Terry Storch and I were speaking on Technology for Results, Not Profits, and the people attending the session were from very diverse backgrounds. Most were from non-profits, but only a few were from churches.  We talked about sustainability for non-profits (keeping the boat floating) as well as the importance of measuring results.

In a for profit company…the one main measurable is obviously profit. In a church context, there are several common tangibles that are measured (attendance, giving, baptisms, members). We track this kind of information at LifeChurch.tv, and created ChurchMetrics to make it simpler.

But beyond these metrics, there are other indicators that can help us gauge whether we’re on the right track (community or spiritual growth, for example). What are some of the intangibles that your church is trying to measure and how?

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Teens & Technology: a Survey

A few months ago, I wrote a column for Outreach magazine about using technology to reach teens. It raised some good questions and got us thinking about what we might be able to do differently at LifeChurch.tv. As a first step, we decided to get to know a little more about the students in our SWITCH youth ministry through a quick, informal survey.

Here are the results from the 700 students, ages 12-18, who responded:

Youth Survey Results

Number of students with internet at home: 652 (93.1%)

Number of students with cell phones: 610 (87.1%)

Number of students with internet on cell phones: 293 (41.8%)

Number of hours spent each week on internet (400 responses):  4,440 hours, an average of 11 hours per student. (34 responses of “A LOT” were not included in the count.)

15 Most popular websites in order:
1.    Facebook.com
2.    Myspace.com
3.    Youtube.com
4.    Email
5.    Google.com
6.    Yahoo.com
7.    IMDB.com
8.    Y8.com
9.    Pandora.com
10.    Hulu.com
11.    Espn.com
12.    Failblog.com
13.    Addictinggames.com
14.    Myxer.com
15.    Photobucket.com

If you could make a website, what would you want on it? Music, videos, sports, pictures, games, life advice, life stories, save the earth, Christian stuff, friends, arts, photography, massive explosions, jokes, blog site, fashion, bible, quotes, clothes,  quizzes, recipes, graphics, free stuff, hot girls phone numbers, raise money for causes, Justin Beiber, coupons, a place like facebook (but where you can only say nice things), site about problems we are facing, army stuff, messaging, free money, answers to homework, books, coupons, advice about clothes, dance, art work from students, historical stuff, super gross games.

What surprises you about these results? Do they give you any ideas?

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Tip: Design Websites for Mobile…First

A few months ago, I was visiting a local news website on my mobile phone and noticed how simple and easy it was to access the article I was trying to read. They had designed a mobile version of their website that was surprising easy to navigate and gave me just the information I needed and wanted. I say “surprisingly” because their normal website was the opposite. It is overrun with ads and has WAY TOO MUCH content.

It struck me after visiting their mobile site that we should all design our websites for mobile devices…but do it first! The constraints would force us to ask several hard questions during the design/creative process:

• What is the most important information that a visitor to this site needs/wants to know?
• How can I communicate information effectively with the fewest words?
• How can I make navigating our site (in all directions) elegant?
• What is the least amount of information that I have to require our users to give us and still make their experience valuable?

It’s a matter of making things easy, simple, and understandable for the end user.  Even if you do not have any plans to launch a mobile version of your website (though I think that you should), I think this process will help make your websites more effective.

What are some of the best sites you’ve seen designed for mobile devices? Or what sites do you wish were designed for mobile?

Tags: mobile

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What should the Church be learning from political campaigns?

Earlier today, some of my team were discussing the new Obama ‘08 iPhone Application.  In my opinion, the application is a brilliant use of technology to empower and inform volunteers.  The conversation sparked further discussion about some of the things that the various political campaigns were doing and what we (The Church) could learn from them.  It may be offensive to some to compare the efforts of political campaigns with those of the Church, but I really do think there are many things we can learn including: effective communication, motivating voluteers, organizing large and small groups of people, fundraising, social networking, etc.

What are some specific examples of things that you’ve seen political campaigns do that the Church could/should learn from?  Now, please don’t turn this post into a political rant about who you are supporting or specific political issues that you do/don’t support.  I won’t allow it.  I’m simply interested in what we can learn from the systems, techniques, strategy, tactics, marketing, communication, use of the web/technology, etc.

Also, if you are from outside the US, I’m still intersted in your observations about your own political campaigns and/or your perspective on what you’ve learned from the US election season.

Tags: iPhone, politics

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Is the Church Everywhere it Should Be?

One of the guys on my team, Andrew, pointed me to this post on ReadWriteWeb….

Study: 93 Percent of Americans Want Companies to Have Presence on Social Media Sites

According to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, 93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites and 85 percent believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers. Cone, a Boston-based consulting firm, also found that men are far more likely to interact with a company through social media than women are. 56% of consumers believe that a company is providing them with a better service by interacting with them on social media sites. Read the rest of the article on ReadWriteWeb.

If people expect/want businesses to engage them in their online social spaces…where should the church be? What do you think the percentage would be if the question was about the Church? Higher or lower?

Tags: Social Media

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186,894 minutes spent reading the Bible on the iPhone

Since yesterday’s launch people have spent a total of 186,894 minutes reading the Bible on their iPhones using the YouVersion.com Bible App.  It is now one of the top 50 applications on iTunes.

Our goal with YouVersion.com all along has been to increase people’s engagement with Scripture, and yesterday has proven to be a big milestone in this effort.  I’m really excited to think about all that will happen as more people began to make the Bible a part of their everyday lives.

If you have an iPhone (and soon to include now the iPod touch) I encourage you to download it - it’s FREE.  We are continuing to develop new features for YouVersion, so the website, mobile site, and iPhone app will continue to get better.

Be sure to blog, twitter, and email your friends who have iPhones.  I also really appreciate all of you who have taken the time to write a review on iTunes.  Thanks.

Tags: iPhone

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