Youth Ministers Need To Be Online
Posted on 06. Jan, 2009 by JoeRBennett in Church, Social Media, Video
For 3 ½ years, I served as Minister to Students at First Baptist Church in Chillicothe, Missouri. In a small town, having a ministry of presence is usually an easy task. To make sure the students knew I cared, I attended sporting events, plays, school lunches. I simply hung out with them. Just being a presence in the lives of teenagers is so important.
So why do Youth Ministers need to be online?
The answer is simple – because that’s where your students spend a lot of their time. The Internet is a mission field in and of itself. You have an opportunity to connect with students in a whole new way.
Many students tend to communicate more freely through Facebook messages or email or IM. Those students feel free to express themselves in ways they probably would not face-to-face. And if you aren’t connecting online, you are missing out on a whole new realm of ministry.
Places to connect with your students:
-Facebook -Twitter -MySpace -YouTube
Why do you think Youth Ministers should be online?
Extreme Blog Makeover: A Pastors Sojourn from Blogger to WordPress
Posted on 16. Jul, 2008 by Aaron Marshall in Church, Church2.0, How To, Social Media, Social Networking
Chad Lewis is one of the awesome pastors at my church. He had been blogging for years but took a break for awhile. When he decided to get back into it he looked around and realized that blogging had come a long way. He felt like his old blog account with blogger was inadequate. We gave his blog a WordPress makeover.
Before
After
WordPress has a Tool that Makes it SUPER Simple to Import Your Blogger Posts AND Comments
Chad had posts and comments all the way back to 2005. Using the WordPress import tool I was able to pull all of that seamlessly into his new blog. Phew.
My Take On The WordPress Philosophy
The core philosophy of WordPress is to be open and very community driven. It always nice to have a paid company to rely on for support but when it comes to online publishing, proprietary and dependence are nasty beasts.
Using WordPress is like Using a Professional Camera
It takes a little more to learn but you can really do amazing things with it. I am not here to do a feature comparison between Blogger and WordPress, but I want to impress on my readers that WordPress is an awesome solution. Especially, if you know someone who can teach you to work it.
It should be noted that Chad’s site was created with WordPress.ORG not WordPress.COM Whats the difference?
What do you like better WordPress or Blogger? Why?
Purpose Driven Failure: Take the Biggest Risk, Make the Dumbest Mistake and Utterly Lose
Posted on 20. May, 2008 by Aaron Marshall in Church, Social Media
Ask successful entrepreneurs what experiences have taught them the most. If they are humble they will recount a failed venture that was desperately painful, but taught them key lessons that help them to be successful today.
One technique I use for winning at games I’ve never played before is to intentionally lose. After a couple of games of being completely destroyed, I begin to see quite clearly what I need to do to win. (My wife can be a fierce competitor so I don’t always win).
I Learn More from Failure than I do from Success. Should I Purposely Fail?
If I am particularly talented this will mean I will have to bite off way more than I can chew. It’s easy for me to “Go Big” or be a “Risk Taker” yet secretly maintain control. The feeling security brings can be seductive… Unfortunately that means I will miss the greatest return of seeing miracles and growing in a trust relationship with my Creator.
God is More Interested in my Character Development than my Comfort.
Consider it pure joy when I face trials, rejoice in my sufferings, there is no condemnation, die to myself… These are not just “positive attitude” Scriptures, they are powerful challenges for me to live RADICALLY BROKEN and trust that I could not make a mess big enough that God could not clean it up.
The Worst Consequence of Living to Fail: People will Think I am a Failure.
The truth is I am a failure, without multiple miracles I would be dead. To hide that fact is to again be seduced by comfort and miss out on a satisfying relationship with Jesus. I confess this is deep issue for me.
Am I doing just enough for people to THINK they are seeing God’s glory, while in reality it is me just bolstering my personal brand?
A Series of Great Posts about Failure from Swerve
Engage People: Add Video to Your Ministry Website Using Vimeo
Posted on 29. Mar, 2008 by Aaron Marshall in Church, How To, Social Media, Video
Vimeo is a video sharing website similar to YouTube, but it offers a MUCH better experience. Not only does Vimeo have a better design and layout than YouTube but it is cleaner and doesn’t excessively push negative content to every page.
Why Vimeo is better than YouTube:
- Cleaner, Safer and more family friendly*
- Much more User-Friendly
- Clicking embedded videos doesn’t take you to Vimeo.com (example in video above)
- Ability to customize the size, look and color of embedded videos
- Upload video files up to 500 megabytes (instead of 100)
- Full screen option is available for embedded videos too (example in video above)
*Though Vimeo is cleaner than other video sharing sites they do not have strict rules to enforce that it will stay this way. Use at own risk.
2 Simple Steps for Embedding a Video in Your Site
Step #1 Copy the Embed Code
Click the button on your video that says “Embed” and copy the code by either right clicking and selecting copy or highlighting it and pressing CTRL+C. 
Step #2 Paste the Code into your Blog or Website
Write a new post or edit a page and look for a button that says “Edit HTML” or “View HTML” or “Code”. Once you have selected one of these options simply paste the code by either right clicking and selecting paste or press CTRL+V on your keyboard.
Dumb Question: Why Is Video Important?
Video has become an integral part of the web and something that ministries, churches and missions should absolutely be looking at for communications. Video gives life and interactivity to a website or blog and reaches a larger number of people who simply don’t read much. The apostle Paul used the best methods available for communicating the Gospel, visiting people and writing letters.
If Paul were alive today, what communication tools would he be using? Papyrus?…
“Social Media Staples” Fundamental Technologies that Make Learning the Web Easier
Posted on 03. Feb, 2008 by Aaron Marshall in Church, Church Technology, Church2.0, How To, Social Media
If You Only Read One Thing On This Blog, Read This
This post might be the most important post I have written. It deals with the basic building blocks of social media. There is a mountain of great tools and technologies that can be found online today, the key is to learn what I call the “Social Media Staples”. The staples are foundational tools that once learned make understanding and engaging the rest of the web much easier.
Let me re-emphasize this, if you learn these “Social Media Staples” learning other tools and technologies will be much less difficult.
RSS Feeds: Receiving, Absorbing, and Spreading Information
Links to RSS Readers I Reccomend:
A previous post about RSS Feeds
Social Bookmarking: Collecting, Organizing and Sharing Information
If you have any other technologies you think should be included as a social media staple, let me know in the comments.
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