Category: community

re: Social networking and the church

Here’s some more Intranet/Social Networking info from across the pond:

Robin Farr, editor of the employee intranet for the provincial government of British Columbia, is humanizing the way it communicates with its employees.

She does this by continuing to transform the government’s intranet from the neglected, dull afterthought it was less than two years ago into a living Web where 30,000 employees can see themselves talking about their jobs, find ideas to make their work easier and more fun, shop for bargains, buy and sell personal items, send e-cards to colleagues for a job well done, and more.

Farr has done all this with a staff of three, including herself. She does most of the writing, and until recently did it all. She manages a videographer and one Web administrator.

The employee response is spectacular. The site averages 170,000 hits a month—a 2800 percent jump in traffic—among the 30,000 province employees.

How did she do it? In hindsight, it’s simple. Conversing with employees like ordinary people through video and even archived content.

Read the full story

10 horrible group icebreakers for your church group

No Parking sign
No Parking Please! | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

Aaron shared this list with his group the other night and with our community group leaders…

These are the 10 worst ice breaker ideas so please never try these in your small groups! 😛

10. Share the worst sin you’ve ever committed.

9. If you were God, who would you punish first?

8. Which person in this group do you think needs to find Jesus the most?

7. Which people at your church do you wish would find a different church, and why?

6. If you could erase any verse out of the Bible, which one would it be?

5. Share the juiciest piece of gossip you know so we can pray about it.

4. If you could have anything from your neighbor’s house, what would it be?

3. What’s your favorite of The 10 Commandments to break?

2. If you could change anything about your spouse, what would it be?

1. If you could commit any sin and get away with it, what would it be?

Community testimonies

Last week James and Mary shared their testimony for our community group. I wish you could have all heard it – but what happens at community group… stays at community group. 🙂
As a follow up to last week’s testimony Gaylan shared his testimony for us as well last night – just as awesome.

There’s just something about people sharing their testimony and how God has worked in their life that is encouraging and helps build community. And when we can see others being honest I think it encourages us to be honest as well.

Both weeks I modeled the testimonies after our November series at encounter. Each year 3 or 4 people (or couples) have been interviewed by Brian during the month of November to share their various testimonies. These seem to be some of our most highly attended services as well as our top downloaded podcasts throughout the year. So it was great bringing this idea down a few notches and making it work in our small group. In fact for James and Mary I just used the list of questions that Brian asked them several years back in the early days of encounter.

But I got to thinking last night, this is something that any group can do with little or no preparation – just a willing individual or individuals. The questions may differ but they are built around 3 main questions:

  • What was your life like before Christ?
  • How did Christ call you to be His disciple?
  • What is your life like after coming to know Christ?

Those are the basic questions to build an interview from. Hopefully with people in our community groups we know a little more background of the individuals and we can ask more detailed questions about specific situations – but even with those three questions I think we can all add transparency and honesty to our community groups.

Any other thoughts or ideas that you’ve seen work?

Community resoures

I send some of these things out to my community group leaders via e-mail but thought I’d start trying to share some of them here as well.

If you haven’t subscribed to the Threads podcast – there’s no better time than today.

They also offer other podcasts as well as the option to download individual episodes online. One of my favorite episodes is #5 that talks specifically about learning styles – something I’m trying to learn more about and put into place in my small group. It’s easy for me to see it on Sunday morning but harder to visualize in my group.

“Culture never informs Scripture but Scripture informs culture.”

Using media might help people see God in a new way.

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Effective Small Group Bible Study

How do you know when a Small Group Bible study has been effective? Try this simple assessment tool:
* Do people love God more? — They are experiencing more of God’s presence, peace, and power in their lives and there is a greater desire to draw near to Him.
* Do people love one another more? — They are more “other-focused,” naturally serve one another, and build each other up in love. This results in developing people’s sense of belonging and gifting.
* Do people love the lost more? — Their compassion and concern for the lost is intensified and they become more Kingdom-minded in their daily affairs.
* Do people love God’s Word more? — They take more initiative in seeking to know the Lord through His Word. They understand His grace more, and they are compelled to share biblical truth with others.

What is the common thread in these outcomes of effective Bible study? People love more, and they are empowered to fulfill The Great Commandment so they can effectively engage in The Great Commission.

Small group leaders can create an environment that gives birth to this life-giving, Acts 2 dynamic. However, it is important to remember that you can plant and water, but God is the One who makes it grow (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Just know that the faithfulness the Lord honors is showing up, making time for the group each week, and being obedient to what He is leading you to do.

