​This blog post is part of a SEO series created through a collaborative partnership between the Social Media + Big Data department of the North American Division and the Center for Online Evangelism.

Whether you’re a conference, union, church, a school, a regional office, a service organization, or a retailer, you may be asking:

One way to understand SEO is to think of the internet as a traditional library, but bigger. All the world’s content is in this library. To find material on a certain topic, you don’t just wander through each aisle. This is a large, multi-story building with shelves from floor to ceiling. If you want to find what you need, and fast, you ask the librarian: Google.

You approach Google: “I need snow leopard information.” With that, Google brings you stacks of books. There are travel magazines about zoos that have snow leopards, kids’ picture books of snow leopards, decor magazines about snow-leopard-print area rugs, reference books on animal facts, a few encyclopedias, some National Geographics, and some support manuals for Apple OS X Snow Leopard.

You’re overwhelmed, so you say, “Actually, I just want to know where snow leopards live.”

Google whisks the previous stack away and returns with a smaller stack of literature. You pick the first book off top, quickly scan through, and find, “Ah—they live in the mountains of Central Asia.”

Done. And you only needed to look at the first few pages of the top book.

The goal of Google’s search engine is to give searchers exactly what they’re looking for. If it didn’t do that very well, people wouldn’t use their search engine.

Google acts as the Great Virtual Librarian, seeking content that is most relevant to what was typed in the search box. The more specific the search query, the more specific the search results.

On the other hand, if an author wants their book to make the librarian’s short list for a certain topic, they must demonstrate to the librarian that, for a certain topic, their book is the best match or contains the most reliable information.

An author might do this by designing a catchy cover. They might also make the book title contain words that are often used when people ask questions about this topic. They write a subtitle that further specifies what readers will learn, and they craft the back-cover copy as a teaser to draw the reader in. They also have someone write an author bio that positions that author as an expert in the field.

The author will also seek to get on bestseller lists, be quoted in various magazines, and even get recommended by other authors. Maybe this author will write forewords to other books and have other prolific authors write the foreword in theirs. The author will be posting ads, participating in interviews, doing readings, etc.

The author creates a credible “buzz” and elevates this book as relevant for its topic.
The librarian sees all this and brings this book to all readers asking about this topic.

And if the library patrons willingly receive it, or even come back to read it again, all the more reason to keep bringing out this book for queries on this topic.

The author catered to the librarian by catering to what the readers were looking for.

Keep this analogy in mind as we go through this series. Each of those elements represent an online process involved in search engine optimization and, ultimately, the success of your web presence.

SEO is all about helping the right people in the “online mission field” find YOUR ministry. There are people out there that are searching for what is already your specialty—a cooking class, a good private school, a small friendly church, a big friendly church, a health seminar, an online Bible study, information about a perplexing Bible verse, how to deal with peer pressure, or how to find help and support when your friends and family aren’t helpful.

You may have heard the term “SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization” if you work with websites, content management, social media, or web development.

It’s a catch-all term to describe a collection of efforts to make your web presence more prominent in search results after someone types a related phrase into a search engine (most likely Google, but some use Bing, Yahoo, etc.)
​
Because it’s such a widely-applied and ever-evolving process, SEO does not have a set definition in a dictionary—it has several definitions! The most important thing to keep in mind, however, is that:

​It’s about your target audience’s needs, desires, and questions, and learning how you can best make the connection so they realize that, yes, you can provide what they need. You are worth their time.
 
Then they either buy from you, subscribe to your content, follow you on social media, join your cause, or come to your event or location (all possible calls-to-action—which will be studied later in this series!).
​
SEO combines some technical work with creative, strategic content work. Often, a complete SEO project involves an SEO specialist, a content strategist (copywriter), and a web developer. However, there are several SEO best practices you can implement yourself as a content manager, communication director, webmaster, or tech-savvy volunteer.

The process of SEO can have a big effect on your ministry’s online presence, whether your audience is local or global.

SEO is so big in the business world that there is an overabundance of tools and techniques being pushed by various “authorities” in the industry. It can be an overwhelming field to try to learn and keep up with, and it’s often difficult to know who to trust. Even experienced specialists in this industry still find it challenging.

