Tag Archive - social networking

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 3-Why You Should Be Blogging

May 31, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 12 Comments

Of all the topics I’m going to address in this series, this seems to be the no-brainer to me. I started blogging about 4 years ago at the encouragement of one of my students at the time, Jared Kleier. He set up a blog for me on our college website and away we went, though it wasn’t quite that easy. I remember writing and deleting one post after another because I had never experienced writing something for immediate consumption by the public.

All it took was some encouragement from others, and a few links from other bloggers, and then the blogging bug just seemed to take over.

Lots of people have various reasons for why those in ministry should blog. Mark Roberts has 18 Thesis’ for why pastors should blog. You can view his Powerpoint Presentation, Pastors as Blogger, at GodblogCon 2007.


 Mark is just one good resource.

There are a lot of reasons why I think those involved in college ministry should blog, so let me give you just 11 (yeah 11) that come to mind and that I have found helpful reasons for blogging:

  1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: A blog is simply in many ways about communication. When you blog, you communicate to others on a variety of topics.
  2. Reiterate the Mission: When you blog, you can continually communicate, and therefore, one of the important pieces of communication is to continually reiterate and blog about the mission of the ministry. It’s a good way to remind students and keep everyone accountable, focused, and on task.
  3. Encouragement: A blog is a great way to encourage those in your ministry, whether it be other staff, leaders or the congregants. Devotionals, posts of encouragement, thank yous, and recognizing others are just some forms. Continue Reading…

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 2–The Purpose of Your Website

May 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 15 Comments

I think it’s important for college ministries to be forumlating a plan, and developing some ideas about how they can strategically use the internet to best serve their ministry.

There are a lot of topics that I could cover, and maybe 9 posts is too much, so I will try and keep them shorter than my last post.

Last week I posted Part 1–Simplicity, Flexibility, Cost and Speed. Bottom line: You need to have a design and plan that is simple (easy to navigate/aesthetically clean from a design point of view. You also should keep the costs low which is easy to do with all the free and inexpensive tools out there. And speed should be taken into consideration, mainly from the perspective of how fast can you integrate new technology to meet the needs and wants of your ministry. Way too many ministries plunge lots of cost and time into a site, that they no longer can adapt to changes, but are stuck with it for years to come.

Today I want to post about The Purpose of Your Website.

What is the purpose of your website?

This is an important question to begin with. What do you want it to do? What do you want people to come to the site and see and use? What should they walk away with? Sometimes ministries just build websites because they feel like they should have one, but never stop to consider its purpose.

Is it for college students to retrieve information? Is it for them to sign up for Bible studies? Is it for them to be able to visit forums and dialogue?

With these questions in mind we also need to keep in mind that with all the tools out there (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) a website shouldn’t have to do everything, unless it can do it better than those services (which I doubt it can do).

So here are a few pointers that I have found helpful:

Continue Reading…

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 1–Simplicity, Flexibility, Cost and Speed

May 16, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 24 Comments

DISCLAIMERS: 1)There are better technical people out there concerning the web. 2) Do as I suggest, not as I do. I’m trying to keep up myself, and our college website reflects almost nothing of what I talk about. That’s how fast things change. 3) There are a lot of college ministries out there, and there are a lot of online tools to use, but it doesn’t seem like many are thinking through how to best utilize the new media and Web 2.0 (and yikes, Web 3.0) in their groups. 4) Knowing that things change overnight in technology, I hope to somehow impart to you some of the things I have been learning and wrestling with in these areas. You don’t need to be an expert in this area, just know enough to think critically about the issue. 5) If you have feedback, suggestions, criticisms, please comment. This is by no means all encompassing.

Starting Out

There are a lot of good books out there on the new media, web 2.0, building web platforms, etc., but no book has challenged my thinking, and convinced me to turn in certain directions as did the “manifesto” Getting Real by the guys at 37 Signals, when it comes to the issues of simplicity, flexibility, cost and speed. I consider it a must read in this area.

Getting Real is about skipping all the stuff that represents real (charts, graphs, boxes, arrows, schematics, wireframes, etc.) and actually building the real thing.

Getting real is less. Less mass, less software, less features, less paperwork, less of everything that’s not essential (and most of what you think is essential actually isn’t).

Getting Real is staying small and being agile.

Getting Real starts with the interface, the real screens that people are going to use. It begins with what the customer actually experiences and builds backwards from there. This lets you get the interface right before you get the software wrong.

Getting Real is about iterations and lowering the cost of change. Getting Real is all about launching, tweaking, and constantly improving which makes it a perfect approach for web-based software.

Getting Real delivers just what customers need and eliminates anything they don’t.

