Strategic Thinking About Media Futures

Rudolf Kabutz of TWR and Lausanne Media Engagement Network talks about the need for Christians using media to think strategically about the future.
Filmed at European Leadership Forum, 2017

Transcript

Do you want to see impact through the ministry you are doing in reaching out to people? As we use media tools these days – media to shape thinking, media to create ideas, media even to connect people – it is so easy to get overwhelmed by the huge variety of changes we see around us and the many tools, the many gadgets that appear, that pop up all over the place.

As we move into the future we will be very wise to explore, where is our future going? What is happening as we move ahead? So easily we think we don’t know about what will happen. But that does not mean we cannot anticipate and learn a lot of useful information that will guide us as we strategize up ahead.

There are a few guidelines that can help us as we consider how media can make an make an impact in the years to come. The first is that we are wise to understand, how do the major forces affect the trends around us? To see, how will the media develop in years to come?

A second aspect is to explore, How do the uncertain paths into the future play out into each other? Could there be one way in which people will be using a lot of smartphones and one way people become over-saturated and begin moving away from smartphones? All these different scenarios guide us to become ready for how we move into the future.

Once we’ve explored various alternatives of how the future can develop, we will gain great insight to define, what would be our preferred future? What is the vision that we see could be happening in the years to come particularly where God guides us in terms of how things could be developing?

Next, we will be really wise to develop a clear plan of how we want to navigate through these alternative futures into the vision that we see coming up ahead.

All that put together will help us shape an impactful way of using media to shape society, impact people’s lives and even, by sharing these ideas, sharing concepts through media, to create the vision that you believe God is shaping in your heart to impact communities around you.