4 MYTHS ABOUT USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CHURCH

BY DJ CHAUNG

   

ADVERTISEMENT

The Church has used technology throughout history: papyrus, printing press, piano, organ, lighting, microphones, guitars, drums, and video projectors. And with the advent of the Internet, we have newer technologies like websites, social networking via Facebook, and texting on cell phones.

How do we steward technology well? We start by dispelling four common myths about using online technologies in the church.

1. "If you build it, they will come."
Not necessarily. The "it" could be a website, a blog, a discussion board, a podcast, a Twitter feed, or a Facebook fan page. Your digital presence will not automatically be viewed by lots of people just by its mere existence. People choose what they will pay attention to based on relevance (to their situation), value (that enhances their life), and trust (derived from the reputation of the content provider or a trusted friend who points them that way). Your online presence will need to be mentioned often using traditional media as well as word of mouth.

2. "It doesn't cost anything."
True, some online tools don't cost anything to use, but using technology can cost you is more than money. There's the recurring cost of energy to produce fresh and relevant content. There's also the time involved in connecting with your online community, engaging in conversations and responding to questions. There's the potential cost of even free online tools and Web apps that don't fit the orientation of your church and confuse your audience.

3. "Only the younger generation uses social networking."
One study reported that 64 percent of Twitter's and 61 percent of Facebook's users are age 35 or older. The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that 38 percent of adults 65 and older are online. To better steward technology, you will want to meet people where they already connect online, and you will want to provide training for using online tools that best serve your existing community.

4. "Technology could replace real-life relationships."
Technology does not have to replace real-life relationships. You can use technology in a way that enriches real-life relationships, to stay connected between the church's face-to-face gatherings. Online tools do two things: expose and enable. Technology can expose a person's tendencies, whether that's isolation or addictiveness; technology can also enable a person to communicate with more people in more ways without being constrained by time and space.

By dispelling these myths, we can learn to better steward technology together, to share what's working, what didn't work, and discuss what we're thinking so we can make informed technology decisions in the future.

It's never too late to start incorporating technology as part of your church's ministry. But, the longer you wait, the more opportunities are lost in connecting with people whose lives are technology-infused.

D.J. Chuang is network developer at Worship Leader magazine, a web strategist for Leadership Network, and a former pastor. This article is condensed from Worship Leader. DJ will be speaking on "Stewarding Technology in the Service of Worship" at the National Worship Leader Pre-conference seminars (June in Albuquerque, New Mexico; July in Kansas City, Kansas; and October in Lancaster, Pennsylvania). For information click here. (www.nationalworshipleaderconference.com). To read more from Worship Leader Magazine, or to subscribe click here (www.worshipleader.com).

Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.
Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

GETTING YOUR STORY OUT INTO THE COMMUNITY

by Dr Steve Dunn

In our last issue we challenged you to rethink your church advertising.  Every church has a story to tell of what is up to in their church, and we need to get the story out into the community. Here are some suggestions.

1. Contact the News Director of your local television station. Ask them what kind of stories appeal to them and ways that you can alert them to a good story. (Clue: Human interest stories, unique forms of community service, “home town heroes” are high on their list.) Have the same conversation with the news director of the radio station and the features editor of the Newspaper.

2. An attractive and well-maintained web site is one of the best ways. But here’s the big rule. Design your web site with the unchurched in mind. Another big one: Keep the information current and always take down the things that are in the past.

3. Set up a Facebook Page. Have multiple administrators so that you can post a status more frequently. (Minimum: 5 posts per week.) Use it as an informative tool or one of encouragement. Leave your hard-sell evangelism off this media. Contain linkbacks to website as new items are added. Pictures are great. Promote the Facebook page in your bulletin, etc.

4. Random Acts of Kindness are always a great way connect with the community.

From Marty Duren comes a timely and insightful look at keeping our focus on our mission and our strategies realistically capable of supporting that mission.  Thanks to Justin Meier, the Church Expansion Specialist for the Churches of God, General Conference for bringing this to my attention. - STEVE

Sports Illustrated, Blockbuster, and Your Church

 By Marty Duren

Years ago there was a world-beating sports magazine called Sports Illustrated. It was the one thing that every football, baseball, basketball loving person could not wait to see weekly in the mailbox or on the newsstand.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the throne crumbled. An upstart cable TV network called ESPN became the must-watch channel for sports fans. ESPN provided sports updates all morning so people getting ready for work could catch up on the scores and highlights from the previous night. No more having to wait a week for Sports Illustrated. Fans did not even have to wait until the sports segment on the evening news.

Now ESPN boasts multiple cable channels, a partnership with ABC Sports (via parent company, Disney), its own Olympics (the X-Games), its own magazine, and a host of other properties. ESPN is now THE undisputed leader in sports. Sports Illustrated still exists, but its once dominant foothold is long gone.

What is the difference? Sports Illustrated mistakenly thought it was in the magazine business. ESPN correctly understood itself to be in the sports information business. If Sports Illustrated had understood its true position and leveraged its talent base, reach and influence, ESPN might still be a channel.

