We are all digital missionaries. Is this an overstatement? Yes, technically. You may not be running a full digital ministry strategy or even know how to place an ad on social media, but every time you’ve shared about a spiritual gathering on Facebook or used WhatsApp to invite an unbelieving friend to coffee, you are serving as a digital missionary. We are all digital missionaries when we leverage digital tools for the purpose of connecting to lost souls, hoping to lead them to their Savior—Jesus Christ.

Mongolia can be an empty and desolate place—even more so during a global pandemic. OneHope’s team was determined to continue ministry work there even though they could not gather in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. So they turned to the internet and got creative about how to use digital content to reach children. Our team started a weekly Facebook livestream sharing the fun, animated Scripture stories from the Bible App for Kids, an app we created with our friends at YouVersion.

Meet Tal (name changed). He came from Israel to Rio de Janeiro in search of new experiences. As with many young traveling Israelis, this included partying, abundant alcohol, and mind-bending drugs. He found just what he was looking for, and for a while he felt amazing. But as the days went by, these activities grew hollow. Tal admitted this kind of life began to feel very empty. Then, he remembered the Christian volunteers he met at the hostel where he was staying. He noticed their demeanor. They treated each guest with warmth, hospitality, and respect. “There was just something about them that drew me to them,” he said.

Steve Jobs is famous for saying, “Do not try to do everything. Do one thing well.” I agree with that principle for many things in life, including ministry. Great feats can be accomplished when a person focuses their effort on one thing. However, not all ministries have that luxury. Those of us involved in digital evangelism are being forced to diversify our efforts and learn to do many things well.

Long before ChatGPT captured the zeitgeist, advances in AI (artificial intelligence) and other technologies have accelerated the efforts and impact of Christian ministries. One encouraging example, prompted by the pandemic: Christianity Today (CT) recently published its 2,500th non-English article, spanning more than 10 languages and reaching more than 4 million readers.

What Is a Hackathon? A hackathon is an event that gathers people of all skill sets to ideate, innovate, and collaborate on digital solutions. It often takes place at tech companies and at university computer science programs. Hackathons encourage friendly competition, where winning projects might receive a prize or generate new ideas and solutions for tech companies. Hackathons can be similar to design sprints, taking place in a limited amount of time for people to brainstorm, prototype, and build.

This issue of Mission Frontiers is focused on “Digital Mission.” This topic prompted me to look for a fresh approach. I say this as I think most of our readers will have a familiarity with one or two major approaches to this topic, if not both. One approach is to question whether something so inherently relational as a Gospel—that centers around an incarnational God who came to live among us —can adequately be communicated through digital mission approaches.

All people deserve to have the Word of God in their heart language. Today, we are closer than ever before to seeing the Bible translated into every language, but key barriers remain. Over 20% of the world is still waiting for the Bible in their heart language (6,600+ languages). “Last mile” is used to describe the short final segment of delivery of services or items to customers. Last mile logistics are usually the most complicated and expensive aspects of completing the service or delivery. This same dynamic occurs in completing the task of translating the Bible into every language.

Dave Adamson, a.k.a Aussie Dave, author of Metachurch declared on Twitter recently.1 91% of adults keep their smartphones within an arm's reach all day. If church leaders want to go into ALL THE WORLD to preach the Gospel, we have to turn our smartphones from a tool for distraction into a tool for discipleship. Though a US-based statistic, it is still notable.

We live in the most remarkable time in human history. For thousands of years people lived much the same as their grandparents did. Transportation was by horse and wagon. People lived off the land and heated their homes using firewood. But literally everything has changed over the last 150 years.

After Roman roads and the printing press, digital opportunity, represented by smartphones and internet connectivity, provides perhaps the greatest opportunity to date of finishing the Great Commission task. Paul Rattray shares learnings about the reach, relationship, and resourcing potential of digital opportunity through pioneering work being done by Christian Vision (CV) across the globe.