One of the cool things about this conference is that everyone gets the opportunity to present a reflection on something to do with the interconnection of theology and digital media. Unfortunately they’re too many of us to do it in one group so I’ll only get to see half the presentations, including giving my own (on Thursday in Part 2).

Briefly, we had presentations on:

Who is my Neighbour?

• A clip from Paddington Bear, meeting the Brown family
• Ministry of Welcome: How do we greet the stranger?
• Gabriel and the Vagabond Music Video
• Reflections on Pastoral Work

Faith in Film

• What was the most recent film you saw?
• What about the most recent sermon?
• 48 films in last two years based on faith
• Miracles from Heaven trailer
• The Case for Christ trailer
• Vision in Avengers was able to say ‘I AM’, that he is God. But what about the Lord’s Prayer advert was pulled?
• How do we as a Church tell these stories to the public?
• Katy Perry is the most followed person on Twitter — 99.8M. The Church of England has 70.2K

Making Disciples in the online sphere: is it possible?

• Internet is the debating chamber of the modern era, such as Twitter
• The Church has been good at proclamation online.
• The Great Commission is preach and baptise and make disciples.
• Twitter and Vlogging strategies
• Story of Vlogger-Musician Tom Law who found social media robbed joy of life.
• No: Limits to number of people can connect meaningfully with
• Yes: People we can’t meet in other ways, boundaries are good, opportunity to model pattern of living

The Role of Media in the Persecuted Church

• Introduced Elim Churches Satalite TV shows for those in Iran (where 30M have access to Satalite TV and radio where it is illegal).
• Variety of different programs from Bible studies to children’s shows to help disciple and encourage Christians.
• We watched a video behind the scenes of one of the Kids shows.
• Lot’s of material was translated from US/UK materials. Challenge to make relevant to children in an Islamic context.
• We watched a Testimonial Video which was very moving

This was it for today, but there will be more on Thursday’s slot.

Now it’s time for coffee and then some personal reflection before prayer and dinner followed by An Evening with Kate and Jim.