Rethinking Facebook

It seems that there is starting to be a groundswell of, shall we say, “concern” around the use of Facebook. Most of this has to do with the privacy issues, but I think some of it also has to do with the independent spirit of those on the front edge of the Internet.  Just as a backlash against Microsoft has led to the Linux/Firefox/OpenOffice user, I think we are starting to see a Facebook backlash. No one likes to be told what to do – the Internet was built on open standards and Facebook (just as Microsoft did) is trying to become the standard.

There are a range of reactions to the current situation from the “digital elite”. Some are canceling their accounts. Others giving up and opening up their privacy settings to be as public as possible.  I personally have not taken any action – yet – but I am starting to understand the concerns.

We all will have to make our decisions about what we will do with our personal Facebook accounts. But a bigger question that concerns me much more is how churches and ministries respond. Many ministries (such as Lifechurch) have begun to heavily commit to using Facebook. I am working with two organizations right now who are considering heavy work inside of Facebook.  I, myself, keep this blog as a page on Facebook. But if you do heavily use Facebook, what does that imply? If the “medium is the message”, are we then giving implicit approval to the use of Facebook and its terms of service? And if our use of Facebook encourages people to create accounts and/or begin using Facebook more, should that concern us?

So, will this all blow over?  Just as Facebook was starting to be seen as more important than Google, will its decline begin? What do you think? What will your church or ministry do?

Tags: facebook, lifechurch

Changing the Internet culture of a church

I am working with a church on an upgrade to their web presence.  Using my strategy framework, we have come down to a choice between two different solutions. The first is the top of the line, “Mercedes-Benz” of church web presence management software. It is expensive (though within the church budget) and feature rich. It will give us the ability to manage our full Internet presence, including integration with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo. On the other hand, we have a lower-end, less expensive solution that will give us a good church web site, but that’s about all. If we want to do the rest of our “Internet presence”, we will have to manage them separately.

It seems obvious to me, at first glance, that we want to go with the first solution. After all, we are now in a “post-web site” world, where we need to be “getting in the stream” of our audience. But I have a real dilemma: the culture of this church is not web-centric. In other words, there is very little excitement, except with just one or two of the staff members working with me on this project, for doing more on the Internet. So is it a good use of church resources to recommend the more expensive, more involved solution?  The Internet Ministry Framework shows us that a successful online ministry combines equal parts technology, people, and process. So I can recommend the best technology, but if the people are unwilling, can it work? I can develop great processes to use to manage the site and keep it updated and relevant, but if the people are ambivalent, does it make sense?

When I was studying for my information systems doctorate, one of the things we studied was “what exactly is ‘information systems’?” One of the things we looked at was which other fields combined together to make up our field: computer science, business, sociology, and psychology, among others. Going through this process with this church has helped me to understand the psychology side, something I have not had to deal with directly before.

So, what would you do? Would you recommend the best solution, given a high probability that it would site unused? Or would you go for the lower-end solution? Or would you wait and try to change the culture?

Tags: church web site, internet culture

Proposed chapters for book on online ministry

As many of you know, this year I am working on a book about online ministry strategy. It is tentatively titled God In The Tubes – you can read about the origins of that name in one of my previous posts. As I complete sections of the book, I am posting portions to my blog as a way to get some feedback on what I am writing. After my first posting, I was asked if I would post a high-level outline or table of contents so that those providing feedback would know where I was heading and could provide better feedback. Well…your wish is my command! Below is my current thoughts on the chapters in my book, complete with title and a short summary of what will be covered. This may change over time as I evolve the book, but most of what I want to cover is here.

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God in the Tubes – Proposed Chapters

1. “God in the Tubes”: this chapter will be in an introduction to the book and will cover some initial concepts, such as a history of technological innovations, an overview of the Internet’s creation, and some thoughts about how God has played a role in wiring the world.  Part of this chapter has already been published in my previous blog post.
2. “Developing a Theology of Change”: this chapter will discuss how one should view change and how we can go about integrating the Internet into our churches and ministries.  A focus here will be on how the forms of ministry should change while the functions of ministry cannot. I will then discuss the limits of these changes and discuss how you determine what is appropriate and what is not. I will refer to works by Aubrey Malphurs and Shane Hipps in this chapter.
3. “A Post-Website World”: this chapter will try to ground the reader in the concept of streams. We are now in a world where the organizational website is not the primary way that your audience will interact with you. Instead, we must determine where our audience is and go to them.
4. “The Internet Ministry Framework”: this chapter will give an overview of my Internet Ministry Framework and review the three components of it in some detail: technology, people, process.  Many of those doing Internet ministry feel that the technology is the key component to success, but it is not. It turns out that people and process are the hard part and the key to success. This chapter will also incorporate the results of my best practices research. It is possible that this may be broken into multiple chapters.
5. “Strategic Planning”: this chapter will walk the reader through the strategic planning process using my Internet Ministry Strategy Worksheet.  This may be broken into two chapters: strategic planning and implementation.
6. “Moving Forward”: this chapter will focus on what to do after you have your ministry up and running. It will discuss possible futures and how to keep your online ministry from getting stale.

