Scott Aughtmon, the pastor of Pathway Church in Palo Alto, California has a great article on his blog, Random Ramblings of a Church Gatherer, entitled Online Omnipresence: Be Everywhere!

From the article:

We Pastors/churches need to come up with ways to get links to our sites out everywhere where people who are questioning life or seeking God are. We need to focus on getting our presence everywhere instead of just on our one website.

Why not head on over to read the article and learn the three ways Scott plans on implementing this conviction in Palo Alto and beyond.

Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., and I recently wrote a “tag-team editorial” for Outreach Magazine.

Mark and I were asked to write a short response to this question:

Does sermon podcasting offer churches an effective way to connect with the unchurched?

Mark has posted both of our answers on the GodiPod blog

Here’s Mark’s half: Podcast Logic.

And my half: Strategic Podcasting.

It was nice to see how both of our portions, written independently and without knowledge that the other was writing (although I suspected that if they had done their research, they would have asked Mark to write), dovetailed nicely.

Also, this gives me a good reason to give a plug to GodiPod.com in general.

GodiPod offers iPods preloaded with audio Bibles and sermon content. From the site:

The driving motivation behind GodiPod.com is digital discipleship.  GodiPod.com is in the business of redeeming technology to foster spiritual growth.

Good post from Jordon Cooper on the focus of most church websites.

Church Marketing Sucks has a new guest columnist, Alex Seidel, the Director of Communications for Timberlake Christian Fellowship in Redmond, Washington.

Alex’s first article, Making The Most Of Technology For Churches is a fantastic start.

What I liked most about Alex’s perspective is his conviction that church websites should be focused on outreach:

After looking at the web sites of the top 100 churches in the US, I was struck by how internally focused they were. Trying to view their sites from the perspective of a non-believer left me wanting, nay turned off. It is time to stop being organizationally focused and start reforming our web content to speak to those who are desperately seeking transformation.

Here’s a bit of a departure from what I normally write on this site.

I’m currently participating in an online conversation about church branding which has recently begun at the Church Marketing Sucks website.

I suggest that you read the entire conversation (it’s not too long at the moment - just one initial post and three comments), but here’s a portion of my last comment to whet your appetite:

I suspect that if we concentrated most of our efforts on seeing authentic Christian community developed to a depth we haven’t known before and in such a way that the depth of our community is seen by all (the kind of community that says, “I love you so much that I would die for you tomorrow, but I love you so much that I will live for you today,” lived out in full view of the unbelieving city - outside the church building), we wouldn’t have to market ourselves. The world would _know_ that the Father loves them and that He sent Jesus, and they would come to us to find out why.

....

But sometimes I think the traditional forms of church marketing are just ways we can continue to keep ourselves at arms-length from unbelievers. “We’ll tell you all about our church in the newspapers, in television spots, on doorknob hangers, in direct mail, etc. If you want to learn more, come to us and participate in our programs.” All instead of taking the life of the Christian community to the streets and public parks and bookstores and malls, etc.

I know that perspective is fairly different from how many of us think today (and it may seem strange coming from someone who talks ad infinitum about how to use the web to, in effect, market the church), so I’d be very interested in the perspectives of others. Feel free to comment!

I would also add that although it might seem at first glance to suggest that churches and ministries should forget about websites, that’s not at all what I’m saying or, in fact, believe. If a church or ministry uses its website and other digital means as a way of introducing unbelievers to believers in face-to-face relationships, then this strategic use of digital outreach tools is, in fact, furthering the mission of taking the life of the community of believers “to the streets.”

UPDATE: On the other hand, read this blog entry on Mark Batterson’s Evotional blog. Interesting food for thought.

Brian Slezak is blogging at The Appian Way blog about this article which appeared in the New York Times a couple of days ago: Missed Church? Download It To Your IPod (registration required).

I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about podcasting, godcasting, or videocasting church services, or for that matter including streaming audio or video of church services on a church website. This is not to say that I think podcasting or videocasting is problematic in itself — I think there are great uses for it, primarily in memorializing the spontaneous life of the church. But actual services, I’m not so sure.

Aaron Flores is blogging about an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Christians who are videoblogging (you may need to register to access the article - I did, but it looks like you might be able to reach it without registering by going through the front page).

About a week ago, I was contacted via email by the author of the article asking for my perspective on videoblogging. I guess he had found this site through an earlier article I had written about vlogging (another name for videoblogging). Some of what I wrote back to the author ended up in the article, but Aaron had something valuable to say in response to something I had said which was quoted in the Journal Sentinel article.

My portion:

If the church could catch a vision for using video technology to present an authentic presentation of the life of the church - not rehearsed videos, but spontaneous records of conversations, laughing with one another, weeping with one another, people sharing their lives, etc. - the average person might take notice,” Frank Johnson wrote in an e-mail interview.

Aaron’s response:

The key is that spontaneous conversations and showing life should not be a strategy to proselytize / evangelize. The videos then become suspicious to the viewer as religious propaganda.  It must be natural to the community sharing their life.  They must be as open, sharing, and accepting as what they portray online.  If anyone meets me in real life they know that I am just as open, sharing, and accepting of others (some say too open and sharing).  It would be a shame to share the life of the community in a positive light online, but in real life the community is nothing like its online presence.  Also, weeping with one another and showing the gritty side of sharing life with each other is so important.

Aaron’s right - authenticity is so important and what we do online should not reflect something different than what we are in real life.

Nathan Smith, a web designer who specializes in developing websites for churches and ministries, wrote an article recently entitled Setting Boundaries on Burnout. The article, which appears on the To-Done website (a website devoted to offering tips for personal productivity), speaks primarily to the issues of how a freelance web designer should manage his/her time and workload.

While the article as a whole interested me (probably because I currently find myself with too many projects in progress!), at one point Nathan wrote about the importance of substantial content on church websites:

If you create a beautiful, yet empty website, that sends a terrible message to the end-user. In the case of a church or ministry, which make up the majority demographic of my clients, by having an empty website they are saying: �Our church is about keeping up appearances, but we have nothing substantial to say.�

Along these lines, I would encourage churches who are considering launching (or relaunching) a website to begin with content rather than design.

In doing some work on another website I manage, I recently learned about the website of a new church plant in Palo Alto, California — PathwayPaloAlto.com. When I visited the website, I found a site which reflects a refreshing philosophy of targeting unbelievers rather than existing members of the church.

That philosophy is demonstrated by several facets of the site:

• The primary content of the front page of the site suggests that true fulfillment lies in being connected to God and connected to others, a message which seems to be targeted at unbelievers.
• The sidebars on the site include a number of intriguing quotations which will hopefully raise probing questions in the hearts of those who have not yet committed their lives to Christ.
• The site gives visitors the opportunity to sign up to receive (via email) a series of six articles on “The Power of Connecting with Others,” which are presumably designed to encourage readers to enter into friendships with those who are already part of this congregation.
• The website does not use a lot of religious language.
• The contact page lists the pastor’s cell phone number but not a land line! Amazing. What that says to people who aren’t part of the church is, “We’re available to meet you and help you anywhere, anytime.” Refreshing.
• The church is using a blog to memorialize the messages which are shared at their gatherings.

The church planter, Scott Aughtmon (who actually calls himself a “church gatherer” - another refreshing perspective), appears to have just started another blog to record his thoughts and experiences during the church planting (gathering) process.

All in all, a very refreshing church presence on the web!