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Here is a summary from my second session at the Internet Ministry Conference called “Tailored Internet Ministry.”

Ministry is exciting. I am excited and passionate about my own calling. And I get excited about other’s success stories as they pursue their own callings.

Yet with all of the excitement, I must be careful that my feelings do not make me think that what works for another ministry will automatically work for my ministry.

Just because someone else’s calling is exciting, does not mean that I should make their calling my calling.

I think we all can agree with that statement.

But unfortunately, this copying mindset often plagues ministries. I see too many churches and too many ministries pursuing the exciting, the successful, the cool, the hyped, the trendy, and any other shiny thing that catches their eye rather than pursuing something that is more aligned with their calling.

Copying is not a cure-all solution. Copying makes people say,

If we could just be like…

If our website was just like…

If our marketing was just like…

UNIQUE CALLINGS

Although there may be ministries similar to yours, keep in mind that there is no ministry that is an exact copy of your ministry. No other ministry has the same calling as your ministry. Your calling is a unique formula of your passions, gifts, values, abilities, timing, place, and people you will reach.

As 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 explains, we each have our own unique mission, our own unique role to play in the Body of Christ.

Imagine if your foot started doing the hand’s job. In the big picture, the master plan would fail because each part of the body has a specific function.

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
1 Peter 4:10

It does not say use someone else’s gift. It says use your gift.

3 REASONS NOT TO COPY

1. Copying limits you from reaching your full potential.
   If you are copying, your methods are not customized to your ministry’s unique context, and consequently, you will fall short of your full potential.
2. Copying can misguide you to someone else’s mission.
   Whether copying a church or a corporation, copying will likely give you the results for their mission. Copying something that you do not understand the reasoning behind is dangerous because you make be achieving the opposite of what you hope to achieve.
3. It may no longer work.
   (1) It may be oversaturated. If everybody is doing it, people have probably become desensitized to it. Oversaturated methods are just clutter and noise.
   (2) It may be obsolete. Because intersecting cultures create innovation which creates communication breakthroughs which creates more cultures and speeds up the evolution of cultures, what used to work may no longer work because it could be obsolete.

COPYING VS. TAILORING

Inspiration is good. But it is what you do with inspiration that matters.

You can copy what inspires you.
You can tailor what inspires you.

Some things can not be tailored. You need to understand the science behind things in order to know if it can be tailored to your ministry.

8 STEPS FOR TAILORING YOUR MINISTRY

1. Write your mission down.
2. Review your mission.
3. Study who God has called you to reach. (science of culture)
4. Determine the best ways to reach them. (science of methods)
5. Do it.
6. Reevaluate.
7. Tweak.
8. Repeat.

For more thoughts about Internet ministry, see the notes from my first session - “All You Need to Know About Internet Ministry Marketing in 72 Questions.”

Flamingo Road Church (Cooper City, FL) hosts a leadership podcast called “Potential Podcast.” And recently, they invited me to discuss creativity, relevance, and more.

To hear the interview, you can use their blog’s media player or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

Here is the outline from my first session at the Internet Ministry Conference. Stay tuned for the sequel to this session - “Tailored Internet Ministry.”

If you want to have great Internet marketing, ask yourself the following questions.

#1 :: How can I have great Internet marketing?

FUNDAMENTALS / BRANDING

#2 :: What is my brand?
#3 :: What is my ministry’s mission?
#4 :: What are my three most important goals?
#5 :: Who am I called to reach?
#6 :: Who are the most important audiences for me to reach?
#7 :: How do I want to be perceived by each audience?
#8 :: What is unique about my ministry?
#9 :: What are my ministry’s core values?
#10 :: If I could communicate a single message about my ministry, what would it be?

FUNDAMENTALS / BRANDING / LOGO

#11 :: Do I have a good logo?

Example: Church Relevance’s Top Church Logos

#12 :: Is my logo good looking?
#13 :: Does my logo look good in color and in black and white?
#14 :: Is my logo distinctive?
#15 :: Is my logo memorable?
#16 :: Is my logo timeless?
#17 :: Is my logo scalable
#18 :: Is my logo simple?
#19 :: Is my logo communicating my brand?

FUNDAMENTALS / MY AUDIENCE

#20 :: Do I understand the cultures I am trying to reach?

INTERNET MARKETING / TYPES OF PLATFORMS

#21 :: What is my platform for Internet ministry?
#22 :: Should I use a website?

