WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 135 ~ July (i) 06
Twice a month ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
ASK THE PLANET - VIA YAHOO
CYBERMISSIONS COURSE STARTS JULY
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
COMMUNICATING WELL
TIPS
PLANNING A WEBSITE
JESUS FILM BY PODCAST
CULTURE CONNECT
ST PIXELS
USING PHOTOGRAPHY TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS
TAILEND
"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe" - Winston Churchill
ASK THE PLANET - VIA YAHOO
The new Yahoo Answers site has characteristics of both chat rooms and bulletin boards.
It allows anyone to post a question about anything, so that others can answer it. It is
very easy to use - you just need a Yahoo ID and then sign up for the Answers system. There
are many questions in the religious section which give you the opportunity to provide a
sensitive, relevant, biblical answer. But you will also see questions in many other
subject areas which allow you to sensitively share a Christian worldview in a non-preachy
way. For instance, there are frequent questions about movies which enable us to draw out
Christian parallels, in the way that HollywoodJesus.com and MovieGlimpe.com do. And
personal needs and worries are often posted in various subject areas. Answers posted at
Yahoo Answers do not necessarily develop into discussion and feedback - though this is
possible and those who posted the question can contact you privately. Because of the
popularity of the site, your answers are likely to be viewed by large numbers of
people.
You can even make Yahoo Answers your browser homepage (or desktop shortcut) - then you
can skim through current questions any time you have a few spare minutes.
http://answers.yahoo.com/
CYBERMISSIONS COURSE STARTS JULY
This year's Cybermissions online training courses for web evangelism start in July.
There are three separate modules, each of six weeks:
Cyber 101 - Theory of Cybermissions July 17th 2006
Cyber 102 - Practice of Cybermissions September 18th 2006
Cyber 103 - Community Computer Center (Internet Cafe) Ministry September 18th 2006
These in-depth courses are ideal for anyone involved in web ministry, or who wishes to
be. Sign up now. You will not regret it.
http://cybermissions.org/training/
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
CROWS HACK INTO THE INTERNEST: in Tokyo, there is nothing that crows like better than
pecking broadband fiber optic cable:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2225937,00.html
SOME INTEGRITY LEFT! Gratifying to hear actress Billy Piper (who has achieved acclaim in the latest Dr Who series as Rose Tyler, from which her demise is imminent) say that she wants not a penny from millionaire ex-husband Chris Evans. And also nice to know that actress Koo Stark, girl-friend of Prince Andrew before his marriage, has resolutely refused to sell any kiss-and-tell story to the tabloid newspapers for megabucks, and remains friends of the family.
EasyChinese Bible Stories - site being developed:
http://www.gng.org.cn/
COMMUNICATING WELL
STORIES. Two-thirds of our world are oral communicators. That's 4 billion people who
can't, don't or won't read or communicate by literate means! Ironically, 90% of all
Christian ministry today occurs through literate communication styles! One of the major
developments in recent years has been an understanding of orality. And it is not just the
non-western world. Many people in the west do not, in practice, read very much, and are
much more comfortable to receive most of their information through spoken and visual
communication:
http://story4all.com/
TOTAL RECALL - Staying Faithful by Being Relevant:
"I had my eye on Arnold Schwarzenegger as I travelled by bus from Singapore to Thailand in
the summer of 1994..."
http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives/365
Top 10 Ways Technology Is Changing Ministry Communication:
http://ccmag.gospelcom.net/0606/0606musicandmultimedia.pdf
TIPS
- non-techies look away nowRANDOM QUOTES: use PHP to add a random quote, thought, or bible verse to your site:
http://www.webdesign.org/web/web-programming/php/random-quotes.8458.html
RSS: displaying Browser-Friendly RSS Feeds:
http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/100505-1.shtml
You can see a styled xml page here:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/resources/bullfeed.xml
FONTS: not for use on the Web, but some of the dingbat fonts here could be fun in print,
as an alternative to clipart:
http://www.dafont.com/
MAPS: the world is getting smaller, or at least a little easier to visualize, thanks to
some cool new map tools you can add to your website:
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2006/06/20/cool-map-tools/
FAITHBROWSER: a team of Stanford students have produced this new resource:
http://www.faithbrowser.com/
PHOTOS. There are many remarkable photos available for use on websites, very often for
no payment if it is a non-profit site.
http://sxc.hu is a primary source.You can also do a search on
http://everystockphoto.com/
which draws down results from several sources including Flikr, then you must check for
each possible photo you may want to use, to see what the terms of use are. Many are
available under Creative Commons terms, if you use appropriate attribution.
