You may already know from my last post, but I am passing the baton of Church 2.0 - the blog, so I can plant a church in Cleveland, OH.  I know, I know "What good can come from Cleveland?"  But I tell you God loves to show up in those places, and I have already seen him at work there.

As I step off to start a church, would you give generously to support our effort?  We want a killer web presence and we can do it well for significantly less than the tech industry at large can.  For $5000 we will have...

• Professional Logo and Graphics
• Professional Layout and Website
• Media Hosting (Vimeo, Podcast, etc)
• Online, Facebook, and Google Ads
• Customized Micro-sites and Missional Social Networks
• ChMS system for event check in, online tracking, and online giving
• TheCommon.org to meet needs within and outside the community
• Personalized Social Networking Tools (CSS Code)
• PhotoShop and Video Editing Software
• Mobile Applications (iPhone, iPad, Android Apps) 
• Business cards, postcards, and letterhead

Through our online presence we will mobilize and invite people to enter into the Kingdom of God.  If 200 generous people would give just $25 this project would be fully funded.   Consider supporting us by planting a cyber-seed of $25!

Isaiah 32:8 says.. “Generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.”

Thank you in advance for your generosity!
Kevin Rush [www.planterinthemaking.com]

I recently was invited to be a beta tester for BibleMesh.

BibleMesh is a tool developed by Redeemer City to City, an associated with Timothy Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

BibleMesh is an online interface to teach and discuss the bible, the God of the bible, and God's story revealed through the scripture.  It starts each section out with a 10+ minute video explaining the over arching theme of at portion of scripture.  The sections are...

1. Creation
2. The Patriarchs 
3. Moses
4. Israel
5. After the Exile
6. Jesus
7. The Church

Then you can dig deeper by exploring specific information about key events, characters, background, or theology. Once you have watched the video and explored the content, you can take a bible survey which is a little online quiz to help you retain (or learn) what you have just studied.

If that wasn't enough they also have groups where it appears you could make your own study using the content. They have discussion forums for those who have questions about the bible.

Over all this is a nice and helpful tool that allows you to dig deeper into scripture.  I have yet to see a price tag, but I hope they make it free, or at least a very minimal cost.

Following my post a couple days ago on Going Where the People Are, I wanted to say that going where the people are isn't enough, nor is content alone enough.

You need to be attractive and compelling.  That's why CSS and layout is important. Don't worry you don't have to really understand CSS, but think of it as code that organizes content in attractive and compelling ways. In lamen terms it is code that personalizes the layout and background to websites or social networking platforms.

IT SETS YOU APART
One of the best facebook examples that I have seen is Soul City Church's fan site. 

Yes, the photo to the left is a photo of their facebook fan site, not there website or blog. 

Very attractive and compelling. It sets them apart from all the other churches on facebook. You can see more unique facebook fan pages at facebookdesigns.org.

THE ADVERSE EFFECT
The adverse effect of going from attractive and compelling look to a less than compelling layout is JesusCreed.org that has moved to belief.net.  Even though Scott McKnight is brilliant, his content off the charts, the layout that belief.net has moved him to is distracting to say the least.  It's actually difficult from me to read his content now because of the poor and distracting layout. 

Check them out below and let me know which one is more attractive and compelling?

The old JesusCreed.org look...


The new...

It's basically your one stop media shop for children's ministry.

Check it out!

I just got an email from the YouVersion team
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This October, YouVersion Live will give you a brand new way to interact with live events like church services, conferences, and more. Want to know how you’ll be able to use it?

Join us for a live webinar: Wednesday, September 23 at 2:00-3:00 PM CDT at http://www.youversion.com/live

LifeChurch.tv Pastor, Innovation Leader Bobby Gruenewald and Digerati Pastor Terry Storch will guide you through YouVersion Live and show you how this free new tool can work in your environment.

• What will it look like to use this in a church service or other live experience?
• As a communicator, how can I use it to help people get more out of my message?
• How will people find a live experience?
• What will it take to set up an experience ahead of time?
• How likely is it that people around me will be able to use it?

Get answers to these questions and have a chance to ask your own during this free webinar. To join us, just go to http://www.youversion.com/live on Wednesday, September 23 at 2:00 CDT. Hope to see you there!

The YouVersion team
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So mark it on your calendars!

YouVersion Live looks amazing. Check out this ChurchCrunch Exclusive of YouVersion Live with Tony Steward.

YouVersion Live Exclusive from John on Vimeo.

Own the Mix is an awesome site for your sound guys/audio team. If you are a church leader and value excellence in all of your ministries you need to get this.

Imagine the best in audio giving your team tutorial and tips of how to better your worship ministry. Imagine having access to a group of the best audio techs on the plant at anytime. It does cost $20/mo or $200/yr, but it would be worth it for your team until they have developed.

I've seen some companies try to push this, but Granger Community Church is the first place I've seen adopt them.

Check out Tim Steven's and Mark Beeson's blog posts on why they added them.

I never have cash on me. If it wasn't for online giving with automatic withdraw, I'm not sure I would give on a regular basis. I know that's bad coming from a Pastor, but it's true.

Do you think online giving and giving kiosks detract from the worship aspect of giving/offering/tithing?

DreamHost is offering FREE web hosting for Non-profits.  Yes Church, this means you!

Click here to see how you sign-up.

FreeCountdowns.net is a great site for FREE Video Countdowns.

If you need to fax a file or document and you don't have a fax machine. Check out faxZERO. It's Free!

Is your church website ugly? Need a new one?

Tony Morgan and Collide Media are giving a free website overhaul (valued at $1499) to whom ever has the ugliest website and the most interesting story.

Click here and register to win!

Want some free swag? Check out crazychurch.com

Three churches came together with two beliefs

1. Church stuff out to be the best stuff.
2. Churches ought to share that stuff.

My kind of people!

Check out some great posts...

• Over at ChurchCrunch he did a great post on website layout called "Above the Fold"
• 9 reasons why youth ministry should host an online bible study.
• What is the role of the Pastor of Arts? [Video]
  
• You have nothing to prove, and no one to impress. [Video]

Need to setup a shared folder online to store large files [videos, music, photos, etc.]?

Check out MediaFire.



Unreal what UNLIMITED features they are offering for FREE!

I know I'm late in the game, but Google announced that Google Notebook will go away in the future.

I suggest using Evernote as a solution. Evernote is very easy to capture things off of the web and then add your ideas. You can journal and much much more. Also Evernote has an Google Notebook import for those who don't want to re-enter anything. Very cool! And it's free. (They have premium edition that gives you more features and better experience, but the free account is fine for basic capturing functions)

Here how Evernote works...


I believe it is very important in ministry to get your ideas out of your head and on to paper or a electronic document of some sort. So develop some system and stick to it!

Rick Warren is doing a live webcast! NOW!

I appreciate and value any device that does mundane tasks automatically. That's why I am hyped about the Eye-Fi SD Card. With a simple setup process these cards will automatically load your photos to almost any photo hosting site with out hooking up a cable.

Check out how simple it is...

Trying to send files that are too large to attach to an email?

Check out DropSend





And drop.io

Both great options to send large files over the internet.

Need help on your creative planning for ministry? Or do you have great ministry idea that needs to be shared with the nation?

Check out: www.goideanation.org



I'm so pumped that someone finally made a web2.0 do to this! Kudos iDEANATION

Have a great thanksgiving!

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