Archive - Technology RSS Feed

Reeder for Mac – My new favorite blog reader

January 30, 2011 in Technology with 4 Comments

Reeder for Mac is my favorite new RSS feed manager. It synch’s with Google reader, it’s beautiful and it’s free! I use it constantly. I highly recommend it to stay up on your blog feed’s.

What do you use to stay up to date on blogs?

Follower count…tooting my own horn?

January 25, 2011 in Technology with 0 Comments

I upgraded to the most recent version of The Standard Theme (which I love and provide an affiliate service for) a few days ago and the brilliant dudes at 8bit added a “follower count widget”.

I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Do I put it there and say, “look I’ve got a few followers, maybe I’m worth subscribing to?” Or does it make me look a little bit too into my statistics? Humility matters in blogging right? What do you think?


But then again I don’t have 18,000 followers like John Saddington at Tentblogger does. He helped write the Standard Theme, so he probably knows what he’s doing. :)

Cru Conference on Facebook = Engagement

January 3, 2011 in Innovation, Technology with 10 Comments

An engaging Cru Conference facebook page has been a huge hit…before, during and after the conference. Darren Holland has done a great job at making it an engaging place where conversations are happening. There’s no way to prove this, but I can’t imagine conversations like the one below hurt recruiting.

Apparently giving away a free ESV Bible helps build momentum too…
What do you think?

You know you want to subscribe!

November 17, 2010 in Technology with 0 Comments

If you haven’t figured out how to subscribe to blogs, now’s the time. It’s not Jesus, but it’ll change your life.

This is a practical guide to subscribing to blogs using Google Reader by Michael Hyatt. It’s designed for novices. By the way, I recomend Google Reader because it synch’s with many of the Phone app’s out there….thus I can read blogs on the go!

Once you have Google Reader set up all you have to do is to subscribe to my blog is click the little orange icon at the top of this page, or the little blue icon in right corner of URL bar at the top of the browser. No more wasting time to check if new blog posts have been posted, now they come to you!

Because I love my readers so much I made another way you can subscribe too. If you’re not into Google Reader you can enter your email address on the top right of this page at each new blog post will magically wing it’s way to your email inbox.

Hope it helps!

Social Media in Ministry (NST 2010)

October 28, 2010 in Leadership, Technology with 6 Comments

This page was designed for the Greater Northwest New Staff training attendees on October 28, 2010 in Portland, OR.  But if you’re not a a new staff feel free to stick around. Majority of Social Media framework content is attributed to Michael Hyatt and Chris Brogan.

Social Media Revolution video that you don’t get in the slides above.

Read Blogs and get Blogging!

  • Sign up for Google reader and start subscribing (and commenting).
  • If you would like to start a free blog I recommend using wordpress.com to get started. You can always import your blogs into a different platform later if you need to.

CCC Staff Blogs worth your time:

Other favorite spiritual leadership or social media blogs:

Is there some content I missed? Was this helpful? Any feedback would be awesome. Let me know if you have any other questions and I can point you to someone smarter than me!

Bootstrapping examples

September 30, 2010 in Innovation, Technology with 2 Comments

I love harnessing technology, cutting costs and freeing our staff to do what they do best. Watch reality tv. Just kidding…I think we’re pretty good at spending time with people.

Here are two examples we’ve used recently….

1) Recently we had a volunteer vision night for the ministry in Portland. We had no paper invitation. We did everything via email, facebook and an online RSVP form made from Google doc’s (i.e. free!). We had 27 people show up to hear about how they might get involved! Awesomesauce. We spend less than $100 total (mostly on food) and we got the people that we wanted there…people that are comfortable with online technology. And more importantly our staff are connecting relationally with these people instead of making copies.

2)We advertised PDX Cru on facebook for 4 days at the start of the Portland State school year. Our staff didn’t need to run around printing promotional materials and trying to figure out how to gain permission to post things on campus. We may end up adding the paper aspect, but for now this serves us perfectly. Today the majority of students that showed up at Portland State for our first info meeting found us on Facebook. Well worth it.

What about you? Where has being forced to cut costs allowed you to be more effective and strategic?

Leverage Facebook to launch a ministry

September 26, 2010 in Technology with 0 Comments

I work for Campus Crusade for Christ. We love to talk to students about our faith. Sometimes the administration of a school doesn’t appreciate us like we think they should.

At Portland State University we don’t have access to our target audience of freshmen yet, so I took a few minutes to set up an ad that directs students to our fanpage. It’s an experiment, but the beauty is we can target PSU students specificilly.

It’s one of many strategies to reach students at PSU, and it’s not going to bring massive involvement, but it’s been fun to see a handful of connections made. (pardon the quick scribbles).


Or how about this one?

It’s fun to make Facebook profitable for ministry. Plus, we’ll only spend about $50 on ad’s.

Does your ministry use Facebook to connect with people? How?

Does being online help spiritual growth?

September 3, 2010 in Leadership, Technology with 2 Comments

Maybe I preaching to the choir when I ask that question, but I want to know! What online technology has spurred spiritual growth in you?

Examples:

  • Podcasts
  • Bible on your phone
  • Challenging articles
  • Facebook links
  • Bible study resources
  • Twitter links from spiritual leaders

Are there any specific stories you can point to where the Lord used an online resources to grow you as a follower of Christ and as a spiritual leader?

You’ll hear about one of mine on Monday, when I post on the Campus Crusade for Christ, ReThink Blogference site.

A Recruiting Method

August 19, 2010 in Innovation, Leadership, Technology with 0 Comments

Part of my job as Operations Director of the ministry in Portland, Oregon is building the necessary manpower and team to move us toward our vision of every student having a chance to hear about Christ. Below is simple tool that I just revamped that I like to talk through with graduating students and potential volunteers.

I wanted something that was simple, clear, visionary and yet gave specific enough details that a potential staff member could see themselves working here.

If they don’t live here I also show them this video…dispelling the myth that it’s miserable to live here.

We’re a little different cause we’re starting from scratch, but do you have any go to recruiting methods or tools?

Pictures are courtesy of Portlandground

Web wanderings last week.

August 9, 2010 in Innovation, Leadership, Technology with 3 Comments

Just a few items of note from the interwebs last week.

  • Social Networking icon Chris Brogan writes about his interactions with Lifechurch.tv. Authentic insight from a new perspective on internet church.
  • Campus Crusade staff member Tim Casteel wrote a great post about being able to communicate better including a short and powerful clip from Seth Godin on why blogging helps. Can’t tell you how much this post resonates with me, especially as we launch partnerships and mobalize volunteers. The ability to communicate what I do is so critical.
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