Using online technologies for the purpose of participatory church is now commonplace. Available Web 2.0 tools come in all complexities and varieties and although some may be useless to you (see Seth Godin's stripe generator post), many are not complicated or expensive and so are worth consideration.
The Internet is now being seen as more of a community than it is a technology. As "open source" thinking explodes in it's impacts on traditional proprietary thinking, we are changing. More and more churches are utilizing their websites as portals for web interaction. Some, like LifeChurch.tv, are establishing Internet campuses as part of a multi-site calling.
Blogging, as one example, (see The Blogging Church in Faith Migrates Online) can open your church up for more online interaction. Blogs require virtually no expense and are really quite simple to begin. If you want a zero expense blogging platform, start with Blogger. To generate inspirations you can read either A Gited Blog and/or 40 reasons to blog.
Whether you're promoting scholarship, dialog and/or sharing understanding, blogging may be a solution. Before venturing further, check your overall mindset checking to see if you'll accept these challenges:
- Embrace – Resisting is hard; embracing is easy.
- Experiment – Be willing to try something new.
- Risk failure – Innovation requires it.
- Adopt – Keep saying yes.
Here are 8 blogging ideas your church can experiment with to create participation:
(and 3 examples to get you started; there are so many but I had to start somewhere……)
1. Pastor's personal blog (Mark Batterson's Evotional)
2. Pastor's teaching blog (Mark D. Roberts)
2. Website blog (Sandals Church)
3. Intercessory prayer blog
4. Cell group blog
5. Outreach/apologetics blog
6. Missions blog (The Vernon Journal, thanks for the emails, Paul & Lori)
7. Topical aggregator blog
8. Leadership tools blog
If you know of excellent (or experimental) examples of these, feel free to submit them as well as other blogging ideas.
Check out the missions blog for Portland Christian Center here: http://portlandchristiancenter.com/missions/blog
Hi Cynthia! Also, see Share My Testimony blog for outreach. Sometimes we get a good comment dialog going. Thanks.
Current missions for South Africa from Hope Chapel at http://hopeforsouthafrica.blogspot.com/
Hey Cynthia,
We use blogs for almost everything we do at Seacoast from having personal blogs by several pastors, blogs for each campus to share announcements, a creative blog to coordinate our services and and internal blog to keep the staff on the same page. I also use a series of linked blogs to build the website of Christ’s Gift Academy. You can check it out at http://www.cgakenya.com
Thanks for all the feedback and recommendations. Feel free to add more……
Pastor Geoff – Thanks again for highlighting Seacoast as it really is a great example of church moving into the web. Congratulations on Seacoast’s Internet campus (beta) and on your personal blog (it’s always the pastor’s fault!)
Hey Cynthia. We are using our blog right now to keep our church updated on our churces trip to India. It is pretty cool the community we have built by blogging at Sandals Church
Carlos
Carlos, thanks for stopping by – and yes, Sandals is a great example of the move from having a church website be basically and online phone book to a community for connecting with, interacting with, etc. Way to vanguard.
Check out http://www.blogs.missionbaycc.org for an example of a group blog.
I recently went on an overseas mission trip and kept an online journal which helped keep people informed of prayer needs and praises – http://daveanthold.typepad.com/daves_journey – in addition the youth choir I work with just got back from a weekend outreach trip and we kept an online journal as well. You can check out this blog at http://daveanthold.typepad.com/agape_singers
Новый способ давления на кандидата на пост Главы г. Химки
Новый способ “наказать” тех, кто посмел участвовать в выборной кампании не на стороне действующей власти изобрели правоохранительные органы г.о. Химки.
Руководствуясь не нормой закона, а чьей-то “волей” сотрудники милиции решили “проверить” все фирмы, внесшие денежные средства в избирательный фонд неудобных кандидатов.
Начались “проверки” с телефонных звонков – где директор, сколько человек работает на фирме. После чего последовали “письма счастья” с просьбой предоставить всю бухгалтерскую документацию, учредительные документы фирмы, и даже, план экспликации БТИ.
Такие запросы химкинским фирмам рассылает 1 отдел Оперативно-розыскной части № 9 Управления по налоговым преступлениям ГУВД Московской области за подписью начальника подполковника милиции Д.В. Языкова.
И всё это в то время, когда Президент дал прямое указание правоохранительным органам о прекращении всех незаконных проверок малого и среднего бизнеса. С это целью внесены изменения в Федеральный закон “О милиции” – из статьи 11 этого закона исключены пункты 25 и 35, на основании которых ранее правоохранительные органы имели право проверять финансово-хозяйственную деятельность предприятий.
Видно, об изменениях действующего законодательства местные правоохранительные органы не уведомлены. И не смотрят телепередачи с выступлениями Президента.
Может быть, эта публикация подвигнет их к исполнению указаний Президента, а также к изучению и соблюдению действующего законодательства