WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 136 ~ July (ii) 06
Twice a month ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
THE POWER OF A BLOG
WEBSITE PROMOTION
A NEW TEACHING MODEL
EVANGELISM FORUM
TIPS
COMMUNICATING: NEEDS-BASED EVANGELISM BOOKS
RELATING TO THE CULTURE
CHURCH SIGN GENERATOR
FREE CONTENT FOR YOUR SITE OR MAGAZINE
CONFERENCES
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
BOOK REVIEW
TAILEND
"We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams" - Gypsy proverb
THE POWER OF A BLOG
The fate of an Englishwoman in Paris has had worldwide news coverage - and all because
of her (secular) blog: La Petite Francaise. Her anonymous Bridget Jones-type tales, about
living as an expatriate mum in Paris, have a huge daily readership due to her winsome and
enticing writing, and I cite it as a writing style to emulate in our page on blogging
evangelism. But it incurred the wrath of her employers:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/rd?b06july-dailym
http://www.petiteanglaise.com/
For Christians, this blog style of openly sharing your life can offer people a taste of
the Kingdom. Read how a young Christian mum demonstrates an equally effective style of
writing about her life:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/christian-blog.php
There are more blogs about personal life and experience (37%) than any other topic:
http://www.webpronews.com/2006a/0720.html
A detailed Pew Internet study: 'Bloggers: A portrait of the Internet's new
storytellers' looks at the facts and figures in detail:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/186/report_display.asp
Although blogs are so powerful in communicating and building an ongoing web
relationship with people, almost all blogs written by Christians are written only for
other Christians. I have so far found very few which are written for, or even accessible
to, non-Christians:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blogging.php
WEBSITE PROMOTION
An SEO (Search Engine Optimization) guru reveals some top techniques for getting high
search engine ranking:
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/advertising/article.php/3618946
See also Pastor Ralph Wilson's set of tips:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/promote.php
He also takes site promotion seminars in different locations throughout the year:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/seminar/
Aaron Wall, who produces the Search Engine Optimization online book - and generously
makes it available free to non-profit groups, has in Beta a new Firefox extension to give
extra information on sites within a Google results list:
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html
Inbound link quality is also a key:
http://www.webprobusiness.com/2006a/0719.html
8 Magical Tips includes submission of articles:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/rd?b06july-magictips
Jakob Nielsen's latest Alertbox analyzes a number of issues, one conclusion is that
pages found by multiple search words are the best way to capture a majority of search
engine users.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/traffic_logs.html
A NEW TEACHING MODEL
The potential of the web to teach at a distance has long been understood. At last,
without needing to go as far as a library, bookshop or college, we can learn from the very
best teachers. However, although some people can learn well just from the written word,
and others merely by listening to the spoken word (eg. MP3, podcast), the long-tested
classroom model - combined verbal, visual and written communication - is the most
effective for many types of instruction.
How can this be replicated on the Web? The emergence of the 'webinar' combines a video feed of the instructor, PowerPoint slides appearing at the appropriate point, and printable handout notes. If the seminar is live, there is also the option to interact by email in real time with the instructor.
Marketing Sherpa offers a page about the concept:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=28516
And Christianity Today has developed a webinar system along these lines. See the
introduction to their system:
http://www.ctcourses.com/content/storefronthtml/demo-course/
and try out one of their courses free - on how to handle email:
http://www.ctcourses.com/storefront/storefront.asp?cat=4493
Here is a webinar by Mark Stephenson, of the key church resource Web Empowered
Church:
http://webempoweredchurch.com/about/introvideo/
This seems an exciting development, and one that can be used in a variety of ways. It would be great to develop short presentations ABOUT web evangelism, for instance.
What are your thoughts or experience of webinars? What do you think is the optimum
length of a web-based seminar? Write to:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/feedback.php
And of course your thoughts on anything else in this newsletter are always welcome!
EVANGELISM FORUM
There's a new bulletin-board style discussion forum, on all aspects of evangelism:
http://www.evangelismforum.com/
TIPS
- non-techies look away now
PURE CSS EFFECTS - you really have to look at this one! An incredible range of pure CSS
menus, hover tricks and much more, with ready-to-use code for you to copy. The beauty of
pure CSS is that it does not depend on Javascript, thereby working instantly for
everyone:
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/
WEB DEVELOPER'S HANDBOOK: incredible set of top links - another to bookmark:
http://www.alvit.de/handbook
GRAPHICS: when to use jpegs or gifs?
