 Okay, the recording is on. Good morning everybody. Welcome to BC 314, our course on media and technology in ministry. And yeah, sorry about the delay in getting this course started this semester. We couldn't get it done so far but I'm glad that we're able to connect and I'm sure we'll have a good time as we journey through this course. For almost all of you, I think this will be your last semester. And you'll all be graduating end of this semester in May. So I'm excited about that as well for all of you. You've persevered, you've stayed with our classes, especially as we journey through the pandemic and come out of it. And here we are. So wonderful. Let's take a moment just to pray together and then we will get started. Good. Somebody lead us in prayer, please. Go ahead. Dear God, thank you Lord for this day. Thank you so much God for the opportunity to learn about media technology. Lord, you're so good and we're thankful throughout all these years. And as we're about to learn more, then you fill us with wisdom and understanding that we grasp the truth and everything that you have for us to learn and understand God. Thank you Lord for bestows you. This is about to teach Lord that you fill in with matter of spirit and as you teach this God that you will understand and build to grasp the truth. Thank you Lord for everything you need to pray. Amen. Amen. Good morning and once again, welcome. So this course, let's get the course introduced, media and technology and ministry and the positioning of this course. Now, one of the things that, at least in my journey as a pastor over the last two decades in pasturing all people's church here in Bangalore. And of course, even times before that, but I'm speaking mainly from this journey was that whether I liked it or not, I had to be involved in so many decisions that had to do with media and technology. So, I could not say, hey, I'm a pastor. So don't trouble me with that. And I couldn't say that, you know, right from the very beginning on day one, we had to make basic decisions like, you know, we have to buy a small amplifier. We had to buy two speakers and maybe three mics. And I had no idea. I literally had no understanding of audio equipment. No understanding of how all this works. I didn't even know, you know, how do you connect a mic to an amplifier? I had no idea. I'm going back in the very beginning, you know, I had no idea, but I had to make a decision. Yeah, we have to, we need to buy speakers need to buy some microphones. And those days, we had this small overhead projector and all those things, you know, so that's how it all started. And I had to make this, you know, make this of course, we talked to people and say, you know, please tell me what I should buy and what I shouldn't buy and so on so forth. And then as you made the journey over the years, there were a lot of other things that began to play. There was the internet. So we had to record, you know, the sermons. The internet came in the picture. We, you know, we could put sermons online. Or the internet also became a way to communicate with people, get information, then, you know, things have just exploded over the last 20 years. So what has happened just speaking practically over the last 20 years is even though for me as a pastor, yes, my primary responsibility would be to teach and preach the word of God. And I found that I cannot escape the fact that I have to be involved in these decisions that actually deal with media and technology. Now, for me, okay, I'm interested. I like to learn. I like to, you know, understand these things and be involved. Even though I myself, I'm not directly doing the work, you know, there are a lot of other people who are doing the work, but they will come to the pastor and many of you may have experienced the same thing that when you are leading your ministry. Yes, there will be people who are responsible for the media, the audio and, you know, what's happening on online, etc. But usually they'll come to you to make decisions. Maybe it's about money. How much do we spend? Can we spend money on this or that? You know, should we buy this equipment? Should we buy that equipment? Or, you know, should we hire, rent this kind of equipment? They come to you as though you are the expert, as though you know everything. But actually, you know, we don't, but because you are in that position as a leader in charge of that ministry, finally, you know, those decisions come back to you in this whole space. And not only that, but you also have to provide vision to the people saying, let's go in this direction, let's tap into this opportunity or let's try to do this or this is how we should position ourselves when it comes to social media platforms or delivering of our content online. You know, this is how these are the areas. Let's do it, you know, because the people themselves who are volunteering or working in the organization, they may be very focused on just getting their thing done. They may not be having an outward look on, hey, there are all these opportunities we could tap into for ministry or, sorry. There are, there are all these, excuse me, there are all these opportunities that have been for ministry. There are all these avenues for growth and so on and so forth. They may not be thinking or they may not even be exposed to those things. So as a leader, you know, you need to be looking out. You need to be mobilizing, pointing the way, pointing the direction for people to go into, right? So from both these, for both these reasons, one, people coming to you to make decisions concerning media and technology. And second, for you to be more of a visionary or point of moving people saying, let's go, let's do these things. Let's try out these things. For both these reasons, I felt that we need to have a course like this, media and technology in ministry. So we introduced this course maybe just two years ago, I think. Before that, we did have a course on contemporary methods in ministry where we covered few ideas. So we were doing that course contemporary methods in ministry for several years. And then maybe two years ago or three years ago, I said, look, we need to change everything because there's so much more that's happening in media and