Remember when there were Blockbuster stores? People got into their cars, drove miles to a brick building (or strip mall) to rent movies on VHS, and later on DVD. Remember when Blockbuster dropped their late fees even though it made up a large portion of its revenue? Why would a company willfully drop revenue?

This other out-of-nowhere company called Netflix had arrived. A Netflix membership allowed you to order DVDs online and have them sent directly to your mailbox! There were no late fees. Instead, you simply had to return the movies you had rented before ordering more. No driving in the snow or rain, no penalty for being forgetful—and no need to rewind. Netflix was a game changer.

As if that were not enough, Netflix was an early provider of online streaming movies and TV shows enabling subscribers to watch on their desktop, laptop or tablet. Now Netflix produces its own shows and movies.

What is the difference? Blockbuster mistakenly thought it was in the movie rental business. Netflix correctly understood itself to be in the entertainment content delivery business. Blockbuster had both the market share and the leverage to do everything Netflix did. They simply did not have the understanding of the times or vision of the future.

Unfortunately many churches are like Sports Illustrated and Blockbuster. They rightly see themselves are repositories of truth with a responsibility to get truth to others. Unfortunately, they hold to a singular content delivery system—the Sunday morning service—as ultimate. This is a time when people expect multiple delivery systems as the norm. For churches, the content will not change; the gospel is the same. But our delivery systems and touchpoints with “customers” must change both for the sake of our members and those who need Jesus.

One way to make our content (the gospel) more readily available is for churches to re-evaluate everything about their online presence from the website to use of social media. People who live in your area do not reach for the Yellow Pages or the church directory of the county newspaper. If they are looking for a church at all, they will use a search engine or the search bar on Facebook. If you have a website that looks like a template from Geocities or a middle schooler’s 2006 Myspace page, you have blown it.

Websites need not have elaborate image sliders and be covered in HTML5 moving parts. They simply need to be clean and easy to navigate. Remember: the landing page needs to be friendly to non-attendees, so service times and contact information need to be prominent. Members—those who visit the website regularly—know where to look for other information. Ease of use is for non-members, not for members. Additionally, make sure your social media is just that: social. Do not make announcements on your Facebook page then neglect to answer related questions. Social media is a conversation, not an info dump.

So much content can be provided via a church website it is hard to cover it all in such a short article. Podcasts of the sermon, videos of the entire service, new member training, a pastor’s welcome, bulletin downloads, student ministry permission forms, and so much more are all content pieces just waiting to be added to your church website.

Churches should learn from Sports Illustrated’s missed opportunity and Blockbuster’s failure. Do not isolate yourself into a single content delivery system. Put the Internet to work for you and your church for the sake of the gospel.

THIS POST IS REBLOGGED FROM PASTORS TODAY

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT TELEVISION ADVERTISING

Gilbert Thurston and Chad Chute pastor a Churches of God, General Conference congregation in Harrisburg PA that meets in a Regal Theater. TV advertising is one of their tools:

IS YOUR CHURCH WEBSITE ATTRACTIONAL OR MISSIONAL AND WHY IT MATTERS

In the First Century the spread of the Gospel was facilitated by the Roman Roads.  In the 21st century, the Internet has taken this role.  This is an excellent article from PLANTING CHURCHES.

Attractional vs. Missional. It’s all the buzz. But have you applied the thinking to your website?

An attractional website:
Is a destination on the web.
It is static and doesn’t change much.
It is difficult to foster relationship and communication.
It looks good and gives all the critical information about the church in one place.

A missional website:
Is dispersed widely across the internet and found in many different places (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Community Forums, Blogs, Google Ads, etc.)
Everyone can play and interact with the content pushed online. It is social by nature.
It can be found in the online communities where everyday people interact on the web.
It is often discovered because of relevant content and social interaction rather than directly sought out.

The critical information about the church can be difficult to find.
Just as church models are evolving, so is the internet. Ten years ago church website were largely static pages on the internet. They were little more than an online brochure, a destination to learn more about the church. Sites were build to be attractive. The site’s ease of use and look communicated something about the church. It still does today. The internet at this point was a popularity contest. Every link to the site was like as vote for best church website. To get found online, you simply had to be the most popular.

But the internet has changed. It is now largely about social and content. A church’s web presence cannot only be in one static place. A common phrase in missional circles is “The Church has left the building.” Applied to web presence, “The Church has left it’s domain.” To be relevant today, church websites have to be missional. They have to go where the people are. This is why it is critical to have an interactive presence in social media.

Interactive is the key. You can’t just hop on Facebook and start shouting out church announcements. Put your megaphone done and have a conversation. This can’t be accomplished with just the church staff. You have to get the entire congregation involved and help them be evangelists on the web. Open their eyes to how their online communication can be seeded with the gospel. If you just make announcements, you’ll be annoying. Stop it.

It used to be that links to your site were the key metric in the popularity contest on the web. Now content is king. Google will evaluate everything on the web tied to your church. All of your website, podcasts, blogs, social media outlets, white papers, webinars, etc are evaluated. The more Google can see that your content is relevant (measured by sharing, re-posting, liking, etc.), the more you will show up in search results.

