THE STATE OF

DIGITAL
TECHNOLOGIES
FOR THE
GREAT
COMMISSION
2022

Conducted by
General Editor Andrew Feng
Contents
Executive Summary
Introduction
Brief History of Internet Evangelism

Today’s Internet & Digital Technologies

Topics about Digital Technologies

1. Digital Outreach and Evangelism
2. Online Discipleship
3. Christian Vendors
4. Apps
5. Content
6. Social Media Impacts
7. Prayer
8. Scripture Engagement
9. Artificial Intelligence
10. Gaming
11. Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality
12. Blockchain
13. Frameworks
14. Collaboration Platforms
15. Volunteer Management Platforms
16. Networks
17. Conferences
18. Theological Education
19. Learning Management System
20. Research Articles and Journals

Opportunities and Considerations for Reaching All Peoples

Conclusion

Appendix
Executive
Summary
Many missions executives feel lost in the digital transformation the COVID-19 pandemic
has necessitated. This report will help navigate strategic opportunities and identify
potential avenues for partnerships.

The internet has changed how we communicate, shop, travel, learn, and socialize.
Technological advances often happen so quickly that it can be challenging to keep up,
even for industry insiders. Billions of people worldwide now use specialized digital tools;
missional and global organizational leaders must be aware of current digital
technologies.

This report provides a broad overview of the digital landscape, resources available, and
opportunities for strategic collaboration. The report surveys a wide range of digital
technologies, as listed in the Table of Contents. Each topic comes with a brief
explanation of the technology, a use case, and highlights several digital resources for
the Great Commission. The topics covered in this report cover a range of technological
adoption. Several technology categories reach billions, others reach millions, and some
technologies are still emerging.

These are innovative times for followers of Christ and mission organizations. It is
possible to advance the Great Commission faster than ever before. This report provides
leaders with an overview of digital opportunities to bring the gospel to every person. We
want to enable disciple-making churches to use the available digital tools to reach every
people and place. Our vision is to see missions leaders adept in digital transformation to
further their ministry and kingdom impact in every sphere of society. As digital
technologies advance, leaders can share new strategies and resources, especially in the
majority world and emerging markets.

3
Introduction
This report provides extensive market research, strategic analysis, and insights into how
digital strategies, technology, and experiences can accelerate the work of the Great
Commission. This report was commissioned by the DXM Institute, in collaboration with the
Indigitous network.

Many publications have addressed the topics of digital ecclesiology and humanity's
relationship to digital technologies. This report will approach this vast space from a strategic
angle, highlighting the notably effective strategies in evangelism and discipleship.

As a disclaimer, this report aims to be a starting point. The research team was primarily
English-speaking and many of the resources listed come from a western perspective. We
recognize that there may be gaps and many resources not listed in this report. Further
research and analysis are required for a fully global report covering all resources in every
language and culture.

4
A Brief History
of Internet
Evangelism

THE STATE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

5 FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION 2022
When the internet became mainstream in
the mid-1990s, several Christian
ministries launched outreach efforts
through websites like Bible Gateway and
Blue Letter Bible. Mainstream media
noticed the growing trend of religion on
the internet, indicated by an excerpt from
the 1996 TIME.com article, “Finding God
On The Web”:
"The signs of online
religious activity are
everywhere. If you
Other notable pioneers in internet
evangelism include the following:
Cybermissions, launched in 1995 by
Rev. John Edmiston, utilizes web
pages, email, mobile devices, social
media, and internet cafes to share the
gospel in over 150 nations. Their
projects include evangelism,
discipleship, theological training,
counseling, and leadership
development.
EveryStudent.com began in 2000 and
has grown to include over 45 language
versions. The site is a safe place to
explore questions about who God is

instruct AltaVista, a and what it might be like to know God.

It is visited by more than 100,000
powerful Internet people each day.
Jesus.net started in 2001 as a
search engine, to scour collaboration of websites to introduce
searchers to the Gospel. Since then,
the Web for references the worldwide network has grown to

to Microsoft's Bill more than 85 Christian ministries

engaged in online evangelism and
Gates, the program discipleship with content in 34
languages. Their websites have
turns up an impressive reached over 150 million visitors, over
2.7 million contact forms completed,
25,000 references. But and over 770,000 have subscribed to

ask it to look for Web their daily devotional email.

Global Media Outreach (GMO) is an
pages that mention internet-based ministry that began in
2004. To date, this outreach has over
God, and you'll get 2.2 billion gospel visits, over 258
million indicated decisions, and over
410,000 hits. Look for 320 million discipleship activities.

Christ on the Web, and Mobile Ministry Magazine started in

you'll find him—some
146,000 times."
One of the first evangelistic Christian
websites launched in 1995,
ChristianAnswers.Net. The site now has
content in 44 languages, well over
750,000 text files, 65,000 images, and an
estimated 340,000 visits monthly.
2004 to help individuals, ministries,
and organizations utilize mobile
ministry practices.
Network211 has focused on global
evangelism and discipleship via the
internet since 2008. Network211
dubbed its outreach Project
100Million, and the statistics to date
include over 46.7 million visits, over
2.2 million evangelism responses, and
over 393,000 connections.

6
Today’s Internet
and Digital
Technologies

THE STATE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

7 FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION 2022
Fast forward from 1995 to 2021. In
Top 10 Internet User Languages
developed countries, and even in some
English 25.3%
developing countries, smartphones have
Chinese
made communication more accessible 19.8%

than ever before. The internet has made Spanish 8%

the distribution of content and media Arabic 4.8%

ubiquitously accessible. Smartphone Portuguese 4.1%

users have the world’s knowledge at their Indonesian 4.1%

fingertips. Japanese 3%
Russian 2.8%

While internet usage has become French 2.8%

relatively normal in developed countries, German 2.2%

many people do not yet have internet Other 23.1%

access. As of January 2022, 62.5% of the 0% 10% 20% 30%
world’s population uses the internet. This
data implies that about one-third of the Top 20 Website Content Languages
world’s population does not use the
English 63.6%
internet or has limited access. However, Russian 6.9%
the number of internet users continues to Turkish 3.9%
grow. There are about 600,000 new Spanish 3.6%
internet users each day, growing at 4.8 Persian 3.5%
percent of total users annually. As French 2.5%

internet users grow, especially among German 2.0%

Japanese 1.9%
unreached people groups, the opportunity
Vietnamese 1.9%
for digital evangelism, discipleship, and
Chinese 1.3%
church planting also increases. Arabic 1.3%
Indonesian 0.8%
Additionally, the available content on the Portuguese 0.7%
web is disproportionate to the languages Italian 0.7%
of internet users. As a result, some users Ukrainian 0.6%
Thai
cannot access information simply 0.6%
Dutch 0.5%
because it is not in a language they
Hebrew 0.5%
understand. Although automation tools Korean 0.5%
can translate entire web pages, it is not Polish 0.5%
the most effective way to communicate. 0% 25% 50% 75%
This raises the need for collaboration
with people of different cultures and The available technology in the world is
languages. This way, we can pool our wonderfully vast, diverse, and complex. It
resources together and share our best is crucial to monitor the technologies that
strategies in every heart language. people groups use and the most
appropriate communication methods for
The chart on the top right shows that evangelism and discipleship. A single
76.9% of internet users speak English, solution will not work for everyone; every
Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, technology, language, and people group
Indonesian, French, Japanese, Russian or requires a contextualized and
German. Compare and contrast the personalized approach. Strategic use of
disproportionate percentages of websites today’s technology makes this type of
with content listed in the chart below. approach possible.

8
Topics about
Digital
Technologies

This section presents an overview of

different topics to describe and highlight
the current digital technologies used in
evangelism and discipleship worldwide.
This report intends to briefly introduce
and familiarize readers with the various
technology categories in the digital
world. The report provides an
explanatory overview, top examples, and
a summary of implications for missions
and organizational leaders.

9
Digital Outreach and Evangelism
Many digital outreach and evangelism approaches exist as with traditional (non-digital)
evangelism. This section groups evangelism into three categories based on the target
audience.

1. Direct evangelism is to a friend, family member, or acquaintance. There is a pre-

existing relationship between the Christian and non-Christian before evangelism in
this situation.
2. Evangelism via inviting friends to events has one degree of separation. The friend
acts as a trusted broker and asks the person to an event with a gospel presentation.
The friend’s reputation serves as a trust factor to accept the invitation.
3. Evangelism to strangers requires no prior engagement. The Christian meets with the
non-Christian for the first time, with the sole intent of outreach.

Direct Evangelism
Because there is an existing relationship
between the Christian and non-Christian,
direct digital evangelism facilitates the
conversation. For example, the
Perspective Cards by CRU is a digital set
of cards that guide a spiritual
conversation. Other apps and websites
exist to replicate tracts into digital format,
including GodTools: Gospel
Conversations by CRU. YesHEIs app by
Christian Vision is empowering a
community of four million young adults
through a basic framework for sharing the
gospel with others. Gospel Tracts
Worldwide has also produced digital
gospel tracts in 37 languages and
distributed them to over 100 countries.
Digital tools also empower direct
evangelism through content curation.
Cru’s digital content app answers
commonly asked spiritual questions via
videos of Christian speakers. In this
method, the app reduces the level of
knowledge training that an evangelist
needs, reducing the anxiety often
associated with not feeling prepared for
spiritual conversations. The evangelist
can then focus on the relationship and
facilitate the discussion without
distractions. However, the creator’s
tradeoff is an inherent bias on the
selection criteria of the content. Given the
diversity in Christian traditions, curated
answers on a specific topic might not
align with the conviction of the evangelist.
Most of the tools mentioned above seem
to replicate the paper experience of one-
on-one evangelism into a digital medium.
The goal is to offer tools to facilitate
spiritual conversations. As with any tool,
the user’s familiarity may be limited.
Training people with these digital tools
help to scale and cultivate a desire for
evangelism among God’s people.

10
Evangelism via Inviting
Friends to Events
This method of evangelism is through
invitation. In the non-digital world, this
could be an invitation to an evangelistic
crusade or inviting friends to a church
Easter service. The distinction is the
invitation extended from a person known
to the individual to a group or event, where
both parties will attend.
One excellent example of this in the digital
world is the Alpha course. Before the
pandemic, Alpha’s founder Nicky Gumbel
shared that he never thought Alpha could
work in an all-virtual environment. He felt
that the food and community were pivotal
aspects of the Alpha course’s success. To
his surprise, Nicky discovered that a
virtual Alpha course allowed him to invite
friends who typically would not attend an
in-person Alpha session due to distance,
scheduling conflicts, or other reasons.
The digital version of the course still
maintains a group setting, encouraging
people to watch the Alpha video followed
by a guided discussion. In this manner,
the digital format is simply a medium
change while the content remains mostly
the same. Yet, this medium opened
opportunities for more participants to join
by reducing barriers to entry.
Another trend for digital evangelism came
as a result of the pandemic. Many
churches and para-church organizations
moved their evangelistic meetings online
amid in-person gathering restrictions.
11
Some used an issue-specific topic to
attract attendance (i.e., positive
parenting). While the overall format varies,
it is usually either a webinar format for
many participants or a more
conversational style when the group is
smaller. In this manner, digital is just a
medium switch for the churches that
often run in-person workshops or
evangelistic meetings to encourage
members to invite friends.
Event-based digital evangelism merely
alters the medium from in-person to
virtual. Traditionally, proximity limits in-
person event invitations, but advances in
communication technology have opened
innovative solutions.
Each major community technology has its
limitations. Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft
Teams favor only one speaker at a time.
Individuals cannot have side
conversations like one would encounter at
an in-person gathering. Another challenge
is the competition of time and attention.
There has been an increase in virtual
events due to the pandemic. Churches no
longer compete with other events in their
area for attendance but with virtual
events happening worldwide. The
attention span for virtual events has also
decreased over the pandemic. Many
people face digital fatigue from spending
increased time in front of a screen.
Evangelism to Strangers
Evangelizing to strangers is similar to
putting up flyers or handing out Christian
tracts in public. This strategy is usually
done by showing advertisements to many
people at once in the digital realm.
Clicking on an ad leads viewers to relevant
content that could open up a deeper
conversation. Below are a few examples
to highlight:
Ekballo University partners with the local
churches in Myanmar to run digital
evangelism campaigns. They will post
digital tracts as an advertisement on
Facebook or promote an online ad with a
video of the prodigal son. A small budget
also boosts the ad to reach the audience.
If a person clicks on the advertisement,
they are led to a Facebook Messenger
chat with several opening questions.
Since they utilize Facebook business chat,
it splits across multiple local Christians.
Each person will have one Christian who
will continue to correspond to the person.
The goal is to build a relationship with the
person to share their phone number and
location. Their information is then passed
to a phone team to call and follow up. The
team also tries to connect the person to
the nearest local church.
Similarly, Dreams about Jesus is an
evangelistic ministry outreach to Muslims.
They have a series of videos with Muslims
sharing their dreams about Jesus. They
utilize social media as a method of
sharing content via advertisements. Once
an individual clicks the ad, the call-to-
action is to complete a form and share
their email address. The organization has
formed a team of volunteer pastors who
divide the inquiries and correspond with
the person via email.
Another method of digital evangelism
directs users based on what they search
for on the internet. This method starts
12
when the user searches the internet with a
specific question or issue they are facing.
Through Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) techniques, the user lands on a
website established by Christians that
answers the individual’s questions. The
website aims to lead users to enter their
contact information to start a
conversation with a trained volunteer.
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
(BGEA) utilizes this method across
several websites, such as Search for
Jesus. They run websites in English,
Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese,
American Sign Language, Russian, and
Korean. BGEA invests time filtering and
training its volunteers. To volunteer, one
must go through several screenings,
training, and mock conversations. This
dedication leads to high-quality volunteers
and a low volunteer turnover rate. They
also provide:
Vital feedback to volunteers.
Periodic auditing of chat history.
Ongoing coaching.
Volunteer recognition to keep up the
volunteer engagement level.
Power to Change Ministries, based in
Canada, also utilizes a similar approach
with Issues I Face or The Life. Their
website highlights social issues such as
debt, divorce, and gambling. The Mentor
Network recruits strong Christians to sign
up as virtual mentors for people interested
in Christianity.
Three of the largest online evangelism
ministries—GMO, BGEA, and Cru—
account cumulatively for at least 200
million gospel presentations on the
internet each year. All three say the
number of people seeking online
information about knowing Jesus has
increased since the COVID-19 outbreak
was declared a pandemic in March 2020.
Perhaps the most extensive collaboration
of digital evangelism is Jesus.net, a global
international network of more than 85
Christian organizations and ministries
Opportunities in Digital
Evangelism
In summary, digital evangelism among
mass audiences has primarily two entry
points: digital advertisement or user
search. The goal is to get the user
interested and continue a conversation
with a Christian. This method utilizes a
large team of volunteers to respond to
inquiries.
Data is one advantage of digital
evangelism. We can get a tangible count
and return on investment (ROI) for each
campaign and improve each subsequent
campaign based on tracking from the
previous one. Growth in the digital
marketing space and search engine
algorithms enables strategic decision-
making for the organization.
13
engaged in online evangelism and
discipleship. Every few seconds, someone
in the world decides to know more about
Jesus via their network of websites.
Unlike traditional mass-market
evangelism, which broadcasts a message
to a large audience, digital evangelism
enables organizations to focus efforts on
users with specific attributes. There is
potential to target a person in a frontier
people group with gospel content and
tracts in their language. Or, a person
struggling with an addiction may see an
advertisement with a testimony of
someone set free from addiction by the
gospel. Targeting specific market
segments can help people see that the
gospel is relevant to their lives.
For next steps following digital
evangelism, there are opportunities to
continue the faith-journey with new
believers via online discipleship.
Online Discipleship
Many of our relationships engage online, whether regarding work, friends, or family. The
global pandemic accelerated the digitization of relationships, and it also highlighted a
universal need for human connection. These developments have clarified the need for
discipleship opportunities in the digital frontier.

Matthew 28:20 describes discipleship as “...baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Discipleship is essential because believers are to guide people to Christ. Christians need
to have an online presence to bring light to online communities.

At a high level, two categories of digital discipleship include:

Consumption model: Digitization of church content and putting it online for audiences
to consume (one-to-many like blogs, videos, sermon recordings).
Transformation model: Facilitation of connection and engagement with the goal of
transformation (one-to-one, one-to-few, real-time and human-to-human interaction).

Christians must utilize digital tools to take advantage of discipleship opportunities. With
more interactions and connections becoming virtual, discipleship will naturally become
increasingly integrated with our everyday digital lives. However, it can feel like entering
uncharted territory at first. Through digital tools, discipleship can easily be made more
globally accessible.

Examples of Online Discipleship:

Consumption Model
Contagious Disciple Making (CDM)
provides methods and coaching to
use the Discovery Bible Study to build
disciples within one’s community.
There are podcasts, webinars, a
mobile app, and blogs to help guide a
movement in the community. CDM is
an excellent example of combining
both the consumption and
transformation models.
Discipleship Library is an online
collection of discipleship training
resources from the last 60 years.
Discover is a popular method of
discipleship study. It allows people to
read the Bible and discover what God
says to them. It works best in small
groups of 4-8 people. The Discover
App also helps to facilitate the study
E3 Partners has modules and videos
for believers to be trained as healthy
disciples and build others up.

