I'm a husband, father, pastor, and web designer. Above all, I'm a Christ follower. I write about family, pastoring, the Church, Jesus, humor, and whatever else distracts me. Stick around. I might distract you too.
I first came across this quote listening to John Piper teaching about C.S. Lewis. Â I have been pondering lately the idea of discipleship in the Bible and how that relates to the mission of the Church. Â In doing so, I’ve come to realize that so much of the effort spent in our lives (and in our churches) is wasted on things that are good, but not best.
People matter. Â Jesus thought so. Â So much so, that He died for them, offers to occupy their hearts, and then places the hope of the world on their shoulders as the Church. Â People. Â Really. Matter.
It is a serious thing to…remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another… all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.
And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to…[God Himself], your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden. ~C.S. Lewis
How does this truth change the way we view and treat the people around us? I think it changes everything.
“Are you crazy? I don’t have time for a blog, Facebook, and Twitter!” ~ You
Yes you do. I’ll show you how to leverage Twitter and your WordPress blog to get your feet wet in the social networking world with minimal effort. Read on.
What is Social Networking?
I mentioned in my first post of the series that we are now living in a global culture. Everyone is asking the question “Where do I fit in this new global world?”. The internet, to a large degree, has been the arena in which people have sought to answer that question. We’ve seen a shift in the past 10 years or so. Around the new millennium, people were just trying to make money with the internet. Since then, the big innovations have been centered around people connecting with other people. This is social networking. People finding new ways to connect to each other on the global stage of the internet (at least, that’s how I define it…)
There are a dizzying array of social networking options out there. Feel free to explore them, but I’m going to focus on the two big ones: Facebook and Twitter. (forget MySpace – it’s been thoroughly trounced by Facebook at this point). Let’s take them one at a time.
Twitter – Beautiful in It’s Simplicity
So be careful not to underestimate it. Twitter began as a simple question, “What are you doing?” Not very impressive. What’s impressive is how the “hive mind” of the web took the simple idea and used it to redefine social networking.
This video might help with the background:
I was very skeptical of Twitter at first. It all seemed very narcissistic to me. But I finally got convinced to try it and I’ve never looked back. I’m meeting people that I never would have met any other way, and it’s one of the few social networking tools that I have tried that actually improved my life.  If you need more convincing, here’s 12 more reasons to start today. For the rest of you that are ready to dive in, here’s what you need to do:
Get your free Twitter account. Choose a username that makes sense and can be remembered easily. Resist the temptation to give yourself a goofy nickname.
Use their tool for adding anyone in your contact list to your follow list.
Search for anyone else you want to follow. You can search by name, topic, whatever. Check out people you like and see who they follow. This really is the key to enjoying twitter. Following people in whom you are interested.
Get a desktop twitter client. The web interface is ok, but Twitter will really come alive for you when you get a nice desktop app for it. I very highly recommend Twhirl for beginners. Try Tweetdeck when you get the hang of things.
Start by listening and making note of how other people use twitter. When someone says something you think is interesting or entertaining, Retweet it. Reply if someone asks a question. Take your time, ease into it.
Remember that Twitter is about adding to a conversation. Don’t let it become all about you. Use it to point out interesting things on the web. Use it to share thoughts, quotes, etc. Think of Twitter as microblogging. The more value you add, the better your experience will be.
Tweet your blog posts. Every time you publish something on your blog, announce it on twitter and provide a link to the post. This way you are leveraging your twitter following to your blog.
Use your phone. You can send tweets by text message and use the mobile version of the Twitter website. Blackberry and iPhone also both have some nice twitter apps.
I have to confess. I don’t really like Facebook and I don’t go to it very often. But, no one really knows it. If you go to my Facebook profile it will look like I’m there all the time. It’s not so.
Where Twitter is like a focussed, short, and somewhat controlled connection tool… Facebook is like trying to drink from a fire hose. It’s overwhelming to me at times. I’m certainly a minority there… Facebook is HUGE and most of the people in my church are active there. Here’s how I maintain visibility on Facebook without letting it rule my time:
Install the Twitter Facebook application. It will tie your Twitter messages to your Facebook status. Once you’ve done that, every time you send a tweet it will show up on your Facebook profile as a status update. 2 birds with one… tweet. ;-)
I use Flickr to share photos with family. There’s a facebook app for flickr too. Every time I add a photo to my flickr account, it shows up on Facebook. 2 birds again…
Google Reader has a facebook app. If you use Google Reader to manage your RSS feeds, you can install the GR app and every time you “share” an article in Google Reader, it appears on Facebook. Notice, all this Facebook activity and I haven’t gone to the FB site once.
Now the only time I have to go to Facebook is when someone emails me from there (rare for me because I don’t send emails out from FB) or does something on my profile that warrants a response. SHhhhhh…. don’t tell.
As you can see, Twitter really is at the center of my social network. I suggest you set yourself up the same way.
The next, and last, installment in this series will be a guest post from Trendsetting Design to help you use the power of graphic design to enhance your ministry online and offline.
DISCLOSURE: I do web development work as a side business. I work mostly with other churches. Though I’d love to have you as a client, that’s not why I’m writing this post. I really have a heart to see churches get plugged in, no matter how they get there.
Get a Good Website
do you have something nauseating like this on your website? REPENT.
I said “good” for a reason.
