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Do it Yourself Church Communications

by Tim Schraeder on 09/11/2009 in Church Communications, MinistryCOM, Notes, Principles, Resources with 3 Comments

So this is pretty weird to be posting my own notes… Download a PDF of the Slides here.

HUGE thanks to everyone who came and supported, I hope it was a beneficial session for you guys! And a HUGE thanks to Jarbyco for hooking us up and letting us take questions via text! And, if you are in or near the Chicago area and want to continue the conversation, come check out Cultivate being hosted at Park on Oct 27!

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A little about me…

  • I’m 26, going on 27.
  • I’ve been around doing church communications for almost 8 years now.
  • I knew there was no money to be had in ministry and didn’t see the need of going to Bible college.
  • Started at age 19 at Riverside Community Church in Peoria, Illinois as an intern for their college ministry.
  • I started doing the bulletin for Riverside with a copy of Microsoft Publisher 98, some bad fonts, and clip art that I ripped off from an internet photo site.
  • They say that “experience can be an educator,” and Riverside provided me a place to become an expert from learning from my mistakes.
  • In May of 2007 I went on staff at Park Community Church in Chicago.

About Park

  • Park was founded in 1989 by a group of 50 people who were a part of Moody Memorial Church that had a vision to see a church established in the downtown area of Chicago that would reach out to young, urban professionals.
  • For 20 years, Park’s motto was: “have church will move” as they moved between various locations throughout the city.
  • In June of 2008 Park opened their first building, located in the heart of the former Cabrini-Green neighborhood of Chicago.
  • Park now meets in two locations, soon to be three and has an average weekly attendance of around 2,000 people.

Challenge of Church Communications

  • Oftentimes when I tell people I do church communications their initial response is, “oh… so you make the bulletin?”
  • While it’s true that’s something I do, there’s honestly a lot more all of us do.
  • Church communications is a broad category and many of us wear a lot of different hats and do a lot of different things.

What I do at Park

  • I do anything the communicates outside of the auditorium
  • Print (although we don’t do much)
  • Web strategy
  • Social Media (Twitter, Facebook)
  • Texting
  • Part of Park’s creative team that plans and designs services.

The Changing Face of Church Communications

  • The way our world communicates has changed dramatically in the past few years.
  • The way the church communicates is changing, too.
  • 10 years ago the face of church communications was the church secretary.
  • She used pre-printed bulletin shells that more than likely had misty nature images or Holy Spirit doves and Scripture.
  • The church had 2 basic platforms from which it communicated: the front platform and the church bulletin.
  • Church communications today today looks a lot different: we’ve got email,websites, Facebook, Twitter, texting and other social media.

Our Role is Important

  • It’s really easy to get discouraged in our jobs because our job is essentially a very thankless task.
  • We’re not the ones up front preaching or leading worship, oftentimes we’re just stuck behind our computer screens.
  • It’s easy to feel like we’re not really “in ministry”
  • But you and what you do is REALLY important.
  • The future potential of the church rests in the hands of people who are thinking and creating ways to communicate the timeless message of the Gospel in a way that connects with the world around us.
  • What we do is really important.
  • One day as we were walking into a church a friend of mine said, “you know it’s crazy to think that the people who are coming here are here because of something you created.”
  • Oftentimes the things we create (postcards, fliers, websites) are the first point of contact people have with our church.
  • The need for people who are committed to Christ and who are innovating new ways to communicate are vital for the future of the church.

We Have A lot of  Critics and Not Many Contributors

  • Too often the only feedback we get is negative.
  • People never say, “wow that font changed my life…” or, “that stock image really moved me.”
  • I used to have someone who would mark all of the errors in our bulletin and slide it under my office door.
  • While many of our churches value communications and the role we play, in most cases we work as a staff of one. We’re on our own with limited resources, budget and support.

Do it Yourself Church Communications

  • We’re going to use the analogy of building a house to creating a structure to support our church communications.

Foundation – Getting to the basics of what it means.

  • “Church marketing” isn’t exactly found in the Bible.
  • The closest thing to “marketing” is the marketplace where Jesus turned over the tables in the Temple.
  • There are, however, a lot of great things that can illustrate our calling as church communicators.

