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Home  › Books › Writings of John Edmiston - Volume 1  › 01.07. The Edges of Cyberspace
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01.07. The Edges of Cyberspace

7 min read · Chapter 9 of 99
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And How To Share Christ There… The Traditional Internet Has Peak

  • The traditional Internet = desktop PC + landline (or cable) in a home or workplace

  • The number of traditional Internet subscribers is now very close to the number of landlines

  • Landline growth has stalled.

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Growing the Edges

  • Now the logistical task is to get Internet access to people who do not have landline or cable and who may be earning $500 a month or less

  • The spiritual task is to share the gospel with these new users ‘on the edge of cyberspace’.

  • Many of these are in developing nations such as China, India and the Middle East –where gospel proclamation is most needed

  • The ‘next billion’ will come online in the next two to three years and the Internet will DOUBLE in size!!!

Things May Be Different

  • The next billion Internet users will not be Westerners

  • The next billion Internet users will not have computers connected to landlines

  • They will not speak English as their first language

  • Most of them will not come from Christian religious backgrounds

  • The God they seek may be very different from what we expect…

  • First let’s look at the technology they will be using…..

Stages of the Internet

  • Pre-1993 – Bulletin boards, email

  • 1994-1997 Early HTML

  • 1997-2002 HTML plus widgets

  • 2002 - 2005 Web 2.0

  • 2005 – 2007 Death of Web 2.0, emergence of the media driven web

  • 2007 -2010 - The mobile Internet & the developing world Internet

The Mobile Internet

  • In July 2007 global mobile phone subscribers surpassed the 3 billion mark…. 3.25 billion by year’s end…

  • Soon many of these phones will be Internet capable – but will offer a different ‘kind’ of Internet – how can we reach them?

  • In Japan, Korea and China mobile users regularly access the Internet

  • Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, says the future of the internet is mobile.

Larger and More Flexible Screen

  • Mobile screen technology is rapidly advancing

  • A 7” x 5” mobile screen that rolls out was recently announced

  • Large flexible screens that roll out (like a bible scroll)

  • Some are like ‘bricks’ that click together to form a larger screen (Brix phone illustration)

Starting in Mobile Flat-form Evangelism

SMS

  • In the Muslim world SMS messages are the PREFERRED method of responding to the gospel

  • Text 2 Email gateways are now becoming a critical part of evangelism!

  • Soon crusades will have a number you can text to indicate a decision to follow Jesus.

  • A URL for follow-up can be sent by return SMS

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_gateways

Podcast and Audio Blogging

WebTV

RSS Feed

  • RSS is Really Simple Syndication and is slowly changing the Internet from a ‘pull’ medium driven by search engines to a ‘push’ medium driven by RSS subscriptions

  • RSS plus mobile devices

  • RSS plus podcasts and video pods

  • RSS plus news feeds, weather info etc.

  • Evangelistic content needs to be linked to an RSS feed

Second Life / Virtual Worlds

  • Virtual worlds are rapidly growing

  • Second Life has gone from 1 million subscribers to 10 million subscribers in just over 12 months.

  • Internet is now participative and experiential not just informational

  • Churches in Second Life

Internet Cafes

  • Internet cafes can be found in most cities in the developing world

  • They are and will continue to be a main source of the Internet for many

  • They often have restricted bandwidth

  • How can we reach their users for Jesus?

Extreme Locations

  • VHF store and forward (single-side band COBAN radios)

  • Stored Internet (on a local area network) plus email, as hard-drives approach 1TB storage capacity this becomes quite feasible

  • Satellite and microwave links

  • Technological advances are allowing detection of weaker signals and increased range

WiMAX

  • WiMAX is Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

  • Crudely put it is a long-range version of WiFi

  • It can use both licensed and unlicensed spectrum

  • WiMAX towers are becoming popular in developing nations

Meraki Routers

  • Meraki routers are powerful wireless routers that can ‘mesh’ together to cover a large area.

  • One access point, plus a bunch of Meraki routers can blanket a whole village with WiFI

  • The routers cover 100-250 meter radius each (compared to 10-30 meters for a normal router)

  • They are weatherproof

Say Goodbye to Privacy

  • The Internet is being watched

  • Keystroke loggers

  • Splitting of fibre-optic cables

  • Download monitoring

  • Rapid ‘reading’ and storing of website content by computers

  • Any mention of politics or local organizing will get you instantly banned in over a dozen countries

  • Wisdom is essential

The Next Billion Internet Users

  • Average income will be $2000 - $5000 a year

  • Many will live in urban slums and be using Internet cafes

  • They will want HOPE

  • They will want practical information as well as entertainment

  • About 20 major languages will cover 95% of them….

