The iChurch Method 2012 Year in Review

As 2012 comes to an end, we here at The iChurch Method would like to thank you for all your support. It’s been a banner inaugural year. It’s awe inspiring to think that at this time last year, The iChurch Method was just a small blog that was waiting to be launched into the public with the release of the flagship book, The iChurch Method Vol 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online. With that being stated, let’s look at some of the key accomplishments in 2012.

• Launched The iChurch Method Vol. 1 at the Pastors and Leaders conference in Orlando where I taught and had a book signing. It was an awesome experience
• Spoke at SDA national convention in ABQ as well as the Social Media bootcamp in Costa Mesa CA on taking your Social Media to the next level.
• Taught at FICWFM convention in Los Angeles at Crenshaw Christian Center on Social Media and Ministry. This was great because I have worked with CCC since 2007 and I was finally able to participate in their major convention.
• Wrote for Gospel Today Magazine (2 times) and The iChurch Method was reviewed in the magazine as well.
• Taught The iChurch Method class at The Potter’s Institute and introduced The iChurch Method Live, where I streamed the classes live online for anyone to participate in using Google Hangouts.
• The iChurch Method is now being sold in The Potters House, Crenshaw Christian Center and SDA Adventsource bookstores.
• Prof. David Bourgeois of Biola University in La Mirada CA, used The iChurch Method for his digital ministry summer course.
• Filmed by local news, CW33 for a segment on church and technology
• Participated in Conclave with Monkdevelopment.com for church communicators and met some great friends. This event hand selected church communicators from across the country and we all met in Dallas for a collaborative meeting.
• Reached 1 million Facebook fans and created a new online church streaming module for T.D. Jakes Ministries. When I arrived at T.D. Jakes ministries in Jan. 2010, they were not using social media at all. I was able to implement an initial strategy of devotionals and links to online video content to start generating interaction via social media, and two years later the audience grew to 1 million.

The iChurch Method at Universities

The focus of The iChurch Method was to educate and inform churches how to better use technology and advance their ministry online. What I didn’t foresee was the academic environments that The iChurch Method could be utilized in. I didn’t foresee Christian Universities using The iChurch Method in their curriculums to help educate their students on how technology can be (and is being) used in ministry. Here are two great universities that have utilized The iChurch in their curriculums.

Biola University - Digital Ministry Seminar Summer Course - Prof. David T Bourgeois
Abilene Christian University - Christian Ministry in Digital Culture - Dr. John Weaver

The benefits of introducing students to The iChurch Method in college as well as how real life churches are using technology is that we are able prepare students to help advance ministries technologically as soon as they come out of school, instead of them going to corporate america and then eventually coming to work for the church. This would give churches access to more individuals with technical skills that are ready to help advance the kingdom online.

Social Media in Ministry Presentation Package

Mobile Media is on the RISE

A major ministry I work with has been on tv for years and has millions of viewers. As we were coming up with our web strategy, we knew it was important to allow people to watch the television broadcasts on the ministry website. We figured since millions people were watching it on tv, there would thousands watching from our website. Well we were right and we were wrong. We were right in that there are thousands of people watching the website broadcast, we were wrong in thinking that it would be from our “traditional” website. The largest viewers of our broadcasts online are from the mobile website. After we setup our traditional website, we started working on a mobile website just because that was something that we thought the people might want. We had no idea how much they wanted it, and how much they would use it. And the main thing they do on the mobile website is watch live services and archived tv broadcasts.

Now I am not saying to build your entire mobile website around multimedia (people still want location, service times, contact information), but do keep in mind that with 4G internet speeds and millions of smart phones out there, multimedia is being consumed at a high rate, so provide the people with what they want and they will support the ministry.

For more information on how to best implement solutions like this preorder The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login.