Luke 14:16-23

  • This and other verses (Matthew 28:19-20) show us that we are called to go and tell, to be witnesses and extend the invitation.
  • Our competition isn’t the other church in town but the things that people are giving their time and attention to.
  • The invitation that was sent in mass was rejected, but the in person invitation brought more people.
  • From a marketing perspective, the way the early church grew in size and influence was through viral marketing. People telling other people. People bringing their friends.
  • With all of the great resources we have available to us today I think the one we need to get better at is the personal invitation.
  • Our job as communications people is to urge or to compel people to come, “that the house might be full.”

Survey – Get a Feel For the Land

  • Who is your city? What is the demographic and psychographic of people in your community?
  • Who is your church? Who are the people that come to your church?
  • What do they respond to?
  • How do they communicate?
  • A major part of our job is to keep a pulse on our church and  our community.
  • We can read reports and surveys but we can learn the most by simple observation.
  • We need to be keenly aware of our community and who the people are that attend our church.

Chicago

  • 2.9 million people
  • 3rd largest city in the USA
  • Neighborhood-centric
  • it’s the “city that works”
  • also known as the Second City
  • Center for banking, finance, marketing and business
  • “a drinking town with a sports problem”

Park

  • Average age is 29
  • 60% single
  • Most have a minimum of a college degree
  • Most work white collar jobs
  • Online experts
  • Most people will stay at Park for about 3 years
  • Most are incredibly BUSY

Once you have a better understanding of your community and your church, you have a better context to filter your communication strategies through.

Blueprint – your guide & plan.

There’s a difference between inspiration and imitation. Imitations are just cheap.

  • Whatever you do, be yourself.
  • If you’re not hip and trendy, don’t try to be.
  • Your church is unique, celebrate that.
  • Open source resources are great but don’t let them be an excuse of laziness.
  • Just because it worked somewhere else doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you in your context.
  • There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to church communications.
  • If you must “borrow,” ask permission first.
  • We serve the God of creativity (Gen 1:1), we need to seek Him!
  • I’ve often found that the times when I’m at a creative block is when I’m not in communion with God.

Union Workers… aka our church staff and ministry leaders.

  • Our jobs would be a lot easier if we didn’t have to deal with people.
  • Replace your IM screen and Inbox with face-to-face conversations.
  • Remove the word “NO” from your vocabulary.
  • Give people options or alternatives, not ultimatums.
  • Don’t bog people down with policies, style guides, etc.
  • Take the time to get to know your staff.
  • Get to know them and earn their trust.
  • I didn’t make huge changes when I first started at Park, I took the time to get to know the culture of the staff, church and the city of Chicago first.
  • That way, when I did start to make change I wasn’t “the new guy who we’re not sure about,” I was “Tim who we know and trust.”
  • When you need to make change don’t just tell people about it, show them.
  • I shared the story of how we made the switch to a monthly bulletin and instead of just telling people about it, I created a prototype and showed them what it would look like.

Some Learnings from the move to the monthly bulletin.

  • Print budget went down by 75%.
  • Our budget has moved from being 80% print/20% web to 20% print/80% web.
  • The switch has increased traffic to our website and upped our email subscriptions.
  • We initially printed it in color but switched to black and white in January to save money.
  • The move has forced us to be more planned and ahead of schedule.
  • It’s also forced us to be more creative.

Support Beams

  • Determine the keys ways to communicate to your church.
  • Decide what the key things are going to be and plan your budget to your strengths.

Park’s Key Things

  • Our website. Soon to be re-launched, designed by CHANGEffect, powered by Ekklesia360#mce_temp_url#.
  • Facebook. Over 1,200 fans and over 10 groups reaching over 3,000 people.
  • Email. Over 4,000 subscribers. We use ConstantContact.
  • Texting. We use texting in our services and as a means to communicate to our congregation throughout the week. We are huge fans of Jarbyco.
  • Twitter @ParkChurch. We currently have over 550 followers.
  • TheCommon.org used to connect people to ways to volunteer and serve.
  • We’re soon transitioning to using the Cobblestone Community Network. A blog post about that is coming soon!

Interior Design – Words, Images and Language

Images

  • Are the images you use a true reflection of who you are?
  • Be who you are, not who you want to be.
  • Don’t portray yourself to be something or someone you’re not.
  • Use real images of real people in your church.
  • People want to know there are people like them at your church.
  • Use iStock for objects, concepts, and backgrounds… not people.

