"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe" - Winston Churchill
ASK THE PLANET - VIA YAHOO
The new Yahoo Answers site has characteristics of both chat rooms and bulletin boards. It allows anyone to post a question about anything, so that others can answer it. It is very easy to use - you just need a Yahoo ID and then sign up for the Answers system. There are many questions in the religious section which give you the opportunity to provide a sensitive, relevant, biblical answer. But you will also see questions in many other subject areas which allow you to sensitively share a Christian worldview in a non-preachy way. For instance, there are frequent questions about movies which enable us to draw out Christian parallels, in the way that HollywoodJesus.com and MovieGlimpe.com do. And personal needs and worries are often posted in various subject areas. Answers posted at Yahoo Answers do not necessarily develop into discussion and feedback - though this is possible and those who posted the question can contact you privately. Because of the popularity of the site, your answers are likely to be viewed by large numbers of people.
You can even make Yahoo Answers your browser homepage (or desktop shortcut) - then you can skim through current questions any time you have a few spare minutes.
http://answers.yahoo.com/
CYBERMISSIONS COURSE STARTS JULY
This year's Cybermissions online training courses for web evangelism start in July. There are three separate modules, each of six weeks:
Cyber 101 - Theory of Cybermissions July 17th 2006
Cyber 102 - Practice of Cybermissions September 18th 2006
Cyber 103 - Community Computer Center (Internet Cafe) Ministry September 18th 2006
These in-depth courses are ideal for anyone involved in web ministry, or who wishes to be. Sign up now. You will not regret it.
http://cybermissions.org/training/
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
CROWS HACK INTO THE INTERNEST: in Tokyo, there is nothing that crows like better than pecking broadband fiber optic cable:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2225937,00.html
SOME INTEGRITY LEFT! Gratifying to hear actress Billy Piper (who has achieved acclaim in the latest Dr Who series as Rose Tyler, from which her demise is imminent) say that she wants not a penny from millionaire ex-husband Chris Evans. And also nice to know that actress Koo Stark, girl-friend of Prince Andrew before his marriage, has resolutely refused to sell any kiss-and-tell story to the tabloid newspapers for megabucks, and remains friends of the family.
EasyChinese Bible Stories - site being developed:
http://www.gng.org.cn/
COMMUNICATING WELL
STORIES. Two-thirds of our world are oral communicators. That's 4 billion people who can't, don't or won't read or communicate by literate means! Ironically, 90% of all Christian ministry today occurs through literate communication styles! One of the major developments in recent years has been an understanding of orality. And it is not just the non-western world. Many people in the west do not, in practice, read very much, and are much more comfortable to receive most of their information through spoken and visual communication:
http://story4all.com/
TOTAL RECALL - Staying Faithful by Being Relevant:
"I had my eye on Arnold Schwarzenegger as I travelled by bus from Singapore to Thailand in the summer of 1994..."
http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives/365
Top 10 Ways Technology Is Changing Ministry Communication:
http://ccmag.gospelcom.net/0606/0606musicandmultimedia.pd
PLANNING A WEBSITE
Before you begin to plan a website of any sort, be it outreach, ministry, or secular, there are some crucial questions you must ask. Use our printable worksheet to help you:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/starting.php
JESUS FILM BY PODCAST
The Jesus Film team say, "When God provides a tool of technology, we should use it! Certainly, Satan will. So, why shouldn't the Church grasp this new tool - especially when we can use it to reach our families and friends?
That's why we are now making "JESUS" available through podcasting. By downloading "JESUS" to portable electronic devices, like video iPods®, anyone with access to the Internet can experience the power of "JESUS" anywhere they go.
It's also the perfect way to reach teens you know who are glued to their iPods! And, they can view or listen to "JESUS" (currently available in segments for podcasting) with one of the popular music/video software programs at no cost."
http://www.jesusfilm.org/podcasting/02.html
CULTURE CONNECT
All You Need Is Love - a Beatles quiz by Christian culture-watch guy David Buckna:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06060117.htm
DAMARIS - if you need to understand more about connecting with the culture, check the tri-lingual Damaris site and subscribe to their newsletter:
http://www.damaris.org/
ST PIXELS
Shipoffools.com's online church is to re-open as 'St Pixels'. John Wesley, Methodism's 18th century founder, said: "The world is my parish." Now, 300 years later that 'parish' includes cyberspace as well. Wesley may not have been able to predict the phenomenon, but two years after the virtual doors swung shut on the world's first online 3D church, a new worshipping community, St Pixels, officially re-opens this week - with plans to go 3D in the autumn:
http://www.thegoodnews.co.uk/regionFeaturesstory.asp?id=862
USING PHOTOGRAPHY TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS
by Connie Wragge
There are many ways to witness. You meet someone, and God starts up a conversation with a thread of commonality that leads you to share a slice of your life. For Christians, it is nearly impossible to talk about our lives apart from God's influence and the changes He has brought as we have yielded our wills to His Will. Our words flow naturally.
With the explosive use of the Internet, sharing God's Good News results in a much greater per person impact in that every day a global audience logs onto all kinds of websites. And while these people use the Internet for different reasons, website owners do not know much about them because their identities are concealed. What are people reading when they come to a Christian website? Is there information there that God can use to intrigue them about His Love? More importantly, is the information presented with an easy-to-understand message and one that captivates web visitors long enough so that the Holy Spirit can begin to work?
In light of the technology that is accessible by so many, the more we leverage its use the greater the impact we will have. Herein lies a vast opportunity to be creative.
At first, the use of photography may appear to be an unusual way to connect people to God's Good News. Yet when God oversaw the building of the PhotoMission website, His Spirit guided us to link an enlarged view of the photographs to the testimonies of the photographers who took them... and a witnessing aspect that is genuine and non-threatening is the result.
Someone once said, "No one can argue with what God has done in your life." The people with whom we share God's Good News may take issue with everything else we employ to explain that God loves them and has a plan for their life, yet a personal encounter with Jesus is our story. The appearance of a testimony on a website is like holding a microphone with worldwide amplification.
Web pages with mission statements offer a second opportunity to explain the Gospel. By including links to evangelical resources and tracts that graphically convey the plan of salvation, website owners enable web visitors from around the world to access information that can have a lasting and eternal impact.
In 2 Timothy 1:7 we read: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." As we seek to create Christian web pages with broad global application, God will use them to accomplish His purposes.
Connie Wragge is the ministry leader of PhotoMission, a visual arts ministry that affirms the truth of John 14:6 through the testimonies of its members that are posted online. Currently, PhotoMission is represented by 144 Christian photographers living in 23 countries. The ministry uses the letters in the word 'camera' to present the message of the Gospel; and the website includes links to tracts provided by The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Campus Crusade for Christ.
http://www.photomission.com/
TAILEND ô¿ô
Cards offering used textbooks for sale are posted on the college notice board at the beginning of each semester. One read: "Introduction to Psychology, never used." The card was signed, "Must sell."
The next day a note had been added: "Good price. Are you sure it's never been used?" Signed, "Prospective buyer."
Below in a different hand was: "Positive!" Signed, "Professor who graded his exam."
[Source: 'You make me laugh' crosswalk.com ]
Here's an online version of throwing a bottle into the sea. You can send a general message, or a specific message to a named person. Why not try sending a non-preachy, thought-provoking insight that would be appropriate for non-yet Christians? Or something nice to a friend.
http://www.oceangram.com/
I planted some birdseed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.
I had amnesia once - or twice.
I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what?
Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.
They told me I was gullible and I believed them.
Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and when he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto a freeway.
Two can live as cheaply as one, for half as long.
Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people.
If the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.
