Models of Missional Ministry - Essay Example

Models of missional ministry Introduction The society is changing fast, the advent of the internet besides many other telecommunication media have succeeded in making the world a global village. Interaction among people is more intense a feature that influences cultural change in societies. Such social changes influence changes in the ministry thereby validating the rise of missiional media ministries. Media ministries are contemporary ways of spreading the gospel through the varied media used in the modern society. Among the media used in the contemporary society, include televisions, radio, newspaper and the internet among others. The development of the media industry continues to influence fundamental social changes globally thus validating the rise of media ministries1. While media ministries is on the rise, traditional pastoral ministries still remains relevant a feature that implies that the two have unique features that make them both relevant despite the changing society. Traditional pastoral ministries require the evangelists to travel to different destinations thereby interact with the people physically as they preach the gospel with the hopes of converting them to the faith. The process is both expensive and tedious. The ministries face intense challenges most of which impair the effectiveness of the ministerial functions. However, the process is effective owing to the fact that they provide both parties with adequate opportunity to interact thus solving any possible difference that may exist between them. Traditional pastoral ministries were more common in the 17th and 18th century when Christianity had not spread globally. Among the virgin continents included Africa and parts of Asia. Western missionaries thus travelled to different remote parts of the continents facing numerous cultural and operational challenges primarily to spread the gospel to such regions. The type of ministry enjoyed great success owing to the uniqueness of its features most of which provided effective platform for the missionaries to interact with the people thus convincing them to uphold the dictates of the faith2. While the traditional pastoral ministry has remained relevant to this day, missionaries face such challenges as cultural conflict. The fact that the target audience may have their own religious beliefs makes the process more challenging since they may react differently. Such cultural differences as the language present major challenges thereby deterring the works of the missionaries. In the early centuries, the missionaries spend years in the new regions thereby studying their languages before teaching them the dictates of the new faith. Such considerations prove that traditional pastoral ministries are more difficult and require more resources than the missional media. Despite such challenges, the society has changed through time a feature that implies that the experience of missionaries will differ from the experience of the early missionaries. Globalization for example has intensified human interactions. This implies that people currently share cultures with such languages as English and French enjoying global audience. Such features make the works of pastoral missionaries easier as they will identify with different societies. The use of the media to spread gospel is an efficient technological way of identifying a target audience and employing an effective media from the pool of numerous media to communicate effectively with them. Media does not require physical contact between the missionaries and the target audience but relies on an effective media that will sustain the communication process and the subsequent interactivity. The traditional media include the use of books, newspapers, radio and televisions. Such media have numerous strengths and weaknesses that affect their use in ministries. However, a combination of different media ensures that they complement each other thus improving the effectiveness of the ministry. The advent of the new media which refers to a series of other communication channels that rely on the internet, revolutionized communication thus providing increased ways spreading a gospel globally. Ways of spreading a gospel through the media include preparing recordings in appropriate portable media then distributing them to the target audience. Such media as video cassettes, compact disks and DVDs among many others provide effective ways of transferring and playing back data on radios and other similar players. Such is an effective way of improving accessibility to a gospel. Just as the different media require, different storage devices carry particular contents thus playing back such on appropriate media, radios for example only playback voice recordings, this implying that in preparing either a cassette or compact disks for playback in radios, one must incorporate only the voice recordings3. The success of a voice recording relies on the effective consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the media. The communicator must therefore consider the unique features of the media in an attempt to overcome such. Radio relies on audio recordings, additionally, in live broadcasts replay of the messages is impossible. Such features of the media influence the use of the media in ministry in order overcome any underlying challenge. The use of audio recording for example requires the use of a common language between the communicators and the target audience. This implies that language differences between the two will impair the effectiveness of the ministries. Furthermore, the communicator must use simple language in order to improve the success of the communication process. In most cases, the missionaries who are native speakers of some of the languages have better knowledge of the language thus use certain terms that the target audience may not internalize. The underlying principle in radio communication thus becomes the use of simple language. Communicators speak slowly and audibly in order to ensure that the target audience understands of the intended message. Most missionary and faith based organizations including churches have radio stations they use in spreading the gospels. The Roman Catholic for example has numerous radio stations in different countries globally4. The church uses the radio stations in different countries to spread the gospel thus spreading the doctrines of the faith. Among the major advantages of radio that make them, more effective than the other traditional media is their cheaper costs and equally cheaper costs of maintenance. Radios are the most common media globally often reaching some of the most remote parts of the world. Poor African peasants in different parts of the continent have small transistor radios that cost less than five dollars. Additionally, such small radios use non-rechargeable batteries that are equally less expensive. The popularity of the media thus makes it among the most effective media to use in media ministries. Radios require minimal capital to set up. The churches and missionary organizations thus set up their stations strategically in order to improve the coverage of the radio waves in a particular country. Through the radios, the missionaries prepare different audio contents including music and excerpts of preachers for playback in the radio stations. This