technology and we need to inform people. I mean, those are preparing for ministry and give them an exposure and all these things so that it'll be helpful for them to make decisions. So this is a non-technical course. That means we're not going to tell you, you know, technically how to, you know, plug in your devices, whatever. But at the same time, there is a lot of technical information that we're going to get across to you. But you're not going to, you know, so you're not going to be tested on, you know, the configuration you need for live streaming or the configuration that you need for your in-house audio and your broadcast audio, or you're not going to be tested on those things. I'm going to share that information with you so that you can keep it with you as a reference point. And if and when you need to use it in your ministry, at least you have a place to go to, and you can definitely build on it. And secondly, as a leader, when people are talking to you about these things, at least you have some understanding. Okay, I know what you're saying. If they tell me why we need speakers and, you know, these number of speakers in the auditorium, okay, there is a logic to it. And yeah, I understand what you're saying. Or maybe sometimes they're telling you something that's wrong and maybe you can say, hey, maybe we don't need those speakers, or have you done this test? Or, you know, you can ask some pretty meaningful questions that will get your people to look at the right thing. So we are going to share a lot of useful information. But remember this is not a technical course. So we're not going to test you on how to do it and so on. It's more of a, it's good for you to know these things because as even though you're a spiritual, you're going to be in spiritual ministry, you will be faced with these practical things having to do with media and technology. And if you have some information on it, it'll help you make right decisions. It'll help you guide people in the right way as you're all working together. Okay, so that's the motivation. That's the background to this course. Any questions on that? Is everybody okay? You're clear? Okay. All right, I'm assuming you're all with me. Let's just go through the course overview and then we'll get started today. Sorry, just kidding over this. Okay. All right. So, you know, what are we going to do in this course? I'm going to, we're going to start off first of all by just looking at what's happening globally in terms of media and technology. We'll look at some data that's available and so we'll just go online and look at this information. Of course, you can study it. And then also we look at the generation. It's very important to understand, you know, how the generation that we are engaging with, you know, how they are interacting with media technology and how the place media technology has in their lives. So that's very important for us to understand. Because ultimately, these are tools by which we are bringing God's word to their lives. And so if we understand the tools, the platforms, the areas where these people are engaging, then we could, you know, work towards that in a meaningful way. We just run through various methods that are being used in ministry today. You know, and we will see how things have changed over time, whether it's in worship and the preaching of the word and so on. We'll talk about some guidelines. So, you know, what are some, you know, what we call as boundaries or gold standards we must maintain while we use changing methods. The methods are changing. Technology is changing. Tools are changing. But there are certain things we want to maintain. And you talk about that. Then it's like breaking it down into different areas, you know, in the ministering the word and the places we gather in the way worship is done and the way creative arts is being used. And other things, print media, radio and television. So here, you know, we will kind of give you a little bit of technical information. Okay. If you want to set up something for live streaming, you know, here, these are the things products you'll need to use. If you want to sell it, you know, for your audio equipment, you know, these are things you need. So on so forth, you know, so we'll give you that information. Don't get, you know, don't get overwhelmed by it. It's just, it's good for you to have it. And then when you, you know, when you are maybe setting up a church or ministry, you can tap into this information and so on. So look at entertainment, what's happening, digital communications, establishing guidelines for the use of graphics and videos and using social media, digital equipment, software platforms and data production, confidentiality and privacy. Talk a little bit about that. So we've got some interesting ground to cover. And, you know, if possible, I'll try to get some of our people to also come and talk to us. You know, our head of media or person doing the audio and so on, if they can come and talk to us, but generally I'll give you the content. And if possible, I get them to come as well and do a lecture or talk to us as we journey through. Okay, so let's get started today. Maybe just look at the trends and the generation to white. So when we say media, we're just looking at, you know, all forms of mass communication, you know, that this is, you know, if you want to see very broadly, there's broadcast publish publishing and the internet different platforms or mediums of mass communication. And then within that there are so many variations. You can have print books, magazines, newspapers, TV, all kinds of forms, all forms of video and how these are being distributed. And nowadays mobile phones become a very important part of this whole platform distribution and so on. So when we talk about technology, we're talking about the skills, the processes, the equipment, the software and the hardware that is being used to deliver content to people. Now, it's very interesting, you know, to keep in touch with what's happening worldwide. So I'll just point us to these, these, these links. And of course, there are many other places you can look at. And you can look at, you can also look at information that's very specific to your area or your region or your target