WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 173~ September 2009
Monthly ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
AUSTRALIA MEDIA OUTREACH
CHURCH WEBSITES
FILM TO VENICE
FREE OUTREACH ARTICLES FOR EDITORS
LEARNING AND TRAINING
MOBILE DEVICES
SEARCH HELP
I AM SECOND
BOOK REVIEW
TIPS
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
TAILEND
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together" - African
proverb
AUSTRALIA MEDIA OUTREACH
Two outreach campaigns in Australia this month are using media including the web:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09sept-australia
CHURCH WEBSITES
CPU - THE CAMPAIGN FOR VISIBLE URLS: Is your church website URL displayed outside your
church, in letters large enough to be read by passers-by in traffic on the street? That
probably means, in letters almost as big as your church name! If so, please send a photo
for our webpage on the subject:
www.internetevangelismday.com/church-website-publicity.php
DESPERATELY SEEKING LODGERS - '"We need more lodgers," said Maria Silversmith to her
husband Milo one evening...' This short 300-word story illustrates the vital importance of
making church websites people-focused. It is free to reproduce in print media:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/church-evangelism.php
VIDEO IN CHURCH: Stewart H. Redwine writes in Christian Video Magazine about using
short films. "The problem with short films shown in a church service is simply this;
no-one knows when the video will end." They know that TV ads last 30 seconds, music videos
3-6 minutes, and TV programs 30 minutes. They have no frame of reference for a video short,
unless we give them help."
http://www.christianvideomag.com/articles/articles.php?recordID=148
FILM TO VENICE
"Jitensha," a short film for Japan by students from Biola University in CA and 'Studio
Re:' in Japan has been selected by 66th Venice Film Festival - one of the top five film
festivals in the world!
http://worshipandthearts.blogspot.com/2009/09/jitensha-film-by-students-emerging.html
FREE OUTREACH ARTICLES FOR EDITORS
We highly commend the evangelistic articles by writer and evangelist Rusty Wright, an Internet Evangelism Day associate. He offers free 'seeker/skeptic-friendly' articles (plus online training resources) to web content managers and editors. They are equally useful for websites, blogs and print - about one million copies of his articles appear in print media each year. Many are available online in 14 languages. To get brief email alerts about new articles as they become available (generally monthly), email him at RustyWright@aol.com requesting to be added to the mailing list, and view articles or contact him at:
http://www.probe.org/Rusty
LEARNING AND TRAINING
Adrienne at the Computer Forensics Training blog has put together a remarkable list:
'100 Open Courses to Make Yourself an Internet Whiz':
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/875
See our other training resources:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/training.php
Learn more about culture - video clips and book recommendations:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/810
MOBILE DEVICES
MP3 PLAYER WINS - Global Recordings 'Saber', a hand-wind MP3-player designed for oral
peoples with limited access to power, won the International Conference on Computing and
Mission's (ICCM) Technology for Missions (TFM) contest. Saber was demonstrated to have a
high impact in reaching the unreached people in the world who are oral communicators.
Quality was demonstrated in its ability to be heard by the conference and that it
continued to work after being dropped. The ability for missions to load their own MP3
material onto the player fulfilled the re-usability criteria:
http://globalrecordings.net/topic/saber
GOOGLE VOICE - what will they think of next:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/sep/16.html
RECOMMENDATIONS ON LOW RADIATION MOBILES - "We at Environmental Working Group are still
using our cell phones, but we also believe that until scientists know much more about cell
phone radiation, it's smart for consumers to buy phones with the lowest emissions." It
goes on to list those with the best and worst radiation levels:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=2888&tag=nl.e101
You may wish to consider anti-radiation pads to go under your laptop, when using a wifi
connection, for the same reason.
MOBILE GAME - Trans World Radio's Lithuanian partner, the Good News Center (GNC), is
taking advantage of the popularity for mobile phone games. GNC staffer Robertas Peteraitis
put together a role-playing game with a gospel presentation embedded in the game. To reach
as many as possible, the game is simply designed with low graphics quality and
requirements. The ministry has been surprised at the game's popularity, and regular
subscribers are increasing.
YOUVERSION LIVE - A new mobile collaboration tool, 'YouVersion Live', made specifically
for use by people in churches and at conferences, will debut in October.It hopes to bring
a new level of interaction to the communication of God's truth and love - a free service
that will give pastors, conference speakers, teachers, and group leaders the ability to
share content and real-time feedback on mobile devices during live events, services, and
more. See the site for an idea of how a church leader could use YouVersion Live:
http://www.youversion.com/live
Blog:
http://blog.youversion.com/post/273/introducing-youversion-live
SEARCH HELP
To do effective search engine optimization, we need to understand how people search.