​That’s why this guide was created to help you through SEO fundamentals, step-by-step, to make sure our Church’s ministries do not miss out on these potentially far-reaching benefits. 

Click here for the full SEO series and resource guide. ​

Most of the world spends hours online each day. Many people have become addicted to research, googling anything they have a question about. They look for maps and location information, check product reviews, read articles, watch videos, post comments, check in with old friends...they’ll even google questions close to their heart—questions they don’t feel comfortable asking close friends or family. Many people may google questions about topics such as spirituality, health, or information to help them through an inner struggle.

To be specific, 74,000 people google “Bible study” each month. That’s almost the entire population of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
​
The name “Jesus” is googled 1,500,000 times a month, and “Adventist” 18,100 times a month.

Currently, however, that’s not the case. Other websites are catching this traffic.

This is a missed opportunity to introduce these seekers to the hope and help that the Adventist message can provide. To quote Forbes, 

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is an ever-evolving set of strategies used in online marketing to help organizations reach more of their target audience. It is the process of utilizing a variety of techniques to positively impact a website’s visibility in unpaid search engine results. The higher a website ranks when a person googles search terms related to it, the more web traffic it receives. Most people do not scroll past the first page of search engine results. With this important fact in mind, I challenge you to google Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jesus, Bible prophecy, or the name of your church, ministry, organization, etc. What do you find? What kind of digital “curb appeal” did your search results reveal? Was it good or bad? Are people being led away by the competition or misinformation?

This resource will dive into what SEO strategies involve and how it relates to each of our ministries, from local to global. By being intentional and strategic, we can improve our digital curb appeal and encourage more people to encounter, and possibly embrace, our message.

Just as Seventh-day Adventists made strides in popular media throughout history—from print to radio to television—it’s now time to leverage the near limitless missionary opportunities the internet and digital technologies provide for us. 

We can’t ignore this vast online audience (“the online mission field”) that already wants what we have to offer—an audience we may never otherwise meet!

SEO is both highly technical and an art form. Professionals in this arena are highly sought-after and highly compensated by many types of businesses that know their true profitability depends on their findability and reputation online. But we can, with some education, invest the time (and sometimes money) ourselves to implement these valuable techniques. This is your chance to learn insider information and use it for the gospel—ultimately aiding the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20).

As with all things digital, the technology and tricks-of-the-trade will continually change, but the underlying philosophy will remain largely the same. With careful, prayerful guidance, let us begin. 

Click here for the SEO series and resource guide. 

With the recent spotlight on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, many users are now wondering how to respond to the revelation that the social media giant not only mishandled access to user data, but also actively suppresses expression of Christian and conservative values, playing political “favorites” throughout the world. Given that Facebook, who also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has almost no social media competitors, it’s easy to understand why most people feel upset. Facebook is the largest country in the world with over 2 billion active monthly users. WhatsApp boasts over 1.5 billion monthly users, and Instagram has over 600 million monthly active users. That is an impressive share of the digital market, and a misuse of the data and/or power wielded by these platforms constitutes a formidable threat to a free society.

However, this reach is the very reason why Christians who are serious about fulfilling their role in the Great Commission should not hesitate to stay on these platforms. Social media has become part of the very fabric of our society. We can connect instantly with friends and family from around the world, share our ideas, and embrace what it means to be human. Humans, by nature, tell stories, desire connection, and share experiences and ideas. Social media platforms have saturated our lives because it speaks to these basic human needs. That need is never going away this side of Heaven. Advancements in technology are often continually driven by this need to better communicate and connect. Think about the history of communication technology: cave drawings, smoke signals, boats, domestication of horses, letters, the printing press, the railroad system, telegraphs, phones, cars, radio, planes, TV, internet, social media, and whatever comes next. With each of these advancements in technology has also come the advancement of the gospel. For example, the Gutenberg printing press brought about mass production of the Bible and religious literature, allowing the gospel message and reformation ideas to spread throughout Europe.

