The aerial views in this trailer alone are amazing. Which makes the prospect of a feature in IMAX 3D (slated for release in 2013) mouthwatering.

And as I put Lukas to bed he had an inordinate amount (even for him) of questions, particularly questions about God. The following is a poor recollection of what he said, probably in the wrong order, and paraphrased in parts, but they’re all things he did say. He starting off asking about communion – “Why aren’t I allowed to eat the bread at church?”, to which I replied, “That’s for people who have Jesus in their heart, and … ” (at this point he interrupted me with another question – most of the time I only get half an answer out, if that, before the next question comes – this one was about baptism), “Is that why people go in the water?”

Me: “Yes, they do that because they want people to know that Jesus really is in their heart.”

L; “Is it true if you love Jesus, that you can live with him forever?”

Me: “Yes. Do you love Jesus, Lukas?”

L: “Yes, so can I have the bread at church?”

Me: “Well, if you’re ready to show everyone that you love Jesus by being baptized, then we can talk about it when I get back from America”

Me: “Lukas, do you know why Jesus died on the cross?”

L: “Because we did bad things. But Jesus didn’t do any bad things. Why didn’t Jesus just tell them he didn’t do any bad things then he wouldn’t have to die?”

Me: “Because he loves us. He died because of the bad things we did”

L: “But why did Jesus have to die?”

Me: [Thinking: Uh-oh, we have a little theologian in our family. When is the right age to introduce the raging debate over penal substitutionary theory, is six-years-old too soon?] “Because it was the only way to defeat death” [Secretly hoping this is the best answer for a six-year-old]

L: “But what if I was the first person in the world, and then I hit the second person in the world, and no one else did anything wrong, would Jesus still need to die?”

Me: “He would still die for you, because he loves you.” [While slightly worried that my son seems to identify himself with Cain]

L: “But I wouldn’t be his favourite, because I made him die.”

Me: “Or maybe you would be his favourite, because he died just for you.”

L: “Some people pray to Buddha, don’t they?”

Me: “Yes”

L: “Because they think Buddha is God”

Me: “Yes” [Maybe not classical Buddhism, but he's got the general concept]

L: “Do you think Buddha is God?”

Me: “I think Jesus is God?”

L: “So God is Jesus? But God is Jesus’ Father?” [I did say we have a little theologian here!] No, Jesus is God’s Son

Me: [appropriately chastised] You’re right

L: Are you taller than Jesus? [Now you might be surprised, but this one comes up a lot. My kids have this idea that God must be the physically biggest thing around, and so therefore Jesus ... you get the idea? ... maybe not ...]

Me: It’s not about how tall [Come on! From discussing penal substitutionary theory and the trinity, we come down to "How tall is God?" He's still a six-year-old!]

L: “Are you taller than Buddha?” [This is obviously an important topic for him]

Me: “I don’t know. I’m not taller than the Big Buddha up on the mountain though.”

L: [laughing] No

L: “Does Jesus love people who pray to Buddha?”

Me: “Yes”

L: “But if they think that Buddha is God and not him, then maybe he wants to kill them?”

Me: “Jesus loves everyone”

L: “Does Jesus love Buddha?”

Me: “Yes”

L: “Does Buddha love Jesus?”

Me: “I don’t think Buddha knew who Jesus was”

Me: “Do you love Jesus?”

L: “Yes”

Me: “Is Jesus in your heart?” [trying to get back to my original answer to the original question]

L: [quizzical look]

Me: “Have you asked Jesus to come into your heart?”

L: [shakes his head]

Me: “Do you want to?”

L: [nods head]

Me: “Do you know what it means?”

L: [more quizzical looks]

Me: “It means that you love Jesus and you believe he died on the cross for the things you did wrong, and you want him to be king of your heart. Is that what you want?”

L: “Yes”

Me: “Well you can pray and tell God that then”

And that is what Lukas did.

Better than a long-haul flight? You bet!

