January 2008

As previously mentioned, I'm archiving the posts I've written at Leadership Network's digital blog here. 

The following was originally posted on on Sept 12, '07:

5 New Media Tips for Church Leaders

Hopefully, the posts here at digital.leadnet.org will create an online archive of resources that both take the mystery out of the new media and create support for your ministry by giving you practical instruction.  Demystifying what's digital is an ongoing process for all of us.  From RSS feeds to Facebook's new email capability, there are new things to learn everyday.  In fact, approaching new technologies with an inquisitive "I'd like to learn" attitude is often what transforms an inquirer into an adopter.

The World Wide Web makes it easy to communicate, collaborate, and interact instantaneously without many of the traditional barriers that limited the old media.  The Internet provides us with the hardware to communicate the Gospel, convey Biblical principals and truths, observe spiritual gifts, etc.  From apologetics to evangelism, the Web offers us unlimited ways we can transmit our faith. 

Unfortunately, there are a couple of substantial issues many Christian leaders have with launching into online experimentation.  One is fear.  The other is the time it takes to navigate the (sometimes steep) learning curve.  There is no doubt that the new communication options are often fraught with obstacles, hardships, and potentially painful lessons.  Furthermore, learning proper netiquette, well all things Internet-related for that matter, take time and involve risk.  We are pressed on every side yet must steward our time wisely.   Online endeavors are not prudent unless they produce a good result.  It's not hard for busy pastors and church leaders to be completely overwhelmed by the digital age and all it seems to demand of us.  Is it worth the investment?

As a point of encouragement, our church podcasted the testimony of a mother who adopted a baby from China.  Within the first couple of weeks, it was downloaded over 1000 times from all over the world.  Your words can extend far beyond any boundaries you've known before.  The new media are here to stay and the sooner you venture in, the sooner you'll get positive results to show for your investment of time.  Like all other forms of discipline and commitment, you need a place to start.  You'll succeed if you take small steps forward.

There are five valuable pieces of counsel I received during my initial entrance into online ministry options.  These will benefit you. 

• Pray.  Since we've already been commissioned (Matthew 28:19) we don't need further clarification to go and make disciples, but asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance in cyberspace is invaluable.

• Just start.  New endeavors are intimidating, but fear is not a good master.  Join a social networking service, put up a blog, try podcasting an event, use flickr, add skype.  (all free).

• Be yourself.  Yes, it's an act of vulnerability but authenticity has a great ring to it.

• Ask for help.  You will need to ask for help so plan on it.  (Several of the our team members on this blog have helped me at some point in the past. Any of us can advise or direct you.)

• Persevere.  Keep going and don't be surprised by disappointments.  I've had all kinds of snafus just with blogging alone.  It's part of the territory so plan to press through.

By the way, if weren't aware before now, the Web and the Internet are two different things although not everyone understands the difference.  See, you're already learning.

Read/Write/Web reports this week:

The Library of Congress and photosharing site Flickr have announced a partnership that will put photos from the LoC’s collection online in a social environment and users to interact with them. The Library is home to more than 14 million photographs and other visual materials, and to start they’ve selected about 1500 works each from two of their collections that are known to exist in the public domain. The images come from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information and The George Grantham Bain Collection, for which no known copyright exists. The collections will be housed on the LoC’s Flickr page.

As part of the pilot program with the Library of Congress, Flickr has launched a new tagging initiative called The Commons. The Commons encourages people to help describe the historical photos being added to Flickr by institutions like Library of Congress by tagging them or commenting on them.

“From the Library’s perspective, this pilot project is a statement about the power of the Web and user communities to help people better acquire information, knowledge and — most importantly — wisdom,” said Matt Raymond, the LoC’s blogger-in-chief. “One of our goals, frankly, is to learn as much as we can about that power simply through the process of making constructive use of it."

