Is It Time to Rethink the Church Website? (Part 2)

church website sample

I recently re-posted a link to an article I wrote a couple of years back entitled, Is It Time to Rethink the Church Website?

What I have suggested is that church websites may be geared more toward the already initiated, meaning those who are a) already a part of the church or b) those who are looking for a new church (what we may call “church transfers” due to being displeased with a previous church, moving cities, etc). However, the unchurched and de-churched are not really looking for what we might usually find on church websites: statement of faith, sermon series, upcoming activities, leadership team, or donate button – if they are looking at all.

So, my question is: How can we consider being more “missional” with our church websites, engaging the non-Christian landscape.

The re-post has caused some good interaction through social media channels – both agreement and disagreement. But a bigger question has arisen as well (and the same question came up two years ago): What alternatives would I suggest to the current church website model? Continue reading

Reports Are That Facebook Can Diminish Self-Esteem

Facebook-iconToday I spent some time with a friend of mine – a 67-year old lady from my church. I was actually helping her understand a few things, or a lot of things, about her new Macbook Air. Hey, it’s never to late to be tech-savy, right?!

As our time ended together, we began talking about all sorts of things. Somehow we got onto the topic of Facebook. I can’t quite recall how, though. She told me she had recently read that, after spending some time on Facebook during the day, a large percentage of folk feel quite negative about themselves (she couldn’t quite recall the exact figure, though she projected it very high).

So I thought I’d do a little research online to see some statistics. I read through 3 brief articles and everything seemed to point to quite a bit of negative self-esteem following interaction with Facebook. And I suppose most would not need to see statistics to confirm such studies.

But what do some of the statistics and findings communicate? Continue reading

What Google & Facebook Are Hiding

So everyone is becoming more and more aware of Google’s challenge to Facebook, known as Google+ (which I posted about last week).

But check out this recent video (posted 15 July 2011) from Ted Talks. The premise is that Facebook and Google are beginning to tailor searches in a way that they think would be best for you. Internet information, searches and social networking are not so general these days, but very suited to, again, what they believe you want to read about and hear.

This can create challenges to internet searches, really creating challenges to the reason the internet was created in the first place.

See this video below for more info, and share some thoughts if you would like.

Google+ Mania. Not Just Yet.

Most people are starting to hear about Google+ these days. Though it is not available to everyone just yet, there is no doubt it is starting to get out and about with hundreds joining each and every day (if not thousands). I joined this week and invited quite a few friends. I think that for everyone who joins, they can invite up to 500 people to join as well.

But Google+ is still in testing mode.

The big question is whether Google+ will take over Facebook. Most people are skeptical and I think it mainly comes down to not wanting to learn how a new social network works. We are all up-to-date on Facebook, after the great switch from MySpace a few years back or more. We don’t want to go through another change, do we? Continue reading