Greg Atkinson

LifeChurch.tv (through their OPEN Network) has done it again! Known for years for offering free resources to the Church, now they are helping you with your church’s Facebook page through a series of training videos.

With training videos on how to do events, extras and configurations, fan updates, insights/metrics, moderation, notes, photos, videos and wall updates – they have you and your Facebook team (which can be made up totally of volunteers) covered on how to create, manage and lead an effective and attractive Facebook page for your church.

Check out their resources and videos HERE. Now you have no excuse for not having a great Facebook presence!

Have you heard of TheCommon.org? Maybe you should! They are my newest sponsor and have a cool service for your church that you should consider. Check out this guest blog post:

TheCommon.org started with a need.  Actually it started as a list; an extremely inefficient list of things people needed help, being communicated to a huge audience of people who “might be able to help” that led to an idea.  You see, every community has both Needs and Abilities.  And we’ve found that, generally, People want to help each other.  But the process of connecting these needs with the people who want to help is severely broken.

What if there were a better way for people help each other, and for communities to help people help each other?  Not just another piece of software or a place to share photos, but a movement and a connecting point—something that has true value to the community.  Something that can embrace both philanthropy and simplicity.

Connecting people looks like a huge, complex system in most communities.  You have an entire ecosystem that is dependent upon a central system of administration to drive service, outreach, care.  And your system is then limited by the capacity of that individual or team.

But when you open communication—allow your community to connect directly with those opportunities—those limits go away. I can really only speak from personal experience.  In the three years that TheCommon has been a living, breathing resource for people to serve, there have been connections I have been able to make, places to serve and relationships formed that flat out wouldn’t have happened in whatever you consider the “current model” without it.

And in the last few months I’ve witnessed some incredible interactions on the Projects and Marketplace as well: from baby clothes and waffle makers, to cars, refrigerators, and computers being given away to help people—all because they were made aware of a need and stepped up to meet it.

So, what happens when people have easier access to the needs in their community and partner communities through blending?  Check out our Twitter feed.  Listen to the 73 year old woman who just received help packing boxes, or the guy who just got help with his car repair.  They share the stories of connections made and the good that is right therewaiting to be done.

We would love for you to test drive it in your community, and for a limited time are extending a FREE 60 day trial to all of Greg’s readers.  Click the link HERE and be sure to enter the code “ga2011” when you create a community account.  It’s simple to get started and we have some great resources to help you along the way.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at hello@thecommon.org.

This was a guest post from Jay Kroll who works in Marketing and Relationships at TheCommon.org.  Follow them on Twitter at @thecommon.

Greetings friends and readers of this blog. You may or may not have realized (depending on if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook) that I took the last 2 weeks off from technology. I haven’t blogged, done Twitter, Facebook, any social media or even really used my laptop for the last 2 weeks straight. It’s been wonderful.

The past 2 weeks of blog posts were done way in advance and set to post automatically. The next 2 blog posts this week are guest blog posts, too. I’ve been trying to free my mind and heart up to focus on God and hear from him. I’ve blogged about this numerous times over the years and even wrote an article for Relevant Magazine entitled “Noise” where I reflected on how nice a break or fast from technology can be.

A friend and I decided to fast and pray for an extended period of time and I told him that for me to totally focus on God and hear from him, I needed to fast from social media, too. This proved to be a pleasant experiment. I was more present with my family, more productive throughout my day and more prone to hear from my Creator.

One of the things I’ve talked about all over the country when I talk about social media is setting up boundaries and having a dark day. You may not need to take a long break from social media (maybe you do), but all of us could use one Sabbath or dark day a week. For me, sometimes it’s Saturday – sometimes it’s Sunday.

So, friends – when was the last time you took a break from social media? How did it help you hear from God? If you’ve never tried a break from technology, I encourage you to give it a shot. You won’t regret it!

If you read my blog via email or RSS, you may not have noticed several things – such as the new blog design and some of the new sponsors recently added to my blog homepage. Sponsors such as HymnCharts and their Easter resources and my newest sponsor: Interactive Worship Live.

I’ve known Phillip Edwards for several years and remember when he called me and several Church leaders together in Dallas to show us his new resource and give us all an up-close-and-personal demo.

At my current home church in Georgia (where I play keys with the praise band when I’m in town), we use IWL each week and love it. I asked our worship pastor, Michael Wells, to share his thoughts on this resource for our church. Here are Michael’s thoughts:

I have been an Interactive Worship Live user for some time and would highly recommend it. There are three areas that IWL has made us more effective in.

First, because you can isolate studio quality musicians, our musicians can clearly hear things like strumming patterns or vocal inflections which has improved their skill level and learning speed.

