Social Media Leadership

One question today.

How are you using social media to lead?

Don’t think it’s important? Watch the short video below.

Again. How are you using social media to lead?

Time to get Flashy!

For anyone who wants to have a superstar church website but isn’t real sure about how to even start with it, I have found a site. It’s great for teaching you the basics and what basic stuff you need. So HERE you go. Did you catch it? That was the website for Flash tutorials. Good stuff, since I’m just learning the basics myself. Anyway, hope that helps.

Until next time.

Adam Forney, Founder/CEO
ChurchForward

LifeChurch has Joined the Blogosphere

Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald from LifeChurch.tv are blogging now on their new blog Swerve. I’ve already enjoyed the tech articles that are on the blog. It should be great reading from the looks of the start of it. Check out this blog for several great links from Swerve’s view on CES and MacWorld. Good good stuff.

I want to encourage you to not be afraid of the unknown. Alot of the items that are coming out this year are going to be great tools for ministry. If…..If we decide to use them. Check out the link on swerve’s blog for MediaFLO. How’s your church’s cell phone ministry going? Ever thought about it. I have. I’ve been talking about cell phone ministry for a while now. My church uses cell phone technology to reach people. We’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg though. We are only at the beginnings of what can and will be done. You can check out church info and we have links to Roman’s Road and the 4 Spiritual Laws for someone witnessing and can’t remember all 4 laws. You can get a mobile map of the church so visitors who can’t find the church just need to go to their cell phone. It’s great but only the beginning. Check it out by pointing your phone’s web browser to www.centralbiblechurch.org.

And of course bookmark and SUBSCRIBE to this blog so you can get daily e-mails and stay up to date on what’s going on with the church and technology.

Until next time.

Everything With Excellence

So I learned something pretty early on in my ministry. If you’re going to do something, do it right and with excellence…the first time. I, of course, had that reinforced many times since in different pastoral positions I’ve been in. Back to when I learned to do everything I did in ministry with excellence. The church I was at was a growing church plant with a great senior pastor. I was at the church on a Saturday, helping with the weekly bulletin and in the middle of folding a pile of bulletins. The secretary came out and saw my “less than average” job of folding and explained that the senior pastor “wasn’t going to like it.” So we had to reprint, recut, and refold the bulletins. The pastor came out later and saw the “better” job and gave his praise. Bottom line (that isn’t on the bottom), that wasn’t a one time occurance. Everything was done with excellence. And I have since been “trained”, everything I do in ministry is my best pursuit of excellence.

1. Because It’s for Jesus.
2. Because the world is watching.

And believe me, the world is watching. What makes a seeker want to pursue Christianity? It’s what he/she sees in a Christian. That’s why it is paramount that we always do our best. In EVERYTHING. So it disturbs me when I see Christians with a “sub-par” performance. Which brings me to reason why this post came to fruition. My wife and I were watching some of the tube last night and I was fulfilling my role of channel flipper. Going through the channels I came across a music video with a song I thought I recognized. But the quality was so terrible and the screen kept going to pixelation world, that I had to change it. But my interest had been peaked, as it always is when I see something Christian on television. Especially on local television. (Editor’s note: I thought long and hard about releasing the name of the show and website, but decided not to. Just know that is wasn’t TBN…this time.) So about ten minutes later I gave the show another go around. Same deal, but with teasing this time. It stayed great for about a minute and a half and then went back to pixelation. AAHHH!

My point being, if you’re going to do a ministry, of any sort, do it with excellence. Who got anything out of that show? No one. Especially the audience that I hope it was trying to reach, the seeker. There are many other sub-par things that go on in Christendom. This is just the one that made me write. Why spend all the time and money involved, for no one to get anything out of it. And the website? Not much better. I was stunned though to find out that it was a nationwide show and had stations across the US playing the show. Maybe I just caught a bad night. Now the second and final bottom line.

Whether we want to believe it or not, the world is watching us. What do they see? Everything that we do needs to be in the pursuit of excellence. So hopefully, they see excellence. Join me today in striving for better than average. There’s a whole world out there that needs to see Jesus in us.

Until next time.

The Geek Shall Inherit the Church

Okay, so I wanted to give this to you in sections and expound on each a little, but I can’t wait. Here’s the article from Ministry Today Magazine showing about just some of the ways to embrace technology to reach the world and your community. I don’t know how long this page stays up, I actually read the article originally from the print version. So read it before it goes away.

It talks about e-mail, new ministry positions available, and even examines the ‘dark’ side of it all. Great job of covering alot of different aspects of technology ministry. Good news: alot of this you can incorporate into a smaller church too! You just have to scale it down a little. I’m already examining different ways to assimilate it into my church. Have fun with this one, let your imagination go wild.

Until next time.