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So there it is, at least as I have it right now. I have already written parts of every chapter, and much of this has been blogged about or been presented at conferences as well.  If you have feedback on these proposed chapters, please let me know!  The idea is that this book could be used by anyone in ministry: a single person, a ministry organization, a church, etc., and that the concepts and strategy used in this book could be adapted for their use. Most likely I will be including a companion website that will add tons of additional resources.

So, what is the schedule for getting this done? Well, my first draft of this should be ready in time for my summer class on this subject. I will let my students read it and give me feedback and then, this fall, I will make changes as I feel necessary. Because I have been focused on getting this done for my summer class, I have not shopped it around to any publishers yet – if any of you have a suggestion for a publisher, let me know!

Internet Evangelism Ideas

For those of you who have not been following the blog over at OurChurch.com, you have been missing a great series on “Internet Evangelism Ideas”. Yesterday was my turn to post, which you can find by following this link. This has been a great series and I encourage you to review the ideas that have been posted. The series wraps up today.  Follow this link to get an overview of the series and links to all the posts.

Tags: online evangelism, ourchurch

Highlights from around the web – 4/27/2010

It’s been a couple weeks, but here are the latest things that caught my eye from around the web in the past few days. I subscribe to dozens of blogs and news sources via my Google Reader and share them. You can keep up with them by following me on Twitter or even subscribing directly. I will also post them here in my blog from time to time.

• More Than Half of Mobile Internet Time Is Spent on Social Networks [STATS]
  Posted: April 23, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  More stats to support the trend: mobile and social is where it is at.
• 3 Ways for Your Ministry to Generate Income via Live Broadcasts
  Posted: April 23, 2010
  From: ChurchCrunch
  Have you thought about live streaming different parts of your ministries? Here some good reasons to think about it.
• HOW TO: Boost Your SEO with a YouTube Channel
  Posted: April 19, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  Great insights into how to use YouTube as a way to boost your search engine results.
• Global Media Outreach Hosts Webinar on Internet Impact, Mission Outreach Potential
  Posted: April 19, 2010
  From: Christian Media 2.0
  Global Media Outreach is one of the leaders in online evangelism. Join them on Wednesday for a webinar on how to use the Internet for evangelism.
• 10 SEO Myths Ministries Need to Avoid Like the Plague
  Posted: April 19, 2010
  From: ChurchCrunch
  Great set of SEO myths - which ones do you believe?
• What’s the Difference? Facebook Profiles, Groups and Pages
  Posted: April 16, 2010
  From: tonysteward
  Nice article that clearly defines the differences between profiles, groups, and pages. If you created a profile for something that should be a group or a page, now is the time to change it!
• New Study Shows the Mobile Web Will Rule by 2015 [STATS]
  Posted: April 13, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  More data to backup the move to a post-web site world.
• Non-Profit and Ministry Basic Training for Facebook Pages
  Posted: April 9, 2010
  From: tonysteward
  Another great resource for those wanting to create Facebook pages for their ministry.
• Free Webinar: Developing a Social Media Strategy for Your Church
  Posted: April 8, 2010
  From: Christian Web Trends Blog
  Live webinar on social media strategy April 14th @ 11AM EDT.
• Facebook: Your Best Primary Online Presence
  Posted: April 8, 2010
  From: tonysteward
  LifeChurch is going to make Facebook their primary online presence for their campuses. Wow. Is this a good move?
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CLA 2010 Presentation

Last week, I gave a presentation at the Christian Leadership Conference’s annual conference in San Diego, CA. My session was entitled “Online Ministry Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons”, which I presented with Kevin Ring.  The talk was well received and encompassed several areas that I have been researching and writing on recently.   I was asked by several people to make the presentation available, which I have done below.

