Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to work with the Campus Crusade Legacy Project to develop their social media strategy.  We spent several months defining a vision for their online presence and then a few more months getting it all online: a website, a Facebook page, and a YouTube channel.  Now that the sites are up and running, I hope you will take a moment to check out some of these stories and be encouraged.

Campus Crusade Legacy Project website

Campus Crusade Legacy Project Facebook page

Campus Crusade Legacy Project YouTube channel

But then I got to thinking…small groups are also a powerful way for people to grow spiritually, could they benefit from this app? And many people work in teams as part of their job or volunteering, could they benefit from this app?  This is where you come in – would you like to be a part of this project? Would your ministry benefit from an app that allows people to form groups and communicate privately with each other, coordinate schedules, and also integrate with your ministry? The potential users could be your employees, volunteers, or those to whom you minister.  This could be a boon to small group Bible studies as the app could include pointers to what should be studied that week or (most importantly) who is bringing dessert to the next meeting – and then send reminders to them via their device the day before.

So, how can you partner with me on this? I am looking for ministries who will 1) commit to being on a steering committee team over the next few months as this app is developed and 2) be willing to make a small financial commitment up front to “buy in”.  Once the app is ready, your ministries will be the first test organizations (besides my classes) to use it.  And, of course, you will not have to purchase the app for your ministry once it is ready. This project will be limited to only about six ministries – so if you are interested, please contact me right away! If I feel that your ministry is a good fit for this project, then we will begin moving forward.

For my part, I will commit to working with you over the next few months to develop the app. I will work on it myself, with the possibility of bringing in one or more of my students to help work on it as the project moves forward.  The app will be targeted for iPhone and Android simultaneously, with an eye toward an iPad implementation in round 2.

If you are interested in getting more information about this project and possibly partnering with me, please click the button below. Thanks for your interest!

Want something for free? This Thursday, June 23rd, Drew Goodmanson (CEO of Monk Development) and I will be conducting a webinar entitled “Six Online Trends Your Ministry Must Address Today”.  The webinar starts at 9:00 AM Pacific Time and ends an hour later. CLA, sponsor of the webinar, has graciously given me an access code that will allow my you, my blog readers, free access! Normally, you would have to be a member of CLA to access this webinar, but if you follow this link, you can register for free. As of last week, there were already almost 200 ministries signed up to participate – why don’t you join us? I hope to “see” you online this Thursday morning!

The outline of the webinar is as follows:

• Introduction
• Trend #1: The Web’s Exponential Growth Requires Organization Change
• Trend #2: We Now Live in a “Post-Website World.”
• Trend #3: The “App-ification” Revolution is Beginning
• Trend #4: Mobile is the Future. Mobile is Now.
• Trend #5: Focus on the Fringe That is Central to Your Success
• Trend #6: There is No Longer “One Right Way” to Be Online.
• Questions and Answers

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:

• Facebook Updates Groups: What’s New
  Posted: April 27, 2011
  From: Mashable!
  Facebook's new "groups" feature could be just the thing for small group ministries.
• 10 Ways To Leverage Mobile Technology For Marketing
  Posted: April 27, 2011
  From: CMO.com
  Here is a good summary of ways to use mobile technologies. It's not just mobile websites and apps!
• Let’s Figure out the Value / ROI (Return-on-Investment) of Social Media
  Posted: April 27, 2011
  From: Christian Web Trends Blog
  Is social media worth the effort? Check out the poll here.
• The Curation Economy And The 3Cs Of Information Commerce
  Posted: April 27, 2011
  From: CMO.com
  Are you a content consumer, curator, or creator? Or maybe even one of the elite?
• For Students, What Is the “Facebook Effect” on Grades?
  Posted: April 27, 2011
  From: Mashable!
  Interesting study on how the use of Facebook affects grades. Students want to collaborate, but they need discipline and direction.
• Facebook Community Pages and Church Social Media Strategy, part 1
  Posted: May 24, 2010
  From: Kingdom Strategist
  Good post from Kevin on the problems with Facebook's new "Community Pages".
• Quitting Facebook is pointless; challenging them to do better is not
  Posted: May 24, 2010
  From: danah boyd | apophenia
  danah makes some great points abut Facebook. Interesting...and long!
• How Non-Profits are Using Social Media for Real Results
  Posted: May 3, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  Some good insight into using social media by non-profits.
• 5 Reasons Google and Search Won’t Dominate The Next Decade
  Posted: May 1, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  Another article about the demise of search...
• Google’s Nightmare: Facebook “Like” Replaces Links
  Posted: May 1, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  Something to be thinking about...will SEO be replaced by FLO ("Facebook Like Optimization")?
• YouTube’s First Video Uploaded Five Years Ago Today
  Posted: April 28, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  Can you believe YouTube is only five years old?
• Plugin by C. Murray Consulting

