7 Digital Trends Affecting Missions

Until a couple of months ago, I thought I was a really cool tech-savvy guy because I grew up in the age of the personal computer and the Internet. I was playing computer games back in kindergarten. (They were on a DOS system and the only color was green on a black background…but still!) I’ve never seen a computer-related problem I couldn’t fix, even if it was in a program I had never used before. But my familiarity with technology is nothing compared to the generation coming up behind me.

I recently read an article explaining that the next generation, Gen Z, which is currently still being born, is also just starting to graduate from high school. Whereas I grew up as a digital native, knowing computers and the Internet, this new crop of humans is the mobile-first generation — they grew up with smartphones in their hands. They were FaceTiming with their grandparents practically since they were born. My two-year-old nephew bought a $100 dollar app on his dad’s iPhone the other day. As a twenty-five year old with no $100 apps on his phone, I’m starting to feel these kids are leaving me behind!

Part of my job with OneHope is to stay on top of digital trends and discern how they are shaping the landscape we work in. To that end, I have compiled seven trends for you to be aware of and plan for in your own ministry work:

1. SMARTPHONES

Every new release of the iPhone only underscores how entrenched smartphones have become, and their importance will only grow. Consider these stats from tech guru Tomi Ahonen. (Check out more here)

• There are already more mobile phones than people on the planet
• An additional 2 billion smartphones are sold annually
• More than half of Internet users on earth never use a PC to access the internet.

The last point might not seem so significant until you stop and think about what the Internet looked like on your phone only a couple of years ago. Mobile devices are changing the shape of the Internet and really represent a new mass distribution medium. From the Guttenberg Printing Press of the 1500’s through the age of vinyl records, cinema, radio, television, and now the Internet on mobile devices.

These devices are incredible, but still limited and from a user experience perspective, rather poor. Having to look down at a small rectangle in your hand and poke at it, the interfaces are not always intuitive, the information is not always timely. Similar to how Macromedia flash player died out because of how you’d have to update it every time you wanted to watch a movie, apps need to be downloaded, and updated which is a major barrier for connecting users to relevant content.

Where to next? Virtual and Augmented Reality. But to get there, we first have to talk about connectivity.

2. CONNECTIVITY

Estonia declared that Internet connectivity is a basic human right and provides it for free. I believe this is indicative of a trend that will spread rapidly. Other countries in the developing world are recognizing that connection to the Internet translates into greater potential for prosperity in their country and are working to increase their infrastructure. Additionally, companies like Google, Facebook and others make the majority of their profit from advertising on Internet sites. So they are working to connect more people to the World Wide Web via drones, satellites and high altitude balloons in rural and under-developed areas that lack the infrastructure to provide connectivity locally. Once they are connected — bam! — that is another 2 billion people to sell advertising to. Now we can get on to the fun part…

3. VIRTUAL REALITY

Standing in a field while relief planes drop food into South Sudan. Exploring an intricate palace in France. Floating above New York City with Charlize Theron…? With Virtual Reality (VR) on the scene, this is no longer the stuff of fantasy. I have experienced each of these myself, from the comfort of my office. VR is made possible by the sophistication of today’s smartphones. What is happening is that your phone is combines data from its internal orientation gyros and compass to determine in real time what portion of a 360-degree spherical movie to show you on its screen. And if you have headphones on, it is also altering the right and left balance of the audio to indicate the direction that sounds are coming from.

VR is best experienced, not explained. You can try it for yourself very economically by purchasing a Google Cardboard headset ($3-$40). The number of VR users grew by over a million just this year, thanks in large part to the New York Times’ distribution of free Google Cardboard to their subscribers to promote their new app. You, too, should download the NYT VR app and watch the 11-minute story “The Displaced” about refugee children in the midst of war. It is incredible storytelling via VR and totally connects to our heart for children and ministry.

Google Cardboard and YouTube also have popular VR apps, and this market is only poised to grow. By 2025, the market for virtual reality content will be $5.4 billion. The hardware component will be worth $62 billion. Not to mention the fun to be had from watching someone use a VR viewer (you’ll see what I mean when you get your Cardboard). Bottom line, VR is pretty awesome, but what else is there?

4. AUGMENTED REALITY

Virtual Reality refers to virtuality: the quality of having the attributes of something without sharing its physical form. With Augmented Reality (AR) applications, you’re not experiencing a different reality virtually, but instead your common reality in a somehow magnified or enhanced way. Analysts project there will be more than 1 billion users of AR technology by 2020. You would not believe how many industries are working to get a foothold in this space!

For the past year I’ve been working on an app for OneHope called Traverse that uses Augmented Reality technology to create Bible adventures in the real world. GPS points guide youth around their city via their smartphones and engage them with Scriptural content when they get there. Think of the difference it would make to be standing in a botanical garden when reading the Genesis account of the Garden of Eden. Or lost in a stadium that shows what it was really like when Jesus appeared before a crowd of 5,000 people post-resurrection. With AR, we can make engaging with the Gospel experiential, interactive and social. I can’t wait to get the app finished and put it in the hands of our field teams all over the world!

