I have looked at a number of different sites that offer similar opportunities but this seems to be the best I’ve seen so far. They use a WordPress platform with 100’s of WP Themes and plugins available for use.

This could be ideal for a church leadership site and could include a main site with separate blogs for each pastor and leader or department. Even a forum can be hosted as part of the community.

A church women’s ministry could sponsor a community, or youth ministry, or even expanded to included regular members who would like to participate in a church blogging community. The uses could be nearly unlimited for churches and ministry groups.             *Top

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Create your own ‘social network’ for your church members, ministry, or youth group. Here’s a free service that gets it done:  Grou.ps  Or for a small fee, Ning is always a good option.

Why have your own network and not use Facebook or MySpace –after all lot’s of folks are already on those networks? It is a matter of connecting to your own group in a special way that doesn’t include a whole lot of other stuff that divert attention away from the church or group members getting to know one another better and actually sharing with one another. Also you can feature church or group activities and keep everyone informed on stuff that coming up soon.

Here’s one minister’s networking experience:

“It’s been really great getting people to create profiles, share their testimonies and post photos of church events.   We also use it to mass communicate with our members.   Many members have created their own small groups and have organized some really cool things on the network.  Most churches try to identify small group needs and invent small groups.  This social network is a great place for them to happen organically.  It definitely has been a tool to help people come together and get to know one another.”

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Here’s a link to an incredible website with the goal of bringing millions to Christ in the next 10 years. Here’s their vision and mission statement taken directly from the GodRev.com site:

“GodRev’s vision is to use the latest technology to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ worldwide, in partnership with Christian organizations and churches. Our desire is to expand our ministry to the thirty-five most-used languages on the Internet in the next ten years, exposing 250 million people to the Gospel, and helping 25 million people come to Jesus as a result of this effort.
We also want to become the top Christian content provider, in each of these languages, by using cutting edge information and communication technology. By attracting and retaining visitors, we can expose them to the best message available to mankind on or off the Internet – Jesus Christ.”

Also, check out their real-time decision page–very impressive! It shows the locations of the folks who received Jesus in the last hour or so. This site really demonstrates the power of the Internet as a tool for outreach and ministry.          *Top

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If you are hoping that your blog will reach out beyond the Christian community, one of the best ways to achieve that possibility is to write articles on subjects that a variety of people might be interested to read. In my own experience I have found that when I write movie and book reviews on my blog that I attract a diverse and even an international audience.

I woke up to this fact last year when I did a review on the movie: "The Omen", a movie I really did not like, but was talked into seeing. After putting up the review, my blog stats more than doubled and had an international audience. Soon I discovered that most of the traffic came from Google and for some inexplicable reason if you searched for a review of The Omen at the time, my review was the #1 link on page one for a week or so. Later that month I did a review on a crazy but fun comedy called "Nacho Libre" and had similar results. After that, the traffic on my Blog Movie-TV reviews page showed a permanent increase.

I have experienced similar results from writing book reviews. While most of the reviews I write are about Christian books, the greatest traffic always seems to come from the reviews that I do on popular fiction and on books about blogging. Last year I reviewed "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. I am still receiving traffic on that one.

Now how does writing a few reviews constitute some kind of outreach? People who visit new blogs often sample several articles. By increasing the numbers and diversity of those visiting a blog, the potential for influence, outreach, and real ministry is increased exponentially. If visitors like what they read they might even subscribe to your feed and become regulars.              *Top

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Take a look at the possible uses for groups. Also view the introductory video and more.

The site could also be used as a tool for special project planning. Small groups or committees involved in planning a church dinner or special event, a ministry trip, an outreach project, a vacation Bible School, or etc. It could facilitate sharing information back and forth with progress reports available to all in the group without having to come together for the dreaded meetings which always seem to last forever.               *Top

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