14
Examples of Online Discipleship:
Transformation Model
Big Life provides 1-2 days of
interactive participation. Simple tools
train 15-30 people to be disciples who
make disciples. It is available in 21
languages.
Discipleship.Space is an online
platform with courses to help
participants grow in their relationship
with Christ and equips users to
disciple others. An “online missionary”
may also serve as an e-coach.
Indigitous PH & Cru Philippines
manages Discipleship.Space in
partnership with Jesus.net.
Kairos is an interactive course on the
Great Commission and challenges
believers to participate meaningfully.
The 9-session course caters to
various learning styles through
specially designed activities: group
discussions, short lecture
introductions, devotions, video
teaching, and student participation.
Mission Media U offers mentored
online training courses to distribute to
missionaries and church leaders to
learn to apply media and innovative
technology to ministry. Courses are
five weeks long and require 3 hours a
week.
Living on the Edge provides Biblical
teaching and discipleship resources
that challenge and equip spiritually
hungry Christians all over the world.
The ultimate vision of Living on the
Edge is to be a catalytic movement of
Christians living out their faith in ways
that transform families, churches, and
communities for the common good
and the glory of God.
Zume Training is an online training
platform. It equips participants in
basic disciple-making and simple
church planting multiplication
principles, processes, and practices. It
is available in 40 languages.

Insights
According to Ourworldindata, 3.5 billion
people out of 7.7 billion people in the
world are online. Facebook has 2.5 billion
monthly active users, Twitter has 152
million daily active users, and Youtube has
2 billion monthly active users. Social
media platforms are used by 1 in 3 people
globally and more than two-thirds of all
internet users.

According to Barna, believers with a

background and expertise in digital tools
must be proactive with guidance
navigating the digital landscape.

15
Challenges and Summary
There are two significant challenges to be aware of regarding online discipleship. First, in
the digital world, the human connection often lacks depth. The bar for fellowship lowers
as it is easier to become passive on issues like accountability. Second, measuring
transformation can be elusive (although in-person measurements also have challenges).
The platforms for online discipleship exist, but there are challenges. Users need to
consider long-term action for individuals, tangible lifestyle changes, and communal
accountability.

It is critical to stay ahead of the curve and leverage available tools to disciple others.
There is no shortage of materials and platforms. Christian thought leaders with expertise
in digital tools should proactively engage with churches on adoption, enablement, and
creation. However, the tools are a means to an end, not a replacement for connection and
fellowship.

16
Christian Vendors
There are an estimated 384,000 churches in America, not counting organic and house
churches. Churchs require organizational operations and processes which results in a
sizable marketplace for Christian vendors of products and services.

Monk Development was founded in 2006 and serves churches. Its product Ekklesia360
was developed by a former pastor who saw a need to uplevel churches’ digital presence
and deepen engagement with their community through technology. This website builder
platform has been used by over 8,500 Ministries in over 20 countries. Since its inception,
Monk Development has been acquired by Ministry Brands, a corporation with over 25
solutions and services that support more than 95,000 faith-based organizations
throughout North America.

Examples of Christian Vendors

Below is a small sampling of vendors and
companies that provide technical
expertise in a specific niche:

Basil Tech is a Christian tech nonprofit Onesheep is innovating, designing,

and provides tech consulting services,
design sprints, and product
development. The team’s goal is to
utilize their God-given gifts to build
technologies that redeem and serve.
They are the creators of the Read
Scripture app and Scripture Labs.
Christian Supply Chain Buying Group
(CSCBG) is a UK collective that aims
to help nonprofits utilize their capital
in effective manners through
economies of scale to provide savings
opportunities so members can
reinvest more into their organizations.
MoonBeam Development is a
technology company offering
software engineering solutions,
mobile app development, website
design and development, and
software host/maintenance services.
and building digital solutions for
ministries. For example, through rapid
prototyping, they are able to provide a
roadmap, product strategy, and costs
for a product to be fully developed.
TechBridge is a nonprofit tech
consulting firm witha focus on
providing services to other nonprofits
to combat global hunger,
homelessness, provide workforce
services, and fight for social justice.
To see a list of more than 100 business
entities, browse the OpenChurch
database.
Churches and missions organizations can
benefit from utilizing and maintaining
technological resources, especially as the
world continues to become more digital.

17
Opportunities and Challenges
Christian Vendors in the digital space offer technology in such a broad category with
diverse opportunities, and many professionals and companies can implement the
strategies, services, or products well. Defining the problem is essential to developing an
effective solution.

In a world with both developed and developing countries, vendors promote a digital
society and enable any country to benefit from technologies. However, this may cause an
imbalance for countries where the infrastructure has not yet developed enough to
support high levels of technology usage.

18
Apps
Apps are downloaded software with a specific function for a user on a mobile device.
When worldwide mobile internet usage surpassed desktop usage for the first time in
October 2016, it became more strategic to reach larger audiences through mobile apps.

About 92 percent of users access the internet via mobile devices. App users spread
across different age groups among the global population. Individuals in the 18-24 age
range spent an average of 113 hours per month on apps, those aged 25 to 24 spent 102
hours per month, and 35-44 year-old individuals spent 94 hours per month.

These individuals typically use nine mobile apps daily and 30 apps per month. Ministries
have unique opportunities to leverage mobile applications to spread Christ. They can
enlighten an individual with Christ or nurture a believer with steps to live out God’s
kingdom work.

Desktop and browser sites are rich resources to leverage. Mobile apps bring added
flexibility and act as tools for habit-building. The space is broad and falls under several
categories, including spiritual disciplines of prayer, Scripture reading, gospel sharing, and
communication platforms.

The mobile app space is ripe for mission organizations to use and aid God’s people in
working for His kingdom. Below is a list of top mobile apps that offer content in four
categories.

Average Monthly Hours per Mobile App User by Age

125 112.6
102.4
100 93.6

75.6
75 69.3

51.4
50

25

0
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

19
Prayer
Abide (iOS, Android) provides resources
for users to listen, sleep, and meditate to
Scripture.
Interseed has developed an app that
engages a community in prayer,
encouragements, and testimonies. This
app contains customization features,
filtering displays, and tracks every time
you pray for someone with a visualization
of a growing plant.
Lectio 365 is a free daily devotional
resource from 24/7 Prayer that helps
users pray the Bible every day, follow daily
Bible readings, thoughts, and prayers that
follow a simple P.R.A.Y rhythm. It is
inspired by Lectio Divina, a way of
meditating on the Bible that Christians
have used for centuries.
PrayerMate (iOS, Android) helps organize
users' prayer lives so they can focus on
what matters. Users can create prayer
groups to pray for the people and causes.
Church Communication
Tithe.ly (iOS, Android) is a platform that
helps churches engage with their
community. Tithe.ly enables members to
take interactive sermon notes, listen to
messages on the go, access small group
material, check the prayer list, engage
with real-time church newsfeeds, and give
a donation.
20
Read-Study-Memorize the
Bible
Bible Study Tools (iOS, Android) is from
the largest online library of study Bible
versions with commentaries, dictionaries,
lexicons, encyclopedias, concordances,
historical facts, and sample sermons.
Glorify (iOS, Android) is a Bible devotional
designed for increasing spiritual wellness
habits. It takes the user through bite-sized
Bible passages, prayer, meditation, and
music. In its first two years, Glorify
completed over 19 million Daily Worship
sessions and has grown to 1.8 million
users. In December 2021, this London-
based company raised $40 million from
investors.
Logos (iOS, Android, Web, Desktop) is a
leading Bible study app with free and paid
content. The platform features various
commentaries, books, and sermons
available for users to dive deeper into the
Bible.
Our Daily Bread (iOS, Android, Web,
Desktop) provides a quick daily devotional
thought and a passage of scripture to
reflect on.
YouVersion (iOS, Android, Web, Desktop)
is the original Bible app and has over 500
million downloads. With over 2,646 Bible
versions in 1,774 languages available, it is
the most robust and versatile Bible app in
providing God’s Word to the world. The
Bible app hosts a vast library of reading
plans provided by content partners that
have effectively helped millions read
Scripture more often. The Bible app
nurtures social-media-like communities
through friends, prayers, sharing images,
highlighting verses, and more. Its
companion website at Bible.com makes
the Bible text more easily displayed on
search engine results, furthering its reach
and impact.

Share the Gospel
GodTools (iOS, Android) provides
graphics in 90+ languages and short
videos to help users share the gospel and
grow in their faith. This app has tools such
as “Knowing God Personally” and “The
Four” that users can walk through with
others when evangelizing.
Jesus Film Project (iOS, Android, Web,
Desktop) has an app that provides a full
digital library of more than 200 movies,
miniseries, and short films produced to
help the world know Jesus better.
Everything on the app is free to watch,
download and share with anyone you
meet. Content is available in over 1,900
languages.
YesHEis (iOS, Android, Web) provides
faith-sharing tools to equip young adults
to introduce someone to Jesus, with
content available in 11 languages. They’ve
helped over 1.29 million people talk about
Jesus.
Impact of Apps
Apps are shaping the spiritual lives of
people in two major areas: spiritual
disciplines and global connections.
For spiritual disciplines, mobile apps act
as tangible tools for personal growth,
even if an individual has little knowledge
of growing. For example, an individual
may acknowledge a lackluster prayer
relationship with God. A mobile app can
guide principles of prayer, passages to
pray, or questions to consider. The
scenario is similar for Scripture reading
and evangelism.
21
Churches can foster accountability
through mobile apps that are
communication platforms for members.
Before COVID-19, generational changes
may have prompted church communities
to adopt mobile or online tithing, as the
young population often does not use
checks or cash. COVID-19 instigated a
new phase of connecting with the church
body remotely. Touchless practices make
mobile giving more appealing and
convenient.
Mobile apps can also create links
between believers across the globe. For
example, YouVersion’s community forum
allows users to comment on a verse when
a friend highlights it. In this way, believers
are encouraged to see others reading
God’s Word and gain insight from others’
contributions.
To use and deploy technology effectively
in a global context, digital experiences can
be tailored to each end-user and provide a
smooth user experience (UX) for those
receiving the gospel. User-friendly apps
can be carefully designed so no training is
required.
In evangelism, language barriers are a
common challenge to overcome.
However, apps like GodTools offer
translations for illustrations and graphics.
Mobile apps packaged with multi-
language content are crucial in
remembering God’s Great Commission.
Challenges with Apps
Several factors may deter the adoption of
mobile app users in the church
community and missions space. The
issues are not only related to
technological infrastructures, such as
content security, reliable platforms, or
internet access but also stem from
personal barriers such as lack of trust or
unfamiliarity with technologies.
Mission organizations must consider
using methods to provide compelling
content to the intended audience
securely. Even though the internet is
available in many closed or sensitive
countries, individuals may face penalties
or life-threatening situations if found to
have any Christ-related apps on their
mobile devices. In the last few years,
China has censored content about Christ
across social media and internet
browsing. Open Doors has a World Watch
list of the top 50 countries where
following Christ is the most difficult and
riddled with persecution. To protect users,
app creators must prepare secure access
methods.
22
Reliable platforms and infrastructure are
required to host the mobile apps and to
access them without frustration. Google’s
study in 2017 showed that “more than half
(53%) of mobile users abandon a page if it
takes more than three seconds to load.”
This highlights the importance of a
platform that can be used efficiently.
Lastly, it may take considerable time and
effort to help people learn to use new
technologies and mobile apps.
Communities and organizations must
accommodate this by providing adequate
promotion, training, and reminders to help
individuals understand the benefits of
using each mobile app for productivity at
work and propagation of the gospel.
Despite these challenges, mission
organizations must recognize the
increasing use of digital technologies and
the available opportunities that mobile
apps present in bringing Jesus to the
world.
Content
The term “content” broadly encompasses various modes of communication such as
media, stories, and technology. It includes publications, articles, videos, films, websites,
games, training resources, apps, social media, and other digital experiences. Digital
content has become a mainstay for sharing the gospel in all of these various forms,
especially for global audiences in all languages.

Biblical and missional content has become readily available, becoming one of the
immediate solutions in an age of digital transformation. While the power of engaging
content is undeniable, audiences can become oversaturated with content. For Christians,
this is no different. The challenge is to engage the right audience with the right content.

Content strategy is a marketing plan designed to reach the desired audience organically
by providing value. The goal is to build trust and awareness with the desired audience
around one’s ministry brand. Consistent, high-quality, and engaging content impacts
Christians.

Reliant Creative, a creative agency for ministries, explains three types of content.
Informational content includes ministry updates and announcements. Educational
content enables the audience to learn something new. Finally, inspirational content is
story-driven content that motivates the audience to take action.

Each of these three content types offers value to the audience. In the case of missions,
consistent value can help Christians better understand the global missions landscape
through an engaging and memorable story. Powerful testimonies of God at work provide
context for potential donors and long-term supporters.

23
Impact of Apps
The Bible Project is an education
technology company that produces media
to help people encounter the Bible. Their
resources are available for free. Their
most popular resources are animated
videos on specific biblical themes, book
overviews, word series, and a “How to
Read the Bible” series.
Bible Project has recently released an
app that builds a reading journey to
educate readers on the larger story of the
Bible. As part of the Bible Project’s
Mission, they actively remake and
distribute their videos to as many people
as possible. At this writing, Bible Project
has over 3,100 videos in 48 languages.
Sixty percent of their video views are
from outside the U.S.
Create International is a communication
ministry of Youth With A Mission that
seeks to “declare God’s glory in all the
world” through producing and distributing
indigenous media resources. They strive
to initiate and strengthen evangelistic and
church planting efforts among the
remaining Least Evangelized Mega
Peoples of the world. Their goals are to:
1. PRODUCE an indigenous evangelistic
audio-visual tool for every one of the
least evangelized peoples. Their list of
554 people groups can be found here.
2. BROADEN strategic partnerships with
the Body of Christ to maximize impact
and results
3. ACCELERATE proven techniques and
strategies through innovative training
programs
4. DISTRIBUTE indigenous gospel
presentations among targeted
unreached peoples using 21st-century
technologies
24
Create International has teams in seven
countries on four continents. Teams
produce indigenous gospel films for the
world’s unreached peoples. They have
produced films for more than 225 least-
reached people groups, all of which one
may download for free at Indigitube.
Other ministries of Create International:
1. Create Mobile produces & trains
others to create audio-visual
resources to make the gospel of
Jesus known to every unreached
people group.
2. Create Middle East uses video
production, social media strategies,
and discipleship resources to reach
the Middle East and North Africa in
their heart language.
Disciple.Tools is an open-source software
that aims to improve the quality of
evangelism follow-up and intentionality in
disciple-making. Conceptually, it is
software that includes the following:
1. Contact Management (CRM).
2. Group tracking for church planting.
3. Generation and leadership tracking.
4. Saturation strategy and mapping for
church planting efforts.
5. Media to Movement for connecting
online seekers with offline disciple-
makers.
6. Open software releases ministries to
customize or expand tracking
according to their needs.
Global Media Outreach has demonstrated
the strength of the internet by providing
over 1.5 billion gospel presentations. The
organization shares Jesus online in 26
languages by driving traffic to the website
via search engine optimization (SEO). The
organization spends as little as five cents
per gospel presentation and can use SEO
to connect with people looking for
answers. People who decide to follow
Jesus after a gospel presentation are
contacted by one of over 5,000 online
missionaries and are ensured a
connection in their local context.
25
Visual Story Network accelerates the
mission of the Church by equipping our
generation to use media, story, and
innovation to make disciples in least-
reached nations. The team does this by
training leaders, connecting global
partnerships, producing media, and
equipping resources. Its purpose is to
foster movements that encourage
disciple-making and church planting.
Social Media Impacts
Social media was created to build and maintain interpersonal relationships. Social media
connects people from around the globe. Some individuals have never experienced life
without social media.

Billions of people use popular social networks around the world, as illustrated in this
chart:

Most Popular Social Networks Worldwide

As of October 2021, ranked by number of active users (in millions)

Facebook 2895
Youtube 2291
WhatsApp 2000
TikTok/Douyin 1600 (TikTok: 1000, Douyin: 600)
Instagram 1393
Facebook Messenger 1251
WeChat 1251
QQ 591
Sina Weibo 566
Telegram 550
Snapchat 538
Kuaishou 454
Pinterest 436
Reddit 430
Quora 300
0 1,000 2,000 3,000

In 2022, social networks are estimated to reach 4.5 billion users. The commonly used
industry metric is “monthly active users,” which are individuals who have interacted at
least once a month.

Volumes of books, articles, and studies have been published about the negative impact of
social media on users. Pew Research Center alone has produced over 800 publications
about social media. Numerous studies have exposed the risks and dangers of social
media on mental health, privacy, and democracy.

And yet, there are vast opportunities to use social media for the Gospel’s sake in
evangelism and discipleship. There are three categories to consider when discussing
opportunities on social media: content, conversation, and influencers.