The Next Billion – Logistics

  • They have cell phones and TVs but not cars or computers or telephone lines

  • The Internet will be on a cell phone or icafe

  • They will probably want an SMS response

  • They will be highly family centered and 80% will be under 30

  • Many will NOT be very postmodern

  • Many will be single

The Next Billion – Aspirational

  • They will be highly aspirational & tech hungry

  • Want employment and business opportunities (business as mission)

  • Online business plans and online business mentoring as ministry?

  • Online Christian franchises and micro-franchises and micro-finance?

The Next Billion – Holistic

  • Holistic approach to life and ministry

  • Want to know ‘how to’ do a wide range of community development tasks as part of ministry

  • HIV / AIDS Education

  • Water purification

  • Simple church construction

  • How to set up a Christian pre-school

The Next Billion – Independent

  • Proud of their own culture and own way of doing things

  • Will not appreciate our denominations, “Christian culture” or national politics

  • Want equal partnership (not Western ownership)

  • Want to make the on-the-ground decisions

  • Have alternative church structures

The Next Billion – Ministry

  • House church movements

  • Will often be Pentecostal Christians

  • Seekers from animistic backgrounds who need deliverance

  • Extended families

  • Shame based cultures

  • Converts from Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism

  • Pastors with little formal training needing mentoring

  • Prosperity teaching very popular

  • Questions about corruption, poverty, and injustice: ‘why are we so poor’

Coping – Technology

  • Interactive

  • Participative

  • Experiential

  • Non-computer based (cellphones!!)

  • Non-literate – verbal / audio

  • Brief & Compressed

  • Holistic

  • Tagged / RSS

  • Multiple languages & cultures

  • Multiple bandwidth versions

Coping – Design

  • Internationalize

  • Clarity

  • Reduce idiomatic expressions

  • Be hopeful and aspirational

  • Explain, explain, explain…

  • We will have on billion ‘newbies’ online within the next three years!

  • It will be the total re-birth of the Internet and of web page design

  • Offer a helpful handshake to the new Netizens…

Coping – Attitude

  • Scripture rather than culture

  • Spirit rather than method

  • Compassion rather than just content

  • Trustful connection rather than just ‘customer service’

  • ‘Come into our community’ rather than just ‘pray the prayer and go away please’

  • Engaged with the whole of life rather than cerebral, engaged with a ‘bunch of concepts’

Coping – Love Newbies

  • If the user is made to feel dumb they just go away

  • If their problems are ignored they will resent you

  • But if people feel they are helped quickly they will become loyal

  • If the user feels empowered they build enthusiasm

  • If a user feels ‘’hey I am cool I can do this’ they build pride and tell others

Coping – WWJD

  • What would Jesus do?

  • Sure these changes are hard but how many people will they help us reach?

  • But I like the Internet the way it is!!

  • Why can’t they just be like us?

  • This is way too complicated?

  • Get help

  • Build teams

  • Let God guide you

Coping – Local Networks

  • Develop in-country networks

  • Cultivate local leaders

  • Pay for translation, use locals, use the translation process to build relationships

  • Give people an aspirational career pathway within your ministry

  • Volunteer – Senior Volunteer – Part-Time Paid – Full-Time Paid

  • Delegate real authority and the right to contextualize your ministry

Coping – Be First to Market

  • Be first to ‘market’ – be one of the first in a particular language group

  • This gives you great prestige and influence

  • It also introduces you to early adopters and to leaders in that culture

  • Partner with missions agencies and churches overseas

Coping – Calling Home

  • There are huge international connections between migrants working overseas and their home communities

  • They ‘call home’ for news and in return can share the gospel

  • The next billion Internet users will have friends and relatives in America

  • We can recruit these people as volunteers

  • Ethne To Ethne – those people with the gospel reaching those without the gospel - via the Internet

Coping – Partnering

  • Sharing translation resources

  • Sharing follow-up systems

  • Sharing strategic information on people groups

  • Sharing good podcasts and other content

  • Partnering for on-the-ground church planting and holistic ministry efforts resulting from cyber-ministry

Coping – Prayer

  • The next billion will be a spiritual warfare context

  • Ministering to animists, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists will require much prayer and intercession

  • Your computer will break down if you don’t pray!

  • You will break down if you don’t pray!

Conclusion

  • The Internet will double in the next three years as cellphones become Internet capable

  • The next billion users will be ‘newbies’ from the developing world

  • These are people for whom Christ died and that missionaries long to reach

  • If you get on board early you can be part of completing the Great Commission

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