Geocaching for Jesus
The other day I went Geo-caching with my iPhone. My girls and I were looking through one Geo-cache and noticed a lot of cool goodies, we started to trade different items that were in the Geo-cache. It dawned on me while I was there, that it would be a great idea to put little biblical quotes of encouragement or small children’s bibles in the different Geo-caches that we visit. Just another way through the use of technology to spread God’s word. If you have ideas on this type of ministry give your comments.
Tags: bibles, geocache, geocaching, iphone, Ministry
Transparency
TransparencyCamp 2009 just finished in Washington brought about by Obama’s initiative to make government more transparent. Personally I think this is a good thing, we need to be more transparent everywhere, it builds trust and accountability.
The fact that there was even a conference to discuss and converse about transparency is a step in the right direction government or not. If our government is trying to be more transparent to its people by the hand of the first African-American President, how much more do we as Christian people need to open up our homes, lives and churches. It would be wonderful to see a conference on transparency surrounding the operation of churches, denominations and non-profits.
Tags: Church, Denominations, Government, Obama, Transparency, Transparent
Wirecast 3.5
Telestream just recently released an update to their wirecast software. For those that haven’t used this software before, I highly recommend it for your media ministry. Its a cost effective way to stream and record your events.
New Wirecast 3.5 Features:
- Support for Flash streaming
- Built-in streaming service access from Mogulus and Ustream
- Ability to turn streams on/off
- Automatic reconnect at a lost connection
- Ability to turn off automatic device detection
Twinity
Twinity is a brand new online virtual world similar to Second Life. The difference is that the landscape and map of the world resembles our real world. The first city created is Berlin,Germany where you can build your own home, explore the city and meet new people. I like this idea of a virtual world better, because it gives the users a real reference point in the world we live in. It also opens up possibilities for real commerce and education programs. When a 3D environment can bring the real and virtual worlds closer, I think it eludes to a better experience and also provides realistic ministry possibilities.
Kluster
Have you ever had a good idea for ministry and then later found out that it wasn’t such a good idea? The power of collaboration is to discover new ideas, or brainstorm about new ministry initiatives. There is one such online service that can bring people together to help you collaborate and find out what’s really important on the minds of others. Kluster is a group decision-making platform for anyone that has a project or idea where they want group response or more brain power surveyed.
Tags: brainstorm, Collaboration, ideas, kluster, survey
Facebook Tips
Here is a link to a short video list of 10 basic tips that you need to follow when using Facebook for ministry purposes.
http://mainstreetopen.com/facebook-in-ministry-10-tips
Online Tools
For those ministries that can’t afford Adobe Photoshop or able to hire a creative ministries director. I have two online services that will brighten your day and lighten your pocketbook.
1) Sumo Paint - is online application that runs in the browser, (no installs) that mimics Adobe Photoshop or Gimp.
2) Web 2.0 Domain Generator – is online tool that creates creative names that have a Web 2.0 twist. Use this service to come up with a name for your ministry.
Yonkly
Since we are talking about micro-blogging, I should also mention Yonkly. This is a similar service to ShoutEm, except it’s focus is more on monetization and customization. You also have the ability to add your own domain name to your micro-blog. They have free and paid based micro-blogs that you can use for your ministry.
Tags: Microblogging, Ministry, Monetization, Yonkly
ShoutEm
“Ning for Twitters” is how a fairly new micro-blogging service called ShoutEm describes itself. One can send text messages, share links, photos, and include geo-location based content. There is also wide range of mobile device support. I would recommend micro blogging services to anyone that wants a simple way to network and communicate without all the complexity of other social networking sites.
Tags: Microblogging, Ning, ShoutEm, Twitter
SDALink
A new online service recently launched for the Adventist church. SDALink is video sharing, social networking like site that allows Adventists to submit and stream videos onto the BiggyTV owned network. This is a first for the Adventist church, so time will time how well adoption will be. On a side note the service has bulletin video-conferencing software for a small fee.
Tags: Adventist, Biggytv, sdalink, socialnetworking, Video
