The article explains many of the benefits to pastors using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Twitter.  Those benefits include:

1. Helps the pastor listen - So he knows more about what’s going on the lives of the people of his church.
2. Humanizes the pastor - “it makes [him] seem like a regular person rather than a person who’s super-holy” (Did I really say “super-holy?” LOL)
3. Helps church members feel more connected.
4. In particular helps students who go away to college to stay connected to the pastor and church.
5. Enables the pastor to quickly get a message out to many people in the congregation.
6. The pastor can initiate spiritual conversations among members during the week.
7. Helps the pastor connect with other pastors to encourage & pray for one another.
8. A pastor can counsel people immediately online.

Any other benefits you can think of?  I’d say the article makes a pretty compelling case for pastors to use social networking tools.  What do you think?

[image by dominicspics]

Because of the information access and the ease of further distribution, a group of people on the Web is more powerful than a group of equal size anywhere else. The significant difference being that we now all have access as well as distribution which was, in the past, a more significant hurdle.

This ease of spreading information must be leveraged, but is not without flaws…

Misinformation can spread just as efficiently creating very real consequences as in the incorrect report in ’08 of Steve Jobs’ heart attack which knocked Apple stock by almost $10 a share.

Quite naturally, this power of online groups and ease of information distribution makes the Web, social media, and social recommendation a force to be reckoned with in building influence.

After decades of industry and marketers creating “bigger and better” we find that cultural tastes are shifting to appreciating products that can be more personalized, more “me.” With this trend is the shift to seeking more personalized interactions for marketing and influence which can include social media. Brogan and Smith make a very good point when they challenge us to realize that mechanizing your online presence can in fact cause your message to take on the very tone you are trying to avoid by using social media. You will present your message with a very different voice in a truly personal note versus a newsletter or larger scale email.

The key to building an army is in capturing the attention and influence of people passionate about your cause.

If you do choose to scale things to keep in mind:

• simple gestures matter
• participate in others’ sites and make it about them
• give to your community and help the people involved feel part of the core experience.

Building an army on the Web is not as much a give and take process. If your emphasis is on giving you will go farther in building your army. Cast your vision but in a way that is personal, compelling and gives value:

• write blog posts that equip others with the concepts you are trying to spread
• share liberally in online spaces
• contribute to shared collaborative environments
• discuss and extend ideas on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• write and distribute free e-books that equip others with your idea

While this emphasis on giving may seem counter-intuitive to good business sense, the value is not found in the idea only, but in how each individual and/or circumstance makes use of the idea.

With this in mind, what can you do to increase the level of what you “give” in the online groups in which you participate? How can you create spaces that share your passion, challenge and goal but that do this in a way that consistently adds value to others in the group?

[image by MarcelGermain]

Deana Kistner is discovering the joys of organizing artists and chasing toddlers. She blogs at The Organized Artist.

While at Cultivate, Neal Locke saw one of my tweets from the conference and emailed me about the growing trend in virtual conferences.  Take a look at this this video showing a virtual conference…

Pretty wild huh? Could you see yourself participating in a virtual conference like this?

(You can read more on the Virtualis Convention and Learning Center here)

Right now I think virtual conferences are a ways from becoming mainstream because virtual worlds are still a ways away from becoming mainstream.  So, while virtual conferences may reduce the barriers of time and money they introduce new barriers of competency and comfort with the virtual world.

But the number of people engaged in virtual worlds like Second Life continues to grow.

Twenty years ago it would have been crazy to think you could get 10,000 people to sign up for an Internet-only, live streamed Christian leadership conference, but now that most Americans have high speed Internet access and view video online on a daily basis, the Leadership Network was able to pull that off with The Nines conference.

Could it be that in 20 years (or less), the Internet will no longer be primarily a 2 dimensional experience viewing flat text, images, and media, but a 3 dimensional experience?

In addition to joining a group, creating one (and filling it with the smartest people you know) is the true path to influence online.

In chapter 7 of Trust Agents, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith talk about the power of creating groups and leading them to accomplish big things.

The web makes it possible for people with a common interest to join together in groups (or Tribes as Seth Godin calls them).  We’re no longer limited by geography, time, or logistics.  Like-minded people anywhere in the world can come together around a blog, a forum, a Facebook page or any number of other social networking tools.