I believe that the next Great Awakening will be a digital one. If we unite in purpose to spread the Gospel online, we can proclaim the three angels’ message with a loud voice throughout the world. During the apostolic period, the gospel was spread by dedicated teachers and evangelists who often faced ridicule, persecution, and sometimes death. They took the gospel where the people were, regardless of the personal cost. Today we are often hindered by fears of what people might think of us, or who might be offended if we share our beliefs online for all to see. In the Western world, we do not face persecution for our religious beliefs in the same way other Christians do around the world. In the case of social media, our posts may be removed or reach restricted, and, in some cases, expressing our religious convictions could threaten our employment. These are some less severe consequences we face as members of Western society, but it is enough to stop many of us from engaging at all. We may not be spiritually ready to stand in the fires or be persecuted like the young men in Daniel 2, but at the moment, God isn’t asking us to. He has, however, asked us to use what is in our hands (Exodus 4:2) to connect with the children of God and share the gospel. With 20 million members worldwide, we as a church body could work together as content creators, engagers, and distributors to generate a mighty voice for sharing the gospel message. 

Social media is the modern School of Tyrannus, a place where the ancient Ephesians gathered to engage with new ideas, pass the time, share thoughts, and participate in discussions. Paul spoke at the School of Tyrannus in Greece for two years after being kicked out of the synagogue (Acts 19:8-9), essentially getting the gospel to go viral in his day. (Dee Casper, Brand Evangelist, ARTV)

Young people spend up to nine hours a day engaging with social media; they go there to fill time, share with friends, and see new things. Like Paul, we must take the gospel where they are and engage them in discussion where they spend their time. We must make use of this technology before it’s too late. We don’t know for certain what the “Time of Trouble” will bring upon us, but I’m sure censorship will be a dominating factor that will lead to persecution.

I have dealt with censorship issues repeatedly while working for the North American Division. It has often shocked me and frustrated my efforts to promote life-changing medical services, healthy living principles, spiritual messages, and services for those struggling with addiction. It has been a grave concern of mine since taking this position after my time at the Smithsonian and realizing the dramatic differences in treatment of the content and campaigns I’m now tasked with running. This has only made me more committed than ever before to utilize these technologies to accomplish our mission. After all, if we are doing the Lord’s work, the Holy Spirit will grant us favor when the algorithms won’t. While our department adapts and readjusts to make social media successfully work for our mission, our goals would be better served by fair and equal treatment on the platforms. To be clear, Facebook does not give advertisers access to an individuals’ data, but it allows advertisers to run highly targeted ads, maximizing impact while reducing costs.

I’m hopeful that these recent events will ultimately result in making Facebook, as well as other giants like YouTube and Twitter, a safe place for free speech, religious expression, and the exchange of all ideas. Religious organizations will stand to benefit from the removal of discriminatory biases that limit reach and access to advertisement of our ideas and resources. Furthermore, I think it is essential that everybody take the time to watch the entire stream of the Facebook legal proceedings and avoid basing opinions on a few strategically edited compilation clips that are not reflective of the whole committee proceeding. We should be careful to not let the various stakeholders exploit our busy schedules and consequent short attention spans to shape our understanding of the issues.

The outcome of these legal inquiries will undoubtedly shape the future. These proceedings are ultimately about every individual’s constitutional right to free speech, religious expression, and privacy of personal information. Please invest the time to watch and understand the implications of Facebook’s breaches of trust. This is hopefully the first of many conversations around this topic. We must pay attention and hold these companies accountable, otherwise they maintain monopolies with the power to decide who has a voice, who has your data, and what they do with this information. Not only is this problematic in a free society, but also problematic to our mission as Seventh-day Adventists.

As Christians we must continue to advocate for free speech. Our ability to spread the gospel in the public forum relies upon it. Regardless of what ultimately comes out of these recent events, we must press forward, and speak Bible truths with this powerful technology. Stay, but stay with purpose. Share your faith online. We cannot wait any longer. This is our generation’s great commission. 

So you’ve run a Facebook ad campaign, congratulations! Sometimes actually doing it is the hardest step in starting to market on Facebook. But now you are left with numbers that don’t add up, terms you don’t understand, and data you don’t know what to do with. As important as starting a campaign was, if you don’t understand what happened during the campaign, you’re missing out on great information to help you reach your target audience going forward.
 
But there are a myriad of ways to digest this data, multiple locations to find it, and sometimes it doesn’t quite make sense. What’s more frustrating, there isn’t a Facebook customer service center you can call to discuss your problem. Allow me to share some tidbits of experience to hopefully help you avoid confusion.

