The Harvest Is Online but workers are offline - Digital Strategies

www.cremministry.org

Transcript

Welcome And Session Setup

SPEAKER_00 1:15

On timekeeping, but that's okay. Um I'm hoping everything is well and we can all be able to hear my voice, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yes, very much. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Thank you. So I will go further and share my screen. I will be just uh bringing that this aspect in a nutshell, and so to uh bring a break between the two, we'll watch a clip for one minute and then um we will ask a few questions and then we've progress. So let's watch okay, there we go.

Reacting To The Short Film

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Up to that point. My first question, which you can put your responses on the chat. First question is what did you like or dislike about that clip? What did you like or dislike about what you just saw? Let me hear one or two people uh put their responses. Does they do that? The second question. Uh, if you if you didn't like or dislike anything, the second question I'm asking is uh if if this was your parent or your father or your mother, how do you think they would have reacted? If this was any of your parents, how would they have responded? Let me get any of the first responses, quick responses. Uh attention to detail was so amazing. The beauty of making the cake, the father's love for the child. So, Kofi, yes, that is very true. Then now the last question: God is called father in the Bible. How does the idea of God delighting in you make you feel? This is just one of such examples of videos that have already been created from our end that we use to reach out to younger generations.

The Internet As The New City

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Because today, young people are everywhere and they are the majority. The phone has become the new city. If you you wanted to go to a given city and share the gospel, the internet on the online platform is the is the newest city that you can go. And if today you knew a given city that had a number of people, that is where you go and do church planting. In 2000, December 5th, on the Daily Mail, this was read. Internet may be just passing fad as million give up on it. Now, 26 years, people have not given up on internet. Instead, there are many innovations. Right now, people are asking church GPT and and Google and and um uh Gemini, various questions. People now trust Church GPT and they trust their parents and they trust their pastors and they trust the the source, even the Bible. They are young people do not trust the Bible. They they can trust church GPT than they can trust the word of God, they would ask everything. Even I was joking, I tell someone that even going to the hospital, they would rather they would rather ask the um the chat GPT, um, I my head is aching and I feel dizzy, what could be the problem? And then the answer they get when they go to the doctor, they're just trying to confirm. Sometime back when people would put something on their status, they would say that you know, my status are different from myself, but today that is not the norm. I agree with uh Underman Thompson who said that as more of our lives are spent online, seven hours approximately, um, it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish real life from life lived digitally. So today, when a person says on their social media platform, traveling to Mombasa, traveling to US, it is no longer fun, it's not a joke, it's a serious thing they are going. If someone says, I want to kill myself, that which they have written is not a joke, it is actually what they are going through. Many, many times, um, the things that people have put on their status, on their social media platforms, is as a result of what they are going through or the reflection that they have had. It could be from a devotion they have done, whatever the thing that they have gone through. So you see into this every every day uh in our life. Nowadays, it is very hard to distinguish what a person said and what a person is. So we agree that what we see on a social media platform is actually actually the true uh replica of a person. As we know that these are some two uh convictions that we have. One is that every organization is becoming a digital organization. Banks that used not uh we used to go under queue no longer do we queue. We can do transactions on our phones every time, anytime. There is no time to say that I can't access my bank because I don't have this and this. Studies which were done fiscally nowadays, many people are doing studies online. Things that were done otherwise online only are now changed. We have to do them both online and fiscal. But many organizations and a Christian organization, especially, and the church is lagging behind, whereas the world is going ahead. So we want to reach people online and helping them to fulfill the Great Commission, as Professor Tim has already shared. And for us, we don't do just digital for the sake of doing digitals, we do it for the sake of fulfilling the Great Commission. So we are not making tools, we are making disciples. The tools we are making are going to help us uh make disciples. The videos and every kind of kind of content creation that we are making is to help us to make disciples, uh, because that is the great command, which uh right now people will say that um is is kind of like a suggestion to others, but for us we know it is the great commission. So we need the content, the thing content is king, whatever we are putting on our social media platform is

