Church Technology, Internet Ministry & Church Planting

Technology and the Mission: Conference Session

Posted by on Sep 25, 2006 in Church, General Technology | 2 comments

tech & missionI was able to use Microsoft Producer to take my PowerPoint and integrate the MP3: Technology & Mission Session requires IE which contradicts the web standards I advocate, but I have not had the time to coordinate the PowerPoint presentation with the audio mp3 in Flash.  If you know how to do this and want to, let me know.  :)

Session Description: "There are numerous opportunities for churches to use technology to expand their reach, spread the gospel and gather people to your local church. Come learn practical ways to enhance your ministry and become incarnational-minded in how you do online ministry. Learn from case studies and best practices from churches that have been successful online."

The two main thrusts dealt with (1) how are you as the church communicating to the world online and (2) how are your reaching out to people through the web.  For example, if:

  • - American ages 13 to 24 now spend more time online than they do in front of the TV.
  • - 64% of wired Americans have used the Internet for spiritual or religious purposes.
  • - During usability studies, 88% of web users went to a search engine first to accomplish a task and 53% of searchers didn’t scroll down past the first 4-5 results above the ‘page fold’.
  • - MySpace (in terms of market share) is the top site on the Internet.
  • - 45% of internet users, or about 60 million Americans, say that the internet helped them make big decisions or negotiate their way through major episodes in their lives in the previous two years

What should the church be doing in response to this?  I presented 4 best practice cases where churches used the internet to reach the lost and minister the gospel to them.

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New Acts 29 Site

Posted by on Sep 22, 2006 in Church Technology, Ekklesia, General Technology, Monk Dev | 0 comments

Acts 29 WebsiteThe Acts 29 Network launched their new website.  The previous site, while very sexy, wasn't as functional being an all-flash website.  The new site takes the old look and moves it to web standards (design/content done by Church Plant Media) using Ekklesia 360 CMS as the backend.  There should be a lot more content, media and even a regional focus for those wanting to explore the new site.

There are more tweaks coming, but enjoy!

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Tim Keller vs. John Piper Deathmatch

Posted by on Sep 21, 2006 in Church, Sermon | 6 comments

It's gotten to this. djchuang posts on Why I like Keller more than Piper.  A new wave of preacher Deathmatches are sweeping the internet, where will it go?

  • Mark Driscoll vs. Joshua Harris
  • John MacArthur vs. Andy Stanley
  • Rick McKinely vs. Chris Seay
  • Bill Hybels vs. Rick Warren
  • Ed Young vs. Joel Osteen
  • Mark Moore vs. David Fairchild

Oh the insanity… (HT: Reformissionary)

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Does God Want You To Be Rich?

Posted by on Sep 21, 2006 in Church, Culture | 10 comments

time.jpgA growing number of Protestant evangelists raise a joyful Yes! But the idea is poison to other, more mainstream pastors.
When George Adams lost his job at an Ohio tile factory last October, the most practical thing he did, he thinks, was go to a new church, even though he had to move his wife and four preteen boys to Conroe, a suburb of Houston, to do it. Conroe, you see, is not far from Lakewood, the home church of megapastor and best-selling author Joel Osteen.

Osteen's relentlessly upbeat television sermons had helped Adams, 49, get through the hard times, and now Adams was expecting the smiling, Texas-twanged 43-year-old to help boost him back toward success. And Osteen did. Inspired by the preacher's insistence that one of God's top priorities is to shower blessings on Christians in this lifetime–and by the corollary assumption that one of the worst things a person can do is to expect anything less–Adams marched into Gullo Ford in Conroe looking for work. He didn't have entry-level aspirations: "God has showed me that he doesn't want me to be a run-of-the-mill person," he explains. He demanded to know what the dealership's top salesmen made–and got the job.

In a TIME poll:

  • 17% of Christians surveyed said they considered themselves part of a (prosperity) movement.
  • 61% believed that God wants people to be prosperous.
  • 31% agreed that if you give your money to God, God will bless you with more money.

Source: Does God Want You To Be Rich? Time Magazine September 18th, 2006 article.

Only in America would this stuff sell…

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Religion Sites Embrace Web 2.0 @ Red Herring

Posted by on Sep 19, 2006 in Church, General Technology | 0 comments

redherring.gifGod might not have a MySpace, but He’s got the web’s attention.

One has Psalms, the other has podcasts. One creates meaning out of Latin, an ancient language; the other finds new meanings through derivatives of common words, like “digg,” “friendster,” or “flickr.” One community meets every Sunday, the other meets with every click of a new web browser window.

Alone, the power of the church is as undeniable as the power of the web 2.0 upswing. While the former has been around for centuries, permeating every inch of the globe, the latter has needed but a few years to make its mark on the Internet landscape. And each, in some ways, is following the same business model: the church wants followers every bit as much as MySpace does.

Full Article: Religion Sites Embrace Web 2.0

Update: List of Web 2.0 Applications for Churches @ Church Tech Review

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