GCA – North America Church Planting Seminar

Posted by D. Goodmanson on May 23, 2007 in Church Planting, Culture, General Technology | 5 comments

The North America Church Planting Seminar is an inter-denominational training event designed to equip church planters, coaches and supervisors to start, grow and multiply healthy, gospel-centered churches that result in the spiritual, social and cultural transformation of entire cities and regions. Christian leaders from more than 30 countries, representing over 100 denominations and mission agencies, have taken this church planter training.  This conference will be hosted at John Piper's church.

I will be presenting a couple sessions at the conference dealing with Message and Media: Communicating the Gospel in Our Post-Christian World

Session 1: Communication in Our Post-Christian World
The culture is changing and it requires new methods of communication.  This session will help you learn how to effectively minister in a post-Christian context.   Come learn the 1) five values of this Post-Christian generation, the 2) ten idols that enslave them and 3) effective ways to communicate the eternal and unchanging gospel message.

Session 2: The Internet & The Sovereignty of God
Pax Romana, the Gutenberg printing press and the internet.  God has used major technological and cultural shifts to bring sweeping change.  As our culture moves increasingly online, this session will help your church effectively use the internet to be missionaries to unbelievers, gather the unchurched and connect with your community.  Come learn how to use this powerful tool to change the community in which you are called to plant a church.

Session 2's title is a play of J.I. Packer's work, since a lot of reformed folks are there, I'm have to address the antinomy of internet outreach and God's sovereignty.   Let me know if you will be there…

View the other sessions & speakers such as Stetzer, Nabors, Childers, Ogne, etc (or view my mug shot). 

Church Cloud

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 24, 2007 in Church, Church Technology, Ekklesia, General Technology, Monk Dev | 1 comment

We've learned a lot about using technology to connect people to the local church.  With that said, we've launched Church Cloud.  Church Cloud is a FREE web-based tool for churches who want to do ministry online. Churches are able to upload mp3’s, post events, stream audio, podcast, and gather additional visitors using our online network and directory listings.  (If you signed-up for Sermon Cloud, you already are part of this but make sure your information is current.)  

We will be launching many more of these sites as part of The Cloud Network.  Our goal is to influence or connect 1,000,000 people a year to local churches using the internet. 

Get the Word Out! What every church planter needs to know about communication

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 24, 2007 in Church, General Technology | 0 comments

Brad Abare and I did the session today at the National New Church Convention.  I've uploaded Get the Word out!  What every church planter needs to know about communication (pdf).  Brad covered a lot of principles of communication (influenced by Tipping Point – Gladwell, Purple Cow – Godin, Mind Your X's and Y's – Lisa Johnson).  I brought some of the practical perspective from church planting and other peoples church planting experience.  We also used websites as an example of how some of these principles play out. The downside of the session was it's not recorded and this pdf is missing (1) videos used, (2) a lot of the context and (3) stories from church planters to connect this.  So it may come across more pragmatic then the intended.  But alas,enjoy.

Another Stat: Pew Internet just relased that 36% of online American adults consult Wikipedia.

10 Ways Outreach & Community Links

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 21, 2007 in Church, General Technology, Ministry Design | 0 comments

10 Ways to Keep Me from Discovering Your Church (ChurchRedone)

10 Ways to Avoid Building Community Within the Church (Askingy)

BONUS LINK: Integral Mission Topic: Technology for the Good of the Church (Sent to me by Justin Browne @ Redeemer)

Ideas for Church Websites and using Technology on Mission

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Feb 27, 2007 in Church, Culture, General Technology | 3 comments

ChurchBIT (a group of people who are involved in and passionate about how to use technology for the church)  Here are some suggestions from discussions about ways to enhance a church website.

(1) Use stories in your community.  Eg. Watermark Testimonies

(2) Allow people to participate in 'journal- like' responsive writing.  Eg. a church 'reading through the Bible' plan (http://www.jointhejourney.com/).

The Journey" is a church-wide bible reading plan. Each day everyone who has joined the journey gets an email with a devotional that has been written by a member of the church. This has been going for about 3 years and I have seen a lot of fruit from this approach. This approach has fostered great discussion within our Body.  With everyone reading the same passage everyday, there have been several opportunities for questions/difference perspectives. I like the continuity that this approach provides.I also think that the daily  emails serve us a eAccountabilityPartner reminding you to get in the Word that day. Our church has a bi-monthly meeting that allows people to ask questions/process what they are reading in the "Journey."

(3) Find the right social networking sites to participate in. Eg. The Rock ISU

Our ministry (rockisu.com ) is focused primarily on college students at Iowa State University.  We have a reputation for "out advertising Coca-cola" as far as flyers, etc, but we rarely see visitors show up simply because they saw a flyer.  Flyers tend to act as a name-recognition driver (ask most people around our campus of 28,000, and they have heard of the Rock, even though our average attendance is only "130-give-or-take-20"), and event reminder for most people.

However, advertising events using Facebook, there have been several times we've seen folks with no other connection come to check The Rock out.

In the next couple of weeks, I am going to lead an advertising charge using Facebook, and attempt to track results by measuring average attendance over a couple of weeks and comparing it with pre-advertising numbers.  I'm also going to try to randomly sample new folks to get an idea of how they heard about the event.

Join ChurchBit to participate in these discussions.   Members include the founders of Church Marketing Sucks , Godbit, MyChurch Blog Ministry, Beta Church, Strategic Digital Outreach, Ekklesia 360, and the list goes on…

Church Web Technology Think Tank

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Feb 18, 2007 in Church, General Technology | 0 comments

ChurchBIT is a Google group centered around what’s next in church web applications and internet technology. If this is something you are actively involved in and passionate about, apply to join ChurchBIT and join in the conversation.