by Rhett Smith | Jul 3, 2009 | Technology
So I wrote this post back in November of 2008, Community Organizer+Grasp of Web 2.0/Social Media=President Elect Obama. And then I saw this on July 1, 2009. And then this tweet by Tony Steward on July 2, 2009. #churchonline political campaigns found leveraging online...
by Rhett Smith | Nov 6, 2008 | Leadership
Last April April 10, 2008: That is the date I wrote my post regarding an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt and the authors of Millenial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube, and the Future of American Politics. There were tons of points that the authors...
by Rhett Smith | Sep 15, 2008 | Leadership
In light of much, much discussion about social media and ministry, and in light of many writing on online church community, I was wondering what you think of the post below, taken from Collide Magazine’s blog. I Wouldn’t Hire You If in some bizarro...
by Rhett Smith | Sep 11, 2008 | Leadership
Saw this gem in The Dallas Morning News this morning. It’s a quote by Alexander Muse who I have been following on Twitter. “In Silicon Valley, it’s normal to quit your job and work at a start-up,” he said. But in Dallas, he sees many...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 21, 2008 | Technology
Just wrote my first blog post over at our book blog for The New Media Frontier. My chapter is New Media Ministry to the Myspace-Facebook Generation: Employing New Media Technologies Effectively In Youth Ministries. And the following is some of the framework I laid out...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 21, 2008 | Technology
Chris Brogan has a great post today, Social Media Events Are Fragmenting. Read the whole thing, especially if you put on a conference, attend them, or are involved with social media. Now, though he is talking about social media events (of which churches and church...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 18, 2008 | Leadership
Last week I was debating on whether or not I should attend the ECHO Conference, mainly because I was pretty exhausted from just moving here. And second, I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to pay the $329 for the conference. I debated, but ultimately I felt like it...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 29, 2008 | Marriage, Technology
There are many reasons to Twitter which I have chronicled on this blog. But today was a perfect example. When the Southern California earthquake hit today at approximately 11:41 (Twitter) or 11:42 (CNN) Twitter was buzzing like crazy. I had numerous reports from...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 22, 2008 | Leadership
We define the four-step POST process for creating strategies–people, objectives, strategy, and technology–and reveal why starting with the technologies is a mistake. That is the advice I wish I would have read 6 months ago as I was thinking about creating...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 3, 2008 | Leadership
In class my adviser, Ryan Bolger, often tells a story about a pastor of a mega-church in Arizona. One day the pastor, while walking with his son across the campus of the church he built, said, “Son, this is all going to yours someday,” and his son took a step...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 1, 2008 | Leadership
Social Networks have been one of the greatest things to happen to college ministry. There are many reasons why I have found them to be so helpful, but let’s begin with a video primer, because I know some of you, though familiar with social networks, may wonder...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 24, 2008 | Technology
I just posted this at Leadership Network’s book blog, so please take a look. So as you may or may not have noticed I have been on a reading spree with books that discuss new web 2.0 technologies and how they are influencing leadership, especially in the church...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 22, 2008 | Leadership
Irony: streaming shot of hundreds of laptops at #GA218…all unconnected to the world. Metaphor for the PCUSA? That’s the quote I came across by Neal Locke on Twitter last night. He was commenting on PC(USA)-218th General Assembly, and I thought it was a...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 19, 2008 | Technology
On Tuesday afternoon I went to coffee with Chris Capehart, one of the co-founders of ROOV. I told Chris when we met that I wasn’t quite sure what to think of ROOV when I heard about it. 1) One more social networking site seems like one too many right now. 2) I...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 16, 2008 | Leadership
Despite some of the bad press recently regarding Twitter, I still must say that I absolutely love it. Sure there are days when things take way too long to load, or they don’t load at all. But despite all that, Twitter is still the first site that I log onto when...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 10, 2008 | Faith
This short 7 minute video with Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, authors of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies is insightful. I tend to filter social technologies through the lens of church and ministry, and I think they say some key...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 4, 2008 | Leadership
When it comes to Facebook I’m definitely an evangelist, but it wasn’t always that way. I was one of those pastors who was somewhat fearful of online social technology. I was an early adopter in some ways, but when it came to working with college students I...
by Rhett Smith | May 31, 2008 | Leadership
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...
by Rhett Smith | May 23, 2008 | Leadership
Ryan at Tilling the Soil asked me a couple of good questions related to my post below, so I want to give them proper attention in a post, and not just leave a comment for him. I had the chance to talk with Ryan by phone last week and I enjoyed our conversation, and...
by Rhett Smith | May 22, 2008 | Leadership
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...
