Christian CD-ROMs, DVDs, PowerPoint and Video
- the Potential for Evangelism

http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/cd-evangelism.html

Almost every computer now has a CD-ROM player and within a year or two, DVD capability will be almost universal. Yet 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. 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 campaings, or on board MV Logos 2 and Doulos 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.

Available CDs

Here's a range of evangelistic CDs - please send details of others.

Actual Reality is is an interactive Christian CD-ROM created 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 of it: "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. I haven't heard the music on this CD-ROM so I don't know if I can recommend it
THE QUEST is another CD in the course of preparation in UK. It contains evangelistic apologetics material for the thinking person of student age. Release is due later this year.
Two Ways to Live from Matthias Media is an extended version of their online evangelistic presentation. http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/Guide/TTG/2wcd.html
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.
David Hall of ACROSS in New Zealand writes:
"We gave out over 8,000 at the Sydney Olympic Games - with the Bible in over 40 languages, 10 contemporary evangelistic music items, testimonies of some of the artists, and more. God has provided an incredible opportunity through a Demo CD that contains the Bible in over 40 languages. For example it includes two English versions, both modern and traditional Chinese, Bahasa Indonesian, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic, Maori, most European and many other languages. (In most cases it's the whole Bible, in a few cases it's only the NT.) Plus this CD has a mini Bible browser, colorful Holy Land screen saver that shares a step-by-step scriptural gospel message, devotionals, testimonies, and ten contemporary, first class Christian music items - and more. It's a great tool for the spreading of the Gospel - and also for Christian growth. This CD - when ordered in bulk is only one $1.00 each. You can give these out to friends, family, neighbors, people you come in contact with. What a great way to share God's Good News! These are NOT to be sold, only given away. We will send you a CD for each $1.00 you send for this project. Some people have asked for 20, some 500, others over 5,000. Some may want to go in with a friend or cell group, church or business. Churches or groups who order 5,000 or more can have their name and address and web info on the CD back cover, plus their info linked from the main page of the CD."
ACROSS: http://www.across.co.nz/
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.
The Power to Change CD is available to purchase on the website. It is primarily intended for use by churches as part of co-ordinated geographical evangelistic campaigns in conjunction with other types of promotion and advertising. In such evangelism, it is distributed free in large numbers to inquirers along with a small booklet. It contains POWER TO CHANGE material: testimonies, a gospel presentation; plus a full-length film about the life of Jesus.
http://www.powertochange.com/cdoffer/
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 mail order for anywhere in the world: http://www.saltshakers.com/mall/software.htm#ama

PowerPoint and CDs

PowerPoint was designed by Microsoft, primarily to create sequential slides for business presentations. A PowerPoint presentation cannot 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 - which can be speeded up by zipping them. 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.

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.

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

Online PowerPoint Tutorials
Making better PowerPoint presentations
PDF file (44 pages 1150k) on making CD-ROMs
Among the less expensive alternative software available for building CDs or other digital training platforms is Trainersoft 7 - which is available as a trial version.
It is possibly to create material using RealPlayer in high quality and put it on CD. Since RealPlayer supports SMIL (Synchronised Multimedia), you can make interactive full-screen CD presentations using only a media producer for audio and video, and MS Notepad. SMIL is not much harder to learn than HTML apparently.

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 from Campus Crusade 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.

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. Mission Resources maintains a list of evangelistic videos.

There is a lookup site on which video formats are used in different countries round the world.

Christian DVDs

All the DVDs below are available from

Gospel Communications International
PO Box 455
Muskegon, Michigan 49443-0455 USA
www.1-800GospelDirect.com
1-800-467-7353

Gateway Films-Vision Video
PO Box 540
Worcester, PA 19490-0540 USA
Gateway Films
Vision Video
http://www.visionvideo.com
1-800-523-0226
610-584-3500
info@visionvideo.com

Their online catalog has titles that are not listed below.

"Jesus" DVD (24.95)
is available in these languages: English - Spanish - Arabic - French - Portuguese - Japanese - Korean - Mandarin

Davey and Goliath on DVD
(1) Trusting in God (19.95)
(2) Remember the Promise (19.95)
English

The Visual Bible -Matthew on DVD
(99.95)
English

Peace Child on DVD 924.950
Cebuano - English - French - Ilocano - Indonesian - Italian - Japanese - Korean - Mandarian - Polish - Russian - Spanish - Tagalog - Taiwanese - Zulu

A Vow to Cherish

Kingdom Under the Sea: Return of the King

Both organizations below will send to you their Christian video and dvd catalog for free. Both have excellent full color magazines which have some Christian DVDs.

Gospel Communications International
PO Box 455
Muskegon, Michigan 49443-0455 USA
www.1-800GospelDirect.com
1-800-467-7353
231-777-1847