Second, you don’t have to worry when a musician has to cancel last minute. If our bass player calls in late Saturday night sick I can unmute the bass player channel and sleep well.

Last, IWL fills out the sound by adding instruments not on our team. I may have an electric guitar but I do not have five and many artist tracks today will have multiple layers of instruments.

All three of these areas have made use a more skillful team.

*** I agree with Michael and have personally witnessed this great worship resource in action. We’ve had weeks where the drummer was out and we just plugged in the drummer track on IWL. We had a week when the bass player was out and we did the same thing. I also resonate with the third point Michael made of filling out our sound. We have a basic band, but love having the added percussion sounds added in and it’s always good to add a couple more electric guitars to fill out our sound.

Have you heard of IWL? Why don’t you check them out HERE at their website? If you use IWL at your church, please comment and share with us why you like it/use it and if it’s ever saved the day.

Last night during the amazing Super Bowl commercials, Apple introduced the world to The Daily. I’ve already stated that I think this changes the game. It’s no secret that I’ve never been a fan of traditional newspapers. What say you?

As you know, I (Greg) consult with and secret shop for churches across the country. My friend, Will Mancini does the same thing with his company. Recently he wrote a great blog post on why he thinks this service for churches is vital and I loved it. I thought I’d share it with you here today:

Every month for the last decade, the Auxano team has conducted ministry observations during weekend services. They call it the Guest Perspective Evaluation. Here is why they keep this strategic component in Auxano’s toolbox. Okay, each reality by itself may not be mind blowing, but when you put them all together, the case is staggering and couldn’t be more compelling.

#1  You will have more guests in one year than you think. Our “information gathering” in churches doesn’t even capture the majority of guests. Auxano research shows that five to eight percent of your worshipping community will self-identify as guests. Therefore the number of guests in one year is:

[(Ave. weekly worship attendance) x (.05) x (52)]

#2 Many of your guests are going through situations that make them more responsive to God. These are the folks that are most likely to be moving, changing jobs, getting divorced, having kids, etc.

#3  Your guests are assessing very quickly whether or not they are coming back. This happens much faster than we think. For example, read The 11-Minute Difference.

#4  Your guests represent step one of accomplishing the Great Commission- these are the people coming to you! How much does your church spend on foreign missions? Compare that to how much we invest into the fish that swim to the boat before we cast a net.

#5  A guest who is attending may represent years of prayer, service, and invitation by a church member. My mom and I attended church without my father for 12 years. The first time my Dad came to church with us, imagine how I felt about the church and the hospitality of the people. All I could think was “Don’t screw up!”

#6  Studies show that guests will talk about their initial experiences 8-15 times with other people. Serve guests well and multiply your message.

#7  A welcoming ministry is a great “shallow end of the pool” to get people involved in service for the first time.Yes, you have plenty of intimidating places to serve like worship, small groups, and children’s ministry. So why not leverage an easy place to start?

#8  Building a great ministry to guests nourishes a culture of hospitality because of the concrete reminders to the entire congregation that guests matter.

#9 Investment in a welcoming ministry is an investment into every other ministry your church offers. I ask churches to dream about what ministry they might start. I then tell them to get it done by first having great guest services. Do you want an amazing prison ministry? Maybe the next Chuck Colson is visiting next week.

#10 We are commanded in Scripture to be hospitable. The Greek word philoxenia literally means to “love strangers” and is used in Romans 12:13 and Hebrews 13:2.

***The following was a guest post from Will Mancini. You can visit Will at www.willmancini.com/

I just came across this series intro video online and thought it should be seen and appreciated for the hard work, creativity and innovation that went into it. This is from Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.

Momentum from Geoff Schultz on Vimeo.

I often wonder if senior pastors are aware of the countless hours that went into something like this? It’s a 50 second bumper, but probably took at least a week to create. Do you have a series bumper to share? Post the link here.

A friend of mine who is on staff at The Rock Church in San Diego did this video recently. Take a look and be inspired. Got a link to something you did at your church? Post it here.

The Rock Church Vision 2011 from chris loope on Vimeo.

I was reflecting on the joy of watching someone be baptized and remembered this video that my friend, Jonathan Moon, and I worked on for countless hours when I was on staff at Bent Tree in Dallas. This video footage is all from one day when we baptized 90 people. The music is a live mix of our worship team and worship leader, Scott Dyer, singing “Happy Day.”

If you have a highlight video from a baptism service at your church, please share the link with us in the comment feed. Thanks!

I came across this powerful video/story yesterday on my friend Steve Murphy’s blog. Watch and share your thoughts.

Pennies HEART from phos pictures on Vimeo.