WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 160 ~ June 08
Monthly ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
LOOKING AT WEB MINISTRY
VIDEO: "IRRI-TAPING"
USING TWITTER
OPEN LETTER TO BIBLE COLLEGES
OUTREACH ARTICLES
AFRICAN CHRISTIAN COMIC PROJECT
ON COMMUNICATING WELL
GETTING SITE VISITORS
SOCIAL NETWORKING
TIPS
REDEMPTIVE BOOKS
CHURCH MINISTRY
IS YOUR CHURCH FRIENDLY ENOUGH
IF ONLY...
TAILEND
"Precautions are always blamed. When they are successful, they are declared to be unnecessary" - Benjamin Jowett
"Only two kinds of religion are tolerated: vague belief strongly affirmed and strong beliefs vaguely expressed" - Eugene McCarthy
LOOKING AT WEB MINISTRY
Scripts News Service covered the implications of web ministry, and Internet Evangelism
Day, in Terry Mattingly's 7 May feature:
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/32945
VIDEO: "IRRI-TAPING"
Owning a camcorder does not a visual storyteller make. A 30-second visit to YouTube.com
or any other user-generated-content video website confirms this truth:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08jun-faithvisuals
YOUTUBE ANNOTATIONS: new feature on YouTube videos, currently in Beta - the option to
add annotations to your video:
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=92709&topic=14354
USING TWITTER
"At our church, we struggled for a while to find a good way to use this to help reach
our congregation, but we’re finally starting to use it effectively. We’ve come up with a
few good uses for it so far..." writes Mickey at the Church Website Help blog:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08jun-churchwebsitehelp
More on Twitter:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/twitter.php
OPEN LETTER TO BIBLE COLLEGES
Few colleges yet offer modules relating to web evangelism and ministry. Please can you
forward our Open Letter to any college you are linked with. It suggests the strategic
value of developing such modules. Please also tell us of any colleges you know who are
offering such modules:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/bible-college.php
OUTREACH ARTICLES
Rusty Wright's latest seeker/skeptic-friendly article, available for syndication, covers the current financial downturn from a felt-needs perspective:
"Home Foreclosure's Emotional Toll. Has someone you know lost their home to foreclosure
or struggled near the brink? Have you? The psychological effects can be devastating. How
to cope?"
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08jun-rusty
AFRICAN CHRISTIAN COMIC PROJECT
Comix35, the cartooning training ministry, is seeking advice, input and collaborators,
especially African cartoonists, for a projected evangelistic comic for Africa:
http://comix35.gospelcom.net/invitationals.html
ON COMMUNICATING WELL
BEING CLEAR - Advice in the form of a voicemail:
http://church20.blogspot.com/2008/05/presentation-tips.html
JOURNALISM AND EVANGELISM: Molly Miltenberger clearly demonstrates in her blog postings
that journalistic principles are vital to evangelism:
http://violetskye.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/response-to-the-heart-of-evangelism/
ONLINE JOURNALISM TRAINING: Does anyone know of any online distance-learning training
for journalism? There used to be a Christian course available for this, but it is no
longer operating. Are there introductory books you would recommend on journalistic
writing? Please email:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/feedback
MIKE FROST VISIT TO UK: Communication expert Mike Frost is touring UK in October. Check
this YouTube clip about his visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENIrVidARRY
KIDOLOGY - For anyone working in children's ministry:
http://www.kidology.org/
GETTING SITE VISITORS
Pastor Ralph Wilson is also a web marketing guru, and offers a website and newletter.
He how also has a YouTube channel. Check out this short video tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/webmarketingtoday
MISSING VALUABLE KEYWORDS: "When you look at the search keywords report from Google
Analytics, for example, it only shows the keywords that actually brought people to your
site. It doesn't show you the search words that didn't result in people getting to your
site - that could have brought to traffic if you had only known," writes John Marshall in
Pastor Ralph Wilson's Web Marketing Today. He goes on to explain how to use Google
analytics to see what people searched for on YOUR site, by adding the analytics code to
your search results page:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/analytics/marshall-site-search1.htm
USING THE LONG TAIL - analyse your web stats and make changes accordingly:
http://www.mickmelseo.com/20080326/how-to-extend-the-long-tail/
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social networking sites continue to develop into new areas. Facebook is developing an
alternative to i-tunes. Bebo gets 1.5million viewers for its version of a TV soap, Kate
Modern:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/social-networking.php
There is a new Google application: Google Friend Connect. It is still in Beta, and
currently you need to apply to get registered. It allows you to add a social networking
section to your website (with just a small block of code), which can be used in a variety
of ways. Check the example sites where it is being demonstrated. One is a bible quiz!
