If you are still wondering about the importance and value of social media, here's a rundown of my day and how my networks allowed some really cool opportunities.
I started the day having breakfast with a Facebook, pastor friend. We talked about different ways of connecting with people in our congregations. By the time breakfast was over, I had convinced him that he really needed to give Twitter a try. I hope to be able to connect with him there soon.
Next, I spent some time on Facebook connecting with some old friends from high school and college. One of them contacted me within an hour of my connecting with him to share some pretty heavy stuff. I was able to offer some encouragement and prayer and share some of the struggles from my own life. I really hope I am able to continue to redevelop this friendship with a really cool guy who has faced some tough times.
Then, I sent out a couple of tweets based on Sunday's message that were picked up by a couple of other guys in the Twittersphere and passed along to their network. Pastors, if you aren't using social networking for getting one more touch with people during the week and to reinforce what you taught on Sunday, you are missing out. It's neat to see the message you poured your heart and soul into the week before having more of an impact than just a few minutes on Sunday morning.
I also added a new app for Facebook called Seesmic that sends feed from your friends' Facebook status updates to your desktop. Very cool and makes staying connected with people faster and easier.
After lunch, I had to go to Jo-Ann's Fabrics to pick up some Spandex to use as a screen for our projector in worship. I tweeted about this, which sparked an ongoing conversation between friends and church members (one of them hundreds of miles away) on both Twitter and Facebook, very cool.
Then, a DJ from a local classic rock station contacted me via Twitter to ask if he could get an invitation to come visit our church sometime. That is so cool that it almost made me burst, that a guy out of the blue just contacts me via Twitter because he has been following me and heard about our church and wants to know if he can come. If you don't see the value of social networking, THERE IT IS! Don't know if this guy knows Christ, but he may get to know him BECAUSE OF TWITTER, PEOPLE! Oh, yeah, and I told the guy we'd love for him to come check us out.
Finally, on Facebook I got reconnected with one of my cousins who I haven't seen in a couple of years.
Totally awesome day on social networking.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
How to Handle a Financial Crisis
The audio for How to Handle a Financial Crisis is now up at www.welcometothecrossroads.com. The overarching principle is, get your focus off of money.
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Kings and I
Last night I was pleasantly surprised by NBC's new series Kings. I had heard about the show earlier in the week, and was anxious to see it, although I did not expect much from it.
If you didn't catch it (I really encourage you to go check it out at NBC.com), here's a synopsis. The show is a modern retelling of the biblical stories of Saul and David. The first episode begins with King Silas (Saul) of the Kingdom of Gilboa celebrating the inauguration of the newly rebuilt capital city of Shiloh. The setting looks very much like a shiny new version of a 21st Century American City.
Silas has been waiting for Reverend Samuels (the prophet Samuel), his spiritual advisor, to appear to pray an invocation over the ceremony. Reverend Samuels does not appear, so Silas begins the ceremony without him. He recounts to the gathered multitude how he, a former soldier, had been chosen by God to be the king of the newly formed kingdom. The sign of God's choice of him as king was a flock of butterflies that flew around him and settled on his head like a crown. The crowd goes wild.
In the meantime, Rev. Samuels has been delayed because he is having car trouble. He stops at a rural farm house belonging to a woman named Jesse Shepherd. She lives with her seven sons. Her husband had died fighting in the war of unification (the war in which Silas rose to power). Her youngest son David helps repair the Rev. Samuels's car. Samuels wipes a smudge from David's forehead (anointing?) and gives him his broken gold watch. He calls David the boy who can fix anything.
Two years later, the kingdom is engaged in a war with the kingdom of Gath along the northern border. David and his brothers are soldiers in the army. The Gittites(?) have a technological and firepower advantage with massive tanks known as (you guessed it) Goliaths. Two Gilboans are being held hostage, and David risks life and limb to cross enemy lines and rescue the hostages. In the process, he stands up against and miraculously destroys a Goliath tank. One of the hostages rescued by David happens to be Prince Jack (Jonathan), son of King Silas. Okay, so you kind of get the picture. Silas rewards David with a post in his administration and he rises to prominence.
