Atlas of Faith
I found this map of the world religions enlightening. It’s also a great collage of what Faiths are growing and slowing. It’s amazing how you can see where religions effects the cultural surroundings or vice-versa. This could also be a good map to follow if one is using a targeted marketing plan for ministry.
Tags: world religions, faith, maps, culture
Gospel.com
Last night it was officially announced that gospelcom.com is chaning their website and their name to Gospel.com. Gospel Communications has a rich alliance of membership ministries. They are also the ones the run the famous biblegateway.com site. Look for Gospel.com to go officially live in October-November time frame. I hope to be able to join the alliance in the near future.
Tags: gospel, biblegateway, gospel communications, communications
Demographical Analysis
During Kent Shaffer’s talk yesterday I learned about some demographic software packages that helps ministries find their relevant niche in their community. They have several software packages that profile geographical area’s and congregational survey’s. Think of this as census material designed for making ministries relevant. I hope to get my hands on some demo copies to be able to ascertain more information on these products. Ministry relevance is very very important and something like this is probably required if you are going to be successful in your area.
Tags: purceptgroup, census, demographics, relevance
Cybermissions
John Edmiston of Cybermissions.org spoke today on starting an online ministry on a shoe-string budget. It was basically about what tools you can use on the web for free but are still good quality services. John Edmiston owns and operates a unique ministry for people wanting to get involved with cyber ministries. He has created several online courses that you can take and get your feet wet with.
Some sites that caught my attention in his presentation were:
http://www.everystockphoto.com – A free open source repository of stock photo’s to be used on your print and web materials.
http://www.sermoncloud.com – A free podcasting service to host and syndicate your sermons and religious content.
Tags: sermoncloud, cybermissions, online courses, everystockphoto, stock photo
Are you Relevant?
Attended a session on creating relevant ministry by Kent Shaffer from churchrelevance.com
He brought out that there are many categories in life that make culture. One needs to find out where they want to do ministry and then figure out what the culture is in that area. If you already have a ministry in an area then figure out what the culture is and bring relevance to your church or ministry.
What came to light in my mind is that we don’t ask this question in our digital age. Most churches and ministries try to bring relevance to all categories of culture. That is impossible to do in this multi-dimensional age we live. If you are like most ministries and churches, you are small and already find it difficult to minister to one culture. The point is that you can’t be something for all people, find your niche.
Relevance applies even to online ministries where it’s even more important based on the global scale of ministry.
- It’s hard to minister to a Republican and Democrat at the same time.
- It’s hard to minister to a single mom or dad and families at the same time.
- It’s hard to minister to someone that speaks Spanish and someone that speaks French at the same time.
- It’s hard to minister to someone that is poor and someone that is rich at the same time.
- It’s hard to minister to someone that is African-American and someone that is Caucasian at the same time.
- It’s hard to minister to someone that has a Master’s degree and someone that has no education at the same time.
- It’s hard to minister to someone that is a conservative and someone that is a liberal at the same time.
Cultural Catorgories:
Geo-demographics, Family, Education, Economics, Arts, Social Class, Arts, Politics, Technology, Religion, War & Trauma, Moral Issues
Tags: Church Relevance, relevance, culture, Internet Ministry Conference, Ministry
Focus on Jesus
I just attended a radical session by David Bruce, of Hollywood Jesus. I agreed with 90% of his talk. It was very thought provoking and powerful!
His basic premise was to focus on Jesus and not worry with all the contemporary popular things of worship. The point is to focus on relationships and realize that the media is in love of Christians and no time in history as there been such media attention on the church, use it or lose it, while we can. We love to criticize our brothers and sisters when we should be embracing each other and loving each other. It comes down to our relationship with Christ and with others. Be a minister to the world, not just to family’s but to the singles and zealots or heretics of the world. I don’t agree with his notion that families don’t have anything to do with Christ. I actually believe that families can bring us closer to God. Marriage is metaphor of our relationship with Christ. The challenge that was presented was to connect in this digital age and use to the benefit to spread God’s love.
Tags: Hollywood, Jesus, Love, Family
9 Mistakes in Online Ministry
Brad Abare from Church Marketing Sucks gave a great talk at the Internet Ministry Conference 2007 on giants in ones life and mistakes in online presentation. I hope to present more on his talk at a later date.
Ministry Basics:
Be salty – Be relevant in today’s world. – Mathew 5:13
Be transparent – a light to the world, genuineness
Be local – pursue others, Glocal ministries
Keep it simple – pursue a life of less. a postmodern world
9 Giant Mistakes in Online Ministry:
1) We often confuse the three M’s. Message, Movement, Methods. There is an order for these to work in online ministry.
2) We assume people get it. We assume that people understand and read or listen to our idea’s.
3) We assume we are credible. Assumptions that everyone cares.
4) We copy others methods. We got to do what everyone else is doing. We forget the message and focus on the technology instead of the philosophy. This limits innovation in ministry.
5) We forget to make a plan and how to develop it. This is obvious in the business world, but not necessarily in the church.
6) We under-estimate our inability to be boring.
7) Be speak Christanesse. We speak our own language and not what others can understand.
We choose the easiest or cheapest vs. the right method.
9) We forget that design matters. Graphical designers and creativity is essential. The Mormon church has on staff 70 designers.
Internet Ministry Conference 2007 Web Gallery
Just started a Web Gallery for the Internet Ministry Conference. Click the link below and see the pictures sent from my iPhone live. I may also create a flicker profile as well!
http://gallery.mac.com/macefamily#100029
Internet Ministry Conference
I’m here and glad to be here and wish all of you reading this were here. This year the Internet Ministry Conference is held in Grand Rapids, MI. It is a collection of Pastors, Communication directors, Technologists and many others from all around the world. I took a glance around the room during the keynote last night and I can safely guess that most of the attendees are in their late 40′s and are from the baby boomer generation. This surprises me a little considering the content but it’s something I’m glad to see. Last night was the kick off with the Keynote by Rex Miller, The Millennium Matrix. His keynote was very interesting and a speech that would help all baby boomers understand where they came from and what world we live in today. I hope to get his presentation up for all to see. I haven’t read his book, but I plan too and hope to see more content and inspiration that he spoke of.
I hope to bring you blog posts everyday from each session I attend. This kind of stuff is what gives me sugar and caffeine in my blood. I think they call that passion!
Tags: Internet Ministry, Grand Rapids, Rex Miller, Millennium Matrix
Youth in Web Ministry
I spoke this weekend at a Leadership Conference at Camp Blue Ridge. My topic was involving our youth in web ministry. Some of you asked that I post a copy of my Keynote presentation. I also spoke at a Spiritual retreat a couple of weeks ago on "Postmodernism" I also have the link for those that are interested in that presentation. Some of the slides don’t make a lot of sense since there is no audio with them. I hope to in the near future to also record my presentations.
As you can see this is just one example why I haven’t posted anything recently I have been gone a lot and haven’t a chance to get back into the blog routine. I also recently started working on my Masters degree again, which has also pulled even more time away.
Presentations:
Postmodernism – Special thanks to Miroslav Pujic, Make sure and check out lifedevelopment.info a work for postmodern ministry.
