WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 179 ~ April 2010
Monthly ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
INTERNET EVANGELISM DAY - LOOKING BACK
USING TWITTER FOR EVANGELISM
WHICH ONE IS EFFECTIVE EVANGELISM?
THUMB WARS, CHURCH MINISTRY
COMMUNICATING WELL
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
CHOOSING PHOTOS FOR YOUR SITE
POST-CHRISTENDOM MISSION
USING HOBBY AS A BRIDGE
SEARCH ENGINES
MAKE YOUR SITE USABLE
THE LAW AND COPYRIGHT
TIPS
VIDEO SHORTS
POPULAR CULTURE
TAILEND
"Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation" - Henry Ward Beecher
INTERNET EVANGELISM DAY - LOOKING BACK
Thank you to all who helped to make IE Day known. Please share your story if your
church or group created any sort of focus, short or long, on IE Day:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/feedback
If you have a Facebook profile, please go to our Fan Page and click the 'Like' button
at the top of the page:
http://www.facebook.com/internetevangelismday
And if there is a specific post on our Fan Page that you like, please click the 'Share It' button so share that item with your friends.
If you wish to tweet about any area of digital evangelism, please use the new
hashtag:
#ieway
To see who has been tweeting using it, check
http://www.twubs.com/ieway
USING TWITTER FOR EVANGELISM
Twitter offers various ways of sharing the good news. Perhaps the most strategic is the
potential to find hurting people in your community or area:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/twitter-evangelism.php
May 15 sees a live webinar from Tony Steward: Social Media: Is it worth it? (11.00am US
EDT/15.00 GMT)
http://www.m2live.org/web/
WHICH ONE IS EFFECTIVE EVANGELISM?
"Evangelism. It is a loaded word. When we say 'evangelism', it brings to mind for many
of us a familiar image: an individual standing at a door with an unbeliever, tract and
Bible in hand ready to win this wretched sinner to Christ by walking him through the ABC's
of salvation and move on to the next house on the block." says Seed blog:
http://seed.sojournchurch.com/2010/03/09/evangelism-in-the-light-of-community/
It reminds me of a photo of an 'amazing new evangelistic tool' - actually a home dining
table, published in Calvinistic Cartoons blog, no less:
http://calvinisticcartoons.blogspot.com/2009/01/evangelism-tip.html
"Bad news or good news first?" asks Paul Copan:
http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Want-the-Bad-News-First.html
THUMB WARS, CHURCH MINISTRY
MODERN-DAY PARABLE FOR THE CHURCH - "There was an ambitious businessman in a certain
city who had built a huge grease factory. People from all over the world came to view this
factory once it was completed and in full production and the ambitious businessman was
only too pleased to show the visitors the entire process, from the point where coal was
off-loaded from ships to the point where the grease was eventually pumped into huge
tanks..."
http://missionissues.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/a-modern-day-parable-for-the-church/
TEXTS - Can text messaging and Twitter enhance worship or just interrupt it? Well,
since people learn best interactively, rather than just listening to a one-way sermon or
lecture, the option to ask questions via SMS in real time is compelling:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/preachingworship/worship/thumbwars.html
LOSING CONCENTRATION - In any case very few people can concentrate for more than 20-30
minutes without a break. Check this research and good advice:
http://www.speakerconfessions.com/2009/04/bordom-through-science/
YOUR CHURCH PROJECT TEAM - Help them stay sane and saved:
http://www.misternifty.com/ministry-tools/multimedia/help-your-media-team-stay-sane-and-saved
FREE PROJECTION SOFTWARE for your church:
http://www.misternifty.com/ministry-tools/multimedia/free-projection-software-2
TEN SIMPLE WAYS TO LOVE YOUR COMMUNITY - Challenging common-sense advice from Anne
Jackson:
http://flowerdust.net/2010/04/16/ten-simple-ways-to-love-your-community/
COMMUNICATING WELL
THE NEW 'E' IN EVANGELISM - "The new evangelistic landscape will be engagement. At some
point the exposure bubble will finally burst and a whole new set of tools, presentations,
and success criteria will emerge," says Brian Barela:
http://brianbarela.typepad.com/the_necessary_things/2010/01/the-new-e-in-evangelismengagement.html
RADIO TRAINING COURSE, LEEDS UK - Learn how to do Christian broadcasting in a two-week training
course at Christian training ministry Radio Worldwide:
http://networkleeds.com/Articles/167837/Network_Leeds/Recent_News/Radio_Worldwide_Course.aspx
MEERKATS - Those living outside UK will probably be unaware of an extremely effective
TV advertising campaign featuring meerkats. Can we learn from its creativity and
humor?
