Digital Evangelism Issues

Before the Internet and YouTube, this was impossible – that a small-church wedding video could go viral, and then become the storyline for a major TV series: see The Office, the Wedding and the Power of the Internet – a blog posting from Mark Roberts.

Look too at how the world of advertising has changed in 20 years. A comparison chart was featured at Barcelona’s Chiringuito and was picked up by Ministry Marketing Coach, where Kerry Bural comments, “Each of these mediums and technologies (plus many more) represent potential connection points that could and should be leveraged for reaching people. Do churches and ministries have a baseline understanding of these and other mediums? Is the complex nature of communication on your radar?”

Pastor Ralph Wilson is an expert on marketing, and his Web Marketing Today website and newsletter have been online for an amazing 15 years. As an anniversary offer, he is giving away some of his ebooks that are normally pay for. Although some of his writings apply only to business marketing, many principles also apply to Christian ministries and web evangelism, so take the chance to grab the offers.

And is the Internet affecting our civility? asks SiteReference.

The vast range of mobile phone ‘apps’ (small downloadable programs, usually free) is creating new opportunities. Church Marketing Sucks blog asks whether churches need to develop their own apps.

Kindle launch
And Amazon has just launched their Kindle book reader outside USA. I first handled one of these last month and was certainly impressed. Easy and clear to use, holds a vast range of books, allows you to add your own notes to books as you read (which are then stored on the Amazon server in your own library). There is a very quick conversion process for PDF ebooks into the Kindle format – and these too, once converted, remain in your Amazon library permanently. (Were you to lose your Kindle, you’d get all your books back from your library.) The Kindle also has limited web-browsing ability. Strangely, people outside USA currently have to order it from Amazon US, which means the uncertainty of import duties. Presumably it will soon be available from national Amazon sites.