There will always be print media.

This may be a harsh reality to accept for those who dream of a paperless world, but it is true. The unique, tangible qualities of words on paper will always have their place.

But digital communication is becoming more popular, and as it does, you can expect that the best ways for your church to communicate with your congregation and community will change.

According to the New York Times, newspaper circulation is falling sharply. As the chart below shows, circulation is down for many large American newspapers. And it is not just a small dip. The nation’s daily newspaper subscriptions have dropped from 63.3 million in 1984 to 43.7 million this year. Their readers are migrating to the Internet for news, and the industry must adjust to keep reaching them.

So what does this mean for the church? The Internet is more important than ever for a church to be able to communicate with its members and reach its community. And it is not just about having a church website. Email is a great way to save direct mail and bulletin costs while communicating via a medium that is increasingly becoming preferred. I have heard of some churches comepletely replacing bulletins with emails, and others have simplified their bulletins to one-sided cards primarily with information for first-time visitors.

It is probably not the right move for every church, but for many, online is a great way to reach more people, save money, and communicate more effectively.

Special thanks to Three Minds for highlighting the article.

Robert Passikoff of Chief Marketer has seven branding and marketing trends for 2007:

1. An ongoing emphasis on “engagement.”
2. More reliance on consumer-generated content.
3. More, more branded entertainment.
4. Media planning will become more “touch point” focused.
5. Using technology and engagement to better communicate with consumer expectations.
6. Expanding the potential of Websites, blogs, and the digital world.
7. Innovation and loyalty will matter more.

To roughly sum up these trends into four rules, leading edge secular marketers will be focusing on:

1. reaching people on more personal/relevant levels,
2. creating mutual interaction and relationships when possible,
3. integrating their organization’s branding/core values through every touch point they have with people,
4. and using technology and creativity to reach people in more memorable and powerful ways.

The organizations, including churches, that will be able to follow these four rules will be more sought after and preferred over those who don’t.

Study Guides and Strategies has eight good tips on how to think like a genius -

1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
   Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.
2. Visualize!
   When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
   Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many “bad” ones. They weren’t afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
   The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
   Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.
6. Think in opposites.
   Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
7. Think metaphorically.
   Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.
   Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question “Why have I failed?”, but rather “What have I done?”

Special thanks to Lifehacker for sharing the tips.

In ministry, it is important to understand your audience. Just like missionaries must learn another culture, youth ministers must learn and stay current on youth culture. The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently surveyed teenagers 12 to 17 years to learn the scope of their technology usage. Here is what they discovered:

Internet Usage

• 87% of U.S. teens aged 12-17 use the internet, up from 73% in 2000.
• 51% of teenage internet users say they go online on a daily basis, up from 42% in 2000.
• 13% of American teenagers - or about 3 million people - still do not use the internet.

What They Do

• 89% send or read email.
• 84% go to websites about movies, TV shows, music groups, or sports stars they are interested in.
• 81% play online games.
• 76% go online to get news or information about current events.
• 75% send or receive instant messages.
• 57% go online to get information about a college, university, or other school they are thinking about attending.
• 55% look for news or information about politics and the presidential campaign.
• 43% buy things online, such as books, clothing, or music.
• 38% send or receive text messages using a cell phone.
• 31% look for health, dieting, or physical fitness information online.
• 30% look for information about a job online.
• 26% look for religious or spiritual information online.
• 22% look for information online about a health topic that’s hard to talk about, like drug use, sex health, or depression.

Ownership

• 84% report owning at least one personal media device: a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
• 44% say they have two or more devices.
• 16% report that they do not have any of these devices at all.
• 12% have three.
• 2% report having all four of those types of devices.

Preferred Communication

• 51% of online teens usually choose the landline telephone when they want to talk with friends.
• 24% said they will most often use instant messaging.
• 12% prefer to call friends on their cell phone.
  — 45% of teens own a cell phone.
• 5% use email most often to communicate with friends.
• 3% prefer to use text messages.

Where They Surf

• 78% of online teens say they have gone online from school, up from 64% in 2000.
• 73% of home teen users go online from a computer located in an open family area.
• 54% of online teens say they have gone online at the library, up from 36% who reported this in 2000.
• 26% of teens who go online from home do so from a private area like a bedroom.

Bert Decker of Decker Communications recently attended a conference with Rick Warren as a speaker and, in a recent blog post, shares the following nuggets and observations about Warren’s lecture:

• Owning The Space - Rick Warren just “is.” He never postures, does not give a speech in the usual sense, and has no affectations (except often wearing Hawaiian shirts, but it was a polo shirt this time.)  He just communicates and goes where the spirit leads him. (While being extremely focused.) For example, when he was introduced he immediately said, “It’s such a beautiful day it’s a shame to waste it - let’s take our chairs and go outside (next to the ocean.)” And 150 men picked up their chairs and sat in the sun and listened (with awe) to Rick speak without a microphone. (He has a great, natural, strong voice by the way.)
• Celebrities vs. Heroes - Rick said we need fewer celebrities and more heroes. Celebrities sacrifice to gain success for themselves. Heroes sacrifice for others.
• Get a Coach - He said you’ll never get so successful that you don’t need a coach. No successful person would think of not having a coach. (Look at athletes - all the pros have coaches, and they also get video feedback!) He also mentioned three coaches he has, who are his mentors. Everyone should have a mentor and be a mentor.
• Quotes - Einstein said (paraphrased,) “You can be brilliant, but if you can’t explain it simply, it doesn’t matter how brilliant you are.” And Alvin Toffler, “In a world of rapid change people need islands of stability.”
• Focus - The secret of a successful life is focus.
• Persistence - A mushroom grows to maturity in 6 hours. An oak grows to maturity in 60 years. What do you want to be, a mushroom or an oak?
• Also - no notes, no PowerPoints - but he kept everyone in rapt attention for two hours.

Ministry is a privilege that comes with a heightened level of accountability. To help you avoid compromising situations, consider the following five rules from Christianity Today:

1. I will not, under any circumstances, ride alone in a car with a female other than my wife or an immediate family member.
2. I do not counsel a woman in a closed room or more than once.
3. I do not stay alone in a hotel overnight.
4. I speak often and publicly of my affection for my wife, when she’s present and when she’s not.
   Marriages that are failing often become silent in public before they become loudly negative. If a pastor neglects publicly affirming his wife, it may reveal a private deterioration of that relationship.
5. Compliment the character or the conduct, not the coiffure or the clothing.

These are five great examples of rules that you should have for yourself to help keep you morally accountable. You don’t have to use these same rules, but be sure that you establish some guidelines of conduct.

What rules would you add to the list?

Ryan Heneise of Art of Mission is conducting a survey to discover what exactly goes into a great church website. In his words:

The survey is intended to measure respondents’ perceptions of the Web, church websites in general, and their church’s website in particular.

So if you are involved with your church’s website, check out the details of the survey. If you get twenty or more people from your church to complete the survey, Art of Mission can prepare a statistical analysis of your church’s website, showing where it excels and where it fails.

For all you pastors and evangelists who rack up miles on year car each year for the sake of ministry, I have good news for you. The IRS has announced that as of January 1, 2007, the standard mileage rate for business purposes will be raised to 48.5 cents per mile.

And for the church volunteers, the mileage rate for charitable service purposes will remain unchanged at 14 cents per mile.

Log your miles. Enjoy the savings.