Having a little fun in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
I had a phenomenal time in Malaysia for a conference run by students from all over South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines to name a few). Excited, empowered students actually given the opportunity and challenge to reach their campus and country for Christ make for a powerful chemical reaction. I was honored to be there to promote winning, building and sending students through the power of the internet. Thanks for praying for me. I was also able to make a stop on my way back to Singapore and meet with the campus team there. They also are doing a phenomenal job of leading a way of thinking that is really new in student ministry. While I was in both places, I am finding some common trends in some of the places I visit:
1) We have a big gap right now with our staff leadership and their understanding of the internet. It’s not their faults, but we (I include myself in this group) are not “digital natives“. Click on that link, this is a great article that provides a detailed explanation, of a digital native. but the bottom line is that our students are being led by people like me who are digital immigrants (those that didn’t grow up with computers, cell phones and high speed internet). We don’t naturally think in those terms, but still think in terms of face to face meetings as the only way for something to be real.
I think it is akin to ever talking with your parents or grandparents about when they were little and their home received their first telephone. Many people said that you can’t have a real conversation with someone by just talking into a box, you have to actually drive or walk over to that person’s house. You and I don’t doubt that we can have a real conversation by talking into a box and we do it everyday. We grew up with a telephone in our house. We can’t remember when we didn’t have a phone in our house (although I can still remember calling the operator to place a long distance call and having them dial the number for me!).
Digital natives (another great read on how this new generation thinks and learns) are the same way, except they can’t remember when they didn’t have a cell phone or high speed internet in their home. This is increasing even in non-Western countries. Did you know that students in Malaysia all walk on to campuses with their laptops and a free high speed wi-fi network all over campus? Part of my challenge as a digital immigrant is to not only learn more of the digital native culture and how to reach it, but how to teach my fellow digital immigrants the same! Not an easy task. Hopefully you can teach an old dog new tricks!
Digital natives of South East Asia!
2) Today’s student that is involved in Christian ministry is being led by a digital immigrant (or if they don’t have a computer or cell phone maybe a digital castaway). How this works in ministry is that the leader trains the student (very correctly I might add) how to do evangelism. They knock on a student’s dorm room or approach a friend from class and ask them their spiritual beliefs and if they have any questions about the Christian faith. What’s wrong with that??? Again, absolutely nothing.
However, it is very limited in its approach. Both student (the Believer being trained and the student being approached by the Believer) spends 3 1/2 hours online a day (on average). Could the staff involved in Christian ministry challenge the trainee to approach the student in cyberspace? Unfortunately, the answer is usually no. The digital immigrant staff just doesn’t think about that approach or doesn’t believe it is a legitimate form of ministry. The consequence??? The student is only trained in one way of evangelism. When I was at this conference in Malaysia, I was struck when we asked students if they had any non Christian students they were “friends” with on social network sites (facebook, myspace etc.). Many of them looked at us dumbfounded as if to say, “Of course.” When we asked them if they had ever tried to share their faith with them in a chatroom or on a blog or via email, they all said, “no.” Why we asked. The response, “We didn’t know we were allowed to, or it never occurred to us.” We put in practice what is modeled to us. These students had only seen their staff share their faith face to face, so that’s what they put in practice. Hopefully, that will change in South East Asia!
3) The good news in all of this is that our digital immigrant staff are no longer asking the question of whether or not reaching students is “legitimate” or “real“, but how do I lead it? Great question. The main thing that I try to tell our staff is that they don’t have to be an expert in the internet in order to lead.
I think that is a fallacy among many of our leaders is that they have to be the expert in order to lead a strategy or a way of thinking. Good leaders delegate that to others who lead and give them the freedom to lead. Hopefully our leaders can give the freedom and create the environment for our students/digital natives to lead!
I’m off to Cairo Sunday the 8th of June to have some of these same conversations. Stay tuned!
Don’t forget to go to: www.everystudentresults.com for the latest information and much more!
I was able to spend a day with some of the Singapore staff. They are thinking the right ways as digital immigrants! Keep up the good work Singapore!