26

Content
For many businesses and nonprofits, the
role of social media marketing has
become a paid staff position. It has
become normative to produce compelling
and engaging content to sell products and
services. Merely posting quality content
online is no longer enough to reach users.
Advertising fees have to be paid. Paid
placement is how social networks can
financially sustain themselves and profit
from their user base.
Most social platforms operate on a pay-
to-play model because the model enables
platforms to remain profitable while
providing their services to millions of
users for “free.” The average reach of an
organic post on a Facebook Page hovers
around 5.20 percent. That means only one
out of 19 users who like your page gets to
see non-promoted content. An ad budget
is required to reach more users.
Here is an example of how social media
content reached and engaged many
Muslims:
“Now, it’s not unusual for one of our
Facebook posts to be seen by half a
million people in the region, and
sometimes far more. One in ten people
typically respond by liking or sharing the
post, and one in a thousand comments.
“On one of our recent posts, we dared to
ask, ‘Can God deceive?’ and referred to a
verse of the Quran that implies God is the
greatest of deceivers. Suddenly people
were talking!
“We fielded over 1,350 comments in three
days. ‘No, never! How can you say such a
thing?’ and ‘Curses on you!’ they wrote.”
27
For a more goal-oriented approach to
social media content, organizations can
run a campaign with focused thematic
content for a set duration that’s designed
to mobilize an audience to collectively
respond. Radical’s Secret Church is an
example of an online event that will be
streamed online to more than 50,000
participants around the world. Another
one is a fundraising campaign called the
Twelve Verse Challenge hosted by
IllumiNations.Bible.
Conversation
Social media is powerful because it offers
anyone a public voice and flattens social
hierarchies. That is also its downside, but
there is no putting the genie back in the
bottle. Followers of Christ cannot
counteract negative voices by retreating
or criticizing. It is much wiser to use social
media by posting God-honoring content.
There is no better way to lead than by
example.
This quote from an article regarding
Twitter said it well: “Conversation
connects people, lets us share knowledge,
and inspires creativity and innovation.”
When it comes to evangelism and
discipleship, it often takes more than
consuming a static piece of content. It is
the human connection over time via back-
and-forth conversations that forms a
relationship and truly makes a disciple.
Pastor Rick Warren joined Twitter when he
realized that social media is not only for
being narcissistic. He discovered that
social media can be used to mentor
others, to encourage, to shine a light in the
darkness. Ephesians 5:16 exhorts
believers to redeem the times. Christian
leaders and organizations must redeem
social media.
Influencers
When an active user combines content
engagement and conversations to attract
a sizable audience on a social network,
the user becomes known as an
“influencer.” An influencer can grow a
loyal following and can convey quality
content that inspires, informs, entertains,
and connects. While brands of companies
and nonprofits could grow their social
media presence, it is often the individual
(or sometimes, a pair or a small number
of individuals) that has a greater influence
on audience behavior. A single individual
seems to offer a more genuine
interaction.
There are numerous popular authors,
motivational speakers, and Christian
ministry leaders who have established
their audiences and followings through
books and conference appearances,
where social media is merely an extension
of their brand. This section draws
attention to those who have established
their audiences and influence primarily
through social media. Here are some
examples of Christian influencers on
popular social networks:
28
Carll is the official unofficial
spokesperson for Sunday Cool Tees
and his YouTube videos have had
millions of views. The videos are
created to benefit youth ministries
across the globe.
Carlos Whittaker is a social media
maven, author, and speaker. Carlos
shares his life openly as a digital
native. Carlos is a People’s Choice
Award winner, with appearances on
shows like CBS Early Morning, The
Today Show, and the Nick Cannon
Show. He was invited by President
Obama to lead a worship song at a
White House breakfast.
Jefferson Bethke rose to fame with a
viral video on YouTube, “Why I Hate
Religion, But Love Jesus.” The video
now has over 35 million views. Since
that video in 2012, he has become a
published author and speaker.
TikTok reported in September 2021 that
the app averages about 1 billion monthly
active users. Christian influencers include
Invasion Ministries with 6.4 million likes,
404.4 thousand followers, and over
170,600 TikTok salvations. Strong in
Christ has 3.3 million likes and 735.2
thousand followers. Warriors of Christ has
24.6 million likes and 1.9 million
followers. One marketing study found that
Christian TikTok accounts drove more
than 169 million engagements in 2020.
Christianity Today’s article, “Meet the
TikTok Generation of Televangelists”
speaks more about this phenomenon.
Opportunities and Challenges
Social media powerfully opens the opportunity to reach people in an effective, albeit
mediated manner through the internet. Engaging content can prompt questions from
people who are curious and would like to learn more about Jesus Christ. Social media
can quickly distribute different forms of media (text, images, and videos) to engage with
unreached people groups and potentially plant the seeds to bring them to Christ.

However, sharing the Gospel publicly is often challenging in a closed country or where
Christianity is a minority. For some, social media is not as personal as face-to-face
interaction. For digital natives, however, relationships are often perceived the same
whether online or in person. Opportunities to reach more people on social media abound.
Yet there are some precautions to keep in mind.

Social media requires internet access, and millions of people around the globe do not
have access or reliable access.

Different regions and countries prefer different social networks which makes developing
ministry strategy challenging in contextualizing to different channels, formats, and social
media subcultures. Additionally, some countries have restrictions. For example,
Facebook is not available in China, Iran, Syria, or North Korea.

Culturally speaking, it is imperative to have accurate translations of media rendered by a

native speaker. Sensitivity to cultural differences is much more important in mediated
communication. From a missionary standpoint, one has to be careful not to promote the
“Western Savior” image and must allow room for nuance.

It is time to consider shifting the mentality of how missions activities can be carried out.
With social media, it is no longer necessary for believers to travel to serve and impact
people in other places.

29
Prayer
Imagine a place where believers worldwide can worship and pray together in multiple
languages at any time of the day. Digital prayer platforms make this vision a reality.
These platforms have tremendous potential to impact lives by facilitating a regular prayer
life. The global Church can stay connected by creating online communities that pray
together and educating believers on targeted prayer needs. Through prayer, more people
may be aware of both the needs of fellow believers and the needs of those still waiting to
hear the Gospel. Additionally, the ease through which digital platforms connect believers
is unmatched by any other platform.

Platforms that already have ongoing The International House of Prayer

partnerships and sharing of resources
include those below:
The Global Prayer Resource Network
wishes to connect praying Christians
with local and global prayer needs.
The website offers prayer resources
to help believers pray informed
prayers and sustain fervent
intercession. Their website meets the
growing demand for tools and
resources that allow believers to pray
more specifically. There is a plethora
of information and resources available
through many respected ministries
and organizations. The resources
enable believers to pray effectively for
the nation. The more informed
believers are, the more relevant our
prayers can become.
(IHOP) community exists to partner in
the Great Commission by advancing
24/7 prayer proclaiming the beauty of
Jesus and His glorious return. The
International House of Prayer is an
evangelical missions organization
committed to praying to release the
fullness of God’s power to win the
lost, heal the sick, feed the poor, make
disciples, and impact every sphere of
society. IHOP was founded by Mike
Bickle. The International House of
Prayer of Kansas City began on May 7,
1999, with a humble group of young
people crying out to God for thirteen
hours each day. Four months later,
these “intercessory missionaries”
extended their schedule to 24/7.

30
International Prayer Connect (IPC)
exists as a coalition of prayer
networkers and mobilizers working
together to motivate, develop, and
equip national movements and local
churches. The goal is to fill all nations
with prayer for the fulfillment of the
Great Commandment and the
completion of the Great Commission.
Several prayer initiatives contributed
to the birth of the International Prayer
Connect, also known as the
International Prayer Council, including
The International Prayer Assembly for
World Evangelization in Korea and the
World Prayer Advisory Council. Prayer
leaders worldwide decided to form a
new organization that would connect
prayer networks and ministries
worldwide to focus prayer on common
global concerns. Global Family 24-7
Prayer runs under the auspices of the
International Prayer Connect. Its co-
founder Dr. Jason Hubbard said: We
are convinced that the Crux of the
Great Commission and the reaching of
every person by 2030 in the Go
Decade need to especially focus on
the Unreached People Groups. They
are the ethne of Matthew 28, of which
there are about 5,000 such people
groups still separated by language
and culture with an average of only
one believer per thousand. They need
cross-cultural efforts integrated with a
focused, ongoing prayer to see
indigenous gospel movements
established in them.
31
Joshua Project is a research initiative
seeking to highlight ethnic people
groups with the fewest followers of
Christ. Accurate, updated ethnic
people group information is critical for
understanding and completing the
Great Commission. Joshua Project
began in 1995 as part of the AD2000
and Beyond Movement. Since 2006
Joshua Project has been a ministry of
Frontier Ventures (formerly known as
the U.S. Center for World Mission).
Joshua Project serves missions
agencies, denominations, churches,
and individuals worldwide that have a
heart for pioneer church planting
among least-reached people groups.
Providers of Joshua Project data
include international researchers and
church planters, local churches and
individuals, denominations, and
mission agencies. Field workers utilize
the information for building prayer and
vision for their ministries and
discovering available ministry tools.
24-7 Prayer is an international,
interdenominational prayer movement
with a vision to revive the Church and
rewire the culture through non-stop
prayer. The ministry started in 1999
when a simple student-led prayer vigil
went viral, and groups worldwide
joined in to pray. Now, thousands of
communities worldwide have
participated in 24-7 Prayer.
Insights & Trends
Data is used to encourage believers to
pray. The most prevalent initiatives
calculate the number of people praying at
a given time and the number of prayers
submitted by “prayer warriors.” Statistics
on people groups, lists of suggested
topics, and information about current
events/initiatives offer guidance for
choosing prayer topics. Forms allow
users to submit prayer requests, sign up
for scheduled prayer times, and receive
regular updates.
One current trend for online prayer is
creating prayer rooms where people can
pray for specific topics. Another trend is
creating a worship atmosphere to
facilitate both prayer and worship. Several
websites and many apps include music
alongside prayer. Some even have daily
devotionals on various topics that can be
read before or after praying. Thus, these
trends emphasize that prayer is not
perceived or treated as an isolated
activity.
32
Other websites, such as Joshua Project
and Open Doors, offer prayer points to
help believers pray for the specific needs
of unreached people groups. These
websites are focused more on the
accuracy of the data than the experience
of the person praying.
Most prayer resources use a standard
website design and overlapping features,
including prayer rooms (or signing up to
pray for a specific topic/time block) and
prayer topics/articles. The International
House of Prayer is the most complex
system. IHOP strives to be a self-
sustaining movement by hosting
conferences, training, church involvement,
and even a university. Other websites,
such as Joshua Project, are complex and
utilize older designs that are less intuitive
to navigate. Global Prayer Resource
Network has the most straightforward
design as it serves to collect and share
other organizations’ resources on prayer.
It does not have an interactive interface
for users.
Considerations and
Challenges
One challenge is the risk of digital prayer
platforms encouraging believers to
forego regular in-person prayer meetings
in favor of exclusively online
communities. This is dangerous because
online communities have the potential to
be superficial. In-person gatherings
facilitate deeper relationships where
people share life more closely, encourage
each other, and provide opportunities for
accountability that may not exist in an
online prayer room.
As the world changes, it may be hard for
certain websites to stay up-to-date on
current statistics. They have implemented
a system that allows anyone to submit
updated info for review with this
realization. Other platforms, such as
Global Prayer Resource Network, are run
solely by individuals who desire to provide
a joint space for all nation-unreached
prayer resources. The task of updating
links, resources, and calendar events can
be overwhelming for one individual.
It is crucial to network and share
resources. Larger platforms (24-7 Prayer
33
and International House of Prayer) seem
more isolated and often create their
resources or provide training,
conferences, and events. The smaller
platforms (as mentioned above) do a
better job of networking and sharing
resources.
Like all digital platforms, these resources
are dependent on people and money.
Smaller initiatives like Joshua Project and
Global Prayer Resource Network only have
one to three people maintaining the
system. Other systems tend to depend on
denominations and churches, limiting the
ability to network and diminishing the
work of global prayer.
A possible second-order effect of online
global prayer opportunities is the ability to
track people who use these platforms.
Especially for believers in sensitive areas,
online security is of utmost importance. A
possible solution could be utilizing secular
platforms that make it easier to hide one’s
identity. However, countries continue to
control online access to sites deemed
threatening.
Scripture Engagement
Historically, the Bible is often the first text to be published and distributed by new
technology. In the 21st century, that has taken the form of internet websites and apps as
well as application programming interfaces (APIs) and artificial intelligence (AI).

The term “Scripture Engagement” can have different meanings. It can broadly describe
the entire process of how people acquire the Bible in their language. Or it can delineate
the way people read and interact with Scriptures. This chart illustrates the finer
distinctions used among some Bible experts:

34
Examples of Scripture
Engagement Apps
1. Bible.is (a ministry of Faith Comes By
Hearing) provides a vast library of
Bible translations in 1,579 languages
to make disciples from every nation
and language. The app also includes
word-for-word Gospel films about the
life and ministry of Jesus in 1,000+
languages.
2. Deaf Bible app (by Deaf Bible Society)
provides free access to video Bible
translations in 25+ sign languages. It
connects the Deaf community by
training leaders to establish Deaf Bible
Together groups. The Deaf Church
Where tool points the way to Christian
services and ministries for the Deaf.
3. Dwell app (iOS and Android) lets users
explore Scripture through daily
listening plans, topical playlists,
curated stories, passages, and more.
Individuals can choose from ten
genuine voices, each passionate
about reading Scripture.
4. YouVersion (iOS, Android, Web,
Desktop) is the original Bible app.
Learn more in the “Apps” section.
Bible Resources
Looking at the United States as an
example, about 54 million people, or 17
percent of the population, engages with
the Bible regularly.
In the United States today, just 54 million
people—or 17 percent of the population—
engage with the Bible on a regular basis.
Millions more want to build a Bible-
reading routine, but need help overcoming
the obstacles that stand in their way.
Through online Bible-reading tools, apps
and games more Americans can engage
with the life-changing message of God’s
Word.
35
People Need the Word
Accessing the Bible has become easier
because of the internet, even in countries
where the Bible is not permitted.
However, nearly a billion people in the
world do not yet have the Bible in their
language. Over 3,800 languages are still in
need of a full Bible translation, of which
1,892 languages have yet to begin
translation work. Here are several efforts
working to eradicate Bible poverty:
American Bible Society aims to make
the Bible available to every person in a
language and format each can
understand and afford, so all people
may experience its life-changing
message. Over 700 Bible resources
can be found in their Resource Center.
Their library includes the option to
filter resources by audience, format,
and more.
Every Tribe Every Nation (ETEN) was
established in 2010 as an alliance of
Bible translation organizations and
Resource Partners committed to
eradicating Bible poverty. It uniquely
combines the perspectives of
missiology and philanthropy by
bringing together implementers and
investors. It seeks to leverage the
alliance partners to ensure that by
2033 at least a portion of the Bible is
translated into every language
needed to reach every nation.
Global.Bible is part of The Global Bible
Project. It is a collection of over 1,000
Bibles published online in individual
desktop and mobile sites with the full
user experience in the local
languages. The audio recording of
Scripture can enhance the text reading
experience when available. Users can
also search for a specific Bible by
language name or country.
Global.Bible also features a search
tool called Bibles.org to help equip
users to read, study and reference the
Bible in more than 800 versions and
more than 700 languages. To facilitate
Bible studies, users can add notes and
tags to their favorite Scripture
passages.
illumiNations.Bible was launched in
2017 alongside ETEN. It works to
grow a larger community of givers and
provide project-based tracking for
translations to more deeply engage
donors with specific needs. This kind
of collaboration among Bible
translation agencies is
unprecedented and has the potential
to mobilize collaboration around
other giant causes that no one
organization can address alone.
International Scripture Ministries
(ISM) actively seeks to use cutting-
edge and emerging technologies (e.g.,
5G, satellite communications) to
reach every person on earth with the
whole Word of God. One plan in the
works is to build a “direct to device”
architecture to translate ISM’s initial
Bible study programs into every
available language through its ministry
partners.
36
There is one glaring obstacle to digital
outreach. Two-thirds of the world’s
population does not read, including
Unreached People Groups, which
eliminates any application that does not
include some form of oral
communication. Spoken Worldwide trains
local leaders to share Bible stories by
using a proprietary MP3 player or SD
cards because many people in developing
countries have cell phones.
To find a Bible resource that is already
produced in various media formats (print,
digital, audio, visual), browse the catalog
at Find.Bible. The directory has over
23,000 Scripture resources and over
4,500 Bible Versions in 4,580 Languages.
Get.Bible provides a new, top-level domain
using “.Bible” for websites. Note that
several resources in this section use the
domain as the trusted source for all of
their Bible-related content. For website
needs, Get.Bible has written several blogs,
including one for finding trustworthy
information pertaining to Google SEO
ranking.