Now, to my evaluation. The first thing I was delighted and surprised to see was the faithfulness to the main points of the biblical story line. There are a few artistic liberties, and many of these simply relate to converting a three thousand year old story into a 21st century setting. The role of God in the story is not overlooked. In fact, it is even highlighted. Silas clearly believes God has placed him in the position as king, although he certainly takes liberty with that election (Wow, don't we all do that!). Reverend Samuels clearly represents the voice of God. In a line almost directly from Scripture, Samuels tells Silas, "The Lord has rejected you as king. He is going to take your kingdom from you and give it to a man after his own heart." David appears as a young man liked by all who is discovering God's calling for his life.
I also loved the character analysis of King Silas in the program. Silas appears as a man drunk on power who also has delusions related to God's choice of him as king. He has old war wounds that plague him (Saul's headaches?), and a brother-in-law who has a measure of control over him that causes him to make poor decisions and puts tremendous pressure on him (Is this the spirit from the Lord sent to torment Saul?). He has a lover in another town and an illegitimate son by her (possibly the Ishbosheth ("man of shame") who becomes king after Saul and Jonathan's deaths). He sees David as an asset politically, but is enraged by David's relationship with his daughter Michelle (Michal).
There was really only one point in the story that I thought took some liberties with the biblical story, and that is the character of Jack (Jonathan). The program presents Jack as a womanizing, partying, loose cannon who also is a valiant, risk, taking soldier desperately trying to please his father. I'm not sure this is necessarily an accurate portrayal of the biblical Jonathan. However, after rereading the Scripture, I think you could certainly make a case for the fact that Jonathan appears to be an adventurous, independent, young man, perhaps with some sense of entitlement, who shows incredible, albeit, sometimes risky bravery. And maybe that kind of character would also produce a wild lifestyle.
The aspect of Jack's character that is more troubling is that it appears that his womanizing tendencies are actually a cover for the fact that he is a homosexual. Silas berates Jack at one point telling him he knows about what he does with young boys at night and that if he is going to one day be king he will have to learn to control his desires. I do not think the Scripture portrays Jonathan as a homosexual, or the relationship between Jonathan and David as anything other than a deep friendship. I am troubled with what the show may do with the relationship between Jonathan and David. However, I think we need to be honest, the language that the Bible uses for the relationship between Jonathan and David is the most intense languge the Bible ever uses for describing the relationship between two men. I think we should at least be willing to enter into this conversation, to wrestle with the nature of the relationship between Jonathan and David, to be willing to discuss it with people who have questions, and to demonstrate through our relationships with other men what healthy, biblical friendship is all about. You can have a Bromance without it being anything other than deep friendship. So, we'll see where this aspect of the show goes.
If nothing else, Kings has inspired me to study the biblical story of Saul and David with more intensity. I hope that it does the same for other people and gives opportunity for discussions with others about the whole story of God's redemption.
If you didn't catch it (I really encourage you to go check it out at NBC.com), here's a synopsis. The show is a modern retelling of the biblical stories of Saul and David. The first episode begins with King Silas (Saul) of the Kingdom of Gilboa celebrating the inauguration of the newly rebuilt capital city of Shiloh. The setting looks very much like a shiny new version of a 21st Century American City.
Silas has been waiting for Reverend Samuels (the prophet Samuel), his spiritual advisor, to appear to pray an invocation over the ceremony. Reverend Samuels does not appear, so Silas begins the ceremony without him. He recounts to the gathered multitude how he, a former soldier, had been chosen by God to be the king of the newly formed kingdom. The sign of God's choice of him as king was a flock of butterflies that flew around him and settled on his head like a crown. The crowd goes wild.
In the meantime, Rev. Samuels has been delayed because he is having car trouble. He stops at a rural farm house belonging to a woman named Jesse Shepherd. She lives with her seven sons. Her husband had died fighting in the war of unification (the war in which Silas rose to power). Her youngest son David helps repair the Rev. Samuels's car. Samuels wipes a smudge from David's forehead (anointing?) and gives him his broken gold watch. He calls David the boy who can fix anything.
Two years later, the kingdom is engaged in a war with the kingdom of Gath along the northern border. David and his brothers are soldiers in the army. The Gittites(?) have a technological and firepower advantage with massive tanks known as (you guessed it) Goliaths. Two Gilboans are being held hostage, and David risks life and limb to cross enemy lines and rescue the hostages. In the process, he stands up against and miraculously destroys a Goliath tank. One of the hostages rescued by David happens to be Prince Jack (Jonathan), son of King Silas. Okay, so you kind of get the picture. Silas rewards David with a post in his administration and he rises to prominence.
