Skip to content

EMDC Podcast Launch

In the gospels, Jesus is recorded thirteen times telling his would-be disciples to follow him. In our present social media age, follow is usually combined with like. Yeah, it can be cringeworthy but building a community means keeping in touch with one another and having effective ways to get messages and stories out to those who opt in to being a part of the community like we have here through EMDC.

In November of 2020, EMDC Founder Steve Baughman and I began hosting a podcast designed to introduce our growing number of community members to the “people, places and possibilities” behind the global EMDC network. Season 1, launching on Wed Jan 13 2021, is designed to cover some past history of our conference (for newcomers) bringing our community up to date on our current online offerings as well as include interviews with specialists in app development, websites, ethnoarts, filmmaking, audio/radio, scripture gadgets, orality & storytelling, scripture engagement and culturally intelligent media.

Read More »EMDC Podcast Launch

Will WhatsApp’s change in privacy policy affect me?

Some people are worried about WhatsApp’s change in terms. They wonder if they should switch to some other platform, some other app. Those are reasonable questions. However, let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture from a wider perspective before jumping to conclusions. Let’s act out of confidence rather than out of fear. After all, the Lord has given us many gifts, but fear is not one of them. ‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.’ (2 Tim. 1:7, NLT)

Read More »Will WhatsApp’s change in privacy policy affect me?

Measuring Scripture Engagement in Digital Ministry

Discipleship and Digital Ministry 

If you are in a digital ministry setting, you know it can be difficult to decide how to differentiate between digital engagements and digital Scripture Engagement. We can get caught up in how many “impressions” we obtain, but forget that our end goal is to make disciples. The video below gives you a taste of how we at FCBH have been working to make disciples and engage with people digitally during this pandemic season. 

Read More »Measuring Scripture Engagement in Digital Ministry

How to Tell a Dangerous Story


“I know how you can tell this story,” I said to a colleague with a smile. “Someone did something that made a positive change among some group of people in some country, and it’s so amazing everyone needs to know about it!”

We were talking about how to tell stories from “sensitive” or high-risk contexts, and I said this jokingly as we considered what could and could not be said in stories. We had a good laugh and proceeded to find a solution.

While I said this in jest, this is a basic formula for telling impact stories. Of course, usually when applied, it includes real information—not just “something” or “someone.” Yet, what do you do if putting these key details into your story threatens the project you want to write about or risks the lives of your subjects? Should these stories be left untold?

Read More »How to Tell a Dangerous Story

Mobiles, Media, and Ministry: Lessons for Trainers and Learners

The Mobiles, Media & Ministry: Lessons for Learners & Trainers curriculum contains 41 lessons, 360 pages of trainer guide materials, 70 pages of student handouts, and over 1,000 presenter slides.

The lessons are divided into four topic areas:

  1. Foundations of Media Ministry: Principles and practices for developing media materials and strategy that lead to follow-up and discipleship.
  2. Mobile Ministry: The mobile phone is the device through which most media ministry efforts will be experienced. These lessons teach the capabilities and limitations mobile technology provides and how to adapt your media ministry efforts.
  3. Social Media: These lessons teach you to connect with the lost via social media so you expand your reach among almost any people you want to reach.
  4. Do-it-Yourself Media: These lessons teach anyone to create authentic, contextually-relevant media that can reach thousands.

Read More »Mobiles, Media, and Ministry: Lessons for Trainers and Learners

Why We Don’t Start with Bible Translation

When a new programme starts it’s often tempting to set it up as a Bible translation programme. Sometimes that’s appropriate. In many cases, for a variety of reasons, it’s not. This is because:

  • It’s a minority language
  • People tend to be bi- or multi-lingual (at least if they live in towns, or have been educated)
  • They’re oral preference
  • They’re illiterate or semi-literate, or literate only in the language of wider communication
  • They aren’t yet Christian believers
  • etc.

If any or all of the above are true, then it’s good to start with language development and Scripture engagement rather than full-blown Bible translation, where you translate whole books of the Bible, and aim for a full Bible or New Testament + Psalms or Panoramic Bible. Sometimes the only reason for doing the latter is the kudos of the team, which is not a good reason. We’re aiming for transformed communities, not team kudos!

Read More »Why We Don’t Start with Bible Translation

Audio/Visual Scripture & Outreach Media Sources

The following is a question that I regularly get asked by “on-the-ground” workers- “How can I find out what scripture/ministry media is available online in my people’s language so I can download and use in our outreach?” The below are the main websites I know to point people to that allow them to search for and download media in their language:

Read More »Audio/Visual Scripture & Outreach Media Sources

Who? Why? What? Where? When?

Five W’s to think about when creating content for the web

 

The EMDC blog is new but we represent a large community of experts and explorers in new technologies and techniques. This post is written for newcomers and experts alike and covers the Five W’s. These are sometimes also referred to as the six W’s (adding “how”) to the list.

In other languages they may start with different letters but the concepts are the same. We need to ask basic questions whether writing a blog post, designing a site, or creating any content.

Read More »Five W’s to think about when creating content for the web

Where collaboration meets creativity

  • by

They arrive in groups of six to eight, disembarking from small vans with luggage and high hopes. 

These men and women have come from the ends of the earth to attend a yearly meeting of the minds. Anticipation grows as the travelers sign in to the invitation-only event. Here in this secret, sacred space, technology, media and Bible translation converge for three weeks of connection, training, collaboration and ideation. 

Read More »Where collaboration meets creativity

Welcome to EMDC!

Welcome to the EMDC Blog.  We will not say much on this first post except that the EMDC community started in 2010 and has been growing ever since!

We expected 900 people at EMDC 2020, but the virus cancelled that.  With big help from a small team we created EMDC.online and our community has been sharing about all the topics found here.

If you have a blog topic to propose write us at submit@emdc.blog.  But for now if you…. have enjoyed attending EMDC, or you are enjoying EMDC.online, the EMDC Podcast, or this blog, please say a quick hello in any of the comment boxes.

Steve Baughman (for the EMDC team).

 

Read More »Welcome to EMDC!