Words & Language

  • Put people and their needs first.
  • Go through your bulletin and highlight every mention of your church name. If your church name is first, re-write your copy!
  • Avoid Christianese at all costs.
  • Keep things concise and simple, not cute and fluffy.
  • Talk like people in your church talk.
  • Don’t just answer questions people are asking, ask questions people are asking.
  • I shared the story of how we marketed our Alpha Course.

Curb Appeal – External Marketing

  • Your church website is the front door to your church. Is it welcoming?
  • Church websites used to be an accessory, today they are an absolute necessity.
  • Your brand is driven more by what other people say than by what you say.
  • I shared the story of the redesign of Park’s website and showed a sneak preview of our new website.

Closing Thought: Get a Hammer!

  • I keep a hammer on my desk.
  • No, I don’t use it on co-workers or my computer.
  • It was a gift from a friend to be a reminder that everything I do is building the Kingdom of God, the Church.

I closed sharing this poem…

The Magnificent House of God

There is a house different from any other
Filled with light and love
Radiant with a glory that is totally irresistible to all.

It’s an open home
A huge welcome sign hangs from the door
Inside overflows with good food and bountiful supply
Laughter and healthy conversation
And for all who are questioning there are answers
An abundance of hope
Salvation is offered to all
Mercy and grace kiss each one.

A fire is crackling within its solid walls
Always there to warm and soothe
Gently drying tear-stained faces
Affirming the wandering soul and bringing strong counsel to
give clear direction to all negotiating this journey of life.

Captivating melodies fill every inch of every room
A new sound available even to the untrained ear
Causing every heart to willingly sing and every knee to humbly bow.

This is the House I give my life to build
To gather His Church and bring healing to the nations
This is the only House fit for a King
This is the magnificent House of God.

- Darlene Zschech

Diving into Text Messaging

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2009 in Church Communications, Echo 09, Notes, Resources, Social Media with 3 Comments

Dawn Nicole Baldwin is a strategist with a passion to help churches reach people more effectively. She lives this out as founder and lead strategist of AspireOne and as a senior partner with Jarbyco, a mobile communications firm specializing in live events that works with organizations such as Park Community Church, Lifechurch.tv and Youth Specialties.

A former staff member of Big Idea Productions [creators of VeggieTales] and Willow Creek, Dawn Nicole frequently contributes to today’s leading-edge thinking of integrating Christianity and culture but is best known as a change agent who is intent on stretching imaginations, connecting people and making a difference.

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How Texting Works

  • Think of your phone as a tool for connecting with your audience in an intentional and controlled way.
  • Texting is permission based.
  • We have to think differently about texting than we do any other communication channel (i.e. direct marketing, email, etc).
  • We need to be intentional and keep the special privilege and relationship we have with people.
  • Some people say texting began in 1989 with a Motorola beeper.
  • Japan first adopted text messaging; America is a bit behind.
  • Texting the Great Debate. Texters in all countries use “lol”, “u”, “brb” and “gr8.”
  • ~(_8^(\)   – Homer Simpson
  • When American Idol used texting for voting, we got it.
  • In the 3rd quarter of 2006, over 12 billion texts were passed through AT&T’s network.
  • 87% of the US population has mobile phones.
  • Over 110 billion text messages are sent every month (up 1,000% from a few years ago).
  • Adults send/receive 357 text messages per month on average; compared to 204 phone calls.
  • Teens/young adults send 1,742 text messages per month.
  • Texting is a communication channel of the future.
  • 87% of 13-27 yos send text messages… 73% of 15-37 year olds… 44% of 28-39 year olds; 18% of 40-49 year olds.

Textology Terms

  • SMS – Short Message Service
  • Shortcode – Your “address” … hard to create/approve with all carriers.
  • Keywords – tell the system what to do. There’s more flexibility with keywords.

Applications of Texting in Church

  • Text-to-Screen – user initiates contact. (asking questions to the pastor, etc); allows church.
  1. Granger Community Church did a whole weekend called “Ask Anything” where people could text in their questions to the pastor.
  2. Park Community Church does Q&A in every service. (that’s me!)
  • Surveys & Polls – allows people to share their opinion and gets people engaged so they can participate, not just listen.
  • Text Alerts – church initiates conversation with their church. Churches set up texting groups to alert them about upcoming events and news.
  • Promos - an opportunity for an audience to engage and win something… think radio content.
  • Bouncebacks – get people specific information about events/opportunities. (Example, you have a BBQ… you can have people text the word BBQ to your shortcode and a message bounces back to them with info about the BBQ).
  • Two-Way Messaging – think ChaCha. Example: During church service times, you could allow people to text questions and have someone respond to them personally. (Mental note: We need to do this at Park!) It’s a great way to give them next steps… can change the way you communicate.