“Not Understandable” on DVD dot com

Okay, so let me first apologize for being so long since I wrote. So, I’m sorry. It was a long wonderful Christmas and New Year’s (in Atlanta and Des Moines) and sometimes it’s just hard to get out of vacation mode. I was also working on my newest website, a real estate website/blog for central Iowa. Woo Hoo. Anyway, that’s done and showing good signs of success already. But fear not, on my down time I was keeping lots of notes for this blog. I’ve been reading A TON of good stuff about how some churches have been using technology in a new favorite magazine of mine. But more about that at another time.

My issue for today is a great idea with just the wrong context. BiblesonDVD.com has an offering that amused me at first and then saddened me. I saw a commercial on television (not sure if it was a Christian station or not) for what I thought would be a good product. Only to be saddened once I got to the site. Have you went there yet? Did you notice anything? I did. Those three old initials kept popping up. KJV. Aaahhh! Why? It’s not like the church doesn’t have a hard enough PR problem. (i.e. I don’t understand the sentences) No one talks in KJV today. Why not a nice little version with NIV, or better yet, redo it completely in terminology that the lost of today understand?

My problem is this, if you’re going for realism and going to spend all this money to make something quality, why not make it effective too. If you just want realism, take the Mel Gibson Passion of the Christ approach and do it all in the original language. I know some of you like the NKJV for the ‘poeticness’ (is that a word?) and flow of the scripture. But when someone is down to their last leg and at the end of their rope, they don’t want poetry. They want the truth that speaks to their heart, and they want (and need) it to be understandable to them, to be able to apply it to their lives today. My feeling is this, a new believer has a hard enough time trying to make sense of all of the confusion of Christianity. Why unnecessarily further complicate things?

I could go on and on about this, but it’s late and we’ve got plenty of time in the future to discuss this issue. Bottom line: The lost need to find the truth. And we have a responsibility to get the truth to them. Why make the task harder than it is? Be relevant in every form of ministry that you do. Make the gospel usable and applicable to the unsaved. Be transparent, let them see Christ in you. The faster they get it, the faster they start telling other people about it!

Until next time.

Who’s Your Techie?

So I commented on a comment last night. My first. Thank-you. Whether you read the comment or not, it of course, got me thinking. Where is the ‘know-how’ generation in the church today? Of course we have the mega churches and many other churches today that have it down. The vast majority of churches though, are still in Flanograf mode. You know what I mean. The church that introduced the overhead projector 10 years ago (even then behind the time) and still have the same overhead projector, just a different bulb. And let me tell you, those bulbs can be hard to find at 6pm on a Saturday night. Take it from one who knows. FedEx just can’t deliver the bulb that fast!

Back to the know-hows. I believe there are many people sitting in pews today that have the ability to make their church more effective, but for some reason aren’t making a difference. I’ve seen many reasons for that. For some I think they just don’t understand how important their role in the Kingdom and bringing people to Christ is. For others, the leadership in their church is the issue. Not wanting to make the change, or not seeing the importance of the change is crucial in making today’s church more effective. Our changing and being able to adapt to our environment, just like so many other areas of life, is what makes the church effective. How effective is your church? I don’t know about you, but my denominations statistics on salvation experiences are lacking, and it’s supposedly on the higher side of the chart. It all begins with the local church. You leaders can say all they want and initiate all the programs, and do everything in their power, but if it doesn’t make a difference at the local church level, it doesn’t matter.

You see, the church has an issue it needs to deal with. How do we “recruit” (can I say that?) the ‘techies’ in the church and make them a valuable part of our ministry. I don’t think we need to go beyond the church walls(although I’m not opposed to it) to get who we need. I think we just need to focus our vision a little more and see who God has already planted in our congregations to help with this ‘issue’. Look at your congregation today. Who there has some kind of gift that can be used? Let’s not forget about one of the greatest gifts. The gift of “Willing to Learn.” Who is able to be taught and take up the ministry?

The Bottom Line is the same. Let’s face it, we as ministers have a hard enough time as it is. We need to use all available gifts and talents we have in the church, not only to lighten our load(although that’s nice!), but to reach the unsaved. God has given us the gift of technology, we need to use it. However we can, and with whomever we can. I was explaining to my church about how great the new website was and everything we can do with it, as a ministry. I don’t think they got it until I said that we now have the ability to reach everyone in the world through our church. A man in China and a girl in Europe can now all be touched by our church’s ministry at the same time! That’s God’s gift of technology in action! We need to be excited about it!

Who’s in your church, sitting in the pews, untapped? Let’s find a way to be more effective today.

Until next time.

How Cyber is Your Church?

Okay. So I know technology changes faster than we realize. I understand the church sometimes lags behind in the technology race. I understand that sometimes it’s okay to. But when I ran into this article, I couldn’t believe how far behind we are, as the church. The article was from June of 2006, yes, six months ago. For those of you who will not read the article, it speaks of how good PowerPoint can be to enhance a service, how cell phones can be distracting in a service. PowerPoint. Was the article talking about how helpful PowerPoint can be? Powerpoint 2 came out in 1987. Stop….let it sink in. Yep, that’s almost 20 years ago. Granted, you can do alot more with PowerPoint today with adding sound, tables, and much more complex variables. Cell phones being intrusive to a service? Of course, but who doesn’t know how to put the phone on vibrate or leave it off completely. That’s not the technology’s fault. It’s the old “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” argument. Phones going off during service don’t irritate me, the person who doesn’t turn it on vibrate or off, irritates me.

