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Web 10

ChurchCrunch Ministry Job Board Launches

Posted By on March 4, 2009

jobboardPart of my passion is creating value through the online mediums that I operate. It’s not only what keeps me interested but keeps me going and keeps me innovating.

Today I’m happy to announce the launch of something that I’ve been building in the background for a bit: The ChurchCrunch Ministry Job Board.

I’m really really really pumped about it because it’s an easy way to “give back” to the community and really leverage this blog, in a practical sense, to connect individuals with the ministries that God wants them to be a part of.

I actually see it as an honor and privilege, and as such, I’m calling this initiative “ChurchCrunch’s FREE Economic Stimulus Plan!”

What does that mean? It means that you can post your job needs on the board at no cost. That’s right, FREE.

So check it out, let others know, and if you need to fill a job or fill a need then jump on it!

Like RSS? Here’s the direct RSS Feed so you can get updates directly about new opportunities!

http://churchcrunch.com/jobs/?jobfeed=rss2

[Oh, and yes. It's totally built in WordPress... it's not an external 3rd party service. Isn't that sweet?]

Creative, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Web 7

How To Build The ‘Groundswell’

Posted By on March 4, 2009

thegroundswell

[Image from Mick Ø]

Everyone wants to build the groundswell around their blog, social media strategy and/or initiative, marketing campaign, or their programmatic buzz blitz. People spend tons of money, man hours, and “strategy sessions” to map out their roadmap to success.

That’s good and all. I’m all for it. Especially in ministry, we should be wise and think long term. We should have a plan and a strategy and metrics for success.

But let me clue you in to the secret of creating the “groundswell” that I have seen work time and time and time again, especially in light of this new social economy:

Continue Reading…

Blogging, Strategy, Web 12

Why People Use the Internet – Blogging Strategy

Posted By on March 3, 2009
Image from TuxHC

Image from TuxHC

People use the internet. You use the internet. Have you ever sat down and asked yourself the question of why you use the internet? Why others use the internet?

I have.

I feel like I ask myself that daily. In fact, it’s one of the first things that I thought about when I first started blogging consistently here on ChurchCrunch. I asked myself why the world needs another blog about web technology.

The fact is that it doesn’t. But I’ll get to that in a second.

As I’ve come to understand it there are some core and base reasons why people use the internet:

Continue Reading…

Web, WordPress 7

Bruce Reyes-Chow – The Blogging Mod for PCUSA

Posted By on March 3, 2009

pcusa_logoIt think it’s a good bet that many of you already know about Bruce Reyes-Chow, the General Assembly Moderator for the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination. If you don’t, perhaps you should.

I’ve been watching (spying… maybe…) on Bruce for a while now, ever since he became the GA for PCUSA. For those that don’t know, the General Assembly is the highest governing body of the PCUSA denom. It has a number of responsibilities, among them these 4:

  1. to set priorities for the work of the church in keeping with the church’s mission under Christ
  2. to develop overall objectives for mission and a comprehensive strategy to guide the church at every level of its life
  3. to provide the essential program functions that are appropriate for overall balance and diversity within the mission of the church, and
  4. to establish and administer national and worldwide ministries of witness, service, growth, and development.

Pretty important, right? The General Moderator is, to some degree, the man in terms of establishment and role. What’s very cool is that this one is a blogger and a Twitter-user.

He blogs at his personal blogspot here. If you want to give him a follow, he’s here @breyeschow.

I’m sharing him with you because it’s good to see leaders at the “top” who not only understand web technology but are using it actively. Now if only he could “understand” it enough to migrate to WordPress.

;)

Twitter, Web 3

Tapping the Most Basic Human Desires

Posted By on March 3, 2009

Charlie Rose is back with another good word.

I love the idea of “living more transparently can have powerful and positive effects.”

Any thoughts?

Twitter, Web 3

Orange Conference Give Aways – Coming At Ya!

Posted By on March 2, 2009

freestuffApparently The Orange Conference gang love hookups… because they are giving out some major ones!

Take a look at some of the give aways listed below after the jump!

In addition, make sure you FOLLOW @OrangeConf on Twitter! You can win some handy prizes to just by following them… learn more here.

