Welcome to TinyURL!

Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires. http://tinyurl.com/

12 Words

There is a project called 12 Words. The idea is to capture the marketplace by the 12 most searched words in the Arab world.

We write about "Family", "Children", "God" and "Jesus" but are in the teens and twenties of search terms. Instead, this project wants to write about the most searched words. Some of the top words searched for is "sex", "dating", "health", "love", and "career".

Jesus would be ministering to the people looking for these words, not what we're writing about.To accomplish this, local ministries have their own ownership, content development, and local relevancy...though these sites have a global impact. The pages take the visitor from their expressed or stated need to show their need for Jesus.

One nice thing about this strategy is that the sites market themselves because that's what people are looking for! The team commits to develop an article per week for a year. If the site is well done, it'll rise in the rankings.

Branding

From the materials of MinistryNet conference in Budapest Apr 2005

Branding is not deceptive, dishonest, or evasive. It's presenting something to gain someone else's interest. Often in Christian circles we pull back because we self-impose restrictions.Branding produces an emotional message that establishes a desired tone.

It's a desired image but not the only image of the product -- it's the one that entices or generates the most interest and doesn't answer all questions. Branding starts with understanding your target audience, not the product. It creates a feel that is unique that captures attention.

Our problem is we've been branded by others and we've lost control of our image. Because of negative branding, our message is often not even heard. We should take back our stolen image not because of what they think of us, but what they think about our God. We want them to see something they really do want. They want Jesus, they just don't know it.

Steps to Creating a Brand

• Know your Audience
  
• Determine desired emotional feel
  
• Invest, sustain, and promote the image
  

If a person only encountered your media image, what would he think/feel about you...and why would they want to meet and/or interact with you?There is no "one-size fits all" brand. You need to decide based on your audience.

Download Dave's PowerPoint and his notes in Word.

Technology and a New Reformation

'Technology and a New Reformation: Communicating the Gospel in the Information Age' compares the way the printing press ushered in the Reformation, with the impact of the Internet:http://www.lsfmissiology.org/Essays/2000%20Professional.pdf

How teens interact with the Internet

Interested in detailed studies of how teens interact with the Internet and other media. See the studies by UCLA Children's Digital Media Center:http://www.cdmc.ucla.edu/papers.html

Interent Ministies: What's Happening in Other Parts of the World?

From the materials of MinistryNet conference in Budapest Apr 2005

East Asia: Beginning an internet ministry through LINCnet. Other ministries are working well there such as the JESUS film. One main focus right now is designing a staff website to help with internal staff needs.

Japan: Campus ministry is changing from traditional on-campus ministry to a Metro ministry approach. Have a website to introduce students to things they are doing there. They also linked to a Passion movie website to begin their internet ministry. Have been handing out a multi-media CD that will play audio and also on a computer that has music, short testimonies, JESUS film (audio and abbreviated video version), and link to register for prizes.

West Africa: No website for evangelism yet, but have a site for administrative use. All contact information is there. He is using a free website building program that only lasts 30 days so he reformats his computer to get another 30 days. Most don't have internet at home, but use cyber-cafes and most youth have an email account.

Singapore: Using sccc.org as news for supporters, staff updates (using a wiki), and download resources for staff. Plan to begin internet evangelism soon.

South Asia: Within the month they plan to begin an internet ministry that will target people throughout the region. 21.3% of the world's population live in this area with over 95% non-Christian and thousands of languages. There are currently almost 900 JESUS film teams in the area. In addition they have used "survival kits" such as the one with the movies Titanic and The Passion and audio CDs of the JESUS film.

Interent Ministies: What's Happening in Eastern Europe

From the materials of MinistryNet conference in Budapest Apr 2005

Serbia: StudentLife Magazine and will build a website soon. They are running two websites at http://www.filmisus.org/ and www.vox-magazin.com.

Ukraine: Recent revolution in the country with several new government Christian leaders. Using the web along with a magazine for outreach. Site been up for 1.5 years and have been seeing the site helping in their face-to-face evangelism.

Bulgaria: The website is similar to EveryStudent.com to give direct gospel presentations to the students on campus.

Poland: Website is an internet Bible School with 44 teachers and 340 members. Also using podprad.pl as a campus outreach and web version of their campus magazine with 25.000 visitors/month

Czech Republic: 80% or more in country are atheists. www.znateho.cz is both pre-evangelistic and an evangelistic website they use based on PowerToChange.com. http://www.coolnicka.cz/ is a campus website with articles for students.

Albania: JESUS Film distribution and Bible Correspondence course at udhetimi.org. Also have a website in progress but has already seen at least one person trust Christ through it. Plans are to do more evangelism by the end of the fall. Download Albania PowerPoint.

Russia: neprosto.net is the Russian campus web ministry but is lacking resources. The staff there are excited because they are at the beginning of something exciting. The vision is to offer more websites in the near future.

Romania: fitzuica.ro is the website for a magazine they distributed. The site is being read often. The most read stories on the site are translations of Bible stories related to college life. They offer email addresses for free that allows them to connect to the people easily. They have over 12.000 users and more than 40% are coming for the articles. They also have http://www.romainianharvest.ro/ that talk about all the projects going on in thecountry.

Interent Ministies: What's Happening in Western Europe?

From the materials of MinistryNet conference in Budapest Apr 2005


Germany: StudentLife CD being distributed on college campuses. CD contains thousands of articles covering topics of how to find a flat to dealing with life issues. The CD contains a Bible, JESUS film, and the Gospel in 30+ languages.

The Netherlands: Took advantage of The Passion with three websites. TheLife.nl had 20.000 unique visitors in first 3 weeks. HeavenlyQuality.nl is a e-zine using an 80-year old as one of the volunteers to chat online. Discovery.nl is the latest. A couple hundred a day are coming where each article leads to the Gospel. Later this year they plan to launch a discipleship e-course. Download The Netherlands PowerPoint.

Spain: ElSistema.com (The System) is coupled with an audio/video CD distributed to teens. The JESUS film is used as part of the story of The System. They also have e-learning training courses for their staff at eccel.org. The League of WebXtraordinary Men is run entirely by volenteers to create virtual communities of web ministers. Another strategy is to create a pre-evangelistic website on bullying in the schools.

The Psychology Of Syberspace

The hypertext book under this title which you can fuind here http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html explores the psychological aspects of environments created by computers and online networks. It presents an evolving conceptual framework for understanding how people react to and behave within cyberspace: what I call "the psychology of cyberspace" - or simply "cyberpsychology."

Continually being revised and expanded, this hypertext book originally was created in January of 1996. See the article index which indicates the articles most recently added and revised.