Many of you know about YouTube, the strange cultural phenomenon where teens, adults, hobbyists, copyright infringers, amateur and budding professional videographers upload their wares. Yes, this is the company that Google just bought for $1.6b!!! Yes that is little "b" billion...
Most of you know there is some goofy stuff (and some sketchy stuff - be warned) on your YouTube, but there are also some great finds. No, I am not speaking of the dancing video, or the RuBot II that solves the rubiks cube, but other more profitable items.
This morning I ran across just such an offering. Jay Smith, a scholar and evangelist in the UK has several short videos going up about Islam and society. I heard Smith debate some Muslim scholars while I was in campus ministry. He does a great job and is very knowledgeable. The films are short monologues answering Muslim questions, objections about the Christian Faith as well as commentary on contemporary issues in relations between Islam and Western society.
Smith's reasoning for doing the shorts are on his web site:
A couple of Christian film-makers, after seeing me down at Speaker's Corner, approached me with the possibility of filming an entire series of public challenges to Islam, as well as rebuttals to their challenges of Christianity, and then housing them on 'YouTube', where they could be used to engage Muslims publicly, as well as employed by Christians who need answers to some of the more current challenges we are facing.
We decided to call these short videos 'Pfander Films', in memory of the great CMS debater of the 19th century, Dr. Carl Pfander.
I filmed my first 10 episodes (from 1 - 10 minutes each) on Thursday, and the first three have now been put on-line, at 'YouTube' for you to view at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PfanderFilms
These include my introduction, a five minute clip on 'Jack Straw and the problem of the Hijab', and a clip concerning 'Who is going to represent Islam in Britain now?' We have purposely chosen these first ones to represent topics currently in the news, and have made them look amateurish, as they then tend to generate more hits.
Feel free to go up and look at them, respond to any of them, as YouTube permits you to freely post either a text or video response, or respond to the Muslims who are commenting on the clips. It's a great way to get involved in evangelism from the comfort of your own home, a sort of 'arm-chair' missionary, and it won't cost you a cent.
You can jump into YouTube here to view the films.
(HT - A-Team Blog)