Content Strategy That Serves People

SPEAKER_00 8:37

king. So then what is content strategy? So one of the things that we usually go through helping others to understand when um a person wants to do good content that will serve the purpose is to take them through content strategy. So one of the short uh courses that a person can undertake with us or even um um learn, uh, we we're yet to develop a good mechanism, although we have one that you can learn by self, is the part of content strategy. It is five lessons um program, and so content strategy itself is getting the right content to the right person in the right channel at the right time. Think about this. If today you went to comfort your friend who is undergoing a bereavement, you know, and maybe they lost their father or their mother who was not a believer, you not go to them and tell them, hey, you know, your father really died. You have you've missed them, and you know you've missed them twice. You know, your father was uh uh the greatest drunkard, you know. That guy, hey Banna, that guy has gone to hell. You have lost it, man. No, you have the right content, you are telling the right person. Maybe you're using the right channel, but this is the this is not the right time. Let's think about the the channel. You could be having the right content, and then somebody might have maybe committed suicide or somebody has been raped, and you are putting it on on WhatsApp status and the pictures how she was raped or how he was raped, or it is gender-based violence, and you're putting it everywhere, telling everyone, hey, see how so and so, or see how this person was knocked on the road by a vehicle. You could be having the right content. You are telling the right person probably, but you are putting it on the right on the wrong person on the wrong uh channel, but sometimes also even the wrong person. So content strategy would help us to create content that is audience-centered as we serve the person. We all know that churches, organizations, schools, and every one of us, every Christian, has content that they are giving. This is what we are offering. We have too much content, too much Bible verses, too much knowledge that we feel the people outside there should be able to know. But yet, as we have all this, we also know that they have needs. Some of them are having needs that are physical, they felt needs, and we are trying to help them meet the real need. How do we do this? The sweet spot is where the two of us meet. Jesus meeting the woman at the well, looks at her and says, Give me a drink, he knew where this would lead to. Her needs were satisfaction. So Jesus tells her, I will give you water that is living, which was going to be the sweet spot where something that will bring this person together to the point of agreement. So when we talk about this, we love that every time if you are dealing with the young generation, if you're dealing with the next generation, if you're dealing with Gen Z, Gen Alpha, um, uh, Gen Beta, wherever the generation you are dealing with, it is always much better for you to look at their needs and look at what you have. It is not all that you have that they need, neither is it that all that they need that we give, we have a sweet spot. There is one point that we can easily meet with them and share with

Audience Mapping Goals And Analytics

SPEAKER_00 11:54

them. So when talking about constant strategy, we talk about the audience. Good for us to always keep knowing who are we targeting? Is it the younger person? Where is this younger person? Is it are they in university? Are they in high school? Are they in primary school? Where exactly are they? Who are we trying to reach out to? Where are they in the journey of moving? When we talk about audience map, are they hostile? Are they friendly? You can go to um I will ask Maidia to share the link to the audience map on the chat. Are they hostile? Are they friendly? Are they growing believers? Are they uh um yet to grow believers? Where are they in the spiritual walk with the Lord? Are they rejecting Christ? Then when you get the clear the clarity of your audience, understanding the persona you are reaching out clearly, then now you need to know the goal. What do you want to achieve by creating what you are giving them, by talking to them, by calling them on WhatsApp, by calling them on phone, by even sharing with them what you are sharing? How do you want this, what you are giving them, serve them best? What do you want, what steps do you want them to take next after they have heard all that you have said? What do you want them to take next? Then, number three, what are you going to give them? The content, what are you going to give them? Is it going to be uh um a poster? Is it going to be content in form of video, short video? Is it going to be content in form of um a newsletter or a book that they can read? Uh, what are you going to give them? Which kind of content are they going to be quiz that you're going to give them? Are they going to be in form of games? So you ask yourself, which content are you giving them? But then lastly, you ask yourself, how are you going to distribute it? Are you going to give them hard copies? Are you going to give them when they are um um on on Facebook, on TikTok? Are you going to give them on Instagram? How are you going to give uh to distribute this which you have? Then, lastly, is doing analytics, doing the part of checking. Did you achieve your goal? Did you achieve another goal than what you wanted to achieve? If you did not achieve your goal, what is this that happened that made the work not to happen? What action did they take? And the action that they took, where did it lead them to? Otherwise, what would you have done better if this never happened? So, this is like doing a feedback to yourself to help yourself do the work much better. Recently, uh, I saw this post here on Facebook, and this is what it was saying faithful at church upon at 2 a.m. The this the distance between these two men is getting wider and wider each week. So, and then the the person who had put this post on the social media platform had boosted the content so that it could reach many people, and then they are placed they are placing a link that a person can really uh read and um and get to read more in that art code that they have placed. Maybe you are here and you are good, uh you are a good art core writer, you are a good content creator in form of art course. You can do something like a poster, something like this is very, very, very catchy. As if that's not enough.

