Communicate Jesus | Archive

Archive - November, 2008

Tropfest 2008, NY Winner

November 28, 2008 in Videos

This video just goes to show that it doesn’t take expensive technology to create powerful and evocative pieces of communication. This video was shot on a mobile phone (or a cell phone for our North American friends!) What kind of possibilities does this inspire for Christian videos?

5 shallow-end sites for internet newbies

November 26, 2008 in Christian Living, for Churches, Outreach, Pastors

I got an email from Chris last week, and he wants to use his holidays to get better acquainted with the internet. He says:

“Obviously I can surf the web and email pretty confidently, but I think as a future pastor (God-willing) I should know what I’m expecting of other people when I ask them to prepare a church website, etc.”

Great forward-thinking Chris. Not only is it worthwhile knowing what’s involved for people in your congregtion, it’s worth knowing what’s happening for your own benefit too. The internet has moved from the domain of the tech-savvy gurus to be a friendly market for the eager but inexperienced.

So where do you start? Here’s a list of 5 sites that I regularly check out to keep my finger on the pulse.

Mashable. In their own words, Mashable is “All that’s new on the web”. It’s a great resource, but I always feel overwhelmed when I visit this site by the massive amount of new resources that are constantly being birthed.
Sydney Morning Herald Technology section. This website covers more than just the internet, but covers a range of interesting tech-related pieces.
Google. A list of all Google Products. Even if you’ve been kicking around the internet for some time, I can (almost) guarantee there’s some products on this list that you won’t have heard of.
Google Labs. If you haven’t heard of the above list of Google products then you definitely won’t have heard of the products in Google Labs. This is the experimental playground for new Google ideas, and was the birthing room for many of Google’s now prolific products.
Web Worker Daily. This site is aimed at people who use the internet to get their work done (particularly freelancers) but I find it useful for staying in the loop. The articles on this site can be at the deeper end of required technical experience (but what better way to learn how to swim than to jump in the deep end!)

I hope you find this list helpful. If you’re a seasoned internet user, what sites do you find useful for keeping on top of online developments?

Coffee with Jesus

November 22, 2008 in Videos

The use of video helps to communicate what can be a hard concept to visualise – praying is talking with (too often to) God. It’s hard not to watch this and examine your own prayer life…Nice work Worship House Media.

Update: This video is no longer available.

Good, bad & ugly customer service

November 20, 2008 in for Churches

Customer service says a lot about an organisation. As churches and ministry organisations, we might not refer to the people we interact with as ‘customers’, but the principles remain. I’ve had some varied interactions with companies recently that have left me feeling either great, or like I never wanted anything to do with the company ever again. Perhaps you know what I’m talking about! Let me share three short stories:

Wufoo and Stafftool – I am continually impressed by these two services and their customer communications. I have never had to wait more than 24 hours for a response (via email – they are both on the other side of the world), and our correspondence is more like two friends exchanging ideas than a business conversation. Verdict: good.
Oporto – my visit to Oporto (fast-food chain) last week was disappointing. The food was average, and I thought I’d send them an email to tell them that (If I made a woeful salad and charged people $6.98 to eat it, I’d hope they’d let me know that this was unacceptable too). It’s a week later, and I still haven’t heard anything from them. A quick email response, acknowledging my disappointment and offering some kind of reassurance that they’re looking into it would be fine – but instead I’m left wondering if the feedback went straight into the bin. Verdict: bad.
NextByte – these stores are scattered around Australia and are distributors of Apple products. After requesting to see a product in more detail, I realised I was speaking face-to-face with the grumpiest salesperson in Sydney, who called me a ‘tosser’ as I walked out of the store. Verdict: ugly.

So the obvious question to ask is: what kind of interactions do outsiders (customers, if you will) have with our church or ministry? Hopefully it will be nothing like my experience at NextByte, but shouldn’t we be aiming for the experience to be excellent – something people will remember and talk about for a long time afterwards – for good reasons?!

Coming soon, I’ll offer some practical suggestions for providing better customer service.

I’m not cheap…I’m entrepreneurial

November 19, 2008 in Christian Living, for Churches, Outreach, Pastors

On Saturday spoke at the Create Conference in Sydney. At the conference I spoke about the numerous opportunities the internet provides for churches and other Christian ministries. Communicate Jesus is all about using the internet, and other technologies and techniques to make Jesus known, and to do this well. Below are the links I recommended at the conference – I will talk more about these and other applications in the coming months. I’d love to hear about the applications and websites you use in your ministry.

Keeping up to speed

Google Alerts
Google Reader
Learn more about RSS

Managing tasks

Things
Remember the milk
I want Sandy

Creating forms and surveys

Wufoo
Poll Daddy

Managing your time

RescueTime

Sharing calendars

Google Calendar

Finding images and videos

iStock
stock.xchng
FreeFoto.com
Flickr