Tag Archive - outreach ideas

It’s time to engage the media

March 22, 2010 in for Churches, Outreach

When 50% of media coverage is the result of public relations activities (PR), it makes sense to consider how we, as churches and Christian ministries might use PR more effectively.

Nathan Campbell has written a very helpful article with lots of practical tips on how to promote your church and its activities to the media, and how to respond when they show interest!

Check out: How to write a media release to promote your church event. Nathan will even write you a 10-line media release for $5!

I’ve written (with the wisdom of @dylanmalloch) a media strategy for promoting our upcoming art exhibition – I Heart Kirribilli. I’ll keep you posted on what wer’re doing, and how it goes.

How is your church or ministry using PR?

What other resources and tips would help you to do this better?

(Feature image credit: somadjinn)

Harness the craze of random chat for evangelism?

March 16, 2010 in Outreach

Chatroulette is a website that attracts over 500,000 visitors per day. If you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s how it works:

  • You visit the Chatroulette website.
  • You click ‘start a new game
  • You are randomly assigned one person to chat with. At the time I was checking out Chatroulette there were 20,000 people online.
  • You chat via video and text for as long as you want, and then when you’re done talking, you click ‘Next’ and move onto the next person. Of course, the person you’re chatting with can do the same too!

Obviously this website (and others like it, e.g. onlychat.com) have their dangers:

  • your self-confidence could be rocked if people constantly ‘nexted’ you,
  • they’re dominated by men (i.e. there’s a tendancy to be dating-focused),
  • it’s open to abuse by perverts (what isn’t these days?!)

A film maker has put together a video of his experiences with Chatroulette:

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Those dangers aside (if indeed we can push them aside), I had an idea. Could we use Chatroulette for evangelism? We knock on peoples doors to tell them about Jesus – this is a very similar concept!

What do you think?

Seven articles on using technology to advance the gospel

March 4, 2010 in Christian Living, for Churches, Outreach

I’ve been doing some research into ways technology can be used in the Christian life, for a seminar I’m giving at the church weekend away this weekend. I haven’t found much online on this topic – but I hope to change this by sharing with you the ideas I’ve had on this topic. I’m excited about these ideas and opportunities, and pray that these may be used well to grow us in our faith and our love for each other. Stay tuned – I’ll post about this next week.

In the meantime, here’s some articles I’ve come across on a related topic – using technology to advance the gospel. Again, I haven’t found much on this topic either, but one article I was particularly encouraged by is number two in this list – “Plugging the planet into the word”. If you have other links on this topic, please share them with us. I’d also like to write some reflections on this topic – social media and the internet are opening up some big doors.

  1. Technology and the gospel – leaders share their thoughts on “How do you see technology (blogs, podcasts) as tools to advance the gospel?”. Interesting, but I’m not on the same page on a few of the opinions expressed.
  2. Spreading the gospel through technology – links through to a wonderful article in the Washington Post, “Plugging the planet into the word” on how technology is assisting the spread of the gospel around the world.
  3. The gospel according to electronic culture: what if the medium is the message? Reading this reminded me, I need to have a read of Shane Hipp’s book, “Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith“. Here’s an interview with Shane.
  4. Proclaiming the gospel in a wired world. This article serves more as a warning.
  5. The wireless gospel. Described as “A case study in evangelicals’ love affair with communications technology”.
  6. Technology transforms gospel for teens. It’s not long nor reveals anything particularly new, but does remind me of the changed world we live in, and especially how this affects youth ministry.
  7. Gospel must be shared with technology and personal witness. The Catholic church and its reflections on the place of technology and the gospel. “The old technology of personal witness and personal encounter and sharing faith is essential to the Gospel.”

Confronting ads promote the UN World Food Programme

January 3, 2010 in for Churches

Thanks to Ads of the World, I came across this confronting campaign for the UN World Food Programme:

and:

The artwork isn’t particularly cutting-edge – we’re used to seeing images of starving people.

However, I’m feeling increasingly convicted that Christians need to be on the front foot, at the forefront of caring for the poor, the marginalised, those who have been the victims of injustice and oppression. You can’t read Amos and not feel uncomfortable.

Should we have posters like this out the front of our churches, encouraging the people in our church and community to remember the poor and oppressed? Why or why not?

Lilydale – ‘it’ll have you saying grace again’

December 21, 2009 in Outreach

I didn’t think I’d see an advertisement like this in Australia.

I spotted this billboard on a building in Chatswood:

Grace Again advertisement

I’m not sure how many Australians know what Grace is, but I’m pleasantly surprised that Lilydale is encouraging people to say grace before the meal. To the unfamiliar, ‘saying grace’ is just thanking God for the meal that he’s provided. You can, of course, thank God for other things at this time too, but saying grace for the meal is a good start!

Thanks Lilydale – I was already saying grace before my meals, but I might just try some of your chicken.

What do you think about this campaign?

6 ideas for Christmas mission

December 2, 2009 in for Churches, Outreach

Earlier this week I shared with you the latest poster by Outreach Media:

2009-12_notavailable

I’ve now put together a list of 6 ideas for using this poster to engage with the local community. Whilst most of the ideas are inspired from the poster, the principles could be applied to many different church situations.

Page 2 of 4«1234»