Here are a few tips to start moving from attractional to missional with your website:
Distribute lots of content. You already create lots of content (sermons, small group lessons, parenting classes, etc.) With a couple of tweaks this content can be easily transformed into blog posts, podcasts, white papers and more. Move all of your content online.

Pick a couple of social media outlets and do them well. You can’t jump into every online community. Pick a few (Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) and get social.

Model for your congregation how to interact online with the gospel in mind. Spread seeds of hope and love in your communication and don’t just point back to your website; point to Jesus. People are raw online, be equally raw and transparent about the hope we have in Jesus.

****

Bridgebuilders Ministries which is the umbrella for Bridgebuilders Seminars (How to Help Your Church Reach Its Unchurched Neighbors) offers an excellent course "Internet Evangelism and Social Networking Tools" that teaches the above concept.  Contact them at www.ercbuilders@erccog.org or by emailing sdunnpastor@gmail.com.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOUR CHURCH TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA

TECHNOLOGY

This infographic from Tyndale University College and Seminary has a lot of great information.  Including, their top 4 reasons for churches to use technology:
1.  To enrich relationships/stay connected with members
2.  To reach the online community
3.  To evolve with the congregation
4.  To bring in new members
Here’s the graphic.  What stands out to you?
Thank you, Todd Rhodes, for bringing it to our attention.

 

SOCIAL NETWORKING AND THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL

James Nored has written a superb article on his Missional Outreach Network blog that is worth studying by any church serious about being an outward focused congregation.  You also need to subscribe to his blog. - Steve

The Gospel Spreads through Social Networking - Lessons from Jesus & the Early Church

• Posted by James Nored on June 1, 2011 at 1:00pm
•   View James Nored's blog

I am not opposed to "advertising" for the church, particularly if it is tied to offering to meet a felt need in the community. But the most powerful form of "advertising" is the sharing of the gospel person to person through social networking. Today, obviously, we have tremendous online social networking tools (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that we need to utilize to reach the lost. But even without these tools, the early church grew from a small band of disciples in the first century to an Empire-wide force in the 4th century through person-to-person, "social networking."

Jesus was certainly shaped by his social connections, and his ministry was launched through social networking connections. On a divine level, he was sent by the Father to the earth, and he was conceived through the Holy Spirit. The Father was well pleased at his baptism, and the Spirit descended upon him at this time (Matt. 3:13-17). On a human level, Jesus was raised by parents that sought to be obedient to God (Luke 1:21-40), and he followed the ministry of his relative, John the Baptist, preaching this same message: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17).[1] While his mother, brothers, and sisters were at times skeptical of his messianic claims, after his death and resurrection his mother Mary and his brothers were present at Pentecost, and his brother James became a foundational figure in the church in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14; 15:13; 21:17).

The synoptic gospels seem to portray Jesus calling the disciples out of nowhere and without any prior connections; however, the gospel of John makes it clear that Jesus used social networking as he made this call, beginning with Andrew, one of John the Baptist’s followers, and then spreading through Andrew’s family and friends (Jn. 1:40-42).[2] Jesus of course also worked through other social structures of his day to spread the gospel, including the rabbinical schools, the synagogues, and agrarian society. Galilee, where Jesus grew up, also would have provided Jesus with various points of connection, serving as a physical hub connecting him to all sorts of people, including fishermen, farmers, tradesmen, artisans, tax collectors, and others.[3]

The early Christians followed Christ, sought to be like him, and took up his call to be fishers of people seriously. Moreover, missiologist Eckhard J. Schnabel asserts that the early Christians followed Christ’s life and mission even on the strategy level, for “they confessed Jesus not only as Messiah but also as Kyrios: his behavior was the model and the standard for their own behavior.” [4] An examination of the early Church’s outreach strategy shows that the Church followed Jesus’ model of social networking.

On Pentecost, the number of Jesus’ followers who were gathered together was a mere 120 people. Yet, as the Spirit of God was poured out and Peter preached the gospel message, more than 3000 responded (Acts 2:1-41). While the apostles and other evangelists would play a key role in the spread of the gospel, increasingly the gospel would be spread by these ordinary Christians through their own social circles.

The structure of the book of Acts is made up of radiating people-group circles, with the command to take the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). This rate of the transmission of the gospel through social networks would increase as persecution broke out against the Church and “all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1).

