RIVERSIDE, Calif. (March 8, 2016) – Students at California Baptist University were encouraged to use technology to spread the Gospel at the first Hackathon seminar.               

"We want students to catch a vision and to understand they can help people and also spread the Gospel in their professional pursuits," said Dr. Mi Kyung Han, assistant professor of computer science and event organizer.

CBU collaborated with Code for Kingdom ministries to host the event on campus on March 3-5.

Hackathons are traditionally known as an event were technologists work collaboratively on software projects. The Code for the Kingdom ministries put a twist on the concept of a hackathon. They aim to bring technologists and entrepreneurs together not to solve software problems but to focus on how they can spread the Gospel through technology.

Han said she had worked with this ministry in the past and wanted to bring the experience to CBU students.  

CBU's Hackathon featured speakers Chris Armas, founder of Code for the Kingdom ministries; Chris Lim, founder of TheoTech; LouAnn Hunt, digital Bible manager of Faith Comes by Hearing; Garry Williams, CEO of Cozzee; Dr. Kyungsoo Im, assistant professor of computing software and data science; Dirk Dallas, assistant professor of graphic design and graphic arts; and Han. 

Lim, who spoke on March 4, created a prayer app called Ceaseless that helps create a community of prayer. The app selects three people to pray for a day and the online community comes together and prays for the people selected.

"Begin with God as your customer. Let His desires influence the work you do," said Lim. "In all your time creating codes and working, don't lose sight of the God you worship. I invite you to use your technological gifts to spread the Gospel."

In addition to hearing from an array of presenters on how technology can be used to spread the Gospel, students also had the opportunity to pitch ideas to a panelist of CBU faculty and receive feedback on their potential endeavors.