audience. But we'll generally look at one minute. Let me just pause here. I'll share my screen so you'll be able to see everything. Yeah, so let me go to PDF. So just give you, you know, we'll go to these links and I'll just share them with you. And it's really interesting to look at these numbers, how huge they are. So this one, a digital overview is actually opened on this, yeah, digital around the world. That's an advertisement. Get rid of it. All right. So this is as of Jan 2020. Let's get rid of this ad here. Okay. So you look way back in the nineties, how many millions of people online 2.6. And here we are 2023. We are over, you know, by 1,158 million, so almost 5 billion people online. Right. So 5 billion people online. So that means in some way or another, we again, we're saying potentially have the opportunity to reach out to them, connect to them online. Right. That's interesting to know. Then, of course, you can read all of this information here, but look at some other things that make you heard of this. Anyway, so from about 8, in about 8 billion people, we've got 68% of the people who are mobile phone users, about 5.4 billion people. We've got very close 64%, about 5.16 billion people online. And you've got almost 60% or 4.7 people, 76 billion people who are using what active social media users. So what we're saying is this is actually a big opportunity for the church. And of course, we know that within this are people of different languages and so on. So it's not simple and straightforward. But the fact is the church, when I say the church, I mean people across people globally, the church globally, we have the opportunity to reach people worldwide with these things. I think here you have, yeah. So if you just run through this report and look at what's happening, let's run through this territory. You can coordination specific global headlines. Yeah. So we saw this. You see the growth. Now you can go through this presentation. I'm just kind of letting you know that this is there for you to look at. I'm not going to go through the whole presentation or all the data, but just for us to know, hey, you can go in and look at all this data online. So what are we seeing? We're seeing that there is growth year on year, about 67 million people, of course, being added. You see the percentage of people getting on with their mobile phones, coming on the Internet and coming on social media. There's a constant growth year on year. Millions, 137 million people getting on social media. So just to let us know there is this great opportunity for us to get on and reach people. Let me see here. Okay. Just one more slide and then we will shift. But think about this here when we are just looking at the demographics. We saw this. So if you look at male and female population. We see the change here. Let's look at it. But worldwide, we're talking about 57% urban population. We are talking about people who are literate. Of course, that's male literacy. So we do have the opportunity of reaching people. Now, I know there would be groups that, you know, you can't necessarily use or you have to think of different ways of using technology, depending on their access to the Internet or their education, literacy and so on. So we will have to modify it. It's not like a uniform thing. But generally speaking, we have the opportunity to reach people who are connected to the Internet. Who are in some way literate. So that means we are able to communicate to them through a language that, you know, as a medium. And that's a huge percentage close to about 86% of the world's population that we have the opportunity to reach. Okay. So that's something to keep in mind. You can get into more of this data if you're interested. Now, if you look at, you know, where are people spending their time, etc. So you've got, okay, there's a little dated. There's a little older than the previous data, but you've got 4.7 billion people who are social media users. And you've got over 5 billion people on the Internet, which we already saw. And where are these people? What are they doing? I'll just open up all these links here. So what are they doing on the Internet? This is interesting to look at. Of course, most of us are sending emails. So we're looking at one Internet minute. And again, this is a little dated on a little less than a year old. But what are people doing? Okay. Most of us are busy sending emails. Sadly, there's a lot of people spending time on cryptocurrency. And there are lots of people sending text messages, people conducting searches. And then using other, you'll see here they're spending a lot of time on social media. Right. And then, of course, online purchasing and so on. And then down here, Zoom meetings, people are busy talking, connecting with each other. And then doing home deliveries for various things. One last one, I think, about the young people. So in terms of what are the platforms people are using? Okay. This is a little dated, almost a year old. But you see a large number of people. Most 2 billion people using WhatsApp. Others are using other platforms of means for communication. So this just gives us an idea that, okay, see, these are all the tools that people are using. And we need to be aware of these things. So the point is, a lot of this data is available for us to look at. Let me just pause for a moment to close these things here. A lot of this data is available for us to go look at. And therefore, based on that, we can then begin to think about, all right, you know, depending on where you are and what people and audience you're reaching out to, you can then begin to think, you know, and formulate how your church or your ministry is going to use media and technology to reach the people that God has called you to reach. Okay. So that's one thing you can look at the data, try to understand it and then very meaningfully, very intelligently. And of course, with the help of God, with his wisdom, determine strategies to reach people whom you're called to reach. The other thing we must keep in mind when it comes to media and technology is to be aware of how different generations are engaging with media and technology. So we can, while, you know, social scientists or those who study society, they