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Ep. 98 How to Build an Online Ministry In an Ever-Changing Culture

Ep. 98 How to Build an Online Ministry In an Ever-Changing Culture

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Shows Main Idea – It is to the Christian’s advantage to learn about the redemptive use of technology because the majority of humanity lives in cyberspace. There is an “echo of omnipresence” in technology. The missional Christian understands this and is penetrating the cyber-culture for God’s fame. This podcast is chocked full of ideas and best practices for building and sustaining an active and transformative presence.

Show Notes

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Website

  • Is it the thing?
  • Or the thing that points to the thing?

What are you?

  • Curation
  • Creator
  • Hybrid

Brand

(An online ministry is a 100% visual ministry.)

  • Name
    • Your Name
    • An Idea
  • Logo
    • My signature

Mission Statement

Our mission is to help people by providing practical tools and ongoing training for effective living.

  • Help People
  • Provide Practical Tools
  • Ongoing Training
  • Effective Living

Tagline

  • Helping People Live Effective Lives

Voice – Tone

  • Coffee (relational)
  • Relationship, Friendship, Story, Grace, Casual, Coffee Shop, Personal, Togetherness, Life, Help, Hope, Community, Discipleship, Gospel, 1-to-1, Training, Change, Repentance, Culture, Relevance, Identity, Fellowship, Communication, Encouragement, Leadership, Others, Authentic, Advice.
  • Avoid These: Clinical, Counseling, Preacher, Stiff, Medical, Institutional, Christian Cliches.

Look and Feel

  • Put Together, Real, Genuine, Trustworthy, Current, Personal

Color Palette

  • Yellow: #f29c1f
  • Black: #000000
  • Red: #a02720
  • Brown: #994C00
  • Blue: #6eccdf

Photography

  • Real life – Using real photography will reduce the need for you to edit or write on photos. Your article title should carry the weight of the communication and the photo should slightly reinforce that meaning.
  • No photoshop or computer generated

Mobile Friendly

  • Your site must be mobile friendly
  • 70% of content is viewed from a mobile device from most major countries, and that number is growing. (Indonesia is over 90% on mobile.)
  • The reality is that while smartphone use is overwhelmingly popular for some activities such as social media, messaging and catching up with news and gossip, the majority of consumers in western markets also have desktop (and tablet) devices which they tend to use for more detailed review and purchasing.

Social Media

Missional

  • Understand the social communities
  • Each social community is different

Communication

  • Time of day
  • Time of week
  • Frequency (If they hide your stream, you won’t reach them.)

Use Your Favorites

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Three main one: You-Twit-Face
  • Use what works for you.

Sharecropping

  • You don’t own the platforms
  • What is your plan B if they go away
    • Email is always “king” in cyberspace.
      • Build your lists
      • Don’t add people; give them the option
    • Draw people back to your site
      • Forums

Content Creation

What’s Popular

  • Graphics
  • Videos
  • Writing

Genre

  • Time-dated
  • Evergreen

Repurpose

  • Articles
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  • Mind Maps
  • Images
  • Podcasts
  • eBooklets

Recirculate

  • Most content consumed online goes into short-term memory.

Writing Pace

  • Find your pace and stick with it: You Decide
    • Once a week
    • Twice a week
    • Five days a week

Writing Length

  • Short-form attracts people – Fly By & Scanners: builds blog stats, but weak on transformation
  • Long-form develops an idea – Leaders: fewer readers, but more transformative
  • eBooklets teaches a person – putting several long-form articles on a theme into a booklet

Writing Style

  • Find Your Voice – Do not imitate anyone

Writing Tips

  • White Space
  • Don’t double-space between sentences
  • 2.5 seconds to capture your reader
    • Title – Picture – Introduction
  • Purpose: Transform lives

Supplemental Material

Tools

Opening Lines

  • Pride and Prejudice – “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
  • The Tale of Two Cities – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
  • Moby Dick – “Call me Ishmael.”
  • Peter Pan – “All children, except one, grow up.”
  • The Red Badge of Courage – “The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.”
  • Jane Eyre – “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”
  • The Old Man And The Sea – “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”

Helpful Articles

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