Mike’s Great Dream

It’s been too long since I’ve posted, but I have a bit of an excuse. I’ve been feverishly working on a much-needed redesign of this site, based on an Expression Engine implementation.

In the meantime, check out Mike Boyink’s dream.

Reading it reminded me of an index card I have in my Bible. It has some Scripture verses, some of my dreams, and some quotations. I’ll leave the nature of my dreams for a later post, but reading Mike’s post reminded me that many of us who are involved in internet evangelism and the Christian web strategy blogosphere have great dreams. Maybe what I have on my index card will encourage us to trust the Lord even more than we have until today:

DREAM GREAT DREAMS

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:12-14 (NASB)

“Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.” Psalm 2:8 (NASB)

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB)

“If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small.” - Pat Morley

“Small dreams will never enflame the hearts of men.” - Napoleon

“God delights to do IMPOSSIBLE things through IMPROBABLE people to IMPART exceeding grace to UNDESERVING recipients.” - Chip Ingram

So to Mike and the rest of us, I say, “Let’s keep dreaming big dreams!”

Posted by on 11/10/05 at 05:41 PM

The Collective Voice!

Boyink continues the discussion:

*Whew* - I was getting a bit worried when you didn’t chime in Frank! As I thought through the launch of this new site you were one of the folks I just naturally assumed I could count on to help seed and promote it.

I have a design comp hanging on the wall, but need to knock out some client work before I can get back to it.

contributed on 11/11 at 05:31 AM

continues the discussion:

I’m absolutely going to be “seeding and promoting” the site! The power of storytelling is so important for the Christian community to understand and it is a crucial strategy for our use of the web.

A couple of thoughts which we didn’t touch on during our chat this morning:

1) I like the idea of audio blogging. Wish there was an effective way to include video blogging as well, but not sure how that would work with people contributing from all over the world.

2) I would encourage you to include a set of guidelines for “telling your story” - there are some churches who seem to have caught the vision of telling at least a few of the stories of their people (I’d like to see them tell everyone’s stories), but much of what I have seen so far are traditional testimonies. I don’t think those work too well in today’s society and/or on the web.

I’d much rather see broader, deeper stories of people’s lives - their interests, their passions, their joys, their struggles - everyday life sort of stuff. Those are the sorts of stories, it seems to me, that will attract unbelievers.

For example, a story about your enthusiasm for Jeeps and how your relationship with God fits into that portion of your life would be much more interesting to another Jeep enthusiast than a traditional testimony about your conversion. Of course, that would require people to think about how their relationship with God fits into their “more mundane” passions and interests. That would be a good exercise in itself, especially for me.

Again, I’ll be watching with interest. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

contributed on 11/11 at 10:12 AM

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You may be interested in reading these articles which enumerate core principles of the strategy we advocate:

Effective Church Websites For Emerging Generations
Investigating the various ways in which a church's website can be targeted toward unbelievers in a church's local community.

A Strategy For Local Internet Outreach
How can the internet be used for evangelism and outreach while maintaining an environment of authentic Christian community?

Flawed Follow Up Or A Flawed Philosophy of Evangelism?
The ease with which we can “share the gospel” online can actually short-circuit the God-ordained process by which unbelievers are brought to faith.

Should We Include A Gospel Presentation On Our Websites?
Should conversion be our immediate goal in our internet evangelism efforts?

A Strategic Opportunity For The Church
A proposed strategy in which a church would use short video profiles of members of their congregation to entice unbelievers in their local area to consider the value of a local congregation’s ministry in their own lives.

2 John 12
Is there something incomplete about digital communication?

Wed, December 03, 2008 at 07:19 am
Frank thoroughly impressed with the professionalism of the WebTrends Ad Director team http://ping.fm/EuHLl

Sun, November 30, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Frank interested in finding good resources (blogs, books, etc.) on cause marketing.

Fri, November 28, 2008 at 11:57 am
Frank contemplating a line from "O Holy Night" - in His name ALL oppression shall cease

Tue, November 25, 2008 at 08:31 am
Frank exhausted but gratified after today's Scene7 imaging launch on telescope.com!

Mon, November 24, 2008 at 08:05 pm
Frank @benwiles although you made me think about OneNote again. I think it might have feature to allow you to forward a website to OneNote

When the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association wanted to use the internet to promote their city festivals, they turned to Strategic Digital Outreach. Read more ....

Quick Contact Info

T: 831.461.1183
F: 831.461.1184
AIM: strategicdigital
ICQ: strategicdigital
Yahoo: strategicdigital
MSN: strategicdigital@hotmail.com

Web Development
Designwise Studios
DirectSteps
RockBeatsPaper
SparrowStyle
Turtle Interactive

Content Management
Expression Engine

Web Hosting
DreamHost

Email Management
Constant Contact

We work with several different organizations in exploring ways in which digital means can be used to reach an increasingly digital world. Some of these organizations are more traditional clients. Some are friends. All are our partners in the gospel (1 Corinthians 3:9). Invariably, we learn as much from them as they do from us. Here is a sampling:

David & Linda Arzouni
Assemblies of God missionaries to West Africa, based in Mali (the land of Timbuktu).

Assemblies of God
The Northern California and Nevada District, based in Sacramento, California.

India Prayer Drive
A 21-day prayer drive through the nation of India.

IreneDias.com
Although the suffering they face is severe, this is not a story of despair, but of an incredible faith and even more of an incredible God who sustains His followers with lavish grace, extravagant kindness, and unrelenting love.

Luis Palau Evangelistic Association
Proclaiming the Lord's Good News to the millions of people who have yet to respond to the Gospel.

Sacred Ink
Joyfully declaring the gospel to the tattoo subculture.

Santa Cruz Bible Church
Their evangelism department focuses on marketplace ministries.

ShareFest Santa Cruz County
Churches in Santa Cruz County, California join together to become a bridge from the church to the community through work projects designed to bless the community.

TimeOut Conference
Enabling a deeper relationship with God and more effective relationships with people.

Wake Up! Santa Cruz
Presenting the claims of Christ to the business community in Santa Cruz, California.

These are projects which we have initiated (either individually or as members of a team) in our efforts to use digital means to spread the gospel:

MissionEquip
MissionEquip.com was established to provide resources to missionaries and short-term missions teams traveling worldwide.

ChristianCruz
ChristianCruz.com is a localized portal for believers living in Santa Cruz County, California.

Prodigal God
ProdigalGod.com, a work in progress, is designed to provide biblical instruction to the wider body of Christ through the use of video teaching segments and written articles.

Christian Screen Savers
ChristianScreenSavers.com offers a selection of high-quality, inexpensive Christian screen savers which reflect biblical themes. Proceeds from the sale of these screen savers are used to support the work of Strategic Digital Outreach.

Blogs I Read

Adventures Of A Web Evangelist
The Appian Way
BetaChurch.org
BlogMinistry
BlogRodent
Boyink Interactive
Carpe' Digital
Christian Web Trends
Church Beauty
Church Communications Pro
Church Marketing Sucks
ChurchTechToday
Church Website & Blog Ideas
digital.leadnet.org
Digital Ministry
The Digital Sanctuary
e-vangelism.com
Effective Church Web Sites
Effective Web Ministry Notes
Equip Blog
Evotional
GodBit
Goodmanson
Gospelcon
Heal Your Church Website
If Jesus Had A Website
Leave It Behind
MicroExplosion
Outside The Box Ministry
Sacred Digital
So You Want A Church Website?
The Ultimate Issue
Web Evangelism Issues

Mike’s Great Dream

Blogs I Read

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