Social Media Church hosted its first live recording with Paul Steinbrueck, Founder of OurChurch.com – a Christian web company – an elder at Cypress Meadow Community Church, and blogger at Christian Web Trends among many other things too. This special episode of Social Media Church was recorded live on Google+ Hangout on Air before a live online audience. The topic revolved around how can pastors use social media more effectively with limited time. And we also made time for interactive Q&A with the audience.
By the way, do you know any church with a full-time Social Media Director on staff?
Show Notes
Connect with Paul Steinbrueck on Twitter @PaulSteinbrueck, and in addition to blogging at Christian Web Trends, he also has a personal blog at liveintentionally.org
#blog Christian Web Trends posts related to church social media:
7 Practical Steps to Getting Started in Social Media
18 Ways Pastors Can Ruin their Reputation on Facebook
What is a Virtual Street Team?
#video watch the raw video of this conversation with Paul Steinbrueck and DJ Chuang
This episode of Social Media Church features a conversation with Peter Guirguis, the Social Media Manager of Calvary Chapel South Bay. We talk about his passion for online ministry, how to share the Gospel online, and how to get thousands of Twitter followers, how often he does Twitter hygiene, and more.
Show Notes
Connect with Peter Guirguis on Twitter @petenaotg and his blog notashamedofthegospel.com
Get the (free) Guide to Getting Thousands of Twitter Followers
ManageFlitter.com – handy dandy Twitter followers manager
#article Pastor Rick Warren takes to social media to mourn son’s suicide (mobile version)
Contribute to The Matthew Warren Fund for Mental Health
Follow on Twitter – Pastor Rick Warren @RickWarren and Kay Warren @KayWarren1
This episode of Social Media Church features a presentation (excerpted with permission) courtesy of The Gathering, a community of givers for Christian philanthropy. During The Gathering National Conference 2011, Bobby Gruenewald shared the history of YouVersion during a breakout session. Bobby Gruenewald serves as Pastor, Innovation Leader at LifeChurch.tv, and is the founder of the YouVersion. He was also listed in the Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business 2011.
Show Notes
Get the Bible app at bible.com or youversion.com, read the YouVersion blog blog.youversion.com for the latest news and updates, and follow @YouVersion on Twitter
#article The Next Bible (The Daily Beast, 03/12/13)
#video TEDxOU – Bobby Gruenewald – The Responsibility of Technology
#video The Bible In a Technological Age by Bobby Gruenewald at Q Portland 2011
#chapter The Engagement Economy (Bobby Gruenewald, YouVersion) in Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto, edited by Hugh McGuire and Brian O’Leary
#news Bible.com joins the YouVersion family! (8/30/12)
#episodes of Social Media Church with others at LifeChurch.tv: Dana Byers, Alan George, Brandon Donaldson
Follow Dana Byers’ blogger trip with Lemonade International April 14-18, 2013
List of Churches with Innovation Pastors (@ djchuang.com)
#dashboard now.youversion.com Today in the YouVersion Community – current statistics about the Bible app
On this episode, listen to DJ Chuang share the back story of how the Social Media Church podcast came into existence — how I decided on the content and program format, what are the technologies and software used, and my lessons learned.
Show Notes
Selected Episodes
Top 5 Most Downloaded Episodes (to date)
The Social Media Church podcast is a weekly conversation with church leaders about social media. On this episode, we break from the typical conversation and open the floor for host DJ Chuang to describe the key ingredients that go into making a podcast so you can think through the preparation for the podcast you should be producing.
Show Notes
Connect with DJ Chuang at djchuang.com, on Twitter @djchuang, facebook.com/djchuang
my List of Christian podcasts that aren’t sermons
5 Podcast Ideas to Connect to an Online Audience
Facebook Groups: Online ministry & church practitioners, Social Media for Churches
Google+ Community: Social Media in the Church, Church Tech
Podcast Resources
Podcast Hosting
Podcasting Buzz
#aside Lon Solomon’s NOT A SERMON, JUST A THOUGHT sixty-second messages based on real-life issues, broadcast throughout the Washington D.C. metro area — [ed.note: and ought to setup a podcast feed to increase distribution]
Elwood Matthews is Online Pastor at Zion Church in the metro Washington DC area. Listen to this episode of Social Media Church to hear about how their church launched its iCampus, how they make it a meaningful online worship experience, and what they’re exploring next.
Show Notes
Connect with Elwood Matthews on Twitter @elwoodmatthews
This episode of Social Media Church features a conversation with Dr. Tim Hutchings, currently a research fellow in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University and editor of the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture. Tim discusses learnings and insights from rigorous academic research about online churches, what kind of people worship online, explores whether online relationships are real or not, and much much more.