As has long been noted, the physical and social structures of the world of the early Church made networking possible on a grander scale. The Roman roads connected cities around the Empire, and those at Pentecost and those scattered by persecution were able to quickly take the gospel to their old or newly developed social networks. The common Greek language provided not only understandability, but a common way of thinking and a reference point for those sharing the gospel. The Diaspora assisted in the message transmission, with the synagogues serving as nodes or distribution hubs, connecting missionaries like Paul to family, friends, and a vast network of people who already believed in God and were looking for a Messiah. And as Paul goes through the household codes in his letters to Christians and draws out the implications for the gospel, he repeatedly encourages his readers to reach out to outsiders, make the most of every conversation, and impact every social stratum which they occupy for Christ (Col. 3:18-4:6).[5]

As noted above, while the gospel message spread through apostles, evangelists, and missionary bishops, it spread primarily through ordinary Christians. Unlike the public evangelism of the “full time” evangelists, this “ordinary evangelism” would have worked primarily through social circles. This is the very type of evangelism on display in Origen’s response to Celsus, who charged that Christians spread their beliefs in women’s quarters, leather shops, and laundries.[6]

In its beginnings, it appears that Christianity was largely a movement amongst the lower class, Jews, women, and agrarian society in Palestine, but it soon became a movement that encompassed Gentiles, men and women, the educated, and urbanites across the Roman Empire.[7] While there were many sociological, religious, and political reasons for this, social networking played a major role in the numerical growth and demographic shift of Christians in the first three centuries.

How can we use social networking today to share the gospel and start a new movement for Christ?

---

[1] Jesus’ connection to John the Baptist undoubtedly helped him tremendously in launching his ministry, a concept that is both testified to in the gospels (John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus) and by social construction theory. The authors of Palestine in the Time of Jesus state that kinship was the primary social domain of ancient Mediterranean societies, followed by political structures and associations. K. C. Hanson and Douglas E. Oakman, Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conflicts (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998), 20.

[2] “Instead of immediately leaving one’s everyday work place and following without hesitation, [in John] there is networking with kin and friends in the villages.” See Dennis C. Duling, "The Jesus Movement and Social Network Analysis: (Part Ii. The Social Network)." Biblical Theology Bulletin (2000). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-94331533.html (accessed 5-14-09).

[3] See Hanson and Oakman, 99-129. See also Dennis C. Duling, "The Jesus Movement and Social Network Analysis (Part I: The Spatial Network)," Biblical Theology Bulletin (1999). http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-94332368.html (accessed 5-21-09).

[4] Eckhard J. Schnabel, Early Christian Mission, vol. 2 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 1544.

[5] For a summary of the conditions that favored the spread of Christianity, including the Roman roads and common language, see Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, Second ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993), 579-80. In regards to the Diaspora, Stark writes, “In all the major centers of the empire were substantial settlements of Diasporan Jews who were accustomed to receiving teachers from Jerusalem. Moreover, the missionaries were likely to have family and friendship connections within at least some of the Diasporan communities. Indeed, if Paul is a typical example, the missionaries were themselves Hellenized Jews.” See Stark, 62.

[6] Green, Evangelism in the Early Church, 208-09.

[7] Stark’s entire work, The Rise of Christianity, lays out these reasons and others for Christianity’s growth in the early centuries. Stark.

THOM RAINER ON LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE SOCIAL MEDIA

 One of the most helpful researchers today in the world on ministry, especially on mobilizing the church in a more outward-focused ministry is Thom Rainer.  I subscribe to his blog by RSS feed.  As a pastor seeking to stay on the front lines of ministry, especially in our technologically savvy culture, I found this post exceptionally helpful.  For more of Thom Rainer click.www.thomrainer.com

In a recent blog on Harvard Business Review, Jodi Glickman notes that young adults in the workplace are abandoning emails and moving toward social media as one of their primary modes of communication, Because social media is so, well, social, the lines are becoming increasingly blurred between business and personal matters.

As an older American of 55 years, I was a later adopter to the blogosphere and Facebook, but I was an earlier adopter to Twitter. I guess there was something appealing to me about communicating in 140 characters or less. Like Glickman notes in her blog, I have learned some key lessons from this relatively new social phenomenon.

The Lines Between Personal and Work Are Blurring
Because I tweet, blog, and post on Facebook, some aspects of my business life and personal life are known to thousands. I’ve seen the advantage of sharing comments about my life with others. Some enjoy my strange humor. Others pray for needs I share. And still others see a personal side to the ministry I lead that they would not see otherwise.

Negatively, I can’t take true getaway vacations or time off anymore. One critic found me on vacation recently via Twitter. My vacation, as a consequence, was not nearly as enjoyable as I had hoped. I know. I can disengage from all social media for a week or so and not be subject to its omnipresence. But it has become so much a part of my life that I find its absence to be disconcerting.

We really don’t get away from work when we leave our workplace. Likewise, because of social media, we typically bring our personal lives to work. Leaders can either bemoan this new reality or they can learn to lead within this context. But don’t expect the young adults in your organization to disengage from the social media when they come to work.

Relationships Are Always Important
If we leaders can learn one thing from the social media, it’s the importance of relationships. The leaders who try to operate from a non-relational grid are doomed to failure. Organizations that try to increase customers and clients without relational intentionality will not survive. Churches that seek to reach people with the gospel will struggle unless its members are developing relationships with others. On Twitter we have followers. On Facebook we have friends. In all aspects of social media, relationships are king.

By the way, the relational issue is important for the leader personally as well. Every leader needs a good and trusted friend. All leaders need someone with whom they can confide and vent. Lone Ranger leadership is fast becoming an oxymoron.