The power of groups is immense…

The power of groups comes from what Brogan and Smith refer to as “asynchronous aggregation.”  “Instead of asking one person to make all the effort, we can ask 100 people for a fraction and get even greater results.”  A great example of this is Wikipedia, which was developed and is maintained by a huge volunteer army and has totally blown away expensive, old-school print encyclopedias.

Another great example of power of groups happened just this week at the Stuff Christians Like blog.  On Monday Jon Acuff kicked off an effort to build a kindergarten in Vietnam by asking his readers, which number in the thousands, to donate to the cause.  Within 18 hours, the entire $30,000 goal had been reached.

How was this possible?

Well first, let’s not discount God’s hand in this.  But just looking at the human factors, this was possible because of several important things Jon did.

1. He built up a lot of trust among his readers by being honest and transparent in his writing.
2. He built up a large number of readers by writing consistently and doing it well.
3. He asked people to do something he knew would resonate with his readers, something he knew they would want to do.
4. He took a big risk – he asked.  Despite all the other stuff, this could have totally bombed.  If a month later he had only raised $500 towards the $30,000 goal it would have been somewhat embarrassing.  But Jon took a chance and used his influence to do something really, really good.

I’ll leave you with thes question.

What is God calling you to do that you can’t do alone?  Is it time to take the trust and influence you’ve built with people, form a group, and lead the group to accomplish something bigger than yourself?

[image by toucanradio]

This week: What’s your favorite thanksgiving memory?

For me it would have to be Thanksgiving 2000.  Ever since we got married, my wife, Jennifer, and I have been doing 2 Thanksgivings each year – lunch with her family and dinner with my family.  (Yes, that’s a lot of turkey and pie for one day. The sacrifices we make for family. )  At both meals, we waited until the entire family was gathered around for the Thanksgiving prayer, and during the prayer we surprised everyone by thanking God for the new baby we were expecting, our first.

How about you?  What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory?

[image by merci]

In social media, human is the new black.

One of the key things social media does is connect people. It gives a voice to corporations, institutions, celebrities and everyday Joe Schmoes, and connects us in a whole new relational economy.

People who didn’t have a voice before are now able to have a large voice and huge following, all because social media has leveled the playing field.

One thing to remember is that behind every avatar, Tweet, blog post and comment there is an individual. Oftentimes we get lost in the logistics of followers and analytics that we forget that fact behind every number is a person.

And, as Chris and Julien point out in this chapter, part of becoming a Trust Agent is understanding how to maintain a human-shaped network.

Here’s a few suggestions that I think could help us go a long way in adding value to our online [and offline] relationships.

• Make Constant Touches. Be has human as you can be. If you think of someone, ping them. Let people know they are on your radar, and keep track of how long it’s been since you’ve directly contacted someone. And, take advantage of the birthday notifications on Facebook and take a quick second each day to shoot out a few personal birthday wishes. If you’re anything like me, my birthday on Facebook is one of the days I look forward to the most [it’s coming up on November 25, by the way].
• Connect people together constantly. Your personal network is a wealth of information and opportunity to others. Become an expert at connecting people. It not only adds value to your friendships, it places you in a great position to be known as a connector. You’d be amazed at some of the crazy things that could be made possible by simply connecting someone you know who has a need with someone who has the ability to meet it. And, if you’re a student of Malcom Gladwell, you’ll know connectors are hugely influential in creating a tipping point!
• Link fervently. This sort of goes along with connecting people, but if you know someone who has a good thing going, share the link love. Use your platform to point to people who are doing something you are noticing. [Sidenote: don’t turn into a RSS feed of links; choose who and what you link to carefully, if you do it too much, people will tune you out.]
• Mix up the transmission methods. A not-so-vital but helpful tactic is to not use the same method each time when you’re connecting wit people. If you’re thinking about an @ reply, consider a DM [Twitter speak for public contact to private]; or if you always interact via email, consider picking up the phone. Just like your dating/marriage relationship, be creative and mix it up, don’t be so predictable.

We have a whole new relational economy to deal with, and the art of becoming a true Trust Agent is learning how to develop and maintain relational collateral with people.

