Articles – Drew Goodmanson

Website Wisdom – New research, cooperative reveal best practices for churches

Your Church magazine, part of Christianity Today published an article I wrote. The article begins:

Research conducted earlier this year, which surveyed hundreds of churches representing more than 70,000 members combined, attempted to drill deeper into two fundamental questions as the internet grows in its influence and importance in our culture and beyond:
1) Do church websites strategically help attract new visitors, connect people, and equip leaders?
2) And if so, what are the best practices for a church’s web strategy?
Three significant discoveries, as well as several best practices, emerged from this work. This information can help large churches (congregations such as Willow Creek Community Church participated in the research) as well as small ones (church plants with fewer than 50 people also participated). These practices also are useful for most any situation, regardless of whether a church is using a volunteer, a church website design firm, or a staff member to design its site.

NRB Research

Using Social Media for Greater Ministry Impact

The rapid change of the social media space requires ministries and organizations to adapt how the use this medium to connect, build community and further the cause of their ministry. Social Networking holds promise but also dangers for organizations as a lot of time and energy engaging community online can be wasted with little ministry results. Learn best practices from 100+ ministries.

The State of Social Media

(Published at Christianity Today’s Your Church blog) The social nature of media will continue to converge in ways we cannot imagine during the next five years. As church leaders, it is important to understand the state of social networking, and the directions of these participatory technologies. These tools may promise significant benefits to churches, who seek to build community, mobilize congregations, and offer greater interaction with unbelievers. And an understanding today leads to better action today and better planning for tomorrow. Two part series:

The Shape of the Future – A four-part ministry Web strategy

An article in the Fall 2009 issue of Outcomes, the quarterly magazine from the Christian Leadership Alliance. This Fall issue is focused on Ministry Internet and Technology articles. CLA’s 8,800 members represent more than 4,500 organizations from a wide array of Christian para-church ministries and thousands of churches nationwide.

Church Web Strategy

I write a monthly Church Web Strategy column in the Christian Computing Magazine (CCMag). CCMag has helped to keep its readers informed on software, services and other areas of technology, pertaining to how it relates to the Christian community, the church and ministry since 1989. CCMag was THE first Christian magazine on the Internet. Today, it continues to provide a dynamic web presence, providing its readers “value added” services online.

Sheep & Goats

In 2004-2005 I wrote a weekly column called Sheep & Goats on religion & spirituality for the San Diego Reader an alternative local weekly newspaper. In it I was able to visit places of worship of numerous religious practices and interview the pastor or other spiritual leader as well as write about my experience. The San Diego Reader covers San Diego life in general, with emphasis on politics and the arts and entertainment. The Reader publishes comprehensive listings of movies, events, theater and music, restaurant and film reviews, and free classifieds. The Reader is the second-largest circulation newspaper in San Diego with a 4-week readership of over 700,000 adults.

Archive of a number of my Sheep & Goats articles (earlier 2004 articles were not published online).