Below you will be able to navigate the streets next to my church Sojourn
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Its simple. Find your church on Street View and then click “Link to this page” “Paste HTML to embed in website”
The more I use Twitter, the more I like it. I don’t like it for the sake of new technology, rather I have come to believe it is a tool that can deeply enhance relationships. Some balk at the idea of telling or knowing what others are doing and thinking, but aren’t these key components to relationship?
I recently visited NW Oregon, where I grew up, and I had the opportunity to share Twitter with nearly my entire family, and several long lost friends. I am happy to say that my grandparents in their 70’s joined and are now regular users. I also introduced my church community group to twitter.
I am learning VALUABLE details about my family and friends that I would have never learned (unless I were living with them). This has given me the opportunity to pray specifically for them and given me cues when I should reach out and make a direct connection.
I get so wrapped up in my own world. My wife and I are in the midst of making some pretty large life decisions and I often get lost thinking of myself, my plans, my designs and my life. Twitter reminds me that its not about me and that there are more important things to be thinking of than myself.
The problem with other tools for connecting is they require two way communication, which adds all sorts of social rules to the picture. With Twitter we can simply state what we are doing, how we are doing or what we are thinking without getting bogged down in pleasantries. I am not saying that two way communication is bad, its just not optimal if you want consistent regular updates from folks.
My grandma LOVES knowing what we are up to, but phone conversations are short because she doesn’t want to interrupt or burden us. The truth is I would love to tell her and I would also love to know what is going on in their lives as well. Twitter has given us way to connect better.
By opening up and sharing our lives with one another through Twitter we are fulfilling God’s call to love one another. I have a deeper more intimate connection with my family and friends because of Twitter.
When I started to write this post, I thought it would be easy to come up with what God would Twitter. I eventually gave up trying to be theologically perfect and just cranked it out. The exercise of trying to figure it out turned out to be a pretty good meditation.
see also “What Would Jesus Tweet”
Ask successful entrepreneurs what experiences have taught them the most. If they are humble they will recount a failed venture that was desperately painful, but taught them key lessons that help them to be successful today.
One technique I use for winning at games I’ve never played before is to intentionally lose. After a couple of games of being completely destroyed, I begin to see quite clearly what I need to do to win. (My wife can be a fierce competitor so I don’t always win).
If I am particularly talented this will mean I will have to bite off way more than I can chew. It’s easy for me to “Go Big” or be a “Risk Taker” yet secretly maintain control. The feeling security brings can be seductive… Unfortunately that means I will miss the greatest return of seeing miracles and growing in a trust relationship with my Creator.
Consider it pure joy when I face trials, rejoice in my sufferings, there is no condemnation, die to myself… These are not just “positive attitude” Scriptures, they are powerful challenges for me to live RADICALLY BROKEN and trust that I could not make a mess big enough that God could not clean it up.
The truth is I am a failure, without multiple miracles I would be dead. To hide that fact is to again be seduced by comfort and miss out on a satisfying relationship with Jesus. I confess this is deep issue for me.
Am I doing just enough for people to THINK they are seeing God’s glory, while in reality it is me just bolstering my personal brand?
C.S. Lewis and S.M. Lockridge did not give me permission to create or share these. Should I remove them from the web immediately? Any fair use legal advice would be GREAT!
C.S. Lewis’s audio book “Mere Christianity” dubbed over mixes of ambient house, drum n bass and electronica.
*if you own any of the content that is used and are offended please let me know.
Vimeo is a video sharing website similar to YouTube, but it offers a MUCH better experience. Not only does Vimeo have a better design and layout than YouTube but it is cleaner and doesn’t excessively push negative content to every page.
*Though Vimeo is cleaner than other video sharing sites they do not have strict rules to enforce that it will stay this way. Use at own risk.
Click the button on your video that says “Embed” and copy the code by either right clicking and selecting copy or highlighting it and pressing CTRL+C. 
Write a new post or edit a page and look for a button that says “Edit HTML” or “View HTML” or “Code”. Once you have selected one of these options simply paste the code by either right clicking and selecting paste or press CTRL+V on your keyboard.
