CLA 2011: “Research Strategies for Online Ministry Success”
I am speaking later today at the Christian Leadership Alliance’s annual conference in Dallas. My presentation is entitled “Research Strategies for Online Ministry Success.” The focus of this presentation is on how the use of real research, not just “gut intuition”, is needed in order to develop a successful strategy for online ministry.
I will be using a Prezi presentation, which I have uploaded to prezi.com for those of you who want to take a look. The Prezi is embedded here.
I also created a jing video to demonstrate how to use Google forms to collect data:
CWC 2011 has something new
If you haven’t heard, the 2011 version of the Christian Web Conference is coming next month. Check out the website now while I wait… OK, so now that you’ve read it, you’ll see that we’ve added something new this year: hands-on tutorials. “What?” you say, “if I come to the conference I’ll actually get to CREATE something for my ministry?” That’s right, you will.
I am very excited about these hands-on workshops because it will provide direct value to ministries by giving them the opportunity to add something to their ministry or church right there at the conference. These workshops will be led by experts in their respective fields, including three Biola professors! The five hands-on tutorials are as follows:
- Lights, Camera, Action: Capturing Effective Video for Your Ministry (John Schmidt)
- Beginning Social Media Marketing (Dave Bourgeois)
- Editing and Presenting: Preparing Video for Your Web Audience (Gerald Fisher)
- More Than A Profile: Social Media Strategy (Scott McClellan)
- Free Apps and Resources For Your Ministry (Brandon Donaldson)
For a full description of these sessions, see the schedule page of the conference. If these sound like the kind of skills and resources you would like your ministry to have, come to the conference! Register now for only $79! I hope to see you here.
Shane Hipps @ Biola
Shane Hipps spoke in chapel at Biola last week as part of a series on “Digital Formation: How Technology Shapes Our Faith”. Hipps, author of The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture and Flickering Pixels, spoke to the students on how the use of technology itself is not neutral and how we need to consider the effect that technology has on our spiritual life.
I have been an admirer of Shane’s for the last couple years, the highlight of which was my interview with him for my Internet Ministry class last January. I used his first book as a foundation for that class and again for my online course this summer. Below is the video of his chapel appearance last week. Hipps spoke again on Wednesday on the topic of listening for God’s calling in your life. For more Biola chapels, visit the Biola YouTube channel.
Using the Internet for Ministry: BCC Turkey
Many of you know that I had the privilege to be in Istanbul earlier this year speaking at the TIEN 2010 (Turkey Internet Evangelism Network) conference. My goal was to help ministries in Turkey start to focus on being strategic and intentional about their online ministries. I also introduced the idea that we are now in a post-website world. The conference was a big success and there a great things going on in Turkey.
My friend Paul Weaver, one of the organizers of the conference, has put together an Animoto video highlighting the online work being done in Turkey. It is an entertaining three minutes and really summarizes some of the great efforts going on to reach Turkey for Christ. Please watch the video, “Like” it on Facebook (see button on page), and pray for BCC Turkey and all the ministries there.
Link to BCC IT Ministry video on Animoto
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?
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?
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.
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.
Link to PDF of presentation
Purchase MP3 audio from CLA
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.
Walt Wilson’s Vision
I had the honor of being a part of Biola’s Imagination Summit, or “iSummit”, a couple of weeks ago. The one-day event, held on campus March 12th, brought in several outside speakers to motivate faculty, staff, and students to think about the new possibilities of using digital technologies to extend Biola beyond its La Mirada campus. I had the privilege of being a part of the faculty panel in the afternoon session, where we got to present our vision and interact in a Q&A with the guest speakers.
This was an exciting event for me because I, along with a few others at Biola, have been scheming and dreaming about how to take the unique and exceptional resources that Biola has to offer the world and utilize the Internet to make them available worldwide. This summit was a positive step towards making that happen.
As I noted above, the iSummit featured several notable speakers, whom you can read about on the iSummit web site. But I want to focus on just one of them: Walt Wilson, founder and chairman of Global Media Outreach. Walt spoke passionately about the use of the Internet, combined with mobile devices, to reach the entire world for Christ by 2020. He believes that there is now no barrier to everyone having a mobile device and being connected. And it is now up to us to take advantage and spread the gospel to the “ends of the earth”. More from Walt:
“I believe that God has built this network to accomplish that very purpose [reaching the entire world] within our lifetime. We are the first generation in all of human history to hold within our hands the technology to reach every man, woman, and child on the earth by 2020. We are being called to engage in the battle for human souls, all across the world. We are being given the tools to meet them in their time of need. The moment they step out of the darkness, we are there to meet them.”
I found this vision to be inspiring and motivating, and I hope you do as well. Below I have embedded the video of Walt’s entire presentation – if you have the time it is well worth watching (it runs approx 25 minutes). Stay tuned to this blog for more from Walt; I will be interviewing him for my upcoming book and posting excerpts of that interview to this blog over the next few weeks.
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Welcome to the Lessons From Babel blog
This blog is where I share the latest thoughts on the world of technology and faith. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment. To find out more about me, my company, and this web site, or to see what resources are available on this site, click on the images right below this.
- Dave Bourgeois
