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For many Christian ministries, media is scattered across platforms — hard to find, hard to share and buried under ads and unrelated content. In response to this problem, MediaWorks, a ministry of OM, is developing software called LightNet that makes it easy for users to run their own digital media library.
Simon (Germany) has been working as a software developer on LightNet since 2023. LightNet operates on two models. The first is where the ministry has its own software developer who can use the LightNet source code independently and contribute their improvements to the project. The second is where LightNet helps a ministry without a software developer set up their media library, and is available for troubleshooting.
"Our dream is that we find lots of ministries that have a developer with some skills. Then it's easy; you can set up a new site in just one day,” Simon said. “We even had someone who was setting it up while we were talking to him on Zoom, and then at the end, he said, 'Can I share my screen?' And he already had a site running.”
This is currently the exception rather than the rule. Simon said they realise that many ministries don’t have access to a developer who can help them. Currently, "we have tried to build a services pipeline where we have some volunteers that are able to do the work to help the ministries get the sites up and running. We're working on making it more efficient, so it's less work for us to do, and the ministries can have an interface where they just put in the content,” he said.
MediaWorks is now looking for another software developer to join the team to work with Simon. Ideally, that person would have some experience in the industry and be familiar with MediaWorks’ web development stack, cloud infrastructure, continuous integration and delivery pipeline and automated testing tools. There is also the possibility of offering time on a voluntary basis from anywhere in the world.
Coming from a background in computer sciences, Simon and his wife had been praying about where God wanted them to be. Shortly after praying one day, he came across a magazine from OM in Germany that had an article on common misconceptions about missions. He said, “There was one statement: people think if you join missions, you need to be someone who's extroverted and loves to sit in cafes and talk to people. And then it was like, no, there's also a need for people with IT skills. It just touched my heart so deeply that I knew this is the answer that I've been asking for."
A few weeks later, Simon’s friend, who worked with OM in Germany, sent him a job description from MediaWorks for new software developers. “It was a 100 per cent match with my skills,” Simon said. "I went for a digital coffee, and it felt like a good direction to go.”
Simon said one of the sticking points for some people coming from the professional IT world when joining a missions organisation is salary. Salaries for full-time OM workers are not provided by the organisation but through individual support raising.
"For me, one of the biggest challenges with joining OM was the money,” he shared. "Probably most people will feel the same, coming from an IT world where good salaries are being paid, and then I'm leaving this behind to raise my own support. I like the idea of using IT skills in missions, but I didn't like the idea of having to raise my own support. But what I found is that God just provided for us without us doing a lot of presentations or talking to people.”
He has also found the role very fulfilling, being given the freedom to develop his ideas and having more responsibility than in some of his past jobs. “In the past, I've had fewer responsibilities as a software developer; someone was doing the marketing, someone was doing the plans and at the end, I was doing the programming. With this project, I have more responsibilities — software development is just one of the things that I'm doing. So I enjoy this mixture and also the freedom to shape processes and shape the tools that we're using.
“But even more, I enjoy the kind of people that I'm meeting while I'm doing this. I'm working with brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not about just software, it's about how we can use it to spread good news.”
For more information about LightNet, visit https://lightnet.community/
For more information on working with LightNet as a software developer, visit https://www.om.org/eng/opportunities/MediaWorks-software-developer
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