Show Notes
Connect with Dr. Tim Hutchings on Twitter @tim_hutchings
Participate in Tim’s current project, CyberBibles: New Media and Sacred Text. If you’ve tried using digital media to help you read the Bible, please fill out this survey – and encourage your friends to do the same. This survey is part of a new research project that aims to find out how digital media are changing Christian attitudes to Scripture. If you have ever read the Bible on a computer screen, listened to it on your MP3 player, joined an online reading group or downloaded a Bible app to your mobile phone, fill out the survey. Learn more about this research project.
Tim contributes to the Big Bible Project blog, i.e. Cyberchurch Theology (part one of, um, more than one), Cyberchurch Theology, Part Two: The Problem With Community, How Not to do Online Evangelism
Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture – a free online publication
“Considering religious community through online churches” published in Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds by Heidi Campbell (Routledge, 2012) – features a case study of St. Pixels (Church on the Internet) and LifeChurch.tv
Creating Church Online: Ritual, Community, and New Media by Tim Hutchings – to be published May 2013 by Routledge, based on his Ph.D. research, an ethnographic study of five Christian communities that met online, using new media to create forms of worship, teaching, evangelism and debate. The study focused on ritual, authority, community and the relationship between online and offline activity.
“Creating Church Online: Networks and Collectives in Contemporary Christianity” (by Tim Hutchings) is published in “Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures”, ed. Pauline Hope Cheong, Peter Fischer-Nielsen, Stefan Gelfgren and Charles Ess (Peter Lang, 2012)
#excerpt Creating church online: A case-study approach to religious experience, in Studies in World Christianity 13(3) (2008)
Scholar’s Top 5: Tim Hutchings’ 5 recommended resources on the topic of online Christian churches
This episode of Social Media Church features a conversation with Rey Lopez, the Online Campus Pastor at City Church (San Antonio, Texas), and that’s just one of three hats that he wears. Pastor Rey talks about how City Church launched its Online Campus, while in the whirlwind of being in a fast-growing church, how they’re navigating key issues of doing church online, using Google Grant, and more.
Show Notes
This Social Media Church episodes features a conversation with Christian Warne, founder and co-host of The Spoutcast, a weekly podcast show hosted by Christian Warne, Sarah Welles and Jayne Fossett at The Well Community Church in Fresno, California. You may have noticed that a large overwhelming majority of church podcasts are just an on-demand feed of sermons. Podcasting has the potential to be so much more for churches and The Spoutcast is a great example of how a church of any size can be podcasting to grow its community. Listen to how they started their podcast, what it takes to do one, and Christian’s advice for how your church can start one too.
Show Notes
Connect with The Spoutcast on Facebook, on Twitter @thespoutcast, and Instagram @ instagram.com/thespoutcast
Connect with Christian Warne at facebook.com/christian.warne
#photo to the right illustrates the kind of teamwork that it takes for producing The Spoutcast
#list List of Christian podcasts that aren’t sermons (@ djchuang.com)
#news One of Fresno’s biggest churches is covered in graffiti (KFSN-TV, July 2012)
Start podcasting your sermons for free at sermon.net or grow into it with a “freemium” service like sermoncloud.com orsermondrop.com
On this episode of the Social Media Church, DJ Chuang chats with 2 friends he’s known for years, Brent Wong and Dave Ingland, having connected with them offline (aka IRL – “in real life”) and online. Brent shares how he recently got inspired to get active on social media, and Dave describes his unique perspective in using social media as a church planter and now as a law-abiding citizen.
Show Notes
Connect with Brent Wong on Twitter @EpicBdub and Facebook page for Brent + Leila Wong and YouTube youtube.com/BrentWong77
#video a 5th generation Asian American story
Connect with Dave Ingland at daveingland.com and on Twitter @daveingland
#book The Big Book of Social Media: Case Studies, Stories, Perspectives, edited by Robert Fine, includes “Religion and Social Media” by Dave Ingland
#audio MinistryStory #18 – Cultivate Communications – a conversation with Steve Fogg, Scott Overpeck, Dave Ingland, and DJ Chuang at a Starbucks during Cultivate 2011
This Social Media Church episode features a conversation with Justin Wise, Communications Director for Monk Development, an internet technology company. We learn about his past experience as a digital director at Lutheran Church of Hope (Des Moines, Iowa), how he launched an Internet Campus for a Lutheran church, and his keen insights about social media, generations, communications, and theology. True to form, Martin Luther makes a cameo.
Justin was a previous Executive Director for the Center for Church Communication and a contributor to the multi-author book Outspoken: Conversations on Church Communication in which I (DJ Chuang) also contributed.