Building Trust Through Online Follow Up

SPEAKER_00 15:11

In one of the social media platforms, um, that is WhatsApp, I went to a given center to to minister to students, and on sharing the the gospel to them, I asked them um I to receive Christ, which is the usual thing we do, the public proclamation and asking people to come to Jesus. But I also remember that that there are those who would receive Christ, the Nicodemus style. And those of the Nicodemus style, I said, here is my phone number. If you are struggling with one item or another, or you receive Christ today, you can reach me out. And I tell you, dear brothers and sisters, the number of people who came to the faith online were many. Even though I was there in person, the people who reached out to me online were very many. Look at this kind of conversation with one of the students. The student asked me, uh, gave appreciated for sharing the gospel, and then I asked their name, then they went further, told me their name. Then they asked me if they if I would share, I would have them the streams that they are going through, and they asked me to keep it uh sorry, to keep it confidential. Oh, sorry, I need to go back. And then after that, they shared that they were struggling with an addiction of masturbation. Many of our younger uh brothers and sisters are going through this challenge, and so we need to be careful, we need to be intentional. Most of you are able to share the gospel in churches, in centers. You need to learn that art, probably, and ask them if you are here and try to connect them to yourself. But when you connect them to yourself, always remember the goal of evangelism. The goal is to build trust. You want to build trust with the student or with the younger person. If they don't trust you, they will not speak to you. They can otherwise be with you and tell someone their problems. Always make sure you build trust. Agree with them and say, hey, I can hear what you are going through. How can I help? Let them know that you are concerned. Find an entry point, just like I said. Know the sweet spot in their life. Maybe as they share, you can say, Oh, I can imagine what you're going through. Have you ever thought of searching for help anywhere else? Where was that? So try to get uh the entry point, then share God's truth. Don't share your life experience. Your life experience is good, it is undisputable, but it is much better if we share the truth, even as we share our life examples, share it through that aspect. Then give it a call to action. Let them see after they have done all this, what next should they learn to do? As I moved further, I want to remind us and say that the harvest is online, but the laborers are offline. Most of the people the Lord has called to serve him are not doing this work to where the laborers are, they are doing it in another place.

Campaign Results And People Behind Numbers

SPEAKER_00 18:07

We did um a number of campaigns, and in the last 60 days, see, we spent um some amount of money, not really much, but I want us to focus on this lower side here. We spent 3,000 for social media campaign, 3,620 for a social media campaign. This was during uh preparing for Easter length length period, and the the the it was titled Living for Him. Living for Him Fully. We had 26,000 views using 3,000. We had 16,000 viewers, so views although people just saw it, but they they might have read or never read it. But then we had 51 message conversation. These are now the people who we were able to talk to, uh even going to the details. I am not able to get the exact number, but the last time I checked was 28 of these 51. Their conversation had gone further to the point of them hearing the gospel, some saying I am a believer, some saying I am not a believer and I would love to receive Christ. This is a small amount of money that has been used to reach this huge number of people. If we were to do an open air, to reach 16,000 people, 3,000 is not amount of money that you can talk about. So this is a potential that you can also uh probably uh at a later point uh learn to do that. When we see these numbers like 26,000, uh 51 message conversations, for example, if we say both 51, behind every number is a person. It is not just a number saying 51. These are individuals, these are individual people that are uh we are talking about, and this person has a story. There is a story that we don't know about them, even when they are trying to connect with us, and really their story matters to God. So, some of the tools that you can use at a later point that you can interact with is the Jesus Film, God Tools, Tribe Studies, Everestudent.com, and a number of them. You can get some of these tools on um on Play Store, and then you can interact with them. They are self-um uh explanatory, but then you may need to get a deeper uh training to learn and understand how each and every one of them uh really goes like. I think my minutes are over if I am not wrong. This is how the audience map looks like the hostile community uh and interested. So when you go to audience map.org and click, you'll be able to see everything in details, and then when you click on each of them, you'll be able to see what each of them does. Got tools when you download, you'll be able to get the four spirituals, um, and many, many other tools that you can use online to do the gospel. You can get tools for evangelism, you'll get tools for discipleship, you'll get tools for starting the gospel. You'll also get lessons that you can teach yourself, you'll also be able to change into various languages some of the things that you can do. We have developed next steps which would help you want content to reach many people using various approaches. We have a Wi-Fi box that you can use when you are seated in a corner. Many young people love the internet. You can sit in a corner and put this Wi-Fi hotspot, and then it can reach many people. When people connect, you are able to chat with them. When you chat with them, you are able to connect them with the divine. Our desire is to move people from external conversations to internal conversations and then finally lead them to eternal conversation. External conversation is talking about normal things. For the gospel, and they will connect with you and you'll help them. There are those who are not interested. They will click your content, but they are not interested. They too will you in over time you'll you'll be able to learn how to deal with them. Then the confused seeker, you are placing a good gospel content, but they will be asking you questions like do you give people money? Do you give people this? They are confused. You can help them back to be the tuning seekers. The trolling seekers are the ones who want to ask you, I want to date you, send me your picture, things like that. But then we we are able to help you get to know how exactly you can deal with them. The aggressive seeker, the one who threaten you and tell you how bad you are and how you don't need to do that. Brothers and sisters, if I continue speaking, I will not stop. Allow me to welcome my brother Mahidia to check out. Maybe just before.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Okay, maybe I can guide uh Naftal a little bit. Maybe just before you transition to Maidia, because I know that your content and his are are related but a bit different. I was iki, maybe we allow you, uh maybe you allow us some 15 minutes just because people may have very immediate questions and it might be helpful for you to guide us, like how do you get the go tools, where is the link, and so on, and then maybe even just give us a bigger picture of about how many people are coming to Christ or hearing the gospel online, uh, you know, maybe locally around the world, uh, using different methods and so on. And uh yeah, so that that will divide the what would have been a quick QA time later on. My idea will take part of it, but maybe you can take 15, maximum 20, uh, and so on. Yeah. Would that be okay? And if you need to add a bit more content, if there are some things you hadn't shared, feel free so that the audience can benefit because they are here to get as much benefit from you.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Thank you very much for that.

