The Mission Link

Just 9 days until Internet Evangelism Day on April 27, 2008.

We cannot not do a better job describing IED than the people at If Jesus Had A Website, so we encourage you to read this post.

We live in the E age, the electronic age… And its an exciting time indeed…

We are working full steam on all the behind the scenes “stuff” for our Summer Mission Program.  This year (in Canada) we E mailed churches to let them know of the appointments, asking the churches to support and commission their “young person.”  Maybe you are thinking, “emailed,” big deal… But for CRWM it REALLY is a big deal. This might be the first year we have done that!

So why do a post about it? Its just so neat to see that within about 36 hours 3 churches have already responded… If I had MAILED them, they wouldn’t even have arrived yet…

Don’t let anyone try and tell you that paper is better - granted, it has its place, but welcome to the “E” age, and enjoy the 21st century!

Online social networks are “communities” of people who share interests and activities… Many of you know what they are, many of us use them, daily - MySpace, Facebook, to mention a few. Check out the full explanation at wikipedia…

Studies have shown some amazing trends in the growth of social online networking - the number of hours spent online is phenomenal. 

Mashable Social Networking News has many articles, but a few of key interest:

• Global Growth ( July 2007 )
• Global Popularity ( Feb 2008 )

Leaves the question - what does this mean for missions? Leave us a comment!

At the Internet Ministry Conference I attended back in Sep 2007 I took several workshops about open source CMSs.  The best way to share those notes with you is to direct you to the original session notes.

A summary to walk away with…

Why Open Source?

• Cost - Hey - you can’t beat free (sometimes)
• A wide variety of pre-built themes and plugins at no cost or very little cost.
• Runs on Apache/PHP/MySQL
• A CMS helps force you to do good planning ahead of time
• Support comes from thousands of users, not just a company (that can be good or bad…)

The Big Four

• WordPress
• Joomla
• Drupal
• MODx

Looking for some open dialog on the topic?  Want someone to bounce ideas off of?  Contact me!

Continuing our “series” on things we learned at the Internet Ministry Conference 2007, I am sharing a few points to ponder about the effectiveness of internet ministry.  Why do internet ministry at all, can you really reach people through the net?
Gospel Communications has an article addressing this very question, I encourage you to take a look at it.  But the summary is:

… it lets us communicate with people in a new and powerful way. 
… it lets us reach the lost in every corner of the world. 
… it’s a tool God’s given to us to put to use in His service.

Our challenge - how are WE using the internet to advance God’s Kingdom?

I have some ideas, but I wonder, will it turn the way we do things upsidedown? Post a comment or contact me to discuss!  Jessica

Lorraine and I had the privilege of attending the Internet Ministry Conference 2007.  We had a good time, meeting new people, learning things about evangelism, ‘marketing,’ and even some technical stuff for me!  We also enjoyed spending time with each other. 
Some trends to watch for, and items of interest are:

• Youth today are “digital natives” where our generation and older are “digital immigrants.” As described in Rex Miller’s book The Millenium Matrix.
• Open Source CMS (Content Management Systems) - WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and MODx.
• How to “hook” online users.
• Guiding website visitors to the next step(s) in their spiritual journey.
• JavaScript (told you there were tech ones for me!)
• Email Etiquette (not the content, but the delivery - spam and the perception of spam).
• Communicating without words.
• Hits, Pageviews and Other “Lies.”
• Getting started on the net with (very) minimal budget.
• Rethinking Internet Evangelism - who is your audience?
• Fostering leadership that values people/relationships - a site with a “community” perspective.
• Web tools to grow your ministry.
• Extreme Makeover - Website Edition (although they didn’t specifically look at crwm.org or crcna.org - I was able to learn a few things that can take our sites to the next level!)

We are looking forward to sharing more with you down the road, but if anything above really strikes your fancy, get in touch with Lorraine or Jessica.

Jessica Côté, CRWM Canada
Lorraine Woodward, CRWM USA