Bottom line… you need to check out Jarbyco!

The Church Panel

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2009 in Church Communications, Echo 09, Notes, Principles, Resources with 4 Comments

This was an awesome session moderated by Scott McClellan of Collide Magazine and featured Conway Edwards (CE), Cynthia Ware (CW), Scott Hodge (SH), Carlos Whittaker (LS), and Bobby Gruenewald (BG).

Does the church leadership conversation focus too much on innovation, just enough, etc?

CW: We’re not focusing enough on it because our culture is changing so dramatically and rapidly.  People aren’t aware that the first-time visitors to church come to their websites. People consider hiring a great lead pastor, worship pastor, etc and not invest in their website and staffing in areas of media and technology. By using technology doesn’t mean using it for the cool factor, it means, evaluating where culture lives and what part we can and are called to redeem. If we can be were people are and use technology to drive forward the Kingdom, we need to.

LW: We need to be careful, as the Church, to not innovate for the sake of innovating. What’s the purpose and role of the local church in your community? And how can you innovate with that goal in mind Churches get ahead of themselves when they try to innovate for the sake of innovation.

BG: Collectively, the Church doesn’t understand or focus on it at all. There’s examples of churches that lose sight and think that how you use technology replaces why you do things. Technology is a tool. The “why” behind it is not to use technology, we use technology to build the church. We don’t understand how to live in a culture of change.  It’s easy to create a change but difficult to have a culture of change. People need to anticipate change. People need to learn to lean into change.

What are your sources of inspiration for creativity, innovation, connection, etc?

CE: Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill through The City; Andy Stanley, and John Piper.

CW: For tech and media, she gravitates towards people who are asking deeper questions. Carefully weighing what we’re doing it, why we’re doing it, and where’s the Scripture to back it. (Ill: John Piper vs Twitter). There’s a lot of polarization between pro and anti tech people. Beyond that, she believes we’re  just beginning to see the earliest iterations of what online community will look like. She looks to people like John Dyer and Shane Hipps.  We need to find our theological underpinnings to make sure what we’re standing on is what we should be standing on.

BG: In terms of online church, there’s a book called SimChurch that pulls together thoughts and questions about online church. A guy in France named Eric… who runs evangelistic websites that are specialized to different cultural website. Have seen over 1.2 million people come to Christ through their websites.  The thing he personally learns the most from is understanding why people use technology.

LW: Leaving the church world and diving into the coaching world, he’s inspired by the churches that people don’t know about that are doing things that are out of the box. (Ill: Shawn King and Courageous Church in Atlanta built via Facebook.)

SH: We have a tendency to look up, churches that are further ahead than we are. He’s looking at churches that are just starting that are taking risks and making quicker decisions than larger churches can. People like Shawn King, Pete Wilson and Carlos Whittaker, Dave Gibbons, etc.

Are there any current media tools trends that get you excited?

SH: Most excited about leadership and tools like Twitter that enable access to people you didn’t have access to before. And tools  that allow for people to create influence and learning. Also, through using Jarbyco, people are enabled to ask questions they would never ask. They’re getting questions people would never ask and are also able to see what their people care about.

LW: With the transition from church work to coaching, video chat is enabling face-to-face connections. It’s changing the way you can pour into leaders.

BG: Most excited about Carlos’ coaching network. Hehe. Running GoogleAdWords that are intersecting what people are searching for (porn, etc) and redirect them to their online church services. (Ill: Looking for Naked Ladies? Try church online instead.)

CW: LifeChurch.tv’s innovative tools… YouVersion.com, ChurchMetrics.com, church online, etc. And Jarybco… the ability to text and maintain connection with their congregation.

CE: Doing coffee and conversation, and allowing people the opportunity to ask at least five questions during the process of the message.

SH: Interesting that all of the things mentioned are not about broadcast, but about conversation and engaging people in conversation. It’s all about interaction.

How do you create a culture of change?

SH: We’re an 85 year old church and we are the story of that change. The change we needed was a cultural change… not a change of music, style, etc… it was a change of their DNA. There’s a difference between transition and change. Change typically has to do with the outer things we’d change (music, style, etc) – transition has to do with people’s hearts (how they think, what they feel, what they believe).  Churches have a real challenge with change. But if you think about who God is, He’s unchanging, but He’s all about changing us. It’s a journey. We tend to not talk about change and wonder why people are inflexible towards change. God is constantly changing us.  We want to be able to continually morph and change and make that culture of change a part of who we are.