way, the target audience receives the content as intended by the communicators. Unlike radios, televisions are elitist with several strengths over the radio. Televisions for example transmit both audio and video content a feature that makes the more realistic than radios. Videos are more engaging than audio thus appealing to the target audience than the radio, which is an alternative media. This implies that the intense concentration that the television enjoys improves the fictiveness of the communication process. Just as with radios, different faith based organizations have developed television stations that they use in communicating with their target audience. Such television stations as God TV and family TV are effective examples of faith-based television networks that carry religious content all day long. Such television networks are international thus targeting a large target audience5. This provides the missionaries with effective ways of spreading the gospel without incurring the travelling costs, as is the case in traditional pastoral missionaries6. Televisions carry numerous media content providing effective ways of communicating both audio and video content to the target audience. Additionally, the media provides effective platform for numerous other media content such as texts, graphics and images thus making the gospel realistic. The provision of images and video contents make the content more appealing thus winning over a desired followership. Despite the numerous advantages, television is an elitist media. This implies that television often targets a learned target audience who possess the intellectual and cultural exposure to internalize the content. The media is not as effective as radios that less costly to set up and maintain. Televisions are more expensive to set up and to maintain. Furthermore, the television content is more expensive to either develop or purchase. This impairs the use of the media in ministry7. Such factors affect the effectiveness of the media in ministry thereby requiring an effective measure to counter such disadvantages and improve the effectiveness of media. Missionary operations target remote parts of the world some of which have no exposure to the faith. Some of such parts of the world are often too remote to have electrical connections with the people being too poor to afford television sets. Such factor affects the effectiveness of television as a media used in spreading the gospel. The remoteness of the target audience and their locations make traditional pastoral missionary more effective since the missionaries interact with the local communities thereby providing them with a realistic view to both the society and the faith8. Through such personal interactions, it becomes easier for the missionaries to spread the gospel share the experiences of the people thus converting them to their respective faith9. However, while televisions are not effective enough in reaching the remote parts of the world, radios that are cheaper than televisions can reach such target audience thereby improving the success rates of media ministries. As explained earlier, radios are cheaper with the content readily available. The cheap costs of setting up and managing a radio station has resulted in the development of numerous local radio stations most of which transmit in the local dialects. The people in such remote parts of the world have different small and portable radio units that improve their access to the media content. Traditional pastoral ministry is as effective just as any other technique that missionaries may consider in the contemporary society. The fact that in the traditional pastoral ministry the missionaries must interact with the people often influencing their lives makes their work more appropriate. In most cases, faith based organizations champion the development of the remote parts of the world since they interact with the people, share their experiences thereby thus developing effective programs that influence the lives of the people. Faith based organizations have carried out major projects in different parts of the world with the view of improving the lives of the locals thereby enticing them to a faith. Among the common projects that missionaries engage in include provision of scholarships to the poor children, development of effective hygiene facilities such as latrines and developing of such basic facilities as schools, health facilities and churches among many others. This provides the missionaries with unparalleled acceptance among the local community while providing the local community with more reasons to believe the missionaries10. The early missionaries used such tactics to convert different parts of the world to the faith. The tactics are still effective in the modern society thus more productive that the use of the media. Books are among the oldest media in the world. The bible for example is the oldest book in the world used in the same format by different groups of people. As the oldest surviving piece of literature, the bible exhibits the advantages of books as media used in missionary functions. The rate of education has improved in the modern society a feature that implies that the number of people who can read and internalize messages contained in books has increased. Additionally, books provide an effective source of reference thus enabling the use of such material in future occasions. Missionaries use books and leaflets to spread their messages. The success of the media relies on the fact that missionaries can print them in different languages including the local dialects thus increasing their efficiency in remote parts of the world. The fact that they have longer life spans than the other media imply that one can use them repeatedly besides transferring the medium to others owing to the ease of sharing thus spread. While the use of media in missionary has increased in the modern world with different faith based organizations setting up different media to spread their messages, the traditional pastoral ministries has remained equally relevant11. Additionally, the technique has remained equally active in the modern society thus validating the claim that the increase of missional media has not deterred the development and use of the traditional pastoral missionary in the spread of faiths. Pastoral missionaries for example use an assortment of media in improving the effectiveness of their functions. Besides the bible, pastoral ministries use with printed materials in their ministries with the view of improving the success of their missions, this improves the role of both the media and traditional pastoral ministries in the modern world. Bibliography Davis, J. (2012). Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200-1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Guerra, M. D. (2010). Christians As Political Animals: Taking the Measure of Modernity and Modern Democracy. Wilmington, Del: ISI Books. Hedstrom, M. (2013). The Rise of Liberal Religion: Book Culture and American Spirituality in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. James, W. (2009). The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. New York: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform. McGinn, B. (2006). The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism. 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