You can find lots of suggestions for how you can use the internet to share the gospel on this site, and tomorrow only there are also several free downloads of several books on evangelism available.

This seems like a good time to tell you about a new tool we have been working on for past few months.

• I am sure that many of you have been shared many awesome videos about God and the gospel through Facebook or Youtube or other channels. And you have probably been encouraged to share them with your friends.
• Or you have a friend who you want to start a spiritual conversation with, but you’re just not sure of how you’re going to broach the topic with them.

What you need is a way to find which of the abundance of video content out here is going to be relevant to your friends’ needs and interests. There are many sites on the internet that have wonderful collections of videos that can be used to start spiritual conversations (Global Short Film Network, YesHEIs, WingClips), but finding which video is going to be best to share with your friend is difficult, let alone trawling through the billions of videos on Youtube!

Flickstarter matches up videos from a database with your friend’s likes on Facebook, so it will suggest to you videos that correspond to what your friend has already that they like. For example, if they are a fan of Real Madrid (or Brazil, or even of soccer in general), there is a video testimony of Kaká. If they are a fan of U2, there is a video of Bono talking about his faith. If they are a fan of surfing, there is a video of Bethany Hamilton, who’s story is told in the film Soul Surfer, and so on.

We are continuing to work on refining the links between the videos and the Facebook pages to get the best experience possible, and we know it can get a lot better. But how about trying it out tomorrow. Search a friend’s name, click on one of the suggested videos (make sure you watch it before you send it!) and then post it either to their wall, or in a private message to them, and then follow up and ask them some questions like:

• What did you think of the video I sent?
• What did you think of the spiritual message?
• Has anyone ever explained to you how you could know God in that way?
• Would like me to explain to you?

Try it out, and let me know how it goes.

Exhibit A: The Hunger Games

If you have been fasting from media over lent you may not have noticed that The Hunger Games is the Hollywood blockbuster that taking the box office by storm, as well as providing a topic of much discussion all over the internet. I do think that dystopian stories are incredibly powerful, although there are dissenting views on how well this film in particular makes use of the storytelling power available through such a genre. What is interesting though is what people think the story means. Film critic Roger Ebert writes:

In interviews, Sutherland has equated the younger generation with leftists and Occupiers. The old folks in the Capitol are no doubt a right-wing oligarchy. My conservative friends, however, equate the young with the Tea Party and the old with decadent Elitists. “The Hunger Games,” like many parables, will show you exactly what you seek in it.

And you can add another layer to the truth/perception debate about this film when you consider the differences between the book and film, especially how it paints Hollywood and filmmakers in a much more positive light in the movie than in the book.

Exhibit B: Trayvon Martin

Meanwhile in Florida, a young black man wearing a hoodie was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer. As details emerge, this case is proving to be as divisive racially as the OJ Simpson trial, with your opinion on whether it is a race-based killing, or self-defense probably depending a lot on what colour your skin is. Keith Plummer in an article on The Gospel Coalition site makes a profound statement: “We tend to relax our critical powers when assessing what appears to confirm the narratives to which we’re deeply committed.”

So left-wingers see The Hunger Games as a parable of the struggle of The Occupy Movement against oppression, and right-wingers see the same story as that of The Tea Party, and the Trayvon Martin case can be seen as a case of racism or self-defense, but what is really interesting is how polarised the opinions are. Many people will consider the evidence in these stories for their interpretation so strong that they think it should be compelling for all rational observers.

This is a dangerous position for our society to be in. The danger is not that opinions are so divergent, but that at the same time they are becoming entrenched. And the necessary action is for us to become sympathetic readers of people who see the world differently to us, and also sympathetic listeners to criticism of our own views.

If you are a Calvinist, read some Arminian theologians (and vice versa) and read them as a student, trying to learn from them, not as an exam-marker, grading their writings on how well they measure up to your theology.