Show Notes
Connect with Justin Wise at justinwise.net and on Twitter @JustinWise
Justin Wise’s book announcement for his new book, tentatively sub-titled: A Theology of Digital Communication
What would you give as a title for Justin’s book? Add a comment, and let’s crowdsource the book title right here! I can’t guarantee it, but maybe the winning title will get a free copy of the book and a shout-out (at the very least…)
#extra: DJ Chuang’s February is Fundraising campaign; Orange County Register article, “O.C. exports Asian American churches to the world”
[update April 2013] Justin Wise launched his podcast #THINKDIGITAL
Listen to this Social Media Church podcast conversation with Todd Rhoades about how he curates interesting content about the church, his perspective on the evolution of social media, how email is still relevant, online conferences at Leadership Network, why social media is underutilized in local churches, and more. Todd is the Director of New Media and Technology Initiatives at Leadership Network. Todd’s blog has been described as “one half Bible and one half National Enquirer.”
Show Notes
Connect with Todd Rhoades at ToddRhoades.com and @ToddRhoades on Twitter
List of most popular Facebook pages of churches and ministries
#video MinistryBriefing: Facebook Makes You Hate Life with Todd Rhoades and Matt Steen
#article Study finds rampant envy on Facebook: Social network can lead to feelings of misery and loneliness, German researchers say(Chicago Tribune)
#article Why Facebook Makes You Feel Bad About Yourself (TIME Health & Family)
Listen to how social media was integrated into the Urbana 12 conference with Adam Jeske, who directed and coordinated the 14-member Social Media Squad at the Urbana Missions Conference to actively engaged 16,000+ participants along with others off-site via a livestream video feed and other social feeds too — nearly 40,000 tweets on the event hashtag (#u12), 6,400+ photos posted on Twitter and Instagram, 10,000+ viewers on the livestream. I (host DJ Chuang) got to serve on that Social Media Squad too, and wanted you to hear first-hand from the mastermind that orchestrated it all.
Adam is the Director of New Media and Associate Director of Communications at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
Show Notes
Connect with Adam Jeske at his blog executingideas.com + on Twitter @adamjeske + on Facebook facebook.com/adam.jeske
Tweeting for Jesus with 16,000 Friends: Urbana Social Media – Adam Jeske’s reflections
How Urbana 12 Changed My Life Too – DJ Chuang’s reflections
Urbana 2012: Social Media Engagement Future of Christian Conferences? (The Christian Post)
Social media major part of Urbana 12 (Mission Network News)
#audio NPR What’s Trending: The Art And Strategy Of The Hashtag – starting at 12:20, listen to our #u12 Social Media Squad member Alison Smith talk about hashtag #u12 and Urbana 12
From the Urbana 12 Live Blog: How Urbana 12 Changed Lives + Power of Prayer powered by Storify.com
GroupMe – group texting app we used as our team back-channel for real-time communication
#article The Biblical Basis for Fun (Relevant Magazine)
#book This Ordinary Adventure: Settling Down Without Settling by Christine & Adam Jeske
This episode of the Social Media Church podcast features a conversation with Dr. Meredith Gould, the founder and host of the Twitter-based ecumenical Church Social Media Chat using hashtag #ChSocM. Listen to the back story of how this Tweetchat has flourished over the past year and a half, becoming the go-to place on Twitter for conversations about church and social media.
Show Notes
Connect with Meredith Gould at meredithgould.com + her blog http://meredithgould.blogspot.com + on Twitter @meredithgould
Join the #ChSocM Tweetchat on Tuesdays at 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT (or via twubs.com/chsocm)
#ChSocM transcripts at churchsocmed.blogspot.com
Tweetchat Church Social Media #CHSOCM – An easy-peasy guide created by Meredith Gould
Select books by Meredith Gould — The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today and Getting #Married: Using Social Media
‘Hashtag’ Declared 2012’s Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society
Social Media in Church: Tips from Meredith Gould – ROAR.pro blog interview
Dana Byers is our first special guest in 2013 on the Social Media Church podcast, and she shares about her top learnings from years of experience in doing online ministry globally with Blue Door Ministries, as well as her ministry as Online Community Pastor atLifeChurch.tv.
Show Notes
Connect with Dana Byers on Twitter @danalbyers and her blog danabyers.com
Dana Byers authored The Art of Online Ministry (a Kindle eBook)
#blog: How Urbana 12 Changed my Life too (djchuang.com)
Previous episodes of Social Media Church with LifeChurch.tv: Episode 14 with Alan George, Episode 10 with Brandon Donaldson
#video: 3 Online Ministry Indicators Dana’s observations from successful online ministries
#podcast: Dana Byers shared key insights to minimalism on the Beyond the To Do List podcast
#video: watch the raw video of this conversation with Dana Byers and DJ Chuang