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.

Many of you may be aware of the recent story regarding the Apple App Store and the Manhattan Declaration. If you are not aware of the details, the basic summary is that Apple, after first approving it, banned an “app” from its “app store” that promoted a document called the Manhattan Declaration. This document, among other things, supports a traditional view of marriage and the sanctity of life. The goal of the app was to get its users to support the declaration by signing it online. To date, over 480,000 people have signed the document.  The app was pulled after a petition generated by change.org was sent to Apple, which now has over 7700 signatures.

It wasn’t that long ago that many Christians were applauding Steve Jobs and Apple for their stance against pornography.  We liked it when they played moral judge. So what happened? Well, it turns out that Apple’s policies for the App Store not only prohibit pornography, but also prohibit anything that Apple considers “defamatory, offensive, or mean-spirited”. A former student of mine, who currently works at Apple, provided me with some insight:

I think enough people raised a stink about the specific reference to LGBT people as sexually immoral that they played it up as being defamatory and too targeted against one cultural group (this is the key — see below: 19.1). I think that the moderators try to weed out controversy so as to mellow out the store, but probably only analyze apps where enough complaints are received. The text in question was most likely a hard-coded part of the app itself rather than dynamic content. I think this is a one-off situation on a controversial topic within the app store, and am entirely confident that the “what if” scenarios on [Phil Vischer's] blog would never happen. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

This student went on to point out some of the specific policies that could apply to this app:

19.1: “Apps containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected.”

19.2: “Apps may contain or quote religious text provided the quotes or translations are accurate and not misleading. Commentary should be educational or informative rather than inflammatory.”

If you read the Manhattan Declaration, it specifically calls out homosexuality and same-sex marriage as “immoral”. In Apple’s interpretation, this specifically violate guideline 19.1, in that it makes a reference to a cultural group that is offensive.  Apple went public with their opposition to Prop. 8 in California and has a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, so this reaction is not surprising at all.

The real question is: now what? Boycott Apple? Ignore it because we like their products?  Here are some thoughts I am considering:

1. Apple has every right to determine what is sold in their store. This is not censorship; they are a private company. It is also our right to choose not to buy their products or use their services.
2. The App Store is one of the primary ways that the Bible itself is being distributed. As my former student commented to me,  ”Keep in mind that one of the most popular apps is the free (YouVersion) Bible, which allows you to download ‘contribs’ like commentaries which clearly offend some people yet are very informative and even academic.”
3. Any Christian organization looking to develop an “app” for the iOS market should be aware of the policies that Apple has in place. Apple clearly does not want apps that are controversial in their store.
4. Apple’s banning of this app has created quite a bit of publicity for the Manhattan Declaration. How many of you had heard of it before you read this post?

So, to answer the original question: no, I don’t think Apple hates Christians.  They are doing what they think is right, but we know where that leads. For me, I am going to take a wait-and-see attitude on this. Apple has earned quite a bit of goodwill with me and I want to see how this plays out. I will definitely be watching them more closely as new apps (and app stores) roll out.

What is your reaction to this story? Leave a comment to give me your thoughts. You can keep up with the latest developments on the Manhattan Declaration’s blog.

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.

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

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?