Impact Stats And Where To Start

SPEAKER_00 23:45

So, um, for example, with the God tools, uh, the whole of last year, over 175,000 Kenyans were um exposed with the gospel, over 750 were able to confess Christ and underwent discipleship. That was for the online uh engagement only. Currently, with the Jesus film, especially with the partnership with TV stations in Kenya, 10 TV stations for December, the the exposures for TV stations was 6 million Kenyans because the partnership was for 10 TV stations, and a good number of them, not really many of them, but 56 people from December um gave life to Christ. Some did not give life to Christ but committed their life to Christ. Maybe now I joined with the phone to show how a person can go through uh some of these applications.

Jesus Film Tools And Downloads

SPEAKER_00 24:42

But if you are using your computer right now, you can let me share my screen to share to show something that a person using a computer can get from Jesus Film, and probably when I I will use the computer, you would be able to um so you go to your Chrome or to your search engine and you write Jesusfilm.org slash watch. Mighty is going to share the link in a few jesusfilm.org slash watch. So you'll be able to get the whole of this library, a library of 750 something uh videos that are already available. When you click on the first video here, the Jesus, and search whatever the language you understand on this place of the language, you can get every language that you want, whatever the heart language that you speak. But also, we know that people don't watch the whole the whole film, people don't have two hours of late. You can see down here the videos of Jesus have been classified into subsections, into subdepartments that uh um we call them segments that you can watch for three minutes, five minutes with the people in your home. And after people have watched, when you see down here, you'll see questions that people can uh respond to or that people can ask, and that is going to be a great uh place that you can start interacting uh with your audience. We go back um to show the uh down. Let me hide the annotations. So that's the first uh place that you can get resources, but that's not all. When you scroll up, you'll see women's resources, you'll see children resources like uh the story of Jesus for children, uh story clubs. You'll find them here. For those of us who love to do content from um the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you'll find it down here. Lumo. When you click on lumo, you'll find the four gospels lumo, lumo, lumo, lumo. Um the short films, like the short film that I shared when we began the session. Here we have 70 videos. 70 videos that have been already done that you can use to watch with people and start a conversation. Like falling place is one of them that you can use. Delight, which I just shared. So when you want any of the videos, you click on a video. Let me, for example, click on this, you scroll up, and then you see download. When you click on download, you agree, and then always it's better to choose low quality um so that the space is saved. So when you download, it now goes to your um phone or to your computer, um uh uh server engine. We can go to play store. Let's go to play store and write Jesus write God tools. Join with the phone so that I can be able to um as well share. So meanwhile be on Play Store and write God tools.