Now, to my evaluation. The first thing I was delighted and surprised to see was the faithfulness to the main points of the biblical story line. There are a few artistic liberties, and many of these simply relate to converting a three thousand year old story into a 21st century setting. The role of God in the story is not overlooked. In fact, it is even highlighted. Silas clearly believes God has placed him in the position as king, although he certainly takes liberty with that election (Wow, don't we all do that!). Reverend Samuels clearly represents the voice of God. In a line almost directly from Scripture, Samuels tells Silas, "The Lord has rejected you as king. He is going to take your kingdom from you and give it to a man after his own heart." David appears as a young man liked by all who is discovering God's calling for his life.
I also loved the character analysis of King Silas in the program. Silas appears as a man drunk on power who also has delusions related to God's choice of him as king. He has old war wounds that plague him (Saul's headaches?), and a brother-in-law who has a measure of control over him that causes him to make poor decisions and puts tremendous pressure on him (Is this the spirit from the Lord sent to torment Saul?). He has a lover in another town and an illegitimate son by her (possibly the Ishbosheth ("man of shame") who becomes king after Saul and Jonathan's deaths). He sees David as an asset politically, but is enraged by David's relationship with his daughter Michelle (Michal).
There was really only one point in the story that I thought took some liberties with the biblical story, and that is the character of Jack (Jonathan). The program presents Jack as a womanizing, partying, loose cannon who also is a valiant, risk, taking soldier desperately trying to please his father. I'm not sure this is necessarily an accurate portrayal of the biblical Jonathan. However, after rereading the Scripture, I think you could certainly make a case for the fact that Jonathan appears to be an adventurous, independent, young man, perhaps with some sense of entitlement, who shows incredible, albeit, sometimes risky bravery. And maybe that kind of character would also produce a wild lifestyle.
The aspect of Jack's character that is more troubling is that it appears that his womanizing tendencies are actually a cover for the fact that he is a homosexual. Silas berates Jack at one point telling him he knows about what he does with young boys at night and that if he is going to one day be king he will have to learn to control his desires. I do not think the Scripture portrays Jonathan as a homosexual, or the relationship between Jonathan and David as anything other than a deep friendship. I am troubled with what the show may do with the relationship between Jonathan and David. However, I think we need to be honest, the language that the Bible uses for the relationship between Jonathan and David is the most intense languge the Bible ever uses for describing the relationship between two men. I think we should at least be willing to enter into this conversation, to wrestle with the nature of the relationship between Jonathan and David, to be willing to discuss it with people who have questions, and to demonstrate through our relationships with other men what healthy, biblical friendship is all about. You can have a Bromance without it being anything other than deep friendship. So, we'll see where this aspect of the show goes.
If nothing else, Kings has inspired me to study the biblical story of Saul and David with more intensity. I hope that it does the same for other people and gives opportunity for discussions with others about the whole story of God's redemption.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Beautiful and Truly Amazing
Il Divo performs Amazing Grace in the Colisseum in Rome. As you watch this, just consider the fact that they are performing it in the place where hundreds, maybe thousands, of Christians gave their lives in obedience to and love for their Lord.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I Hate Church Signs 2
I think I have just about talked myself out of the billboard idea. Every person I have talked to says effective billboards have to be up for at least six months. That's six months of the same message. What happens if your design idea happens to be one that doesn't really draw people in? Then you are stuck with it for six months.
For the same price, we could do six direct mail pieces utilizing different themes and designs. Additionally, we are doing a movie themed series this summer. I think sending out a direct mail piece with a movie ticket theme would work better anyway.
We still may consider the billboard sometime in the future. For now, we are looking at other marketing ideas as well. Please, let me know what you have seen as the most effective marketing tools in your area.
For the same price, we could do six direct mail pieces utilizing different themes and designs. Additionally, we are doing a movie themed series this summer. I think sending out a direct mail piece with a movie ticket theme would work better anyway.
We still may consider the billboard sometime in the future. For now, we are looking at other marketing ideas as well. Please, let me know what you have seen as the most effective marketing tools in your area.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
God Wants You to Have Great Sex
God gets great glory when we take absolute delight in our sexual lives. That's the premise behind our message series "pillowtalk." The audio for all four weeks of "pillowtalk" are now available for download at www.welcometothecrossroads.com.
This has been an awesome message series that I have really enjoyed. And, the homework is great!
This has been an awesome message series that I have really enjoyed. And, the homework is great!