Perhaps you should check them out… I mean, seriously!

Word up!

Continue Reading…

Facebook, Google, Social Media, Web 20

How Facebook Connect Closes Doors

Posted By on March 2, 2009

closeddoorsA lot of people have been asking about Facebook Connect and how it may or may not be used for Social Media Ministry in terms of our personal properties (blogs, ministry websites, portals, etc).

I’ve been hestitant to blog about it (except the news-flashy-type) because I’ve been having a lot of doubts about it. Thankfully, Chris Brogan gave me the “gift of going second” (love this term! OffTheBlogs.com used it recently…).

See, the basic premise is that while using a 3rd party login system / chatting system / social platform to power your blog you’re actually limiting yourself to the amount of data that you can capitalize and data mine long term. Instead of you being able to directly manipulate and leverage the data, Facebook, Google, etc has all of that and you don’t have direct access to it.

Essentially, as Chris points out, you’re giving up control. I’m not really down with that.

You see, ever comment and every “interaction” on this blog here is under my control, almost literally. I can track where you’re going and what you’re doing and I’m not piping anything back to Google or Facebook (although the bottom Google bar is somewhat of an experiment… expect that to disappear soon.).

People have been clammering to “get connected” and become “more social” but I don’t believe having those platforms on your blog “makes” it more social. I think it enables a different way to engage, but not necessarily a beneficial one.

It’s up to you, ultimately, how you want to engage and interact with your users. I can see pros and cons to the argument, but for now, I’d like to control the data.

And if I’m able to better establish robust relationships through the mining of my data then I’d rather keep that control than have something “cool” like Facebook Connect.

What do you think?

Web 14

Online Small Groups – Thoughts via Craig Groeschel

Posted By on March 2, 2009

craiggroeschelI awoke this morning to a light RSS reading list in my GooReader.

A few tidbits of worthless information accented by the return of one of the greats, and then this: An argument by Craig Groeschel on the value of Small Groups.

A most excellent read.

But here’s the thing: As you read over his listing  of why he still believes small groups are valuable and effective, look at it through the lens of online. I think you’ll come to some interesting conclusions.

For starters, I think that most if not all of his points have validity in the online segment. It’s not a question of “why” but “how” and “what” now. How are we going to do Small Groups “online?” What will be the tools to help facilitate this model?

2009 is going to be a very interesting year.

Strategy, Web 9

Not Everyone Thinks the iPhone is the Bomb

Posted By on March 1, 2009

japanesehatetheiphone

In fact, the truth be told is that the Japanese hate the iPhone and it doesn’t surprise me one bit.

I lived in Japan for nearly 4 years and during that time my eyes were opened: I saw technological advances there that still have yet to make it stateside (and this was more than a decade ago…!). Besides humongous cultural divides, the Japanese people have extremely complex and super-high standards.

Lesson to be learned here: What we find attractive technologically on the web and even how we use web technology might just in fact offend other cultures. Even our near-flawlessly perfect desire to serve the world with the best intentions might just be stopped because we chose to engage with them on AIM instead of the obviously-superior iChat application.

[That was just an example, but it works.]

Have a good Sunday night read (or early Monday morning read) here for a full glimpse of the iPhone conundrum in Japan that Apple is facing. It’s a good and simple reminder to be wise about what and how we use.

Web 12

Guest Posting – A New Approach

Posted By on March 1, 2009

newdealI’ve got a number of targets that I want to hit in terms of the “success” of this blog. One of them is “guest posting.”

And guess what, I’m missing my goal by a long shot.

In fact, when I had originally developed the roadmap for this blog I had counted on a minimum of 52 guest posts for the first 365 days.

That’s 1 Guest Poster per week.

So far, I’ve had 3 Guest Posters who have contributed 5 articles total, which means that 18 Guest Posts behind my target (approximately) as it stands today and 47 Guest Posts behind my overall yearly budget.

Drat.

So, I’ve done some thinking. I went back to the drawing board. I’ve reshuffled a number of my metrics (because this target impacts all of my formulas for pageviews, targeted growth expectations, etc.) and I’ve come up with a new plan:

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