In a world of fun competition, now geeks can brag about their (blog) strength!  Find out your blogs Page Strength.  So you can go and get the bragging rights, 'My blog can beat your blog up' here is a tool to find your sites page strength.  I took my blog roll to find out who would have the bragging rights to walk with swagger.

5.0 Goodmanson

4.5  Mark Driscoll
4.5  reformissionary (Steve McCoy)

4.0 Bruce Chant

3.5 David Fairchild
3.5 JoeThorn
3.5 CawleyBlog

2.5 Michael Foster
2.5 Pete Williamson

Can you feel it!  A little blog smack-down for you all!  Michael/Pete come on you two!

Filed Under: How to lose friends and annoy people. 

For those of you who like to follow the latest church web/technology out there, here are a list of blogs & resource sites:

ChurchTechBlogs (An aggregator of Church Tech Bloggers, that Goodmanson.com has been added to.)

Blog Ministry (A site dealing with web ministry & online evangelism)

Church Marketing Sucks (Church marketing, web and communication)

Godbit (Designing better church websites)

BetaChurch (Church design & technology) 

Church Technology Review (Church websites, technology and web 2.)

Geeks & God (Everything tech audio, web and beyond)

Churchbit (Group of like-minded church tech strategists, many of the participants on in this list.)

Uneeknet (Design, usability & web standards) 

Art of Mission (Web & church/mission)

Godly Creative (Web & church/mission)

Matt Heerema (Web & church/mission)

Nathan Smith (Web & church/mission)

Robert Evan (Web & church/mission)

Tim Bednar (Web & church/mission)

Goodmanson (web, technology, church planting & leadership) 

Gospelcon (the internet ministry/church conference) 

I 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.

The 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!

God 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

Kaleo Church has (finally) launched our new website.  There are still a lot of images/links that need to be fixed, but I am glad we are finally totally in Ekklesia 360 Church CMS. 

Thanks to: Church Plant Media, AM Design & the Kaleo volunteers with a special thanks to Chris Livdahl and all the hours he spent migrating content.

Another, now I've seen everything freaky moment. Newburgh Assembly of God adds a digital/vectorized Jesus to invite all web visitors.  For those wondering, turns out Jesus is a white American! But did Jesus sell out to promote this one church, I feel a bit betrayed.  Maybe going a little too far? (HT: SonSpring)

I recently discovered people coming to my website through ZoomInfo and got scared.  Here, people can track every little detail about you and your past.  For example, it brought up information from when I was CEO of Pangia and several article where I was quoted or even when I spoke at conference years ago.  Wisely, ZoomInfo separated my 'secular work' both past and present with my 'current role as pastor ' thinking it represents two different people.   When people search my name, they can find ZoomInfo's site on the 2nd page of results.  (For those of you with names like Kevin and Steve you are fortunate that it will be harder for people to identify you.)  Want to learn about others?

Mark Driscoll

Ed Stetzer

Jordon Cooper

Andrew Jones 

Tim Challies

Bob Hyatt

Joe Thorn  

And the list goes on…more and more sites are going to collect every bit of data on you.  Every (unwise?) post you make, every comment that you leave and anywhere you leave a trace.  I just want you to be aware, the internet is watching you now….. 

NOTE (please use rel="nofollow" for any links you post to ZoomInfo so that you don't help spread the disease.)

An interesting article on How the Internet is changing Denominations (HT: emergesque)  You can read the whole article but his points are:

1. Everyone expects to participate. Before the Internet the church operated pretty much as an oligarchy, with power and decision-making concentrated into the hand of the few on behalf of the many.  Boards, church staffs, along with district and denominational leaders met and made decisions on behalf of the proletariat. “The people” were supposed to trust their leaders to make these decisions for them.  The Internet has altered this arrangement.  People now expect to participate in decision-making (or at least the discussion before the decision).  It is harder now for boards and leaders to make decisions and just expect people to fall into line and “just say amen.”

2. People expect instant and complete information. Before the Internet those in power could control the release of information. A long time ago denominational leaders actually published the names of newly elected District Superintendents in the monthly denominational periodical and that was when most people found out the news.  Or, a paper letter was prepared with this information to send to 50 or so DSs and General Board members—“insiders”—who would release this information at their discretion during the month before it got into print.  This gave leaders considerable power in the sense that “information is power,”

3. People expect access to leaders. Before the Internet leaders could somewhat insulate themselves from the common people. Indeed most of the “appurtances” of leadership were arranged to put some distance between the leader and the average Joe. To complain about your son who had been unfairly dismissed by a church in another district required typing a letter, several days in the mail, and who knows how long before the leader might get around to dictating a reply and sending it through several more days of “snail mail.”  In an emergency one might use the telephone, but that may only turn into a pink slip message that could be deferred for days or even weeks.  Leaders today at every level get emails “directly from the bottom” and they are expected to reply.  True, some leaders and pastors simply refuse this access and if they are over 60 they will survive ‘til they can collect their Social Security.”  But those who stonewall access are increasingly cut out of the process and gradually become pretend leaders who the real influence flows around.

4. Human interchange has taken on a more savage flavor. While Television may be the original culprit, the Internet has provided a forum for individuals to lash out with angry tirades at others (and leaders) which sometimes reduces the level of discussions to something more reminiscent of Lord of the Flies than considered thoughtful debate.  People will say things in an email or as a response to a blog they would never say face to face.