I Hate Church Signs
What is the most effective means of getting people to know about your church? Obviously the best advertisement for your church is a satisfied customer, when someone from your church takes the time to tell a friend about their church and invites them to come experience your church.
But what else? One of my pet peeves is church signs, the kind that have cutesy little sayings on them that only really make sense to people who have been in the church for twenty plus years. "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." "What's missing from this ch__ch? UR." Or, my personal favorite, "Hope wishes. Faith omniscies." I have two theology degrees and a couple of years toward a Ph.D. and I'm not sure I understand that one. All that to say, I'm generally opposed to those kinds of church signs. No, I hate them. They are rarely understandable to unchurched people, sometimes are offensive, and often only further the stereotypes that the unchurched have about us.
Yet, today, I found myself considering the possibility of a church sign. Not the cutesy, slogan, cliched type. Just a sign advertising an upcoming message series and channeling people to our website. Since we are a mobile church, we don't have a "presence" that people see throughout the week. A billboard is available in our town, which got me to thinking about the possibility. Still thinking about it.
But, I'm wondering, what is the most effective marketing tool for churches? As I have asked other guys, it seems that direct mail is still the predominant means of getting people at large to know about our churches. We have done several of these at The Crossroads and plan to continue to use them. But even the most effective direct mail pieces get a return of about 1%. That means, if you send out a 5,000 piece mailer, you can expect about 50 people to visit sometime within the next year. Not bad, but certainly not a terribly efficient marketing tool.
It would seem that effectiveness and use among church planters falls off after that with things like billboards, radio, newspaper, and television. All of which are impersonal means of connecting with people.
I spoke with the sales manager from a major car dealership in the DFW Metroplex this afternoon about marketing. He told me that they have had great success with direct mail, followed by billboards. He also said they have used Facebook advertising with some effectiveness.
The golden nugget in this conversation, however, was that they are now discovering that the most effective means of marketing is currently text messaging. Wow! Here's a totally free marketing tool that uses the personal touch of you people and gets the word out in a rapid manner. I'm thinking we can apply this to Facebook and Twitter as well. The most effective marketing tool is one most of your people have in their hands every Sunday morning, their phone. I know I plan to encourage our people this Sunday morning, as soon as church is over, to send out a text to a friend telling about The Crossroads.
But what else? One of my pet peeves is church signs, the kind that have cutesy little sayings on them that only really make sense to people who have been in the church for twenty plus years. "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." "What's missing from this ch__ch? UR." Or, my personal favorite, "Hope wishes. Faith omniscies." I have two theology degrees and a couple of years toward a Ph.D. and I'm not sure I understand that one. All that to say, I'm generally opposed to those kinds of church signs. No, I hate them. They are rarely understandable to unchurched people, sometimes are offensive, and often only further the stereotypes that the unchurched have about us.
Yet, today, I found myself considering the possibility of a church sign. Not the cutesy, slogan, cliched type. Just a sign advertising an upcoming message series and channeling people to our website. Since we are a mobile church, we don't have a "presence" that people see throughout the week. A billboard is available in our town, which got me to thinking about the possibility. Still thinking about it.
But, I'm wondering, what is the most effective marketing tool for churches? As I have asked other guys, it seems that direct mail is still the predominant means of getting people at large to know about our churches. We have done several of these at The Crossroads and plan to continue to use them. But even the most effective direct mail pieces get a return of about 1%. That means, if you send out a 5,000 piece mailer, you can expect about 50 people to visit sometime within the next year. Not bad, but certainly not a terribly efficient marketing tool.
It would seem that effectiveness and use among church planters falls off after that with things like billboards, radio, newspaper, and television. All of which are impersonal means of connecting with people.
I spoke with the sales manager from a major car dealership in the DFW Metroplex this afternoon about marketing. He told me that they have had great success with direct mail, followed by billboards. He also said they have used Facebook advertising with some effectiveness.
The golden nugget in this conversation, however, was that they are now discovering that the most effective means of marketing is currently text messaging. Wow! Here's a totally free marketing tool that uses the personal touch of you people and gets the word out in a rapid manner. I'm thinking we can apply this to Facebook and Twitter as well. The most effective marketing tool is one most of your people have in their hands every Sunday morning, their phone. I know I plan to encourage our people this Sunday morning, as soon as church is over, to send out a text to a friend telling about The Crossroads.
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