Interactive Preaching: Take Questions via Txt Message During Church
Posted on 29. Oct, 2008 by Aaron Marshall in Evangelism, How To, Mobile, Social Media
Because of new technology that exists this is actually an easy and inexpensive task.
Step #1 Sign-Up and Create a “TextMark“
Choose a keyword that will be easy for people to type in. If availble, choose short words or an acronym for your church.
Step #2 Create a PowerPoint slide that shows people VISUALLY how to ask a question using their phone
Send a text message to 41411 that starts with ASKSOJOURN followed by your question.
Example:
Step #3 Have a team Sift through the questions and forward them to your cell phone
This screen will be very valuable and make it easier to manage a big surge of questions. They will need to refresh the page occasionally to see new questions as they roll in.
There are several settings that need to be tweeked within TextMarks. Pay attention to the great option that allows you to respond with something like this when they ask a question…
Custom Response:
As always, I am curious to hear how others are using this kind of tool. Is there a better way?
Simple Tool for Making Website “Widgets” for Ministry Communications
Posted on 27. Sep, 2008 by Aaron Marshall in Evangelism, How To, Social Media
Sprout Builder is a fantastic new tool that will allow you to create a multimedia “widget” that can be easily embedded into other people websites or blogs.
Extend Your Ministry to Other Websites
When you change your content on Sprout Builder it automatically changes the content across all websites that have the widget on it. Instead of being just another link on someones blog you can have a multimedia presence and feed the latest content from your ministry automatically.
This tool has a mountain of applications for ministry. What other ways do you think Sprout Builder could be used?
IPODS4AFRICA: Share the Gospel & Disciple Africa by Donating your iPod
Posted on 17. Jul, 2008 by Aaron Marshall in Church2.0, Evangelism, How To, Missions, Social Media
Would you like to get solid biblical teaching into the hands of hungry African Pastors? So would we!
This is the beginning of a new ministry with the goal of utilizing millions of unused iPods to make disciples and carry the Gospel to all nations. The concept is simple. You donate your iPod, we pack it with solid biblical teaching and send it to an African Pastor.
Step#1 Send Us Your iPod
iPods4Africa
5702 Timber Ridge Dr
Prospect KY, 40059
Step #2. Your iPod will be Wiped and Loaded with Awesome Biblical Teaching
Step #3 Your iPod will be Sent to an African Pastor
Its that simple!
If you want more information or want to help out please contact us or leave your input in the comment section below.
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?
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.
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