1. Know where to look. You might have started off looking at data on your page’s “Insights” tab, which will certainly give you a lot of great info about your page and activity. For many people, this is as detailed as they want to get. But if you’re unsatisfied with the amount of info you’re getting, make sure to check out Facebook’s Ads Manager (https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage/home/) which opens up a whole new world of analytics and reporting. It’s a little more involved, but if you are needing to go deeper, it’s worth taking the time to learn. (Note: you’ll have to setup an Ad account to access Ads Manager.)
   
   
2. Set your time parameters. Can’t tell you how many times people have been looking through their data and nothing is adding up. “This can’t be right!” they say. Then they realize they are viewing reports on last week before the campaign started, or the lifetime of their ad account and the numbers are way too large. Make sure you’re seeing data from the time period you want.
   
   
3. Understand some metrics are “sampled” data. Sampling is a common practice in advertising. Instead of gathering every detail of info, sampling looks at a smaller portion and extrapolates the data out to the actual size. The smaller portion is considered to be a good representation of the larger population and provides similar results, in a fraction of the time. But if you don’t realize this and your numbers aren’t adding up, it can be extremely frustrating. Let’s say you have an ad with a total reach (“Reach” is the number of people who saw your ads at least once) of 50,000 people, but you’ve added up the numbers from each age category your ad was shown to and it comes out to 49,000. The discrepancy comes from the fact that the total reach numbers are a sample. The reason Facebook uses this method is to provide data to you as fast as possible.
   
   More info on sampling: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1691983057707189
   
   List of Facebook metrics that use sampling: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1691983057707189
   
   
4. You can’t make assumptions on definitions. As of the date of this post there are 292 ad terms in Facebook’s glossary. Some of the terms are pretty self-explanatory, while others aren’t what you think.
   
   For example, you might assume “Clicks (All)” means how many times people clicked on a link to go to your website, but it actually counts any kind of click on your ad. It might be a Like or a Love, a share, clicking a video to play sound, a Like Us button click, or any other number of clicks.
   
   This isn’t to be confused with “Link Clicks,” which counts the number of clicks on ad links to destinations either on or off Facebook. (Features within Facebook, websites, app stores, click to call, click to message, maps/directions, etc.)
    
   And muddying the waters further are “Outbound Clicks.” These are the number of clicks on links that take people off Facebook. By nature there is some overlap between Outbound Clicks and Link Clicks.
   
   As you can see, definitions aren’t always easily assumed, so make sure you’re familiar with the different variations of terms so you don’t get confused. I’ve included a smaller glossary of terms at the bottom for your reference, but here is the full glossary.
   
   
5. A “View” isn’t what you think. You see a video has 1 million Facebook views- wow! Most folks assume that means 1 million people watched the entire video. Not even close. Facebook counts a view as watching for 3 seconds. This includes videos that auto-play in a viewer’s News Feed as they’re scrolling past. A much smaller percentage of people actually watched all the way to the end. If you’re promoting a video for your church, make sure you filter the views down to more meaningful chunks, like 30-second views, 75%, or 95% views. These will tell you who truly watched your video.
   
   
6. Use a search engine. Sometimes when it’s just not making sense, you need to find people who have already struggled through what you’re going through. Very often a quick search will yield articles or forums on the exact issue you’re experiencing.

If you haven’t run an ad campaign yet, don’t let all this discourage you. Truly the best way to learn is to actually do the work and experience it for yourself. And with the support you have here, you can do it! If you have any mistakes you’ve made or lessons learned make sure to share below!

This is a surprisingly quick and affordable process. We recommend working with TowerData.com as they have an outstanding reputation and work with large clients like the Smithsonian on a regular basis. Depending on the size of your member list, you can receive your new emails in about two weeks. Their match-rate is around 25% to 30%, which could translate to a significant increase in your email list. The cost is $0.10-$0.12 cents per match.