A few things to think about…

1. Are you taking the time to add value to the people who are a part of your networks?
2. Who has recently connected you to a person or opportunity that you would have otherwise not known about? Stop reading this and take a moment to shoot them a quick note of thanks.
3. What’s something you’ve read in the last 24 hours that stopped and made you think or inspired you? Share it. Post it. Tweet it. Share the love.
4. When you go to @ reply someone or DM today, consider an alternate way of communicating with someone. Mix it up!
5. Think about something you could incorporate into your daily routine to make a connection with some people in your network [ i.e. checking Facebook birthdays, sending a few emails, etc. ]

[image by lisarandolph]

Tim Schraeder is the Director of Communications at Park Community Church, a Gospel-centered, innovative church that reaches nearly 2,000 young adults each week in downtown Chicago. He blogs his thoughts on church communications at TimSchraeder.com and is an incessant Twitterer.

Chris and Julian say that ‘Etiquette and understanding how to navigate this human faced Web are your best bets at finding, retaining and growing communities of customers’. This is so true; we are human beings - made by God to connect and have relationship - who need to engage. If we are to be Trust Agents then we need to be so much more human than regular Web residents. They call this being the ‘Human Artist - someone who understands how to communicate with people in a real and thoughtful way. However, with pretty much every ‘human’ like clue absent from the process of engagement how can we execute this role [skill] of the Human Artist and, just like Jerry Maguire, pay more personal attention to others on the Web?

The one thing that has been evident to me while I have spent time in the Web is that my presence paints a picture of me. With time, patience and effort I know that people will learn to trust me and be easier to engage with, because they will be comfortable with who I am. (I am not a potential robot, a self-serving stats hoarder or a wanna be flash in the pan!) It is during this time of observing and learning that people will hopefully notice and interact with me. The authors suggest the following actions that will help:

• Listen: Listen and learn is the common catch phrase I believe. By observing what others do, how they do it, what is appropriate and acceptable, you will be better positioned to engage effectively.
• Ask: After listening, asking is probably the best way to get started because it shows that you are willing to learn.
• Reciprocate: Everything happens for a reason, everything is personal (despite what they say), not reciprocating is the best way to destroy further interaction - although it’s best to think about it first!
• Comment and comment back: Anyone who has a blog wants meaningful comment; it’s most likely the best indicator for a blog’s success and watching the conversation taken further after the post is more satisfying that the post itself.

Unfortunately there’s no substitute for real face to face communication. With only 7% of communication being words (38 %  vocal tones and 55% body movement) it is hard to have a true conversation and hence a genuine relationship over the Web.

What are some of the ways that you maintain and build up your human face on the Web?

[images by jimmyroq, foonus]

Phillip Gibb is a fan of my God, my Wife, my Son, Video, Editing and Apple. Working towards making a great film. He blogs at SynapticLight.com

“First, you must build awareness of who you are, … Next, you try to grab their attention… [by being] entertaining, informative, and/or useful. Then you develop that awareness across several groups until you are considered an authority in as many of these groups as possible.”

In order to be an affective ‘Agent Zero’ we must follow 5 simple, yet very important steps. Many Agent Zeros will naturally do these steps without realizing it. That’s what makes them so good at what they do. As you read through my explanations of these steps think about your own position within your church and make a list of how you apply each step to your specific area of ministry.

1. Awareness

Bottom line… we have to make ourselves known. The simplest way to make yourself known is to answer the simple question, “What are you doing right now?” As we continually update our online statuses each day. We are getting our names “out there” in a simple, non-intrusive way. The strategy that I’ve chosen to attempt to follow is to leave messages all over the place. I’ll post twitter and facebook updates but I’ll also comment on some of my favorite blogs and interact with other readers of said blogs. Another strategy I use is having the same avatar across the net. I use the same silly looking picture of my face on twitter as I do for Intense Debate and Gravatar.

Another great way to gain awareness is to keep hanging out at the same place. In the same way that Julien hangs out at the same cafe working on his laptop… I hang out in the same Starbucks and the same blogs. The baristas at my Starbucks are all facebook friends with me and they trust me. I’ve made some friendships with people through blogging and twitter, one of the ways I was included in on this group blogging project!