God Tools App And Sharing Features

SPEAKER_00 28:39

And then PlayStation such code tools app, you'll see an app that looks like that. Then you will install it if you have not installed. So swipe your screen to the far end that you will be able to see uh the the work in in an easier way. Then when you click on tools, when you click on tools, you will see all these tools there, but then you need to click on see all tools. So you'll see all these tools. Some of the tools are not having the the the icon for love, is not blue. So when you do that blue, it will mean that your work will be available uh when you are offline. So when you click now on favorite, you'll be able to find them all. In the part of lessons, down there, you'll find the lessons. Allow me to mention about the four spiritual laws. When you open the four spiritual laws, for example, there is a place down here for versions. So when you click on versions, you can see which version fits your audience. Is it the one that's connecting with God for younger children for younger uh uh generation? The four fantastic facts, which is designed for ages four to seven of age. Now, for the sake of this learning, let me open the common one. And down here there is an arrow. When you click on that arrow, you see the first law, God loves you, and then there is also the portion of um God's love and God's plan. When you click on each of them, you'll be able to see the verses. So you see the second one, the third one, the fourth, and then the place for the circles if you have interacted with the four spiritual laws. And if a person receives Christ, you'll be able to connect them even here virtually, uh, and somebody will be able to talk to them. And also the last suggestion here. For the parts that uh prof has just asked for us to keep seeing how practical it is. If, for example, I click on the three dots in a circle on top there, you'll see share link, uh, share your screen, training tips. But down there, there is a place for English and parallel. So when I click on parallel, I can, for example, choose uh kikuyu. Here we have Kikuyu. So I can choose Kikuyu, or let me just uh uh choose French for the sake of learning. So the French part now comes here. When I click on French, it changes the content to French and English the same. So this makes your work easier if you're minister ministering to a person who is not of your community, but also you can click there and then you can share the link to a person who you needed. You can also do a screenshot of each of them, and then you'll be able to share it on your WhatsApp status or uh Instagram status or whatever the platform. That is the best first introduction that I would mention. Um sorry I can see my phone going low on chat, um, but I believe we have been able to see uh some of the common things.

Thrive Studies For Discipleship

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Uh, the other tool that I mentioned, if you are running a discipleship program with younger people and you are wondering where do you get resources to train them or to coach them, you can on your platform you can write an app called on the same point of place, so you can download an app called Thrive Studies. Thrive Studies, but also I am sharing this link so that you can be able to access the content. Um, let me share this link for us uh for later use, even for now. So when you click on that link or you download the application, when you click on start, you will be able to get the first follow-up materials that you can do with a younger person. Confidence uh is when you are helping them to be assured of their salvation, forgiveness, plugin, and then we when you click on um walk here. Now you choose a topic that you want, and each of the topics has four four lessons. So, if for example, you want to choose a topic like uh the me series or sex series, when you click on each, it's you'll be able to see the four lessons, and there is a leader's guide that as a leader, as a trainer, you have the guide that will you will use as a guider. The part for student notes, this is what you can share to them. The idea is when how how to communicate to them in a way that they will not be bored. You can have a video, you can have some games that you can play with them, things that are really, really um meaningful to them as you engage with them. Um, then uh when you click on any of this, like for example, student notes or the the student notes, so it comes as a PDF you download, and then you can share to your students in a way that you'll engage with them. I believe that this uh at a nutshell is some of the fundamental and best things that we would love to to practice.

Training Options And Closing Q&A

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Now I open it for questions before my idea comes over to speak.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Any question? Uh, there was one on the chat which I believe you can answer, which is uh, are you able to share maybe your material, your notes? Uh just so that people can maybe, since I know you covered a lot of material, maybe in quick time, uh, for people just to reflect.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Okay, yeah, we can share the links just like we have started to share, uh, so that you can connect with them. Uh, now that we did not do in details, it would be unfair to share with you the the the materials because some of them, if you can see they are not explaining in details the way when we are speaking, we are explaining. So probably a person can consider um forming a small team of maybe more than 20 people so that they can be trained together. But as well, we usually have monthly uh trainings focusing on one item. But if a team wanted to be trained on something, they can plan um one hour per week, and then within three to four weeks, we are able to share much of the content.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. I think it's important to mention that that uh this was really just a brief introduction. The training takes a bit longer and then helps the training is very practical. You actually are trained, you go apply, you come back and discuss the challenges you had, and it is at no cost. It's a ministry to the church. And uh we'll be very happy to offer this to Krem. That's what uh Naftal is saying, uh, so long as there is a substantial group, and tonight we are six or something, or actually we are 70 something at some point, we are now 70. So it is possible that uh, you know, either all or a number of us would be interested in a specific aspect like the digital tools, uh, can request that, and uh, naftal will be able to coordinate you with a trainer.