Mobile Giving is on the RISE

I was at a meeting this week with a ministry I work with and we were talking about the online progress of the websites. While we were discussing this a very interesting fact was revealed, I informed them that their first ever mobile online donation came in February 2012, since then, they have received tens of thousands of dollars via their mobile website. This of course made them very happy but also confirmed how important mobile was to their online strategy. Now let’s think about this for a second, prior to January 2012 there was no mobile website. Likewise, prior to February 2012, they had never received a mobile online donation, thus this was a new revenue stream for the ministry. Stats did confirm that 30% of people that were giving via the website did migrate to the mobile website giving but 70% were an entirely new group of people. Based on this information, I genuinely believe that people were waiting for a mobile way to give from the church because that is convenient for them. They wanted to access and support the ministry via their mobile device, so when the ministry provided that, they in turned gave.

Now, let’s look at how to take this further, the church that we are talking about has a mobile website but they do not have a mobile app or SMS giving options. This is where they can improve upon their current mobile offerings and provide more ways for people to support the ministry. Does your ministry provide mobile donations?

For more information on how to best implement solutions like this preorder The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login.

The iChurch Method 2: Changing The World When You Login

Here it is, the Highly Anticipated next edition in The iChurch Method series. The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login. Pre-Order Yours Today

Volume 2 in the amazing iChurch Method series, the purpose of this book is to continue to help ministries and businesses advance online. Continuing with the five part approach to taking your ministry/business online and reaching the world:

Part 1: Website – Interactive websites Part 2: Multimedia – Internet Church Campus Part 3: Ecommerce – Online Stores/Online Donations - Part II Part 4: Social Media – The Rise of Visual Social Media Part 5: Mobile – Mobile Websites and Apps

With these five parts, a ministry can reach and change the world. The iChurch Method is a MUST READ for every ministry leader who desires to have a global presence online.

Your Pre-Ordered Book will arrive by May 1, 2013 and your Ebook will be available via download by May 1, 2013. Pre-Order Yours Today

The History behind The iChurch Method

I am currently working on some new advancements for The iChurch Method such as the Online Learning Network and Volume 2 of the book. In the midst of this a guy doing some work for me asked me where did I get the concept for the book. As I got to thinking, I decided to do a quick video about it but here are the highlights.

1. I originally came up with the concept while working at Crenshaw Christian Center in 2007. I was hired to be a webmaster but I saw that I had to revamp their entire online presence. Thus I developed a new website, a new online store and integrated multimedia. (Chapters 1 - 3 in the book).

2. In 2009 I setup Social Media at EIF Ministries (the international ministry of CCC) and came up with the initial parts of the Social Media strategy that I use today. I also laid out the road map to integrating internet church, mobile websites and apps into their online ministry.

3. In 2010 when I relocated to Dallas, I was recruited by T.D. Jakes Ministries and I had to show them that I knew what I was talking about so I came up with five areas that I could help them and explain my past successes, these five areas were websites, multimedia, ecommerce, social media and mobile. Yep, the same five chapters I have in The iChurch Method book.

And the rest they say..is history.

Speaking in Albuquerque - Taking Social Media to the Next Level

On Friday at 10:30am - 1pm M.S.T. I am speaking at the Society of Adventist Communicators Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My topic is "Taking Social Media to the Next Level". In this presentation here are a few of the topics I will focus on:

• Why is Social Media important to ministry
• How to effectively develop a strategy for Social Media (Hint: Its not to join FB and Twitter and hope they come)
• What do people want from your ministry via Social Media
• How to develop your online message for Social Media
• The Rise of Visual Social Media
• How to Analyze and then Optimize Your Social Media
• Integrating Social Media into your Website

Once the presentation is finished I will have the PPT available for download. Hopefully we will be able to supply MP3s and MP4s for download.

Content is King

Depending on what technology specialist, journalist or blogger you are listening to or reading at a particular moment, they may or may not agree on the importance of content. Some people say that content is king, some say that the delivery method is king, some say that interaction is king. With the focus of the church being to take the gospel to the masses, content is king. The message is the same, the packaging may be different, the delivery method may be different, but the gospel never changes, thus content still rules. Today we have numerous ways to get the message out, websites, social media, mobile devices, mobile apps, sms, multimedia and many many others. Back in the day it was word of mouth, then came the printing press, next was radio, then television and so on. No matter the delivery method, the gospel has remained the same, thus it’s not the method but the content. Focus on the content and the delivery method won’t matter, the method will evolve and change anyway.

