Social Networking and the Church Part 1

For some reason I have been speaking a lot lately about social networking and the church. God has given me some really good ideas about how to use social networking and I have tried some things that just have not panned out. So for the Friday series I thought I would give you guys an idea on the success DP has had with social media and the things that just did not work. Please remember that social media is about interacting and connecting with people not advertising. Social Media and the church should be a long term effort and not a short term fix. I fyou are expecting to out up a facebook group tell your member about it and expect them to run right to and tell all of their friends. It just does not work that way. So understand when I write about these things in social media that we have tried they are a ongoing experiment and my finding may not be the same as your findings.

Facebook Group
When you use social media you must have plan in mind going into it. Youy can't just throw something up there and expect it ot work. The purpose behind the Discover Point Facebook Group is to 1. Give people who are searching a place to connect with us before they come to church 2. Give our regulars a place where we could meet during the week and interact with each other. Please don't misunderstand me I don't want this groupto replace real face to face interaction but as busy as we all are it is nice to have a place you can talk to everyone at once (through the wall post or message board). We also use it as one of many mediums to send inforamtion to people of Discover Point (Through the group email). The most important reason it exsist though is so people have a place to meet us before they come to church. Millions of people are on Facebook. We all have 100's freinds on Facebook. Some of them are searching. If they are already comfortable using the facebook medium then it is a perfect place for our regulars to invite their freinds to come and meet us. They can look at video and pictures and get comfortable with us before they visit us. Now you nmight ask isn't that what a website is for? Sure but like I said they are already on Facebook . Why should we not give people as many outlets as we can to get to know us better. Those are my thoughts What are yours?

Tutorial of the Week

This is a cool website header and the artist was coll enouh to show us how he did created it in Photoshop. See the full tutorial hear

Learning Leadership Part 1

Okay so I have decided to start some series in this blog starting with today's blog. This series is called learning leadership. I am not a great leader and I am not ashamed to admit it. I am new to being on staff at a church and I am new to the role I play in my church. Most of my life I have been the one to do the work and let others take the credit. I love it that way and I would not have it any other way. I do not like the lime light and I enjoy criticism. I know I am weird. I do however enjoy when my team does a great job and people recognize it. That said being a leader of a team at Discover Point over the past year had taught me a ton lessons. Don't get me wrong I am still learning everyday but I thought I might share what I am learning.

1. You can't blame the equipment.
No matter how old, not matter how broken the equipment is you have to make it work. I have that when things are their worst is when I am most creative. You can't sit around waiting for more money you have to rely on your team and your own creativity to make things work. Right now we are waiting to move into a new building and we are getting some great new equipment and as hard as I am preparing to move into the new building I am working just as hard to make next week our greatest week ever. I find myself brain storming for ideas for the building we are still in. The equipment we have is old and broken but we make it work and we have great services. Heck the large concrete gym we meet in is a acoustical nightmare but you never hear that used as an excuse anymore (we did for a little while) and trust me its bad. Long and short if your standing around waiting for something to happen it never will. Work with what you have be creative and the other around you will follow.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top 10 Tuesday
Today I give those of you who care a chance to get to know me better by making another list of my favorite things. Today's list podcast.

1. Church Media Design(video)- Great Podcast from an awesome guy who just wants to see guys like me get better so we can reach more people.

2. ESPN Fantasy Focus (audio)- I love Fantasy Sports this is the best fantasy sports show on the web.

3. The Collide Show(video)- great Podcast from the guys who put out one of the best magazines in the biz

4. Church Tech Talk- Funny guys talking Church Tech

5. Penndant Audio Productions (audio)- Audio Dramas about some of the coolest characters in history Batman, Superman, Luke Skywalker ect

6.Mugglecast (audio)- Best Harry Potter Podcast on the web

7. G4's The Daily Feed Podcast (video)- All the pop culture news you need to know

8. Web Alert (video)- All the Daily Tech news you need to know

9. Starkville house of El (audio)- Great Smallville podcast

10. The 10th wonder podcast (audio)- Heroes Television show Podcast

I will provide links to all these later so check back or google them your self

Top 10 Tuesday

I missed top 10 Tuesday so here is my make up list. I am going to go simple here are my my top 10 favorite TV shows.

