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Jun-30-2005
Ken Gosnell's recent article, 4 Ways Blogging Can Change Your Church,
describes the potential impact of blogging on the church. Blogging is
also having an impact on pastors, as a number of them have found it to
be an additional outlet for sharing and connecting. David Posthuma shares in Why Every Pastor Should Blog that blogging is a "perfect communication platform". Alex McManus shares One Blogging idea for Pastors/ Church planters: "Invite a new believer or a new member to your home or out to dinner and interview them for your blog. ... Remember, ask permission to post an interview and be sure to invite them to check it out." Tod Bolsinger exhorts pastors to blog in Blog, for Christ's sake. Some Canadian pastors were interviewed about how their churches were doing online ministry and marketing in A Few Good Pastors. And Mark D. Roberts links up a list of blogging pastors. Jun-29-2005
DongHaeng is a bilingual website (in Korean and English)
with many online Macromedia Flash cartoons, each of which vividly
portrays a spiritual lesson. With a few words, music, and visuals,
these cartoons offer encouragement and edification. By clicking on the
"disk" icon next to each cartoon title, you can even copy/paste the
HTML code and integrate it into your own website. Jun-28-2005
Tony Morgan, one of the pastors at Granger Community Church, shared some of his thoughts about church websites, after visiting many of them: 10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website. Some of the highlights include:
Jun-27-2005
Here's an interesting website: the Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible.
Over 3,000 illustrations have been completed (as of this writing) and
the project goal is to illustrate the entire bible verse–by–verse — one
illustration per verse. They plan to enlist artists and illustrators
from all over the world to bring each of the 36,665 verses in database
to life. The illustrations may be freely used for education purpose -
in your Bible study group or personal reflection!
Jun-24-2005
Pastor Brian Orme featured at his blog a 5-day series earlier this month titled, Wired: using new media in worship. Great insights and thoughts about what's happening with the people of God and technologies of many kinds.
Jun-23-2005
Liana Roa is the Editor-In-Chief of "4 the Streets," an urban magazine serving youth in inner cities, and on the staff of American Bible Society. She was interviewed on ReachOUT.tv in April 2005, and the streaming video and MP3 audio of that interview are online for you to watch and listen! ReachOUT.tv is a talk show that highlights Christians in today's culture, outside of the 4-walls of the church. ReachOUT.tv's personal interviews are broadcast weekly into over 3 million homes in the New York Metro area. Also see these related articles: 4 The Streets: Straight Talk in an Urban Dialect and Healing Hearts in the City. Jun-22-2005
3 online zines (magazines) to inspire your web content & design
creativity: 2 for a college age audience, and 1 for a general audience.
DeeperDevotion.com is an online magazine for Christian students, and www.gostudents.net
is the website of Go! Magazine. Notice how each site presents articles
to engage its readers, and uses some added functions like surveys,
polls, and discussion forums to encourage conversations between its
readers and its staff or volunteers. InFuze Magazine is all about creativity: art, entertainment, and faith. It integrates a wide mix of different Internet technologies (articles, photo gallery, blogs) for its readers. Jun-21-2005
UneekNet is a full service Internet agency, with a heart for churches and Christian non-profits, and vast experiences too. Its "Improving Your Church Website" series is an excellent resource helpful for anyone doing online ministry:
Jun-20-2005
What happens when a church creates a Web site with just its members in
mind? Only the members read it! But what is the result when a church
has a site specifically designed to reach outsiders, in user-friendly
language that connects with their lives? One church webmaster who uses
these principles says that, week in and week out, more visitors turn up
at his church on a Sunday because of the Web site than anything else. Read the full article, Church Web sites that reach out effectively, for principles that can help your website reach out. Jun-17-2005
Many people will visit your website, assuming you have a website. Most
of them will visit just once. What are some ways to have them coming
back again and again? According to Forrester research quoted in an article titled, "What drives repeat visitors to your site?",
the top 2 reasons that people returned to websites were: high-quality
content, closely followed by ease of use. What makes for quality
content? onPhilanthropy.com offers this best practice: "Repeat visitors will not come to your site expecting to see the same content. Your site’s copy material should change once a week, reflecting news, upcoming events, and features. Making the experience fun will keep browsers on your site. It will also encourage visitors to return. Have pictures and multimedia that are pleasing to look at." Robert Warren shares his suggestions for effective content in his article titled Boost Your Website With Expert Content. It says that website content that can easily be found elsewhere is worse than useless, and that one should not post outdated or generic content. What works in the print world often doesn't work in the digital one. Jun-16-2005
A month ago on May 16th, a number of churches designated that Sunday as No Bible Sunday. This Christian Post article titled, ''No Bible Sunday'' Campaign Challenges Churches, described the campaign was designed to challenge Christians in the West about how the Bible has been left on the bookshelf. At the “No Bible” services, not only the Bible, but also hymn books, overhead-projector slides, or anything else containing Scripture, was locked away from view. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, the “No Bible Sunday” campaign may reacquaint many Christians with their first love for the Good Book. The campaign was sponsored by Wycliffe Bible Translators. Jun-15-2005
I contributed to the May 2005 edition of the ForMinistry monthly e-newsletter, eJournal. Its cover article, It Takes All Kinds of Online Ministries,
captures some of my current thinking about different kinds of websites
and web tools being used for and by Christians and Christian
ministries, and where they have a place in cyberspace. Read the full article online. Subscribe to the ForMinistry eJournal -- a monthly e-newsletter that provides you with ministry resources and strategies you can use, as well as news on upcoming services from ForMinistry and American Bible Society. Jun-14-2005
Since the launch of this eQuip blog,
we've found more than a handful of other websites and blogs doing
similar things, sharing even more tips, resources and strategies about
doing online ministry. What we call "online ministry" here, some call
"internet evangelism", "eministry", or "web ministry", or "digital
outreach." We've selected the term "online ministry" because the
Internet can be used for all kinds of ministry, both evangelism and
discipleship. Other websites and blogs that are very helpful in developing online ministry include:
Jun-13-2005
We'd like to learn about how the Bible is a part of your life and your community. Please fill out this online survey this week, so we can better work towards an official launch of the temporary pre-launch emerging.forministry.com website. Please pass the word along too. Thank you!
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highlights
about this blogThis blog is a "web log" of examples and ideas for effective online ministry. You'll also find comments about web technologies and how they can be used for Christian ministry and spirituality.
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