It seems that the world (or at least the United States for now) needs a bit more Church Communication…!

Center for Church Communication has recently established “Regional Coordinators” in the continental US to help promote communication best-practices and such. On the same map you can find locations of their Board Members as well as CFCC Members.

Pretty neat, although I’d probably have used something a little less “ugly” than CommunityWalk.com, but that’s just me.

It’s kind of like seeing a battle plan unfold or something to that affect (or maybe it’s just me, again…).

What do you think they’re up to?

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Apparently there’s been a few rumors going around that Facebook is re-developing their messaging system to create an all-together new emailing platform (as we traditionally understand it).

The LA Times reports about the “Gmail Killer” and that it just “makes sense.”

What does this mean for the Church and ministry? Could you imagine an entire ministry-based communication strategy on Facebook? Would that be beneficial or prohibitive? Freeing or make you more handcuffed? Continue reading »

The past launch week has been insane and we’ve been super busy with changes; but I’ve had more fun than I can imagine in the longest of times (which is lovely because that’s one of the only few sustainable things that work in life).

One of the neatest parts is just realizing (again) how blessed we are in our ability to do what we are doing and how we can be a blessing in other people’s lives. The way I see it, and the way that the Scriptures tell us, we are to be a blessing and pass on those blessings constantly.

Our challenge and delight is to how best to give; a great place to be.

As a starter, we’ve announced a number of free giveaways all across the 8BIT Network and have a few more to give this week. Ready? Continue reading »

We’ve been hard at work tweaking the design, running code queries, and even installing new applications to make this iteration of ChurchCrunch (and the rest of the 8BIT Network) the best community platform ever.

I’ve learned a lot about how this community responds to change and have taken extensive notes on how to make it better. Hopefully most of the redesign has made that kind of impact and it’s my hope that when you get to one of our properties you just leave feeling “good.”

We’re in the business of creating environments besides effective and entertaining content; we want to create an experience, and even more than that, a conversation in the context of community.

So, without further ado, here are some of the updates that we’ve made in the last week since relaunching the new design: Continue reading »

Another targeted “more followers on Twitter” scheme for the faithful few.

I wouldn’t put my username and password in those boxes if you paid me:

1. It doesn’t look “secure” or trustworthy.
2. That’s not how I roll with Twitter.
3. The logo is terrible.
4. It’s not free.
5. Linked websites are just too classy for me.

Thoughts? Continue reading »

Verge, a Missional Community Conference which is currently about half-way through, has a very interesting and attractive Twitter feed widget that I had never seen before: FeedMagnet.

And although the service does have a “free” option, it would obviously be better to go ahead and pay the $35/month, especially if it’s for a conference or live gathering that doesn’t need to be used after a few days:

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Got this email forward to me via my wife who was the primary organizer for the ChurchCrunch Community 1st Birthday Party and the Charity:Water Campaign:

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Have you used Facebook ads for your ministry and/or non-profit? How did it go? Was it actually worth the time and investment?

I’ve used it a few times for various properties and I’ll admit that the return was quite limited. But here’s a story and example of how it was used well and had a healthy “return.”

The advertisement for some Christmas productions were shown nearly one million times, clicked 600 times, and cost $475 dollars. 144 tickets were reserved from the productions and one of the families is now active in the local church’s small group.

Sounds like a “win,” right? What’s your take?

Wow. I nearly forgot about this (thanks for nobody reminding me…) community contest for the 3,000th RSS subscriber!

Sheesh.

So, congrats Kyle Reed! Send me your info and we’ll get you the hookup.

Ok. So, the next big giveaway is for the 20,000th comment. Stay tuned.

I love giving away stuff.

“Prayer walls,” we’ve seen them before. And honestly nothing had really impressed me, but this one looks like it may: Prayer Engine.

Announced yesterday, the Prayer Wall will enable you to do a number of neat things:

The Prayer Engine is an extremely customizable web-based Prayer Wall and moderation system that’s designed to serve as the backbone of your prayer ministry.

Its powerful Prayer Wall integrates directly with your website, serving as the central location for your audience to view and share prayer requests.

Neato. Here’s a video of a demo: Continue reading »