For those of you who were not at the presentation, you may also want to get a copy of the audio of the presentation, which CLA is making available for $9.00. That link is also below.

Tags: CLA 2010

CLA 2010 next week

I will be speaking next week at CLA 2010 on the topic of the Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons of being online.  This session is part of the twelve-session “Ministry Internet & Technology Summit” within the overall conference. I am looking forward to meeting a lot of new people who share my vision for using the Internet to share Christ’s love to the world!

If you are going to be there next week, look me up! The session is at 8:00 AM Wednesday morning.  And don’t attend just my session! The MITS has a lot of great speakers and sessions!

Follow this link for more information on my part in CLA 2010.

Tags: CLA 2010

Highlights from around the web – 4/7/2010

Here are the latest things that caught my eye from around the web in the past few days. I subscribe to dozens of blogs and news sources via my Google Reader and share them. You can keep up with them by following me on Twitter or even subscribing directly. I will also post them here in my blog from time to time.

• BibleTech Recap #1: The First MMM Presentation
  Posted: April 5, 2010
  From: Mobile Ministry Magazine
  Here's a presentation on the next ten years of mobile...
• Creating a Facebook Page for Your Church, Part 3
  Posted: April 2, 2010
  From: ChurchCrunch
  Here is part 3 of the series on Facebook page creation for churches.
• Can the Church Learn Social Media Lessons from a Pizza Place?
  Posted: April 2, 2010
  From: Christian Web Trends Blog
  Great example of social media use. And great application for churches and ministries.
• Can the Church Learn Social Media Lessons from a Pizza Place?
  Posted: April 2, 2010
  From: Christian Web Trends Blog
  Great example of social media use. And great application for churches and ministries.
• HOW TO: Integrate Paid Search and Social Media for Better Marketing Results
  Posted: April 2, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  This is starting to become a trend...social and SEO should work together...
• Internet Evangelism Idea #1: Using CraigsList to Serve Local People in Need
  Posted: April 2, 2010
  From: Christian Web Trends Blog
  Ever thought of using Craigslist as a ministry or evangelism tool? It's not as crazy as it sounds...
• Creating a Facebook Page for Your Ministry, Part 4
  Posted: April 2, 2010
  From: ChurchCrunch
  The last in this four-part series detailing just how to create a killer Facebook page for your company (or ministry!).
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God in the Tubes

As I have mentioned several times this year, I am on half-sabbatical through the end of 2010. The key project I am working on during this time is the writing of a book of the use of the Internet and social media for ministry. The book will be based on the research and experiences I have had over the last four years as I have spent much of my time focusing on Internet ministry.

I am not writing the book as a “how to” book that tells you how to create a website or Facebook page. Instead, I am aiming for a higher road: this book will talk about a philosophy (or dare I say a theology) of using the Internet for ministry.  It will cover strategy and planning.  The primary audience for the book will be anyone who wants to use the Internet or social media for ministry. It will give them an introduction to how to think and plan for doing so. Even those who already have an online presence will get value from this book as it makes them think deeper and differently about the Internet. › Continue reading

Highlights from around the web – 4/2/2010

Here are the latest things that caught my eye from around the web in the past few days. I subscribe to dozens of blogs and news sources via my Google Reader and share them. You can keep up with them by following me on Twitter or even subscribing directly. I will also post them here in my blog from time to time.

• Perry Noble, NewSpring Church Kill Internet Campus
  Posted: March 31, 2010
  From: Christian Web Trends Blog
  Find out why NewSpring decided to shut down their Internet campus.
• Social Media Guidelines and Policies from North Point Ministries
  Posted: March 30, 2010
  From: ChurchCrunch
  Here's one church's social media guidelines. Does your ministry have one?
• Foursquare, Gowalla and More on a Google Map [Apps]
  Posted: March 30, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  Ever wanted to know where people were "checking in" via location-based apps such as Foursquare? Are other churches in your area using these tools? This app could help you figure it out...
• Has Social Media Made SEO Irrelevant?
  Posted: March 30, 2010
  From: Christian Web Trends Blog
  Interesting discussion on the effectiveness of search engine optimization vs. social media "optimization". I think you need both, but you'll need to determine which is working best for you.
• Social networking: the future of denominations
  Posted: March 30, 2010
  From: Think Christian
  Here are some innovative ways that denominations are using the web. Very inspiring - check it out.
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