http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=113884
MOBILE BLOGS: creating a mobile-accessible version of your blog:
http://www.webpronews.co.uk/2006a/0717.html
IFRAMES: specifying an iframe page display area - automatic scroll it to the required
position:
http://www.web-source.net/web_design_feed.htm
BUTTONS: make buttons easily:
http://www.buttonator.com/
Learn PHP: Christian based forum help:
http://learnphpfree.com/
CSS: solving Box Model problems with CSS:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/css/article.php/3620531
FLOATING IMAGES: you would need to use this effect sparingly, but there might be uses
for it! You can make the images into hyperlinks too:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex4/flyimage.htm
SKYPE ON A STICK: taking your Skype account with you, on a tiny plug-in device:
http://www.eministrynotes.com/2006/07/10/skype-on-a-jump-drive/
FAKE GOOGLE SITE - hides trojan download:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,126506,tk,nl_dnxnws,00.asp
COMMUNICATING: NEEDS-BASED EVANGELISM BOOKS
I Hate Witnessing
by Dick Innes
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/books.php#witness
Needs-Based Evangelism
Becoming a Good Samaritan Church
by Robert D. Pierson, Abingdon Press, 2006
http://churchleadership.com/leadingideas/leaddocs/060426_bookreview.html
Needs-based evangelism is particularly appropriate for the Web, because of the Web's
ability to target narrowly defined affinity groups of people:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/resources/felt-needs.php
RELATING TO THE CULTURE
APOLOGETICS FOR A POSTMODERN AGE: "You Are Bringing Strange Things to Our Ears": a
3-part article by Albert Mohler:
http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2005-10-10 (part 1)
http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/pastors/1407489.html (part 2)
SURVEY FOR GROUP LEADERS: Facing the Challenge are a UK-based ministry helping
Christians to understand contemporary culture. Their downloadable study course for small
groups is one of our recommended publications:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/books.php#challenge
They are looking for church leaders or cell group / home group leaders to enter their
brief training needs survey, with the enticement of an Amazon gift certicate:
http://www.facingthechallenge.org/ftcsurvey.htm
SUPERMAN: culture-watch quiz guru Dave Buckna again looks for embedded spiritual
parallels:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06070029.htm
MIND THE GAP - particularly related to the UK situation, this Agape (CCCI) DVD training
resource is designed to help churches understand the issues of reaching the
'unchurched':
http://www.agape.org.uk/movements_mind_the_gap.html
CHURCH SIGN GENERATOR
A fun site where you can create your own church signs with your own wording! Then you
can save the graphic for humorous use in your website, church newsletter or sermon, or
email it to a friend:
http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/
FREE CONTENT FOR YOUR SITE OR MAGAZINE
Our page of tips for building church websites can be inserted into any other site, just
by copy/pasting a few lines of code. The latest site to adopt it is Baptist Express:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/rd?b06july-baptistpress
Get the code here:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/church-syndicate.php
There are also a range of other articles which can be used within websites or print
magazines. A major magazine in US will be featuring our article on blogging in
October.
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/free-articles.php
CONFERENCES
The IEC annual 2-day conference will again be held in Chicago, 20-21 September:
http://www.webevangelism.com/Brix?pageID=11914
Other conferences and events:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/events.php
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
Track commercial and private flights in real-time:
http://flightaware.com/
World stats updated in real time: looking for the current world population, number of
people who die from communicable diseases, or the number of newspapers being circulated
this year?
http://www.worldometers.info/
Bank cyber-attacks are growing in sophistication:
http://www.securitypronews.com/2006a/0720.html
Zondervan offer a range of email newsletters and devotionals for many categories of
reader:
http://www.zondervan.com/newsletters
Cellphones are transforming Africa:
http://www.strategicdigitaloutreach.com/index.php/weblog/cell_phones_and_africa/
What are the limits of online fellowship?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2006/004/2.32.html
Lost Missions: Whatever happened to the idea of rescuing people from hell?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/007/35.40.html
BOOK REVIEW
Who Can Be Saved
Terrance L Tiessen
Inter-Varsity Press
ISBN 1-84474-031-5
Tiessen writes as both a college theology professor and former missionary in Asia, and
it is from this dual background that he approaches the hard question that any Christian
must surely consider: 'what about those who have never heard?' Whether you agree with
every nuance or not, he carefully analyzes the issues and available viewpoints from a
biblical and reformed angle. It's a 500-page read, but don't let that put you off - the
style is very readable!
TAILEND ô¿ô
Things You'll Probably Never Hear A Woman Say:
1. What do you mean, today's our anniversary?
2. Can we not talk to each other tonight? I'd rather just watch TV.
3. Oh, this diamond ring is way too big!!
4. And for our honeymoon we're going fishing in Alaska!
5. Aww, don't stop for directions, I'm sure you'll be able to figure out how to get
there.
6. Is that phone for me? Tell 'em I'm not here.
7. I don't care if it is on sale, 300 dollars is too much for a designer dress.
[From witandwisdom.org ]
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