Collaboration is Critical
It is absolutely amazing how social media is literally changing the world. Every day we hear about governments toppling and dictators being deposed. The despotic leader can no longer control the flow of information, so his power is stripped and his position removed.

Great leaders today are learning that the solo voice no longer works. The power of the group is usurping the power of the individual. Social media is the collaboration of hearts and minds. Many have a voice. Many have been empowered. The wise leader knows that he or she does not have all the answers. Collaboration and teamwork are essential. Good listening skills have become a hallmark of great leadership.

Change or Die
I know someone who was told by his physician that he could change his lifestyle and live many more years. If he chose not to change, he probably would not survive any longer than two or three years. The choice was clear: change or die.

Many organizations and leaders are faced with the same choice: change or die. Sadly, many are choosing the latter. Rather than make needed changes, they would rather hang on just a little while longer and then die.
If the world of social media has taught us anything, it has taught us that change is coming at us with increasing frequency. We have the choice. We can complain and yearn for the mythical good old days. Or we can embrace the best of the change that is taking place. I, for one, am glad for the advent of social media. I choose to learn from it and make the best of it.

I have already learned some important lessons, but I know I have many to go. It will be fun and exciting to see what happens next.

THE GOSPEL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

"The Gospel and Social Media"

"It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." - Isaiah 55:11, New Living Translation

I can remember back in the 1980's when personal computers began to be a tool embraced by local pastors engaged in the practice of ministry. Up until then, I tended to focus on communicating from a traditional pulpit or some formal teaching venue. I had already begun writing, being published in our denominational magazines, with my IBM Selectric as my tool of choice. The former required people to be sufficiently attracted to me or to the topic to make the effort to come into my sanctuary or classroom to hear what I had to share. The latter depended on a magazine and the aggressiveness of the circulation department to get my message out to those who needed to hear it. (Given the editing and publication process, this was rarely current or timely.)

A revolution has occurred in the world of communication and "publication." It has been generated by the Internet. Now blogs, web sites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts facilitate the spread of your message in ways unimaginable.

I have 545 friends on my Facebook account, each of which has an average of at least 200 friends. I publish eight blogs that are syndicated by a Facebook tool called Networked Blogs. Each time I publish, those posts appear on my profile page and arrive via news feed to my "friends." If you do the math of the numbers earlier in this paragraph, you will know that there is a potential of 109,000 readers for any of those things that I publish. That does not count those who subscribe to those blogs via Blogger or Wordpress, or who capture an RSS feed. A number of those blogs have links on my church web site and my local conference's web site and that gives access to other people who might be visiting those sites. Several of my blogs receive between 50-100 visits per day.

Then there are the search engines for Word Press and Google, who send people to my blogs - particularly my general blog published on both Word Press and Blogger called Life Matters.

I am now being encouraged to add a Twitter link to several of these blogs.
On any given Sunday I preach to between 175-225 people. In the classes I lead, there are maybe another 15-20 (not all weekly). The potential for the Gospel remains somewhat static in these traditional contexts, but with the advent of these internet and social media tools--the potential multiplies and multiplies and multiplies.

Why wouldn't we embrace the technology? It's a no-brainer.

I originally posted this February 10, 2011 on DEEPER EVANGELISM, the blog for the School of Evangelism for the Eastern Region Conference of the Churches of God.

HOW ARE YOU USING THE INTERNET?

LifeWay Research finds churches divided on website usage

Written by David Roach

NASHVILLE, Tenn., 1/21/2011 – Though most churches have a website, there is a divide between congregations that use their sites only for one-way communication and those that maximize their online presence with interactive technology.

That is the finding of a new LifeWay Research study sponsored by Axletree Media, one of LifeWay’s partners in the Digital Church initiative.

The survey of 1,003 Protestant churches found that while 78 percent have a website, less than half of those congregations use their sites for interactive purposes like obtaining and distributing prayer requests (43 percent), registering people for events and activities (39 percent) and automating more church processes (30 percent).

A majority of congregations with a website use it for one-way communication, the survey revealed. A full 91 percent provide information to potential visitors online and 79 percent provide information to the congregation. Fifty-seven percent encourage increased attendance and involvement among the congregation and 52 percent solicit interest in ministry or volunteer opportunities.

“Many churches are using their website like a Yellow Pages ad characterized by basic information and infrequent updates,” said Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research. “This is in sharp contrast with churches that use their website like a bustling church receptionist registering people for upcoming events, collecting prayer requests and obtaining volunteers.

“There is nothing wrong with using a church website to simply give directions to the church or state the church’s beliefs,” McConnell added. “However, we must realize that more and more people expect to be able to interact online without having to drive or make a phone call to the church.”

Larger churches are more likely than their smaller counterparts to use their websites interactively. Among churches with a website, 69 percent of churches with 500 or more in average worship attendance register people for events or activities online, but only 25 percent of churches with one to 49 attendees do the same. Fifty-two percent of congregations with 500 or more attendees seek to use their website to “allow more processes at (their) church to be automated,” compared with 15 percent of churches with one to 49 attendees.

