Archive - March, 2011

Evangelism opportunities with Facebook Questions

March 31, 2011 in Outreach

I discovered this week that Facebook had launched a new, free product – Facebook Questions.

“Questions is designed so that anyone on Facebook can help you find the answer. For example, when you ask a question and your friends answer or follow, their friends can see and answer it, too.”

I think it’s got some evangelistic potential. Here’s how I tried it out:

1. I created a ‘question’ – asking people ‘Why aren’t you a Christian’ (in line with my church’s current apologetics campaign).

2. The post then appears on my profile, and in the news stream of my friends:

3. I can ask specific friends for their answer to the question (I didn’t do this!):

4. I can see which of my friends have answered the question:

How else do you think Facebook Questions could be used for evangelism? Try it out for yourself!

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March 30, 2011 in Uncategorized

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Seen a good gospel video?

March 30, 2011 in Outreach

People love watching videos (35 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and daily views on YouTube exceeded 2 billion in May last year).

I’m convicted that we need to support Christian video producers.

I’m also convicted of the value of creating a gospel video that is faithful and quality (i.e. low cringe-factor), that can be easily shared and distributed online. I haven’t found much that meets this criteria.

This video was for kids – but to be honest (and perhaps it’s because I’m not in the demographic), I would struggle to share this:

This is a great, contextual gospel presentation (with Ventriloquist David Pendleton), but I wonder how easy it would be to share:

I watched this 15 minute gospel presentation by Francis Chan several years ago:

Stop & Think from Stop & Think on Vimeo.

I’m conscious as well that some Australians don’t respond well to the American accent, particularly when it comes to Christianity (it feeds the ‘televangelist suspicion’).

Have you seen any other presentations of the gospel on video?

The less email options the better

March 29, 2011 in Websites

I can understand the reasons for listing multiple options for getting in touch via email. As organisations grow, they develop different departments or roles that specify in dealing with particular queries.

However, the problem comes when the visitor has a query that doesn’t fit one of these options (as I did this morning). There’s three options to improve the user experience on your website:

  1. Have an email address for every possible scenario (difficult).
  2. Include a ‘cover all’ email address – for any scenarios that aren’t addressed in your list.
  3. Just have one email address – and filter the traffic at your end (instead of making the user think this through).

The third option is best because of how easy it is for the user – the people you’re seeking to serve on your website.

Take a look at what contact options are available on your website, and see how easy they would be to navigate for the different users who visit your site.

UPDATE:

Here’s another example that I just came across on the mGive website. I wanted to get in touch to ask generally about donations in Australia – but there’s 5 forms, none of which matches my query:

I had to submit a zip code – but I don’t live in the United States, and my Australian postcode wouldn’t work in this field. So I then had to search online to find a U.S. zipcode to add, just so I could submit the contact us form!

Then I got another error message:

I gave up.

Facebook Easter

March 28, 2011 in Easter

This is how Eastwood Anglican Church is promoting their Easter services this year (click to enlarge):

Ask your friends: “Why aren’t you a Christian?”

March 28, 2011 in Outreach

On the weekend of 16/17 April, we’ll be having some ‘apologetic’ sermons at church. These sermon will address a common objection to Christianity, and to formulate the topics for these sermons, we’ve had an idea. R=We’re going to crowd source the topics – here’s how we’re encouraging members of church to get involved:

  1. Chat to your friends, family and colleagues and ask them the question – “why aren’t you a Christian?”. You could also phrase it in other ways – e.g. “what are your objections to Christianity?”.
  2. Once you’ve spoken with these people and heard their response, submit the details via the online form [see a sample form here, or below] by 30 March.
  3. We’ll then announce the topic for the sermon, and you can invite your friends, family and colleagues to church to hear a response.

It’s a great opportunity to reach those we know – and this is the focus for the year at Church by the Bridge.

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