LifeChurch.tv just announced an opportunity that I think every church should look into.
[Click here to check it out]
Any idea worth spreading can be summed up in a short amount of time. Many of us have had the Roman Road. Whether you agree with it's theology or not it's clear and simple. You can write it on a napkin in 5 minutes or less.
What if there was a online napkin? Now there is...
Here is a video I did in 3 minutes.
Check out SketchCast.
If there is one thing Web 2.0 and the advancements in online software have created it is an attention deficit for those of us who us it. With RSS feeds, email and IM we could pretty much keep ourselves "busy" all day without ever actually getting any of the important stuff done.
On the other hand these tools and their interaction are quickly becoming essential for communication, the processing of information and staying connected to friends and online communities.
Instead of letting this be a Catch 22 check out what Gina Trapani from the productivity blog Life Hacker has found to work. It is something she calls Bi-modal work styles. In one style she has IM open, Email up, Music with lyrics playing and is aware and okay with interruptions and tangents. She can still get work done in this mode, but it isn't as focused.
Then she has a mode where she closes all those programs, closes her door and really focuses down on some work. This a mode where all distractions are locked out and it is a time of focus.I have found myself shifting between modes like this just out of necessity. What do you think, do you work this way or have you found a happy medium?
Here is an excerpt from the article:
4. What are some common “time management” tactics or approaches that you disagree with or don’t follow, and why?
[From Interview with Gina Trapani, Founder of Lifehacker - Morning Routine, Little Hacks with Big Results, and More… | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss]
To some degree, I reject the super-structured, old school of time management thought, the type of rigid planning where you say “from 10AM till 10:45 I’m going to work on TPS reports. From 10:45 to 11:15 check email,” etc. As a “web worker,” by nature I embrace serendipity and tangents, and like to keep myself open to working on unexpected things that excite me, even if they’re not in the plan. For example, a few years back, during some web surfing, I happened upon a tutorial on how to build Firefox extensions. I let myself go down the rabbit hole, so to speak, and now extension development is a big part of what I do.
There seems to be a big boom in churches marketing budgets. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But how far is too far?
At the end of the day it's not about how clever you think you are, it's about communicating. I think the temptation is to push the line as far as we can. Like the Gathering Church in Tennessee, that sent out 50,000 flyer's to their local neighborhoods to promote their upcoming series called "RED HOT SEX".
You have to watch this Video
The reaction from the man they interview nails it.
As a church I would make sure that my marketing strategy reflects the heart and the vision of the church, other wise it may be seen as a shameless gimmick to fill seats.
What about THIS billboard ?
Is this clever marketing or are we creeping towards the line of too far?
In all fairness, the gathering Church said on their website that 87 people got saved during the series. That was last December.I wonder how many are still attending church?
Maybe the most helpful question a church can ask is
"Why are we marketing in the first place?"
Is the goal to add converts, or is it to add disciples?
For all those Churches that are looking for an upgrade from those power point presentations. Meet ProPresenter3.
ProPresenter is a lyric presentation system for churches and ministries. Created by Brad Weston while he was working on the "Production Team" for North Point Community Church, and it's the software their use for the Catalyst Conference.
I have a copy of the original release and version 3 is completely redesigned with some really cool features. You now have the ability to save Playlist from the worship service just like you would save an itunes playlist. There's "Dynamic Scripture Look Up", so any time your pastor strays from the notes you can look up the scripture and have it on screen in seconds. You can import all those old power point presentations, and it even supports keynote. There's view options, foregrounds, backgrounds, transitions, and you can even post announcements and let parents know when their child needs them in the nursery. These guys thought of everything!
Unfortunately it's not free, but they are pretty loose with their licensing agreements. And you can download a trial before you buy.
Check out all of the Video Tours Heres
This is a follow-up post to Micro-site Marketing that highlights different Ministry related micro-sites...
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Church: Next Level Church [Fort Myers, Florida]
Micro-site: Pete's Blog [www.petesblog.org]
Description: What if Peter was blogging about his adventures with Jesus and how he learned to trust Him more? A 4-week message series this Sunday called Pete’s Blog.
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Church: NewSpring [Anderson, South Carolina]
Micro-site: Parent's Are Clueless [ParentsAreClueless.com]
Description: Have a secret your parents don't know about? Facing a challenge in raising your kids? Who is really clueless--the parents or the kids? Parent's and Kids could weigh in on the questions above. Then they did a teaching series on 'The Perfect Kid'.
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Church: Mars Hill Church [Seattle, Washington]
Micro-site: Ask Anything [askanything.marshill.org]
Description: Where you could ask Mars Hill Church to teach on any topic. And I mean any topic. They had thousands of votes and then they taught and are teaching a 9-week teaching series on the top 9 topics. The idea came from New Testament when Paul would address the major issues of the church.
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Questions for you....
- What other ministry focused micro-sites have you seen?
- Do you have any creative/innovative ideas for micro-sites in ministry?
Let me start off by saying, I am not a marketer, nor do I have a background in it. However, I have noticed a trend that's been catching on in the business world and in Churches.
It's Micro-sites! What is a Micro-site you ask?
Wikipedia defines them as...
... an Internet web design term referring to an individual web page or cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website. The microsite's main landing page most likely has its own URL.Clear as mud, right! Let me explain.
Remember watching this Tide commercial during the Super Bowl...
Notice that it didn't say go to www.tide.com. Instead it said go to mytalkingstain.com.
This is a mirco-site. Here's what I think micro-sites have to offer...
- Curiosity - new people will find your product/ministry interesting.
- New Identity - target a new/different audience giving your ministry a fresh feel.
- Champion a Cause - make a big deal about something for a season.
- Inexpensive - doesn't cost to much to put up a new website.
- Interactive - a chance to make an interactive websites [i.e.- vote, comment, upload photo or videos, giveaways, etc.]
More and more churches are evolving from podcast to vodcast (video podcast). If that includes you check out MetaX, it's a really simple and effect FREE meta-data tagger for mp4 files and their derivatives like m4a audio files.
Basically after you've edited your video and your ready to upload, you just drag and drop your file on MetaX and the above dialog box opens. You can change the tittle, the artist, the genre and just about any other category you can think of. You can even add a copy write, episode url, keywords, a brief description and cover art to give your vodcast a nice polished look.
And the best part is when your done adding and editing the meta-data, you just click the write button and you'll hear a cow moo when MetaX is finished.
It's only for mac but they did just updated to Leopard. So if your a windows user you could try Jaikoz . The downside is it's $30.00 and probably more powerful then what you really need.
My friend Luke has been on a journey to create a Church Website using a BLOG. He is using WordPress to create the site.
Although we have written on this subject before - I'm very excited about this because it's someone story, experience and journey as he works through making a fully functional Website for a Church using WordPress.
If you don't have a church website or are thinking about re:vamping your current one, you really should check out his blog posts [listed below]. Follow his progress and discovery.
We recently added a donation feature to C2.0 - the blog.
If you are interested in supporting our ministry click the DONATE button in the right column of our website.
Grace and peace...
If you have a gmail account and you use firefox, there is a handy add-on called "Gspace". It lets you turn all the free email storage that most people will never use anyways, and turn it into free online file storage.
An average gmail account has over 6 GB of storage, I'm only using 64 MB right now. So why not use it. The advantage is you can upload files and then download them from any computer with internet access. Even if all you use it for is backing up important documents, it might be worth giving it a try. You also get an email every time you upload something. So it's easy to archive your files into a folder, search through them, find what you need and download it.
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