October 2008

During my breakout session at the Fellowship Technologies Dynamic Church Conference earlier this year, I outlined 10 New Media Values.  Sandwiched right in the middle of that list is personalization (aka customization).  From playlists to Tivo, from to blog themes to twitter displays, it seems the ability to customize our media experiences has won the hearts of users and now instead of being pleasantly surprised by the option to tailor our media, we demand it.

One of countless examples of this trend is that you can customize your YouTube viewer display.    You can display your YouTube videos on your site with a chromeless player, as this video shows.  Again, customizable skins are an example of personalization in participatory media.  The list of custom options and personalized services is so prevalent it’s almost hard to separate customizations from the basic services that offer them.  Giving users a measure of control seems to appeal to everyone.

What’s the first thing you think of when you review your own media customizations?

Download 10 New Media Values (PDF)

Wish I had time to post all that is happening here at the Internet Ministry Conference.  I’m hoping to get some of my notes uploaded in the next few days.

I don’t know how you view conferences but sometimes I question the affordability of such events and wonder about long term gains for any one ministry.  But this gathering has some unique elements that give it some distinctives.  Several things that seem ouside the norm include:

• attendance by women (of course there could always be more)
• a measure of diversity (scholars, geeks, ministers, professionals)
• a representation of Non-American ministries (Canada, France, England, Netherlands, etc.)
• good equipment / access / accomodations / atmosphere

There are a lot of really smart people here.  And I mean those who are reflecting deeply and profoundly on why we are using the internet, what for, directed at who and with what success.  There is a broad sweep of people who would argue that that online communication and real world communication are co-mingling in such a way that there are few distinctions between them.  There are equally scholarly people saying these communication experiences are totally different due to the fact that any form of communication with a technological element included differs dramatically from a real world face to face communication.  There’s also an apparent (and not surprising) distinction between generational perceptions on this topic. (Gotta remember my grad thesis was built around diffusion of innovation theory so I love that stuff!)

I enjoyed dinner last night with good conversation between a table of tweeters plus Peter Green of Agathon Group and Dr. Dave Bourgeois.

You can check out the Internet Ministry Conference blog for more.

The annual Internet Ministry Conference is well underway.  Calvin College is hosting this year’s event and our sessions are designed to give us a chance to absorb all there is to learn about ministry online.   The speakers are hand-picked experts in the field of internet ministry and literally I wish I could hear them all.

Last night our keynote was Gabe Lyons of the Fermi Project.  Taking a prudent inventory of all the technology we are using and combining it with excerpts from the book unChristian, the book Lyons co-authored with David Kinnaman, made for an evening of heady reflection and thoughtful evaluation.  As a parting gift he gave everyone the book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture (I interviewed it’s author, Shane Hipps, last year here).

Today Dr. Quentin Schultze (who I recommend here often) will present the morning devotional.  Following devotions we’ll head into 3 days of internet-related ministry tools, skills and best practices.

Some sessions include:

David Russell of NCC - Crafting Usable Websites

Dr. Dave Bourgeois of Biola University - Best Practices in Internet Ministry

Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance - Internet Ministry Marketing and Tailored Internet Ministry

Brad Abare of Church Marketing Sucks & the Center for Church Communication along with Michael Buckingham & Holy Cow Creative & also CCC will help us define our Personality and, shall we say, frustrate, educate and motivate us towards better online practices.

I’ll speak on Thursday about Your Spiritual Gift Mix Online (how to successfully be yourself online!) so make sure and let me know if you’ll be here and we can connect.  If you’re anywhere near Grand Rapids swing by.

If you use Twitter, don’t use #IMC08 (that’s a marketing conference),  instead use #IMC2008 to follow status updates.

If your church is interested in the possibility of starting an Internet Campus for your congregation, Leadership Network is offering an hour long, informational webinar.

On Wednesday, November 12th from 10:00am to 11:00am CST you can get a closer look at two churches that are reaching thousands through their Internet Campuses.  The webinar will feature the Internet Campus pastors, Brandon Donaldson of LifeChurch.tv and Brian Vasil of Flamingo Road Church.  They will share how their online ministries got started, how they operate and most interestingly, they will answer your questions LIVE.

Here’s the link to register for the Internet Campus webinar.

Image: lifechurch.tv/myspace.com

As a service to the attenders of “Leveraging Technology to Support Community” I am linking to the Leadership Network’s Digital Blog (of which I am a contributor) which includes this list of early Internet Campus adopters.  These links offer a variety of options across multiple denominations for viewing the current exploration of virtual church campus extensions.

