Archive for April, 2008
Your Christian Blog Is A Commercial
April 23rd, 2008 Categories: Church Marketing
The Apostles beat the streets daily in search of those who needed Jesus in the first century. They preached the word in the synagogues, they healed the sick, and they basically turned the world upside down. They would stop at nothing to spread the good news.
We have a similar responsibility to spread the Gospel in this day and age, but the ground rules of the game have changed a little. In my generation, there is an entire unreached people group who need the love and truth of Jesus Christ. They aren’t in Africa. They’re not in Asia either. They’re right here in the United States.
Who are they? They’re the internet people, for lack of a better term, and they will never be available to you through the traditional devices used to spread the Gospel. They won’t be on the street for your to witness to because they’re busy playing Second Life. They won’t be out on the town with friends, because their “friends” are the folks with whom they play World of Warcraft on the internet every night. If you want to “talk” to them, you have to do it through facebook. It’s a brave new world, and we had better get on board.
That being said, your Christian Blog is a commercial for this unreached people group. The one and only way that you might stand a chance of reaching them is if you embrace some of the same technology as them and begin to delve into their world.
Picture yourself holding a machete and clubbing your way into the “bush.” It’s the same basic concept at work, and it requires the same courage to embrace something new. LifeChurch.tv has actually created a Second Life Church. They’re setting the pace for the rest of us, and we desperately need to get in on the act.
The unfortunate truth is that your old, static website has about as much effect on these people as that billboard that you’re spending two grand a month to rent, which is none at all. Your ministry needs an online voice. Your ministry needs a cutting-edge web presence. Your ministry needs a blog.
Jon Greene steps down from the soap box and calmly walks away…..
We Build Blogs
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The Three B’s of Church Marketing
April 22nd, 2008 Categories: Church Marketing
There are many, many good ways to market a church. Some say the best way is the old fashioned way…to grab a bible and hit the streets. Some say that in-home visitation is the way to go. I’d like to offer my humble, web 2.0 opinion as to what it takes to properly market a church in the emerging tech culture. Here are the three B’s according to me:
- Buzz: What makes one church more popular than another in a particular town? It’s a mystery to most. My contention is that if people have no other denominational preference, they’ll most likely attend the church that generates the most street-level talk in the town. Do whatever is necessary, within the confines of Godly conduct, to generate a buzz about your church. You’ll see your numbers begin to grow.
- Branding: You thought branding was just for Starbucks and Walmart? Wrong answer. Your Church has to be about something. What do you do better than anybody else? What has the Lord really blessed you with? My church is blessed with a body of believers who really love one another. It’s our thing. When you walk into the Sunday service, you can feel the genuine care and concern for one another being exuded from every smiling face. Perhaps your church is awesome at worship or firmly rooted in prayer. Find out what you do best, and brand it baby!
- Blogging: Now, this might seem slightly slanted considering the source, but blogging is one of the best possible ways to brand your ministry and generate buzz about all of your awesome programs. Plug, blogging will give you that extra google mojo that you need in order to dominate keywords like Churches in Tampa. Those results, of course, speak for themselves. Perhaps most importantly of all, blogging gives your ministry an online voice. It’s more important than you think. There is an entire demographic that can only be reached in this way. It’s importance grows daily.
There you have it. Solid church marketing advice in a reasonably attractive package…and I even made them all begin with the same letter so that it would be memorable. If I could, I’d walk into your office and put a bright yellow post it note on your computer to remind you. But, since the laws of physics prohibit that type of behavior, why don’t you just get our feed?
End shameless promotion. Have a great day.
P.S. This article is about putting butts in pews. The advice contained within is designed to help people get more people to come to church. The idea, when they arrive, is to tell them about Jesus. If you want to advance the Kingdom, you have to tell people about Jesus. A small caveat…
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Times Are Changing. Are You Behind The Power Curve?
April 22nd, 2008 Categories: Technology for Pastors
This is Microsoft Surface . My first, and most overwhelming though is: “How do we use this thing to advance the cause of Christ?”
Picture sharing video clips from The Passion of the Christ with loved ones huddled over your coffee table as you share with them the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior.
Picture yourself showing photos of your congregation to an unchurched believer who is looking for a place to worship as you sit at your local coffee shop on a Friday night. We need to embrace this technology. Change is coming. Are you ready?
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Our First Write Up! Yay
April 22nd, 2008 Categories: Positive Press
Wow, that took a little less time than I thought, but Jeff Turner over at Active Rain has written us up with some nice blogging mojo. For those of you who don’t know, Active Rain is a network of blogging Realtors who discuss all things Real Estate.
Here’s an excerpt from Jeff’s write up for the Kingdom 2.0:
I perused through some of the content on the first page and quickly realized this was good, quality content. And because it was written for a different audience, I read it differently. I loved reason number 3 in his post Three Reasons To Use Google Docs As A Blog Editor and thought his “you’re more creative than you thought” comment to pastors could have been written to anyone.
Click here to check out the rest of the article. Thanks for the link love, Jeff. We appreciate being noticed. And, please don’t sue us for snagging your photo.
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3 Cool Tech Gadgets to Grow Your Church
April 21st, 2008 Categories: Technology for Pastors
Oh, you know you like tech gadgets, don’t you? Come on. Just a little? That’s what I thought.
If you’re the kind of Pastor who might find yourself strolling down the street listening to Mp3s on your Iphone, I have some cool stuff that just might help you build your church:
1) Meebo: A wicked cool tech gadget that allows you to install a chat application right in the sidebar of your Christian blog. Here’s the description from meebo.com:
Meebo is a website for instant messaging from absolutely anywhere. Whether you’re at home, on campus, at work, or traveling foreign lands, hop over to www.meebo.com on any computer to access all of your buddies (on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber) and chat with them, no downloads or installs required, for free!
Here’s the church building power: You don’t have to wait for people to message you. Meebo actually gives you a real time readout of how many visitors are on your site, and allows you to ping them through the wicked cool sidebar widget. So, write a hot article to lure the lost, and then engage them with the Gospel all from the comfort of our favorite arm chair.
2) Social Bookmarking: It’s not a tech gadget, per se, but it will increase your readership so that you can utilize cool gadgets like meebo to increase your church. Sites like del.icio.us and reddit provide unlimited opportunities to put your awesome headlines in front of readers who just might be looking for a relationship with the Lord. If you are overwhelmed by the idea of social bookmarking, of if you haven’t advanced much beyond checking your email, never fear. We can help.
3) Podcasting: None of this is really cutting-edge technology, but a podcast allows you to build an online audience of subscribers. Then, you simply record your next message from the pulpit, upload it to your server, and push it out to the internet. Since your preaching is so anointed, it’s only a matter of time before these word nerds start flowing through your church doors. Here’s a good example of a cool podcast.
Ahhh….now you’ve got your tech fix for the day. This blogging stuff tends to grow on you, doesn’t it?
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