I liked that the article brought out the point of PDA’s. I enjoy having SmartBible on my Treo, in 2 different versions(NASB & KJV(for the ‘I hate anything new’ crowd)). I have a copy of God’s Word anywhere I am. Anywhere. I don’t enjoy the stares I get while in church, following scripture with the pastor, on my cell phone. I guess people don’t get it sometimes. Technology can be good! Christians can use all different types of technology to not only enchance their personal walks, but also to spread the gospel.

When reading the Rev. Goodier’s remarks about accessing the Bible on a PDA, did you catch the almost dare I say, arrogance? “It can be a convenience.” Of course he still carries around his pocket sized copy of the Bible. So what’s the problem? Is it because it’s not on paper, or because it’s on a cell phone? Am I reading it wrong? Then he’s back to the PowerPoint. Geez, give me a break. He’s acting like he’s using a technology no one’s ever heard of. Point of Interest: my eight year old nephew can put together a PowerPoint presentation. I’m scared to imagine what the good Rev. might say if he came into one of my church services, powered with MediaShout and it’s use of moving backgrounds and animated words. I would guess it might be a while before he explores the amazing world of DigitalJuice.com.

It’s my same old complaint. The church will stumble on to some form of technology that helps their spreading of the gospel, only to find out that the business world has been using it successfully for years, sometimes decades. It’s like thirdfloorthoughts commented on 12/14/06, we need to be operating ahead of the curve, not behind it. It’s time to put away our petty preconceived notions about different technologies and use what we can to reach this world. Believe me, someone is going to reach every person in this world. The question remains, will it be us or the world? The world’s got a pretty good head start on us. It’s time to stop arguing about issues that we are scared of and start using technology to get things done. Sounds pretty simple to me.

Until next time.

How’s Your Church’s Cell Phone Ministry?

Whoo Hoo! This is not only a dream of mine, but it appears, that of others too! You know what I’m talking about if you know me at all. Cell phone ministry. The church having the same access to media forums as the secular world. Have you seen the commercials for Amp’d Mobile? They have streaming videos that look good. You can now rent and stream an entire movie on your cell phone with Sprint. And that’s no choppiness, just a good clean stream, for under $5! Movies that were in the theaters as soon as 3-4 months ago. Some churches have seen the future and understand that everything, let me say it again, EVERYTHING is going to cell phones. You can already check movie tickets with Fandango on your phone, not to mention take credit card payments with some Nextel phones. E-mail, on your phone? No problem, it’s standard now. What about being able to track the lost child, or closer to me, the person with Alzheimer’s? No problem. One more time, for dramatic emphasis, in the future… EVERYTHING is going to be done on your cell phone! Why can’t the church do it too?

The question is, will the church jump, or take the usual ‘wait until it’s been tested and the technology is 15 years old’ route. I’ve said it before, the church can no longer afford to try to reach the same generation that grew up on Nintendo and cable television with Flanograf boards. Technology is constantly getting cheaper, will the church adapt? I’m not talking about a projector and you watch video clips for sermon illustrations. I’m talking about website, wireless, podcast, fusing everything together to effectively reach this generation. Let’s not look at history, we might not like what we find. I get saddened everytime I hear of a pastor that wants to get moving in the right direction, only to have the board ask if it’s really necessary. The importance of technology? Take away their television, radio, cell phone and internet and they’ll begin to understand the necessity of technology. What does it take for the church, as a whole, to understand the importance of technology? Leave me a comment, let me know.

One thing I explained to my pastor. You may not have camera phone right now, but by the next time you go to upgrade your cell phone, you will have a phone with the option of a camera, internet access, text messeging, and the ability to watch live television or movies. All from your cell phone. Maybe even take credit card payments, PayPal payments and have a projector on it. Where is your church at in the technology game? Think about it.

Until next time.

The NEW Nativity?

I was afforded the opportunity to see “The Nativity Story” at an early preview last night. Let me start out by saying that I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. How can you enjoy a movie where you already know the ending? But I have to say, I was surprised. New Line Cinema did a very good job to showing the realism of the time. Even more surprising was that the same company that put out the Austin Powers trilogy and American History X stayed very close to the Bible. Maybe not too surprising to the millions of Lord of the Rings trilogy fans who have said it stayed very close to the books.

Overall, even with a few things not quite lining up with the good book, I could recommend the movie to for all ages. The movie was excellent. Beyond the minor indescripancies, the movie told the story of our Lord’s birth well. It opens this Friday, 5 stars.

Until next time.