Breakout session 6   Thursday 845 to 945am

Today is Internet Evangelism Day. More and more we need to see the internet as a mission field.  As our culture moves increasingly online, this presentation discusses how churches can be missionaries to unbelievers, gather the unchurched and connect with their community.  This is a session I did last week at the National New Church Conference.  The session wasn't recorded but a lot of Q&A occurred as much of the information was new for the audience.  Feel free to post if you have questions.

Session PDF: Using the Internet to Gather, Connect and as a place of Mission  

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. 

One of the cool things working at Monk Development is we are able to do most of our work with churches and ministries.  I've posted a number of the churches we've done using Ekklesia 360 Church CMS, but here are a few ministries we are working with:

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals  is an organization of individuals that believes Evangelicals have largely forgotten the foundations of the Christian Gospel and is dedicated to calling on the Protestant churches, especially those that call themselves Reformed, to return to the principles of the Protestant Reformation. To that end, they produce print and internet resources, broadcast radio programs (The Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse & the Bible) and hold conferences (Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, Princeton regional Conference on Reformed Theology, Reformation Societies) aimed at educating different segments of the Christian population.  The Alliance consists of a who's who of pastors/theologians such as Dr. R. C. SPROUL, Dr. ALBERT MOHLER, Mr. C.J. MAHANEY, Dr. JOHN MACARTHUR, Dr. MARK DEVER, Mr. JERRY BRIDGES and many others.

The Alliance was formed in 1994, out of what was known as Evangelical Ministries, when the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, then senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and teacher on "The Bible Study Hour" radio program, called together a group of like-minded pastor-theologians from a variety of denominations to unite in a common cause to help revive a passion "for the truth of the Gospel" within the church.

Design Partner: Designwise

Services: Content Management System, Application Development, E-Commerce.  The Alliance  brought Monk Development in to build an e-commerce resource site (ReformedResources.org) to host 60 years of reformed resources, including conferences, videos, digital downloads, books and others. 

Launch: 2nd Quarter 2007 

Enjoying God Ministries

Enjoying God Ministries (EGM) exists "to proclaim the power of truth and the truth about power." This isn't just a catchy phrase. It reflects both what is lacking in the church today and what is burning in Sam Storm's heart.

EGM exists to serve the body of Christ. Their aim is to be a resource not only for pastors and leaders but for all Christians who long to dig more deeply into the Word of God and to experience the fullness of the Spirit's power. Enjoying God Ministries is a non-profit ministry organization of Dr. Sam Storms who brings over 30 years of ministry to believers seeking a deeper and more passionate relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Design Partner: DesignWise Studios

Services: Content Management System, User Interface, Content, Ecommerce, Application Development

Launch:  Enjoying God Ministries

CFCC Job Boards

Center for Church Communication is the parent company for Church Marketing Sucks.

Churches have the greatest story ever told, but no one's listening. We think there's a communication problem. That remarkable story is lost thanks in part to poor research, little or no planning, bad clip art, cheesy photos and ignorable ads.  We believe there's a better way. It's not simply flashy designs or catchy slogans, but effective and authentic communication. If we can't communicate, how can we fulfill the great commission? We want the Church to matter. We want your church to matter.

We help the church by offering information, resources, advice and starting the conversation about church communication. We are a non-profit organized by communications professionals who have been serving the church and mainstream clients since 1998.

Services: Content Management System, Application Development, E-Commerce.  Monk built a job board to allow users to post freelance gigs and full-time positions in the church communication space.

Launch: 2nd Quarter 2007 

Pastors Edge

Pastors Edge is the web ministry of Dr. James Merritt, a pastor and two time president elect of the Southern Baptist Denomination. Pastors Edge was birthed out of Dr. Merritt's desire to help pastors across the country preach God's Word with power. His passion is to offer the best resources available for the price in order to help congregations across the country flourish.

Design Partner: Designwise

Services: Content Management System, Application Development, E-Commerce

Launch: Pastors Edge 

Monk Development is looking for 1 full or up to 3 part-time people to work with churches and ministries interested in Ekklesia 360 Church CMS. In this role you will work with these active leads, conduct online demonstrations, answer questions and complete the sales process to hand-off to our development team.  In addition, you will attend church conferences to represent Ekklesia.  

The role requires:

1. The flexibility to schedule online demonstrations of the web-based cms and conduct these during the day. 
2. The ability to travel during the week and attend multi-day church conferences.
3. A passion for churches and helping ministries see beyond a website, to doing real ministry online.

Bonuses:

1. Previous sales experience
2. Church planting, church or ministry experience
3. Knowledge and use of Content Management Systems or Blogging software (eg. Wordpress)

If you are interested go to jobs @ Monk Development .