In contrast, large and small churches are about equally as likely to use their websites to provide information to potential visitors. There is also little difference between large and small churches using their websites to provide information to their congregation.

The study also found differences in the frequency of website usage. Forty percent of churches with websites update their sites once a week and 15 percent update more than once a week. But nearly half of churches with websites (42%) update them once a month or less. That includes 7 percent that update once a year or less.
Among the factors that keep churches from providing more content and services online are limited time among church staff (46%), limited financial resources (41%), limited time among volunteers (39%) and little interest expressed by the congregation for more online content or services (35%).

Bill Nix, CEO of Axletree Media, lamented that more churches do not take advantage of online ministry resources.

“With the low cost of online technology today, any size congregation can build and maintain a helpful website,” Nix said. “Plus, updating a website has become so easy that no church needs to feel like it lacks the technological savvy to have a presence on the Internet.”

Digital photos are the most common technology utilized among churches with websites and the only technology used by a majority of those congregations. Eighty-two percent use digital photos in their online ministries, 47 percent use digital audio files or podcasts, 31 percent utilize digital video files, 26 percent use text messaging, and 26 percent of congregations use blogs.

Methodology: LifeWay Research conducted a phone survey among a stratified, random sample of Protestant churches Sept. 8-20, 2010, interviewing 1,003 staff members most responsible for making decisions about the technology used in their church. Responses were weighted to reflect the natural size distribution of churches. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed ±3.2 percent.

Check out the Ed Stetzer link in our Blogroll for more Lifeway Research.
The School of Evangelism operated by the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God has an elective course called "Internet Evangelism and Social Networking Tools" which addresses some of these issues. Go toe the website ercevangelism for details and to register. Class is February 19,2011 in Harrisburg PA. 

THE CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL MEDIA

From the archives of Ed Stetzer's blog comes this thoughtful article.

I recently wrote an article called "The Blessings of the New Media" for Tabletalk Magazine. I shared four ways that social media can assist churches and leaders.
The first way is community:

Those who attempt to find community exclusively online will miss out on the fullness and authenticity of relationships God intends for us to have face to face. Gathering together (Heb. 10:25) requires feet and faces, not just electrons and avatars. Therefore, when a Christian seeks to be a part of a local church only by live streaming the worship service and conversing on message boards, he is short-circuiting the fellowship of the saints and his own spiritual growth. Yet, I do not believe that virtual community and real community are enemies. I see them more as friends, the former as a help to the latter. Unfortunately, for too many theologically-minded pastors, their aversion to the abuses of social media has distracted them from the opportunity they provide.
While social media cannot replace real-life interpersonal relationships, they can assist in building real community by connecting people in ways that allow them to share both the big and small things of life. Web services such as Facebook allow people who might see one another only during church on Sunday, or midweek in smaller community groups, to continue to share aspects of life they would not otherwise. This allows friends to look into the parts of life we share and respond with encouragement or exhortation.

The second way is communication. As I said in the article, the age of the bulletin may not have completely passed, but these days people rely on so many other forms of communication to stay abreast of current events. The speed with which news can travel using social media is nothing short of amazing. For example, when my friend Matt Chandler had a seizure last year and I sent a tweet asking for prayers, the "re-tweet" function had the request going out to huge numbers of people within minutes. Matt was a trending topic on Twitter that day, which means that he was one of the ten most mentioned phrases or words in all of Twitter. People all over the world knew about his situation and prayed for Matt thanks to Twitter (note his name in the lower right corner).

The final two ways listed are inspiration and better introductions. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter all provide ways to share inspiring thoughts and gospel-centered messages (often in 140 characters or less!). And social media also allows people to share things about themselves more fully and with a broader group of people. We are actually getting to know each other better in some ways through the use of electronic media.
These things can never take the place of human contact, but to ignore them and the role they can play in fostering community is unwise. They are helpful tools that the world is using, and that the church can benefit from.

As I consider social media in the twenty-first century, I can't help but think of the spread of the gospel and the church's growth in the first century. Communication was greatly aided then by the common language of Koine Greek. Since the New Testament was written in a language accessible to so many, the Word of God was able to penetrate different cultures rapidly. Perhaps today the new media will be the "common language" for the masses to hear the gospel.

Tabletalk is a publication of Ligonier Ministries.

PARTNERING WITH THE SCHOOLS

There was a time when the churches were the center of the community. Except for the rarest of situations, the school has supplanted the church as that center.  The school, between families with kids in school and those who pay taxes to support it to people who follow their sports teams, has a profound shaping effect upon the community.  Recognizing this reality, my congregation has been prompted by the Holy Spirit to include this statement in our vision as a church in mission.

"We believe God wants us to partner with our schools in every way to influence children and youth for Jesus Christ."

To fullfill this our church has created a youth center with two days drop-in center programs for Middle Schools and High School.  We have made our church available as the practice site for the Junior Cheerleaders. Persons from our church volunteer in the schools building relationships and providing needed services to help the school.  We now provide leadership for an on campus student Bible study.  We sponsor two Good News Clubs at the nearest elementary schools. We are careful to be respectful to the boundaries necessary in schools to avoid church and state conflicts, the we make no secret that we do what we do because God wants us to be the best church for our community. We hope people will be open to our help spiritually as they recognize the need.