We strongly encourage all conferences, unions, churches, and ministries to go through this process. And you don’t need us; you can do it on your own, but we are willing to help you as much as you need. Here is how it works, step by step:

• Secure any permissions needed from your board or administration. You do not want to violate the trust of your administration or members. We strongly recommend that you be as transparent as possible. It is important that the church gathers email addresses for better communication, but we must also consider how it will be perceived. Member care and expectations should be taken into consideration throughout this process. Ensuring that members have a positive experience with your brand will go a long way in strengthening your relationship with your community.
  
  
• Export from eAdventist (or whatever database you use) all individual names and addresses of current members into an Excel document. Limit the columns to names and address information only. Do not include additional data. Make sure you exclude children (members under age 18) and inactive or deceased members. It’s important to export each adult’s name separately even if they live at the same address. For example, a married couple with the same postal address listed could potentially result in two email addresses. In order for both emails to get matched, their names and addresses must be listed on separate rows.
  
  
• Connect with TowerData.org (our department can liaison to help reduce cost) and sign a Terms of Agreement. You can use our modified agreement as a template or you can request more modifications as needed.
  

Collecting email addresses is not enough to ensure better communication with your members; consider letting us review your eNewsletter for content/design optimization. Click here for tips on how to improve the performance of your emails.
 
Have questions about email appending? Comment below or send us a message on Facebook.

A while ago I was browsing the Internet when I found a cool website for young people named “Pope to You” [1]. On this site, visitors can find the latest news about Benedict XVI, a Facebook application to hear his words, see photos and receive his messages, watch videos on YouTube and follow his activities in the world through iPhone and iPod Touch.

It is a fact that we are living in a world of daily technological changes that even affect the way we live religion. It is the time that Daniel prophesied about: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4). Why the people are running to and fro? The Bible answers: “'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11). People need to know about the message of salvation and technology is a powerful way to reach them.

There is a video [2] on YouTube produced for The Third Annual Media Convergence Forum 2009 [3] with the following interesting facts about how technology is changing the world: over 1,000,000 books are published worldwide every year; a Google Book Search scanner can digitize 1,000 pages every hour. American have access to 1,000,000,000,000 web pages and 65,000 iPhone apps. Newspaper circulation is down 7 million over the last 25 years, but in the last 5 years, unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million. In 2009 traditional advertising declined but digital advertising grew rapidly. The number of unique visitors to ABC, NBC and CBS get every month, collectively is 10 million; the number of unique visitors to mySpace, YouTube, and Facebook get every month, collectively is 250 million. The average American teen sends an average of 2,272 text messages per month. Nokia manufactures 13 cell phones every second. 93% of U.S. adults own a cell phone.

Based on these facts related to nowadays technology, I ask myself: What can we do as Adventist geeks to explode technology at the highest dimension to support the Adventist mission? How can we shake the world with technology such as Paul and Silas did at their time (Acts 16:20)? These are some ideas:

• First of all, we need to pray to receive the Holy Spirit in order to empower the Adventist mission with technology. Remember that the power that came from above to the disciples in the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) was the engine that moved them to preach to thousands and to make great miracles.
• God can use any technological skill you have and convert it into something great! Just like in the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, “God often uses the simplest means to accomplish the greatest results” [4].
• Technology may change but the message is always the same (Revelations 14:6). Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, or blogs to spread the gospel, they are only mediums, not the message itself.
• Two heads think better than one. We need to create teams of Adventist geeks to share ideas and work together in common international projects. For example, let's support Adventist Forge [5], a repository of software components (similar to Google Code [6]) that can be accessed by Adventist technologists around the world in order to share their knowledge and at the same time get advantage of others' knowledge.
• Let's teach technology-related courses in Adventist churches and schools. For example, we can teach our pastors and teachers how to use cheap technologies with a high positive impact, such as blogs, podcasts, and free software (for a complete list of free software, please visit [7]).
• Show the message in an interactive and attractive way. We can broadcast evangelistic meetings and podcasts with sermons and weeks of prayer, and create Facebook groups to share experiences and study the Bible.

Can you imagine in the near future to have a group of free software components and applications for Adventist schools, universities, churches, unions, etc.? Besides, if we work as a team we will avoid the problem of “reinventing the wheel.” It means to avoid building technological projects in the church that have already been created somewhere else.

This is the right time for Adventist geeks to take advantage of technology. If we do not act now, others will do it!

