Uncover – Interactive Media in Evangelism

 Like many great British inventions, Uncover was an idea that came to us whilst sipping a cup of hot tea. It was in a café in Bath that Tim Rudge (UCCF Field Director), Brian Weaver (Associate to the Director and Head of Projects and Events) and I started a conversation about developing an interactive bible study experience that would help seekers meet Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. That idea would later become Uncover – See for Yourself.

 Uncover is an examination of the evidence about the life and purpose of Jesus Christ. Non-believers are encouraged to see for themselves who Jesus is through reading an Uncover Gospel with a friend, one-to-one or in a small group. Playing on the concept of uncovering evidence and inviting students to see for themselves, the visual language features investigative paraphernalia such as bagged and tagged evidence satchels, investigators note pads, pencils and so forth.

 

Real innovation

The real innovation, however, is the successful convergence of the traditional print media, which would be associated with a gospel distribution of this kind, and use of online resources. The objective driving any UCCF gospel distribution is to expose seekers to Jesus in a gospel by getting them to read it for themselves.  Appreciating the fact that casual enquires would not, likely, read a whole Gospel in a single sitting, we set out with the goal of taking enquirers on a journey through Luke’s Gospel by using interactive media such as QR codes, online films and apologetics resources – all accessible through a single micro site – uncover.org.uk.

QR (Quick Response) codes – sometimes referred to as 2D barcodes – have been imbedded in the text throughout the gospel. Once the free QR code reader has been downloaded from the app store or Android Marketplace, Smartphone users can gain instant access to digital resources wherever they are by scanning the code with a camera phone.

Following the evidence trail

There are two strands of resources. The first takes users on a journey through Luke and we refer to this as the ‘evidence trail’.  The first code they’ll find is on the front cover with a ‘start here’ label attached to it. The idea is that they scan the code and then view a short film of around 2-3 minutes where they will be invited to consider six pieces of evidence from Luke’s Gospel.

 The first of these is evidence A (Luke 5), the account of the paralytic whose sins are forgiven by Jesus. They will be asked to read the passage, scan the code and watch a short film to help them reflect and engage with what they’ve just read. Once the episode has been viewed they will be encouraged to view the next bit of evidence (Luke 7 – the account of Simon and the prostitute). This will continue until they’ve gone through what we consider to be, six key events in Luke – including the Cross and the Resurrection.

 

We are very keen not to take students out of the Gospel. We simply want to redirect them back into the passage so they are – primarily – interacting with Luke’s Gospel. Once they’ve viewed the final film (on the Resurrection), they will be encouraged to read the whole Gospel from start to finish.

 The second strand links to a series of apologetics films. For example, when the Gospel raises the issue of suffering there’s a QR code where students can hear a presentation by an experienced evangelist on that particular subject. There are 7 apologetics QR codes hidden in the text for seekers to find.

 Just a gimmick?

In 2011, Smartphones comprised almost 50% of all mobile phone sales. A recent YouGov report concluded that around 40% of young people own smartphones, and this figure is expected to increase to 68% in the next upgrade cycle*. This is certainly an area in which UCCF ought to be operating. However, some marketing managers would argue that QR codes are just a gimmick that have become so ubiquitous that people are already bored of them. There is, undoubtedly, some truth in that. How many times have you seen a QR code in a shop window, on a bus or in a magazine and haven’t scanned it? End users have to be motivated to download an app and scan a code – no doubt. So how do we motivate students to engage with Uncover? The answer is simple. Tell a story that compels users to turn the page to see what happens next.

The evidence trail takes users on a journey. They meet a person in a story who the story teller claims really existed and has something personal to impart to the reader. We have found that the idea of ‘seeing for yourself’ who this person is and ‘uncovering the evidence’ presented by Luke is a compelling proposition to both moderns and post-moderns alike. So far, 60,000 gospels have been delivered to Christian Unions in Great Britain, the Uncover website is getting around 4,000 visits a month and we have observed around 20% of all uncover.org.uk page views are through mobile devices that have scanned a code. Early signs towards delivery of a successful gospel distribution look promising.  

 Scripture engagement

Apart from the hardback, high-quality feel of the gospels – which are attractively designed for a student audience- we’ve also allowed plenty of room for notes so students can interact with the text by writing notes and underlining verses. Finally, we’ve placed some commentary notes throughout the gospels to draw people into the text and help them think about what they’re reading.

UCCF gospel projects (this is our sixth) have a history of using quirky and creative ideas to engage a visually aware and culturally apathetic group of people. We’ve had tracing paper laid in between passages to draw attention to key events and one Gospel Project idea was to include a pencil so students could underline and make notes. The 2008 Gospel Project artwork was entirely generated by end users for accessibility.  However, as one publisher has been quoted as saying, “we feel that the Uncover Project has taken a quantum leap forward in gospel production.” We are very thankful to our partners and supporters who have made our vision – an idea that was had over a cup of tea – a reality.

 

Pod Bhogal

Head of Communications

UCCF: The Christian Unions

 

* Web addresses have been printed next to the QR codes so resources are fully accessible to all students, whether they have a smartphone or not.

 ** to find out more about Uncover visit uccf.org.uk/uncover