Digital Evangelism Issues

Welcome to the first of a new monthly series of posts examining the opportunities and context for sharing the good news online.

And how things have changed since 1996, the point at which the Web started to move into the public arena! Back in the day, if you were a Jesus-follower with a computer and a desire to take the good news online, there were really only a couple of main avenues open to you…

Read more at the BIGBible Project blog

Another new blog: Christian Droid

Do also take time to check out a new blog Christian Droid. The tag line is “Christianity and Technology combined to enhance your life.” He’s just started this month, so drop in and leave a word of encouragement. Blog posts are short, helpful and practical. Way to go.

I‘m loving WordPress Mobile Pack – a plugin that automatically makes your WordPress blog or site user-friendly for mobile users. 11% of the visitors to this blog are using mobiles, according to the stats this plugin creates.

Please say, O most noble Android / Blackberry / iPhone / Nokia / Windows 7* user, how does this blog look on your phone or mobile device? There is also the option via link at bottom of page to switch to the desktop version as a comparison. Tell us using the ‘Comment’ link below.

It’s not the only one – there are five WordPress mobile plugins, a selection by Best WordPress Plugins.

* Mobile operating systems shown alphabetically, with No Personal Preference Showing™

Tweeting too

I’m also loving Tweet Old Post, which automatically retweets old posts on a WordPress blog, bringing new profile and focus to any posts not excluded for being time-limited.

Problem with NetworkedBlogs syndication

If you have syndicated these blog posts to your Facebook Wall using the NetworkedBlogs option, grateful thanks. However, NetworkedBlogs sometimes forgets the Facebook walls it is meant to syndicate to. Their stats show that they have currently forgotten 14 Facebook Wall syndication setups! Please, if this blog post is not visible right now on your Facebook Wall, can you repeat the syndication setup. Sorry for the problem.

Free e-books

Last month’s book giveaway was extremely popular. Still available free this month for a limited period, the highly-praised Coffee Shop Conversations as a free Kindle download. (But sorry, free offer only applies to US, and not, as I’d hoped, worldwide.) If you do not have a Kindle, you can download from Amazon the free software for PC, or apps for iPhone and Android, which will enable you to download Kindle books very easily.

Also still available as paperbacks: Focus: Art and Soul of Cinema by Tony Watkins, and Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage Pop Culture? by Tim Stevens. Both are excellent in helping us understand how to use popular culture for the gospel.

Other e-books are on permanent offer. Check everything at IEDay.net/eb

This week’s social networking and mobile ministry resources:

• Drew Goodmanson interview on Church Planting and Technology.

• For those in the Des Moines area, social networking expert and pastor Justin Wise offers a 2 March morning seminar: Digital Ministry Intensive.

• Links on creating an iPhone app for your church or ministry.

• Brian Barela says that pictures are a key factor in using Facebook effectively.

• Mobile Advance’s latest Weekly Web Watch looks at the many opportunities and resources for mobile ministry, and also lists best resources for those who have just bought a smartphone. For help with Android phone problems, join the Android Forum.

• There are a range of articles for the Majority World, in the latest issue of the excellent NGO TearFund’s Footsteps magazine, include use of technology and mobile phones in Africa.

• eMinistryBlog gives ideas on Starting a Mobile Ministry.

• eMinisterBlog also posts one of those exciting trends/stats graphics under the heading The Biggest Shift Since the Industrial Revolution:

How do you use social networking or mobiles in ministry? Or are you planning to? Please use the ‘comment’ link below to share your experience.

And if you are within traveling distance of Derby UK, George Verwer and Michael Jaffarian are speaking at the Worldchangers day conference on 29 January.

Social networking opportunities seem to grow by the week. Check out these:

• Facebook and descaling the Internet is a posting from ChurchTechToday explaining two small-scale and intimate networks that are intended for real small friendship groups.
• Several valuable tips from EMinister blog:
  • Allow non-twitter members to get your tweets via SMS: amazing way to send broadcast SMS to your church members, for example

  • Using Twitter in ministry.
  • Receive Facebook updates by SMS.
• 20 Remarkable Facebook tips you may not know from Hongkiat.com’s online tips for designers and bloggers

See our other recent postings about Facebook.

And the latest Web Evangelism Bulletin is now online – contents:

• Internet Evangelism Day 2011 – date is fixed.
• Christmas evangelism – new resources.
• Facebook – ways to use it effectively.
• Twitter – help and ideas.
• Video – the future.
• Fishing Story – Emlyn and the Far Pools.
• Search engines – latest.
• Effective communciation – valuable articles.
• Blogging for the best – excellent help links.
• The world we live in – resources and ideas.
• Mobile phones – growing opportunity for ministry.
• Church ministry – stuff that matters.
• Tech tips – latest stuff.
• Plus our usual Tailend funnies.

The significance of mobile phones (and tablets) for ministry cannot be overstated. The opportunities are varied and growing, not least in the Majority World. Check latest blog comment from the new outreach resource Mobile Advance.

Tomi Ahonen, of Communities Dominate Brands, is offering a free e-book called The Insider’s Guide to Mobile:

“Comprehensive overview of the mobile telecoms and smartphones business opportunity, from end-users to service and apps, to handsets, to the business of mobile This free edition has 340 pages of original content, plus over 100 pages of excerpts and reviews of Ahonen’s previous books.”

Download the free 8.9Mb PDF file.