If you’re left-wing, try watching Fox News or reading The Telegraph, and if your right-wing, watch CNN or read The Guardian. And again, do so sympathetically, with a goal of understanding, not condemning.

You will probably find that you change your view on some issues, and that your view is reinforced on others. However the views you will now have will be those of wisdom, instead of mere partisanship.

And the impact of the campaign is undeniable. Every day I have been having conversations offline with people about this video. A lot of these conversations revolve around the effectiveness, honesty, and long-term value of the campaign. My take is that, even if the stated aims of Invisible Children are not realised, or even if in fact removing Joseph Kony and the LRA from Central Africa does not solve the problems of the area, I am pleased that millions of people around the world are now concerned about the practice of enlisting child soldiers and the other abhorrent acts of the LRA.

As I have reflected, I have also had a few more concerns about the KONY2012 campaign.

• The first is the very American-centric view of the campaign. This is not just the idea that Africa needs America to solve its problems that many are accusing Invisible Children of, but the fact that the campaign seemed to be solely focused on America. The website www.kony2012.com only has an English version, and 19 of the 20 culturemakers targeted are American (Bono being the odd one out), and 10 of the 12 policymakers are American (Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper and United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon being the exceptions here). I felt that a more effective campaign would include European policymakers and, especially African policymakers. Surely a representative from some branch of the African Union would be a strategic policymaker in achieving the goal of capturing Joseph Kony?
• Some aspects of the campaign did not seem conducive to mobilizing people to action beyond simple sharing on Facebook and Twitter. The action packs that they are promoting for the Cover the Night campaign on April 20 cost USD30, when it seems as though the contents would cost about USD3 to produce.
• Has the campaign already run its course? Although it has now reached 100 million views in just 6 days, it appears to be slowing down considerably from its peak of March 7 when over 30 million people viewed it. Will it be able to maintain enough momentum to have an effective campaign on April 20? Or will the online world have moved onto the next internet meme by then?
• And what will this mean for future social action-social media campaigns? It is not too difficult to predict that there will be no shortage of advocacy groups trying to replicate the success of the KONY2012 campaign. What is most likely to happen is that the market will get saturated with a bunch of cheap imitations that will make people more suspicious about similar campaigns in the future. It will be harder to achieve a success in this way than it was previously.

However, it appears that at least the first two concerns are being dealt with, although Invisible Children will have not necessarily planned for these solutions. However, to be fair, they probably expected this video to have a reach of about 10% of where it has got to so far.

Firstly, subtitled and translated versions of the video are popping up all over Youtube. In Chinese, French, German, and Spanish. None of these are commissioned by Invisible Children, but the nature of the internet is that once an idea, especially one this popular is out there, it becomes the property of the internet community (see Why Videos Go Viral.)

Secondly, eBay is apparently awash with KONY2012 merchandise, and at a much lower price than what Invisible Children were selling theirs for. This is part of the reality of living in Asia – whatever is popular gets copied, put on a T-shirt, and sold. I fully expect to find KONY2012 T-shirts next time I visit the night markets in Hong Kong.

And credit must be given to Invisible Children for not trying to stem either of these activities. It speaks volumes of their commitment to their stated goal of creating awareness about the issue that they are prepared to let others take the initiative with this campaign, and even make money off it.

That said, I don’t think Invisible Children are losing any projected business from the activity of these opportunistic sellers. It appears that either they have run out of action packs, or the demand levels are exceeding their capacity to deliver, such that they are no longer selling the action packs, but have them available as a free download.

Invisible Children have not been idle in addressing these issues though. Today I received an email from them(having given my email address at their website.)

It said:

Take this message offline and into the real world. Slap a sticker on your phone, laptop, bike, or car. Download a PDF  of the posters for free. Confidently ask businesses and cities to place these posters in prominent, high-traffic locations. Remember: be respectful and only put KONY 2012 materials on your own property unless you have explicit permission. #KONY2012

So they are encouraging people to download the posters for free and get the message out there. They are also doing what they can to avoid negative publicity of what could turn into the unwanted “Day after KONY2012 cleanup” story. And it seems they are encouraging people to start doing it now – I guess when you have 100 million views, you’re not exactly going to surprise the world with KONY2012 posters next month.

