Mass media are being used widely, in a broad assortment of ways, by those engaged in mission work today. The following list, although not exhaustive, will illustrate the major approaches. Many mass media programs may be designed to instill awareness and impart introductory information about the church and the mission effort. Whatever we do here, it is going to reach people in two principal ways: through liturgy and through the media. The gospel itself is the hope of salvation, one cannot really separate the message from the messenger. 

Thus, effort can legitimately be expended in providing historical and descriptive information about a group of missionaries, especially those moving into new fields. Many mass media programs are designed to prepare the way for a major missionary effort. This has been described as the softening-up process, or seed-sowing. Just as John the Baptist was sent before the Lord to prepare the way for his coming, mass media programs may be very effective in providing initial exposure to the Gospel, to lay the foundation for an intensive evangelistic effort later. The objective with this technique is to accomplish preliminary acquaintance with the missionary and the message, so that the mission team will not be confronted with people who are unfamiliar-perhaps even hostile to the mission effort. Most church leaders today accept that there has to be a media component or dimension in all their apostolates.

There are four types of generation of media: 1. First generation includes charts, maps, graphs, written materials, demonstrations, and dramatizations. 2. It includes printed textbooks and workbooks. 3. It includes photographs, slides, film strips, silent motion pictures, recordings, sound motion pictures, radio, and television. Music is chosen to express the musical dimension of the psalm. 4. It includes programmed instruction, language laboratories and electronic digital computers. We decided to use the media to provide the images that would welcome us to join those who heeded the call of the Lord and thereby discovered life’s deepest meaning in the greatest story ever written. Photography is used for explaining the parables. A series slides on the growth of plants interspersed with pictures of persons in the group and from society at large might be shown while the parables of growth and fullness are read. In the early Christian community, the setting of the psalms was primarily a liturgical one. They were sung and even danced too. It is from this direction that a media approach will seek its entry into evangelizations.

Many Christians are firmly committed to a theology of seed sowing, which might also be called a theology of search. It arose in the era of missions just ending. It maintains that in Christian mission the essential thing is not the finding but going everywhere and preaching the Gospel. Mass media are sometimes used to provide both basic and advanced study of the Bible, and aggressively seek conversions. Missionaries in certain areas have achieved some success in offering a complete array of gospel messages, including discussions of the deeper things of God, leading the listener all the way to acceptance of Christ. Such a technique is generally used only in areas where mission efforts have been in existence for some time, where one might expect to find people who are ready for more advanced study of the Bible along with, the spiritually illiterate. In tis way evangelization through the electronic media rooted for the effective communications.

Charles Jebamalai