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Mission professionals – field missionaries, mission agency leaders, mission researchers and strategists, mission professors and students, missions pastors and mobilizers – have inadequate access to strategic mission information via the Web.
Increasingly, mission leaders around the world are getting affordable Internet access, and the Web is becoming a high-priority information channel for them. Much of the limited amount of missions information currently available on the Web, however, is of relatively poor quality, is organized around particular organizations or projects requiring users to visit many sites to acquire only part of the information they seek, and is delivered or packaged only in minimally useful textual formats.
Additionally, in a world where the majority of missionaries are now from the non-western world, most Web-based missions information still comes from western sources. The global body of Christ needs to hear from each other; non-western mission researchers need to be enabled to readily share their own information with the rest of the body.
If missions in the 21st Century is going to effectively address the comprehensive scope of ministry needs in the world – spiritual, physical, economic, and societal needs – then they need affordable access to accurate, up-to-date, quality information for strategic planning, management, communications, and prayer.
The mission of Global Mapping International is to produce and present world-class research that fuels emerging missions movements and leaders. More technically, GMI’s vision and passion is to see that the worldwide Christian community makes Spirit-guided use of research information to stimulate missions interest, shape mission appropriately and carry it out effectively.
Global Mapping has 20 years of experience in developing and providing strategic research and information tools for international church and missions leaders. Historically, with our priority on serving non-western leaders, we have focused on publishing research resources primarily via CD-ROM and print media. Now, with the rapid spread in realistic Web access around the world, this project seeks to substantially expand international access to, and use of, top-quality missions research via the Web. Rather than produce all the content ourselves, we are committed to working in collaboration with the best (current and emerging) sources of global missions information.
This project will enable church and mission leaders around the world to interact with high quality strategic information in textual, statistical and graphical forms. Huge new collections of quality missions information have recently been produced but are not yet readily available via the Web. Recently introduced interactive software enables information on the Web to be queried and reports created; custom maps and graphs can be easily created; and graphics, audio and video files can be downloaded. Even those with relatively low-bandwidth Internet connections will be able to use this technology. Researchers around the world will be able to contribute new data within their own areas of expertise.
The success of the project depends on strategic alliances with key partner organizations who provide data and Internet services for the project. These include:
· Operation World (Patrick Johnstone) – country/religious/church/mission/peoples data
· Wycliffe Bible Translators – ethnolinguistic data
· SBC International Mission Board – unreached peoples data
· Joshua Project II – unreached peoples data
· Campus Crusade/JESUS Film – ministry in cities data
· World By Radio Database (FEBC) – missionary radio broadcasts worldwide
· Network for Strategic Missions – mission journal articles, documents
· World Christian Encyclopedia Database
Bill Dickson, bill@gmi.org, Global Mapping International’s Vice President for Research and Development, serves as the project leader.