5.  People expect things for free. People can still make money producing church resources but the business plan of the future will have to be totally different from one based on “old media” assumptions.  Bright, creative, and generous people all across the world are quite willing to post resources they wrote and give them away for free.  Selling resources people can get for free elsewhere is a dying business.

6. The “Long Tail” is here.  (If you don't know what the long tail is, he explains it.)  How this impacts church denominations, he writes:

Why I think this can be good news for denominations is many denominations (including my own) are actually long tails themselves… they are a tiny fraction of the whole with very specific values and beliefs—at least those who haven’t caved into the generic.  The Internet is not creating more generic evangelical Christians but actually is creating thousands of mini-denominations within the larger denominations.  The leaders who see this coming will capitalize on their “convening” powers to gather like-minded people together and they will figure out how to connect producers of narrow resources with those who need them—a denomination eBay of sorts. 

(I believe these mini-denominations will lead to the end of denominationalism around non-essentials and an increase in trans-denominational gospel ecumenism. Part of the 5 Trends for the Future I posted on.) 

Pastors, would you like to have your (or another preachers) most recent sermons on your blog automatically?   Here is any easy guide to syndicating your latest sermons using Sermon Cloud.

1. Create a Sermon Cloud account.

2. Upload sermons.

3. Go to your Sermon Cloud church page.  Example Kaleo Church  http://www.sermoncloud.com/kaleo-church/

4. Click on the link: Find out how to link to Kaleo Church's sermons from your website or blog

5. Grab the code.  For most blogs you can grab the php code an put it in your sidebar: <?php include("http://www.sermoncloud.com/php/kaleo-church/recent/3"); ?> 

6. Enjoy.  See Recent Sermons on the right sidebar on David Fairchild's Blog

REMINDER: 2 more weeks to download free Christian Audio books through Sermon Cloud.

Christian Audio and Sermon Cloud have partnered to give you TWO FREE christian audio books.  

This September, everyone is able to download G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy.

1. Go to Sermon Cloud, scroll down the right side and click on the September Orthodoxy link.

All people who sign-up on Sermon Cloud are able to download an additional FREE audio book.

1. Go to Sermon Cloud and sign-up!

2. The free code w/link will be on its way for you to enjoy!

Thanks everyone, brought to you by Ekklesia 360 Church CMS . 

Sermon Cloud is ready for the masses.   Sermon Cloud is a website for a community to interact with sermons. What are the powerful sermons people are listening to? Who are the up-and-coming preachers of the day? Where are the messages about themes that you need to hear? How can you find a great preacher in your home town? Sermon Cloud was designed to help you with all of these questions.  Sermon Cloud users help let each other know which sermons they amen. An 'amen' is a recommendation of the sermon. Users can post comments about their interaction with these sermons (even the comments can be designated as helpful or unhelpful). Sign-up for free to begin interacting, commenting and recommending sermons today!

For Churches and Preachers: Sermon Cloud offers churches FREE Advanced Sermon Syndication & mp3 services. Are you interested in podcasting, syndicating and using all the other 'Web 2.0' buzzwords for your church? Sermon Cloud Features include Resampling mp3’s to be optimized for the internet, Syndicating content (Integrating directly into iTunes store, syndicating through RSS feeds.), Displaying recent sermons on your church website, Podcasting mp3, Sermon Streaming capability in our Jukebox player, Tagging System, Commenting on sermons, Community recommending sermons, Searching for sermons and more… 

Plus you'll want the sermon cloud tshirt ! 

NEW: See SonSpring's review of Sermon Cloud. 

tags: church technology, web 2.0, sermon syndication, sermon mp3s

I presented a session, Technology & the Mission yesterday at a church planting bootcamp . 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 incarnationally 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 incarnationally used the internet to reach the lost and minister the gospel to them.  I'll post the mp3 of the session when it's ready. I'm thinking that in order for the mp3 to be effective I'll need to tie it in to my slideshow (I had 45 slides) or else it won't make much sense.  I used a lot of examples and case studies to demonstrate the point.  The presentation is all part of my plan to become a Church Technology Missiologist (You have to pick a niche since Ed Stetzer has wrapped up the missiology corner.)  

tags: church websites, church technology, web 2.0, sermon syndication, content management systems, online marketing

Congrats to The Rock, Ames Iowa , a branch of Stonebrook Community Church launched on Ekklesia 360 Church CMS. Matt Heerema at Direct Steps developed the site, end-to-end, (planning, design, integration into the CMS) the logo is by Relevant Solutions and the CMS is Ekklesia.  

Features

• Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS 2
• Custom Planet integration for blog aggregation.
• Powered by the Ekklesia system.
• Blog, Podcast, RSS
• A Flash featured announcement banner powered by SWFObject
• Photo gallery using phpFlickr and the Flickr API to integrate members’ Flickr photos.

I know many people have moved to Gmail as their primary email client.  I've stuck with Outlook because it integrates with other systems, my pda and such.  Many people are not satisfied with Outlook because of the SPAM filtering.  I've found one product very helpful, Cloudmark.  It is unique because over 2,000,000 people contribute to what email is considered spam.  This brilliant way of handling spam means when people mark a message as spam, your inbox is automatically protected.  Or as they say it:

Only Cloudmark has the power to apply human feedback in real time to block spam, phishing, and additionally many viruses and spyware. Leveraging a highly sophisticated Trust Evaluation System™ (TeS) and groundbreaking technology, feedback is corroborated in real time, so that only a few people ever have to see a spam email before it is blocked for everyone. Cloudmark Desktop is entirely transparent and requires no configuration, making it powerful, yet simple and easy to use.

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