Video has become an integral part of the web and something that ministries, churches and missions should absolutely be looking at for communications. Video gives life and interactivity to a website or blog and reaches a larger number of people who simply don’t read much. The apostle Paul used the best methods available for communicating the Gospel, visiting people and writing letters.
This post might be the most important post I have written. It deals with the basic building blocks of social media. There is a mountain of great tools and technologies that can be found online today, the key is to learn what I call the “Social Media Staples”. The staples are foundational tools that once learned make understanding and engaging the rest of the web much easier.
Let me re-emphasize this, if you learn these “Social Media Staples” learning other tools and technologies will be much less difficult.
Links to RSS Readers I Reccomend:
A previous post about RSS Feeds
If you have any other technologies you think should be included as a social media staple, let me know in the comments.
Your text message will then be forwarded to an actual person with an expertise related to what you are asking. After about 3-5 minutes you will receive a text message with an answer, a link to the source, and info about the “ChaCha Guide” who answered your question.
“Where is there a nice Mexican restaurant in Louisville Ky?”
“What is the worlds largest church?”
“How much do the new smart cars cost?”
“Where could I find a nice pair of sheep skin flip flops?
“Who is Aaron Marshall of Louisville?”
For now this service is free, and eventually they will somehow advertise through it… In the mean time enjoy!
I am having a hard time in seeing how this applies to church and ministries learning social media, but this new service is just too interesting, and incredibly useful for day to day life. If you have any ideas on how it can used, be sure to comment.
Its nice to have separate Twitter accounts for different ministries and church groups. Some of the possible uses include:
Signing up for the individual accounts is easy… Managing them day to day can be difficult.
I have recently been asked by multiple pastors and missionaries how they can play YouTube videos without having to be at YouTubes website. The problems are obvious…
Problem#1 YouTube Has Inappropriate Preview Images
This is not good if you want to show a video to an audience of ANY size. This is especially true of the homepage, which should be strongly avoided.
Problem#2 Good Internet Connection is Never Guaranteed
I have shown web pages in presentations dozens of times, and almost every time I had internet issues. Very Frustrating.
Step #1 Choose a Free YouTube Downloading software
Step #2 Embed Video with Powerpoint Software (watch video)
YouTube has a ton of great content that can add a lot to a sermon or a presentation, but we must be careful not to endorse or broadcast inappropriate content to our audience.
Its very hard to keep up, let alone stay ahead. RSS feeds give a healthy boost of new and relevant information without overloading you. RSS is a foundational staple for understanding the web and keeping up. If you take the time to learn any new internet technology, take the time to master the RSS feed.
If you are like me and don’t like staring at computer screens I recommend using a mobile RSS reader. I dont read any RSS feeds at a computer, I do it all through my Blackberry. I will talk about mobile web content in the future. In my opinion its already becoming huge, and will quickly become a standard medium for receiving information.
How Missions Organizations can Benefit from using an RSS Reader
Awesome List of RSS Feeds for Church and Ministry
If you are selfish like me the first thought that comes to mind is that “My internet will always be slow!”… If you notice that it is running unbearably slow and you cant do your everyday functions, simply shut it off at those times.
Make the name of your wireless network show people that you are a Christian who cares and maybe throw your church website in there so that they can respond.
Examples of good wireless network names:
A simple way to show your neighbors kindness, and gently invite them to church. This works especially well in concentrated living areas, condominiums and apartment complexes.
Twitter works on a model of speed and simplicity. Rather than trying to pack a whole bunch of features that we don’t have time to use, Twitter focuses on the simple and surprisingly important question of “What are you doing right now?” I originally thought this was a lame idea, until I realized that seeing what people are doing is what I use social networks for. Twitter simply simplified things.
Some of the Benefits of Twitter:
Pastors can use Twitter to have a more personal connection with hundreds of people, without being bogged down by 2 way messaging.
Small groups can use Twitter to learn about each others day to day lives, fostering better connections and deeper relationships.
People using Twitter to open their lives to co-workers, seekers and non-believers.
Not that this needs much explanation, but imagine how powerful it would be to follow missionaries play by play.
Services like Twitter are being developed and spreading virally everyday, rather than fighting our unstoppable fast paced culture lets pick-up some simple tools and fight to stay connected!
See more technical applications of using Twitter