APIs (Application
Programming Interfaces)
Access to the Bible is just the first step to
engaging with the Bible in life-changing
ways. Effective Scripture engagement
consists of three important factors:
frequency of interaction with the Bible,
spiritual impact of the Bible, and moral
centrality of the Bible.
Websites, apps, and platforms can be built
to encourage scripture engagement
beyond displaying the biblical text. One of
the best ways to develop Bible companion
software is through APIs.
API.Bible is a service that provides digital
Bibles to ministries that develop websites
and applications. The serves helps
accelerate digital ministries by providing
Scripture in over 2.500 versions across
1,600 languages. Limited and non-
commercial use are free.
Digital Bible Library (DBL) is managed by
the United Bible Societies and exists to
preserve and safeguard biblical texts in a
standardized format. Those who are
granted a “library card” can leapfrog
beyond the historically cumbersome
process of getting permission to use
translations and can even obtain
permission to store the Bible text on their
servers.
The Digital Bible Platform (DBP) is
perhaps the easiest path to getting digital
Bible texts for your projects. However, it
limits individuals to only accessing the
texts via an API. Because it lacks the
rights to store Bible texts on an
individual’s server, it may not be the best
fit for more robust Bible applications, but
it can be an ideal solution for small
projects.
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Many people don’t realize that almost all
Bible translations are bound by
significant royalties and restrictions. It is
often a slow and painful process to get
permission to use the texts. Faith Comes
By Hearing cleverly gets around this by
establishing legal contracts and payments
with each translation owner and then lets
users piggyback off their access for free
via an API.
Much more has been articulated and
elaborated about Scripture engagement in
the digital strategy guides published by
SIL International.
Challenges and
Opportunities
For people without the Bible in their
language, translation efforts are actively
being made with the help of the latest
technologies. For people who do have
access to the Bible in their language, the
challenge is to find fresh and relevant
ways to keep people engaged when there
are so many other technological
distractions.
Christian organizations and followers of
Christ have a higher calling to discover
new ways of using existing technologies
to encourage Scripture engagement.
Imagine that people will one day not only
read the Bible but be virtually immersed
in Bible stories. With advances in
machine learning and natural language
processing, apps can be built to simulate
conversations with Jesus Christ, the
Apostle Paul, and other major biblical
figures.
Artificial Intelligence
During the last few decades, society saw the rising popularity of artificial intelligence (AI).
Computers began to work together to make suggestions, recommendations, and
decisions based on data. Engineers design algorithms to simulate intelligence for desired
purposes and outcomes. Within the context of global missions, AI can be used in
missions to achieve results in effective evangelism and discipleship.

Current Applications of AI
in Missions
Below are six ministry and missions
efforts that utilize artificial intelligence:
The Avodah company has developed
proprietary AI technology for sign
language translation and transcription
used to create Bible translations for
the Deaf. Avodah incorporates
machine learning, deep learning,
natural language processing,
computer vision, and more. With over
95% of sign languages without a Bible
translation and 70 million deaf people
in the world, this population can be
described as the largest unreached
people group.
Cherith Analytics is a team of AI
researchers and developers that have
integrated machine learning and
natural language understanding to
build useful applications for spiritual
growth. The team is geared toward
reaching individuals and offering
expertise to mission organizations.
Cherith’s technologies enable search
and indexing of the biblical text in
multiple languages. Missionary
organizations could use their
expertise in quantitative prediction
and natural language modeling to be
more productive and efficient.
Clear.Bible leads another collaborative
innovation to accelerate Bible
translation. It developed the
ClearEngine and ClearSuite software
to take advantage of advances in
machine learning and natural
language processing: “The
ClearEngine auto-aligns a target
language text to the original Greek and
Hebrew texts. The ClearSuite makes
the results of the ClearEngine visible
to users, providing an overview of the
work they have completed. Users can
see patterns, discover inconsistencies,
and also correct the automatic
alignment from the ClearEngine.”
CV Digital AI Lab is a division within
Christian Vision that is pioneering
machine learning (ML) and applying it
to innovative solutions which were
previously not possible in the natural
language processing (NLP) space.

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SIL International has started using
Machine Learning for Bible translation
through projects like Scripture Forge
and Paratext. One of its key AI leaders
is Daniel Whitenack, a Ph.D. trained
data scientist working with SIL
International on natural language
processing (NLP) and speech
technology for local languages in
emerging markets. Artificial
intelligence brings incredible value to
Bible translation. As the President of
American Bible Society said,
“Artificial intelligence will be the
driver of increasing the speed of
Bible translation and helping us
ensure that we can get to the year
2033 and achieve what we refer to
as all access goals, where
everyone will have access to at
least some portion of the scripture
in their heart language.”
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Spf.io is a software platform that
offers real-time translation in
multiple languages so that audiences
can fully engage during virtual and in-
person events. The software provides
real-time captioning, transcriptions, or
live audio streaming for prepared
content and live content. For example,
a global missions event could live
stream with more than two subtitle
languages. Spf.io acted as the host
platform for a virtual event held in 11
languages, during which there were
45,000 attendees from 143 countries.
In an additional scenario, a church
could only translate into one language
with the help of a volunteer. But with
Spf.io technology, the church made
their worship available in 60
languages.
Insights about AI
As with many new technologies,
theologians and Christian leaders are
discussing the ethical implications of AI.
Some Christians may have a defensive,
cautious, or skeptical view toward new
technologies like AI. Others are willing to
explore new opportunities to advance the
gospel that AI promises.
AI affects people around the world daily.
The commonplace use of AI includes:
Autocomplete on Google searches
Email spam filtering, customer service
chatbots
Facial recognition on photos
Face ID on iPhones
Online advertising and more
Recommended products in online
stores
Text-to-speech services
Voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and
Google Home
More sophisticated applications include
Criminal Justice, Traffic Management,
Medical Insurance and Diagnoses, and
Reviewing Job Applications.
One form of AI, chatbots, could guide
members around a church’s website with
various functions like site navigation,
tithing portal, or reading plans.
Organizations could also potentially use
chatbots to have a conversation and
share the gospel with individuals
browsing the internet. However, there is
discussion regarding the authenticity of
sharing the gospel through a chatbot.
AI grows in popularity because of its
ability to save users time through
seamless integration. Although AI is not
without its cautions, organizations are
responsible for evaluating their needs
according to the advantages and
disadvantages of using AI.

The early adopters among Christian

ministries are using AI and Natural
Language Processing (NLP) to parse and
tag the Bible to accelerate Bible
translation. Several are exploring AI usage
in automation, chatbots, recommender
systems, pre-training, and final training.
The possibilities for AI usage open up
when resources are available for research
and development.

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Missions and Ministry
Opportunities with AI
Language translation is critical to
effectively communicating in cross-
cultural work, and AI holds great potential
to be an aid. In software, translation
between languages has become more
readily available through Google
Translate, Apple Translate, and other
translation apps. For example, on the
hardware side, Google Pixel earbuds
(2020) can transcribe real-time speech
into readable text in a different language.
Over time, these translation apps gather
more data and become “smarter.” As a
result, the translation becomes more
accurate, smoother, and more effective
through the machine learning process.

One topic of discussion concerns the

risks of AI for ministries. Gartner writes,
“The most common mistake with AI is to
focus on automation rather than
augmentation of human decision making
and interactions.” AI offers observable
data and tracks behaviors outwardly. For
missions, AI may be best considered as
supplementary to human activities and
not a substitution for them. As AI takes on
human tasks, even as a supplement, it will
reshape the habits and activities of
humans, as well as the relationships
between individuals.

Upcoming Missional AI Event

The next Global Missional AI Summit will
be a hybrid event featuring the latest
innovation and applications for AI in
global missions. Learn more in
“Conferences.”

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Gaming
The global video game market continues to grow annually, and it is projected to grow to
over $200 billion (USD) by 2023. The greatest share of game market revenue is generated
by mobile games, while console games make up almost a third of the revenue generated
worldwide. In 2020 there were an estimated 201.9 million video gamers in the USA, up
from 188.2 million in 2019. COVID-19 pandemic caused this increase in gaming
purchases.

While a majority of video games are designed for casual recreation and entertainment,
games can also imaginatively give players the means to save worlds. Players are
incentivized to learn the habits of heroes and solve real-world problems. Christian games
have been developed to make Bible stories more interactive and engaging, as these
examples illustrate.

Top 4 Examples of Christian

Gaming
Bible App for Kids is a digital Bible for
kids with illustrated stories, culturally
sensitive skin tones, and interactive
activities to make the Bible accessible
at an early age. The app is available in
30 languages for iOS and Android. The
Bible App for Kids is a collaboration
between YouVersion and OneHope.
Lightgliders is a digital world filled
with games and activities for kids to
encourage faith and conversations
during the critical pre-teenage years.
Lightglider Academy is a multiplayer
online game available via the desktop
or mobile app (iOS and Android). Kids
get to customize their character, play
games, go on missions, socialize with
friends, attend community-wide
events, send postcards, decorate their
treehouse, engage in discipleship
activities, and explore a world of
adventure. Everything in Lightgliders is
designed to:
Teach a biblical worldview and
values.
Encourage prayer and reflection.
Impart a vision for service.
Spark meaningful conversations in
the home.
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One of 500 is a story-driven adventure
in which players experience the
events and meaning of the gospel
interactively through their journey
with the main character. Players must
face the big questions of life, find their
position, and make difficult decisions.
While a player experiences their
adventure, their path intersects in a
meaningful way with the biblical
events.
Superbook Kids Bible App brings the
Bible to life for the entire family with
an easy-to-understand Bible, videos,
and over 20 engaging Bible games. It
features 39 free full-length episodes
from the exciting Superbook
animation series. Episodes include
David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lions’
Den, the Miracles of Jesus, The First
Christmas, He Is Risen, and more. Kids
can choose from multiple versions of
the Bible, including an audio Bible.
They can bookmark verses, highlight
passages, and take notes. Available
on iOS and Android.
A network called Christian Game
Developers Conference (CGDC) supports
and connects Christian game developers
by hosting an annual conference for
sharing the latest technologies and
sharing ideas. CGDC also fosters a
passionate community year-round for
spiritual encouragement. CGDC hosted its
second virtual conference online on
February 5-6, 2022.

Opportunities in Gaming
There is a need for quality Bible games
that accurately portray the Bible. On a
very basic level, consumers need games
that hit the benchmarks for both
satisfactory gaming quality and
presentation of Scripture. These games
do not have to be award winners. They
can be quite simple without falling into the
common pitfalls of Christian games, such
as being Christian for Christianity’s sake
or having subpar aesthetics and game
mechanics.
Producing games that engage players
with biblical stories isn’t the only way to
evangelize and disciple gamers. This
Christianity Today’s article titled “The Next
Mission Field Is a Game” shared a
compelling example of how gaming can
connect people with the gospel:
Teenage soccer players reluctant to
spend 15 minutes discussing spiritual
matters in person were willing to engage
for three to four hours over video games
online. Eventually, the ministry opened its
Twitch channel to the public and began to
establish a presence on other gaming
platforms as well, with coaches talking
with people online. Among the success
stories, a man from the Netherlands
professed faith in Christ while gaming,
then brought five friends to hear the
Gospel too.
For a more in-depth exploration about the
value and potential of Christian gaming to
impact the world see Of Games and God:
A Christian Exploration of Video Games by
Kevin Schut.

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Augmented Reality / Virtual
Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) is technology, applications, and computer-generated
simulations that integrate with the real world. If simulations are entirely self-contained
rather than integrated with the real world, then they are termed virtual reality (VR).

Facebook announced it would rename the company “Meta” in fall 2021. The
announcement generated significant buzz about the future of AR and VR. With the
introduction of standalone VR headsets like the Oculus Quest 2, high-quality VR has
finally become accessible, affordable, and considerably more user-friendly, making it a
perfect digital tool for language teaching and learning.

AR/VR technologies are currently being used for gospel purposes in various areas
including companies, content, churches, and networks. While there is heavy interest in
AR and VR, the costs are often prohibitive for typical nonprofits and missions
organizations.

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Companies
One of the leading innovations with
missional impact is Immerse, which
describes itself as “the First VR English
Teaching Platform.” Its Virtual Language
Experience Platform (VLEP) empowers
teachers to design language learning
experiences that help students become
confident in speaking a new language
quickly from anywhere.
Screenshot from an Immerse demo that
shows students and a teacher learning a
new language together in a real-life
context.
A previous version of this organization
was known as VR Mission, with a bold
invitation for volunteer missionaries to
“Become a Teacher today! And change
the life of a student in a closed country.”
In VR space, even students in closed-off
countries can safely and privately learn
from missional teachers about the English
language as well as the life of Jesus
Christ.
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There are many existing AR/VR
companies with various ideas. Fishermen
Labs is an award-winning agency founded
by two Christians, Eden Chen and Charles
Hu. This agency has worked with major
brands like Nike, Snapchat, HTC, and
Sony, as well as Christian ministries like
Harvest (Greg Laurie) and Turning Point
(David Jeremiah).
3DreamVR provides Virtual Reality
solutions for in-depth education as well as
training in safety and job tasks.
Lastly, Immersed is a VR platform
founded by a Christian entrepreneur and
Forbes 30 under 30, Renji Bijoy. Immersed
puts users all around the world into a
distraction-free workspace for deeper
focus and increased productivity.
Content
Creating a VR experience requires a wide
range of skills such as 3D animation,
digital filming, scriptwriting, and video
storytelling. It also requires a substantial
investment and a creative imagination.
Here are a few examples of engaging
Christian VR content:
The Immersive Bible Experience
launched a Kickstarter campaign to
bring the Bible to life through an
interactive experience of Bible visuals,
events, and characters overlaid within
the real-world environment around the
user. While its founders are of the
Mormon faith, their biblical content is
reasonably reliable.
The Octagon Project has filmed
several scenes from biblical sites in
Israel and turned them into virtual
experiences for mobile devices and
VR headsets. People can “walk in the
Holy Land without being in the Holy
Land.” The team also produced the
“Explore: A Virtual Reality Tour of the
Lands of the Bible” VR experience that
is exclusively available to visitors at
the Museum of the Bible in
Washington DC.
7 Miracles is an immersive VR
adaptation of the seven miracles of
Jesus Christ from the Gospel of John.
This short film was released in 2018
by HTC, a VR headset manufacturer. A
blog post titled “HTC Thinks
Christians are VR’s Next Big Audience”
described how often Christianity has
often embraced cutting-edge tech.
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Churches
VR Church was launched by D.J. Soto in
2016. His pioneering effort has garnered
media mentions in WIRED magazine, BBC,
and USA Today. VR Church currently holds
worship experiences in AltspaceVR,
VRChat, RecRoom, and Facebook
Horizons. Soto has inspired other pastors
to launch churches that exclusively meet
in the metaverse. The notably innovative
Life.Church recently launched a VR church
campus.
Networks
Mission ARVR is a private Facebook group
that promotes “a partnership of ministries
and individuals creating, collaborating,
and exploring the use of augmented and
virtual reality technology in ministry
contexts.”
Organizers at FaithTech and VR Mission
were scheduled to host an in-person event
in Fall 2020 for Christian VR industry
leaders, technologists, developers, and
missions leaders. The event was
postponed due to COVID-19.
For additional resources in AR, VR, and
other media, check out the Wiki of
Resources curated by Visual Story
Network.
Potential with VR in the
Future
In 2020, the global VR market size was The price of both hardware and software
valued at $15.81 billion (USD) and is are current hurdles to the mainstream
projected to grow annually around 18.0% adoption of AR and VR technology. Due to
from 2021 to 2028. The number of VR the prohibitive costs and limited audience
headsets worldwide is over 16 million as size, this does not seem to be the most
of 2021 and is projected to exceed 34 effective technology to consider for
million by 2024. Many industries are missional efforts to reach unreached and
already using AR and VR for education, unengaged.
learning, and training:
However, AR and VR could have a place in
Art and Design recruiting and training missionaries. Just
Architecture as a small number of charities use VR
Automotive Industry experiences to immerse potential donors
Charity to feel empathy for needy constituents in
Education their context, VR experiences could be
Entertainment developed to immerse potential
Events and Conferences missionary candidates to get a taste of
Healthcare serving in a foreign context. Similarly, just
Law Enforcement as flight simulators are training airplane
Learning and Development pilots, VR experiences can prepare
Retail missionaries for managing hostile
Real Estate situations in foreign contexts.
Recreation
Tourism For further consideration, see the journal
article entitled “Virtual Reality Church as a
Meta (previously known as Facebook) and New Mission Frontier in the Metaverse:
other VR headset manufacturers are Exploring Theological Controversies and
continuing their effort to make hardware Missional Potential of Virtual Reality
more affordable. Each year, the hardware Church” by Guichun Jun.
costs will drop. But hardware is only half
of the equation. People also need relevant
software and content. Currently, the cost
of creating VR applications is very high.

47
Blockchain
Blockchain technology is storming into the world at an unprecedented rate, mainly thanks
to cryptocurrencies. The widespread growth and adoption of cryptocurrency are growing
at a rate not seen since the “Dot Com Boom” (1995-2000) (World Bank, Crypto.com). With
the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies comes the adoption of the underlying
technology—the blockchain.

A blockchain is often referred to as a digital ledger with immutable data. A blockchain

utilizes “blocks,” which are pieces of information that are recorded on a public
decentralized network. A “block” cannot be deleted or changed once it has been
uploaded, only new information can be added.

Currently, the two most popular uses of blockchain are cryptocurrency and Non-Fungible
Tokens (NFTs). To better understand what blockchain digital ledgers can do, take a look
at a couple of potential scenarios and real-life examples.

Digital ledgers would bring transparency into how churches, missions, and/or charitable
finances are managed. The ledger could track transactions that occur regularly within a
church, like recording and uploading sermons, collecting tithes or offerings, managing
donations, tracking church membership, timestamping milestones, and important events.

A digital ledger for a missions organization could send funds discreetly to missionaries or
closed nations, as well as assist with adoption agencies. A digital ledger for a Bible
translation agency could keep records of Scripture translations, versions, and languages.
A digital ledger could also document Scripture commentaries and track how perspectives
change over time.