(from the Smallgroups.com newsletter)

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Ideas for Small Group Worship and Prayer

READ together the following passages of scripture before starting your time of praise.
Psalm 103:1-5; Jeremiah 29:11; Psalm 104:33-34; Psalm 105:1-3

Say something like: Our only props tonight are our two hands and ten fingers. I am going to guide our group through a time of prayer and praise. Please pray as I direct you. There will be times I will ask you to pray silently and times I would like to ask you to pray sentence prayers out loud. These prayers are to be short and in popcorn style (praying when something comes to mind and praying more than once if you want). If you feel uncomfortable please feel free to pray silently.

First, I want you to hold out your hands cupped together as if you are receiving something, and we will pray sentence prayers (out loud) thanking God for his provision. Thank Him for the things he has given us, like our families, jobs, friends, salvation, etc.

Allow this to go until there is silence and you feel as if everyone has prayed.

Next, I want you hold up the thumbs on your hands and pray prayers that thank God for those promises that you cling to when life is hard. For example: “Lord, I just praise you for the promise that you will never leave me nor forsake me.”

Again, allow this to go until there is silence and you feel as if everyone has prayed.

Now, would you please hold up your pointer fingers? Please, in popcorn style, simply name the people in your life who have helped point you in the way of salvation, either by their words or their lifestyle. Someone speak a name, someone else go ahead, and continue speaking one name at a time until you have exhausted the list of people who have influenced you to Christ.

Allow this to go until there is silence and you feel as if everyone has prayed.

Now, add to your thumb and pointer finger your third and tallest finger. Thank God, silently, for your personal savior, for Jesus who allowed himself to be crucified so that our sins would be canceled out.

Allow for a few minutes of silence and then go on.

Next, look at your fourth finger or the ring finger. This finger, because we wear wedding rings on it, reminds us of our commitments. Take a minute now to thank God for the responsibilities he has entrusted to you. It could take the form of thanking God for the wife and kids God has placed in your life, or it could be the job or ministry or friendships He has given you. You may pray these prayers silently.

Allow for a few minutes of silence and then go on.

Lastly, looking at your little finger, let us remember all the little things in our lives that bring us joy. For me, it might be good books. For you, it might mean playing racquetball on Monday afternoons. Pray sentence prayers of thanks to God for the small things in life that bring us satisfaction and a sense of well being. You may want to pray short sentence prayers several times as things come to your mind.

Allow this to go until there is silence and you feel as if everyone has prayed.

After you feel as if everyone has prayed, close your prayer time with a prayer of thanks and praise for all God has given and done in your lives.

(from WorshipWorks)

How do you build community?

Last week I posted some thoughts on building online community.
I didn’t get many posts here but it did spur some further discussion over on Flickr at the Church Marketing Lab.

Also last week my new blogging buddy Johnny Laird (thanks Thomas) posted some thoughts on the community group that meets at his house.

He discussed several ideas he’s looking at for future meetings at his house.

After a little questioning he shared some additional insight:

…other Groups meet at other times too – basically whenever it suits.

On top of that we have a monthly “Walking Fellowship” that meets on that same Home Group Sunday to walk together around some the rural areas outside of Croydon. This is an important group for us too.

The Sunday evening meetings are worked on a rota basis too, as follows (with some variations):

“First Sunday” A very trad Salvation Army Gospel Praise meeting, featuring music from the Band & Songsters, congregational singing, soloists & Bible teaching.

Small Groups – On the second Sunday of each month

“The Journey” A more intimate Sunday evening meeting with shared study, issue based topics for 21st Century life, often with musical interludes & guest speakers.

Youth Church/ Cafe Church – alternate months

I asked him a bit more about the Walking Fellowship. He responded:

The Walking Fellowship walk together in the countryside, and the individuals hang out & talk with other people from the Church who may not always get the chance to spend any good quality time with. Usually they will end up at someone’s house after about an hour to an hour an a half walking. They drink coffee, eat cake, share some Scripture & prayer.

There’s no particular prayer walking with this group, but we have others who do.

Today he added a bit more to his explanation.

…forgot to respond to Jonathan’s question about whether it was a typical SA initiative.

In response to that, no – it’s not especially typical.(but then again what is?) I guess the thing about The Salvation Army – in the UK and globally – is no longer a homogenous one-size-fits all denomination in terms of method, but rather it is a very diverse Church, where all kinds of different expressions of service & ministry sit along side each other.

Last month, Laurie and I saw a story on ABC News about a woman in Philadelphia that has built a community of runners in a group of homeless men. She loved running and noticed a number of homeless men just hanging out during her morning jog – so she built a community with them.

Anne Mahlum is a 27-year-old marathoner. And on her predawn runs in Philadelphia, she kept passing a group of homeless men.

“They would say, ‘Hi’ or they would say ‘Hi Anne’ or ‘There’s the crazy runner.’ ‘How many miles are you doing?'” Mahlum recalled. “And they would smile and sort of applaud and cheer for me, while I would start my day.”

But one day in May, Mahlum said, “I looked back, and I was like, ‘I am cheating these guys. Why am I just running past them and leaving them there?'”

