Happy Friday folks! Tomorrow we celebrate the 4th of the July here in the U.S., which makes today a holiday for many of us. Woohoo!
The 4th of July, a.k.a. Independence Day, is the day we Americans celebrate our independence from the British empire. More broadly though, it’s the day we celebrate the freedoms we cherish so dearly - free, democratic elections, the freedom to live and work where we choose, freedom of speech, freedom to worship as the Spirit of God leads us, and many more.
In that light, for today’s Free Link Friday, post a link to a web page (on your site or another) that celebrates or discusses freedom.
Enjoy your 4th, and in between the cookouts and the fireworks, don’t forget to thank God for the freedoms you’ve been blessed with.
I remember as a kid praying as a family for the Raths and Millies, two missionary families who were friends of my parents serving over seas. Though we prayed for them on a regular basis, we almost never knew how they were doing or what life was like on a day-to-day basis. I remember our family receiving only a handful of letters from them over the years.
Of course, that’s no fault of the missionaries. Back then (25 years ago), I think it cost about $5 to send a single-page letter from Papua New Guinea (about $11 in today’s money), there were no phones, and any communication was a major undertaking.
This is a guest blog article by Wendy Spoon, web administrator of First Grace Church in Glenpool, Oklahoma.
My husband and I set off to our yearly get-away to The Arcadian Inn Bed and Breakfast in Edmond, Oklahoma to celebrate our anniversary. But it ended up being the beginning of our “Adventures in Social Networking”. You see, Edmond, Oklahoma is also home to LifeChurch.tv. They are a church whose entire ministry is based on internet media and social networking. It got us to thinking about how we, as a church, can reach out and be more effective in reaching people. Finding new ways to introduce people to Jesus Christ.
At this time, we had our church website. One concern is that we were not getting a lot of hits. Simply meaning, that people were not finding us because we had not given them anything to look for. This particular weekend, we were able to talk in depth about what God was leading us to do, and social networking became the topic of our get-away. While in Edmond, we were able to talk to the innkeeper (a member of LifeChurch.tv) and found out ways the church is reaching out using the internet and social networking.
Happy Friday everyone! Got any good plans this weekend you’re looking forward to? I’m looking forward to going mountain biking with some friends tomorrow and then do a belated Father’s Day celebration with my dad and extended family.
For this weeks edition of Free Link Friday, we’re going to focus our attention on Facebook Pages. If you’ve got a Facebook Page for your church, school, ministry or business, post a comment with a link to it below so our readers can check it out and possibly “become fans.”
Yesterday, I finally got around to adding a ShareThis button to Christian Web Trends. We had been using an older version of AddThis, but I found ShareThis to easier to use. It also includes the capability to email the blog article to someone, even importing your contacts to do so if you like. We had been using the wp-email plugin for that. Anytime you can replace 2 plugins with one that does a better job, it’s a no brainier.
If you don’t have some kind of sharing/social bookmarking tool like ShareThis embedded in your website you are missing out on a great opportunity…
I’ve been participating in the group blogging project for the book Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps. Today I had the privilege of blogging about chapter 6.
In this chapter Hipps claims that communications technology led to post-modernism and it has also led to a flood of facts and trivia that we struggle to make sense of.
So, the questions I’m pondering (and I hope you will to) are…
1) How am I responding to people with a post-modern worldview who are skeptical of universal truth and put off by the claim that Christianity is the only real faith?
2) What am I doing with technology to produce not just information but understanding and wisdom? And not just in me but in others?
Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but this week flew by for me.
Anyways, in this week’s Free Link Friday we’re going to help out Twitter users. If you use Twitter, post your Twitter address here so other Christian Web Trends readers can find out about you and follow you.
Congratulations to Chaplain Sam Houchins aka @shouchins who won the $50 Bonefish Grill / Outback Steakhouse gift card in yesterday’s Twitter giveaway. And thanks to everyone who participated by posting a tweet about the giveaway.
We’ll do another giveaway some time next week, so stay tuned.
One of my biggest frustrations with regards to this blog is the lack of comments and meaningful discussion on most of the posts here.
It’s frustrating for two reasons.
First, I really, really, really want this blog to be a place where we are all helping each other to understand how to most effectively use Internet technology in ministry. I am not by any stretch of the imagination the smartest guy on this topic or the best writer nor do I have all the answers. This blog is not reaching its full potential because it lacks your insight and observations, your experience and perspective.
Second, commenting on this blog is a fantastic and very easy opportunity for you to help your ministry grow. Comments can give you credibility, links, and new visitors. I can’t for the life of me understand why more people don’t comment more often.
So, here’s the deal. I am going to lay out as clearly as I possibly can the benefits of commenting. Then I’d like you to give me the honest truth as to why you haven’t commented more often and tell me how to make this blog more engaging.
If it’s because I suck as a writer or have been writing on boring topics, that’s fine. I just want to know so I can try to make the blog better. You can be anonymous.
Happy Friday folks! Tomorrow we celebrate the 4th of the July here in the U.S., which makes today a holiday for many of us. Woohoo!
I remember as a kid praying as a family for the Raths and Millies, two missionary families who were friends of my parents serving over seas. Though we prayed for them on a regular basis, we almost never knew how they were doing or what life was like on a day-to-day basis. I remember our family receiving only a handful of letters from them over the years.
This is a guest blog article by Wendy Spoon, web administrator of 
Happy Friday everyone! Got any good plans this weekend you’re looking forward to? I’m looking forward to going mountain biking with some friends tomorrow and then do a belated Father’s Day celebration with my dad and extended family.
Yesterday, I finally got around to adding a 
Over the last 3 weeks our Social Networking Round Table has taken a look a social networking from various angles:
I’ve been participating in the group blogging project for the book 
Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but this week flew by for me.
Congratulations to Chaplain Sam Houchins aka 
Can we be real with each other for a few moments?