May 8th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
The Scripps New Service published a thought-provoking article by Terry Mattingly entitled Ministers Find Online World Time Consuming.
The good news is that ambitious religious leaders can do 24/7, online, multi-media, interactive ministry at the local, national and even global levels. And the bad news? Users will expect them to build and maintain these 24/7, online, multi-media, interactive ministries at the local, national and even global levels.
How are you doing managing the opportunities for online ministry? Are you overwhelmed by reading and writing email, blogs, newsletters, forums, and participating in social networks? Or have you found effective ways to manage the digital world? If the latter, what insight do you have to share with others who may feel overwhelmed?
Posted in technology, communications | No Comments »
May 7th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
Is marketing inherently manipulative, superficial, annoying, worldly and even… evil? Or can Christian churches and ministries do marketing in an honest way to communicate the opportunities they provide to connect with God and grow spiritually?
We took a deeper look at that question on our Church Marketing Online blog.
Check out Is Marketing Evil?
What do you think? Is marketing evil? Does your church or ministry do marketing?
Posted in marketing | No Comments »
April 30th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
As you ought to know by now (because I’ve been blogging about it all month) this past Sunday, April 27, was Internet Evangelism Day. In addition to posting articles about Internet evangelism opportunities, I’ve been linking to every news story and blog article about IED I could find. So, my question this week is, did anyone actually do anything for IED or is it just something people like to talk about?
Yes. I was encouraged to find a several stories about Internet Evangelism Day activities.
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Posted in Internet Evangelism Day | 6 Comments »
April 24th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
Last week I wrote about how important it is for church websites to show up near the top of the search results when people in the community search online for a church. That’s the first step. Once a person sees your church’s website, will they want to visit your church?
Unfortunately, most church websites seem to be created to inform the existing members of the church rather than to reach out to people in the community. With Internet Evangelism Day only 3 days away I thought this would be a good time to remind everyone of some tips to help your website connect better with unbelievers. This could serve as a good topic of conversation for an IED meeting of your church leaders or web team.
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Posted in website, Internet Evangelism Day, web design | 2 Comments »
April 21st, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
Internet Evangelism Day is less than a week away. There’s still time for your church or organization to do something for it. Here is a list of news and blog articles about IED from the past week:Â
If you blog about IED, let us know and we’ll blog and post a link to it. If you don’t blog, commend about IED here.
Posted in Internet Evangelism Day | No Comments »
April 18th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. Pastors and church leaders need to know that just because their church has a website doesn’t mean it will be displayed in the search engine results when people in their community search for a church online.
As we near Internet Evangelism Day (April 27), if you pastor a church or administer a church website one of the best things you can do for IED is facilitate a meeting to discuss how to better use your church website to connect with people in your community. A key part of that is assessing your church website’s visibility in search engines and developing a plan to improve it.
You may be saying to yourself, “Uhhh, that sounds like a good idea, but I don’t really understand search engines, I don’t know how to assess my church website’s visibility in search engines, and I wouldn’t even know where to start to improve it.”
Well you’re in luck. This article will provide an overview, which you can use to lead that meeting and develop a great plan so your church can reach more people in your community.
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Posted in website, search, search engine, marketing, Internet Evangelism Day | 2 Comments »
April 14th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
As we get closer to Internet Evangelism Day (April 27) the number of articles about IED seems to be picking up. Not a lot of new thoughts - mostly republishing an IED press release or linking to the IED site - but it still good to see the number of articles increasing.Â
If you blog about IED, let us know and we’ll blog and post a link to it. If you don’t blog, commend about IED here.
Posted in Internet Evangelism Day | 3 Comments »
April 10th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
Most Christian websites are written purely for Christians. Only a small percentage of Christian websites are evangelistic - written primarily to address the questions and concerns of non-Christians, but even they can only help the small percentage of people who are actively seeking God. What about the rest of the world? One way to effectively reach unbelievers who are not spiritually seeking is through a “bridge site.”
What’s a bridge site?
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Posted in evangelism, Internet Evangelism Day, web design | 5 Comments »
April 7th, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
Not too many news or blog articles about Internet Evangelism Day have been published since Thursday morning, but here are a few…
- April 7th the latest IED press release was distributed.
- April 6th The Apostolic Report blogged about IED. This blog also includes an article published Thursday reporting results of a Technology in Church survey conducted among apostolic churches. According to the report 86% of the churches that responded have a website. And 42% of responding churches believe that at least 40% of the people in their church use the church’s website. Interesting.
- April 4th the Kitner’s Korner blog and Marshian Chronicles mentioned IED.
If you blog about IED, let us know and we’ll blog and post a link to it. If you don’t blog, commend about IED here.
Posted in Internet Evangelism Day | 1 Comment »
April 3rd, 2008 by Paul Steinbrueck
Sunday, April 27th is Internet Evangelism Day (IED). IED is a day to bring focus and attention to the tremendous opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ online. It’s also a day for Christians to educate themselves and strategize within their organizations about how they can better share their faith online throughout the year.
You don’t have to be an Internet guru, a Bible scholar, or an evangelist to point people to Christ online. Anyone can do it. That means you. It also means that if you are a leader in a church, youth ministry, Bible college, or other Christian organization, everyone in your organization can point people to Christ online. All they need is a little encouragement and instruction, which you can provide.
Today I want to take just a moment to point you towards some things you can do and tell you a little more about what OurChurch.Com is doing for IED…
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Posted in Internet Evangelism Day | 7 Comments »
