Stories & News

A New Internet Strategy for Reaching the World

Posted: 2017-12-14

www.TheHOPEProject.com is our website for streaming The HOPE and providing our companion Study Guide. Eventually, we expect to be streaming all of the 65+ languages of The HOPE on this website. Hundreds of people from around the world visit this site daily. If someone indicates a decision to follow Christ, they can connect to an online missionary with one of our ministry partners. Since its inception, we’ve viewed the Internet as one of the main venues where our ministry happens . . . but no longer!

For much of the world, particularly where most of the unreached people groups live, video streaming is just not possible. The Internet pipeline is too slow, or non-existent. In these regions, someone wanting The HOPE needs to be able to download it, even if it takes all night because of slow Internet. And the download file needs to be small enough to work on a mobile phone. The current data shows that the majority of people in the world now access the Internet on their mobile devices.

To meet the need, we’ve invested a lot of time, energy and resource into updating www.HOPEPartnering.com, our web portal “For All Things Related to Partnering in The HOPE.” Historically, this was the place where people learned how to partner in creating translations of The HOPE. It is now a part of the main Mars Hill website, and moving forward, it will be our main portal for delivering The HOPE. We even foresee a time when downloads will replace DVDs. Check out the section of this website that shows all The HOPE languages - www.TheHOPELanguages.com. It is really amazing to see what God has done through our partners worldwide.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this new development is the way it has returned us to our roots. We’ve always believed that the highest use of media for ministry is as a tool in the hands of a Christian working to reach another person (or people) for Christ. Until now, we’ve viewed the Internet as one of our primary venues for ministry. We now view it more as our primary means for delivering The HOPE to those doing the ministry. Our goal is to provide The HOPE to the “boots-on-the-ground” Christian workers around the world whenever, wherever and however they need it!

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Telegram App Safely Carries Gospel to the Middle East

Posted: 2017-11-30

Every month, SAT-7 Media broadcasts The Farsi, Arabic, and Turkish HOPE across the Arab speaking world via satellite TV. In the Persian Gulf and parts of North Africa, SAT-7 uses the Telegram App as their primary audience relation tool to engage with millions of Muslim viewers. Because users on Telegram are not able to see or interact with other users, the app is a safe and secure way for seekers to reach out with questions about programing they have seen. SAT-7 recently approached Mars Hill requesting clips of The HOPE to use for a daily bible study in the app. This project, coming soon, will share The HOPE with as many as 80,000 people who currently follow the SAT-7 Channel via Telegram.

Would you like to get involved? We often post about upcoming broadcasts on our HOPE Facebook and Instagram. Keep an eye out to join with us in prayer.

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Texas Church Taps Into the Nations using HOPE ESL

Posted: 2017-11-30

Hill Country Bible Church (Austin, Texas) recently completed another year of ESL (English as a Second Language) outreach using The HOPE. In addition to her own ESL curriculum, the director of the Conversational English Outreach at HCBC put together a basic Bible study using The HOPE script and observational questions from the movie. The steady pace and simple story-telling style of the movie make it a natural for oral learners. The program has had students from S. Korea, Indonesia, Bulgaria and Vietnam just to name a few. Many times their students come from Buddhist or atheistic backgrounds and The HOPE is their first introduction to the Bible. The resulting conversations are theologically rich as students lay hold of English through the story of the Bible. HCBC's HOPE Bible Study Guide for ESL students will be available soon on our HOPE Store. For more questions about using The HOPE in ESL contact us at hopeinfo@mars-hill.org

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Spreading the Gospel, Building the Church through Social Media in Closed Access Countries

Posted: 2017-11-30

In a day of mobile media and internet ministry, partners are finding creative ways to use HOPE content on the social media mission field. During this year's Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha or "Sacrifice Feast", a team operating in a highly persecuted country shared short clips of The HOPE via Facebook Video. Each clip was posted with a leading question to spark conversation. Several clips had millions of views, with thousands of viewers posting comments. The team responded to the comments, and a phenomenal online dialogue between Christians and Muslims was underway! As you can imagine many scenes of The HOPE like, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, became hot topics of debate. But some seekers showed a sincere interest to know more about the God of the Bible. When possible, the team personally sought these people out, often at great risk.

This team's example is the model of how The HOPE can be used for cross-cultural evangelism via social-media platforms. We are currently working to make this model available to more partners. If you would be interested in using The HOPE in similar ways via social media, contact us at partneringdirector@mars-hill.org.

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The Gospel Coalition Farsi Website

Posted: 2017-05-18

85% of evangelical churches globally are led by pastors who have no access to formal education or training. To aid in this theological famine, The Gospel Coalition has been translating theological and biblical resources (ie; John Piper books, study bibles, etc.) for pastors and elders of churches in these least reached areas. Mars Hill has been invited to collaborate with The Gospel Coalition by making The HOPE available in a variety of new ways so international church planters can be equipped to teach the meta-narrative of scripture to their congregations.

The Farsi HOPE and Study Guide will soon be available on this TGC website: http://www.mahfeleenjil.com/ with a new download option as well. TGC intends to share The HOPE in all available languages with their network of reformed missionaries and church planters working around the globe.

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