1. Lost
2. Heroes
3. Fringe
4. Smallville
5. Sports Center
6.Top Chef
7. CSI Miami
8. Big Brother
9. Mentalist
10. CSI

Please note these are only a current list of shows that are currently on the air. I will post a list of my top 10 all time favorite TV shows later. What do you think did I leave one of your favorites off? How does the TV show you watch effect the things you do in your ministry? Please I did not forget about American Idol I just don't like it that much.

Public Speaking

I am a tech guy. I love all things technology. On Sunday mornings I can be found in the back running something or directing something. I do not however speak on Sunday mornings. That is what we have communicators for. This past Sunday I broke my own rule and co-taught with Philip. The topic was social networking. A topic I love and feel that all churches and church goers should embrace (as long you have people in your church under the age of 70). We spoke about how the church should use social media and how regular people can use social media to do great things for God. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be because I was prepare and it was a topic I enjoyed. Was I perfect? No but the audience laugh at my jokes a few times a lot of people ask questions afterwards so I would say it was a success Next week I am getting up there again and talking about Discover Point's community projects. This is another subject I am passionate about so it should be fun.

So if you are a media director (our whatever your title is) on staff at your church and you have never got up in front of your and spoke about how God is using technology or social networking in your church talk to you pastor and see if he can't develop a sermon series surrounding it. Get up there and educate people on how they can use technology to reach more people for God. Heck I liked it so much in 2 weeks Philip and I are going speak to a group of local pastors about how they can use social networking in their churches. Let see if we can't start a revolution. I'm in are you?

Passionate Leadership

Philip spoke this past Sunday on Volunteering. He said it is not something you should be guilted into doing but it is something you should desire to do. Volunteering and serving the Lord is a privilege. I have never found more satisfaction in life then when I am using my gifts to serve God for no other reason then the fact that I want to see people come to know Jesus. Many of you know I work a second job as an IT guy and I love it but I will never love the It job as much as I love my staff position at Discover Point. I am passionate about what I do. The other staff will tell you if I get heated on a subject they will have a 1000 word essay on the matter in their inboxes the next morning (I know they get sick of that). Philip right now is very passionate about getting into the new building and for good reason. We have very passionate people about volunteering in our church. Don't get me wrong passion can sometimes be a bad thing but passion in the right person used correctly can be life changing to the people around them.

Passion is surely a huge quality in a leader but does being passionate make you a leader? I have a Friend of mine who is a youth pastor in South Carolina. They were trying to build a middle school program but did not have the financial means to hire a full time middle school pastor. They were using volunteers. One volunteer stepped up and really tried to take charge of the program. He seemed passionate about what he was doing. He would tell everyone how much he loved working with middle schoolers. After a while though it became very clear that this volunteer was not a leader and despite much counseling with the staff it was evident that something needed to change because the there was no structure to the group. The volunteer was becoming more of a chaperon than a leader. There was no spiritual growth happening in the middle schoolers. They're were a lot of other things but let just say this is a intelligent staff full of down to earth guys who love everyone and who give everyone a chance to serve. They were frustrated. So they hired a full time middle school pastor and offered the volunteer a chance to be a huge part of the program. The volunteer got upset but still excepted the position. After awhile the new middle school pastor got frustrated and came to the staff and ask if they would pray about finding a positing for this volunteer because he had become lackluster and lazy. What they staff originally thought was passion was really a control need. The volunteer was only passionate when they were in control. The staff has since counseled the volunteer and plugged him into a position where he is more qualified. I am very proud of this staff for the way they handled the whole thing. The volunteer is happy and did not leave the church and the middle school program is growing. Passion is defiantly a huge quality in a leader. But there are defiantly other characteristics that a leader has to have to truly be a leader not just passion alone. Can you be a true leader without passion?

Tutorial of the week

This is kind of cheesy but I love DIY camera work because most of use can't afford the expensive stuff. Check this out


DIY Helmet Cam from Nick Campbell on Vimeo.

Top Ten Tuesday Super Bowl Ads

In honor of the Super Bowl I am using Top Ten Tuesday to show you my favorite Superbowl Commercials. These are in no order. Some of these I love for graphic reason other were just funny. Although this year's batch left some thing to be desired there were some winners out there. For those of you that care I hated the Coke Zero Mean Joe Green Re Make it wasn't funny at all!

Vimeo Site

Okay so I now have a Vimeo Channel to show off some of the Motion Graphic work I do. None of it is really that good YET but ou can at least see my progression as a designer. The Channel isn't totally complete but you can see some of the videos on there right now. Let me know what you think!


Here is the Link http://vimeo.com/channel29718