“Running is so simple you know. You really only need a pair of shoes. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You need heart and dedication,” Mahlum said.

Anne thought to herself, “Maybe running could make these guys feel as good as it makes me feel.”

So she decided to start a running club for the homeless and started asking businesses for help.

All of this got me think about other ways we form community.

  • Online
  • Online gaming
  • Book Clubs
  • Work
  • Dinner Clubs
  • Sports Clubs
  • etc. etc.

Laurie and I love having our Dinner Club dinners. We took the idea from our friends Tim & Amber who hold monthly cuisine nights. A cuisine/theme is picked and everyone brings their favorite dishes. We were going to their dinner club but figured with the distance we might as well start our own. Everyone seems to have a great time when we do get together for the (somewhat) monthly meals. One of the things I have fun doing is trying to get people who might not normally get to spend time together to come to the dinners together. They may be friends of mine and Laurie’s but they may not know each other much at all. So it’s fun to see our friends mix it up.

We also have our encounter community group that meets every Tuesday night. I’ve loved watching our group grow not only in numbers but also in closeness with one another and with God. You can bet Tuesday nights are reserved for our community group.

But in addition to our 6 or 7 community groups at encounter there are other groups that meet throughout the week as well. On Wednesday mornings, there’s a group of 6-10 guys that meet at the local What-a-Burger for breakfast, Bible study and discussion before heading to work. There’s a new women’s Bible study that will begin soon. There’s also a group of guys that love motorcycles and get together on Sunday mornings before church to go ride and then meet to hang out at Chick-Fil-A on Thursday nights.

The key to all these groups I believe is a shared interest and the interest in sharing life with other folks around us.

I wonder what other ways we can build community in our churches and our neighborhoods. What are you doing?

Maybe before too long we’ll have an encounter walkers group, disk golf group and or joggers group or maybe we’ll take the time to build community outside our own church walls and have a neighborhood walker’s group, disk golf group or jogger’s group. Any takers?

Social networking and the church

So I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not – but there’s this phenomenon going on around you – Web 2.0.
I don’t know that anyone’s really settled on a definition of this new wave of Internet sites but I think everyone can agree on what it’s not – stagnant, outdated websites that simply push information onto people, rather than allowing them the opportunity to pull the information they want/need.

Think about sites like Flickr, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter where there’s a broad wealth of information and content that is typically user driven and user created. No more Mr. Corporate America telling people what they will and can’t read. Users are sharing content and connecting in new amazing ways.

Last week as Laurie and I were out and about I received an update via txt message from my mate Thomas over in Scotland. He was watching the final episode of 24, Season 6 with his wife.
I commented that I knew more about Thomas than most of my friends who live within a 30-45 mile radius of my home — and Thomas and I have never met in person. Thomas later commented that he knows more about Laurie and I than he does our next door neighbor – maybe a good thing and a bad thing.

As part of my job here at DCCCD we’ve been discussing our district’s and specifically our department’s Intranet presence. I was forwarded an article (must be a member to read) yesterday from Communication World that suggests most Intranet sites are built around early 1990 standards, not the new Web 2.0 ideas. I would hardily agree – at least of the few that I’ve seen.

Most companies chose to block Web 2.0 sites and applications from their users – I’m sure Laurie can give you an earful on how annoying that is for her where she works. She’s now blocked from visiting our own personal blogs and sites at work. She has to use a work around by using a VNC viewer to access the web over her computer and our DSL at home – very clever on her part.

The article in Communication World also suggests that because these Web 2.0 platforms work so well, people are finding their own work arounds for sharing information and building communities – even work related communities.

So what about our churches? Do we know folks we’ve met through Myspace or Facebook better than those around us at the ultimate community – our own church? And can churches use Web 2.0 ideas to build community – or should they?

After reading the article in Communication World it occurred to me, there may also be some Open Source Social Networking software out there. Sure enough – there is.
I found Elgg which looks like it’s super customizable (and also appears to have their entire website built around a Wiki). Could churches use software like Elgg to build their website, or at least expand on their current website? Or should churches simply build communities around social networks that are already out there?

I tend to believe we should be where the people are – not pulling them into separate realms or worlds but I don’t know. Maybe something like encounterSpace or iencounter would be beneficial. Right now our average attendance is between 180-250 each week. By far MySpace seems to be the most used social networking site used by folks at our church. We have 75 MySpace friends, we have 21 members in the encounter Facebook group and 4 or 5 people who have submitted photos to the encounter Flickr group. But would those numbers increase and communities form on a separate network “exclusive” for encounter folks? I don’t know. I participate in a semi-social networking site for geocaching but I don’t typically seek out other geocaches on places like Facebook and MySpace. Yet while my university offers an Alumni Social Networking portal, I’m more likely to connect with folks from UMHB through MySpace or Facebook. What do you think?