Revelations 18:1, 2 warns us of an spiritual polarization. The bad will be extremely bad and the good extremely good. Just like Pr. Mark Finley says, we are in the middle of a cosmic battle for the domain of our minds. Are we going to lift up Jesus from the earth using technology (John 12:32)? Are we going to impact the world joining our technological skills and knowledge to the service of God, just like a candle in the middle of the darkness (Matthew 5:14)? Time is close to the end and also our opportunity as Adventist geeks (1 Corinthians 13:8).

*****

Dr. Harvey Alférez is a professor at the School of Engineering and Technology, Universidad de Montemorelos, Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Summa Cum Laude) from Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). His research interests include Data Science and Big Data. He has contributed to publications in top journals, book chapters, and international conferences (Scopus h-index: 6). Dr. Alférez enjoys playing the piano and family time with his wife, Doris, and sons, Johan and Daniel. His personal website is: www.harveyalferez.com


References:
1. Pontifical Council for Social Communications. (2009). “Pope To You.” Retrieved 18 March 2010 from: http://pope2you.net
2. The Economist. (2009). “Did You Know? Version 4.0, Fall 2009.” Retrieved 18 March 2010 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
3. The Economist. (2009). “Media Convergence Forum.” Retrieved 18 March 2010 from: http://mediaconvergence.economist.com
4. White, E.G. (1898). “The Desire of Ages.” Pacific Press Publishing Association, Nampa, Idaho. PP. 822.
5. Office of Global Software and Technology, General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (n.d.) “Adventist Forge.” Retrieved 18 March 2010 from: http://adventistforge.org
6. Google. (2010.) “Google Code.” Retrieved 18 March 2010 from: http://code.google.com
7. Free Software Foundation. (2000). “Free Software Directory.” Retrieved 18 March 2010 from: http://directory.fsf.org

Reposted with permission from the author. Original post appeared here.

It is amazing to read about the achievements made by the pioneers of the Protestant Reformation, heroes of faith, who defended their beliefs even in the darkest and most challenging times. They fought spiritual battles in order to bring light to the lives of many who had hunger of Truth.

Today, even when we have easy access to information by the Internet, TV, and other media, there are still so many who do not know about the beauty of the Adventist message while drowning in a sea of misinformation. As “Adventist geeks” [1], we have been called to be technology reformers who use and develop technologies no matter barriers or limitations in order to show them Jesus and His great plan of salvation in an attractive and practical way.

Specifically, this column presents three aspects found in the lives of Nehemiah, a tremendous leader, and three early reformers, Martin Luther, William Tyndale and John Knox, that are worthy of imitation in our mission as technology reformers.

1. The first aspect we can find when studying the lives of religious leaders is a daily communion with God by a life of prayer and study of the scriptures. Let's recall Nehemiah. When he heard that his brethren had a great affliction, the wall of Jerusalem was broken down, and the gates were burned with fire, he prayed before God for this situation, not just for a day, but during “certain days” (Nehemiah 1:4). He also prayed before talking to the king Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:4), under conspiracy (Nehemiah 4:9), and in times of distress (Nehemiah 5:19).

Just as Nehemiah, Luther dedicated long hours in prayer [2]. During the Diet of Worms, an important milestone in the history of the Reformation, “the light of Heaven illuminated his countenance” [3], just like Stephen when was being stoned (Acts 6:15). John Knox, a Scottish clergyman and leader of the Protestant Reformation, was also a man of prayer. Writing about Knox, Ellen G. White mentions: “Thus he kept to his purpose, praying and fighting the battles of the Lord, until Scotland was free” [3].

The grand principle maintained by early reformers “was the divine authority and sufficiency of the sacred Scriptures” [3], as testified by Luther's words at the Diet of Worms: “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God” [4].

Now, let me ask: Do you have a life of prayer? Have you offered your technology talents to God in prayer so He can use them? Have you asked God to give you the opportunities and resources to help His Church with technology projects? How much time do you spend studying the Bible per day?

2. The second constant in the lives of spiritual leaders is passion to accomplish an important task. Every spiritual leader has something important to accomplish: Nehemiah was called to restore Jerusalem, Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation, Tyndale translated the Bible into English, and Knox led the Protestant Reformation in Scotland.

