A few months ago, I reported to our Executive team the impact of the recently redesigned second.org. Since its launch in late March, our number of page views have doubled…reaching as much as 2.2 million in a single month. Today, we have 3,261 registered users, 1,000+ of which registered within the first week of launch. Every month, our registered users send an average of 75,000+ emails to their respective community groups…coordinating group activities, announcements, prayer and care. We have been very pleased with the results.

Special thanks to our technology partners who help make this happen: Origin Design (for initial design, images, html, flash, and CSS) and RoundedCube for our CMS implementation, Google Mini search, and custom development. Last but not least….BIG thanks to our own in-house dev team. Great job gang!

Here is a short video produced by Origin that give a quick overview the new second.org:

Unfortunately, the video does not highlight the online community groups.

Watch and Listen LIVE to the Church IT Roundtable. Today’s gathering is at Second Baptist Church, Houston, TX. Scott Miller with Watermark Church is facilitating.

Today’s Schedule:

8:30 AM – Discussion
11:00 AM – Virtualization Presentation by Veeam
11:30 AM – Lunch and Q&A
12:30 PM – Discussions

Looking for a group SMS/texting solution? There are several solutions available. Here are just a few worth consideration:

1. Tatango: Accessible via both web and your mobile device.

• Key Features: Pay as you go, contact import, multiple admins, groups.
• Pricing: Monthly plans vary from $20/400 msgs to $200/5000 msgs (pricing details)

2. TextHub: Facilitates 2-way interaction using smart logic, keywords, and polls.

• Key Features: contact import, personalized/scheduled messaging, groups, and more.
• Pricing: Monthly plans vary from $100-500 depending on features  (pricing details)

3. TxtSignal: Simple to use Web based tool for 1 to many and 1 to 1 text messaging.

• Key Features: no contracts, groups, multiple users.
• Pricing: Costs based  # of contacts and # of group messages (rather than # of messages). Monthly plans range from $10-$40.  (pricing details)

4. SimplyTXT (SimplyYouthMinistry.com): This appears to be a rebranded version of TxtSignal promoted by Doug Field with Saddleback Church. There is a relationship between the two, but it is unclear. Nevertheless the features are the same, but the pricing appears the same too. If anyone has more details, please comment below.

5. Jarbyco: More than just group messaging, this provider does quizzes, polls, and voting as well. Clients include Granger Community Church, Willowcreek, and others.

• Key Features: groups, quizzes, polls, voting, moderated text to screen (seems feature rich, but site gives little details).
• Pricing: Not posted. Requires engagement with their sales team.

6. MemberHub: MemberHub is more than a mere text messaging tool. It is more suited for creating online groups/communities of which text messaging is one of several features. Though they avoid being characterized as a social network tool, they share many of the same characteristics.

• Key Features: calendar, file sharing, discussions, group communications (email/txt).
• Pricing: $12-100 depending on number of “hubs”. (pricing details)

7. JabberText: If you need a simple bulk text messaging solution with no bells and whistles, then JabberText may work well for you.

• Key Features: schedule sending, contact upload/import, unlimited groups/contacts.
• Pricing: No contracts, setup fees,etc. -  just cost per message (pricing details)

When talking with any provider, be sure to ask for any religious or non-profit discounts.

BibleGlo coming 10/15/09.

Over the last year or so, Multisite Church Revolution, DJ Chuang at Digital Leadership, Cynthia Ware at the Digital Sanctuary, and Greg Atkinson have all posted lists of known internet campuses. I compiled their lists (and comments by their readers) and did some additional research to document the technologies used by many of these churches to create their online campus. The results are listed below and may be updated directly online using the link below. A login is not required to make updates.

ADD OR UPDATE YOUR CHURCH INFORMATION

The newest Did You Know (version 4) video was recently released. The latest version was produced for the Economist’s Third Annual Media Convergence Conference in New York City next month (10/20-21).

The video moves fast. If you want a transcript of its contents, you can read them at Michael Hyatt’s blog.

A national organization of Church IT professionals (CITRT) are hosting several regional events across the country for IT professionals who work in churches or para-church organizations. Second Baptist Church, Houston, TX will be the host site for the Texas/Gulf Coast region. The conference is Monday, November 2, 2009. Registration is cheap and online.

