How technology is changing, or should change, the way the Gospel is shared

The June / July edition of the Lausanne World Pulse was released today.  I am so blessed that an article that I wrote has been published in this edition.

In the introduction to this edition of the Lausanne World Pulse Doug Birdsall writes of the fact that the unchanging message of the person and ministry of Jesus must be presented in new and effective ways to encounter the evolving expectations and experiences of people across the world.  He notes that technology, and particularly communication technologies, are having a radical effect on the globe, and so too on the way in which we can engage the people of the world with the Gospel of Christ.  Of course communication technology is but one small part of the changing landscape of the world - advances in science, medicine, economics and even warfare all have to be taken into account if one is to bring the Gospel of Christ to bear on the world in order to work for Christ driven healing and transformation.  

There are some wonderful scholarly and popular articles to get one thinking and praying along those lines.

My article is entitled 'How technology is changing, or should change, the way the Gospel is shared'.  Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the article:

The German theologian Helmut Thielicke once commented, “The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address because its recipient is repeatedly changing his place of residence.” This is a very challenging yet true observation about the nature of mission and evangelism.

One of the most significant Christian books of our era is Philip Jenkins’ The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Jenkins quotes Philip Yancey, who notes that:

As I travel, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God “moving” geographically from the Middle East to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is this: God goes where he’s wanted.

There is no doubt that the geographical movement of Christianity throughout history has radically changed the manner in which the gospel is shared—from its birth in Israel among disenfranchised Jewish peasants; to a state-sanctioned religion under the emperor Constantine; through Europe and the Reformation; taking a detour via the dominance of media and mega-church-driven North American Christianity of our recent history; to where Christianity seems to be finding its place among African, Asian, and South American believers. Each new context presents challenges and opportunities for the gospel and the faith.

The Next Shift in Global Christianity 
But what if the next shift in Christendom is not merely a geographical shift, but in fact a shift into cyberspace—a movement of a completely different kind?

Have you given much thought to the way in which the 'next shift' in global culture is reshaping the way in which to Gospel should be shared? I would like to encourage you to read this month's articles on the impact of technology on Christianity and the world.

If you have some ideas, or maybe some examples or more compelling statistics to share, please drop a line in the comments below.

Shift happens - where is the Christian faith heading? A reflection on GDOP 2010

Last week was an incredible week of blessing, encouragement, discovery, friendship, and learning.  We had close to 1000 persons at the Cape Town International Convention centre for the Global Day of Prayer 10th Anniversary Celebration conference.  The Global Day of Prayer started at Newlands Rugby stadium in Cape Town in 2001 and this Sunday (23 May 2010) was the 10th anniversary of what God has done in and through the Global Day of Prayer.

As Graham Power, the initiator of the prayer movement, says - the Global Day of Prayer is truly a testimony to God's power and grace.  No person or committee or organization could ever have put together such a massive prayer movement.  In 2009 and again this year in 2010 every single country on earth registered their participation in the Global Day of Prayer on Pentecost Sunday.  From the rising of the Sun in Fiji until it set over the Hawaii Islands there were people in cities, towns, rural areas, schools, stadiums, Churches and homes praying together in repentance and prayer.  It truly is the largest recorded prayer gathering in history!  The conference was as great a blessing as the day of prayer.  Our team started working on putting together the venue, speakers and participant care well over a year ago. I was in charge of setting up the program (simply visit the GDOP 2010 website and click on the list of speakers in each of the 5 streams for details of the speakers in the Church, Transformation, Prayer, Missions and Youth streams).

What struck me most significantly was the fact that God is using 'new', 'fresh' and 'emerging' movements and groups to achieve great things across the earth.  The them of the conference was 'His Story, His Glory, His Call' and we emphasised that we wanted to hear from the global South and the emerging world.  This was indeed the case as speakers and groups from Asia, Latin America, and Africa shared incredible testimonies of what God is doing to redeem both people and places.  There were many stories of salvation coming to individuals and groups, as well as many stories of God's justice and mercy bringing healing and tangible transformation to political, social and economic systems throughout the world.  It was such an encouragement.

I spoke in three sessions (a plenary and two track sessions).  In the Youth / emerging generation plenary I used a quote from Philip Yancey (that comes from Philip Jenkins' great book The Next Christendom:  The coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press), 2002):

As I travel, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God “moving” geographically from the Middle East, to Europe to North America to the developing world.  My theory is this: God goes where he’s wanted

Now of course this observation is true (I add a few subtle steps).  Christianity began in Israel, then shifted to Asia (and North Africa), from Asia it moved to Europe under the rule of Constantine, then from Europe to England, from England to North America, and from North America the 'weight' of global Christianity has shifted to Africa, Asia and Latin America.

But, where is Christianity shifting to next?  I my presentation (entitled 'Shift Happens') I made the conjecture that Christianity's next global shift will not be a geographical shift, rather it will be a shift onto the internet.  If you were to take the registered users of facebook as a population group, facebook would be the 3rd largest country on earth (behind China and India).  It is a simple fact that most of the emerging generation do not posit their primary identity in their geographical or primary cultural context, rather their identity and sense of being is shaped by global interactions through the internet, television, movies and others forms of rich media!

