Tag Archives: Facebook

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Young Leader: Ego

 

Ego: The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus

Genuine authority knows, however, that all immediacy is disastrous, particularly in matters of authority. Genuine authority knows that it can only exist in the service of the one who alone has authority. Genuine authority knows that it is bound in the strictest sense by the words of Jesus, “you have one teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt. 23: 8). The community of faith does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and of one another. It does not lack the former, but the latter. The community of faith will place its confidence only in the simple servant of the word of Jesus, because it knows that it will then be guided not by human wisdom and human conceit, but by the word of the good shepherd.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus

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Keeping our egos in check is so important because it is counter-cultural to everything we see and hear. We live in a day where self-promotion is rampant. The church sadly is no different. What worries me is kids who are digital natives are growing up and they don’t remember what it was like before the age of the minor Christian celebrity. You have ministers who start a blog and buy followers on twitter before long they are wearing swag and hitting the conference circuit speaking about things they have heard and seen others do but have never done themselves.

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Making social media work for you.

if this than that

A few weeks ago I came across a site that is fantastic. It’s called “If This Than That” It is basically a social media automation site. It’s fantastic. What does it do? My mom and dad don’t use Instagram so I created a recipe that emails my parents a picture of every Instragram picture I take automatically. It’s a very power tool that is only getting better.

Here is how it works.

1. You start with a channel

Channels are the basic building blocks of IFTTT. Each Channel has its own Triggers and Actions. Some example Channels include – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WordPress, dropbox ect.

2. Next comes the trigger:

The this part of a Recipe is a Trigger. Some example Triggers are “I’m tagged in a photo on Facebook” or “I check in on Foursquare.”

3. The Action What you want your trigger to do:

The that part of a Recipe is an Action. Some example Actions are “send me a text message” or “create a status message on Facebook.”

4. What specifically you want your trigger to tell you:

Pieces of data from a Trigger are called Ingredients. For example, the Ingredients of an Email Trigger could be: subject, body, attachment, received date, and the sender’s address.

Screen Shot 2013-02-19 at 10.18.00 AM

If you want to pause a recipe you simply turn the recipe off and it stops working to resume the recipe you switch it to on and you pick up where you left off. Easy.

Check it out the possibilities are endless.  

 

 

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Facebook Family Night Article from K!

In the past couple of weeks I have had quite a few requests for info on an event we did a while back and are planning on doing again next month. We called it the Facebook Family Night. I re-posted a blog post I did a while back yesterday. Today I am reposting a short article I did for K!.

One of the exciting things for me as a lover of Christ and a lover of technology is to see those two worlds merging. The church is crossing the digital divide in ways and in speeds that have never happened before. There are more people on Facebook than inhabit many countries that’s scary and an amazing opportunity at the same time. I believe it’s our job not to call it evil but think of ways to use the tool of technology to build community in the church and preach the gospel. One of the ideas we had was what if we used Facebook to do a family event for our church.  We tried it and “Facebook Family Fun Night” was a hit.

What is Facebook Family Fun Night? Well the origin of my idea came from Kendra and her team at North Point Church. I love the practicality of Kendra’s blog and read every post she posts. She is also a great breakout speaker if you are going to the Orange or Drive Conferences make sure you go to at least one of her breakouts you’ll thank me later. At North Point they did a competition based event that was more through their website. I thought for us that Facebook would be a great way to do something similar to what they did.

Here is the basic description of what we did:

  1. Our first step was to connect the content with our weekend service. So we would be partnering with the families in our church.
  2. We sent out a flyer and created an event on Facebook that listed all the supplies that families would need. The time the event would start and the basic rules for the event.
  3. I created 2 videos I uploaded those videos to youtube and embedded them in our Uptown Fanpage. The first video welcomed the families went over the rules again. The second video wrapped up what they learned and helped parents lead their kids to a faith decision in Christ. I received word back that one little girl decided to trust God with her whole heart for the first time. Her parents helped her with that decision. That alone made our event a success.
  4. We started our event at 7pm sharp. At 7pm I posted the link to the PDF containing the exact instructions for that night.
  5. Families did each of the activities which rehearsed what they had learned the Sunday before in our children’s ministry. They had to take pictures of each event and upload them to Facebook. It was a race to see who could complete the activities the fastest.

A few questions as to why we did this?

1. Why Facebook? – Loads of our families are on Facebook and know how to work it so we didn’t have to communicate how to use the technology. Plus Facebook is free.