And they also said:

Countries all over the world can do more to stop LRA violence. It’s a human responsibility and the goal won’t be achieved without global collaboration. Engage your leaders in the conversation.

Tell them why this is important to you, and ask them what they can do to see Kony arrested and help those affected . Encourage them to collaborate with other countries who are committed to seeing an end to LRA violence this year.  

So they are seeking to influence policymakers beyond an American setting.

Which leaves the third question. Can they maintain their momentum for long enough to achieve their goals? That is one question which we must wait and see to find the answer to.

If you haven’t seen the Kony 2012 video, then take some time and watch it now (it’s 30 minutes):

In just three days this video has collected 15 million views on Youtube and 11 million on Vimeo. Hashtags such as #kony2012, #stopkony, #LRA, #Uganda and #invisiblechildren have been hanging around twitter’s top 10 trends.

Inevitably there has been criticism of Invisible Children, the organisation behind the campaign and I am sure there are valid concerns behind some of these criticisms. (Check out this post from Rachel Held Evans for a fuller view of the controversy.)

It certainly makes a difference when the latest viral sensation is about what we should do about warlords who enlist child soldiers and engage in all sorts of acts of brutality instead of an autotuned pop song about the last day of the working week. And it gives me hope that social media can be a powerful vehicle in the spread of the gospel.

Read this post from REACH talking about the power of social media, and this one from Tim Casteel looking into some lessons non-profits can take from this campaign.

And lastly some thoughts of my own:

• Although as a social media phenomenon this video has been immensely successful, it remains to be seen how successful it is as a mobilization tool. How many will actually participate in the April 20 Cover the Night exercise? Will this phenomenon have the legs to continue for another six weeks or will it fade away before then? And how successful will it be in terms of reaching its ultimate goal – of seeing Joseph Kony brought to justice? It remains to be seen.
• The expressed goal of this campaign – to bring a ruthless warlord who enlists child soldiers and commits all sorts of atrocities to justice – is one that almost no-one can disagree with.
• Invisible Children have a history of almost ten years of making advocacy videos on this issue. This may look like an overnight success, but it is built on a decade of hard work.
• Dealing with criticism is an important part of any public relations campaign (whether it be through social media or any other means.) The one thing that we cannot do, is not plan to receive criticism.

I’ll be paying attention over the next few weeks to see what becomes of this. What do you think?

UPDATE: Another article, this one from Steve Fogg, on lessons for non-profits from Kony2012

Tastemakers, communities of creative participation, and unexpectedness. These are the three key elements that drive what videos go viral on youtube. Listen to this short TED presentation from youtube’s trends manager, Kevin Allocca – it’s well worth it.

is that this wins Best Song. No strong feelings about any of the other categories.

UPDATE: And it won! Let out a big Kermit “Yeeeaaggghh!!!”

In response to my last post Dave from Big News sent me this video on the New Zealand social media scene.

One thing that stood out was how big a deal they made of the negative effects of overmarketing. Is this a bigger deal in New Zealand than elsewhere? Or is it a global issue?

Another thing that caught my attention was their identification of the All Blacks Facebook page as a big mover in New Zealand social media. I actually started that page when fan pages were first introduced on Facebook (ie before you had to “own” a brand to start a fan page) because I was adding things that I was a fan of, and there wasn’t an All Blacks page. I forgot about it until I looked back a year later and found it had 150,000 fans, mostly from Europe and South America. Of course, by that stage Facebook’s rules had changed so that when the NZRU came knocking I had to hand the page over to them (sniff, sniff). Now they have 1,500,000 fans. Not bad, I guess.

The latest Socialnomics offering on Youtube. One of the things I am often saying to people is that it is called social media because it is social.