Internet Evangelism Day is April 21. That’s just 2 days away.  If your organization has not done anything to prepare, don’t worry, it’s not too late.  IED is all about letting the folks in your organization know about the great opportunities we have to share our faith online and encouraging them to make the most of those opportunities.

So even if this is the first you’re hearing about it, you can write a blog post about sharing your faith online, tweet/share someone else’s post about it, or start a conversation in social media  by asking a question like, “What do you think about sharing your faith online? Have you done that? How did it go?”

Evangelism… Yes, There’s an App for That

A lot of people are apprehensive about trying to explain their faith to their friends.  ”What if it comes out all jumbled?”  ”What if I sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about?” “What if my friend asks me a question I don’t know the answer to?”

Intervarsity Christian Fellowship has developed the New World Gospel Presentation mobile app to help with that.

Based on material from True Story by James Choung, this free app helps you illustrate the main points of the gospel message by drawing four “worlds” on your screen.

Suggested dialogue and Scripture references are included for each world to help you explain the gospel as you draw.

The opportunity to make a decision for Jesus Christ and join his mission to heal the world is presented at the end; a suggested prayer is included.

Features 

• Draw each world by tracing its outline as you explain each step.
• Save or erase your drawings.
• Flip each of your drawings over for suggested dialogue and Scripture references.
• Offer a suggested prayer to Jesus for those who want to commit their lives to Christ.
• Email a PDF recap of the New World Gospel Presentation to follow-up after your discussion.

The app is available for iOS (iPhone, iPod, iPad) and Android.

What do you think?  Could this app help you share your faith more easily? Could it help your friends or the people in your church or ministry share their faith?

With more and more people surfing the net on mobile phones and tablets its becoming more and more important to consider how well your site is performing on these devices.

If this is the first time you’ve thought about this and you’ve got no idea how your site is performing head over to a site like Responsinator. Responsinator lets you check out how your site performs on multiple devices ranging from ipads to android phones.

So if you’ve had a look at how your site performs and you’re not particularly impressed its time to consider responsive design!

So what is responsive design?

Responsive websites adapt to size of the device they are being viewed on. The menu will change, boxes will move around the screen to make them fit in more useful spots etc. For an example of a responsive church website check out the Mars Hill Church website, change the size of your browser and you’ll notice how the site changes so it still looks good, nifty eh! Basicly responsive sites work by running a quick test on the size of your browser window and laying the blocks out accordingly.

So how do I get my site responsive?

Luckily for us responsive design is almost the standard now. If you’re from a larger church then simply add it into your specs when you’re negotiating with your web designers and it shouldn’t add more than a few hundred bucks to your budget. If you’re from a small church and you’re budget is next to nothing don’t distress, a responsive site is still within your grasp! You can buy loads of cheap responsive templates for CMS’s like WordPress or Joomla at places like Themeforest. I bought a template from themeforest for my church joomla site for $45 and have been really happy with how it turned out.

Do I really need to bother?

According to some sources mobile internet usage will soon overtake usage on fixed devices like pc’s or laptops. People within your congregation may be forgiving about your site not being up to scratch but what will potential visitors think if they can’t navigate your site on their tablet or mobile?

Are you going to make your site responsive in 2014 or have you seen any awesome responsive church sites?

So your organization needs an app. But where do you go to get one? How can you afford the thousands of dollars it takes to create one? And how do you keep an app up-to-date with your events and announcements?

ParkGopher has the answer!

Yes – the same company that plans vacations and tours! (parkgophervacations.com) A few years ago, ParkGopher, LLC started building their own apps for the travel industry. It was then that we realized how important apps have become for organizations that really needed to reach people.

ParkGopher has made available an inexpensive and convenient way for organizations of all sizes to have their own native iPhone, iPad, Android, and mobile web apps. Let ParkGopher create the app for you and then hand you the keys to your own content management system (CMS) for customization, editing, updating, and communicating. It is as simple as logging into your own dashboard and changing text or pictures with a few mouse clicks.

ParkGopher also integrates dozens of features such as video, gps, push notifications, voice recorders, photo albums, and much more that can be used with any app.

Best of all – ParkGopher makes an app affordable. For just $49 per month and a $99 set-up fee, ParkGopher will setup your app with a basic design and then give you complete instructions for editing your app features and pages. Of course, we will be available for support during the entire time!

Want to get started? Have questions? Simply head on over to our contact page.

We’re ready to help your organization “GO MOBILE!”

Win a Caribbean Cruise!

ParkGopher is also giving away 3 or 4 night Caribbean Cruise for two. All you have to do to be eligible to win is.

1. Share this post on Facebook or Twitter
2. Post a comment answering this question… What’s your favorite mobile app?  (Be sure to include the FB or Twitter profile where you shared this post in the comment as well.)

See the contest terms & conditions. One winner will be selected around 4 PM ET Friday, November 16, 2012.

How’s that for mobile?!?

This post is a sponsored giveaway. Learn how your organization can sponsor a giveaway and get your product or service in front of our 20,000 email subscribers, 10,000 Twitter followers, and 2,000 Facebook fans. Sponsor a blog giveaway.