When I speak to ministries about what they should focus on, I always tell them that content is king. Make sure the message that is coming from the ministry is continuous and consistent. Make sure the ministry is putting out great content that reflects the ministry and the kingdom in a christian manner and helps people in their daily christian walk. Make sure when people respond to this content that the ministry is open and interactive. Don’t make the ministry just a one way street of communication, let people interact with the content and keep the conversation open. Maintain this focus and strategy and the ministry will always have a large online following because, content is king!

The Online Church Campus

**Here is a glimpse of the type of content that will be available in the next edition of The iChurch Method Volume 2** This should be the goal of a ministry when they set up a way for members to view their services online. Now let’s talk about how to get them from being just viewers to actual online church members.

If you give people the online tools to better interact with your ministry, then they will use them, if you don’t give them any tools to interact, then they won’t. It’s as simple as that.

When you are creating an online church campus, you need to provide people with more than just the online streaming viewer, even though that is the central to the online church experience. You need to provide them with tools to (1) interact with the ministry (2) gather into groups and fellowship with one another and (3) share their experiences with friends. These three areas will get you started with a great online church campus.

1. Interact with the ministry - This should consist of quite a few things, first and foremost is the need for an online pastor or someone that will continuously communicate with the online members. Next, the tools needed for someone to stay in contact with the ministry could be as elaborate as a membership website where people are able to email or connect profiles with the online pastor or ministry representative or they could be simply a chat box next to the online stream that people use to communicate with the ministry. Another option could be a social media module such as a twitter box or facebook box that allows people to communicate as well.

2. Gather into groups and fellowship with one another - This feature is based on the small groups concept that has been championed by Saddleback Church and Willowcreek Church. They have developed great small groups strategies to help minister to the numerous members they have in their congregations and this concept translates online well. If you start to create groups in the online campus based on things such as locations, family qualities (married, single, parents) and other characteristics, you will have ways to minister to these online groups more effectively. Also, these groups will be able to fellowship amongst each other and help build each other up, just like ministries do within the traditional offline church setting.

3. Share experiences with their friends - This is simply integrating social media sharing features into the online campus. No matter whether the member is watching the stream, watching a pre-made video or reading an inspirational blog, they should be able to share that with their online friends and direct them to the online campus. This is very similar to someone speaking about their church in an offline setting and telling someone to come to church with them the following weekend. The benefit of the online campus is that people can tell their online friends instantly about something they saw on the online campus and their friends can come view, participate and join all from their laptop, desktop or mobile device. This is the true definition of taking ministry to the people because the ministry is accessible from whatever device an online user has access to.

Tools to use for online church campuses

Google hangouts on Air for video collaborations and recording of prayer meetings, group bible studies and other group sessions.

Socialgo.com or Wordpress website setups that include blogs and community social features so that people that are joining your online church campus have a feeling of membership and belonging and not just logging in to watch a live service and then receiving nothing else till the live stream comes back on.

Blogs for updates on church happenings and other helpful information that the online church community can subscribe to. This information can also be pushed out to social media networks. Blogging tools should be built into the site, both of these features come with Socialgo.com and Wordpress.

Media Center to not only watch live services and conferences, but also an archived center so that people can watch past sermons, tv broadcasts, past events and other multimedia that is created by the ministry. Video archiving tools can be Youtube.com or Vimeo.com.

Chatroll.com that provides chat features for real time connections with online viewers and online church members.

Sharethis.com for Social media sharing features that let people share your content via their social networks right from your website. This easy plugin gives you to code to enable people to share your online campus with their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, email and numerous other social networks.

Changing the World when you Log-on

This month I had the great opportunity to write an article for Gospel Today Magazine about online significance and changing the world digitally. Here is that article, enjoy. Over the course of time we have seen numerous advancements in technology that have enabled individuals to communicate faster and access information faster. The printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio and television are a few examples, but nothing transformed the world as quickly as the internet, the internet gave individuals the power to communicate with the world from their computers.

Then, just as we were getting comfortable with the internet and how we “thought” we should use it, social media transformed the way we used the internet and gave us even larger platforms and more power to communicate with the world, all from our internet connected devices.Now we all know, with great power comes great responsibility, and social media is no exception.