When a college ministry decides to have an online presence there are a few things to keep in mind. Some of these things are:

  • student participation
  • the fast changing culture of college/university life
  • finicky tastes/styles
  • revolving body of students and leaders
  • budget
  • access/control
  • etc. (these are just a few)

Continue Reading…

Flock: A Browser on Steroids

May 1, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 6 Comments

Everytime I think I am advanced with the Web 2.0/New Media stuff, I realize I’m not. I usually realize it after reading one of Andrew Jones‘ posts.

Take yesterday’s post for example.

His spring cleaning led to my anxiety. But don’t worry Andrew, it was good anxiety.

Because out of that came the social web browser Flock.

I never thought I would stop using Firefox as my default browser until I came across Flock on Andrew’s post.

I downloaded it and was instantly hooked. It was like browsing on steroids, and once I had my feeds from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, blog, etc. all streaming at once, my head almost exploded. Wow!

Collaborative Resources

April 28, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 3 Comments

I think most of you know by now, I have become a huge fan of the New Media and Web 2.0. But there is one aspect of it that I am most excited about: collaboration. With immediate access to amazing and simple tools we are able to collaborate more rapidly and effectively with one another than before. Collaboration is not only taking place amongst friends and co-workers in the same office, but is happening on larger scales both locally and globally.

To get some perspective on this aspect of the New Media and Web 2.0 there are a few books that I have been reading, and that I highly recommend. They are all varied to some degree, but they are saying essentially the same thing: people are now able to collaborate on a mass scale like never before.

Check Them Out

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom.

  • Amazing book on the power of mass collaboration, and how it is creating and sustaining organizations that are leaderless. They give good examples of leaderless organizations, as well as looking at hybrid organizations that have some structure in place, but are pretty much led by the leaderless communities that support them.

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky.

  • This book I’m still working on. But I’m particularly intrigued by his chapter “Publish, Then Filter.” In an instant world with mediums such as blogging, people publish first then go back to filter and edit, but through the help of the community. In the collaborative conversation, the community does the filtering, editing, and correcting. This is so upside down from the old media which only publishes after tons of edits, corrections, etc., if it publishes at all. Many are uncomfortable with this new mentality, but in the new media, what were once perceived as big mistakes are no longer big mistakes, but are easily dialogued about…and if needed, forgiven by the public (some of this is my own commentary).

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

  • Great book. Very in depth. This really gets technical about mass collaboration and explores many aspects from economics to science, and how mass collaboration is revolutionizing these fields and others.

Facebook for Pastors: How To Build Relationships And Connect With People Using The Most Popular Social Network On The Internet by Chris Forbes

  • I love Facebook, I am a pastor, and I love ministry. So this book is a must read. Very quick and free. How can you beat that. My chapter in The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ is “Navigating the Evolving World of Youth Ministry in the Facebook-MySpace Generation.” I didn’t really touch on collaboration which was sort of new to me when I wrote it. Now if I could go back, I would talk on this more.

Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application by 37 Signals.

  • Awesome, awesome book. Really a manifesto. Short and is free online. This really changed my views about the necessity for simplicity and less is more attitude in the onslaught of new media and design. They are some real nuggets in there.

Facebook

April 24, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

Just posted at Leadership Network on the new and free e-book, Facebook for Pastors.

Please check it out!

Facebook Wins: Katherine Wolf’s mom comments on earlier post about Facebook and prayer chains

April 24, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

  1. kim arnold Says:
    April 24th, 2008 at 9:36 am Hi,
    I’m Katherine’s mom. I haven’t really been able to get on the computer until last night,just before going to sleep. I was so blown away that I almost woke James up with my crying. This is beyond my wildest imagination. I have ranted about the evils of Facebook for the past several years, and I have seen it used (misused) for great harm. HOWEVER, I am now reminded of Joseph’s situation….what may be meant for evil can be used by God for great good. It is humbling and comforting to see His use of it in this way. Good triumphs! May the cry of my heart go out to the ends of the earth through this vehicle: “Talitha cum!”

    Kim Arnold

This Isn’t Your Parent’s Prayer Chain

April 23, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 11 Comments

I’ve witnessed some amazing examples of how social networking is being used to connect people in prayer.

Matt Singley has a great post with just one example happening in our church on Facebook. So check that out.

Here is what is happening. A young woman in our congregation went in for emergency brain surgery at the beginning of the week, and within a day or two her family and community rallied around her, not only in person, but also in prayer as people all over the country and here locally swarmed to Facebook to prayer for her, receive constant updates on her condition, as well as finding out ways how they could help the family. Simply amazing.