kind of break down these generations every 15 year periods, approximately. So here we look at generation, Gen C, between 1995 to 2010, Gen Alpha coming up 2010 to 2024, and then Gen Beta, Beta 2020, out in the future. And, you know, it's interesting to see how media technologies influenced these generations. And we will look at something that kind of gives us a bigger picture. I'm just mentioning this to you. Did I miss the, no. So Gen C, which basically would be our teens and young adults of today, a large number of them, that the church is responsible, you know, for reaching. What do we know about them? And you can look up this study that was done, so about two years old. And when they did a survey, this is just a summary of that study, you can get the report online here. That this generation, this Gen C is the least religious generation ever, meaning they don't want to have religion the way it is traditionally known. For example, you know, you're a Christian, you know, so on. But they want to, you know, they want to make up their own religion, so to speak. They will decide, okay, I want this, you know, to be a mishmash of various things. And they're the least generation, religious generation. They're also digital natives. They have, we will talk about this a little bit, you know, they can basically grown up with technology from the very beginning. They're constantly connected. They're entrepreneurial. They're like independence, making their own decisions. They are self learners, so which means they are willing to consume content, research, learn, you know, versus the traditional forms of education. It's not that they're all left school, but they are more accustomed to work comfortable learning themselves, learning by themselves, using, you know, all this, everything that's available, accessible for them. And they're also ambitious and interested in achieving things. So, you know, you can look into the fact that they are digital natives. And, you know, this whole thing about what is your social media image. So there is who they are in real life and who they are online. And sometimes people could have different online persona. All those things are happening. But in a sense, they are very comfortable with all of that. They don't see social media as an enemy of authenticity. It just gives them, they feel it gives them an opportunity to express themselves, maybe in different ways, or sometimes even being anonymous. They can express themselves even if they're creating different personas online, etc. They don't see a problem with that. They are constantly connected on an average about eight hours a day online. But then it also means they have this separation anxiety from their phones. It has other effects of sleep deprivation and mental health. And it's kind of interesting that even here in Bangalore, I'm finding even young people, you know, in their late teens, early 20s, they are so aware of their mental health and mental well-being. And if we go back in time, maybe 10, 20 years, this wasn't an issue at all. Or at least we didn't speak about it, or we didn't even know there was something like you've got to take care of your mental health and things like that. We just went through it. But today, these teens and early 20s, 20-year-olds speaking from what I see happening here in Bangalore, they come out with their problems, challenges. And they are looking for answers in the area of their emotional well-being and mental health. You know, it's become so an obvious thing that they need to deal with and they are looking for answers. And part of it, I'm not saying all of it, but part of it is connected to this whole engagement online and so on. So this data, of course, has to do with U.S. teens. But I think it can be extended to some degree to other parts of the world. Excuse me. Excuse me. They feel that social media affects them, you know, makes them feel sad or anxious or depressed. Sometimes they even experience depression, suicidal thoughts out of their engagement, the use of social media. And the other things we could talk about this generation, the Gen Z is, they're very entrepreneurial, self-learners ambitious. Self-learners is, I think, something for us to tap into, meaning these people, the Gen Z, I'm talking about the teenagers, the young adults, they are ready to consume content and learn, explore and research digitally, which I think is a big opportunity. But we have to be able to communicate it to them in a way they're willing to receive it, right? So the fact that they are self-learners is a big opportunity. But it also means our communication of God's Word and our presentation of God's Word has to be in a way, in a form that they will consume it and therefore, and then it comes to the truth, right? So we have to look at this as an opportunity and understand, you know, the people that you are serving, how are they consuming? What is going to get to their heart, go past their mind, get to their heart so that we can bring truth? And they're ready. That's part of their life they are consuming by themselves, you know, they search and they look for what they want. So we have to be there. Similarly, you could talk about Gen Alpha, which is just coming up. It's very interesting to look at this. We'll go and see this. Okay, I've got to share this. Share my, sorry, let's share the screen. Okay. So you can go and look at this study here on Generation Alpha. Let me see. They have a PDF. Yeah. It's a nice infographic that compares. Okay. Wait a minute. I think I have this one minute. Please let me. So this, this graphic, I just downloaded from that same website, Generation Alpha website. So it's very interesting to look, I mean, they're just basically tracking the different generations, how, you know, how, you know, what influenced them and how they are engaging with each other in the workplace. Right. So you'll be go back in, in time, in time, the Gen X, let me see here. Yeah. So, you know, so, you know, way back in time, things that we were familiar with, you know, there was what was called as MySpace. I don't know if I don't think it exists anymore. We would add, you know, we would use the pagers, we would use MP3 players and Blackberry and so on and fax machines and