Keith Anderson, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (Woburn, MA) and co-author of Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible (2012), recently blogged about the importance of social media for ministry. He writes: As the Internet goes mobile and we spend more time there, the line between our digital and face-to-face lives is rapidly blurring. This integration of our digital and analog lives, whether we choose to embrace or resist it, is changing our lives and, therefore, the practice Read More …
Social Media
Review of Follow You Follow Me (#0736)
Meet the Author John Voelz serves as one of two lead pastors at Westwinds Church (Jackson, MI), overseeing music and the arts. Given the topic of his first book, Follow You Follow Me: Why Social Networking is Essential to Ministry (2012), his Twitter profile offers a good introduction to who he understands himself to be: "Husband, Father, Poppie, Musician, Artist, Cartoon, Pastor at Westwinds, Writer, Painter, aggravator." Book Basics Voelz views himself as an Read More …
Facebook’s Future Viability (#0732)
Facebook is everywhere I turn lately. I continue to encounter: news, news and more news about and leading up to the IPO; blogs and news stories on how the Instagram acquisition will not happen soon as was originally indicated; information that all is not well with online ad revenues, especially compared to Google; and people who are passionate about the future of Facebook, especially from those favoring both extremes. With this in mind I was intrigued to learn the Read More …
New Perspectives (#0712)
Matthew Paul Turner's recent blog post entitled "25 Christian Blogs You Should Be Reading" highlights a list of blogs he finds insightful that don't typically receive significant attention or traffic. After reading his list and clicking through to a few of the blogs, I started to fashion my own list. After listing just a few I realized how easy it would be to add several dozen Christian blogs I have found of interest that would not appear on any lists of top Christian blogs. As Read More …
Associate Pastors & Technology (#0691)
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recently released its first systematic look at associate pastors in an 88 page report "Associate Pastors in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)." The comprehensive report is based on a 2011 survey of associate pastors and a 2008 & 2009 survey of key leaders. The survey found associate pastors spent an average of 11 hours a week "emailing, text messaging, or using the Internet" in their personal lives. Professionally, these pastors used differing Read More …
Twitter Turns 6 (#0675)
Happy 6th birthday to Twitter! Writing for Mashable.com, Stan Schroeder effectively captures the significance of this milestone in the first two sentences of his post, which was publsihed earlier today: On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey tweeted the first ever tweet on Twitter. The sheer fact that you can understand that sentence shows you how far Twitter has gone since then. So What? Twitter passed the 500 million user count last month and Read More …
Top Church Websites (#0664)
Sharefaith recently posted their list of 22 Top Church Websites on Church Relevance. The alphabetically ordered list includes: Church on the Move - Tulsa, OK Fellowship Church - Grapevine, TX Imago Dei Community - Portland, OR Hillsong Church - London, UK LifeChurch.tv - Edmond, OK Mars Hill Bible Church - Grandville, MI Second Presbyterian Church - Memphis, TN Watermark Community Church - Dallas, TX So What? The author notes that this updated list for Read More …
Facebook Friends Friday (#0663)
While I spend a great deal of my day online and tend to be an early adopter, I was so late to Facebook that it already boasted over 100 million members when I joined. The network has expanded to include some 850 million accounts that were active during the month of December, 2011. Interestingly, one's age appears to be an indicator of the likely size of one's Facebook friends network. Lee Raine, Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, Read More …
#FF – Follow Friday (#0656)
Every Friday morning I wake up to a Twitter stream that differs from the other six days of the week because of #FF or Follow Friday. This weekly event is a way that those on Twitter can share who they value and encourage others to consider following those individuals (or entities). So What? Months ago I found that with each new Follow Friday I asked myself "who do I follow?" While this was a good way to evaluate my ever expanding list of those I follow on Twitter, it also pushed me Read More …
Women Are Smarter Than Men (#0655)
Jeff Bercovici's recent article on Forbes.com explains the key findings of the latest poll by the Pew Internet & American Life Project: When it comes to managing their social media profiles, women, on average, behave more like mature, responsible adults while men act like impulsive adolescents. Some of the gender differences include: Allow only friends to view content: two-thirds of women - less than half of men Have deleted people from network: 67% of women - 58% of men Read More …