2. Attention

In today’s day and age, which is an old saying but you know what I mean, there are many different forms of media vying for our attention. The average time a person spends watching a YouTube video is 30 seconds. So by this principle, if you can’t get someone to be interested in you in 30 seconds, you’ve lost them. The point here is that in order to gain the attention of others and make them interested in us, we must first be interested in others. We’ve all been following this principle in our offline lives for years. Think about why your friends like you. It’s probably because you’ve shown a mutual interest in them. I have a number of people I call my “close friends”. Sometimes we ask each other to help us with something. We call it… pulling the friend card. There’s a give and take to any relationship in the ‘real world’ so why would it be any different online?

One other thing I want to focus on real quickly is the face-to-face ‘meetup’. I recently had the opportunity to go to Cultivate and STORY where I was able to shake the hands of people I’ve been friends, or twiends with online for a few months. The meetup is important. It goes back to the whole concept of getting your name out there and gaining attention.

3. Influence

What kind of influence do you have on your friends? Do your friends trust your opinion? This all depends. For example, my friends and my online twiends might trust me when it comes to worship planning and using the power of social media to work for a church. Those same friends and online twiends however would never trust me on the subject of horse racing. I know nothing about it. It’s important to have a relationship with the people you’re trying to influence. As I previously mentioned, we need to build awareness of ourselves by being a constant presence in many different networks. When we consistently preach the same message within the many different networks we’re involved with people will start to trust us. So be true to yourself and be true to others. We need to not pretend to be one person with one group and another person with another group. Consistency in message and consistency in presence is important to building influence.

4. Reputation

We need to make sure that whenever someone does a Google search on our name, the stuff that pops up is current. The cool thing about the web is that it keeps a history of who we are. So in the same way that consistency in message is important for building influence it’s equally important because years from now… a blog post you wrote, could find itself getting some attention again. We’ve all heard stories about people who have not been hired, or even fired, because of a scandalous image of them posted on the internet. It’s important for us to manage our appearance online. Get those images of you taken down, or even better… don’t put yourself in positions where those types of pictures of you can be taken in the first place!

5. Authority

I’m currently the Tech Director at my church. That means that I’m also the IT person on staff. I’ve been going through the long process of changing our church’s website and looking at different email hosting options. The first thing I did when I started this process was search twitter for other church media gurus. I went through the people I follow, people I trust because of their previous updates and blog posts on similar subjects. I searched their blogs for recommendations. I quickly came to the conclusion that a “Clover site” and Google Apps were both good solutions that I needed to look into further. Without trusting others who have similar positions in their churches as I have in mine, I was able to quickly narrow my focus. I consider the church media guru people I follow on twitter authorities on the same field that I am.

The bottom line to being an effective Agent Zero is that we need to keep connecting to and building a consistent presence on a number of different networks. Only then can we grow our own knowledge on a number of subjects but we can also help others get the answers they’re looking for.

[image by generated]

Graham Brenna is tech Director @OSLC, Blogger, Tweeter, Facebooker, Techie, Geek, White Sox Fan… etc… He blogs at gbrenna.com

It’s so easy to complain about what we don’t have, to get frustrated when our expectations are not met, and just see the glass as half empty.  But when we take stock of how blessed we are, the disappointments and frustrations really pale in comparison and we can truly live each day with a joyful heart.

My friend Deana Kistner (aka Organized Artist) started the #Gratituesday Twitter hashtag a few weeks ago after deciding she was going to designate Tuesday each week to blog about something she’s thankful for.  With November being Give Thanks Month at OurChurch.Com we’re going to follow her lead.  Each Tuesday we’re going to post about something we’re thankful for and invite you to join the conversation.  Future Gratituesday posts will be less techy, but today here are…

9 Websites I’m Thankful For

1) Google – With Google the world is at my finger tips.  Whether I need a book, a plumber, the correct spelling of a word, lyrics to a song, the author of a quote, I can find almost anything using Google.

2) Facebook – If you’re not on Facebook, you’re not my friend.  Just kidding.  But it is the communications center for the vast majority of my friendships.  It’s how I keep in touch with friends who live out of town, how I share pics and vids with family.

3) Gmail – Earlier this year Outlook crash on me.  I started using Gmail and I never looked back.