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/1466
The OK GO music group are nothing if not creative. Watch their video 'This Too Shall
Pass':
http://www.blainehogan.com/post/426369775/ok-go-this-too-shall-pass
WRITING WELL - Brush Writes offers simple, clear, short, regular advice on better
writing:
http://www.brushwrites.com/
STATUES - "Has your ministry got any statues?" asks Brian Barela:
http://brianbarela.typepad.com/the_necessary_things/2010/03/3-.html
THE BIGGEST RULE - "After some reflection, I'd like to narrow it down to one major rule
and law every communicator should follow," writes the Modern Ekklesia blog:
http://www.modernekklesia.com/2010/02/most-important-rule-every-communicator.html
WRITING - There is no final draft when you write a webpage:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/design/usborne-final-draft.htm
HOW NOT TO SWEAT the mobile office:
http://www.loosewireblog.com/2010/04/how-to-not-sweat-the-mobile-office.html
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
TURKEY - Radio Shema, a Christian station, is producing an iPhone application, to be available from iTunes, that allows people to listen to Radio Shema on their iPhones. Shema is also developing new programmes for women.
INDIAN BROADBAND - India is to embark on an ambitious scheme to provide all its 630,000
villages, no matter how remote, with broadband internet access:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7057435.ece
WEB USAGE BY LANGUAGE - Latest figures released for languages online:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
CARBON MONOXIDE - get a detector now:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article6992870.ece
GEOCACHING. Heard of it? Me neither. It's like a treasure hunt, using GPS devices. Some
trivial small item is hidden at a specified GPS location, and others can look for it, even
replace an item. Amazed to find there are no less than 14 hidden items in my own
village.
http://www.geocaching.com/
FLU TRENDS - how Google can provide quicker surveillance of flu trends then the health
agencies:
http://www.youtube.com/v/6111nS66Dpk
TECH STUFF - don't understand tech things, or need to explain them to those who don't?
See video:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=1465&tag=nl.e101
HUGE ONLINE DATABASE OF BLUEPRINTS - ResearchBuzz explains this remarkable
resource:
http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/huge-online-database-of-blueprints/
VALUE OF YOUR CURRENCY IN HISTORY - use the calculator at Measuring Worth:
http://www.measuringworth.com/
CHOOSING PHOTOS FOR YOUR SITE
The final part of Sandra Niehaus' series gives wise advise on how to use face graphics.
Although she writes with business websites in mind, this article is hugely useful for any
site, including outreach or church websites. Access all three pages in her series:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/design/niehaus-choosing-images3.htm
POST-CHRISTENDOM MISSION
In the West (although the 'progress' of secularism varies from country to country), we
must realise that post-Christendom evangelism must be very different:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/1508
USING HOBBY AS A BRIDGE
Bridge outreach sites are not common. Here's an example of a bike club:
http://cyclestar.org/joyriders/index.html
SEARCH ENGINES
18 effective search engine optimization techniques:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2010/apr/28.html
The Google 'duplicate content penalty' - there isn't one any more. Categorically:
http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2010/apr/26.html
Meta descriptions are now affecting your page ranking in Google once more. So it is
really important to craft an enticing page description which also uses likely keywords
that people will be searching for, all within about 160 characters:
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/Your-Meta-Descriptions-Now-Affect-Your-Google-Rankings-Again.html
Searchers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in using 'long tail' search
phrases:
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/Long-Tail-Queries-and-Long-Tail-Keywords.html
http://ministrymarketingcoach.com/2009/11/02/what-google-values-6-ways-to-boost-your-ministry-or-church-web-site-rankings
MAKE YOUR SITE USABLE
Jakob Neilsen, usability guru, says that research confirms that a conventional site
layout, with menu at the left, is the most usable. "You deviate from conventional layout
at your peril."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/horizontal-attention.html
THE LAW AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright law relating to the Web varies from country to country, and also has not
really caught up with the digital world. But to get a sense of the 'fair use' concept in
US law, watch this short presentation:
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/04/16/are-you-blogging-within-your-fair-use-rights
TIPS
- non-techies look away now
BROADBAND - Check your ISP's speed:
http://www.speedtest.net/index.php
CONTACT FORM - Add an Ajax contact link to your site:
http://www.willmaster.com/library/web-development/ajax-contact-form.php
PHOTOCOPIER SECURITY ISSUE - Scary implications when disposing of old photocopies:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20002904-83.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
MOBILES - What does your website look like in Opera Mini mobile phone browser? Test it
here:
http://www.opera.com/mobile/demo/
SPEED UP WORDPRESS BLOGS AND SITES. I was much impressed by these recommended ways of
speeding up Wordpress, or enhancing security, using extra code in an htaccess file. The
DEI blog really flies far faster now:
http://wpshout.com/10-ways-to-use-htaccess-to-speed-up-wordpress/
SENDING LARGE FILES TO FRIENDS - often email systems have maximum file sizes for
attached files. But you can send large files easily to others using Skype:
http://www.skype.com/
VIDEO SHORTS
Here's a useful way to make a short stick figure animation. It is simple but effective
- I saw one telling the Easter story made by some teens:
http://www.snapfiles.com/GeT/sTiCKFiGuRe.html
The Blair Foundation is running a Faith Shorts Film competition:
http://www.themedianet.org/article?article=e5dbeae1-c497-410f-ac7c-5bfd2578816e
POPULAR CULTURE
Do you like the book or musical Les Miserables? Do you have any insights about the
themes in the story, especially from the viewpoint of embedded spiritual parallels? Please
write:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/feedback
TAILEND ô¿ô
Dog lovers will treasure one dog-owner's description of his dog, which was getting totally in the way, as "A tail with an idiot attached to it."
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