48
Current Applications of
Blockchain in Missions
Below are two real-life examples to clarify
how blockchain technology is used today:
1. Engiven is a product of Tithe.ly, a
digital giving platform for online
donations. Engiven is the
cryptocurrency portion while the
Tithe.ly app handles traditional giving
via credit card, check and SMS text.
Notable organizations using Engiven
include The Salvation Army,
Saddleback Church, and The Rock
Church in San Diego.
2. Mission DAO is touted as the world’s
first fully transparent and
decentralized missions fund.
Believing that the only solution to the
human condition is Jesus, Mission
DAO exists to advance the kingdom
of God on earth and in the Metaverse.
As an independent Decentralized
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Autonomous Organization (DAO), Mission
DAO does not have formal ties to any
church, denomination, missions
organization, or charity. Through the
Mission DAO NFT art sales, they aim to
fund both traditional missions and digital
missions. A portion of sales is set aside to
cover operational costs and support
Christian businesses and artists. Mission
DAO founder Broderick Elisha Sim is an
NFT Fund Manager based in Singapore.
Out of all the technology topics in this
report, blockchain is the newest
technology that is emerging and not
commonly understood. Its volatility would
prompt the typical organization leader to
wait and see, while its enormous
potential will inspire innovative pioneers
to experiment and explore uncharted
territory.
Frameworks
Frameworks help to define and implement processes. These frameworks outline how
organizations can manage their digital transformation. They also suggest methods to
improve and incorporate technology in evangelism.

Cisco.com urges business leaders to consider digital transformation as a top initiative led
by technology. These critical capabilities include:
1. Transforming business models.
2. Creating new experiences for customers, workers, and citizens.
3. Empowering workforce innovation.

Cisco’s framework for digital transformation is as follows:

1. Identify specific business outcomes to achieve.
2. Build a digital-first culture that starts at the executive level and permeates the entire
organization.
3. Connect everything touching the outcome and collect data.
4. Shift to a threat-centric security strategy that quickly locates threats and contains
them.
5. Automate as many processes as possible.
6. Analyze data and gain new insights.

50
This section shows a few ministry frameworks that incorporate a digital missions
component.

Sdadata.org created a model called “Multiply the Harvest” based on Mark 4. The
principles help place discipleship, rather than “digital,” at the forefront.

The phases are as follows:

1. Adoption: Adopting the skillful and strategic use of select digital tools for
discipleship.
2. Enablement: An account from the Upper New York Conference captures the lift and
shift that many congregations went through when they transitioned to remote
services.
3. Creation: Package the Gospel message and teachings of Jesus into various digital-
friendly formats such as video, blogs, images, and podcasts.
4. Distribution: Use digital tools and technologies to share content within their sphere of
digital influence.
5. Engagement: Individuals within an organization engage in online conversations to
build meaningful relationships, understand needs, and determine valuable ways to
serve others in the community.

51
The model, phases, and roles create a framework where believers, individually or as
organizations, can utilize the platforms, tools, and apps wisely. Knowing which platform
is appropriate on the Consumption model or Transformation model will allow believers,
particularly those participating in the Enablement, Distribution, and Engagement phases,
to better leverage the tools for discipleship.

Media to Movements visualizes their ideal end-to-end process. It highlights the various
media components and personnel roles involved in a seeker’s journey from discovering
Jesus online to making disciples offline. The process is as follows:
Media content and ads grab their attention.
Digital conversations filter for potential persons of peace.
Disciple.Tools dispatches seekers to disciple-makers.
Face-to-face follow-up fosters the discovery, sharing, and obeying of Jesus.
Ultimately we pray this leads to a movement.

52
Disciple.Tools provides a platform to track seekers’ progress in their discipleship
journeys. The developers recognized that the traditional media ministry’s “influence at a
distance” model of pushing media into the internet is no longer sufficient. They want to
serve the seekers by bridging online media to face-to-face and life-on-life meetings.
This framework illustrates the faith timeline of an online seeker:

Catalyst Services has put together a Global Engagement Framework to show its five-step
approach to developing powerful missions involvement in churches. While this
framework is not designed specifically for digital missions, its scope can be adjusted for
online or hybrid ministry.

53
Frameworks Used for Innovation
IDEO U teaches design thinking to help
teams and organizations better
understand the unmet needs of their
audience. It reduces any risks associated
with launching new ideas, products, and
services. It can generate revolutionary
solutions, learning and iterating faster.
Design thinking follows these six phases:
1. Frame a Question - Determine a
driving question that motivates others
to seek innovative solutions.
2. Gather Inspiration - Inspire new
thinking by determining what people
genuinely need.
3. Create Ideas - Explore alternatives to
obvious solutions to develop game-
changing ideas.
4. Make Ideas Tangible - Create rough
prototypes to learn how to improve
ideas.
5. Test to Learn - Fine-tune ideas by
soliciting feedback and experimenting
further.
6. Share Your Story - Create a human
story to motivate others to take
action.
FaithTech Labs and Indigitous Serve are
examples of two faith-based
organizations employing this type of
framework in design sprints. Cohorts
innovate and prototype solutions to
address the challenges of global
missions.
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Agile methodology helps to streamline
software development. It includes high
levels of communication and
collaboration with fast response to
change, adaptive planning, and
continuous improvement. The Agile
framework incorporates elements of
planning, testing, and integration,
including the following:
1. Scrum - Breaking down big projects
into small tasks.
2. Crystal - Focuses on individuals in
team interaction over processes and
tools.
3. Kanban - Visual layout of tasks in
categories of project status.
4. Dynamic Systems Development
Method - Project management and
product delivery method for a robust
governance system.
5. Feature-Driven Development -
Thorough documentation and strict
organization for development.
When implementing these frameworks for
projects, missions organizations gather
the best industry standards practices.
Ministries stand to gain new forms of
collaboration within their organizations
and with potential partnerships. Other
benefits include prototyping new digital
tools and resources used for evangelism
from the receiver’s perspective.
Collaboration Platforms
There are many types of collaboration platforms built to facilitate teamwork within an
organization or around a project. Some platforms are all-in-one solutions and others have
a singular or primary function. When the global pandemic relocated most staff members
from office locations to working from home, collaboration platforms were essential to
allow team members to communicate and work effectively.

Popular collaboration tools include the following:

Dropbox is a file-sharing service with Trello is a popular collaboration tool

easy-to-use cloud-based storage.
Recently, features have been added to
make Dropbox more collaborative;
Dropbox Paper allows multiple users
to edit web-based documents
simultaneously.
Google Workspace is an all-in-one
solution for productivity and
collaboration for teams. This platform
has email, a cloud-based drive for file
sharing, web-based document editing,
video and voice conferencing, real-
time chat, shared calendars, virtual
whiteboard, and more. Google
Workspace for Nonprofits is free for
eligible organizations.
Microsoft 365 is a suite of apps that
help organizations and teams stay
connected. Popular software like
Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook,
OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams are
integrated for improved productivity.
Microsoft 365 can be discounted or
donated for approved nonprofits.
Miro and Mural are digital whiteboards
that allow for real-time collaboration
on an endless canvas. This is
especially helpful to visually process
ideas and discussion.
Slack is built to bring all work-related
communication to one place. When
used well, it can almost replace email.
Slack integrates with over 2,400 apps
for cloud storage, project
management, calendars, CRMs, and
other services. As a result, this
collaboration platform is used widely.
for teams to coordinate their work
around boards, lists, and cards. Its
flexibility offers teams a customizable
experience based on project needs.
Zoom video conferencing was
founded in 2011 and was lesser
known than Skype for years. Zoom
became the most popular video
calling platform as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic. As people
isolated physically, Zoom was
instrumental in keeping people
connected. Church fellowships and
worship services met online through
Zoom. Campus ministries and
missionaries reached out to people
across the globe. For productivity and
collaboration, real-time conversations
over video were a sufficient substitute
for in-person meetings.
Notion is a highly customizable
project management, database, and
note-taking tool with unlimited storage
and the ability to embed media and
projects from other platforms into its
pages, which can also be published as
no-code websites. Collaborators can
access templates for a wide variety of
purposes, created by a large
community of Notion users who build
new setups and share best practices.

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Collaborating Effectively
With over 1,000 collaboration software on
the market, it is not so much about
selecting the “right” collaboration tool to
use. It is more important to adopt at least
one of the popular collaboration tools.
Widely used tools are typically more user-
friendly, well-maintained, up-to-date, and
self-directed training is more available.
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As an organization and team become
more proficient with a collaboration tool,
the transferable skills developed in
internal staff communication carry over
into collaborations and partnerships with
other organizations. The Great
Commission will advance further and
faster with effective collaborations.
Volunteer Management Platforms
Numerous software and platforms exist on the market to manage volunteers and serving
opportunities. Churches and nonprofits constantly have to manage volunteers as a vital
part of their ongoing work. The largest number of software platforms in this category are
built for an organization to manage its volunteers, like Giveffect, Timecounts, and
Salesforce.

There are also more complex and collaborative platforms that can match volunteers with
serving opportunities from multiple organizations.

There are also more complex and collaborative platforms that can match volunteers with
serving opportunities from multiple organizations. VolunteerMatch does this for
community service with schools, government agencies, nonprofits, and NGOs. In the past,
a web-based platform called ChristianVolunteering.org listed Christian organizations and
their ministry opportunities in need of volunteers.

Most of these volunteer opportunities tend to be entry-level, so anyone interested can

sign up to serve. However, platforms like Catchafire and Taproot Plus curate skills-based
volunteer opportunities, so professionals with specialized skills can bring more value to
an organization’s needs.

VOMO is a platform that streamlines the volunteer experience by connecting volunteers

with organizations. Some of the features included are:
1. Promoting a Project Map for an expanded presence
2. Managing volunteer database, integrating background checks, scheduling events
3. Communicating through group and individual messaging, push notifications, and
emails
4. Reporting economic impact and volunteer hours

The Commissioned platform is particularly notable for its intent to mobilize volunteers
and resources around the world for the Great Commission. Described as “The Great
Commission Supply Chain” and available in 80+ languages, the platform aims to turn
ideas into action plans, crowdsource resources, and accelerate collaboration by using
machine learning algorithms. More information about this app, sponsored by World
Changer Foundation, cannot yet be found through an internet search.

Potential Opportunities
At this stage of development, the majority of volunteer management platforms are built
to serve single organizations. However, there are a few emerging platforms that seek to
develop the greater potential of partnerships between multiple organizations. This type of
collaboration would allow networks of volunteers to take on greater issues than one
organization on its own.

57
Networks
The church uses digital resources like blogs, articles, videos, and social media to further
disciple Christians and non-Christians alike. Networks are valuable for sharing resources
to achieve the Great Commission collaboratively. The list of networks below are
missions-related, with some having a focus on digital missions and technology.
Coalition of the Willing (COTW) is a
coordinated effort of willing
ministries who share strategic data
on Christian and church presence to
plant a church in every people and
every place. As data is aggregated at
various levels (country, state, district,
block, village, etc), the gaps become
easier to see. When places where a
church has not yet been planted are
identified, priority attention can be
given to those locations.
EMDC networks and equips the body
of Christ to communicate the gospel
in culturally-relevant ways that lead
to transformed lives. EMDC
resources include classroom
sessions, blogs, Scripture
engagement guides, podcasts, and
in-person gatherings.
Ergatas has created a funding
platform to connect Christians with
missionaries. The website allows
missionaries to create a public-
facing profile describing their
ministry and support needs.
Supporters can then use the website
to contact the missionary to learn
more about them, their work, and
prayer requests.
FaithTech exists to help people in the
tech ecosystem find community and
steward their skills to glorify God.
FaithTech facilitates the formation of
regional communities, labs for
volunteer-led projects, and an
institute to shape new language for
talking about technology.
58
FaithTech exists to help people in the
tech ecosystem find community and
steward their skills to glorify God.
FaithTech facilitates the formation of
regional communities, labs for
volunteer-led projects, and an
institute to shape new language for
talking about technology.
Finishing the Task (FTT) exists to
convene and to catalyze the global
body of Christ towards the goal of
ensuring that everyone, everywhere
has access to a Bible, Believer and
Body of Christ.
Global Alliance for Church
Multiplication (GACX) is a global
coalition of churches and mission
agencies working to saturate the
world with multiplying disciples,
leaders, and churches.
The Global CHE Network is an
association of people and
organizations that strategically
serves impoverished communities in
urban and rural settings around the
world. This network of organizations
adopts a holistic strategy for an
outreach called Community Health
Evangelism. The term “health”
transcends a secular biomedical
definition to include spiritual life and
community resources. In terms of
digital outreach, this network is
valuable for the 10,000+ open-source
lesson plans available to members
who complete the first phase of
training for problem-solving in rural
village contexts, where most of the
developing world’s unreached people
groups reside.
Global Mission Mobilization Initiative
(GMMI) is a resourcing ministry
equipping the global church for
mission mobilization through practical
resources, teaching, training, and
strategies.
Indigitous is engaging believers with
digital missions through global events,
digital resourcing, and community
building. Co-founders Simon Seow
and Russ Martin formed from the
fusion of two important ideas:
indigenous and digital. “Indigenous”
reflects their desire for locally-
generated strategies that work in each
generation, language, and culture.
“Digital” represents the belief that
digital tools, resources, platforms, and
strategies can accelerate God’s
mission. Indigitous uses a Slack
workspace with over 3,000
technologists across 40+ countries.
Je Suis Deuxieme is a movement
based in Canada that gathers
discussion groups in a localized area.
They share their stories, create
contacts, and learn about the person
of God.
Linking Global Voices (LGV) serves
the global missions community by
focusing on the unique role of
networks. The new paradigm of “from
anywhere to everywhere” is by nature
complex, resulting in an increasing
need to form partnerships for
effective ministry. Networks are a
strategic tool for ministry leaders to
navigate the complexities of the
globalized world of missions. Mission-
minded churches and agencies are
developing network engagement
strategies. Healthy networks facilitate
the sharing of resources and are
constantly birthing partnerships.
59
LGV has a large directory of 650+
missions-related networks. GenMobile
is a digital platform that connects
global networks and network leaders.
It uses the database maintained by
Linking Global Voices. Some of its
features include:
Ministry listings and location
details.
Network member profile listings
and locations.
Direct messaging, group chats,
and public forums.
Mobile Ministry Forum (MMF) is a
network of missional innovators
representing more than 250
ministries. They seek to reach every
unreached person through their
personal mobile device.
Waybase began in Canada and has
the goal to create an “impact network”
serving the whole world. They do this
by offering easy-to-use, data-powered
digital tools, highlighting causes in
local communities, supporting local
events where leaders can collaborate
together, measuring impact, and
providing analytical insights.
Conferences
Conferences are large gatherings of people, whether in-person or virtual, where the latest
learnings are shared interactively and experientially. Below is a list of conferences related
to digital missions:
EMDC is consultation that meets
annually. EMDC is intended to be a
secure venue where minority language
workers, Bible translators, literacy
workers, and language development
workers can meet with media
specialists (including radio, TV,
internet, mobile), IT technicians,
recording specialists, graphic artists,
and specialists in Orality and
EthnoArts (arts, drama, dance).
Tentative dates for EMDC 2022 are
May 31 to June 3, 2022, in Holland. A
Spanish EMDC is scheduled for
October 2022 in Mexico.
Finishing The Task is calling the
global church to partner together to
run faster and further towards the
following shared goals by AD 2033.
With Executive Director Rick Warren’s
leadership, more attention and
resources are being catalyzed for the
unengaged, unreached people groups
(UPGs) of the world.
Global Missional AI Summit explores
the opportunities of artificial
intelligence in Kingdom work. The
summit gathers impactful speakers
and content from both industry and
missional perspectives in a hybrid
event. The topics include Bible
Translation (Scripture Engagement,
Machine Learning) and Kingdom
Growth (Media to Movement, Digital
Discipleship). The dates are April 6-7,
2022, and the in-person portion of the
event will be in Dallas, Texas.
60
Global Missional AI Summit explores the
opportunities of artificial intelligence in
Kingdom work. The summit gathers
impactful speakers and content from
both industry and missional
perspectives in a hybrid event. The
topics include Bible Translation
(Scripture Engagement, Machine
Learning) and Kingdom Growth (Media
to Movement, Digital Discipleship). The
dates are April 6-7, 2022, and the in-
person portion of the event will be in
Dallas, Texas.
Indigitous’ #HACK is a global hackathon
that brings together the collective skills
of Christian technologists,
entrepreneurs, and those desiring to put
their faith and talents to work for Jesus.​
This global hackathon usually occurs
annually in October.
International Conference on Computing
and Mission (ICCM) holds gatherings of
women and men who have a common
interest in computers and missions.
Their conferences share a vision of
cooperation for the effective use of
technology, bringing the gospel to every
nation. In 2021, ICCM held conferences
in Thailand and Missouri.
Theological Education
Theological education is traditionally provided by institutions like Bible colleges and
seminaries to train students in the discipline of theology. The Association of Theological
Schools has a membership of more than 270 graduate theology schools in North
America. Because of the global pandemic and technological advances, more of these
schools have developed distance education and offer their courses online.

But since these traditional institutions were founded and grounded for in-person
enrollment, they are designed for students to physically come to them. They are often not
best suited for distributing theological training to Christian leaders.