The first question is if you have a website, is it a good website or a bad one? Now, odds are you are a terrible judge of this. So are your friends. I know that seems harsh, but it’s usually true. I really can’t count how many times another pastor has bragged about their website and I go look at it and it’s abysmal. Ask a 25 year old to give you an honest opinion both on the functionality of the site as well as the design. Have them describe the site to you in their own words. Ask guests if they have seen the website and what they think. Watch their body language as much as what they say. You’ll know, if you pay attention. If you still aren’t sure, email me or leave a comment with a link and I’ll give you my honest (but nice) opinion.
If you don’t have website, or your current site looks like any of these (I’ve seen worse, but these are bad enough) then you need to change that now. This is a bigger priority than most people realize. Start dealing with it this week because it’s hurting you more than you think.
Assume that anyone that thinks about visiting you is going to Google your church name first, because they will. What will they find? Does it help you or hurt you? First impressions last, and your website is your first impression.
Where Do I Start?
I’m a pastor so I know how this works. Right out of the gate, you need to face the money issue. Unless you are blessed with a volunteer that is a skilled, experienced and faithful web developer at your church, you are going to need to hire someone. Yes, there are open source solutions out there that you can use to create your own site for cheap/nothing but that only gets you the tool. It doesn’t teach you how to use it, create the right content, or organize it the right way. Most churches start with a volunteer, then hire someone they know to fix it, and eventually pay someone who actually knows what they are doing to fix 3 generations of junk website and wasted cash. Make payments if you have to, but get it done right the first time. If you think it’s hard getting financial backing now, wait until you go through 2 or 3 failed (and very public) iterations of a website.
If you really can’t afford that (or can’t convince your finance committee to cough it up) then at least hire someone (for less) to do a basic “brochure-ware” site that only has 2 maybe 3 nicely designed static pages with some pics, general info about your church, service times, directions, and contact info. This is far from ideal, but I’ve seen some sites like this that were very compelling and well done.
Provide at least one section of content on your site that will keep people coming back. This could be a news/announcements section, prayer request board, church calendar, sermon podcast, etc. Anything that will make people come back to check for more. If you have to choose, go with sermons. EVERYONE wants to “try before they buy” and church hunting is no exception.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You should have sermons on your website every week. But, if it doesn’t get updated it looks bad. You will need a volunteer to handle the sermon editing and uploads. You should have a church calendar. But if it’s empty, you’ve shot yourself in the foot. Resist the pressure to add every bell and whistle you can to your site. Start small, and grow it as it is practical to do so. Be honest with yourself up front about what your church is equipped to handle and do well. If it won’t be excellent, don’t do it.
Get a CMS (Content Management System). Whoever you hire to create your site, should provide this to you. A CMS allows you (and your volunteers) to edit and manage the site’s content without having to be a web geek. It gives you a graphical, web-based interface that is intuitive. Demand that as part of your contract with your web company. If you have a skilled volunteer creating your site, demand that they use a CMS. No one person should ever have sole ownership and access to your website.
Remember to include the basics. The following should all be no more than 2 clicks away, one is better. Staff bios with pics. Service times visible on every page. Directions (even better, embed a Google map). Contact info including an email form. Statement of Faith (that makes sense). What to wear (no matter your denomination, you need to tell them this. You’re a bad host if you assume they know what to wear). I can’t tell you how many church websites I’ve seen where I have to hunt for this info for 5 minutes or more.
Be very very careful when hiring someone from your church to do it. When it works out well, it’s great. You usually get more passionate work at a better price. However, when it goes bad it goes really bad. You end up having to choose between losing a church member and losing a website. You don’t want to be in that position. I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m just saying, do MORE than your due diligence when it comes to hiring a web designer from your church membership.
There’s more to do than this, but this will get you started which is my goal here. Assuming you haven’t hired an incompetent web geek or allowed the “computer guy” in your church to handle the website (you haven’t, have you?), most of this will be taken care of. However, if you don’t ask for it you might not get it.
Shoot the Animated Doves
Once your cool new site is live, promote that thing like crazy. Mention it all the time in conversation, mention it Sunday morning, mention it to guests. Put the URL in your bulletins, business cards and signage. Find ways to force your church to visit it often. Make it a part of your church culture, because this is a building block on which you are going to be able to build other things.
Most pastors know that they need to get plugged into web technology, but they have no idea where to begin. This series is for you. I want to help you engage your city and the world with the gospel. I also have another audience in mind. It’s those that still don’t see the need to get on the web tech bus. Maybe your seminary prof told you the web is a dark and evil place that should be avoided at all cost. Or maybe you just see this as a big fad that will go away soon. Let me address that problem first as a way of providing some context.
Only a crazy hermit could deny that web tech has taken over, particularly in the form of social media and networking. Still, I meet pastors all the time that simply don’t see how participating in that world can possibly benefit their ministry. If they do participate, it’s begrudgingly. They say, “Humph. I guess these days this is the kind of thing you have to do. All the young kids are doing it, so I suppose we should too.” In other words, I don’t see the value in this, but I’ll do it to make people happy. However, I know in my own mind that I’m not going to really give this a shot. I don’t understand it, so it must not be important.
What Do You Think? Are Westerners Still Naive? While I don’t think we should be suprised by these comments, I find it disturbing that (in my perception) most of my neighbors and certainly much of our political system seems to think that Islam just needs to be pacified, coddled, and sweet-talked. Does this guy sound like he wants to cuddle to you?
From the video’s description: “this is not a Jihadists from Iran but a professor from Kuwait – a country with every reason to be grateful to the USA for liberating it from the tyranny of Saddam Husseins invasion.”