All of them work with a great passion to accomplish what God had put in their minds, no matter persecution or death. Nehemiah led vigorously the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem and carried out many reforms in Judea, despite opposition. Luther was an “ardent and zealous, fearless and bold, in reproving sin and advocating the truth. He cared not for wicked men or devils; he knew that he had One with him mightier than they all” [3]. Tyndale replied to an angry Catholic doctor, “I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost!” [5, 6]. John Knox “feared not the face of man. The fires of martyrdom, blazing around him, served only to quicken his zeal to greater intensity. With the tyrant's ax held menacingly over his head, he stood his ground, striking sturdy blows on the right hand and on the left, to demolish idolatry” [3].

I invite you to define clear goals and projects to support the Adventist mission with technology. For example, think about the problems you can help to solve with the construction of websites or mobile applications. Remember to define goals with settled deadlines. Do not despair or weaken if there are obstacles on the way because God will go with you! (Joshua 1:9).

3. A technological preparation guided by God is the third aspect I want to mention. As technology geeks, we are eager to learn about technologies and find optimal solutions to real problems. We love to read about the latest gadgets and scientific researches. Some have graduated with a major in IT and others have gained technological knowledge by self-learning. No matter the situation, there is a high probability that if you are reading this column is because you love technology and want to use your IT knowledge for the good of the Adventist mission. I am completely sure that you have had a technological preparation because God has guided you in this direction!

During the centuries God has provided special training to spiritual leaders. Let us recall the case of Moses who was educated in the best Egyptian schools and while tending the flocks of Jethro in Midian. Daniel was brought to the king's palace to lean the language and literature of the Babylonians. Nehemiah had the preparation to be in an influential position where he could work in favor of his people. Luther was a Doctor of Theology, Tyndale studied in Oxford University and in the University of Cambridge, and Knox studied at the University of St. Andrews. No matter what level of preparation on IT you may have, use it for the Lord! Learn more, multiply your talents and God will use them for the good of His Church (Matthew 25:21).

God is calling you today to be a technology reformer: Be brave, passionate and hardworking. Let's be His co-workers in this important task in a world which needs you: “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37, 38).

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Dr. Harvey Alférez is a professor at the School of Engineering and Technology, Universidad de Montemorelos, Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Summa Cum Laude) from Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). His research interests include Data Science and Big Data. He has contributed to publications in top journals, book chapters, and international conferences (Scopus h-index: 6). Dr. Alférez enjoys playing the piano and family time with his wife, Doris, and sons, Johan and Daniel. His personal website is: www.harveyalferez.com


References:
1. Alférez, Harvey. (2010). “Looking for Adventist Geeks.” Retrieved July 5, 2010, from http://www.spectrummagazine.org/blog/2010/06/22/looking_adventist_geeks
2. Bainton, Roland. (1995). Here I Stand: a Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin.
3. White, Ellen. (1947). The Story of Redemption. Review and Herald Publishing Association.
4. Brecht, Martin. (1996). “Luther, Martin,” in Hillerbrand, Hans J. (ed.) Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press.
5. Lecture by Dom Henry Wansbrough OSB MA (Oxon) STL LSS. Retrieved July 2, 2010, from http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sben0056/Tyndale.London.htm
6. Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Chap XII. Retrieved July 2, 2010, from http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Martyrs/Chapter_XII

Following Christ’s method to reach the city dwellers of our day means understanding and meeting their needs. This presentation describes the potential of data science, which is the study of the generalizable extraction of knowledge from data, to help us understand those needs in an unprecedented way. If we understand people's needs, then we’ll be more effective in reaching them.

Watch presentation from GAiN 2016

There is tons of open data on the Web. This data can be freely used by Seventh-day Adventists to try to figure out ways to help the inhabitants in the cities. This post describes how the students at my Pattern Recognition course at Montemorelos University and I have used open data and machine learning, which is a key component of data science, to discover interesting mission-oriented patterns for the church at NYC.

In my courses, I mostly focus on analyzing open data from NYC because of two reasons: 1) NYC has pivotal significance in our church’s ongoing Mission to the Cities project; and 2) NYC provides a portal that makes the wealth of public data generated by various NYC agencies and other city organizations available for public use [1].

