Voke: An App the Church Needs
Recently, I have had the pleasure of collaborating on a new app called Voke. If you’ve ever had a conversation with me, you probably know I usually advocate against creating more apps that people may (but probably will not) download. The market is over-saturated, and all too often app producers fail to market them well or neglect to have the service mindset that is needed for their success. But Voke is an exception.
Voke is solving a real problem for the Church. It is common knowledge in the Christian community that we are called to share the Gospel, make disciples (friends whom we mentor), and be the very hands and feet of Jesus on earth. The Church is tasked with finishing the work Jesus and the apostles started — introducing people to freedom from a life in captivity to sin, and the opportunity to embrace the love and acceptance of God. As Christians, we all acknowledge that truth and affirm it. We support evangelism, often quoting the Great Commission from Matthew 28, and we love to celebrate stories of lives changed by the power of the cross. But let’s be honest — the vast majority of Christians very rarely share the Gospel with anyone, let alone the people they are closest to.
In his book, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, Author Shane Hipps commented on Marshall McLuhan’s idea of “the medium is the message” to say that the Church is the medium God has chosen for His message to the world. However, we as the Church are often reluctant to communicate the very message we are a medium for. In my own experience, it’s just downright awkward to start a conversation about eternity. How do you begin? (To the Uber driver shuttling you from the airport) “So, where do you think we go when we die?” or (to your co-worker over a Panera pick two) “I know you’re an atheist, but the Bible says Jesus loves you!” This isn’t remotely comfortable or fruitful!
Often, the people I most strongly desire find a relationship with Christ are those I also carry the most fear about jeopardizing my friendship with. Even though I know introducing them to faith is the most loving thing in the world I can do, my feeble attempts often come across as critical, argumentative, pushy, or just plain out of touch with their reality.
Voke helps resolve this initiation problem by removing the pressure of starting the conversation. The app lets you send a friend an intriguing video via text message, and alerts you when they are watching it. The video could be openly evangelistic, explaining the Gospel like the Falling Plates video, or more subtle and open like the Have you ever wondered about God? video. Using videos as the conversation starter is a brilliant approach because it’s a neutral piece of content. You didn’t make the video, you’re just saying “what do you think?” And it’s the language of our culture (just look at how many views SNL skits or cats playing a piano get on YouTube). We message each other photos, memes, and videos all day long. It’s non-confrontational and non-antagonistic. “It just made me think, and I wanted to know what you thought too.”
The other bit of magic that I think makes Voke really special is that you can track your friend’s response in real time. You know how valuable it is that Snapchat tells you when a snap you sent was opened, or you get the three dots of “I’m typing you back right now” on messenger. With Voke, the video is sent within the app’s framework and it reports to the sender through a friendly alert when the video has been opened, and completed. Then you can start a conversation while it is fresh on your friend’s mind!
Voke is just the kind of digital evangelism tool we need, that’s easy to work into the flow of everyday conversations and friendships. So far, the app has done exactly what we hoped it would. We’ve heard things like: “It’s amazing, my atheist friend was asking me questions about God! I would have thought that was impossible a few days ago.” and “It’s so easy to start these conversations that I never would have had without Voke.”
I’ve found that even just talking about the app as I’ve worked on it has opened up conversations I never imagined. I mentioned to some atheist colleagues how awkward it is to start conversations about life, death, God, meaning and purpose, but how Voke makes it easy. After a silent pause, they asked me directly whether I was afraid of death and how was it that my faith could help me not be afraid. We had an hour conversation without even touching the app, just prompted by the idea of the app.
We created the app for youth to more easily share their faith, but it has awesome potential for anyone. If you’re involved with youth ministry, or have a teen in your life, pitch the app to them and see what they think. We’re not afraid of honest feedback! Or check it out yourself. I think you will find it an effective way to start conversations that matter. Talk about something other than the weather, sports or the latest TV show you watched. Take your friendships a level deeper.
Download Voke for iOS or Android, hop on over to the site at VokeApp.com. And lastly, if you’re interested in sharing this with your youth group, we have an outreach kit you can use that even comes with free pizza!