The title of my presentation 'Shift happens' comes from the incredible video below:

The question is:  If this shift is so powerful why are there so few ministry groups and Christians doing strategic work on and through the internet?  Most of the Christian groups I know use this 'new media' in an 'old media' manner - i.e., as a broadcast mechanism (posting reports, putting up text that does not allow for interaction, using 'long form' posts (such as this one!) instead of the short form posts like twitter's 140 characters...)

I've made a short video reflection on my thoughts in this regard which you can watch below.

Reflection on GDOP 2010 new media and ministry from Dion Forster on Vimeo.

The two persons I mention in this video post are @jaesonma and @olgalvaro - check them out. Of course you can also connect with me on twitter @digitaldion.

Also, consider this.  Long after the next Lausanne congress has met, hundreds of thousands of people from all across the earth would have interacted around the issues of bringing the whole Gospel to the whole world.  And, after the participants in the third Lausanne Congress have left Cape Town, after the World Cup Soccer has come and gone, the conversation will continue!  Rather than a 'static' medium (such as a journal with conference papers) the collective wisdom, and immeasurable wealth of international connections and relationships will be the force that sustains and informs evangelism going forward!

Shift is happening - my prayer is that more Christians will get ahead of this shift.  This does not mean an abandonment of the 'established' ways of being faithful in worship, service and community.  But, we do need to engage people where they are moving to!

The theologian Helmut Thielicke summed it up best when he said:

The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address since its recipient is constantly changing his place of residence.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this point!  Do you think I am missing something?  

By the way, I have a more critically researched article on this phenomenon being published in the Lausanne World Pulse in the next month or so.  I'll post a link here once it is published.  That has both statistical and empirical research as well as clear references.

How to start a movement (for Christian ministry)

I have been a long time 'fan' of Seth Godin and so enjoyed his book 'Tribes' which discusses how to set up and lead a community of common interest (whether it be an idea, a ministry movement, or some kind of project).

A few days ago my friend Roger Scholtz posted the following video from the TED conference, 'How to start a movement'.

I think it is crucial that persons in ministry understand the importance of social dynamics and how to work within those (and in spite of them) to achieve the aims of Christ's Gospel and the establishment of His Kingdom of grace.

If you have the bandwidth and can watch this video I would love to hear your thoughts (on the video in general, the concepts discussed, and the relationship between this video and the Christian ministry).

Update on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 10:41PM by Dr Dion Forster

'The first follower is what turns a lone nut into a leader' ~ Derek Sivers (how to start a movement).

Movements are critical to Christian ministry.  Theologically we can trace this  back to the central importance of relationship in God's economy for the world (we are created in the image of God who is a relationship of three persons). Of course the ministry of Jesus illustrates this truth more clearly than any sermon ever could.  The carpenter from Nazareth who dies a premature death in the prime of his life starts a movement that transforms all of society from that moment onward.

Watch this short 3 minute video and let me know what you think...

Perhaps one of the great problems with contemporary ministry is that we have too many leaders and not enough 'first followers'.

What do you think?

The mission shaped Church and the Alpha course.

Over the last two days I had the joy of attending the Alpha South Africa seminar at Camps Bay United Church. 

Today I spoke on the topic 'Forming a Mission shaped Church' at the conference.  A number of the people asked me for the powerpoint slides and the video that I used.

The basic line or reasoning that I took was the following.

1.  Christianity is shifting from traditional Western Churches (and even in some senses from traditional Western theology) to the South and the East.

2. This shift is both geographical (because of population growth and basic needs such as poverty, health, justice and need), and also theological (from propositions of faith to experiences of faith).  Please see the maps and reasoning in my slides.  For an explanation of this shift, some projections going forward, and some reasons for this shift, please read Philip Jenkins' great book 'The next Christendom' (you'll see an image of the cover in my slides).

3.  The Alpha course is quite well suited to changes in engaging persons with the message of the Gospel since it allows for interaction around the truths (as people engage with the topics, without having to be confronted constantly by 'clear and closed' truths).  It also facilitates community and relationships.  It is a truly wonderful instrument for the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.  I explain how the Church can become more 'missional' by referring to 5 mindset and worldview changes that we shall need to go through in order to engage the world where it is, rather than inviting the world to come to where the Church is.

So, here are my slides (Powerpoint 7MB)

Here's the video that I used (it highlights how the world is changing, and how we need to find new means with which to communicate and create engagement around the message and person of the Gospel). If you're interested in previous posts that I've made on new media and ministry please see my post here, or please see this post and the video on new media here.

Finally, I would encourage you to consider this great promotional video for the Alpha course (done by Bear Grylls - the ultimate 'survival' expert!)

Have you ever run Alpha in your Church, business, or been part of Alpha in a prison setting? I'd love to hear your feedback!  Thanks to all those who prepared the Alpha Conference.  You can find out about the Alpha Course here.

And, you can find out about Alpha in South Africa here.