As we continue to build our online presence we have to realize that through our words, ideas and interaction, we are impacting people, whether we see the results or not. Everytime we say something publicly on a social network, it’s a global message, we just don’t realize it till someone across the globe responds.

What ways can you make an impact online

Build a community FIRST! There a numerous social networks that you can join, connect with others, and convey your message to, but your initial focus should be to build a community. Start with Facebook and connect with old friends, classmates, coworkers and family. Use Twitter and Google+ to find like minded individuals, celebrities, influencers and groups of people that share your interest. Use LinkedIn to connect with business professionals that can help further your cause and grow your network. Join Youtube to help distribute your video content and find other video creators that share your sentiment. This may sound like a lot of work but each network you join has a distinct audience and your videos, photos, updates and links will help grow your online presence and build a strong community around you.

Help others with their online movement. There are numerous online communities that are built around helping others and you can use your social network of influence to help as well. A great network that’s helping others is called Hopemob and it shows how we can use our online social networks to help others and change their lives.

Hopemob.org (@Hope) and its founder Shaun King (@shaunking) have built the largest community of generous strangers the world has ever seen. What I love about Hopemob is that they feature real stories that I believe I can impact and make a change. The goals of Hopemob are not always financial either, sometimes they are virtual, such as helping a family to get a video out and make it go viral.

Start your own online movement. You can start your own online network with a website called Socialgo.com. With this online software you can build your own online community where your ideas and insights can be the rallying cry for your network. So as you build up your online audience on major social networks like Facebook and Twitter, you can inform your audience that you have an online network on Socialgo.com and they can join you there to further progress the message that you are trying to convey to the world and help you make a change.

5 Steps to develop a Social Media plan for your Church

Just as Churches we were getting comfortable with the internet and how they “thought” we should use it, social media transformed the internet and gave the church even larger platforms and more power to communicate the gospel with the world. We can now reach the corners of the globe from our internet connected devices. Now we all know, with great power comes great responsibility, and social media is no exception. Social Media is one of the best ways to reach and help people learn the gospel. With Social Media you can reach people right where they are at, on their social network of choice and let the life-giving information flow from your ministry to their social profile. In my book The iChurch Method, I say “the church should strive to meet people wherever they are at, on whatever network they are on, via any device that they pick up”, this is the opportunity that social networks give us.

Now that we understand the importance of social networking and the great moment the church has right now, let’s talk about the five steps to take advantage of this opportunity.

1. Who will manage the tasks: The first step in developing a social media strategy is to establish who will be the social media manager. Who will be the person that champions the social media networks, gathers the information from the rest of the ministry and actually distributes the information to the social networks. This person needs to have a good understanding of social networks and the benefits of one network over another.

2. Who is your audience: The next step is determining who is your audience for your social media strategy. Start to segment your audience into categories so that you can gather church content geared towards a specific audience. For example, if you are targeting non-church members then you will tailor a social media post differently than if you are targeting church members. Most churches say they are focusing on members and non-members but their messages are always catered to members only, wasting a great opportunity to reach millions of other social networkers that may not attend their church.

3. What’s Your Message: Next, establish the voice of your church. What will be the message that you will convey to people via social media and how will you convey it. Will your church speak on societal and current issues? Will your church quote scriptures and quotes on every network? Will your church push out announcements and never respond to people? Make sure your church isn’t one dimensional, there are many types of people that you can reach therefore you distribute many types of social media posts. Here are three focal points in establishing your church’s message via social media:

• Inspiration - Make sure to provide inspiration and motivation via your social networks. These are the best types of posts, whether they are quotes, scriptures or photos with encouraging words on them, everyone wants some type of inspiration in their life.
• Information - Provide information about your church via your social networks, don’t assume that everyone comes to church, reads your website or saw your eblast. Distribute the information about events and other happenings within the church via your social networks. You can repurpose flyers, newsletters, eblasts and other marketing materials and send them out via social networks.
• Communication - Social media is “Social”, therefore it should be two way communication. If you post to a network and people comment, ask questions and take time out of their busy day to respond, then make sure your church takes time to acknowledge them and respond back. Don’t let your church appear to arrogant to respond to its social network fans. Even if you don’t have the staff or time to answer every comment or question, at least answer some. Show that the ministry is seeing people’s comments and questions.