Online Theological Education

Among seminaries accredited by The Association of Theological Schools, these
institutions have online degree programs:

Columbia International University

Denver Seminary
Dallas Theological Seminary
Fuller Seminary
Gateway Seminary
Knox Seminary
Liberty University
Moody Bible Institute
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Reformed Theological Seminary
Rockbridge Seminary
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Western Seminary

61
 Redemption Seminary uses Logos
Theological Education with (including the Mobile Ed lectures),
Digital-First Approaches Moodle, Zoom, and Google Docs to
deliver an online master’s degree in
Ministry organizations that provide
biblical studies. Churches and other
theological education with a digital-first
ministries looking to provide a degree
approach can leverage the advantages of
program but lack resources can work
accessibility to make the most of learning
with Redemption to embed its program
management systems and related
into theirs.
technologies.
Thirdmill was launched in 1997 to create
multimedia curricula for Christian
Kairos University takes an innovative
leaders everywhere. Its curriculum is
approach with competency-based
produced in over 20 languages.
theological education. Its programs
Thirdmill’s mission is to prepare
are designed to root students in their
Christian leaders to lead a
local community by working with a
transformation of the world into God's
mentor team and crafting an
Kingdom by providing biblical education
educational journey that encourages
to anyone for free. Directly and through
face-to-face interaction in their
partner ministries, they have already
community. Kairos Project has
taught over one million students.
expanded to include individuals
spread out across six continents,
For more info about theological education,
dozens of ministry training
see the Global Directory of Theological
organizations and seminaries, and
Education Institutions, an online database
hundreds of churches, nonprofits, and
with more than 7,000 institutions of
businesses. Kairos’ educational
theological education—church-based
programs are currently in Spanish,
theological seminaries, Bible schools,
English, French, and Portuguese.
university departments of theology, and
Global Frontier Missions developed
faculties of religious studies.
the Missionary Training School to
equip people that want to serve cross-
culturally among unreached people
groups (UPGs). UPGs may live across
the street while others live across the
globe. GFM has networked with the
best churches, missions
organizations, and Bible schools out
there to come up with the most
strategic materials we could find to
train laborers to make disciples
among all nations.

62
Learning Management System
A learning management system (LMS) is a computer information system used to
administer instructor-led e-learning courses that track students’ progress. This type of
system has been commonly used in university settings for more than a decade. The use
of LMS has accelerated as the popularity of remote learning has increased. This growth
is attributed to improvements in internet infrastructure, video conferencing, and storage.
Online learning also offers students cost savings, flexibility, and the ability to study with
the best teachers, content, and institutions.

Common functions of learning management systems include audio or video delivery, e-

textbooks, guided learning modules, interactive communication among teachers and
students, electronic submission of course-work, and a means to track student progress in
assignments.

The global pandemic greatly advanced the adoption of learning management systems,
particularly outside traditional educational institutions. An article in the Harvard Business
Review summarizes this well:

Pre-pandemic, there was already widespread acknowledgment that the traditional

higher education business model is seriously challenged. Fall 2020 marks a clear
inflection point as students, educators, and government leaders alike scrutinize the
price and value proposition of higher education through the new lens of traditional
classroom versus multiple modes of digital delivery.

Popular learning management systems include:

Absorb
Blackboard
Canvas
Gnowbe
Moodle
Schoology

63
Open Source and Free LMS's used by Christian
organizations
While most learning management systems are available for purchase or subscription
service, a few are open source and free (like Moodle and TalentLMS). These systems are
relevant to Christian organizations whose mission includes teaching or an online
presence.

Biblearc provides methods and tools for studying the Bible systematically. The
methods include arcing, paraphrasing and sentence diagramming. Biblearc offers in-
depth self-paced classes and live web-based classes that use the methods to study
through passages of Scripture. The Biblearc platform and tools can also be used by
ministries teaching their classes.
Logos Bible study software provides a virtual library to remote students. Calvary
Chapel Bible College began providing Logos to its students for free when COVID-19
lockdowns prevented them from accessing the school’s physical library. In recent
years, FaithLife has been recruiting seminary professors to record lectures in short
segments which are delivered in Logos and integrated with assignments and
additional reading material.
Oleholdings is a learning management system that offers individual access to
national government initiatives. This includes education, healthcare, and competency
training. This team consists of 40+ engineers, subject matter experts, managers, and
administrators. They are working in developing government-backed initiatives in the
Philippines, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda.

64
Research Articles and Journals
Technology advances faster than the typical time required for thoughtful study and
analysis typically required for academic research. Nevertheless, the value of academic
studies about digital spirituality offers valuable insight. This section highlights excerpts
from studies and publications about digital missions, digital evangelism, and the digital
church. A list of related journals is included below.

List of Related Journals

The Evangelical Missions Quarterly
(EMQ) is published quarterly by
Mission Nexus. Geared toward
missionary practitioners, EMQ
provides a forum for the exchange of
concepts, strategies, and ideas. EMQ
has two stated purposes: “to make
available to the Church as a whole the
wide range of insights gained from its
work throughout the world and for
mission agencies to keep each other
stimulated and informed in the realm
of ideas and practical missionary
tactics.”
The International Journal of Frontier
Missions (IJFM) seeks to promote
intergenerational dialogue between
senior and junior mission leaders,
cultivate an international fraternity of
thought in the development of frontier
missiology. It highlights the need to
maintain, renew, and create mission
agencies as vehicles for frontier
missions, encourage multidimensional
and interdisciplinary studies, and
advocate "A Church for Every People."
FaithTech offers trend papers on 15
topics in emerging technologies. Each
paper describes the technology,
provides samples, and offers insight
on Biblical implications and missional
applications. These technologies are:
3D Printing
5G
Agriculture Tech
Artificial Intelligence
Blockchain
Cryptocurrency
Digital Learning Platforms
Drones
Facial Recognition
Information Security
Mapping & Tracking Tech
Social Media
Tech Policy
Telehealth
Virtual Reality
The Journal of the Evangelical
Missiological Society is published by
the Evangelical Missiological Society
(EMS), which exists to advance the
cause of world evangelization. EMS
does this through the study and
evaluation of mission concepts and
strategies from a biblical perspective.
The aim is to promote sound mission
theory and practice to churches,
mission agencies, and schools of
missionary training around the world.

65
Mission Frontiers is a bi-monthly
magazine of Frontier Ventures.
Since 1979, Mission Frontiers has
published innovative insights on a
wide range of topics from the most
creative minds and well-known
thought leaders in missiology.
Mission Frontiers is dedicated to
fostering and supporting a global
movement to establish indigenous
and self-reproducing Church-
Planting Movements among the
7,000 unreached peoples (ethnic
groups) of the world.
The Routledge Studies in Religion
and Digital Culture book series is
published by Network for New
Media, Religion and Digital Culture
Studies. They aim to increase public
awareness of the unique research
being undertaken in new media and
religious studies and translate these
important findings to a popular
audience. The Digital Religion
Yearbook 2021 is a new e-
publication that valuably highlights
important contributions, emerging
scholars, and innovative research in
the growing field of Digital Religion
Studies.
Sacred Tribes Journal is an
international refereed online journal
for the ongoing study of new
religious movements. The journal
offers descriptive articles on new
religious movements as well as
articles related to the Christian
engagement of these religions from
leading Christian academics in the
field.
Second Nature is an online journal
for critical thinking about technology
and new media in light of the
Christian tradition. It is published by
the International Institute for the
Study of Technology and
Christianity.
66
John Dyer is the author of From the
Garden to the City: The Redeeming and
Corrupting Power of Technology and is
currently the Dean of Enrollment and
Distance Education at Dallas Theological
Seminary. As a thought leader, Dyer has
keen insights about AI & VR technology,
faith, spirituality, and missions freely
shared on his blog. His book noted that as
technology advances, more time and
education are required to use it. Both
leisure and business applications bring up
moral issues that must be addressed.
Here is a challenge to consider: time and
education are rare commodities for many
people in lower socio-economic groups
and in countries where power is not
distributed equally among people.
David R. Bourgeois is author of Ministry in
the Digital Age: Strategies and Best
Practices for a Post-Website World and
Associate Dean for Undergraduate
Programs (Crowell School of Business) at
Biola University. Bourgeois asserts how
digital strategies may be more successful
for organizations that have an established
base of followers. This notion highlights
that what one knows (i.e. having a
message and the communication skills to
produce it) may not be as important as
whom one knows (digital producers need
help spreading their messages from well-
connected others). Bourgeois describes
that society has moved away from
website usage because they want to use
digital media for relational purposes
rather than informational purposes. As a
result, the top websites are social
networks, search engines, online shopping
sites, and video platforms that collate
information rather than present a
particular formal message.
Thus, it is important to build digital
relationships. Bourgeois notes that “in
reality, for most ministries, spending less
time on technology and more time on
people and processes will bring a better
chance of success.” This requires
knowing what functions a ministry wants
to accomplish, how to teach technology
to people, measuring their use of the
technology, and knowing who you are
targeting.

Below are two insights to mention from

the Orality Journal - The Word Became
Fresh.

In “Co-Editors’ Note: Memory and Media

in Revelation, the Reformation and Digital
Orality,” is remarkable for its insight on
Revelation 1-3. The passage
demonstrates the integration of spoken
and written communication and media
(cf. “…one can suggest that the Holy
Spirit is intimately concerned with our
present-day understanding of the role of
memory and media for sharing the good
news”, p. 9). This provides a biblical and
theological perspective for what leaders
hope to accomplish in adopting
technologies.

In another article, Paul Konstanski, a

project specialist with Cru, presents the
global statistics of digital technologies
and how it leads many people around the
world to experience “present shock.”
After some discussion of the implications
of “present shock,” he offers Daniel Pink’s
six fundamentally human abilities for
communicating messages powerfully:
Design, Story, Empathy, Symphony,
Meaning, and Fun. As he presents these
six abilities, the article consciously
illustrates their use. This article gives
practical considerations on how to use
digital technology effectively amidst
competing voices.

67
Opportunities and Considerations for
Reaching All Peoples
When considering strategies for global missions on a worldwide scale, we must consider
the total number of nations, languages, and cultures. But digital technologies are not
available to anyone and everyone because of many factors related to affordability and
accessibility. Some developing countries don’t have basic needs met, like clean water and
sanitation, conveniences of modern society like electricity and transportation. Internet
and digital technologies are even further off.

Many of the resources listed above are only available in English, which could leave out as
many as 75% of the world’s internet users. Secondly, Digital technologies cannot reach all
people, so other technologies and strategies must be employed. As mentioned
previously, around 34.4% of the world’s population, over 2.7 billion people, does not use
the internet or does not have access.

What will it take to reach the 2.7 billion people who don’t use the internet? Some
possibilities come to mind:
1. Get internet access to them and bridge the digital divide. This would be the most
expensive endeavor and requires both governmental and commercial entities to
cooperate.
2. Audio technologies may be more suitable for people groups with low literacy rates.
3. Use technologies that don’t require internet connectivity to distribute gospel content.
4. With any new technology, app, or software, there is a learning curve and some training
involved. For those who do not use the internet already, other non-digital media may
be more affordable and require less training.

For those who are connected to the internet, there are many opportunities to further
connect with people online for evangelism and discipleship. Yet, many who do not yet
have digital technologies need the gospel too. Let’s be mindful of all people when
considering the Great Commission.

68
Conclusion
The current generation stands at a unique point in the fulfillment of the Great
Commission. We have the chance to develop new technologies that motivate people to
pursue Godly living, evangelism, and discipleship. Technology allows Christians to reach
a broader audience from their fingertips.

Digital tools are a means to supplement face-to-face and in-person evangelistic efforts.
Digital tools can be customized by geography, demographic audiences, and relevant
topics to reach people in culturally relevant ways. Many apps and tools are already
showing the effectiveness of online discipleship.

Organization leaders need a high level of understanding of the digital missions

landscape. Increased awareness of opportunities to utilize technology to reach audiences
more effectively is the first step. Through the knowledge of the available technology, it is
possible to drive strategic partnerships among leaders to maximize the efficiency of the
implementation and operation of new technologies. Digital tools are most valuable when
used collaboratively.

We encourage missions leaders to consider use-cases with the resources listed in this
report for their ministry needs. We also suggest that these resources be shared with
operational teams. Lastly, we encourage leaders to reach out to other ministries and
utilize the available technology to collaborate.

Technology is progressing rapidly and requires constant maintenance. Churches and

missions organizations can benefit from utilizing and maintaining technological
resources, especially as the world continues to become more digital.

69
Appendix
This appendix is a compilation of all resources identified during the research phase of
creating the report. There are undoubtedly many more resources that have been
produced, published, and available on the internet. This curated subset was selected as
being useful to learn from.

