WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN

. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 204 ~ February (i) 2012
Monthly ISSN 471-0323

'TALKING ABOUT JESUS' IPHONE APP LAUNCHES
VIDEO ON VIDEO-SHARING
I AM SECOND
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN APRIL? LOTS
MOVIES AND POPULAR CULTURE
COMMUNICATING WELL
STUMBLEUPON AND PINTEREST CAN INCREASE YOUR SITE VISITORS
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
FOR UK CHRISTIANS AND CHURCHES
DIGITAL DOULOS INVITES IDEAS
THE BIBLE
TECH TIPS
TAILEND FUN

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do" - Anne Lamott

'TALKING ABOUT JESUS' IPHONE APP LAUNCHES

The potential for evangelistic phone apps is vast, yet so far there are very few designed to help an outsider, or enable and support evangelistic conversations (including in small groups). The new Damaris app Talking about Jesus draws together 18 carefully-chosen short videos on the life, death and teachings of Jesus. If you have an iPhone, grab it now (it's $0.99/£0.69), tell others, post it on Facebook, Twitter, etc, and add your comments on the iTunes page. There's also a ready-made news release here. It will be available for Android soon. Is this the most significant outreach app of the year?
http://www.talkingaboutjesus.org/

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VIDEO ON VIDEO-SHARING

YesHEIs.com is the strategic resource offering outreach/conversation-starting video shorts in multiple languages. They have produced a video to explain the potential of this opportunity. You can also download the video to project in meetings:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/6943

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I AM SECOND

Known primarily for producing tightly-shot viral videos of celebrity testimonies, the I am Second movement has shifted into a literary phase by launching a book of the same name:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/i-am-second-movement-adds-book-to-video-success-67323/

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WHAT'S HAPPENING IN APRIL? LOTS

EASTER RESOURCES - Rusty Wright offers free-to-republish (in print or online) outsider-friendly articles on many topics. Check his Easter articles:
http://rustywright.com/topics/holiday-and-seasonal/easter/

Damaris also has Easter resources:
http://www.damaris.org.uk/easter

TITANIC CENTENARY - It's not too late to plan using this centenary as a starting point for appropriate evangelism:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/5174

INTERNET EVANGELISM DAY - please consider marking IE Day in your church, or tell others about it using this ready-made release:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/shortannouncement.php

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MOVIES AND POPULAR CULTURE

Culturewatch ministry Damaris offers study material for new movies Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, finding life lessons and spiritual parallels in them:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/7103

See also their discussion article on The Tree of Life film:
http://www.damaris.org/content/culturewatchguides/513

Studio Ghilbi's Arrietty animation is finally released in USA and Canada. Why is it so good?
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/7032

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COMMUNICATING WELL

THE SECRET STRUCTURE OF GREAT TALKS - Nancy Duarte's communication insights in this TED lecture seem vital. Follow her analysis of both Steve Jobs' iPhone launch and Dr King's I Have a Dream speech. These are surely principles that work for advocacy, preaching or evangelism?
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/6955

FACEPAINTING with a difference – try the test. Take your index finger, and draw an imaginary letter 'E' on your forehead. Or have fun with some friends and use washable finger paint or marker, to make the letter visible. An interesting lesson that could be used in a meeting or seminar to underline other-centered effective communication:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/6915

QUOTATIONS - If you are going to quote something, make sure you actually have it written accurately:
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/16-misquoted-quotations/

WHEN PRESENTING, remember to pause:
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/02/when_presenting_remember_to_pa.html

A STORY CAN DO MORE THAN TEACH YOU, says Ed Stetzer:
http://www.edstetzer.com/2012/02/thursday-is-for-thinkers-sally.html

AN OUTSIDER-FRIENDLY TESTIMONY from Kimberly on YouTube. Note camera pans and other editing that make a simple talking-head film visually interesting:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/6858

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STUMBLEUPON AND PINTEREST CAN INCREASE YOUR SITE VISITORS

STUMBLEUPON - I've used Stumbleupon (the online page sharing system) only slightly over the years, and have been seriously missing out as a result. It can drive many visitors to your website. Now admittedly, they are getting a somewhat random 'lucky dip' choice within a category they are looking at, unlike a targeted Google search. Nevertheless, I was surprised. I added a few blog posts to Stumbleupon, and within minutes had hits coming in. After 36 hours, there were about 100. I noticed also that one of my original postings from several years back (doubtless many others had also posted and 'liked' it) - the homepage of www.powertochange.com - has had 30,000 hits via Stumbleupon.