4) Twitter – It’s hard to believe I’ve been using Twitter less than 6 months.  It’s become an indispensable tool for building relationships with people who share my interests in ministry, technology, leadership, and the church.  It’s also one of the main ways I get news and articles.

5) Google Docs – About a year ago our staff at OurChurch.Com started sharing docs on Google Docs.  We put all our internal policies and procedures there.  We keep metrics spreadsheets there.  It beats emailing attachments to all the staff and then worrying about whether everyone is using the right version.  If you’re not using Google Docs at your workplace, you should try it out.

6) Snopes – You know those emails your friends forward to you that you’re not quite sure whether you can believe them or not?  Is Microsoft or AOL really giving away $ to everyone who forwards the email? Can talking on a cell phone at a gas station cause an explosion?  Look them up on snopes to find out if they’re real or just an urban legend.

7) YouVersion – With YouVersion you an read the Bible online in pretty much any translation you like.  You can tag, bookmark, and comment on the passages you read.  If you like you can also make your comments available to other people on the site and read their insights.

8 ) iStockPhoto – Need a good photo for a website or brochure but don’t want to spend a mint?  iStockPhoto has a great selection of images at reasonable prices.

9) Flickr – Speaking of images, they’re great for spicing up your blog articles.  We post at least one with every article.  If you want to add free image to your blog, check out Flickr and search for images that use the Creative Commons license.  Those images can be used for free as long as you link back to the photographer.

There are tons of other sites I’m grateful for. In particular, I’m grateful for the other bloggers who challenge and inspire me with their writing, but there are way to many to start listing.

What websites are you thankful for?

“No matter where they go, trust agents have a desire to connect good people together. We refer to this as being Agent Zero; being in the center of a network and being able to spread ideas.”

As one who is known as a networker and what Brogan and Smith call “Agent Zero”, this chapter was kind of freaky to read. It was almost as if they had been reading my mail. This description of what I do naturally was kind of weird to read about until I read where they said that “trust agents are naturals at finding other connector types in other groups. They are able to recognize individuals who like building networks of value and know how to reach out. ”

They went on to write that “trust agents who are connecting do this across almost all of their groups, constantly seeking ways to make their groups connect with each other.” I don’t why it is, but I love introducing a friend from one part of my life to a friend from another part of my life. I get a rush in seeing two people meet that I know would benefit from knowing one another.

The book goes on to say that helping someone and promoting good work (via one’s blog, social network or introducing people who might benefit from knowing each other) is a way that a trust agent becomes Agent Zero. This “sharing” and helping and promoting good puts you at the hub or center of a wide variety of networks.

Through both online and in person, there are steps toward becoming Agent Zero. I think the biggest key and something I live my life by is intentionality. You must take steps to let people know that you exist, let them see that you’re a good person to know (by being “entertaining, informative, and/or useful”) and then spread yourself across several groups - developing your recognition until you are considered an authority.

In the ministry world, this can be an intentional and strategic promotion of one’s education, experience, gifts/talents and skills to those you’re connected with in person and through social networks (especially Facebook and Twitter) for the purpose of edifying and instructing the saints. If you’re knowledgeable or gifted in a particular area and have a Kingdom mindset, you believe in the big “C” Church and want to share whatever you can to help others, as well as promote what someone else is doing that’s making an impact.

This whole concept resonates deeply with me because I hate a spirit of competition between churches. I believe we should all be helping one another and sharing ideas that people can use in their own community and ministry setting. Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, we as Church leaders, to some degree should seek to be an Agent Zero - connecting, sharing, encouraging and heralding positive happenings to our own God-given networks.

Questions:

1. Are you intentionally and strategically building a network that God can use for Kingdom purposes?
2. When is the last time you introduced one person that you know to another person that you know because you knew in your heart that they needed to know one another and would benefit from a relationship?
3. Do you know your strengths and areas that you can be a blessing to others in?
4. Lastly, are you still teachable and believe that everyone you meet and get connected with has something special they can share with you and learn from?

For Greg Atkinson, a consultant working with Association of Related Churches (ARC), innovation in the Church has become a personal passion. Atkinson travels the country consulting with churches, teaching at conferences and writing about innovation, technology and social justice. Greg most recently served as the Director of Technical Arts at Bent Tree and before that as the Director of WorshipHouse Media, after having served as a worship pastor for 11 years.