Missionary media is grounded in God’s very first commandment to people. In Genesis 1:28 after He created man, it says “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…’” After the fall and the descent of Adam & Eve’s descendants into sin and rebellion. God sent a flood to destroy the earth - saving only Noah and his family. It’s interesting that after the waters subsided and they left the safety of the ark, God again gives his people a command. Genesis 9:1 tells us “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’”
Clearly, from the beginning of our world, God has intended for His people to multiply in the earth. It is not a stretch to recognize that this imperative is more than numeric or biological, but also spiritual. God’s desire is that people from every tribe, nation, language, race, social status, religious background, and more know Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. This continued task of multiplication embodied in the Great Commission calls us to make disciples which is another way of saying “multiply” followers of Jesus around the world. This is what global missions is all about.
Missionary media is a powerful tool for multiplication in at least three significant ways. First, it multiplies missionary reach. Modern technology gives us the potential to take the Gospel to more people in more places more quickly than ever before. It allows us to bridge geographic, cultural, religious and political borders and communicate good news to people where they are.
Missionary media also multiplies missionary resources. Developing high-quality programs and resources in ways that can be put into many languages, distributed through multiple technologies and used over and over again is good stewardship. Rather than focusing on a single act or moment of communication, at IMM we seek to create tools and content with a long shelf life and broad appeal to maximize the investment of time, energy and finances.
Doing that also means missionary media multiplies results. While our primary focus is obedience, certainly we want our efforts to be fruitful for God’s kingdom. Media is one of the most influential forces in the world today, shaping opinion and impacting virtually every segment of society. Our prayer is that the programs we make will be a creative and relevant means of communicating spiritual truth to multitudes of people. We aren’t just producing videos, we are multiplying missions by putting Jesus On Every Screen!