LW: In Andy Stanley’s talk “Don’t Be That Couch” he talks about the “ugly couch” everyone hangs onto… for whatever reason. But sometimes we need to get rid of our ugly couches and replace them with something new. That marked a change from doing KidStuff once a week to once a month at NorthPoint.

CE: We must always be ready for change. We mustn’t hold on to things too tightly.

Complete this sentence. I like it to see when churches use media/technology to ____________.

CE: Drive home a spiritual truth.

SH: help reshape people’s perception of the Church and Christianity. We have a perception problem. The world’s problem isn’t so much with Jesus, but it’s with Christians and Christianity. We need to be wise with how we use technology… like Christian television… we can take it in the wrong direction. Or, we can be intentional about how we use it to celebrate and tell stories.

LW: create followers of Christ who weren’t followers of Christ. (Ill: LifeChurch.tv’s online campus’ “click the button if you’ve accepted Christ.”)

Evangelism on the internet; can it happen, how?

BG: It does happen. So it can happen. How is through all sorts of means… through the places we intersect with people online. Sometimes we overlook the most basic elements… it’s not about significant technology or websites, it starts with you. One of the most significant touch points they have online is their online prayer feature. It’s a one-on-one convo with someone on their team or volunteers. Prayer transcends space and culture, it has no barriers. What’s interesting about the web is that a lot of the criticism of it is the anonymity it creates, but the reality is that all of us walk around with emotional facades all day. Sometimes when the physical facade is removed it makes space for real, deep conversation.

LW: Asked people on his blog what church they go to, and someone responded “this is my church.”

Where do you draw the line on spending for tech excellence vs going towards others missions?

CE: It’s mission vs machine. When you look at a tech issue, is is going towards the mission of your church or the mission of the machine? Work towards the mission… reaching people for Christ. If the technology facilitates the mission, go for it. If it’s majoring on excellence to please people in the room, don’t.

SH: Hopefully they both try to accomplish to reach others.  Technology gives us an amazing tool to let people know what’s going on in the world around us. One of the biggest issues the church faces is ignorance. We need to help our people become more aware… awareness leads to us becoming agitated… and when we’re agitated, we’ll be moved to action.

BG: Answer will be different for everyone. It depends on what God has called your church to uniquely do. The answer lies in your calling… who are you called to be and called to reach? You have to make a choice of where you are going to land on the curve of quality and cost.

CW: There’s the hardware, technology in the room, the software, etc. Online technology is different. Many online services are free. So is Facebook. So is Twitter. Video streaming. Their are applications galore that people in our congregation have access to. The largest mission field in the world is online.

How do we leverage skills/ideas in other churches to connect us and minimize the duplication of effort?

LW: Churches have to get beyond competition and we’ve got to learn to share.

CW: The web makes collaboration simple and makes connection possible. It’s sometimes easier to connect with a pastor online than in person.

BG: VideoTeaching.com is an example they’ve developed… mainly formed out of relationships they’ve established with different pastors and church leaders. Sharing relationships is a way we can help other churches.  We need to learn to leverage the relationships we have.

SH: It comes down to intentionality of sharing an idea that worked.

What are some things that any church of any shape or size could use to leverage technology?

LW: There’s a 16 year old kid in your church that knows more about technology than all of your church staff. Find them and get them plugged in and involved.

CE: From the beginning they’ve had a young intern from Dallas Seminary and have now decided they need to technology pastor to explore the intersection of technology, media and theology.

BG: The emerging generation are late adopters of technology.

SH: So much of it is already developed… we just need to learn how to leverage it.

CW: Pull other people into your dialogue. Sometimes your most obvious errors are not apparent to you.

Is the role of technology in church services changing?

LW: One church in Phoenix is going to move from teaching via preaching to story telling through video.

SM: One of the least interactive times of people’s week could be when they sit in a church service.

CW: The interaction we need to create in our church services needs to be interaction between the people and God. The connection and interaction needs to lead them towards Christ.

