I have a confession: I’m a certified geek pastor and make no apologies.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t happy when Facebook made live streaming available to celebrities and those with verified pages (pages with those little round, blue checkmarks right next to their names). Immediately, I Googled every possible phrase to find an alternative and found nothing except Periscope.
Recently, Facebook added the ability to live stream on Facebook Profiles, in Groups, and on Pages. So what does all this mean for churches, pastors, and church leaders who rely on Facebook to communicate with their Facebook communities? A lot!
It’s even tougher during our brutal winters. So what does a pastor to do when the temperature dips below zero, and the wind chill factor dips to double digits? Cancel service? Oh no! We’re the City of Broad Shoulders, and we don’t dare cancel services due to inclement weather.
Imagine making your sermons stick past Sunday? Imagine a proven strategy to get members and guests engaging with your messages long after Sunday. Are you interested? If so, read on.
My generation experienced the election of the first African-American President, the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, Desert Storm, Iraq War, historic government bailouts, the passing of healthcare reform, and the greatest economic downturn since The Great Depression. However, in my opinion, the greatest shifts are happening now! (more…)
In a relatively short amount of time, the Internet has moved from an occasional tool to one of the principal ways we communicate, entertain ourselves, and do work. Staying up-to-date on emails, social media and other means of online communication is a bigger time requirement than people may realize.
New research has found that the average user spends 23 hours a week emailing, texting, and using social media and other forms of online communication. Since people are already online, we decided to launch an online campus and guess what – it’s biblical.
We had our largest attendance this year. Every seat, including two overflows were filled to capacity. I believe God gave us a glimpse of how Easter 2015 will be. Therefore, we’re adding a Saturday service for our members so we can free up space for our guests attending Easter Sunday.
At Mars Hill, our theme for 2015 is People Reaching People #PRP. That means we’re encouraged to stretch ourselves and do different things to reach people. We have to be open to new ideas, take some risks as we prepare for the overflow that God is sending us.
As pastor, I am asking our members to attend our Saturday Easter service (April 4th) at 5PM. It will be very similar to our Sunday services and CHILDCARE WILL BE AVAILABLE TO ALL. It’s casual so come as you are.
If you attend Saturday’s service and will attend Easter Sunday, we ask three things of you:
Wear your Mars Hill T-shirt,
Sit in the section for Mars Hill members, and if necessary,
Be ready to give up your seat and go to the overflow or our cafe.
It’s all about reaching people this year so we have to be willing to make sacrifices.
If you are bringing guests on Easter Sunday and you need to sit with them, don’t wear a t-shirt because it is more important that our guests feel comfortable.
Easter Weekend Schedule:
Saturday, April 4, 2015
5PM – Live Worship Experience – Mars Hill Baptist Church of Chicago
5PM – **NEW Online Worship Experience** (Yep, it’s almost here)
Honestly, I do not understand why most pastors and church leaders do not leverage technology for the Glory of God. Pastors, church leaders, and faithful church attendees who see social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and LinkedIn as evil are missing a great opportunity to reach people far from God.
Are you sitting?
Here’s something that’ll blow your mind…
Christianity was, in a very real sense, the first technologically driven religion.
Not even the name of the product spoken in the ad.
One word to describe this entire ad campaign: Classy. Such a big contrast from ads with robotic space ships or trash talking the competition or the “hey mom, look what I can do” type of ads that we see from the competition.
The Lesson: Focus on the experience & tell a compelling story.
Paint a picture of what could be and what should be!
I’m trying to figure out how the church can show how life “could be” and “should be” with Jesus (John 10:10).
Goodness…they really know what they’re doing don’t they.
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Best regards,
Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.
