Mae is no coder. In fact, she doesn’t consider herself a “techie” at all. So when a friend invited her to Indigitous #HACK, a global missional hackathon, she was hesitant. When she thought about hackathons, she thought about marathon coding sessions developing apps, websites, and other cool technology. What use did anyone have for someone whose main hobby is journaling?
But she trusted her friend. At the hackathon, Mae joined a team working on an app to help reach unreached people groups. As a writer, her creative thinking was vital to the group. “I was amazed along the way as we brainstormed ideas and drafted how the app was going to work,” Mae says.
She worked on the project along with two coders, two web designers, and three marketing students. “Here we are, people from different backgrounds, and yet somehow we were united and were taking seriously the challenge to find solutions to the world’s problems. I, for one, cannot make the app alone, but bringing our skills and ideas together made it possible.”
Indigitous #HACK is the largest global hackathon to bring the gospel to new people, places, and spaces. People from around the world gather to hack out solutions to ministry problems, but that hacking doesn’t necessarily involve coding. One of the definitions of “hack” is “a clever tip or technique for doing or improving something.” At Indigitous hackathons, people look at missional problems and try to find clever tips or techniques to solve them. It’s about getting creative, thinking outside the box, and testing innovative ideas to bring the gospel where it’s not. Sometimes, the hackathons are a way to get “unstuck” when a ministry strategy isn’t working. Other times, it can be about figuring out new ways to reach an audience that hasn’t been reached with other methods.
Hacking a social media quiz
At an Indigitous #HACK event in Panamá, attendees tried to find a way to inspire people to follow Jesus in a culture where nominal Christianity is the norm. Among the twelve attendees were ministry leaders, social media marketers, and designers, but no coders, so the solution to that ministry problem couldn’t involve new coding.
The group decided on a project called Jesus Y Los Temperamentos. They created an online quiz that helps people determine which of four temperaments they have. Those results are connected to a JESUS film clip showing Jesus as the perfect embodiment of that temperament. Those who finish the quiz are given a gospel presentation and follow-up material.
Hacking translation
The first year holding Indigitous #HACK in Berlin, Samuel got a late start planning the event. Only six people showed up, and none were coders. “We ended up with mainly international people who have a heart to reach international people in Germany and wanted to learn more about how to do that,” Samuel says.
Part of the group went through discipleship training led by Samuel, as they looked for innovative ways to disciple people in a German culture. The rest worked on translating existing discipleship content into Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, and Malayalam. “We’re not programming, but still we’re working on advancing God’s Kingdom,” Samuel says.
Hacking the first digital Bible story in this language
Indigitous hackathons are for those who value creativity and problem solving, people who want to look at a ministry problem, consider different options, and test out innovative solutions. In Panamá, that meant applying marketing, communications, and social media skills to create a new campaign. In Berlin, that meant applying critical thinking to discipleship training and translating existing content so it can be used more broadly. In Auckland, it meant using animation and storytelling to increase access to the Bible.
Around 1,000 people live on the remote island of Pukapuka. It’s a population that doesn’t have the entire Bible available in its language, though portions have been translated. When Karl gathered people in Auckland, New Zealand for Indigitous #HACK in 2018, a missionary asked if they could create a Bible story in the Pukapuka language. Everyone at the event worked on other projects, so Karl got out his iPad, found an animation app, and created an animated story about Jesus calming the storm. By Karl’s own admission, he’s not a gifted animator, but he still created the first visual Bible story in the Pukapuka language.
Indigitous hackathons are for those who value creativity and problem solving, people who want to look at a ministry problem, consider different options, and test out innovative solutions.
A year later, that animation was taken to the next level when Karl held a hackathon at a school. First, he gave the students a crash course in Bible interpretation, storyboarding, and how to use the animation software. Then the students worked on creating and editing improved animated stories. In less than four hours, each group had a video in Pukapuka that shares the gospel. “We can see the potential for an event like this to both create Scripture engagement media for under-represented languages, and also to give young people a vision for how God could use their digital and artistic skills to help spread the gospel message,” Karl says.
What can you do to share the gospel?
In Matthew 14, Jesus’ disciples came to Him with a problem: The crowd was hungry, it was getting dark, and they didn’t have enough food: only five loaves of bread and two fish. “Bring them to me,” Jesus said. He then took the bread and fish, gave thanks, had them distributed to everyone, and they had twelve basketfuls leftover.
Attending a hackathon is one way to bring your five loaves and two fish to God. When you look at all of the unreached people, all of the people who do not yet know Jesus, the problem can seem overwhelming. But not for God. At a hackathon, you can bring your skills, passions, and creativity, and let God use them to make an impact. You don’t need to be a coder. You just have to bring what you have and trust that God can use it.
Try This:
- Sign our interest form to let us know you would like to attend Indigitous #HACK in person or virtually. We will send you more information about how to join and see how God can use you.