5. ANTI-INSTITUTIONAL DECENTRALIZATION

I could probably quit my job tomorrow and make a decent living by turning my guest bedroom into a hotel room (AirBnB), leveraging the family car as a taxi service (Uber), selling my dinner leftovers (Josephine), or crowdfunding a business idea to life (Kickstarter). Who could have imagined the possibilities these apps have created? These are all examples of teams who have innovated by creating a platform to let the ordinary person do what previously only institutions could.

An interesting side effect of apps like these: They are creating a more interpersonal, human marketplace. You are trusting the person on the other end of the deal because they are an average Joe just like you. Transactions are built on encouraging trust between strangers through peer ratings and reviews, and also the camaraderie associated with the brand of these peer-to-peer service platforms. What’s next? Almost any industry could be radically impacted by this trend.

6. THE VALUE OF FOLLOWING

How would you react if I told you people just like you are becoming millionaires off apps you use every day: Instagram, YouTube and Twitter? It’s insane and it’s true!

• – Danielle Bernstein, the fashion blogger behind @weworewhat has 1.3 million followers, and charges anywhere between $5,000 and $15,000 for a single branded Instagram post!
• – The top-earning YouTube star on the planet is 25 years old and pulled in $12 million (pre-tax) last year — all for providing commentary as he plays video games.

Had Rhett and Link of the YouTube comedy show Good Mythical Morning gone to a major television network like NBC or Comedy Central and said, “We could make a show that would be really popular where we just talk about and do weird stuff, and people would love it,” they probably would never have gotten an interview, much less a show. But with a self-publishing platform like YouTube, they have made it a success with more than 8 million subscribers and counting.

Now I’m not saying everyone should quit your jobs to make videos. But these examples do show that it’s an age of user-generated content where there are fewer barriers to doing what you love (and possibly making a fortune on it).

7. PERSONAL METRICS/ANALYTICS

FitBit is the obvious example of a device that allows you to easily capture and record exercise information and produce analytics about calories burned, miles run, how you slept, etc. But FitBit is only one example in what I believe is an emerging trend.

Because there is a strong corporate value on assessment, you hear things like “let’s review the numbers,” or “how did you validate that?” There is a desire to prove one’s results that has carried over into other areas of our lives.

We have apps to track diet and exercise (MyFitnessPal), finances (Mint), how you are spending your time at work (Harvest), or you could consider how popular personality (Myer’s-Briggs), and strengths assessments (Strengthsfinder) have become. As our devices grow increasingly intelligent and more of our surroundings can connect and exchange information about our activities, this collection and analysis of data about ourselves is only going to grow. So what other areas of our life will this permeate? All of them. We’ll have analytics about aspects of our lives we have never even thought about.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR ME?

It is interesting to consider that how the Church approaches technology is shaped largely by its understanding of reality. The Church is at its core conservative, tending to look to the past as being better. This is because we had high beginnings. We were created by God, in His image, and then fell into sin. That is a downward trajectory, and so the tendency is to reject the novel in favor of the traditional; the untested for what is tried and true; the risky endeavor for the safer option. That’s because we believe that where we came from was purer, better and more reliable than where the rest of the world is headed.

But if you have the view that humanity had low beginnings and evolved out of primordial soup, you will have the opposite mindset. We are on an upward trajectory heading to a future that can only be better than where we came from. In the world of ideas and the world of technology, progress is the ultimate goal. The further and the faster we go, the better. Leave yesterday behind because new automatically equals better.

It might seem like the Church and technology are headed in opposite directions. But as Christians we should know that our faith is not one that looks backwards, but forwards. We put our faith in Jesus returning, so our hope is in a future event.

And until that event comes, we are to share the Gospel and go out and make disciples. The church has been one of the most innovative forces in history, using everything from the Roman roads, to the Gutenberg Printing Press, to radio and television to spread God’s Word. Similarly, the Church should be using the Internet and mobile phones well, and should be leveraging the technology for more than just church websites; more than just an occasional tweet just because everyone else is doing it.

It’s fantastic that we can reach so many people due to the spread of smartphones and growing access to the Internet. Organizations like the Mobile Ministry Forum are helping equip the church with tools to be more effective in that area. But what does a virtual reality presentation of the Gospel look like? How do we create more relevant and persistent scripture engagement through augmented reality? What does the Uber/AirBnB equivalent of the church look like, more or less like the early church? How can the church better leverage Twitter, YouTube and Instagram? What do spiritual analytics look like? I do not even pretend know all the answers, but I believe these are some of the right questions.

We should be ahead of the curve, on the leading edge of building technologies that facilitate communication and engagement for the purpose of evangelism and discipleship. We should have secular markets saying, “If only we could have engagement like they do.” Our motivation is so much greater than the motivation of profit. We are the ones with the urgency of the Kingdom and Christ’s return driving us forward! So let us start the hard work, because there is incredible potential.

Originally published on Indigitous, 7/11/2016.