-Internet Evangelism Day

April 29th is Internet Evangelism Day. Here’s a link to the official website with loads of resources including a number of free ebooks on how to bring Jesus to the world through digital media including the following video:

Mobile Ministry Introduction from Keith Williams on Vimeo.

-Resources for Digital Ministry

I have found that Digital Evangelism Issues blog is always a good place to find resources for digital ministry. A number of good links are provided in the latest article: “Sources of digital ministry news”

One of the best is -“Web Evangelism Bulletin.” You can always find valuable articles and info there.

Also, with Internet Evangelism Day coming soon on April 29, here’s a link to all sorts of resources for the occasion.

-How a Christian Should Be Responding Online

One of my greatest joys are the friends that I have made online all around the world in the last six years.

However, one of my greatest disappointments is how some of my supposed brothers and sisters in Christ have treated me sometimes over very small points of disagreement. At least small when compared to our common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have actually been down right mean which is sad when you consider that all of it is displayed for everyone to see – believer and non-believer, Christian and what ever.  

I really believe that Christians should be relating to others on a higher level reflecting the love of the Lord and his call on our life to love others. We should be setting a good example in the name of Jesus and we should also be careful that everything we do and say online reflects well upon our Lord.

Along that line, here’s some great ideas on how a Christian should respond online from the GMO blog:

“7 Ways to Respond As a Christian Online, Pt. 1”

1. Pray.

2. Walk Away.

3. Avoid Debate.

and: “7 Ways to Respond as a Christian Online Part 2”

4. Be Gospel Focused.

5. Don’t Blast the Negative.

6. Be Encouraging.

7. Check Your Heart.

Read what the author has to say under every one of the 7 points. Well worth the time and born by the Spirit.            *Top

-Free Jesus App?

 

LOL. Actually this is not that far off the mark!

There are a number of ministries offering free apps for mobile devises with the Bible in most of the major languages plus teaching on every book of the Bible. It is a wonderful way for folks to secretly read the Bible and receive valuable Christian teaching in places where it is illegal and not risk jail time for getting caught with the actual printed material.

Mobile devises are widely available and really popular in 3rd world countries including the Middle East. The apps really do make the Gospel available to millions of people who would otherwise never get the opportunity to hear about the real Jesus Christ.

Here’s just a couple of the many sites that offer Bible apps:

YouVersion

biblephone

-To Date or Not to Date

I don’t know if you have noticed or not but some of the most successful blogs on the Internet no longer date their posts -Copyblogger for one. Why?

Blogs that have dropped the traditional dating have found that their older posts are now getting read at a greater frequency, the bounce rate has improved (readers stick around to read additional posts), and some of the older articles continue to receive comments. Most of those blogs have removed the dates from their posts and their article URLS.

I am currently experimenting with a ‘no date’ on this blog and my traffic and bounce rate has improved so I will probably keep it. I have other blogs where it definitely would not work.

Whether it is a good idea for your blog or not depends upon your content. If your content usually revolves around subjects and issues that are timely in nature like current events, new tech reviews, political news, and prayer requests than the traditional dating is important to the content and should be maintained.

On the other hand, if you are doing Bible studies, apologetics, answering Bible questions, or talking about writing and language than dating might not be necessary since the info is somewhat timeless in nature. The one great advantage is that older posts receive more attention.

There is also a middle ground strategy that some blogs are utilizing by maintaining a general ‘no date’ system then adding a reference to the date within the content itself if the article is timely in nature.

If you publish on WordPress you will need to use the following plugin in order to publish without the traditional blog dating: Date Exclusion SEO

One thing to be aware of, if you drop the dating from your URL it will break any of the backlinks you have received for your past articles. One way to solve this problem if you use WordPress is to use the following WP plugin: Advanced Permalinks

You can use that plugin to maintain the old URLS while changing to a ‘no date’ URL for future posts.              *Top

-2012: What Really Matters

The coming of a new year is always a good time to sit down and evaluate what you’ve been doing during the past year and compare it to your goals and reasons for being on the Internet in the first place.

Right now you can find one article after another talking about 2012 and "what really matters" when it comes to blogging or social networking. Most of the articles that I have read are on the importance of SEO and commenting in building traffic for ones site in the coming year. Not a few spend some time exploring how to get traffic and attention to some of your older posts. All good ideas since traffic and visibility is important.

However, if your purpose and goals for being on the Internet revolve around bearing your testimony about Jesus and/or doing some kind of Christian ministry, then the presence of God and His Holy Spirit in all that you do and say is of primary importance. The following short video (4:22) message by Francis Chan is a good one to remind us about “what really matters” after all is said and done: 

 

Catalyst Atlanta 2011 | Francis Chan from Catalyst on Vimeo.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. –John 15:5
ESV

*Hat Tip: GMO Blog               *Top

-Top Posts of 2011

Here’s our top posts of 2011 based upon traffic and comments:

1.  -Top Christian Blogs Fall 2011

2.  -What is Google ‘Panda’ Looking For?

3.  -Ten Common Grammar Errors That Plague The Web

4.  -10 Online Behaviors That Christians Should Avoid

5.  -St. Pixels, New Online 3D Church on Facebook

6.  -Re: The New Google +1 Button

7.  -The Importance and Effects of Colors

8.  -Responding in Love to Difficult Comments

9.  -After 5 Years of Blogging Here’s What I’ve learned

10.  -The Digital Reformation: The Internet is Bringing a Paradigm Shift in Evangelism

-Happy New Year 2012

May God Bless you and yours during this new year.

With the new year, many want to improve their lives in 2012. One of the best ways to do that is to read the Bible daily in the new year.

Several polls taken during the last year have unfortunately demonstrated that American Christians are somewhat illiterate when it comes to the Bible and particularly Biblical teachings. One good way to reverse the trend is to set aside time to read the good book everyday. An excellent idea is to read through the whole Bible or at least the New Testament during 2011. There are a number of good programs to help you in the process.

One of the easiest ways to get it done is to get a ‘One Year Bible’ where the whole year is divided up into daily readings usually with a selection from the New Testament, the Old Testament, and from Psalms. You can even get it in your favorite version at the book store or at Amazon.

If you find that reading all of it in one year is maybe too much, then you could read just the New Testament and Psalm offerings for each day and then maybe save the Old Testament or the following year (or visa versa).

There are also a number of good plans available that allow you to use your regular Bible for the reading. Here’s a few online: The One year Bible Online, Bible Year-eSword, Bible Gateway

You could also get the Bible on CD or tape and listen to it on the way to work this year or download it into your iPod, iPhone or MP3: iTunes, Apps me now

There are lots more Bible helps available just search online.

May God Bless us all in 2012.               *Top