Almost every computer now has a CD-rom player and within a year or two, DVD
capability will be almost universal. There are relatively few groups using
CD-roms for evangelism, yet increasingly, Christian organizations are
offering free multimedia CDs explaining their ministries to potential supporters.
(Er, supporters = necessary incoming money. Evangelism = outgoing often
unavailable money.)
Advantages
CDs become so cheap when produced in bulk that the direct price of production is no more than a
small printed booklet. They have some big advantages compared with evangelistic
websites (and literature):
- no slow download times: sound, large graphics, animations and video clips
can be easily used, with complete user interactivity.
- external links to complementary websites can be included.
- targeted distribution: people with a CD in their hands are likely to view
it, whereas they may never find an evangelistic website.
- using it costs nothing, whereas in many parts of the world, Internet
access remains slow and expensive, paid for by the minute.
- people who might refuse to receive literature may be prepared to accept a CD.
- easy to copy if copyright permits.
- a whole evanglistic video can be placed on a CD – either in DVD format, or
VideoCD format
which is a useful stop-gap format until DVD is universal.
- Comic stories for children or adults, with animation and sound, are ideal for CDs. Comics and story-telling are vastly under-rated channels for evangelism.
Strategies and suggestions
It is time-consuming and expensive to design and write an evangelistic CD.
But the potential is so great that large organizations with the resources to do
it should consider this option, and perhaps be prepared to distribute thousands free
or at CD production cost (pennies/cents only) rather than attempt to recoup
development cost through selling at a higher price. (Choose a
CD duplication company carefully – as always, you only get what you pay for. Get recommendations from satisfied customers, and be sure you know exactly what is in the price. If you make your own, use appropriate quality blanks.
It is easy to incorporate existing evangelistic websites onto CD. It would
be easy to offer a range of the
best evangelistic sites,
navigable from an entry page.
Such a CD might be made more attractive to non-Christians by incorporating
some genuinely useful secular material: language-learning, or some
other type of tutorial (perhaps like Newbie Club)
or free software. Of course, evangelistic
material on CD should be designed the same way as evangelistic sites and
literature: no Christian jargon, no preachiness, sensitive presentation,
assumption of zero Christian knowledge and background, and identification
with readers' needs and viewpoint.
It would be wonderful to see such compilation CDs distributed in thousands
on secular magazine covers and available to give away in evangelistic campaigns,
traveling outreach ministries and in other types of overseas outreach.
It is also possible to have
mini-CDs produced the same size as a
business card – they hold about 50mb and run in a normal CD player. Being for the business
market, they are not cheap. It is also possible to buy blanks to write them at home using a
normal CD writer. For instance, Cyberguys
sell that at $10.90 for a 10 pack of small CD disks (stock number 1540540). You can buy a disk
labeler to make labels for these disks at $25.95 (stock number 1420570).
Available CDs
Here's a range of evangelistic CDs – please
send details of others.
- Actual Reality is is an interactive Christian CD-rom sold by Straitway Computing in Scotland – 'an eight-hour music-driven search for truth, taking
users on a technically dazzling journey into God's message', aimed at teenagers.
John Smith, UK director of the Evangelical Alliance, says: "I have
seen nothing in the Christian sector as good as this."
Looking at material about it on the site, it appears to be both evangelistic
and teaching for teens. Unfortunately, it is not cheap, and there is no
online ordering system for those outside UK. I understand they also intend
to add most of the CD content to the website
- Damaris
are a good resource to relate Christianity to culture. They are also producing CD games. Their
first, PRESIDENT FOR A DAY, is a sim game which causes users to face up to moral choices. The
player is President of a fictional African country, taking it from independence up to the present
day. They receive advice and information from officals, but have to make all the crucial decisions.
The game was produced in assocation with UK's evangelical NGO TearFund. The Times Educational
Supplement said, "The only downside of this game is that it will be difficult to drag students
away from it." The product has been nominated for a BETT award for Secondary Educational Software.
Until now, the game has been primarily made available to schools with a group user licence. It is now available for purchase for single users from
Ethos Games.
Orders are sent worldwide by airmail delivery. At under 9 pounds (15 dollars), it is a good buy! There's also a demo version available for 85 pennies (about 1 US dollar),
or the multiple-user version for schools at 50 pounds (about 80 dollars):
buy here.
THE QUEST is another CD in the course of preparation in UK. It contains
evangelistic apologetics material for the thinking person of student age.
more info.
- Two Ways to Live from Matthias Media
is an extended version of their online evangelistic presentation.
- Across CD contains the Bible in many languages, evangelistic music with testimonies of the artists,
mini Bible browser, and much more. It is available at a very low cost for distribution. 8000 were given away during the Olympics. Large
orders (5000+) can have a personalized CD label with contact information.
- Power to Change is an extended version of the excellent evangelistic website,
and includes a full-length film about the Life of Jesus, plus a small booklet. It is available to
purchase, though is intended primarily for use by churches as part of a co-ordinated local-area evangelistic campaign.