Recently I attended a meeting of our local ministerium and the Vice President for Student Services of our local school, the Hempfield School District.The schools need tutoring volunteers, parent advocacy and education programs, clearing houses for needy families physical concerns.  We are actively engaged in helping netwrok to meet those needs.  We are now helping sponsor a dialogue between the schools' leadership and the religious leadership of the community of how the churches can assist with basic human services that would normally cost schools budget monies in these fiscally stressed times.  Our Christmas offering was for the school's Good Neighbor Fund, which the Office of Student Services used to help families who financial emergencies cannot be met in other ways.

One of the thoughts that came to my mind is that our church could help the school disseminate important information to the community and to help us do our planning in a way that we could make good use of the resource that is the school. Also to avoid unnecessary conflicts when our parents are pulled one way and the church wants to pull them our way.  We have now added the website for the school district to the links section of our church web site and to our church blog. You can see these by going to our web site CHURCH OF GOD OF LANDISVILLE or to our blog BEING THE BEST CHURCH FOR THE COMMUNITY.
Trust me, the school officials were delighted at our offer.

Schools are understandably concerned when churches simply try to get into the schools to advance the goals of the church, especially when churches seem unconcerned with the perceived needs of the schools.  But we believe that churches who seem themselves as partners with the schools can benefit the entire community and remind the community that the work of Jesus is not a threat, but an enhancement.

From Igniter Media comes this imaginative description of how Joseph and Mary would have shared the story of the Nativity had a social network existed in their day.
 

YOUR CHURCH AND FACEBOOK

Recently, in an effort to gain more information about church Facebook use, OurChurch.Com conducted an extensive survey.

Most respondents indicated they don’t think their church is doing a particularly good job with Facebook. While those results could be perceived as negative, a closer look reveals some big opportunities for those churches willing to embrace the world’s largest social network.

1. Communicate More – Clearly people would like to see their church do more on Facebook.
2. Ministry Pages – A second opportunity for churches is for individual ministries to engage with people through Facebook pages.
3. Facilitate Connections – A third opportunity for churches is to help their people connect with one another.
4. Evangelism – A fourth opportunity for churches is to encourage and train their people to develop relationships with those who are not Christians and show God’s grace and love to them.
5. Facebook Ads – A fifth opportunity for churches is to use Facebook ads to reach out to people in their community.

CHRISTIANS. SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE LOSS OF PRIVACY

Sharon Hodde Miller shared these insights today on Ed Stezter's blog. Well worth your reflection.

 

Christians, Social Media and the Loss of Privacy

Before I really get started I want to be clear about two things. First, I willingly admit that I am a proponent of social media. I use Facebook to stay in touch with long-distance friends, and I'm an avid blogger. I am not here to promote social media asceticism.
Second, this post is not about Ed Stetzer. ;) Yes, Ed is the first person I ever met who "tweeted." And yes, he tweets in a manner that can only be described as "prolific." But my primary purpose is to consider how we use social media, not whether or not we should.

Bearing those two points in mind, I want to examine a particular "abuse" of tweeting/posting status updates. It is the practice of posting at (what I would consider to be) inappropriate times. No, I'm not trying to be the Emily Post of social media etiquette here to lecture you on the rudeness of tweeting during a meeting or meal. The kind of "inappropriate" I'm referring to is one that not only impacts the quality of Christian discipleship but the authenticity of our church leaders.

I began to notice this misuse of social networking when friends updated their statuses while on dates with their spouses, or even on their wedding nights. Such an anti-social by-product of social media is ironic, to say the least. Yet out of those habits emerged a more troubling one: Tweeting about deeply personal, intimate moments. Although I understand the desire to share one's life with community, Twitter has gradually become a window into private moments and experiences that, in the past, would have been reserved for God and family.

The consequences of this trend are two-fold. First is the increase of superficial engagements with flesh-and-blood people. When the world audience is always at your fingertips, you're never going to be totally with people. But the main consequence I want to focus on here, the one that has far-reaching ripple effects but is rarely discussed, is the loss of privacy and spiritual solitude.

This may seem like a strange critique given the rising emphasis on community over individualism, but we cannot forget the value of withdrawing from the public eye. In Scripture we learn that solitude can be a subversive act against the cultural and social pressures that come from constantly subjecting oneself to the opinions and judgments of others. Jesus and numerous prophets exemplify this for us. When they sought to have quiet, uninterrupted fellowship with God, they withdrew from the masses, even dwelling in the wilderness for extended periods of time.

From their example we are reminded that isolation and privacy are an important form of resistance against a culture that bombards us with ungodly ideals. Without a conscious break from the onslaught of worldly pressures--including the sinful enticements of serving an imperfect Christian community--there is no space to step back and question what is influencing us and how are we being shaped.