landline CDs and so on. And all of these things. And this has given place to so much today. Right. That would be what we are engaging with. And, and people today are, you know, familiar with the iPad, Instagram, 3D printers and all these things are technology that's coming in to which this younger generation is becoming familiar with. And then, you know, things that they'll be looking forward to. Right. So each generation has grown up in a different way. I think the next slide puts it all together. So, so the early generation, I don't know, as builders, the baby boomers, the Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z. You can see this. So, you know, what were the key things they grew up with? What are the music, you know, how did they listen to music? You can see the changes. What are the leadership styles? So, you know, it was more of a directive leadership, which then slowly Gen Z, they're more coordinating Gen Y, they're guiding Gen Z. They prefer empowering leadership. And I think this one is the inspiring leadership. So, and how do they consume their content? The cinemas, TVs, VCRs, Internet devices. And now we are doing streaming. So we, you know, you can get into the study here and see how and what these generations grew up with and how, therefore, their whole lifestyle has been influenced by these changing technologies and changing ways in which they were consuming content. And it's interesting just, you know, for us to understand that. So overall, just going back to what we were saying, it's important for us to understand the generations that we are dealing with and also prepare our heads when you look at Generation Alpha, which they're little kids and they're growing up. Now, their education, the medium of education may be very different from what we grew up with. So we are the ones ministering to them. We are the ones speaking into their lives. And we want to bring God's word to them. We want them to encounter Jesus. We want them to experience the path of the Holy Spirit. But we are coming from a different experience growing up and we are speaking into the lives of generations, at least two or maybe three more generations, depending on the demographic of your congregation. You've got in your congregation, you know, maybe Gen Y, Gen Z, and the kids are there in Alpha, you know, or maybe you may have a wider demographic that you're ministering to. There will be people of your same generation and then there will be maybe two generations that are very different. And the way they receive what we are communicating is very different. Right. And so what we want to do is we want to learn as a church and as ministers how to be, how do we use these tools, which are very comfortable, which these generations, Gen Z, Alpha, they're very comfortable. And for them, that's their norm. But how do we use those tools to bring the word of God to them, bring the experience of the Holy Spirit to them so that they can also receive the truth and then, you know, grow up in that and then pass it on to the generations that will come. Right. Today's lesson, today's lecture, main takeaways are one, there is data available for us, and we need to look at it, try to understand what's happening globally. Second, recognize the fact that when we are speaking to people, we're actually speaking to different generations. So when you look into your congregation and most likely there are different generations sitting and listening to you. And these generations have grown up differently, meaning media and technology have has played a very important role, especially in the younger generations who are listening to you. And it is important for us as a church to be able to speak to them using the medium that they have grown up with, that they are comfortable with, and be able to bring God's word to them in a way that they can receive it and be impacted. So that's the key takeaway. I want you to think about and be open to exploring these ideas. Okay. Let me pause here and give some time for questions and parts that people would like to ask or share before we close today. Now, as we go forward in this course, you know, we will get a little technical, I will share with you the diagrams of what we are doing. For example, how do we have our Sunday service setup that we what we're doing, you know, for our inner inside the auditorium at the same time live streaming. What are the things we're looking at? What are the opportunities that are available nowadays using, you know, what is called as natural language processing. You can get real time translations of your audio or video can be dubbed in real time into multiple languages. All of that is possible with technology that's available to us. And so we are exploring those things and you need to getting those things configured and I mean, get those things configured and ready. But these are opportunities available to us, etc. So I'll be sharing these things with you. And it hopefully it will encourage many of us to explore those things. Okay. All right. Questions, thoughts, please feel free to share, ask. Okay. Everyone's very quiet. Okay. How's everybody doing? Thank you. Good. Okay. Thank you. Good. Okay. All right. So, yeah, let's close for today. Thanks for being on the class. I hope I left you interested in this in this course and look forward to learning and exploring new ideas and new opportunities together. Okay. Could somebody close in prayer? Then we'll dismiss please. Anybody could pray. Go ahead. Maybe we'll come to us to be on mute because we're praying next to. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you Lord for this class. Thank you for helping us to understand the depth of the Antichrist. Lord, I also pray for healing or pastor God. By the strength he is healed. Lord, thank you so much God for healing pastor and those who are also not feeling well. Thank you Lord for everything. Thank you God. And you need me to pray again. Amen. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Okay. Have a good day. Enjoy the rest of the day. Enjoy the weekend. Enjoy your time. See you all next week. God bless. I know. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you pastor. God bless you all. That class has started next week. Thank you.