One valuable tool is Google's 'Insights for Search' tool:
http://www.google.com/insights/search/
Google is beta-testing a new set of indexing criteria called 'Caffeine':
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/aug/24.html
I AM SECOND
A project where people - some famous, others you've never heard of - share how they met Jesus, and put him first. The videos are well-produced, and communicate how Jesus has changed lives - cured addictions, ignited purpose and provided hope and fulfillment. The website also provides 24/7 opportunities for visitors to ask questions (phone, email and online chat) about what it means to put Jesus first.
One of the most watched testimonies is that of Brian 'Head' Welch - former lead
guitarist and founder of the band Korn:
http://www.iamsecond.com/
BOOK REVIEW
The Seven Basic Plots - Why we tell stories
Christopher Booker
Continuum
ISBN 0-8264-8037-3
Readers of Middlemarch by George Eliot may recall the dry old scholar Rev Casaubon's failed attempt to create a unifying 'Key to all Mythologies'. (You may have briefly felt in passing, that Casaubon's plan was irrelevant and futile.) But Booker has succeeded in doing this and much more - a quite remarkable analysis of the nature of story, in a project which took him 34 years. But do not be misled into thinking that this is a sterile academic book - it is highly readable! And for its 700 pages, remarkably cheap.
Booker's highly convincing thesis is that almost all stories, from every culture or
time in history, display seven archetypal plots. Some stories may indeed contain more than
one plot, occasionally all seven. Stories that try to subvert their natural archetype can
seem unsatisfying to us - jarring, like an out-of-tune or incomplete piece of music.
This book has huge significance for any Christian communicator, because it analyzes why
we tell and respond to stories:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/bookreviews/the-seven-basic-plots.php
TIPS
- non-techies look away now
FIREFOX - There are many add-ons to enhance your browsing experience, make online life
easier and save time:
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/08/17/8-firefox-add-ons-to-boost-productivity
MAKE YOUR OWN FONTS from your handwriting:
http://www.fontcapture.com/
DHTML POPUPS - the great alternative to true popups (which can get blocked). Check
their 'tab view' script too:
http://www.php-development.ru/javascripts/popup-window.php
CHART APPLICATIONS - Research Buzz recommends two charting systems:
http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/a-couple-of-online-chart-applications/
WINDOWS XP - 10 services you should never disable:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=960&tag=nl.e101
LANDING PAGES - 10 tips:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/aug/26.html
PURE CSS FLYOUT MENU - what they said couldn't be done - a flyout menu that works in
IE6 without a helping hand from an htc (javascript-type) file. Stu Nicholls did it with
IE-only inserted table code. Respect. (12% of users still have IE6, and doubtless the
usual 5% of those have javascript switched off.)
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/latest-flyout.html
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS - creating more, and using in different operating systems:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=977&tag=nl.e101
TWITTER - avoid spam by using TrueTwit:
http://www.truetwit.com/
SPANISH - Yahoo has introduced a Twitter-like service in Spanish:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/aug/28.html
FACEBOOK APPLICATIONS - have you ever developed a Facebook application that others can insert directly into their own Facebook pages? If so, please write.
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
CHRISTIAN HISTORY INSTITUTE - provides Christian History Resources, regular email
newsletter, and the popular Torchlighters DVDs, retelling the stories of Christian heroes
for children:
http://www.chitorch.org/
NEWS OF INTERNET EVANGELISM DAY - in a few days, may we send you a separate email of news items about IE Day, which can be used in magazines, newsletters and blogs.
ALICE COOPER: good guy being bad guy:
http://mondaymorninginsight.com/blog/post/alice_cooper_on_being_a_christian/
CONSECRATION - the lost message:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09sept-consecration
NEW BOOK - Is Self-Deception Always Bad? Not necessarily, says Gregg A. Ten Elshof in
his new book:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/22.57.html
BEST WAY? How God Messed up my Religion blog...
http://godmessedmeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-memories-five-days-getting-saved.html
SHUTTLE - Astronaut plans to take a piece of a plane used by Nate Saint, who was slain
in Ecuador in 1956:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/augustweb-only/134-51.0.html
FACEBOOK - "If Facebook were a nation, it would be the 8th largest in the world with
over 150 million members," says evangelist Daniel Kolenda. He goes on to say, "How can we
win the battle, if we are not on the battlefield?" - ie. being where people are, on the
Internet:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09sept-revolution
4/14 WINDOW - Luis Bush, who coined the 10/40 window concept some years ago, suggests
we should also focus on the '4/14' window - young people:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09sept-christianitytoday
5 TYPES OF BLOG WORTH READING - and why:
http://www.edcyz.com/five-types-of-blogs-worth-reading/02/
GHOST FLEET - receission-hit merchant shipping laid up in a semi-secret location:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b09sept-ghostfleet
TAILEND ô¿ô
Whatever happened to the Peanuts gang when they grew up?
http://www.crosswalk.com/fun/mind-benders/1355574/
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