THE STATE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

70 FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION 2022
Apps (29)
Prayer
1. Abide - Listen and sleep and meditate
to Scripture
2. Lectio 365 is a free daily devotional
resource from 24/7 Prayer that helps
users pray the Bible every day, follow
daily Bible readings, thoughts, and
prayers
3. Miles a Minute (iOS, Android) - daily
encouragement from Pastor Miles
McPherson
4. PrayerMate (iOS, Android) - organize
your prayer life, prayer groups
5. Praying God’s Word (iOS)
6. App - Jumaa Prayer Fellowship
7. Joshua Project apps
8. Prayer App | Powerful Christian
Prayers | Open Doors USA
9. Download OW Prayer App - Operation
World
71
Read-Study-Memorize the Bible
1. Bible App for Kids (iOS, Android, Web)
- engages children with Bible stories
on an age-appropriate level
2. Bible Study Tools (iOS, Android) - large
online library of study Bible versions,
with commentaries, dictionaries,
lexicons, encyclopedias,
concordances
3. Bible.is (iOS, Android, Web) - Bible in
text form, audio and Video Bibles in
more than 1600+ languages inclusive
of sign language
4. Daily Bible Inspirations (iOS, Android) -
Read daily passages and journal
5. Glorify (iOS, Android) is a Bible
devotional designed for increasing
spiritual wellness habits. It takes the
user through bite-sized Bible
passages, prayer, meditation, and
music.
6. Logos (iOS, Android, Web) - Leading
Bible study app
7. Neubible (iOS) - modern Bible app
designed for delightful, distraction-
free reading
8. Our Daily Bread (iOS, Android) - quick
daily devotional
9. Read Scripture (iOS, Android) -
minimalistic Bible reader and with
videos
10. Verses (iOS) - Memorize and meditate
on the Bible
11. YouVersion Bible (iOS, Android, Web) -
mobile Bible with videos, commentary,
translations, reading plans, and
community connection
Share the Gospel
GodTools (iOS, Android) - tools for
both sharing the Gospel and also
growing in faith. This app has tools
such as “Knowing God Personally”
and “The Four” that you can walk
through with another person.
Jesus Film Project (iOS, Android, Web)
- a full digital library of more than 200
movies, miniseries, and short films
produced to help the world know
Jesus better. Content is available in
over 1900 languages.
Life Conversations (iOS) - has
illustrations to use to talk through and
includes a short (under 3 minute)
video explaining the Gospel.
Share Your Faith (iOS, Android) -
illustrations to walk through an easy-
to-understand explanation of the
Gospel
YesHEis (iOS, Android) - app with
content to inspire, train and challenge
normal, everyday Christians to be able
to confidently talk to people about
Jesus.
72
Church/Organization/Global
Communication
Commissioned (iOS, Android) - “The
Great Commission Supply Chain” in
80+ languages, with Volunteer
management, job postings, group
messaging, projects
Planning Center (Web) - Church
management system that can connect
with members, help organize
information, coordinate events,
communicate with teams
Tithe.ly (iOS, Android) - platform
created to help church members
engage, with interactive sermon notes,
listen to messages, access small
group material, check the prayer list,
church newsfeed, give a donation
Missions Data
Stratus.earth (Web) Stratus
synthesizes data from many disparate
sources into one comprehensive
index, filtering the holistic condition of
each country through a spiritual lens.
Artificial Intelligence (35)
Faith-based
Advodah - Real-time translation,
transcription, language preservation
and language education in spoken,
written and signed languages. Its
avatar simulation trained detection on
real human imagery is being used for
sign language recognition and
translation
AI and Faith consortium - Run by
David Brenner, with heavy hitter
participation by the likes of Bill Gates
Foundation, corporations, as well as
excellent AI-savvy leaders from
various faiths exploring the ethics of
AI.
Ask A Missionary - Q & A on Becoming
a Missionary, has 500+ answers from
experienced missionaries to questions
about mission service
AskGod.Bible - a hackathon project to
use NLP for parsing user questions
and providing answers from the Bible,
by Larry Walters; GitHub repository ​
Biblica
Bridge Connectivity Solutions - Graph
Database for Bible Data
Cherith Analytics - AI, Machine
Learning, Natural Language
Understanding for Faith, Discipleship
and Christian living, including
expertise to mission organizations
Clear.Bible - the ClearEngine auto-
aligns a target language text to the
original Greek and Hebrew texts and
the ClearSuite makes the results of
the ClearEngine visible to users,
providing an overview of the work they
have completed, to see patterns and
discover inconsistencies
Colin Leong - Dayton Research
Institute - Machine Learning Engineer,
AQuA project, Audio data
Compassion International -
Registering children digitally using
mobile devices, connecting supporters
with the needs across Compassion’s
7,500 locations globally
73
JesusBot - AI chatbot for evangelism,
cf. Podcast: Evangelism ChatBots,
being developed by CV Digital AI Lab,
using leading edge ML research to
innovate solutions which were
previously not possible in the NLP
space.
Light of Hope Media - Tim Klassen,
data scientist, working with media
ministries on: Predictive analytics,
Chatbots, Recommender systems
missional.ai - Conference gathering
individuals at the highest level of AI
Scripture Forge tools is Assistive,
Incremental, Adaptive, providing
Community Checking tools that
facilitate modular Scripture checking
campaigns, to deliver broader
feedback to the translation
committee, faster. Works with
Paratext.
Spf.io - Platform to make your church
worship services and events
accessible in any language via Audio
Live Streaming, Real-time Subtitles,
Slide and Document Translation,
Audio Description
TheoTech - Advances technology
entrepreneurship for the Gospel, Chris
Lim Podcast with James Adams
Viz.Bible - “Images capture attention
and ignite emotions. Pictures filled
with data engage the mind. They
cause us to notice something, ask
questions, and search for answers.”
Worship.ai - The tool allows you to
select from three training libraries:
modern worship music, classic
hymns, or the Psalms (KJV).
Wycliffe Bible Translation using AI - to
store audio recordings, words and
patterns in grammar on computing
devices. SIL’s linguists use AI to learn
languages more quickly and complete
Bible translations faster, teach people
how to read and write using text-to-
speech software, create video-based
sign languages.
Secular
Amazon Alexa - a virtual voice-
activated assistant. It can understand
English, French, German, Japanese,
Italian, and Spanish.
Azure Machine Learning Studio - to
deploy your model as a web service.
Cortana - a virtual assistant, will
perform tasks like setting reminders,
answering your questions etc.
Deep Fakes - a person in an existing
image or video is replaced with
someone else's likeness. Useful for
protecting people’s faces with a
constructed persona, such as in the
use of sign language videos
Dream - AI-generated art based on
prompts
Google Assistant - a virtual assistant
by Google. Languages supported by
Google Assistant are English, Hindi,
Indonesian, French, German, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Portuguese,
Spanish, Dutch, Russian, and Swedish.
Google Cloud Machine Learning
Engine Vertex AI - helps with training
your model.
H2O.AI - for banking, insurance,
healthcare, marketing, and telecom, to
use programming languages like R
and Python to build models.
74
IBM Watson - a question answering
system. When you train your model
with Watson, it will deeply understand
the real concepts.
Infosys Nia - help the enterprises by
making complex tasks into simpler
ones. It has three components, i.e.
Data platform, Knowledge platform,
and automation platform.
Jukebox - example of AI music, could
be used to generate worship music in
unreached people’s heart languages
and cultural context
OtterAI - speech to text transcription
and translation applications using
artificial intelligence and machine
learning. Its software, called Otter,
shows captions for live speakers, and
generates written transcriptions of the
speeches.
Recommender Systems - Relevancy,
Diversity, Novelty, used by Netflix,
YouTube, Amazon, ranked resources
with a matched user-journey that
match organizational goals
Salesforce Einstein - a Customer
Relationship Management (CRM)
system. This smart CRM system is for
Sales, Marketing, Community,
Analytics, and Commerce.
TensorFlow - a numeric computational
tool and an open source ML system.
Topazlabs - AI enhancing photo and
video image quality
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality (34)
Church
“LifeChurch Launches Virtual Reality
Church Campus”
The Future of Worship: Virtual and
Private - article by David Murrow
VR Church - the first church in VR,
pastored by D.J. Soto, with multiple
worship services in metaverses.
Featured in Wired Magazine article.
Content
7 Miracles - An immersive adaptation
of the seven miracles of Jesus Christ
from the Gospel of John
Discover God App - Re-creates biblical
experiences in a virtual reality video
game/experience. Become Jesus and
participate fully in the biblical
narrative.
Holy Land VR Tour - Walk through all
the Biblical sites that you read about
in The Merged Gospels in virtual
space on your mobile device.
The Immersive Bible Experience - A
Kickstarter campaign to bring the
Bible to life, creating an interactive
experience of Bible visuals, events,
and characters overlaid within the
real-world environment around you.
JesusVR - A you-are-there VR
experience for the entirety of Jesus’s
life and death, from his baptism to the
Sermon on the Mount, and from the
Last Supper to his crucifixion.
75
Companies
3 Dream VR - Virtual Reality solutions
including VRES™ Virtual Reality
Education System and is actively
engaged in producing custom VR
development for safety training and
job task training for national and
global clients.
Augmented Reality & Co. South East
Asia company
CHVRCH+ - creating authentic and
interactive digital faith communities.
Fishermen Labs - agency that provides
design for UX/UI and development for
web, AR, and VR applications
Immerse.online Improve your English
speaking and listening skills with live
language training in context-specific
virtual reality scenarios.
Immersed - VR platform for remote
teamwork collaboration
Industry Lift A public benefit
corporation addressing the need for
skilled trade workers.
Tentmakers CR - Costa Rica based VR
company.
The Octagon Project - films biblical
sites in Israel and turned them into
virtual experiences
VirBela - Enables next-generation,
remote collaboration.
Visually Linked Bible - championing
cutting-edge innovations that bring
fresh visual Bible content to life
desiring to expand the boundaries for
how people can explore and
experience the Bible as it comes alive
visually for our generation and the
next.
Events
CES - is the most influential tech event
in the world, the proving ground for
breakthrough technologies and global
innovators.
Gospel Outreach with Media - hosted
by the Christ in Media Institute at
Bethany Lutheran College, usually has
a Virtual Reality Emerging track
SIGGRAPH 2020. A helpful guide from
Irv Klaschus.
VR Summit - gathering the world’s
leaders to explore how to leverage this
emerging technology for Gospel
impact.
Event Summaries
Executive Summary: 5 Principles of
Community Building in Virtual Reality.
(May 23, 2018) At "Mission AR/VR
Network" online event, D.J. Soto (VR
Church) told the story of the world's
first VR church and shared "5
Principles of Community Building in
Virtual Reality."
Executive Summary: 5 Principles of
Storytelling in Virtual Reality. (July 18,
2018) John Bucher addressed five key
ideas to help students of new media
and professionals navigate the
emerging world of VR technology and
the art form of classical storytelling.
Executive Summary: How to Get
Started in VR. (March 29, 2019) learn
how to get your ministry going in
virtual reality from a technology and
ministry perspective.
Executive Summary: Leaning into the
ARVR World. (September 6, 2017) Jay
Kranda (Saddleback Church’s Online
Campus Pastor) shared “5 Principles
on How the Church Can Adopt
Technology, Social Media.” L Michelle
Salvant shared “Principles of Building
VR Environments.”
76
Executive Summary: Mission ARVR
Meet & Greet. (September 29, 2020)
discussed the implications of the
recent FB Connect event and the new
Oculus II headset.
Executive Summary: Why the Future
Will Be Immersive. (December 11,
2019) why virtual worlds will shape us
spiritually, teach us to learn differently
and change how we share our stories.
Ministries
Lausanne Media Engagement
Network - connecting key Christian
media professionals, influencers, and
leaders. The network is continuing to
reflect biblically and strategically on
the whole area of media engagement
to better understand the needs of the
global church and identify the highest
priorities.
Mission ARVR Closed FB group. You
may request to join. Mission ARVR
Facebook Page. A network for
creating, collaborating, and exploring
the use of augmented and virtual
reality technology in ministry contexts
Visual Story Network and their WIKI
have 24 pages of AR/VR resources.
Training
AVR Course - 11 month course at Oral
Roberts University.
Get Started in VR - 4 module course
offered by Oral Roberts University.
Blockchain (6)
Endaoment - A Decentralized
Autonomous Organiation Public
charity providing philanthropic
financial services, donor advised
funds and community funds
Engiven - the cryptocurrency platform
for Tithe.ly, integrating cryptocurrency
giving with traditional (fiat) giving
GiveTree - NFT marketplace that
raises money for charity (platform has
not launched yet)
HeartChurch - First “blockchain
church” and has an international reach
Mission DAO - The world’s first fully
transparent and decentralized
missions fund. Through the Mission
DAO NFT art sales, we aim to fund
both traditional missions and digital
missions.
VeChain - Supply chain focused
protocol, using IoT, BaaS (blockchain-
as-a-service), and AI, to track, record,
and build models for products
throughout the global supply chain

77
Christian Vendors (14)
Basil Tech - Tech consulting, Design
sprints, Product development
Christian Supply Chain Buying Group
(CSCBG) - Using the principles of
economies of scale, the group
provides improved pricing and
discounts from recommended
suppliers and vendors
Credera - Consulting firm covering a
wide range of industries, including
non-profits
Ekklesia360 and SiteOrganic are
church website builders, under the
Ministry Brands company
Fishermen Labs - agency that provides
design for UX/UI and development for
web, AR, and VR applications
Gloo - Data and insights company that
uses third-party data points and
organically collected data to enable
churches to target specific
demographics and groups.
Liferay software is helping 1,300+
companies with their digital
experience platform. They provide
intranet, website, customer portals,
partner portals, and integration
platforms.
Ministry One - Church management
software (SaaS)
MoonBeam Development - Mobile app
development
78
MVS - Tech consulting with a focus on
the development of e-business apps,
e-comm apps, an e-business solutions
in the financial sector. Developed
Prayteam.org and
Communitynook.com
Revival AI - AI driven software leading
custom Bible design and
manufacturing
TechBridge - Nonprofit tech firm
providing products and services with
the goal of ending world hunger,
provide homeless support, services
for workforce development, and social
justice
107 Business entities listed in
OpenChurch
In-Depth Reports for this topic:
Global Church Management
Software Market Report 2022,
single-user license $3145
Global Church Software Market
Size, Status and Forecast 2021-
2027, single-user license $4250
Church Management Software
Market - Global Industry Analysis,
Size, Share, Growth Opportunities,
Future Trends, Covid-19 Impact,
SWOT Analysis, Competition and
Forecasts 2021 to 2028, single-
user license $4500
Collaboration Platforms (22) Conferences (12)
Messaging-First Beijing Brief
Discord Business as Missions
Signal EMDC
Slack EMS National Conference
Threema Finishing The Task
Whatsapp GACX Conference
Globalocal Missions Conference
Video Conferencing-First Indigitous #HACK
Microsoft Teams ICCM Conference
Zoom Missio Nexus
Missional AI
Forum-First Chinese Mission Convention
Discourse
Reddit
Twitter

Document Management-First
Airtable
Dropbox
Google Workspace
Microsoft 365
Notion
Saintfol.io

Task Management-First
Jira
Trello

Idea Management-First
Glorify
Miro and Mural are digital white
boards allow for real-time
collaboration
YouVersion Bible app

Community Management-First
Crosswired is a platform and
collaborative space managed by
Khalibre Pte Ltd, a social enterprise,
formed in 2007 in Singapore and
Cambodia to deliver business
technology solutions and e-learning
for medium and large organizations
globally.

79
Content (49)
7G.tv - Chinese “YouTube”
AFC - Chinese Mission Convention
Alpha course
BibleProject - produces media to help
people encounter the Bible
Device & Virtue - Podcast, from
FaithTech, Chris Ridgeway and Adam
Graber
Global Media Outreach - shares Jesus
with the world in 26 languages by
driving traffic to our websites through
search engines and using the power
of search engine optimization (SEO).
i.BIBLE - an ambitious project to
create a visual interactive Bible into
7,000 languages
Jesus Film Project
Jesus.net - a worldwide network of
over 85 organizations operating in 34
languages, with a common dream and
strategy to help people take one step
closer to Jesus every day
Media 4 Movements - sharing
resources, events, and discussions
related to how media can be used to
enhance Disciple Making Movements
among the Unreached.
Media to Movements - equips disciple-
makers in media strategies to identify
and engage spiritual seekers who
accelerate a movement of
reproducing disciples
Ministry One - Church management
software (Saas), customized app,
focusing on congregation connections
and media, integrates with YouTube,
Vimeo, and Clover, heavy focus on
mobile usage
multilanguagemedia.org - Foreign
language Christian resources
Rightnow Media - Video streaming
library covering a range of topics from
books of the Bible, music/worship,
small group content, men’s and
women’s studies, and children studies
80
The Chosen TV Series
Think Eternity - Faith content and
training of young influencers to
leverage social media and other
platforms as “digital Billy Grahams”
(FB: 300k, IG: 110K)
Truelife.org - Informational platform,
answering user-submitted questions
Visual Story Network and their WIKI
has 24 pages of resources listed
Animation
Blu Elephant Studios - a full-fledge
production and animation studio. Rajiv
is a trusted brother with this company
based in India.
revelationmedia.com - animated the
“Pilgrim's Progress” movie and are
working with Kingstone Comics on the
Animated Bible
Corporate Production Work
Contexture - Orange County, CA, USA
Cooke Pictures - Burbank, CA, USA
Get Kinetic - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Steele House - Tulsa, OK, USA
Story Telling Pictures - Grand Rapids.
MI USA
Untamed - Seattle, WA, USA
Veracity CoLab - Newport Beach, CA,
USA
Siskey Productions - Jacksonville, FL,
USA
SmallMediaLarge - 3 US Offices:
Moscow, ID, Boone, NC, and
Pittsburgh, PA
Faith-Oriented Production Work Film Resources
Al Horreya tv 8 Ways to Know You Have a Great
Ablaze Media Productions - a Story - VSN webinar with script-writer
production team based in South East Brian Bird.
Asia and beyond, seeking to provide Check Out My Package: Making Your
quality media services ​to workers, Film Project Irresistible - 90-minute
sending bodies, missions panel on how to package your film
organizations, agencies. script from the Writers Guild of
Create International - Producing America.
indigenous gospel films for the How to Entertain and Engage
world’s Unreached peoples. They have Spiritually - VSN webinar with David
produced films for more than 225 Nixon.
least reached people groups, all of Top 10 Roles of a Producer - VSN
which can be downloaded for free at Webinar with Ralph Winter.
www.indigitube.tv
Create Middle East - Amman, Jordan
Create Mobile - Falmouth, MA
Deidox - Austin, TX
Digital Evangelism (12)
Emci TV (French only) Perspective Cards by CRU
Frontier Alliance International GodTools: Gospel Conversations by
GNPI Ten studios in 7 countries, CRU
including: Mexico, Ukraine, Thailand, YesHEIs app by Christian Vision
Philippines, India, Kenya, Uganda. Gospel Tracts Worldwide
(India has 3 studios. USA base is Alpha course
Joplin MO). Ekballo University
Harvest Media Ministry - Arizona Dreams about Jesus
International Media Ministries - Based Search for Jesus
in Madrid, Spain, we collaborate to Power to Change Ministries
produce visual story content and have Issues I Face
a library of existing Bible-based The Life
content for translation. The Mentor Network
Messenger Films - Tampa, FL
Reliant Creative - Creative agency for
ministries, with training on video,
media, storytelling
Rogue Marble - US-based, interested in
helping ministries tell their stories.
The Cultivation Project - disciples
Christian storytellers, educates the
Church about the missions field, and
provides professional multimedia
production to missionaries, ministries
and churches
TWR Motion - creates custom gospel-
centered videos to support the local
mission of church planters and
ministries.