It was bound to happen.  I spent a season as a columnist writing a weekly column called the Sheep & Goats for the San Diego Reader, which 'reviews' churches and other places of worship.  This last Sunday, Matthew Lickona came (the new columnist and much better writer than I ever was!) and reviewed Kaleo Church.  It could of gone a lot of ways, but Lickona focused on the experience one may have visiting Kaleo, particularly the sermon and the centrality of the gospel & grace:

But preaching the Gospel, he said, was essential and more important than telling stories and teasing out meanings and lessons. "The Gospel is news about what Jesus has done; it is not advice about how to live. Why? Because we are saved by grace. News is about something that is done; teaching is about something you do. If my role is to teach you about what to do, then what I'm saying is that you can be saved by following my teaching." Christianity, argued Fairchild, is unique among world religions in that it is not about following a teaching, but about believing in particular historical events concerning Jesus. "We're saved by grace, by something that's been done for you." If not, "that puts you on the hook: earn your own salvation. If Jesus Christ did not live, then we are in grave, grave trouble."

Full Article: Kaleo Church @ the San Diego Reader 

Over the years I've done a lot of sales (staffing/recruiting, consulting, application development, websites, etc.).  Of course, most 'traditionally trained' sales people would now say, "Everything is sales" or "Everyone is in sales" but I digress. 

There are a few books I've thought are the best.  The first two by Heiman/Miller are 

The New Conceptual Selling: The Most Effective and Proven Method for Sales Planning

The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies

I have a document you can download (Conceptual & Strategic Selling notes WORD document ) that provides an overview with notes on these two books.  The document includes things like:

6 Keys Elements to Sales (Analytical Tools)

1. Buying Influences

2. Red Flags/Strengths 

3. The Buyers Perception of Reality 

4. Win/Results 

5. Ideal Customer Profile 

6. Sales Funnel 

3 Phases of a Sales Call

The Essential Sales Tasks 

5 Types of Questions during the Sales Call  

Another book I stumbled on recently is CustomerCentric Selling which I'm reading now.

People spend roughly sixty percent of their life in work or work-related tasks.  Yet, according to a poll conducted by Career Impact Ministries, ninety percent of Christians had not heard a sermon, read a book, listened to a tape or been to a seminar that applied biblical principles to everyday work issues.  Sadly, if you view sixty percent of your life as 'not counting' or not valuable to God (other than 'witnessing' or 'supporting ministries') we're talking series life/faith implications to a large part of your congregation.  People will either seek to reject Christianity because they will find their meaning from work or feel guilty they aren't in ministry.  

Sadly, most of us don't recognize God created us in His image as co-workers.  This means, God is a worker and we were created to do work (not labor post-Fall but the beautiful creativity of reflecting God's glory in His intended creation.) We are "co-workers in his creating, sustaining, redeeming and consummating work in both the church and the world." (The Other Six Days R. Paul Stevens)  Stevens goes on to say, we must be one people loving and serving in both the church and the world.  

Increasingly, churches need to understand the significance of people's work, in both the amount of time their congregation spends there, but in the redemptive process of God's great concern for humanity.  When we work with a Christian distinctive we see the world 'fabric' as unraveling because of sin. Our work of cultivation is to seek the knitting together of the 'fabric' to bring about shalom. Our call to the workplace is to serve the ordinary needs of others. We are here to meet our needs and the needs of others, knowing this redeeming process will not be completed until Jesus comes.  Your congregation needs to see that working in technical support or as a receptionist has value in itself.   We are fighting against the loss of shalom, miscommunication and chaos caused by the fall to provide and serve the needs of others.  People's work is God's work.  Only when your people have this type of theology, will they be set free to view their work in a Biblical perspective and see a holistic Gospel Redemptive plan that uses salvation but ends with the restoring of all things to God.

Some suggested resources: 

Your Work Matters to God

The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective

Anointed for Business

This year has been a busy season for the Monk Development team.  We've launched more churches on Ekklesia 360 in the last two months than ever previously. It's exciting to see so many churches on the system.  We are beginning a re-branding of Ekklesia, including the backend (see image to the right).  We currently seek two new people to join the monk team, and particularly need a solid php person to help with ministries who want ecommerce (and an oscommerce project).  

Here are a few of the churches launched:

Thanks to our design partners:  Church Plant Media, AM Design, Designwise Studios, Catch Design, MindLightning, Direct Steps, 316 Design and Change Design Group (NEW).