Praying for Katherine Wolf has 688 members

Pray for Katherine Arnold Wolf has 1,303 members

And everytime I log on the numbers are growing. It’s an amazing example of the power of prayer in someone’s life.

In the past and still today, people usually set up prayer chains via a phone or answering service, emails, etc. But the way Facebook is being used is awesome. And if you are on Facebook, you will see constant reminders of the need to pray for Katherine and her family.

I have a meeting with Robert of Kindle this Friday, and I know he is working on ways to build praying communities online. Kindle is another great tool, and I’m excited to see it expand and grow.

The World is Not Flat: The New Media and it’s Burgeoning Influence Upon the Church

April 18, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

Obviously we have reached the tipping point, or maybe we are now beyond it. But as others are saying more eloquently than me, the New Media is not a trend, and it’s here to stay.

The New Media, Web 2.0, Social Networking, etc….


Check out Collective Muse. It’s a college ministry social networking site that I created and launched earlier this week. It’s an attempt to fulfill my desire and passion for connecting those involved in college ministry, in hopes that we can collaborate together on college ministry. I hope others have a desire and passion for that as well. So check out, pass the word, and get involved.

Purchase a copy of our new book, The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ.

My friend, and former Executive Director at our church, Matt Singley, started a series today, What Is The ‘New Media’? This should be real good. A primer for those who aren’t quite sure what it is, and an encouragement and confirmation to those who do.

My friend from church, Robert Yang, who is the founder of Kindle (prayer social networking site), posted some great thoughts as well, Future Church: Be Like the Internet.

Cynthia Ware posted Is Your Church Leadership Interactive, which I talked about a little earlier in the week. Cynthia is a great blogger to follow on this topic.

Charlene Li (who I don’t know, but wish I did), who is an expert in social computing and Web 2.0, gave a presentation on “The Future of Social Networks”, posts a blog about it. She says:

I set my time frame for the long term – five, even ten years out. That’s because unless we know where we want to end up, how could we ever craft a strategy to get there? For inspiration, I thought about my grade-school kids, who in ten years will be in the midst of social network engagement. I believe they (and we) will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to “be social”.

Instead, I believe that in the future, social networks will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be. And also, without that social context in our connected lives, we won’t really feel like we are truly living and alive, just as without sufficient air, we won’t really be able to breathe deeply.

Here is her slide presentation from Graphing Social Patterns West 2008.

Blogging

Wess Daniels posts, Henry Jenkins on Why Academics Should Blog

Abraham Piper gives six reasons why pastors should blog.

Dr. Mark Roberts has his 18 Theses for the Pastor as Godblogger.

Music/Podcast

If you aren’t listening to The Habanero Hour, then you are missing out on some amazing music. It is such a sweet podcast, and I’m not just saying that because I am friends with Brent (who is a great guy). Check it out, and you will become a fan. Plus, did I mention he is a prolific blogger.

Collective Muse: College Ministry Social Network

April 14, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 1 Comment

I’ve been dreaming and thinking a lot about the desire for, and the need to connect those involved in college ministry (i.e. pastors, directors, volunteers, etc.). There are lots of college ministries, and yet there is a certain disconnect among this age and stage of ministry.

Over the last year or two I have been in more and more conversations with those involved in college ministry, and it seems that many of us have been thinking the same thing.

So after a lot of time praying and thinking about it, I created and launched a social networking site devoted to these people. I hope this site can be a hub that brings us together, helping us promote events, share ideas, meet, pray, etc. It is a place where we can bring together the work that we are all doing, and hopefully be energized and encouraged by what is taking place out there.

I will share more about the site in other posts. But please check it out and pass the word. It is a work in progress though. I wanted to do a slow and gradual rollout and just fix, edit and redesign things as they happened, and were needed, rather than trying to have everything perfect.

You can check out the site at Collective Muse.

You can check the Facebook group here.

In closing, here is the purpose of the site:

Connect
We desire to connect those serving in college ministry.

Engage
We desire to engage those involved in college ministry on issues regarding theology, ministry, praxis, etc.

Collaborate
We desire to collaborate with those serving in college ministry on projects that bring innovation and new ideas to the study and practice of this field.

Innovate
We desire to be a community that creates and welcomes innovative ideas in the field of college ministry.

Gather
We desire to gather together in order to form relationships and grow from our interactions with one another.

Prayer
We desire to be a people that continually seek the direction of college ministry through time in prayer.

Diversity
We desire to be a community that spans the breadth and depth of Christianity, interacting on this site with those involved in serving in college ministry in the various denominations, non-denominations, and traditions of Christianity.

Resource
We desire to be a resource for those serving in college ministry, as well as students who are a part of college ministry.
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