Bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of the world is a command that God has given to every Christian. Doing our part may be traveling to another part of the world carrying the message to the people that are there, or it may be making sure the message can be carried to those people. That means producing accessible Bible study media content, and providing that through a pipeline of supportable media tools and infrastructure. This is your call to action!
The Internet is currently providing exciting opportunity for missions as a place to store content from one part of the world for instant access almost anywhere else in the world. Cellular telephony is bringing the internet to places where before the only available media outlet was short wave radio. With the continuing development of satellite based communication, this reach can reasonably be expected to continue to grow.
Physical tools to access media are becoming more available, and more supportable in the developing world. Clean paper and personal computer printers are becoming more widely available, at least on a community basis in cities and more developed areas. Alternative power such as solar panels and hand cranked battery chargers are providing the electricity to support a new generation of low-power laptop computers, audio players and even cellular telephones. Imagine going to a shop and paying to have your cellular telephone charged – this is the reality for many thousands of people in the developing world, for those who are not renting telephones by the call.
Now that these tools and infrastructure are coming on line in the battle for souls, we have an obligation to insure that sound Biblical content is not only available in a variety of media formats, but that it is accessible to language groups being reached, and can be obtained and utilized – and even shared – with the tools now available. This means concise printed documents, or printable documents where documents can be transmitted to the field and printed on the ground. This means audio and video recordings that are clear and powerful, and also accessible to the language groups being reached. Delivering media via the internet using open formats and free repositories removes many boundaries of international borders, and the time and cost to transport physical materials.
1 Corinthians 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?