Are you a designers, developers or programmer?  MinistryCamp Job Board has launched “a listing of design and programming jobs offered by ministries looking for the best of the online industry that loves Jesus.”  One of the benefits of MinistryCamp, is a percentage of the sales is given back into practical Christian ministry determined on a monthly basis. This month MinistryCamp is giving to Campus Crusade for Christ in New Orleans. If you need designers, developers, programmers or others, check out MinistryCamp as a employment advertising option.

During my flight to Hawaii, I cracked open the SkyMall.  In it, I found an advertisement for Soundview Executive Summaries.  For a yearly subscription, you can receive summaries of the best business books of the year in your choice of print, audio, CD-ROM, or online formats, covering subjects like management, leadership, strategy and more.

I know many of you read (or would like to) a large number of books.  BUT what if someone did the same thing for theology & church-related books?  People could subscribe to receive summaries of the best theology/Church titles of the year and (buy them if they like it or at least learn from the book).  I suggested it to Tim Challies for Discerning Reader (since he reads more books than 10 people combined).

What do you think, is this something you'd be interested in? 

If you haven't heard, LinkedIn continues to gain momentum as a place for people to network, find jobs and old co-workers.  Because I work in the web development industry, I've joined, (view my LinkedIn Profile ) but I don't know if pastors and other church leaders are using it. 

Since we're talking about work, Keller wrote a short but good piece on "What Kind of Work Should I do?" and here is a quote:

First, consider your affinities. This is the existential aspect to determining your calling. It is asking the question: “What people-needs do I vibrate to?” Second, consider your abilities. This is the empirical aspect to determining your calling. It is asking the question: “What kinds of tasks am I good at doing?” Third, consider your opportunities. This is the ‘providential’ aspect to determining your calling. It is asking the question: “What actual doors are opening for me? What needs to be done?” 

Read the full article, “God’s Work; Our Work” in January 2007’s Redeemer Report (PDF).  (HT: djchuang )

Today I experienced the dangers of a catch-all address (eg. *@sermoncloud.com).  I received 6,000+ email spam messages that were over 150 MB worth of downloading (they had attachments) in a short period to a Sermon Cloud address.  I deleted the catch-all account so emails now must be real.  Just a warning for those who own domains.

The year 2006 has been a full year for our family.   Some of the events that shaped us were:

• Our family grew with the adoption of Roman in January.
• Gideon, our 3 year old spent two months in a full body cast February through March.
• Monk Development doubled in size, including 100's of churches now using Ekklesia 360 Church CMS and the launch of Sermon Cloud, with 1000's of users and sermon downloads.
• Kaleo Church doubled as well.  We launched Kaleo SDSU in the Fall and are preparing to launch a 3rd location in El Cajon beginning in 2007.

We are excited to go into 2007, many of the above events will still impact the new year. I look forward to learning from you the blogging community, sharing more insights and getting feedback and building relationships with many of you in my virtual community.

Have a great New Years and for now, here are a few Goodmanson December photos to wrap up 2006.  (Images include Christmas, Disneyland, my Birthday, friends & family.)

A few bloggers I respect were part of the 9rules Network, so I decided to apply.  Goodmanson.com was accepted. About 9rules:

9rules is a community of the best weblogs in the world on a variety of topics. We started 9rules to give passionate writers more exposure and to help readers find great blogs on their favorite subjects. It’s difficult to find sites worth returning to, so 9rules brings together the very best of the independent web all under one roof. [source: 9rules About]

My blog tends to be both about 'religion' and web/technology so it seems a good fit.  Other 'religion/tech' blogs I enjoy include: Godbit, SonSpring, Open Switch amongst others… Some of the general blogs are: Wisdump, Ordered List and others. 

A few years ago I considered ways that Christians could evangelize even in a secular workplace.  One of the ways I thought this could be done is through interviewing and/or promotion situations.  (This idea came years ago when I started Sano Bioscience International an executive recruiting company focused on biotechs entering the FDA approval process). Here is what I came up with:

Situation - You are in a position of interviewing, considering someone for promotion or otherwise assessing them.  In this position you ask them questions (always recommend behavioral based interviewing).  After the period of interviewing, you end with one final assignment.  

Assignment - In order to see their skills in logic, writing, creative thinking and ability to form persuasive discourse you ask them to present a 2 page argument for Where Morality Comes From. You'd let them know they are not being evaluated on their 'position' but presentation, thought and articulation.

Evangelism Opportunity - To assist them, you hand them three 'examples'.  Two are from secular positions that are common worldviews, eg. social contract ethics, etc.  The third is a solid Biblical position that addresses the previous two and presents a presuppositional apologetic for the God of the Bible.

The purpose is to confront non-Biblical worldviews, hoping that people are forced to re-consider their stance.  And then to present a Biblical worldview as the only viable option.