4. What social networks do you want to use: There are numerous social networks out there and each one has its own audience. Your church needs to establish which social network(s) they are going to start with, master how to use and then progress to other ones. For example, many churches start with Twitter, learn how to interact and send out content via Twitter and then they progress to Facebook. Here are the top social networks, their benefits and what types of content can be distributed via them.

• Facebook - This is the largest network in the world with over 900 million members. Facebook is the gold standard in social media and has literally defined how we use social media. Facebook fan pages have status updates that can be text or links to other websites. You can also posts photos and videos on facebook and create fan pages that can have millions of fans. (Google+ is similar as well)
• Twitter - Twitter is the “convenient” social network because its posts (tweets) are limited to 140 characters. This gives churches, pastors and people on the go an easy way to communicate, share photos, links to websites, videos and variety of other information. The benefits of Twitter are that its an easy network to learn and reach people quickly using short message and photos.
• Youtube - The #1 video network in the world is often overlooked as a social network. With a focus on only videos, Youtube has built a community where people can comment, share and build a following around multimedia video content. This allows churches to post inspirational sermons and gospel messages that can visually appeal to people and reach them on their computers or mobile devices.
• Pinterest - Pinterest is the new kid on the block with its focus on photos and the sharing (pinning) of them in a poster board format. With this network churches can create inspirational photos that can be posted to boards that are based around certain themes that people can search for. For example, if your church creates a board on Prayer, then they can post photos of people praying at your church and let other pinners repin those photos. You can also post links to videos on Pinterest, which is a largely unknown feature, thus you in addition to prayer photos, you can post actual video prayers on your board to help people get through difficult times in their lives. Now that’s living the gospel!! (Instagram is similar to Pinterest but is mainly on mobile devices only)

5. When to post: Lastly, how often to post is a question that many churches face. How much is too much? Can we post 5 times a day? Should we post items twice in case people didn’t see it the first time? These are questions that many churches ask when they start using social networks. Here are some posting tips to keep in mind:

Facebook - Post at least 1 - 3 times a day Twitter - Post at least 4 - 6 times a day Youtube - Post at least 1 video per week Pinterest - Post at least 1 photo per week Instagram - Post at least 1 photo per week Google+ - Post at least 1 - 3 times a day

How Churches can use Social Media - Google+ Hangout - The iChurch Method

Thursday, Sept 20, 2012, The iChurch Method conducted a Google Hangout on Air about Social Media usage in the Church. We recorded the video and here are some of the highlights.

Danielle Willis of New Beginnings Church of Chicago/ Project H.O.O.D. - Have an organic social media conversation - Adding online forms to Facebook using frames - How to find a platform and master it - Intensify Conference Oct 17 - 19

E.C. Cunningham of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago - Integrating Facebook and Twitter into your service - Helping your Pastor buy into Social Media - Finding the social media savvy person in your congregation that will help you get started.

Jason Caston, Author of The iChurch Method and Internet Church Developer at T.D. Jakes Ministries - Social Media Strategy of Inspiration, Information and Communication - The rise of the Visual Social Media Networks - Integrating Social Media and letting people share your church website.

Google Reader

After high school, the average person reads about 1 book per year, educated people read between 4 - 8 books per year and experts read around a book per month. Now I used to read a book every two months but now I have changed up my approach since the information I need has to be more current and readily available. Now I read blogs and ebooks, usually an ebook every month or two and I read blogs daily. Google Reader is how I am able to keep up with so much information and changing trends in technology. Ranging from online business to technology to digital ministry and everything in between, Google Reader is how I keep up and read any and everything. Google Reader is an online software that takes RSS Feeds and lets you categorize them for reading. These RSS feeds come from websites and blogs that distribute them for people to subscribe to and receive notifications when they update their sites or post new content. Therefore, when I subscribe to a site like Techcrunch.com, every time they post a new article, my Google Reader is updated and I am able to read it immediately. Everyday, I receive around 1000 or so blog updates and I take an hour or two to read through many of them and stay current on all the latest and greatest in technology, digital ministry and online business.