CONTENT CHECKER. As normal, this newsletter has been put through Lyris's anti-sp.
checker to ensure a Sp. Assassin score of 0:
http://www.lyris.com/resources/contentchecker/
NEEDING HELP? One of the advantages of the web is being able to, as Yahoo has called it,
'ask the planet'. In the context of web design, it is great to be able to 'ask the body'
- other Christian designers. There are two discussion forums to try (the latter covers a
few other areas too):
http://www.christian-web-masters.com/forums
http://godbit.com/
PLANNING A WEBSITE
Before you begin to plan a website of any sort, be it outreach, ministry, or secular,
there are some crucial questions you must ask. Use our printable worksheet to help
you:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/starting.php
JESUS FILM BY PODCAST
The Jesus Film team say, "When God provides a tool of technology, we should use it! Certainly, Satan will. So, why shouldn't the Church grasp this new tool - especially when we can use it to reach our families and friends?
That's why we are now making "JESUS" available through podcasting. By downloading "JESUS" to portable electronic devices, like video iPods®, anyone with access to the Internet can experience the power of "JESUS" anywhere they go.
It's also the perfect way to reach teens you know who are glued to their iPods! And,
they can view or listen to "JESUS" (currently available in segments for podcasting) with
one of the popular music/video software programs at no cost."
http://www.jesusfilm.org/podcasting/02.html
CULTURE CONNECT
All You Need Is Love - a Beatles quiz by Christian culture-watch guy David Buckna:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06060117.htm
DAMARIS - if you need to understand more about connecting with the culture, check the
tri-lingual Damaris site and subscribe to their newsletter:
http://www.damaris.org/
ST PIXELS
Shipoffools.com's online church is to re-open as 'St Pixels'. John Wesley, Methodism's
18th century founder, said: "The world is my parish." Now, 300 years later that 'parish'
includes cyberspace as well. Wesley may not have been able to predict the phenomenon, but
two years after the virtual doors swung shut on the world's first online 3D church, a new
worshipping community, St Pixels, officially re-opens this week - with plans to go 3D in
the autumn:
http://www.thegoodnews.co.uk/regionFeaturesstory.asp?id=862
USING PHOTOGRAPHY TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS
by Connie Wragge
There are many ways to witness. You meet someone, and God starts up a conversation with a thread of commonality that leads you to share a slice of your life. For Christians, it is nearly impossible to talk about our lives apart from God's influence and the changes He has brought as we have yielded our wills to His Will. Our words flow naturally.
With the explosive use of the Internet, sharing God's Good News results in a much
greater per person impact in that every day a global audience logs onto all kinds of
websites. And while these people use the Internet for different reasons, website owners do
not know much about them because their identities are concealed. What are people reading
when they come to a Christian website? Is there information there that God can use to
intrigue them about His Love? More importantly, is the information presented with an
easy-to-understand message and one that captivates web visitors long enough so that the
Holy Spirit can begin to work?
In light of the technology that is accessible by so many, the more we leverage its use the greater the impact we will have. Herein lies a vast opportunity to be creative.
At first, the use of photography may appear to be an unusual way to connect people to God's Good News. Yet when God oversaw the building of the PhotoMission website, His Spirit guided us to link an enlarged view of the photographs to the testimonies of the photographers who took them... and a witnessing aspect that is genuine and non-threatening is the result.
Someone once said, "No one can argue with what God has done in your life." The people with whom we share God's Good News may take issue with everything else we employ to explain that God loves them and has a plan for their life, yet a personal encounter with Jesus is our story. The appearance of a testimony on a website is like holding a microphone with worldwide amplification.
Web pages with mission statements offer a second opportunity to explain the Gospel. By including links to evangelical resources and tracts that graphically convey the plan of salvation, website owners enable web visitors from around the world to access information that can have a lasting and eternal impact.
In 2 Timothy 1:7 we read: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." As we seek to create Christian web pages with broad global application, God will use them to accomplish His purposes.
Connie Wragge is the ministry leader of PhotoMission, a visual arts ministry that
affirms the truth of John 14:6 through the testimonies of its members that are posted
online. Currently, PhotoMission is represented by 144 Christian photographers living in 23
countries. The ministry uses the letters in the word 'camera' to present the message of
the Gospel; and the website includes links to tracts provided by The Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association and Campus Crusade for Christ.
http://www.photomission.com/
TAILEND ô¿ô
Cards offering used textbooks for sale are posted on the college notice board at the beginning of each semester. One read: "Introduction to Psychology, never used." The card was signed, "Must sell."
The next day a note had been added: "Good price. Are you sure it's never been used?" Signed, "Prospective buyer."
Below in a different hand was: "Positive!" Signed, "Professor who graded his exam."
[Source: 'You make me laugh' crosswalk.com ]
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