My friend Scott Aughtmon is the pastor of Pathway Church in Palo Alto, California. At one time in his life, though, he was an internet entrepreneur and marketer. One of his best products was a series of recommendations from a group of well-known internet marketers, all compiled into one e-book.
When Scott first told me about that e-book as we visited at a local Starbucks, he also told me that he had a vision to do something similar, but this time gathering the advice of well-known youth pastors.
It was exciting then, to receive an email from Scott about a month ago telling me that he had released the e-book, entitled How To Build A Lasting Student Ministry. Although I’m not involved in youth ministry myself, I purchased the e-book and have read through it, albeit somewhat quickly.
One of my favorite chapters is by one of my favorite people, Chuckk Gerwig, the Pastor to Senior High Students and their Families at Santa Cruz Bible Church (in fact, Scott and I were trying to remember if I actually introduced Chuckk and Scott to each other virtually).
There are three basic reasons I want to highlight Scott’s e-book on this blog:
1) If you are in youth ministry (or contemplating entering youth ministry), it makes for a good read. You can purchase the e-book here for $12.97 and receive your copy almost instantly.
2) If you are a Christian website owner looking for affiliate products to sell (and if you are, you probably realize that there is a dearth of appropriate affiliate products for Christian websites), Scott is offering a very generous revenue split for those who wish to promote his e-book. I personally am not taking advantage of this offer because I know that the proceeds from the sale of the e-book go to support Scott’s family which ultimately helps the work of church planting in Palo Alto (Pathway is a relatively new work, a little over two years old). Palo Alto is in a strategic part of California near Stanford University and the heart of the venture capital community serving the entire San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, so I believe strongly in the value of what Scott and his family are doing (and by the way, Scott probably wouldn’t tell you this, but the standard of living is not cheap — church planting in this area of the world can be very difficult because of economic considerations, so I believe efforts such as this deserve our support).
3) It’s a very intriguing method of training for ministry. While a common strategy among internet entrepreneurs, e-books and autoresponders are not used much in Christian internet circles.
I’d encourage you to check out the website for Scott’s new e-book and consider purchasing it, both to learn from prominent youth leaders and also to support the work of God in Palo Alto, California.
I believe that the internet provides today's church with a historic opportunity .... to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love in ways which could only have been imagined in times past. The objective of this website is to explore the various ways in which today's technology can be used to spread the gospel around the world.