It takes minimal time to add pages to Stumbleupon (yours or other people's). Make sure you choose appropriate categories. If your content is for Christians, choose 'Christianity'. However, if your pages are outsider-friendly bridge-topic pages, eg on popular culture, choose the appropriate secular topic, eg 'Movies'. Note that you can submit individual pages, not just homepages. Read Justin Wise's explanation of this 'hidden gem' of Web 2.0 and how to use it:
http://justinwise.net/stumbleupon-blog

PINTEREST: This has some similarities to Stumbleupon, but is much more blog-like, with elements of Facebook, Twitter, and other systems. It is also extremely intuitive and easy to use, unlike, err, Facebook. You can build up a collection of curated recommendations within topic areas you choose. Although very graphic-led, each recommendation has a link to the chosen page and you can add an enticing summary. So at last, you can build a personal and visual website of your own without needing to write much, or know anything technical at all. As with Stumbleupon, choose secular topics for outsider-friendly bridge-topic pages.

Surprisingly, Pinterest does not yet offer 'faith' as an overall topic, though you can create many tightly-focused categories of your own. If you have a well-developed Pinterest 'board' that includes evangelistic pages, please tell me about it.

As with Stumbleupon, you can submit individual pages and blog posts, not just homepages:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/6977

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THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

LAST CHANCE TO WIN digital media book of outreach case studies in the Majority World:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/?p=6822

FREE EBOOKS from Covenant Eyes on web safety:
http://www.covenanteyes.com/e-books/

CULTURAL ELITES AND WORLD CHANGE by Eric Metaxas, drawing parallels from Wilberforce and the Clapham circle, hugely illuminating:
http://www.qideas.org/essays/cultural-elites-the-next-unreached-people-group.aspx

INTERNET 2011 usage in numbers:
http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/01/17/internet-2011-in-numbers/

YOUTUBE amazing recent usage figures:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/23/youtube-reaches-4-billion-views-per-day/

YOU NEVER MARRY the right person, says Relevant Magazine:
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/27749-you-never-marry-the-right-person

NEVER LISTEN TO ONE SIDE OF A STORY ... ever:
http://frankviola.org/2012/02/10/onesideofastory/

AND AVOID THE SAUL SYNDROME, it's lethal:
http://frankviola.org/2012/02/09/a-word-to-mentors-and-mentees/

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FOR UK CHRISTIANS AND CHURCHES

QUESTIONNAIRE FROM CHRISTIAN VISION - they need UK Christians (sorry, everyone else) to complete a short online questionnaire about digital ministry:
http://t.co/hqz2H84V

MORE THAN GOLD is a UK program to equip UK churches to engage with and use the London Olympics:
http://www.morethangold.org.uk/

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DIGITAL DOULOS INVITES IDEAS

Digital Doulos asks you to submit ideas for digital evangelism or discipleship, or vote on those already submitted. (You'll see that the majority of suggestions so far are 'insider options', ie. to help and bless Jesus followers.) What outreach initiatives do we need?
http://digitaldoulos.org/ideas

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THE BIBLE

Check Tim Challies' unique graphic with books of the Bible laid out like the chemistry periodical table. Plus details of the new free Bible.org online Bible Study Environment, with daily Bible reading plans, dictionaries, commentaries and more:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/7077

5 ways to use your mobile for Bible study, from Lauren at ChurchTechToday:
http://churchtechtoday.com/2012/02/10/5-ways-smartphone-bible-study/

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TECH TIPS

- non-techies look away now

CSS headings:
http://www.red-team-design.com/cool-headings-with-pseudo-elements

CSS3 target selector:
http://www.sitepoint.com/css3-target-selector/

DROP CAPS in CSS:
http://www.paulund.co.uk/learn-how-to-create-drop-cap-letters-in-css

CSS3 TECHNIQUES and tutorials:
http://www.dzinepress.com/2012/01/40-eventual-throng-of-css3-techniques-and-tutorials/

WORDPRESS .htaccess top hacks - you WILL need some of these:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17054056

WORDPRESS - first things to do when you start:
http://www.bluchic.com/10-essentials-to-do-list-after-installing-wordpress-on-your-website.html

GET INSPIRATION for a new domain name:
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/check-out-my-domain-name-generator/

DATA RECOVERY tools that could save the day:
http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/five-data-recovery-tools-that-could-save-the-day/6343309?tag=nl.e101

15 ONLINE PHOTO EDITING services:
http://www.webdesignbooth.com/online-photo-editing/

8 SEO TIPS that take 15 minutes or less:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2144010/8-SEO-Tips-That-Take-15-Minutes-or-Less

9 COMMON TITLE TAG mistakes and how to avoid them:
http://www.sitepronews.com/2012/02/05/9-common-title-tag-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/

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TAILEND FUNNIES ô¿ô

"Conjunctivitis.com - that's a site for sore eyes" - Tim Vine

A murmuration of starlings:
http://youtu.be/iRNqhi2ka9k

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Very grateful thanks if you would like to do any of these. Bless you, Tony

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