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Frameworks (15)
Catalyst Services - Global
Engagement Framework - 5 phases
for developing a global engagement
strategy for a local church
Cisco’s digital transformation
framework
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/m/en_us
/never-
better/assets/files/Transform_into_a_
Digital_Business_with_Cisco.pdf
Coalition of the Willing and iShare - a
coalition of ministries who share
strategic data on Christian and church
presence with the purpose of planting
a church in every people and every
place.
Disciple.tools - End to End Funnel
Disciple-Making Movement examples:
Zume Training, More Disciples - 30
day challenge, Jonathan Training -
Team Expansion
FaithTech Labs - employs design
sprints, cohorts, and prototypes
Global Frontier Missions - a
movement of Christ-centered
communities dedicated to mobilizing,
training, and multiplying disciples and
churches to meet the physical and
spiritual needs of the least reached
people groups of the earth.
IDEO U teaches design thinking to
help teams and organizations
innovate revolutionary solutions
Indigitous Serve - Pipeline to mobilize
young adults in digital missions micro-
projects, supporting frontline workers
82
LDHR Leadership Framework -
combines the requirements of both
spiritual and strategic leadership in
light of our calling and identifies what
is critical for leaders in our
organization.
Media to Movements - visualizes the
end-to-end process, highlighting the
various media components and
personnel roles involved in a seeker's
journey in discovering Jesus online
and accelerating a disciple making
movement offline.
“Multiply the Harvest” - digital
discipleship and evangelism model
from SDAdata.org
Thechurch.digital Metachurch - Digital
Ads Framework for Non-Specialists -
to show non-specialists a framework
to help cut through the confusion with
digital advertising.
Training 4 Trainers - a process of
Discipleship, Evangelism,
Group/Church Formation, and
Leadership Development that was
developed by Southern Baptist
missionaries Ying & Grace Kai during
their time in China.
World Vision Ministry Framework -
brings together the strategy and vision
for TD, HEA, A&JC, Children in Ministry
and Christian Commitment in an
integrated way. It ties together the
existing model of ministry and child
well-being outcomes and provides a
platform for revising and developing
our operational guidance such as IPM
project models and starting point
strategies.
Gaming (19) Learning Management
A Journey Towards Jesus System (11)
Airship Genesis
Absorb
Bible App for Kids
Biblearc provides methods and tools
BibleByte Books
for studying the Bible systematically.
Christian Game Developers
The methods include arcing,
Conference
paraphrasing, and sentence
DvG
diagramming. Biblearc offers in-depth
Guardians of Ancora
self-paced classes on these methods
Heroes
as well as live web-based classes that
I Am Jesus Christ (not yet released)
use the methods to study through
Kingdom Games
passages of Scripture.
Lightgliders
Blackboard
LOGOS the Game
Canvas - subscription-based LMS
Not So Boring Bible
Faithlife Groups - Schools and groups
One of 500
can set up an online presence for
RD Games
collaboration. For users with Logos,
Righteous Tales
this allows notes made in the
Superbook Kids Bible App
software to be shared with other
TruPlay
students, who can also respond to
“The Next Mission Field Is a Game.”
these notes, turning every digital book
Christianity Today. 2020.
in Logos into a place for conversation.
Gnowbe - “Create compelling mobile-
friendly learning experiences in hours,
not days”
Moodle - free, open source LMS
Open Badges are a standard for
creating, awarding, and displaying
digital credentials. Open Badges are
being awarded by universities as well
as private sector companies like
Microsoft and IBM.
Redemption Seminary uses Logos
(including the Mobile Ed lectures),
Moodle, Zoom, and Google Docs to
deliver an online master’s degree in
biblical studies. Churches and other
ministries looking to provide a degree
program but lacking the resources to
create one from scratch can work with
Redemption to embed its program
into theirs.
Schoology
TalentLMS

83
Networks (16)
24:14
Coalition of the Willing (COTW)
Connect GC Network
EMDC
Ergatas has created a funding
platform to connect Christians with
missionaries.
FaithTech
Finishing the Task (FTT)
GenMobile is a digital platform that
connects global networks and
network leaders, using the database
maintained by Linking Global Voices
Global Alliance for Church
Multiplication (GACX)
Global CHE Network
Global Mission Mobilization Initiative
(GMMI)
Indigitous
Je Suis Deuxieme is a movement
based in Canada that gathers
discussion groups in a localized area.
Linking Global Voices - LGV has a
large directory of 650+ missions-
related networks
Mobile Ministry Forum
Waybase

84
Online Discipleship (31)
Arise - lessons with quizzes and
connect with other individuals in
discussion. The curriculum is divided
into 7 chapters for an overview of the
biblical narrative.
Big Life - Modules to teach people to
proclaim Christ with nteractive
participation and practicing simple
tools—much more than gaining
information and knowledge. Trainings
are best when done in groups of 15-30
people.
Contagious Disciple Making (CDM) -
Provides methods and coaching to
use the Discovery Bible Study and
build disciples within one’s
community. There are podcasts,
webinars, a mobile app, and blogs to
help guide and develop a movement in
the community
Disciple Makers Increase (YWAM) -
courses with an instructor to learn
about missions and disciple making
Disciple Nations Alliance - Free online
in 7 languages with the purpose to
disciple nations. They have various
courses like Kingdomizer Training
Program, Monday Church course,
Grand Design course, and a Thriving
Nation course.
Discipler Training International -
Discipleship lessons with an
emphasis on spiritual maturity,
spiritual fruitfulness, and spiritual
multiplication (available in Spanish,
Chinese, Burmese, Korean)
Disciples Path - shows individuals
how to disciple others - in the same
way Jesus did
Discipleship Library - Online collection
of discipleship training resources from
the last 60 years
Discipleship.Space - courses to grow
in personal relationship with Christ
and be equipped to disciple others.
They can also be paired with an
individual/e-coach who is an “online
missionary”
85
Discover - This Bible Study is a
popular method of discipleship study
to allow people to read the Bible and
discover what God is saying to them,
working best in small groups of 4-8
people.
E3 Partners - 4 fields of Jesus’
Strategy - Modules and videos for
leaders and believers to be trained as
healthy disciples and to be used to
build others up
J-Life Africa - a non-denominational
movement that exists to develop
leaders who will mobilize disciple-
making movements across Africa. At
J-Life, we believe that the best way to
bring about lasting life transformation
is through life-on-life discipling, which
requires of disciplemakers to go deep
with each person they are discipling
Kairos - Interactive course on the
Great Commission and to challenge
believers to meaningfully participate.
Like Jesus - modules to learn with
individuals, small groups, or churches
to model Jesus in life and ministry.
Jesus is the model, and he showed
the missions and gave methods to
make disciples.
Living on the Edge - Biblical teaching
and discipleship resources that
challenge and equip spiritually hungry
Christians all over the world. The
ultimate vision is to be a catalytic
movement of Christians living out
their faith in ways that transform
families, churches, and communities..
Matthew28 Movements Training -
African-continent focused course
Media to Movement - a collection of
training modules from its partner
ministries, which are Disciple Tools,
Kavanah Media, Kingdom Training,
and Mission Media U.
Ministry Training Institute (MTI) - Examples of secular tools to facilitate
Online institute for spiritual leadership connection
training through doctrinal Clubhouse - the social audio app
understanding and “real-world” Howspace - an AI-powered digital
practice facilitation tool made specifically for
Mission Media U - a mentored online facilitator-led workshops and events
training course to distribute to that thrive on high levels of
missionaries and church leaders so involvement and collaboration.
that they may learn to apply media Kahoot! - It only takes minutes to
and innovative technology to ministry. create a learning game or trivia quiz
This is a ministry of Visual Story on any topic, in any language.
Network. Lunchclub - facilitates casual
Navigators Global Student Programs conversations that lead to not-so-
(GSP and GSPX) - equip and train casual professional impact. Powered
young Christian leaders from around by AI.
the world to become better equipped Mentimeter - increase audience
and more fruitful ministers of the participation with easy-to-build
Gospel of Jesus Christ. presentations, interactive Polls,
No Place Left - Global network of Quizzes, and Word Clouds
believers who use the strategy of the 4 Sli.do - a platform to engage your
fields to train how to multiply disciples participants with live polls, Q&A,
and churches. There are future quizzes and word clouds
training or personal coaches to sign
up for. (in English and Arabic)
ReadySetGo - the process of gathering
and envisioning people to make
disciples for Christ in sport and play.
Sync with God- an integrated platform
that includes video chat, screen
sharing, text chat, a virtual journal, file
storage, monitoring capabilities, and
modules that can be led by passionate
and influential mentors. This
innovative app engages young people
and provides the means for well-
ordered instruction for online
discipleship.
Zume Training - learning experience
designed for small groups who follow
Jesus to learn how to obey His Great
Commission and make disciples who
multiply
Need Him Global - Gospel-focused
conversations via content, media,
phone, text, or online chat

86
Prayer (6)
24-7 Prayer - an organization that has
helped people encounter God and
engage with the needs of the world
through prayer. They started as a
prayer room and have since inspired
prayer in the most unlikely of places,
from churches and cathedrals to tents
and breweries. Lectio 365 is a free
daily devotional app from 24/7 Prayer.
Global Prayer Resource Network - a
hub for prayer resources. It is an
initiative that was born out of the
global day of prayer. It seeks to
provide a worldwide platform for
prayer, fueled by worship and quality
resources shared across borders and
denominations.
International House of Prayer - a
community of believers committed to
God, each other and establishing and
maintaining a 24/7 house of prayer in
Kansas City. Their interactive prayer
experience is in multiple languages
and is connected to a church. They
also have the full “faith experience”
online. As well as, quarterly 5-day
prayer conference, a university, and a
variety of prayer training.
87
International Prayer Connect (IPC) - a
coalition of more than 5,000 Christian
prayer networks, organizations,
Houses of Prayer, prayer leaders, and
praying people who share a common
vision to mobilize and equip
worldwide prayer for the blessing,
healing, and transformation of the
nations. They partner with many
organizations including 4-14 Window,
24/7 Prayer Movement, Cru, Every
Home for Christ, Global Alliance for
Church Multiplication, Global Day of
Prayer, IHOP, Transform World, and
many others.
Joshua Project - a research initiative
seeking to highlight the ethnic people
groups of the world with the fewest
followers of Christ. They gather,
integrate, and share people group
information to encourage church
planting movements among every
ethnic group and facilitate the
coordination of mission agency
efforts.
Prayercast - a ministry of OneWay,
leverages innovative technologies and
the help of gifted intercessors and
journalists to gather prayers, news,
stories, and video from around the
world.
Scripture Engagement (25)
Accordance Bible
American Bible Society
API.Bible
Avodah
Bible App for Kids
Bible Web App
Deaf Bible Society
Digital Bible Library
Dwell app
Every Tribe Every Nation
Faith Comes By Hearing has 2 notable
products: Bible.is and Digital Bible
Platform
Fighter Verses App
Get.Bible
Global Bible Project. and Bibles.org
He Reads Truth
illumiNations
International Scripture Ministries
(ISM)
Logos Bible Software
Military Bible Challenge
She Reads Truth
Streetlights Bible
Superbook Kids Bible App
Verses
Visually Linked Bible
YouVersion

88
Social Media and Influencers (44)
A Third of Us - The Alliance for the
Unreached is united in a vision to
bring the Good News of Jesus to
every single people group. Each has a
unique and important role: some in
Bible translation, some in church
planting, others in community
discipleship, media technology,
teaching, evangelism, or even helping
Christians pursue their careers
overseas.
Christar (website) and Instagram -
focuses on the least-reached regions
of the world: areas where people have
no access to a church that presents
the gospel in their language and in a
culturally relevant way
Cross.tv - Online, faith-based, social
media community sharing various
forms of media.
Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ
International) - global ministry, helping
students come to know Jesus, grow in
their faith, and go to their families,
communities, and the world to share
God’s love. Good article they’ve
posted: “How Social Media Will Help
You Share Your Faith”
ERLC article, “An untapped mission
field: How your church can use social
media” - a main point: “Be creative,
and think outside the box” - Churches
and missions orgs have creative
individuals, give them the tools to
leverage their skills to show what we
believe in, in a creative way.
FaithMeet - a Christian social network
to connect the Christian community
and churches together to enable
access to quality faith-based content,
events, and support in each members’
walk.
FrontGate Media - the largest and
most culture-engaged media group
and marketing service in the Christian
market.
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Influencing Generations for Christ
(IGC) - exists to help bring the next
generation back to Christ by helping
Christian schools become stronger
financially and operationally so they
can focus on academic development
and discipleship of students.
Jesus.social - Christian social network
dedicated to Christ. They desire to
unify the body of Christ through
technology and tools.
Joshua Project - a research initiative
seeking to highlight the ethnic people
groups of the world with the fewest
followers of Christ. They published
this how-to guide, “Using Facebook to
reach the Unreached”
MissionBox - a “one-stop” online
knowledge and connection hub for
nonprofits and charities from around
the world. While they’re not a Christian
organization, MissionBox has a global
reach and provides resources that can
be utilized by the church and missions
organizations.
TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance
Mission) - global missions agency that
partners with local churches to send
missionaries and plant reproducing
churches around the world. TEAM
members created a media ministry
after being denied visas to return to
the Middle East, with a 24/7 satellite-
television channel, website, mobile
apps, and various social media
accounts.
The Big 3 (Meta/Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter) - Share information about
missions, including needs, progress,
and impact of the missions at hand
TikTok’s Impacts - New assortment of
content to share the gospel in small,
easy to consume, video snippets
Notable Influencers
Joyce Meyer - Author and speaker
Facebook Followers: 11M | Facebook
Handle: @joycemeyerministries
Instagram Followers: 3.9M | Instagram
Handle: @joycemeyer
Tiktok Followers: 6.9K | Tiktok
Handle: joycemeyerministry
YouTube Subscribers: 735K| YouTube
Handle: joycemeyerministry
Nick Vujicic - Christian evangelist,
motivational speaker, and author
Facebook Followers: 10M |Facebook
Handle: Nick Vujicic
Instagram Followers: 1.6M |Instagram
Handle: @nickvujicic
TikTok Followers: 702K |TikTok
Handle: limbless.preacher
YouTube Subscribers: 199K |YouTube
Handle: Life Without Limbs
Franklin Graham - Evangelist and
missionary
Facebook Followers: 9.7M | Facebook
Handle: @FranklinGraham
Instagram Followers: 1.2M |
@franklin_graham
Rick Warren - Pastor (Saddleback Church)
and author
Facebook Followers: 8.1M | Facebook
Handle: @pastorrickwarren
Instagram Followers: 1M | Instagram
Handle: @pastorrickwarren
YouTube Subscribers: 157K| YouTube
Handle: Pastor Rick
Steven Furtick - Pastor (Elevation Church),
author, and Elevation Worship songwriter
Facebook Followers: 6.8M |Facebook
Handle: @StevenFurtick
Instagram Followers: 3.6M |Instagram
Handle: @stevenfurtick
TikTok Followers: 565.9K |TikTok
Handle: stevenfurtick
YouTube Subscribers: 2.14M
|YouTube Handle: Official Steven
Furtick
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Andre Valadao - Brazilian Christian singer
Facebook Followers: 5M | Facebook
Handle: @andrevaladaoofficial
Instagram Followers: 4.7M | Instagram
Handle: @andrevaladao
Tiktok Followers: 440.8K| Tiktok
Handle: @andrevaladao
YouTube Subscribers: 783K| YouTube
Handle: Andre Valadao
Kari Jobe - Contemporary Christian music
singer and songwriter
Facebook Followers: 2.6M |Facebook
Handle: @KariJobe
Instagram Followers: 1.4M |Instagram
Handle: @karijobe
TikTok Followers: 11K |TikTok
Handle: karijobeofficial
YouTube Subscribers: 1.19M
|YouTube Handle: Kari Jobe
Philip Mantofa - Pastor (Mawar Sharon
Church) and Author
Facebook Followers: 1M |Facebook
Handle: Philip Mantofa
Instagram Followers: 910K |Instagram
Handle: Philip Mantofa
TikTok Followers: 24.2K |TikTok
Handle: @psphilipmantofa
YouTube Subscribers: 861K |YouTube
Handle: Philip Mantofa
Sadie Robertson Huff - Author and
speaker
Facebook Followers: 1.7M | Facebook
Handle: @sadiecrobertson
Instagram Followers: 4.6M | Instagram
Handle: @legitsadierob
TikTok Followers: 480K | TikTok
Handle: @sadierobhuff
YouTube Subscribers: 528K | YouTube
Handle: Sadie Robertson
Maurice Dowell - TikTok Influencer
Instagram Followers: 41.6K |
Instagram Handle: @mauricerdowell
TikTok Followers 3.7M | TikTok
Handle: @mauricedowell
More Christian Influencers
1. Ariel Fitzpatrick
https://www.tiktok.com/@ariel.fitz
2. Bethany Hamilton
https://bethanyhamilton.com
3. Carlos Whittaker
https://carloswhittaker.com
4. Craig Groeschel
https://www.craiggroeschel.com
5. Jefferson Bethke
https://jeffandalyssa.com/
6. Jess and Gabe Conte
https://www.youtube.com/c/Jessand
Gabriel/
7. Joanna Gaines
https://www.instagram.com/joannag
aines/
8. John Crist
https://johncristcomedy.com/
9. Sunday Cool
https://www.tiktok.com/@sundaycool
tees

Tik Tok Influencers

1. Abideinhisword
2. Annalise Thompson
3. @fernqndaaa
4. Invasion Ministries
5. Olivia Rose
6. Sophia Ruffin
7. Strong in Christ
8. Warriors of Christ

Popular Christian Social Media

Campaigns
1. Cross Conference
2. Radical’s Secret Church
3. Urbana

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Theological Education (18) Volunteer Movement (12)
Columbia International University Catchafire - skills-based volunteering
Denver Seminary matching platform
Dallas Theological Seminary Commissioned (iOS, Android) - “The
Fuller Seminary Great Commission Supply Chain” in
Gateway Seminary 80+ languages, with Volunteer
Global Directory of Theological management, job postings, group
Education Institutions messaging, projects
Kairos University Giveffect - 10-in-1 Nonprofit Software -
Knox Seminary Volunteer Tracking & Management
Liberty University Software for Nonprofits
Moody Bible Institute Mission Finder - helps Christian
New Orleans Baptist Theological organizations by connecting them
Seminary with local volunteers, global
Reformed Theological Seminary missionaries, and donors
Rockbridge Seminary City Vision Library City Vision's
Southeastern Baptist Theological organization directory (previously
Seminary listed on TechMission's
thirdmill.org - multimedia curricula for ChristianVolunteering.org)
Christian leaders, produced in over 20 International Volunteer HQ -
languages empowering volunteers with fully-
Western Seminary hosted experience to make
https://www.seminarycomparison.co volunteering abroad more affordable
m/data/ and accessible to everyone.
BibleMesh Taproot Plus - connects nonprofits
and skilled volunteers to build
stronger organizations
Timecounts - Volunteer Database
Management & Tracking Software-
because it has integrations with a lot
of software they would potentially
already have
Salesforce nonprofit CRM has a
Volunteers for Salesforce add-on,
especially helpful if organization
already uses Salesforce
Volunteer World - Search & compare
international volunteer programs
offered by volunteer organizations and
local NGOs
Volunteer Match - connects you to
ready volunteers and then you can
manage your opportunities etc.
VOMO is a platform that streamlines
the volunteer experience by
connecting volunteers with
organizations.

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 Visit the site:
https://ndgt.us/digitalreport

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