2. What was our goal?

Our goals were:

  • Stir ideas for creatively teaching your kids the bible at home
  • Help connect families to each other through a shared online experience
  • Do a family event in the winter that wasn’t weather dependent.
  • Build Uptown’s Facebook brand with our core audience
  • Create a shared memory for our families.
  • Create an opportunity for parents to lead their own kids to Christ.

 

3. Why make it a race? I like the race because you don’t get bogged down in any one thing if forces you to keep moving because everyone else is. One of the reasons family devotions are lame is because they get bogged down and don’t keep moving and kids lose focus. The race factor keeps the family focused. I like that.

Everyone who took part in this activity really enjoyed it. I don’t think virtual community will ever replace face to face community but I do believe it can enhance it. When we have done events in the past people who didn’t attend didn’t really feel like they missed out but based on the viral and social nature of this event if you missed it you know you missed it because of the chatter and pictures loaded. Love that. We work so hard and not making people feel left out ever that people rarely feel like they missed something great. I hope everyone who didn’t take part in this event feels like they missed out…because lets face it they did!

What I would change for next time:

1. Have a better way to judge who was the winner – I thought the timeline with the last picture posted would work but it didn’t. Next time the last thing everyone must do is take a picture of a digital clock.

2. Perhaps have different criteria for who the winner would be

3.  Maybe do part of it via ustream to make it more interactive and I could make comments on the pictures as they came in.

( If you are interested in downloading the files we used for our first family night click on the following link. https://www.box.com/s/ii9i71b6roy705bkknis )

 

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Retro Post: How can you increase your Ministries presence on Facebook?


One way that I plan on doing this is by doing events for the family based around the community of Facebook. The first event that we did was called “Facebook Family Fun Night”

What is Facebook Family Fun Night? Well the origin of my idea came from Kendra and her team at North Point Church. I love the practicality and ministry in the trenchness of Kendra’s blog and read every post she posts. She is also a great breakout speaker if you are going to Orange make sure you go to at least one of her breakouts you’ll thank me later. They did a competition based event, from what I could gather, that was more through their website. I thought for us that Facebook would be a great way to do something similar to what they did.

Here is the basic description of what we did: Facebook Family Fun Night was an interactive family night that parents from all of our campus’ can sign up to be a part of. The event took place at your home with families from our church the twist is they did a devotional and the supplemental actives with their own family but in a race with all the other families who had registered from all of our campus’. The way the progress will be logged is by each family taking pictures and uploading them to our kidmin fanpage.

A few questions as to why we did this?

1. Why Facebook? – Loads of our families are on Facebook and know how to work it so we didn’t have to communicate how to use the technology. Plus Facebook is free.

2. What was our goal?
Our goals were:

  • Stir ideas for creatively teaching your kids the bible at home
  • Help connect families to each other through a shared online experience
  • Do a family event in the winter that wasn’t weather dependent.
  • Build Uptown’s Facebook brand with our core audience
  • Create a shared memory for our families.
  • Create an opportunity for parents to lead their own kids to Christ.

3. Why make it a race? I like the race because you don’t get bogged down in any one thing if forces you to keep moving because everyone else is. One of the reasons family devotions are lame is because they get bogged down and don’t keep moving and kids lose focus. The race factor keeps the family focused. I like that.

I really liked this event. I don’t think virtual community will ever replace face to face community but I do believe it can enhance it. When we have done events in the past people who didn’t attend didn’t really feel like they missed out but based on the viral and social nature of this event if you missed it you know you missed it because of the chatter and pictures loaded. Love that. We work so hard and not making people feel left out ever that people rarely feel like they missed something great. I hope everyone who didn’t take part in this event feels like they missed out…because lets face it they did!

What I would change for next time:

1. Have a better way to judge who was the winner
2. Perhaps have different criteria for who the winner would be
3.  Maybe do part of it via ustream or the like.

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How I use social Media.

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A few people have tried to add me on The Path. I haven’t accepted everyone I thought I would explain why. If you are going to use different social media tools you need to have a strategy and plan for how you use them.

Facebook – by far the most popular social media tool. I don’t like Facebook for a number of reasons. I friend everyone on Facebook and use it mostly for Church stuff. I contact people, send invitations etc.. I rarely put anything personal on Facebook.

Twitter – I prefer twitter due to the lack of ads games and the fact it forces you to be brief. On twitter I post links to my blog posts and personal things I find fun or links that make me think. I follow most people on twitter. If I don’t follow you let me know.

The Path – I wrote about the Path the other day. There is lots I like about the Path. I love the user interface. I also like the fact you can have a social media platform that is designed to be for a fewer amount of people. I decided to keep the number people I friend on the Path to around 30 or so.

I have a linkedin account don’t use it at all. I use foursquare sporadically.