I have never heard anyone say what a wonderfully intuitive user interface Facebook has. At times, it is totally bizarre. Installing WordPress functions, for instance, is a breeze compared to Facebook. (WordPress, being open source, has had the benefit of the wisdom of thousands of users and developers, working for nothing!)

If you have a Facebook fan page, you absolutely must check what landing tab/page people arrive at if they are not already fans. Best way to do this is open the Facebook page in a different brand of browser – for instance the excellent Chrome – and do not log in to Facebook. That way, you will see what non-fans see. You may be surprised to find that what they land on is the Info tab/page, which may contain limited and unenticing information. And yes, this may happen even though, in the Edit Page permissions, you have set ‘Wall’ as your landing page for non-fans.

Make adjustments with your logged-in browser, and refresh the non-logged-in Chrome version to check the result. On your Wall, click on the small ‘Options’ link above the first Wall entry. This expands to create a clickable ‘Settings’ link. Then set ‘Default View for Wall’ to ‘Only Posts by Page’ and ‘Default landing tab for everyone else’ to ‘Wall’.

Fan (and group or community) pages have huge significance because in many countries, a near-majority of web users are also members of Facebook. Among younger and more webby online demographics, Facebook profiles are virtually universal. Across Africa and India, pay-as-you-go mobile phone users now have free access to Facebook, and social networking is increasing fast.

Custom landing page

Of course, depending on the nature of your fan page, you may not necessarily want people to land on the Wall, but in most cases, that is the heart of the fan page. However, if you want a dramatic and interesting landing page that is not your Wall, install the FBML application, then you can make a custom tab called, say, ‘Welcome’ and use HTML coding to insert pictures, words and links. Dramatic effects can be achieved. This page can be set as the default landing page for non-fans. Consider carefully though whether creating such a ‘splash-like’ page will help or hinder the purpose of your fan-page. If you want this landing page to be both a gateway to, say, your church website as well as your fan-page wall, then this is an option to consider. Your landing page should also specifically ask people to ‘Like’ it. Don’t assume that people will do this without a nudge.

And… Ten Top Rules for Facebook according to Matt Johnson.

Key blog tips

Social Media Examiner blog (well worth following for all things social networking) has a new post: 5 Ways to Make Your Blog Stand Out From the Crowd.

Retweeting twitter

We all need nudges. Consider whether to add the words ‘please retweet’ to any tweets you send out. See Retweets and viral Marketing. Check also 7 Ways to Use Twitter for #good.

And finally…

Loved this joke quote from Mikey’s Funnies:

“What makes Facebook so great is the fact that you can make up absolutely random quotes and then attribute them to famous people.” – Albert Einstein

Interesting thoughts from Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog on ‘less is more’ with the ‘serenity prayer’ as a flow chart.

Interesting to try putting your writing throught the Gobbledygook Grader.

“What do we want? Evidence-based change! When do we want it? After peer review.” Banner at rally, posted on Bradley Wright’s blog.

How often do we analyze whether a certain strategy is actually achieving anything? Or be open enough to try something totally different? Or invite trusted peers (or outsiders) to give comment and input, and then take action based on their insights? This brings to mind Einstein’s comment: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Finally, a reminder (from a newspaper advert) to:

• analyze all sides of a question
• don’t make do with partial information
• don’t confuse our instant gut reaction to some situation, as being automatically a balanced biblical view and the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Please add your thoughts about openness and understanding the big picture, using the ‘comment’ link below.

The one-day London conference organized by UK’s Evangelical Alliance and Facing the Challenge on 1 December, is now available in MP3 (except, sadly, Shane Hipps’ video-link contribution, which worked well at the time, but did not record). The sessions are short, clear and thought-provoking.

But you can listen to a previous 30-minute interview with Hipps: go to his NeueMinistry recording. Check also our review of Flickering Pixels by Hipps; the page includes other video interviews and links.

For other useful recordings, check our conference sessions and training videos.

Just three brief comments relating to the worldwide reaction to Jackson’s untimely death:

1. I can only remember five such worldwide uber-grief reactions to an individual’s death in my lifetime, one each decade: Kennedy, Presley, Lennon, Diana and now Jackson. This is the first one where the online media played the prime news role, as Jeremy Wagstaff blogs here. Some websites struggled with overload as a result.
2. It is very very hard to get over being told as a child by a close family member that, for instance, your complexion and nose shape are wrong. Even if it were in jest. Even if you treated it as a joke at the time.
3. There was a report on the Mary Mary blog that Jackson had turned to God three weeks before he died. This posting has now been removed, and seems to relate to an optimistic interpretation of the fact that Andrae Crouch DID pray with Jackson recently, but Crouch says it was not a prayer for salvation. We can nevertheless hope that perhaps it was indicating an openness by Jackson to make further steps.

   We do wish that there could be a popular music outreach site comparable to HollywoodJesus.com, as we propose here, and it could minister to Jackson fans at this time.

   So pray for people in the public eye. Being an idol is a nightmare.

If you are a blogger using WordPress, it sounds as if this book will help you:
Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read, reviewed on Michael Davis’ blog Blogging Ministry. Check also this SiteProNews article: Blogs, WordPress and Google.

Very few Christians are using blogging as a means of evangelism. Almost all Christian blogs (including this one of course) are directed at other believers. Learn about how to reach outsiders with a blog.

Visit AllTop for a syndicated page with the latest headlines – and a mouseover preview of the actual posts – from a selection of many of the very best Christian blogs. A great way to keep in touch with some inspired thinkers – just bookmark the page.