Babel – Start a Conversation in 45 Languages!

Team Digerati at LifeChurch.tv is always thinking ahead with new ideas and using new technologies, all to reach out and build the Kingdom. Their newest project, babelwith.me, makes online chatting with a global audience as easy as entering your name and choosing a language (45 to pick from).

This tool is priceless as online ministry continues to scramble to meet the trends of an online generation. Best of all, babelwith.me is available for free. Thinking of beginning an online service or ministry? Then checking out this new tool is a must!  Just go to babelwith.me and invite a few friends. Simple!

Inviting twitter and facebook friends is a nice built-in feature! Follow babelwith.me on twitter for the latest news.

Way to go Team Digerati!!

Small Groups and Social Media

Are you a group leader who connects with members through the week on facebook? Are you a group director that has established a facebook group for your coaching team? Do you have a group twitter or blog? Does your group connect through online bible applications like YouVersion?  Are you a group that has created a ning page?  If you have other ideas… the rest of us small group leaders would love to hear them. Maybe you know of someone else who’s using Social Media to enhance their ministry? Please have them share their thoughts with us as well.

Just enter in the comments below. This can be an amazing resource for small group ministries!

Circles of Influence

For the past two weeks, my online group has reached out, and prayed for, twitter followers and facebook friends during our regular meeting time…inspired by our leader, Tony Steward, and this missional challenge from LifeChurch’s ChurchOnline.  We individually posted on both forums that we would pray for anyone who gave us a prayer request over the next 30 minutes. We responded to all requests by praying right then online.  We typically found that twitter followers responded to our tweets with their prayer request in a Direct Message. On facebook, we found we had more success initiating individual chats with online friends and offering prayer. From time to time we came back to our TokBox room (where our group meets) to share how things were going. We pretty much typed our fingers off lifting folks in prayer, and went closer to an hour than our intended 1/2 hour because it was so inspiring!

As much as I enjoyed, and was inspired by, this mission, it caused me to think about my circle of influence on these two sites. Please don’t get me wrong, I love praying for those who are in ministry and those who are following Christ. But wouldn’t it be powerful if I was offering prayer to an unbeliever? Or to someone wondering how people live out their love for Christ? Most people, unbelievers included, are open to being prayed for.

Church leaders, as we look to using Social Media as a means of communicating, connecting, and reaching out, lets remember to embrace (follow/friend) those who may not hold our same beliefs. Search out and accept people from all walks and beliefs. In fact, maybe it’s time to reconsider your circle of influence both on and offline.

Social Media Workshop – Sticky Church

Here are a few notes from the Social Media workshop at the Sticky Church conference hosted by Suncrest last week. Countless media exist, and the experience of our group was varied, so we decided to focus on a few major SM ideas. Handout available here.

Why suggest the church use Social Media? It is a fact that being online has become a natural communication channel in today’s culture. Our approach is that we want to go where people are gathering, not just expecting them all to come to us.

A few ways the church can implement Social Media:

1. website

• Podcast your sermon

2. blogging

• Lead Pastor blogging tips from Greg Lee included: Find an Audience, a Groove, a Voice, a Conversation, a Partner

3. facebook

• Create a church facebook page, invite attenders to join in

4. twitter

• Microblogging tool that has grown over 1000% in the last year
• Similar to blogging except 140 characters or less

5. tokbox

• Especially good for online small groups – also demo’d at workshop to bring in 3 Panel members listed below.

Panel Interview – I met all 3 using Social Media

DJ Chuang (Upper Left)
Spoke on new technologies and helping church leaders become aware of them. He oversees Digital @ Leadership Network, a blog dedicated to this very topic.

Tony Steward (Lower Right)
Shared some powerful lifechange stories (from social media sources) he’s been able to hear in his role as online community pastor at lifechurch.tv.

Cynthia Ware (Upper Right)
Talked to us about social media traits/values shaping ministry. A few values she discussed were – Interactivity, Decentralization and Mobility of Social Media.

Social media is not an end in itself, but a tool that can be leveraged for Kingdom advancement.

Digital@Leadership Network

I am still learning the ropes of blogging so was pleasantly surprised when DJ Chuang asked if I’d guest blog for Leadership Network’s Digital blog.  This blog is self-described as a “church tech blog for non-techies”. It aims to help those who want to know what’s new and useful in the digital world. To find out about things that will benefit them in their jobs, ministries and lives. I just posted there today about EverNote – an online collection tool I think you’ll really like. “Remember Everything” is their motto, hence the neat elephant icon. Check it out.  Digital@Leadership Network