I love the idea of several Christian-oriented nerds discussing in a very informal setting tech of some sort that may be beneficial for churches, bloggers, missionaries, and any other kind of ministry out there.
Our next hangout will be June 1st at 10AM EST.
This hangout we talk about what digital discipleship is, what resources are out there, and if is it possible.
Sometimes, I feel like the Church tries to be “epic,” but it comes out like this:
[via YouTube]
That was Patton Oswalt performing a rather hilarious-if-ridiculous improv bit for a recent episode of Parks and Recreation.
Maybe it’s just me being cynical, but I feel like the Church does stuff like this sometimes. In an attempt to hype something up, to make it the absolute best, we overcomplicate it. We stuff the Gospel with so much “presentation” that we smother the truth of the Gospel and dilute its power.
I have seen many different people wonder what to use for a church’s website and there are a ton of options out there, including E-zekiel that has a great product for you to go from nothing to something great, quickly and easily. My own push for some time was for churches to have blogs on their site and of course the default blogging Content Management System out there is WordPress.
The unfortunate part is that I gave them a great idea, but the solution of installing and maintaing it was on someone else.
The Church has not historically been known for…shall we say “cultural awareness”?
This often results in the Church being teased for her relative inability to navigate the turbulent waters of pop culture.
Sometimes, that mockery is deserved.
Today is not one of those days.
Often times SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is referred to in the context of business websites and blogs, even on ChurchMag. Although this is one of the more common references, SEO is something that every church should consider: You need good church website SEO!
A church website may be thought of as a tool or resource for church members, as it’s usually full of current events, announcements and Bible study schedules; but it’s actually one of the best ways for potential church attenders to “visit” your church. In fact,
“In the past 12-months, over 17 million American adults who don’t regularly attend worship services, visited the website of a local church or place of worship.”
This is all fine and good, but without decent SEO, how are seekers going to find you?
Take this story for example:
I have a confession.
Never got Dawson’s Creek. The song infuriated me. Didn’t much like Felicity; the title was a misnomer for me. For some reason, though, Veronica Mars ensnared me. There was something about the spunky high school detective portrayed by Kristen Bell that drew atypical fans in.
I also admit to being slightly dejected when it was canceled. The show had its ubiquitous pack of fans who lobbied to get the cancellation rescinded, but as usually happens, the ratings were what really matter to studio execs (understandably so), and it never came back. Rumors of a movie never materialized.
Till now.
We posted an infographic about Church and Social Media this past Summer.
It states:
“46.1% of churches say social media is the most effective method of outreach.”
You can take a closer look at this Church and social media infographic here:
With Simple Giver, there’s hardly an easier way for supporters to give with their credit and debit cards.
Using just a smartphone–and without having to install an app–Simple Giver makes it easy for supporters to give financially.
“It’s like putting a credit card terminal in every one of your supporter’s hands.”
Simple Giver was built with simplicity in mind, but it’s robust in features.
We can pretty much remove every single role of “leadership” in the Church now.
Do we need church leaders anymore?
We don’t need a preacher.
Seriously, we no longer need pastors to preach, we can listen to Driscoll, Piper, Bell or even the guy down the road who uploads vlogs with his latest sermon.
We don’t need a worship band.
We no longer need the worship band, we can play the CD with all the songs on (and probably performed better than your local churches music group. In fact, the YouTube video probably has the right words at the right point).
We don’t need someone to read prayers.
We no longer need people to think up intercessory prayers for the service, we can simply find a prayer blog online and download their latest guidelines.
This isn’t just for adults.
The same can be applied to the youth work as well, their are kids songs, handouts, Bible studies, we barely need to think about what we are going to do.
You have probably heard lots of people talk about the importance of placing videos online, but chances are you didn’t realize it was this valuable.
Here’s how to increase front page Google results by 53X:
Copyright 2013 · ChurchMag