So while Twitter and Facebook are great communicative tools, we are naïve to ignore the temptations they present. Social media provides us with the option to live life on constant display, which has potential for both good and bad. While we do have the opportunity to be a kind of "city on a hill" in a new and different way, we must also be cognizant of the temptations that such visibility brings.

We need to consider the wisdom of tweeting private conversations or intimate moments with loved ones. While the motivation is often pure--namely to praise God or to honor the person we're with--this practice can result in a long-term lack of authenticity. There will develop in the back of your mind a constant audience, resulting in a constant need to perform, to always be "on." Church leaders, who are already visible and already struggle with this temptation, are in greatest risk of this temptation. When you are driven first and foremost by the audience awaiting your updates, you can lose touch with the God you're always tweeting about.

Is this a blanket statement against all forms of social media? Certainly not! Technology is a gift from God that can surely be used to edify believers. The question is whether we are controlling our use of social media, or is social media controlling us? Are we allowing Man-oriented expectations to invade our private moments, the moments when we used to be most ourselves? Are we placing ourselves in the public eye so often that we no longer discern the difference between genuine discipleship and performing for a watching world? If we are to maintain our spiritual authenticity, our intimacy with God, and a clear vision for leadership, these are questions to which we must give sober consideration.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN GROWING CHURCHES

Churches that begin focusing on their mission often find communication to be one of their liabilities if not properly focused. Kem Kemmeyer from Grahnger Community Church shares these thoughts:

REACTIVE…

PROACTIVE…

Over communicate. Everybody doesn’t need to be in on everything. When all lines of communication are open to everyone, communication declines. Obsess about content. The organization around your message—emotional, environment, ritual, political—is crucial. It can reinforce your content or kill it. Rob the white space. When we’re eager to fix move too fast. Creating margin for listening, self-awareness and reflection is necessary to discover what really matters to other people.

Identify what’s really needed. Each department should develop a list of the kind of need-to-know (versus nice-to-know) information they feel is lacking from other departments. Invest in team time for leaders. Focus on relationships between department heads. Team building between a handful of key people can dramatically improve how well the whole staff works together. Apply the JFK principle. Ask not what other departments can do for you. Ask what you can do for other departments. Lead the way by sharing insight with other teams on a regular basis.

You can read her entire post and other thoughts on this link LESS CLUTTER

STILL THINK SOCIAL MEDIA IS A FAD?

">SOCIAL

WHY ISN'T THE LOCAL CHURCH INVITED TO MANY PARTIES

Kem Meyer is on the staff of the highly innovative and outward focused Granger Community Church in Indiana. On his blog he has started a dialogue that you might want to bookmark and begin following.

http://kemmeyer.typepad.com/less_clutter_noise/2010/04/sowhy-isnt-the-local-church-invited-to-very-many-parties.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+KemMeyerOnLessClutterNoise+%28Kem+Meyer+on+Less+Clutter+and+Noise%29

NO VALUE IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA? THINK AGAIN

Kem Meyer is on the staff of 80 year old Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. This church has a powerful reputation for innovation in its outward focus. In response to people who believe the church does need to bother with the social media, Kem wrote this in his blog:
"In an effort to tangibly demonstrate to my church the magnitude of the people around us who don’t have any connection to church, I developed a billboard campaign that shows a head shot image of an expressionless middle aged man along with the

"THE QUESTION: Nobody is ever going to search for our church Twitter account so they can follow it. Why would they? And since only a few of our people even know what Twitter is, our church membership certainly isn’t going to follow it. So why then should I spend any time at all working on it?

In an effort to tangibly demonstrate to my church the magnitude of the people around us who don’t have any connection to church, I developed a billboard campaign that shows a head shot image of an expressionless middle aged man along with the simple question:
simple question:

Where can I find hope?

Below the question, this appears: Text GOD to 25827.

This single billboard, located at the second busiest intersection in the city, went up on Jan. 27, 2010. As of noon today there have been 1,214 specific cell numbers gathered from this effort that are not registered within our own database already. This tells me that nearly 25 new people a day, who are nameless to us, are taking the time to stop and send a text message to find out the answer to that question. This billboard is less than a mile from our church.

No effort in the history of this 80 year old church has garnered that number of potential candidates for salvation.

MY ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: There is a lost and suffering society all around us without hope. A high percentage of them actually use Twitter and Facebook. Since I know they don’t have an interest following our church, I’m going to follow them instead. Using the search tools, I’m going to purposely follow anyone and everyone who posts anything on Twitter within 10 miles of our zip code. I’m going to do this with the prayer that some of them will in turn follow us. And even further that some of the people who follow the people we follow will want to follow us (confusing I know…draw a picture if you need to).

In all honesty, much of what is posted on the twitter accounts I’m now following is very objectionable. I want to lead old school believers to an understanding that not only is it okay for the church to do this, we’re supposed to. What I know to be true is the best way to fill your own cup is to fill someone else’s. Since I know these people are not going to come to me, I’m going to go to them."

For more of this post go to:http://kemmeyer.typepad.com/less_clutter_noise/2010/03/there-is-no-ministry-value-in-twitter-one-church-responds.html