• Life Church (Oklahoma City) now has 12 campuses in 6 states, including its Internet campus (launched February 2006) and even a campus in Second Life. Live worship experiences are Saturdays @ 6:30pm and Sundays @ 9:00am (GMT+1) + 10:00am + 11:30am + 1:00pm (Central) and Tuesdays @ 12:00pm + 8:00pm (Central).
• Seacoast Church (Charleston, SC) now has 11 campuses in 3 states, including its Internet campus (launched January 2007). Live worship times are Sundays @ 9:30am + 11:15am (Eastern).
• Flamingo Road Church (Cooper City, FL) now has 6 campuses, including an international campus in Lima, Peru(!) and recently launched its Internet campus this month. Their Internet campus has its own blog too. Live worship times are Saturdays @ 5:00pm + 6:30pm and Sundays @ 9:30am + 11:00am + 12:30pm + 5:00pm (Eastern).
• McLean Bible Church (metro Washington DC) has begun launching multi-site campuses around the Capital Beltway, and also launched its Internet campus this month. Live worship times are Sundays @ 9:00am + 10:45am + 5:30pm (Eastern).
• New Hope Christian Fellowship’s internet campus is called an Online Community. Live worship times are Saturdays @ 5:00pm + 7:00pm and Sundays @ 7:00am, 9:00am, 11:00am (Hawaiian Time).
• Afterlife.tv launched its internet campus called Cyberchurch in October 2006. Live worship time is Saturdays @ 6:00pm (Mountain Time).
• Real Life Online is the internet campus of Real Life Fellowship (Corpus Christi, TX) has 5 sites in all. Live worship times are Saturdays @ 7:00pm and Sundays @ 11:00am (Central).
• The Church Group (Jacksonville FL) calls its internet campus called I-Church, with live worship times at Wednesday @ 7:00pm, Saturday @ 7:00pm, and Sunday @ 10:30am (Eastern).
• Living Hope Church (Vancouver WA) has live worship at its internet campus on Sundays @ 10:00am and 5:00pm (Pacific).
• Christ Fellowship (Palm Beach Gardens FL) has an Online Campus, Saturdays @ 6:00p and Sundays @ 9:00am + 11:00am (Eastern), having provided live-streaming of worship services since 2005.
• Richmond Community Church (Virginia) has an Internet Campus live on Sundays @ 10:45am (Eastern).
• Northland, A Church Distributed (Orlando FL) has live Webstream worship at 5 times: Saturdays @ 5:00pm, Sundays @ 9:00am + 11:00am + 6:00pm, Mondays 7:00pm (Eastern).
• Victory Life Family Worship Center (Durant, OK) has a Virtual Church where you can watch Duane Sheriff messages 24/7 and Live on Sundays @ 9:00am + 11:00am, Thursdays @ 7:00pm (Central).
• Gracepoint Church (Wichita, KS) has an Internet Campus Connect with live-streamed videos on Sundays 9:30am + 11:00am (Central). [ht: Terry Johnson]
• Brand New Church (Harrison, AR) has an iCampus with services on Sundays @ 11:00am + 5:00pm and Wednesdays 12:00 Noon (Central).
• Central Christian Church (Las Vegas) launched its Online Campus in September 2008. Service times on Sundays 4:30am + 7:00am + 9:00am + 10:20am + 11:45am + 4:30pm (Pacific) .
• Mecklenburg Community Church (Charlotte) has its Internet campus experiences on Sundays at 10:15am (Eastern).
• Pine Ridge Church (Graham, NC) has an Internet campus www.pineridgechurch.tv with live worship at 10:30am (Eastern).

Today I’m presenting “Leveraging Technology to Support Community” at the Group Life Conference.  I’ll upload it to SlideShare when I have time so you can access it.  My experience at Willow Creek has been amazing and being with scores of people who are desperate to learn how to serve others better has been invigorating.

Yesterday, in an afternoon session, Mark Batterson asked the attenders (about 2000, I’d say) how many were using Twitter and got about a 5% response rate.  Also, in that session, we had an opportunity to use a new system for texting in responses live during the keynote sessions.  Everyone got out their phone and we had a tutorial walking us thru how to text in our answers.  Of course, the instuctor was a 12 year old girl.  I’m going to post a more detailed review of this product within the next two weeks.

Following my presentation I’m heading off to attend a series of other presentations by friends who are also here.  It’s gonna be a packed day.  Unfortunately, while I’m speaking, I will miss Scot McKnight’s “Women in Ministry”.  Gotta download that one.

Early morning for me today headed over to the Group Life Conference at Willow Creek.  Going to moderate a “coffee discussion” (I think) as a pre-conference warm up.  Hope they’re well stocked because they have no idea how much coffee I can actually drink.

Then going to check out session topics for Mark Batterson & Heather Zempel (National Community Church), Miles McPherson (The Rock) and Dave Gibbons, whose New Song Church (Irvine campus) just hosted one of the Church 2.0 Local Forums.

I’m looking forward to my breakout “Leveraging Technology to Support Community“.  Hope to see you there.

What is Blog Action Day?

Today, October 15, 2008, has been designated as the day set aside for thousands of bloggers with millions of readers (last time I checked over 10 million feed readers) to unite for the purpose of discussing a single issue - poverty.

The hope is that global discussion across the blogosphere will raise awareness, initiate action & shake the web.  If you need web resource links to educate yourself, they can be found here: Poverty Action Site Resources. You can also Learn More | Register.

Just a reminder that Alltop for Pastors & Church Leadership sure makes finding the best current news easy.

Alltop, built by Nononina, (Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens & Guy Kawasaki), is proving more and more helpful for topical searches as more sites get added.  In the world of information overload, sites that sort and point are amazing time savers.  Especially when compiled by the insightful folks connected to any particular field of inquiry.  Topical searches of aggregated material are worth their weight in gold.  Instead of getting lost in my Google reader, if I want new “Church-only” news, I just go to the Church.Alltop.com page.