Here is a screenshot of my Google Reader.

To setup your Google Reader go to Google.com/reader and login with you gmail account. If you don’t have a gmail account then create one.

Once it’s setup, you can add blogs or news readers to your site by clicking the "Add Subscription" button on the left-hand side of the screen. This will open a dialog box where you can input either search terms or the actual web address of sites you want to include in your RSS reader. Or you can click on the RSS icon on a website and if you are logged into your Google Reader, it will automatically be added.

Enjoy and stay educated and updated via Google Reader.

Introducing The iChurch Method Live

I have been testing and utilizing Google Hangouts on Air over the last few months and I believe the product is a game changer. I am always looking for new ways to use the service and I realized that with a macbook, HD webcam and a built-in mic, you can live stream any event. Well for the numerous events that I speak or teach at, I always have my macbook with me since I am training from it, and then the lightbulb moment occurred...I could stream all of my events live. And with that, The iChurch Method Live was born.

I have been teaching The iChurch Method classes (Phase 1) at The Potter’s Institute, a training division of The Potter’s House of Dallas, where I work as an Internet Church Developer. Last week I conducted a test where I used Google Hangouts on Air to stream my class live and record it via my laptop. The audio and video worked great  so starting Tuesday September 18, I will broadcast my classes every Tuesday for the next 4 weeks until October 9, 2012. Then we will start another session of The iChurch Method classes, Phase II, from October 30, 2012 – December 11, 2012. Each session is five courses where I will teach from The iChurch Method book.

I will also live stream my speaking/training event, October 19, 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Social Media and various dates of Google Hangouts in between. Tune in to http://www.ichurchmethod.com/live for dates on upcoming events and I look forward to your comments and participation. We are very excited about this new venture.

Make sure to use Google Alerts

Google Alerts is by far one of the best google services available. I have been using it for about a year now and believe that all businesses, companies, ministries and churches should use it to monitor their brands. There’s no reason to continue Googling yourself, your business or your ministry, you can now just setup a Google alert and anytime your brand is mentioned online, you will receive an alert/email.

Here’s how it works:

Go go http://www.google.com/alerts For Search query: Type in the name of your business or church or the phrase that you want to monitor For Result Type: Choose Everything For How often: Choose how often you want to be alerted (once a day is good) For How many: Choose only the best results Deliver to: Input your email address

Finally, click on the red “Create Alert” button and you will be taken to your alerts page where you can see and manage all your alerts. I currently manage all my brands, my name and my books and find this tool to be extremely useful.

For example, I just found out that a college was using The iChurch Method in their 2013 curriculum. Thanks Google Alerts!!

The iChurch Method Podcasts

Stay updated on all The iChurch Method Podcasts via iTunes or the great iPhone/iPad Podcasts app. The iChurch Method has numerous audio and video podcasts that you can take with you and listen to topics from The iChurch Method anywhere, anyplace, anytime. To Subscribe to The iChurch Method Podcast CLICK HERE

The iChurch Method Book is now on Apple iBooks

The iChurch Method is now available for your iPhones and iPads. In addition to being on the Kindle, Nook and PDF format, we have made this book available to the millions of iBooks readers that were requesting the book in this format.

How Entrepreneurs can better use Technology [Audio Interview]

In this audio podcast interview, I discussed how entrepreneurs can better utilize technology in order to help expand and enhance their business. [ylwm_vimeo height="400" width="600"]47572965[/ylwm_vimeo]

Church Social Media and Technology Google+ Hangout

I finally got to participate in a Google+ Hangout on Air focusing on Church and Technology. It was a great time with Chip Dizard (www.chipdizard.com) and Joel Sams (www.symbiota.com). We started talking about how social media is being used in the church today and then we touched on mobile and other technology topics. So many nuggets of knowledge that I just couldn't write them all. [ylwm_vimeo height="400" width="600"]47634599[/ylwm_vimeo]