This is the fifth and perhaps the last post in the series: using the world’s tools:

 

Publish your own content is not about promotion. It is not about getting more people to come “in”, it is about pushing the boundaries of “in” to include the “out”… So stick with me. If you have anything excellent, make it available as a resource to others. This is using the worlds tools to multiply your fruit… This is missional thinking – helping others produce fruit. Continue reading “Publish Your Own COntent” →

This is the fourth post in a series about using the world’s tools.

I expect that in 2011, most churches already have a brochure website. So I don’t necessarily think it would be valuable to talk about the value of building one. But I do want to talk about some ideas that can make a brochure website more valuable.

What is a “brochure” website? A brochure is a piece of marketing literature that describes the goods or services you provide in terms of the value proposition to the recipient or consumer. A brochure website is basically the same thing, only on the internet. If you have a “new” attendee packet that you physically hand out to people when they attend your ministry for the first time, it would probably have the same comment. Continue reading “Brochure Website” →

This is the third post in a series about using the world’s tools to produce fruit.

OK – what on earth is a locator service. In internet terms it is a mapping website. I like Google Maps, some people like Map Quest – both work. If I want to get directions, or figure out where something is, I go to a locator service. I also use them for location sensitive searches. When I am at home, and I want to find a new asian takeout restaurant, I look at google maps, find my address and click the “search nearby” link. I type in asian restaurant, and it maps out my choices based on proximity to my address.

Why wouldn’t someone looking for church, or kids programs or preschool do exactly the same thing? No reason – they would. Best part is, they can do it from their phone, their laptop, anything.

You can get google or mapquest to link to your church website from the search. You can have your congregation put in reviews. It is a different way for someone to find you.

Make sure that this listing gets them to somewhere where you can tell your story.

Using social media to reach your community is a great strategy for reaching young people. At this point, I would suggest that virtually every ministry participant under 30 uses Facebook, under 25 uses Youtube, and probably 50% up through age 55 are occasional users of these technologies.

Do this experiment at your next meeting: Ask for a show of hands of Facebook users – who has ever used facebook, monthly, weekly, daily. If you are not already a facebook user yourself, you will be surprised at the way this particular technology has become pervasive. Continue reading “Social Media is Cool” →

We live in a time when technology is evolving very rapidly. Especially communication media are rapidly evolving. While communication media are certainly the tools of the “world system”, there is no reason that the church cannot and should not use these tools to “reach the world”. In fact, the world will recognize the church as “relevant” when it uses the current media to reach them.

If I look at the new testament, I see that in Paul’s missionary journeys he took advantage of local institutions to connect with people. In communities with a synagogue he started there, in other communities he used the public square.

What are the current media that we can take advantage of? Newspaper, radio, television are obvious, but also expensive. To advertise on these media costs thousands of dollars and have a very short life. The internet offers many, many opportunities for reaching our community, and beyond for extremely low cost. If we can get some savvy around this new technology we can use it to draw people from our community using media that they are immersed in.

Here are some ideas that cost little or nothing:

1) Brochure website – create a website that tells anyone who can find it what they need to know about your ministry.
2) Interactive web portal – create an online community that allows your members to communicate with each other, and to invite others to join.
3) Locator services – use mapping services like Mapquest and Google Maps to help those doing location sensitive searches find you.
4) Social media – use existing web applications like Facebook and Youtube to get your content and message to those who aren’t particularly looking at churches.
5) Publish your own content – using websites like Christianaudio.com and Biblegateway, publish your own message audio, or teaching aids – give back to the community of believers as a whole.

Not only do these cost very little to implement, several of them can vary likely be accomplished without any real technical expertise beyond what you already have among your current resources.

Look for a series of posts providing guidance on each of these ideas….

SocialMediaIsCool
LocatorServicesareSmart
BrochureWebsite
PublishYourOwnContent