Although the number of traffic deaths in NYC has fallen [2], city officials and traffic-safety groups agree that more aggressive steps must be taken to reach Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal of eliminating traffic deaths in the city [3]. With this problem in mind, we analyzed a dataset of motor vehicle collisions in NYC, which is freely provided by the Police Department [4].

The studied dataset was created in 2014 and subsequently updated in 2016. This dataset registers motor vehicle collisions in Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island from 2014 to 2016. This is a large dataset with 932,904 registered incidents! Moreover, each registered incident has 30 variables.

With traditional queries and spreadsheet analysis it is quite difficult (and sometimes impossible) to obtain timely answers to unseen patterns in large quantities of data, such as in our case study. In this kind of cases, machine learning, which “gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed” [5], can help us to grasp patterns we did not know that even exist.

From the set of 30 variables, we chose a subset to carry out the experiments. First, we chose the variables Date and Time because we wanted to know the day and time of each traffic incident. The Zip Code, Borough, Longitude, and Latitude variables were chosen because we wanted to know the demographic information of the accidents. Also, we had interest in figuring out the demographic groups that were injured the most. Therefore, we included in the experiments the Injured Persons, Injured Pedestrians, Injured Motorists and Injured Cyclists variables. Last but not least, we wanted to determine what provoked the accident and the type of vehicle that caused the accident. Therefore, we chose the Contributing Vehicle 1 and the Vehicle Type Code 1 variables from the dataset.

In order to analyze the data, we used Weka, which is a powerful tool for machine learning [6]. Although Weka contains a large range of machine learning algorithms, for our exploration we used the K-Means algorithm because the input data is unlabeled.  

Our findings are as follows:

• On Fridays, around Prospect Park, Brooklyn, there are around 77,000 pedicab accidents registered in the dataset, which goes from 2014 to 2016. This finding can help Seventh-day Adventist congregations in the area (see the map below) to bring awareness to the community in order to prevent this kind of accidents. For example, pathfinders could go to the park on a field day and ride away with banners as flags on their bicycles or images and messages on shirts saying “Beware of your surroundings. Be swift on the brakes”. Also, information boots could be on display with pamphlets offering cycling safety tips to avoid collisions as well as what to do if people get involved in a traffic accident. Also a mini clinic to attend minor injuries in the vicinity would come in handy.
  

• Alcohol has been one of the biggest accident contributors. Moreover, accidents in which bicycles were involved have caused the highest number of deaths and injuries. Church members could look for innovative ways to inform the general population of the dangers of consuming alcohol and driving, and about cycling safety.
  

• On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, drivers tend to drive aggressively. This situation increases the number of accidents during those days. A solution the church could offer to this problem is to launch a social media campaign on stress management at the end of the week.
  

Let us use the knowledge that open data offers us to make a difference in the cities. As shown in the results above, big problems could have implementable simple solutions in which church members could make an extraordinary difference in their communities. Although a manual process could have been carried out to analyze the large dataset in our case study, it would have taken weeks or even months. In our case, the process just took a few days and a considerable low human-based analysis (computers did the hard work).

I thank the students at my Pattern Recognition course, Anthony, Claudia, Carlos, Isaías, Jairo, Eduard, Marco, Jaziel and Carlos, for their intense work on the experiments.

References:

1. The City of New York, “NYC Open Data,” (n.d.), https://data.cityofnewyork.us.

2. E. G. Fitzsimmons, “Number of Traffic Deaths in New York Falls for a Second Straight Year,” (2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/nyregion/number-of-traffic-deaths-in-new-york-falls-for-a-second-year-in-a-row.html.

3. M. Flegenheimer, “De Blasio Outlines Steps to Eliminate Traffic Deaths,” (2014), https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/nyregion/de-blasio-unveils-plans-to-eliminate-traffic-deaths.html.

4. NYPD, “NYPD Motor Vehicle Collisions,” (2014), https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/NYPD-Motor-Vehicle-Collisions/h9gi-nx95. 

5. P. Simon, Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data (Hoboken, NJ.: Wiley, 2013).

6. The University of Waikato, “Weka 3: Data Mining Software in Java,” (n.d.), http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/.