There must be many types of outreach or discipleship sites where this could prove a very
useful feature:
http://www.google.com/friendconnect/
TIPS
- non-techies look away now
FIREFOX 3 - what's in it for me? Lot's of awesome improvements, according to SitePoint.
One interesting small point - it now supports 'soft-hyphens' which you code ­
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/firefox-3-whats-new-whats-hot
COOKIES - detailed explanation of how they work, with javascript and PHP code
examples:
http://www.hunlock.com/blogs/Cookie_Monsters_Inc
FILE EXTENSIONS - information on the many different file types:
FileInfo: http://www.fileinfo.net/
File Extensions Reference: http://www.sharpened.net/helpcenter/extensions.php
BEYOND CAPTCHA: The popular CAPTCHA solution can help lock out robots and reduce spam,
but it's far from fail-safe - and it causes major accessibility headaches. Learn about the
problems, issues, and alternatives to asking a human to prove that they're not a bot:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1645
CSS MENUS - Learn the basics of styling lists as menus, and soon
you'll be creating drop-down menus from pure CSS - and making
sure they're as accessible as possible!
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1574
CSS in form design:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1569
SESSION VARIABLES using javascript without cookies:
http://www.thomasfrank.se/sessionvars.html
VISUAL GRAPHIC TOOL- a useful Google application:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08jun-googlecharts
REDEMPTIVE BOOKS
His first novel, The Kite Runner, sold 10 million copies. His second, A Thousand
Splendid Suns, has just won the Richard and Judy award - ensuring another blockbuster.
Meet the Afghan refugee who became a literary phenomenon:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08apr-kiterunner
As we wrote last issue, The Kite Runner is a book and film full of redemptive analogies,
waiting to be used.
CHURCH MINISTRY
CONNECT WITH NON-BELIEVERS: If you want to check the pulse of your church's evangelism,
try this simple exercise with your church members. Ask them to write two lists:
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/24682
IS YOUR CHURCH FRIENDLY ENOUGH:
http://theolotech.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/is-your-church-friendly-enough/
CHURCH WEBSITE Photography Guidelines: Avoid a series of mugshots. Try to capture
people in action - talking, relating together, working together and doing things. Avoid
loads of shots of people gawping at the camera. Try to document church life as if the
photographer is invisible. Think of it as if your are telling a story not producing a
rogues gallery:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08jun-churchphotos
WHAT IS YOUR CHURCH ALL ABOUT? "What is your church all about? Faith, salvation,
helping people find Jesus, the meaning of life, and community would probably be some of
your answers. But, do people outside your church know that?" writes Yvon Prehn:
http://www.ccmag2.com/2008_05/ccmag2008_05ministrycommunication.pdf
PLEASE HELP BY LINKING. Please would you make a link to the Church Website
self-assessment tool from any website, blog or newsletter:
http://ied.gsopelcom.net/church-site-design.php
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/linktodesignpage.php
BEST PRACTICES - especially for church and ministry websites:
http://www.elementfusion.com/best-practices-on-the-web
THE LONG TAIL. Here's a useful analysis of the change in the way churches communicate,
and the significance of the so-called Long Tail:
http://mikeymo1741.blogspot.com/2008/06/long-tail.html
IF ONLY...
- a Christian had built a bridge site...
There are surprisingly few online guides to the Internet for newcomers. Here would be a good opportunity to create a bridge strategy site for non-christians, which could include among many site recommendations, appropriate Christian links.
TAILEND ô¿ô
Artist Mike Stimpson Recreates Famous Photos With LEGO Figures: a photo set on Flickr
showcasing his Lego reproductions of famous photographs. Another 'if only' opportunity.
(There is a Lego Bible online, but its purpose is not evangelistic and it has a seemingly
perverse agenda.)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/sets/72157602602191858/
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