WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 170 ~ May 2009
Monthly ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
WEB CONFERENCES AND SPEAKERS
NOT BROCHUREWARE ANY MORE
CHURCH STREET SIGNAGE
DE-EVANGELIZING, AND WHAT CHURCHES CAN DO ABOUT IT
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
USING POPULAR CULTURE: STAR TREK
MISSION OPPORTUNITIES
TIPS
BLOGGING AND TWITTER
WRITING WELL
SOCIAL NETWORKING VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
TAILEND
WEB CONFERENCES AND SPEAKERS
CHRISTIAN WEB CONFERENCE LAUNCHED: A new web ministry conference is scheduled for
September. The Christian Web Conference (CWC) will be held at Biola University 11-12
September 2009. (Biola is in Southern California.) It is an ideal replacement for the
Internet Ministry Conference which ceased in 2008. IE Day is honored to be a sponsor of
the CWC. Till 20 June there is an early-bird registration price:
http://www.christianwebconference.com/
Accommodation is available separately through a special arrangement that Biola has with
the local Holiday Inn:
http://www.biola.edu/about/location/accommodations/
There is a growing range of resources on the CWC website including some very
interesting podcasts. If you want to promote the conference on your own site, get banners
here:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/567
OTHER CONFERENCES: There will be a web evangelism slot within the Luis Palau Innovative
Evangelism Conference in November (in Portland, Oregon). And for UK residents, there is a
training day on 2 October at the Evangelical Alliance (London) for using podcasts in
church or ministry:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/567
SPEAKER PANEL: We have a growing panel of speakers available for conferences, bible
colleges, staff consultations, etc. If you would like a speaker on a wide range of web
evangelism and digital ministry topics, visit:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/speaker.php
NOT BROCHUREWARE ANY MORE
Each time a new medium arrives, Christians may well adopt it reasonably quickly, but
tend to perceive and use it in the way they used a previous medium. One example is
Christian radio. For many years (and this approach is not extinct even today), the
tendency was to transfer the medium of communal church worship directly to radio: hymns,
prayers and sermons. It is easy to perceive the Web in the same way - as 'print on a
screen', the equivalent of a printed brochure.
How does this mean we should use the Web for church outreach? Read more, and add your
own comments:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/590
CHURCH STREET SIGNAGE
Church street signs can grab the attention of passers-by. Here's advice about messages
to use on a street sign, and two sources of such quotations (one a book, the other a
website):
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/556
DE-EVANGELIZING, AND WHAT CHURCHES CAN DO ABOUT IT
One of the biggest tragedies in church ministry is failing to turn new visitors into long-term members.
Rev Chris Walker, of EvangelismCoach.org has produced an ebook in PDF format:
How to Welcome Church Visitors
Create a good first impression
A highly-recommended second book offering ideas for visitor retention:
Fusion
Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church
Nelson Searcy with Jennifer Dykes Henson
Regal
ISBN-13: 978-0-8307-4531-9
ISBN-10: 0-8307-4531-9
This expands on Searcy's well-known Assimilation Seminar. Some suggestions in the book may not be equally applicable to all cultures, or might only work if modified. Not all would be appropriate in UK, for instance. But the need to attract and then assimilate visitors is so vital, that it cannot be left to happen by itself.
Further details on both books:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/533
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
CONSPIRACY THEORIES - David Aaronovitch's new book deconstructs the world's weird web-fed conspiracy theories, often held by apparently otherwise normal intelligent people, Christians among them.
It has always seemed to me that one of the biggest arguments against any conspiracy
theory that needs more than two operatives to carry it out, is that people talk. A benign
theory still going round, despite compelling proofs of its fallacious reasoning, is that
owing to a malfunction, the Olympic was substituted for the Titanic on the latter's
fateful maiden voyage. Except that such a switch would have required hundreds of staff to
repaint names, move the ships, switch all the lifebelts, lifeboats and personalized
crockery, linen etc, all at dead of night. And yet no one talked about it for the rest of
the century!
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6187493.ece
BROADBAND FOR THE NON-WESTERN WORLD - Satellite company O3b Networks has linked up with
Google and other investors to bring cheaper, high-speed wireless Internet access to areas
unlikely to see investments in fiber infrastructure. O3b stands for 'other 3 billion', a
reference to the world's population that still can't access the Internet. O3b, which is
based in the UK's Channel Islands, said construction is under way on 16 satellites that
will drop the cost for ISPs and operators to provide Internet access over 3G
(third-generation) and WiMax networks.
http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C400693880002574BF00346775.html?ref=technology
GEOCITIES gone but not forgotten. An echo from the past, Geocities was the place that
many people built their first website in the mid-to-late 90s (the dawn of web time) using
a simple CMS system. And now it's finally closing:
http://news.cnet.com/now-closing-geocities-a-relic-of-webs-early-days/
AFRICA MOBILE PHONES: There are now 6.1 million 3G phones in use in Africa:
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/410/78/36272.html
Mobile phone penetration in Uganda is expected to increase from 39% in 2009 to 70.7% by
2014:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09may-uganda
TECHNOLOGY AND THE GENERATION GAP: Barna research and other valuable insights:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/374
CHURCHES GETTING DEFRAUDED - for computer kiosks and investment scams:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/june/4.14.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/09/AR2009040904349.html
USING POPULAR CULTURE: STAR TREK
David Buckna looks for spiritual parallels in popular culture, and turns them into quizzes. His latest is a Star Trek quiz... 'Boldly going where no quiz has gone before'.
Tell Trekies about it and link to it. And you are free to republish this quiz with
attribution:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09050064.htm
MISSION OPPORTUNITIES
Check the latest world web usage stats, and read two key articles on the opportunities
for outreach that mission agencies can use:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/495
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/denomination-initiatives.php
TIPS
- non-techies look away now
WORDPRESS THEMES FOR CHURCH SITES - more ideas here:
http://www.wpjedi.com/church-premium-wordpress-themes/
FIREFOX - 10 config tips:
http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=974717&tag=nl.e101
20 FACEBOOK TIPS you might not know:
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-facebook-tipstricks-you-might-not-know/
LOAD YOUR SITE PAGES FASTER - some useful tips. Note that you need to make the quote
marks for htaccess files normal ones, not slanted ones as his advice suggests:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09may-speedup
BLOGGING AND TWITTER
13 Characteristics of Outstanding Blog Design - what will influence and determine the
success of a blog theme design?
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/13-characteristics-of-outstanding-blog-design/
Twitvid allows you to attach video clips to Tweets:
http://twitvid.io/
EMINISTER BLOG asks, "How can the Body of Christ tap into the power of Social Media to
change the World for the Kingdom of God?"
http://eministerblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/changing-world-for-kingdom-of-god.html
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blogsyndicatecode.php
WRITING WELL
Hyphens are often wrongly used, or not used when they should be. This Writing Matters
article gives helpful advice, and also refers to the frequently-used web-related 'camel
case' - pushing two words together eg WebNews.
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09may-hyphen
SOCIAL NETWORKING VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
If you are experienced in blogging, social networking or web searching, and would like
to help (in your spare time) a literature ministry to W Africa find new non-Christian
contacts, check:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/volunteer.php
There are many other online opportunities to volunteer for different areas of web
ministry:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/vacancies.php
TAILEND ô¿ô
Those of us who are middle-aged sometimes notice various consequences of the aging process. Here are two. The first is that we tend to forget that we have already told you something. And the second ... is forgetting that we already mentioned a thing to you.
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