- Saltshakers
were early pioneers in the production of Christian CD-Roms
and have produced many Christian educational packages and games. Their CD,
THAT AMAZING WEEK, is an evangelistic presentation based on the week leading
up to the crucifixion. It is very interactive and does not assume much prior
knowledge from the reader. It has been selected as the only Easter software
resource of preference for primary schools in Northern Ireland. Also on the
CD are a RISEN and CONFLICT IN JERUSALEM for children and teens.
It (and other CDs) are available by worldwide mail order.
- Who is He?
- a business-card size mini-CD with an interactive jargon-free explanation of the Gospel
in 20 languages. Seekers can contact someone who speaks their language via the CD if they have
Web access. $1.00 each (on a suggested donation basis) with a price reduction to 88 cents for orders of 5000+.
- Bibles in many languages are available on CD, including for example dramatized with sound effects from FCBH. See also
Ethnic Harvest.
- The highly-recommended Quotations evangelistic screensaver could be added to any
Christian CD, as an additional piece of free software by arrangement with the author.
PowerPoint and CDs
PowerPoint was designed by Microsoft, primarily to create sequential slides for business presentations.
A PowerPoint presentation cannot easily be viewed in real time on a website, but it can be placed on a CD for
distribution. PowerPoint files tend to be very large, so if offered on a website, they are a lengthy
download. For an individual evangelistic website user,
they have no relevance, since a much more interactive presentation can be built in HTML and possibly
Flash.
However as a tool for making a set of sequential pages to display on a computer or projector – to
accompany a lecture, seminar, or discussion – they can have a place in
evangelism or teaching. PowerPoint can also be used as an untended repeating
loop display on, for example, an exhibition stand – and again this has
evangelistic potential.
PowerPoint can also be used as a cheap development tool for interactive CDs. You can build in a lot of interactivity using PowerPoint and embed just about any kind of video file including avi, mpeg, and even Flash.
PowerPoint is not the best tool for CD-rom development, but can be used by a church or smaller ministry with limited resources.
The final product can be fairly sophisticated and need not be linear in design. By non-linear,
this means that you can use PowerPoint as a tool to build a CD-rom in a way that allows the user
to determine when components to access and in what order. By using the "Action Settings" in the
Slide Show menu, any item (button, graphic, photo, etc.) can be linked to any other slide or
action. Users can choose to watch a video or to see a still photo. They can choose to click on
an icon for more information about something, or skip ahead to a different topic. In function,
this is just like a website that takes advantage of hypertext and other links. Most people are
used to using PowerPoint for linear presentations, but this option is good for kiosk use or for
building CDs that can be distributed for individual use.
This is a cheap way of building a CD, but it gets the job done and avoids investment in expensive
software. It is possible to build a fairly sophisticated CD just by using PowerPoint.
There is a Powerpoint to Flash converter – free trial, pay to keep.
You can download a free PowerPoint viewer if you don't possess MS Office.
It is also possible to send a PPT file as self-opening, so that a user does not need to possess a PowerPoint viewer. Under the file menu there is a 'Pack & Go' option.
EBibleTeacher has valuable PowerPoint tutorials, free graphics, backgrounds, and Hot Links to many other PowerPoint resources.
If you have any evangelistic PowerPoint presentations which you would like to share with others, please tell us and we can add them to this page.
Technical links and comments
Evangelistic video
DVD is rapidly gaining in popularity, but it will be some time before most computer users or video owners also posses a DVD player. Until this time,
the
VideoCD format (not the same as DVD) can pack a whole movie onto a CD
which can be viewed by computers without DVD drives.
The
Jesus Film is available in this format in various languages. There is, of course, a great lack of evangelistic videos in languages other than English. There is huge potential for CDs in Japan, China, and the Middle East.
Also available on CD-rom and video:
- RANSOM: two men friends during their teens, became separated by military
service... Available in French, Arabic, Turkish, Sylhetti, Uzbek and in
Turkish with subtitles in English, Spanish, Cyrillic.
- ALI AND SILVANA: two young people who have fallen in love. Ali and Silvana
come from very different religious backgrounds (Muslim and 'christian')...
Available in: Bulgarian, Turkish, Uzbek, Turkish with English/French
subtitles; Albanian in preparation.
- Create International offer a range
of contextualized CDs and videos.
UK's
Christian Television Association will be offering their evangelistic
videos on DVD by the end of the year.
Currently they, and
CPO offer evangelistic videos – but only in European video format.
Games on CD and the Internet
Mission Resources maintains a list of evangelistic videos. DVDs (and videos) in a range of languages are also available from
Gospel Films and
Gateway Video. There is also a directory of evangelistic video at
Gospel Videos
Video formats vary – this lookup site lists which types are used in different countries round the world.
Computer games on CD-rom are a very powerful medium, and are played by millions. There is considerable potential for using games to communicate elements of the Christian faith.