Using Technology without Technology Using You

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2009 in Church Communications, Echo 09, Notes, Principles, Resources, Social Media, Web & Email with 1 Comment

John Dyer lives in Irving, TX with his beautiful wife and awesome new son. He works at Dallas Seminary as the director of web development (meaning “main code guy”) where he also earned a theology degree. He is actively involved in several open source web projects, builds ministry resources such as www.bestcommentaries.com, and blogs about technology and faith atwww.donteatthefruit.com.

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  • Just for fun: John’s full name is John Charles Dickey Dyer
  • One of the worst things you can do is imagine that technology is neutral.
  • There’s to camps… tech lovers and tech haters.
  • Both sides use the word “change”
  • Tech lovers say it will “change” for good.
  • Tech haters say it will “change” for the worse.
  • It’s hard to balance our use of technology.
  • Humans make tools…. our tools make us.
  • What we create has influence back on us.
  • We become the things that we behold.
  • Psalm 1 … if we sit with those who are righteous we become righteous.
  • We tend to believe that about many things, but not about our use of technology.
  • Technology is an extension of humanity.
  • Technology can be an amputation of humanity.

Evolution of New Technology

  • Excitement – “YES! I got a shovel!”
  • Difficulty – After you use it, you get blisters
  • Transformation – You get stronger as a result of using it.

What kind of tool do you want to become?

  • Tech Crunch publishers 1,881,152 words per year… more than the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare, Moby Dick, etc.  combined.
  • We don’t  read blogs like we read books, we scan.
  • Content doesn’t matter… we’ve cultivated the skill of scanning text on the screen… much different than reading it in a book.
  • Content doesn’t matter, technology does.

Technology often has unintended effects. Most of us don’t think a lot about those effects. We just use what we’re told to use… whatever comes along and what’s new. Do we really need it?

Ages of Technology

  • Oral – community memorizes common information.
  • Print – logical individuals. (aka… The Bible is true. The Bible says God exists. Therefore, God exists). Many of our beliefs rest on rationale before faith.
  • Image – emotional story tellers. We are surrounded by images… we tend to think of how to emotionally convey things with story, instead of logic. That’s the technology we use today.
  • Machine – tireless producers. We became what we beheld… machines worked hard, we should work hard.
  • Computer – data gatherers.
  • Interwebs – loosely re-connected community?

There’s a world of disconnection and reconnection that happens with technology. If someone bothers us, we can block or unfriend them. We have switches.

What the Scripture says about Technology

  • The story moves from the garden to the city.
  • Who made the stuff in the city?
  • Our human creativity is written into the story.
  • What we create plays into the story.
  • The First Technology in the Bible: clothing (Genesis, Adam & Eve).
  • Rebels against God – expresses Imago Dei
  • God’s Imago Dei is reflected in our creativty.
  • Redeems the effects of the Fall – Foreshadows His return.
  • Cain and the City – Cain builds a city, a place that’s alternate from the garden. (Gen 4)
  • All the people who made tools and art came from Cain’s city.
  • Jesus and the Cross – Jesus was a carpenter. From his job we get the word “technology.” The very tool He worked with was the tool He died on.
  • God and the new City – God recreates everything and redeems it.
  • God redeems human works.
  • We offer redemption through what we create but it can’t compare to what God will give us.

New Testament

  • Paul constantly expressed his desire to be with people.  (2 Tim 1:4)
  • John didn’t want to use technology, but he did! (2 John 1:12)
  • They used technology when they couldn’t be present with people.

Technology should help us stay connected when we can’t be face-to-face with people. Being face-to-face matters. Community sometimes sucks. Being face to face means you have to have a commitment to people you don’t decide to be with. Online community is a different kind of community.

Using Technology without Technology Using You

  1. Deny the premise. You can’t use technology without it affecting you.
  2. Experiment with Technology. Do something different. (Ill: Don’t take a Bible to church, just sit and listen… experience it differently.)
  3. What do I want to cultivate? What do you want to get? What does it require for me to be “good” at it? Is that something you want?
  4. Work both through and against technology. Jesus came as a Jew… he fully absorbed the culture to be with them. At the same time, He worked against them, He condemned things they do. We have to be incarnate like Jesus was… meaning we work through and against our technological culture.
  5. Use technology as a means, not an end. We use a car as a means to get to an end. Or, we get a crazy awesome car… and use it so owning it is the end, the goal.
  6. Create for a new world. All we create, all we do should be for eternity… for something that’s lasting.
  7. Become a tool. Influence others for the glory of God. Be a tool He can use.
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