DIGITAL STRATEGY FOR CHURCHES // FREE E-BOOK BY JORDAN GILLMAN @JORDESIGN

digital-strategy-churches

Jordan Gillman, from churchsites.co and author of this guest post, has released his e-book for free. Digital Strategy for Churches is a 48-page e-book designed to help churches think strategically about the way they use their website and social media presence. Jordan’s material is accessible for churches of all sizes with specific action steps at the end of each chapter. Definitely worth checking out.

DOWNLOAD ‘DIGITAL STRATEGY FOR CHURCHES’

I’ve written some content that might also be useful:

 

DO YOU NEED HELP TO PRAY MORE?

prayer-mate

Do you struggle to pray? Most Christians most of the time are discontent with their prayer life. I am. I have great habits of regular time reading God’s word each day, but have never been as consistent with the frequency and fervency of my prayers. I have learnt from the wisdom of people like D.A. Carson with his 7 Lessons from the School of Prayer, but the best tool to improve my prayer life was downloaded onto my phone at the start of this year.

PrayerMate is an App that featured on my READ + REMEMBER + PRAY resource post in January this year. It’s fantastic! I have 4 push notifications that remind me across the day to take time out to pray. The App is brilliant in the way that you can organise different prayer lists and as well as subscribing to external prayer lists.

I recently asked Andy Geers some questions about his app. See below to hear his responses.
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WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? // MY LIFE SUCKS COMPARED TO EVERYONE ELSE ONLINE

‘Facebook can be depressing because everyone else’s lives are better than yours… But are they really?’

This short film by Shaun Higton is excellent in revealing one of the problems with social media and living life online. We are comparing our mundane, ordinary and dissatisfying lives with what we perceive to be amazing, extraordinary and fulfilling lives of those we are connected to online. As I quoted in my post on selfies:

“One reason we struggle w/ insecurity: we’re comparing our behind the scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.”

Higton’s film goes further to suggest that the highlight reel portrayed online, may not even be that accurate.

What’s on your mind?

What’s on your mind? How should we answer this question? Better yet, where should we answer this question?

Online community is not enough. It’s probably unwise to share all your deepest secrets and struggles via your social network accounts. Hashtagging your life is not the answer. I think the answer is offline.

It’s more than just looking up. All people need to be part of an offline community where you have permission to be broken, to share your struggles, to be real, and where you don’t feel the need to photoshop your life. These offline communities also need to be a place where you can be loved, accepted, and find healing.

Does your offline Christian community allow the authenticity that online communities fail to provide?

5 APPS TO HELP YOU SHARE JESUS

SHARE JESUS

The gospel of Jesus is unchanging. People throughout all cultures and all times need to hear that Jesus is the King of the Universe, who came to deal with their sin at the cross and calls all to follow him. However, while the message is unchanging, with every technological advancement there are new opportunities to share this message in different ways. Printing press. Microphones. Radio. Television. The Internet. Mobile Apps.

Mobile technology and web/app enabled phones mean that it’s possible to always be equipped with tools that will help you to share the good news of Jesus. There are at least 3 ways that apps can help you in this task.

>> Equipping and teaching you to understand the good news of Jesus for yourself
>> Use the app on your device with someone as you explain the message of Jesus
>> Share links to the app via social media, a footer in your email signature, or gift the app via iTunes to friends so they can investigate Jesus for themselves on their device.

Here are 5 excellent apps to help you share Jesus:

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#HASHTAGS, SELFIES & BEING A CHRISTIAN ONLINE // #KYCK14 RESOURCES

#HASHTAGS

Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are part of everyday life for teenagers. Are they harmful or harmless? This seminar will help you to think about how belonging to Jesus will impact the way that you connect online.

I recently gave a seminar across three weekend at KYCK 2014 (a Christian convention for youth) seeking to help young people consider how to think about how they behave and relate online.

This post is jam-packed with resources useful for youth, youth leaders, parents, pastors and echidnas.

Continue reading “#HASHTAGS, SELFIES & BEING A CHRISTIAN ONLINE // #KYCK14 RESOURCES”

LOOK UP // A MUST-SEE SPOKEN WORD FILM FOR AN ONLINE GENERATION

Look Up is a lesson taught to us through a love story, in a world where we continue to find ways to make it easier for us to connect with one another, but always results in us spending more time alone.”

What a challenging video from Gary Turk! I argue in Bread & Circuses that we can so easily become enslaved to food and entertainment that we become distracted from reality. The answer to the problem raised in the video is more than put down your phone and look up. The ultimate answer is to see what truly satisfies and to see things from an eternal perspective.