Comments on: 2009: The year the Church better get mobile!

By: Marie Preston

Marie Preston — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:50:26 +0000

We do a lot of work with Chrisntian communities and provide a mobile service to them. There is a rapid growth in mobile users and a great way for people to stay connected with the church whilst on the move.
Take a look at our website for some examples of our work.

By: Is your message mobile? at neoLeader

Is your message mobile? at neoLeader — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:04:10 +0000

[...] is passionate about this and wants to give you a quick mobile education, reasons why the church must go mobile, and a headstart in making your church website [...]

By: The iPhone Church - Is This the Year? - ChurchCrunch

The iPhone Church - Is This the Year? - ChurchCrunch — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:46:43 +0000

[...] a few think that 2009 is the year of the Church going Mobile. I’m not so [...]

By: Janne E

Janne E — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:36:33 +0000

Funny thing… I don’t argue whether we finns invented SMS messaging (you see Nokia is finnish), but I asked God if He knew any good way to use the SMS.

It came to my mind that you could fit a good bible verse into 160 characters (1 SMS) and send to a friend. So I just thought I’d check John 3:16 for example.

I was kinda surprised to see that in the finnish 1992 bible (first SMS was sent -92), John 3:16 is EXACTLY 160 characters long.. :)

By: Simon Bartlett

Simon Bartlett — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:53:13 +0000

…..I agree with all the above, but I council a little caution. There are so many ways to communicate in this day and age, you can get lost deciding which is best, and which to use in what situation.

The Christian Church has to adopt appropriate ways of sharing the Good News, but they have to be relevant to the community you are trying to reach. To know that, you have to know your community. To know your community, you have to be part of it.

Blanket txt messaging, and fancy Facebook groups have their place, but how well do you know the guy that lives three doors down? How does he want you to communicate with him? You have to meet him to find out.

Lets not let the communications revolution give us opportunities to be anonymous. Jesus went to the people, he didn’t send the equivalent of a 1st C txt message. Lets make sure we don’t either.

Simes in the UK

By: Take your blog mobile for free « Confessions of A Small-Church Pastor

Take your blog mobile for free « Confessions of A Small-Church Pastor — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:32:33 +0000

[...] Gruenewald of LifeChurch.tv wrote recently that 2009 is the year the church better get mobile! Here’s your chance. Get your own mobile site today for [...]

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:17:53 +0000

This is creative: Text Your Questions to the Pastor.

http://www.leadingsmart.com/leadingsmart/2009/01/text-your-question-to-the-pastor.html

By: Sean Lewis

Sean Lewis — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:37:43 +0000

Bobby, Sorry I didn’t clarify that. After having the opportunity to come down and meet a lot of your team first hand, there is no doubt that Jesus is first within your entire organization. I know one of my personal weaknesses in the past is focusing on innovation and technology so much, I sometimes can lose focus on the most important thing. Thanks for all you and the team provide.

By: Aaron Marshall

Aaron Marshall — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:30:32 +0000

My church used TextMarks to take questions during the service and througout the week. http://bit.ly/textchurch

It was very effective for interacting with the church.

I am really pumped about your mobile focus. My wife and I are moving to Africa, and suprisingly SMS is doing quite a bit there. I am trying to find ways to be involved.

By: Michael Gray

Michael Gray — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:36:08 +0000

We use text messaging in out weekend experience. For each service there is a text question at the beginning. All campuses and the web are live and are encouraged to send their answers and any questions about the topic. An AV staff compiles them and then sends them via blue tooth to the teaching pastor during the service. He reads them in the last third of the teaching. It seems to be a great connecting point for all the campuses & mobile users.

By: Kyle Black

Kyle Black — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:40:04 +0000

I agree with Brandon that texting is the only effective way to reach youth once they leave us at church and go back into the “real world.”
I have been able to start sending a daily verse via text messaging and the response has been huge. You can check out the story here. http://onelessrock.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/theyll-always-read-a-text-message/
BTW I love the YouVersion bible app for the iPhone!!

By: Bobby Gruenewald

Bobby Gruenewald — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:43:27 +0000

Great thoughts everyone!

Tom, I actually agree with you and Craig. I’m not trying to imply that EVERY (c)hurch needs to use one technology (or any for that matter). I’m saying the (C)hurch needs to start to leverage this technology because of the significant opportunity to reach this connected world. Collectively we are dropping the ball or missing the scope of the opportunity.

Sean - I thought 2008 was the year the Church had better fall in love with Jesus :). I hope everyone reading this blog knows that it’s Jesus that drives any of my motivations. If it’s not for Him…I’m wasting a whole lot time.

By: Scott Rodgers

Scott Rodgers — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:48:56 +0000

I like the idea of leveraging what people are already using. Twitter and Facebook are the two I use a lot. Both of those have mobile apps that work real well. YouVersion is fantastic too. I also like the approach of immersing the church into contemporary mediums of technology. I sure hope no one creates a ‘christian’ twitter or Facebook, etc. I have never and will never participate in a technology designed to connect people when it actually segments people.

By: Kevin Connell

Kevin Connell — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:03:56 +0000

I agree. As for the “its too expensive part”, maybe we should cut fellowship events in half and put it towards reaching OUTSIDE the church… just a thought

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:29:36 +0000

At Park (www.parkcommunitychurch.org), as Dawn mentioned above, we’ve cut back our weekly program and do a monthly program and re-purposed our budget $$ to invest in texting. We use texting to communicate announcements, church news, etc. We also use texting in service and take Q&A from the audience, live polls, etc.

By: Matty

Matty — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:40:29 +0000

I have recently found http://www.truthcasting.com as a free service for churches to host their sermon video. They just set up an iphone app in the apple app store too. Pretty cool that a small church with a video camera could easily be on your iphone within minutes of the Sunday teaching being concluded.

By: Doug Rutter

Doug Rutter — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:08:03 +0000

Very timely. I just read a post on Tim Steven’s blog about how they used Live Text to Screen from Jarbyco to do a “Ask Anything” week. We’re doing something similar at a conference we’re hosting in March.

By: Dawn Nicole Baldwin

Dawn Nicole Baldwin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:53:16 +0000

You are so right, Bobby.

To tag on Chris’ comment, I’ve been seeing a lot of churches use texting during the services as well. Granger, Park Community & Elevation Church are just a few.

http://is.gd/eCmD
http://is.gd/eCqy
http://is.gd/eCrT

By: Jared B

Jared B — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:45:07 +0000

What I do is I remind all my close friends about my LifeGroup every week using sms!

It is very effective!

By: Sean Lewis

Sean Lewis — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:44:40 +0000

2009 The year the Church falls more in love with Jesus! Why does this get put on the back burner so much. The use of technology is great, but we are so carried in being the most innovative, most technological that we are lacking our true relationships. Like Craig has said in the past, it Jesus plus nothing else. Using these platforms are great, and will always be beneficial, but lets make sure we fall more in love with Jesus first, so we can communicate that to people that do not know him.