For more information and to register online, visit the TXCITRT website.

NATIONAL CHURCH IT ROUNDTABLE LOCATIONS:

View 2009 Fall CITRT Locations in a larger map

Bill Reichart passed along a great resource via twitter today. It is an online database of social media governance (i.e. guidelines and best practices) from several different organizations. This would be a great place to start for those writing one for your church.

Why does a church need this? For several reasons:

1. It helps church staff realize that whether they like it or not, they represent the church. Their blogs or use of social media (even with disclaimers) can both positively and negatively affect the church.

2. To help distinguish between official (church sponsored) and unofficial (non-church sponsored) use of social media.

3. Educate church staff on how they should respond to negative posts or conversations regarding the church and how to alert the appropriate church staff so appropriate action can be taken (if any).

4. Provide church staff a clear understanding of what is confidential vs public knowledge as it pertains to official church business.

Does your church have a social media plan?

When I hear the term ‘social network’, I immediately think about Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. In reality, these websites are just modern day expressions of real life networks of interconnected relationships between individuals. These networks of relationships are usually centered around a common interest, belief, or activity. Social networks go as far back as the first family—Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. However, I believe the most sanctified example of a social network, this side of Heaven, is clearly described in Acts 2:42-46.

⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.^[1]

Luke describes the first church as, “all who believed were together and had all things in common.” Wow! I don’t know about you, but this sounds like the perfect social network. Can you imagine the deep interconnected community of this first church…to the extent of voluntarily selling their possessions to ensure that everyone was without need? Do you think the 21^st century church could once again experience this type of interconnectedness? I do and I think technology will be a key accelerant in making this a reality.

Acts 2 is a product road map for social media and technology in the church. As we seek to extend the functions of the church online, I believe a holistic approach would encompass the following:

• Spiritual Formation (Learning God’s Word) (v. 42)
• Community (v. 42, 46)
• Prayer and Care (v. 43, 45)]
• Worship (v. 46)
• Evangelism (v. 47)

Though many internet campuses incorporate one or more of these elements, most only do one of them really well. I agree with Greg Atkinson’s assessment, that if you are going online with these functions of your church, don’t do it unless the technology fits within the vision, mission, and church growth model of your church. Don’t do it for the sake of doing something really cool.

Several churches and organizations are already making great strides using technology to extend and facilitate these ecclesiastical functions online. Here are a few that I believe are doing it well:

Learning God’s Word (Spiritual Formation)

Movee

Shadetree

YouVersion

Worship

Church Online at LifeChurch.tv

Northland, A Church Distributed

Community

The City at Mars Hill

I know there are others, so feel free to add comments below to add the list of those who are using technology and social media to fulfill these ecclesiastical functions with excellence.

As for sharing and evangelism, these are indeed the fruits of many of the technologies listed above (in addition to others), but I have not seen any applications designed with these specific functions for the use in the local church. If you do, please educate me!

If your church is pursuing a holistic approach, drop a comment below. I would love to hear both your strategy and the technologies you are using.

Have you ever stopped to consider the global presence and use of online social networks? Most of us have heard of the large number of users on Facebook and MySpace, but the map below will tell a bigger story. Social networks are not mere fads, but a new era in communication and community. It’s the new email. In fact, I agree with Jeremiah Owyang that email is is the first and largest social network. While email will remain, social networks will continue to grow and evolve.

[Note: Sometimes map will take a moment to load, if at all. Map Source: http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com]

The question now is how will the church leverage social networks to further its mission of changed lives for Jesus Christ? For certain, I am not the first to ask this question, but I am amazed at the number of church leaders who are still hesitant and skeptical of embracing these technologies for ministry purposes. Perhaps there remains a shortage of good examples of how social networks contribute to the bottom line. Sure, we can certainly talk about fan pages, groups, etc, but I would argue that much of what can be gained by their use in not in their native features, but what can be developed or extended using their APIs. So this leaves me to wonder who is doing it? Who (whether churches or ChMS providers) are using these social networks ’strategically’?