Greg Atkinson, the multi-media maverick behind Church Video Ideas, is recommending this list of sites if you're searching for HD resources: 

• Bluefish.tv - Essentials Vol. 1-3 has HD stills, countdowns and loops

• BluePonyDigital - This mainstream company has a worship line of HD products

• Digital Juice - BTBF uses their HD backgrounds, as well as use their products to create custom lower third titles

• Igniter Backs - Check Vol. 3 for HD stills, countdowns and loops

• SermonVideos.com - SV offers HD motion backgrounds

• WorshipFilms - Most products are available in HD and SD

I've been a fan of Collide Magazine since the first time Scott McClellan sent it to me.   Billed as the place Where Media and the Church Converge, each issue confirms Collide will be a resilient, relevant and resource-filled read for interested Christians.   Collide features informative articles by insightful experts who have God's heart for harnessing technology for the Kingdom.

The newest issue, just out, contains Reader's Choice awards for the best of 2007 (including artists, blogs, technology and the like).   There's also an article by fellow Oklahoman Kent Shaffer entitled Facebook and the Church.  The artwork is brilliant.  It's tempting to blog the whole article but then you wouldn't order the magazine.  I will tell you Kent is quoted as saying when he joined Facebook it changed his life.  Since I communicate with both Scott McClellan (Collide's editor) and Kent Shaffer through Facebook, I know what he means! 

Kent Shaffer is the founder of Church Relevance.com, and online resource created to inspire and train ministers to be more relevant and effective.  You can find his link on my blogroll under Resources.  He also co-owns Bombay Creative, a ministry-oriented design and marketing firm. 

I'm archiving the posts I've put up at the Leadership Network's blog here now for cross referencing.   

Last year, I only interviewed 3 book authors at The Digital Sanctuary.    

• Margaret Feinberg - The Organic God

                    Delightful & prolific author in love with the pure nature of God

                    Read the interview here, part 2, part 3

• Shane Hipps - The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture

                    Fuller Seminary degreed Anabaptist pastor, webcaster, author

                    Read the interview here

• Eric Michael Bryant - Peppermint-Filled Pinatas

                    Staff pastor serving alongside Erwin McManus at Mosiac

                   Read the interview here 

And I reminded you that ''reformed Baptityrean'' (don't even try to wikipedia this) Tim Challies' first book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, has just been released.   What I forgot to post on is his blog tour - and it runs for only a few more days.  Tim is both challenging and edifying, unique for a blogger, huh?  The calendar looks like this starting with today:

Jan 14 - Jollyblogger
Jan 15 - Between Two Worlds
Jan 16 - TeamPyro
Jan 17 - Michael Spencer
Jan 18 - Church Matters

Howard Rheingold is an unorthodox professor.  You can google his curriculum vitae and/or find his video resume somewhere online.

Don't try to limit him to any particular academic institution; he's spoken and/or taught and/or presented widely in the US - Stanford, Berkeley, USC Annenberg, etc.

Oh, and don't try to limit him to any particular group, medium, website, decade, etc., either.  You'll find Howard just about anywhere there is a new media frontier to explore / harness / evaluate / investigate. 

If you have any interest in the the social implications of new media technologies, how they may affect culture, human communication, etc. you might want to know this: Howard is now vlogging.  

I'm not saying I'm advocating his worldview, his philosophy, his politics, his paintings, etc.  But when it comes to new media evaluations & predictions, Howard is usually right.  

You can find Howard's video blog here.

Did I mention he also paints shoes?  And what's he looking for?

Evidence mounts that watching a full length tv show may now be too lengthy for the average attention span of the future. The ultimate research resource for studying online trends including Internet diffusion and penetration, etc. is the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Although Pew has been covered extensively here (i.e. - Lee Rainie Interview), I never tire of their newest reports and the often disruptive technologies they research.

Their newest published report reveals 48% of internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day has doubled in the past year.

If you're fixated on the diffusion of innovations like I am, you won't be surprised by the new information.  Video-sharing is surging in popularity.  The basic findings of a Pew national phone survey that ended in December show: 48% of internet users said they had ever visited a video-sharing site such as YouTube.  A year ago, in December 2006, 33% of internet users said they had ever visited such sites. That represents growth of more than 45% year-to-year.

Additionally, 15% of respondents said they had used a video-sharing site "yesterday" - the day before they were contacted for our survey. A year ago, 8% had visited such a site "yesterday." Thus, on an average day, the number of users of video sites nearly doubled from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007. Read the full report here.

About Pew: The Pew Internet Project produces reports that explore the social impact of the Internet.  Support for the non-profit Pew Internet Project is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.  The Project is an initiative of the Pew Research Center.