Resource: Internet Evangelism Day’s Church Website Checklist

#23 :: Should I use email?
#24 :: Should I use a blog?
#25 :: Should I use podcasting?
#26 :: Should I use a vlog, vodcasting, or video sharing?
#27 :: Should I use livecasting?
#28 :: Should I use chat rooms?
#29 :: Should I use forums?
#30 :: Should I use a wiki?
#31 :: Should I use Second Life? (virtual reality)

Example: LifeChurch.tv’s Second Life Campus

#32 :: Should I use Flickr? (picture-sharing)

Example: Church Marketing Lab

#33 :: Should I use Twitter? (microblogging)
#34 :: Should I use Facebook? (social network)
#35 :: Should I use MySpace? (social network)
#36 :: Should I use Virb? (social network)

Example: Junky Car Club

#37 :: Should I use Ning?
#38 :: Should I develop my own social network?

Example: CreativeMYK.com
Example: ROOV.com

#39 :: Should I have a mixture of Internet platforms?

INTERNET MARKETING / MY PLATFORM’S QUALITY

#40 :: Does my platform reflect my brand?
#41 :: Is my platform good looking?

Example: Church Relevance’s Top Church Websites

#42 :: Does my platform have good coding?
#43 :: Is my platform user friendly?
#44 :: Does my platform have good copywriting?
#45 :: Is my platform optimized for search engines?

INTERNET MARKETING / MARKETING YOUR PLATFORM

#46 :: How can I get people to my platform?
#47 :: Am I remarkable?
#48 :: Should I have a marketing campaign?
#49 :: Should I use advertising?
#50 :: Should I use pay-per-click advertising?
#51 :: Should I use Facebook advertising?
#52 :: Should I use free directories?
#53 :: Should I create strategic partnerships?
#54 :: Should I use email?
#55 :: Should I comment on other people’s blogs?
#56 :: Should I network on social networks?
#57 :: Should I create an e-book?

Example: Tim Schmoyer’s “130 Youth Ministry Tips and Ideas”
Example: Chris Forbes’ “Facebook for Pastors”

#58 :: Should I use press releases?
#59 :: Should I contact bloggers?
#60 :: Should I use offline communications?

INTERNET MARKETING / MEASURING SUCCESS

#61 :: Is it effective?
#62 :: Should I use StatCounter?
#63 :: Should I use Google Analytics?
#64 :: Should I use Compete?
#65 :: Should I use Crazy Egg?
#66 :: Should I use Technorati?
#67 :: Should I use FeedBurner?
#68 :: Should I use Google Alerts?

INTERNET MARKETING / THE BIG PICTURE

#69 :: What would this all look like?
#70 :: Do I need to change anything?
#71 :: Do I need to change anything?
#72 :: Do I need to change anything? (because this is a neverending question)

Gabe Lyons, co-author of unChristian, gave the Internet Ministry Conference’s first keynote about how the research might affect Internet

Ministry in general relates to mission, and mission in general relates to context. You need to understand the context of the world your ministry is trying to reach.

Non-Christians aged 16-29 years old were asked, “What is your current perception of Christianity?”

• 91% said antihomosexual
• 87% said judgmental
• 85% said hypocritical
• 78% said old-fashioned
• 75% said too involved in politics
• 72% said out of touch with reality
• 70% said insensitive to others
• 68% said boring
• 64% said not accepting of other faiths
• 61% said confusing

Which perception most closely applies to your Internet ministry or Internet persona in general?

How did we get here? Maybe we actually are these things.

MISTAKES WE HAVE MADE

1. Uncritical embrace of modernism.
   We focus too much on numbers and progress. We speed things up into a microwave mentality. Essentially, we adopt a half-story gospel (just focusing on the fall and redemption rather than the complete picture of God’s plan from creation to redemption). Christianity is not just about redeeming souls but redeeming cultures.
2. Christians separated from culture.
   We lost the culture war. Us against them is not a Christian idea. There should not be an “us” but a “we.”

How has your view of the gospel directly affected the way you do Internet ministry with others?

CONTEXT OF THE INTERNET

The medium is the message. For example, projection screens and microphones can communicate disconnect - the idea that the speaker is a celebrity, etc. In the case of the Internet, multi-tasking with numerous choices is the context.

1. The Internet is is technology adolescence.
   The Internet is still dramatically growing and evolving.
2. The Internet is a social lubricant.
   It causes people to say and do things that they would not say or do in a different context.

How do we navigate the tensions that we encounter in the Internet world?

We need to be the change we wish to create.

During May and June of 2008, the Economist Intelligence Unit asked 164 corporate executives from around the world what techniques they have found are most effective at marketing to the millennial generation (the generation born between 1982 and 2001).

How to Reach the Millennial Generation

• 41% say participate in viral marketing and peer-to-peer recommendation sites
• 36% say sponsor or advertise in areas of interest to millennials
  (e.g., extreme sports, music venues, chat rooms, social networking sites)
• 35% say deliver a great product at a great price
• 30% say focus on millennials’ key influencers
  (e.g., parents, peers)
• 28% say contribute to social causes that millennials support
• 21% say contribute to corporate or issue blogs
• 21% say message millennials through wireless text messaging
• 19% say exploit contests, promotions, and retail tie-ins
• 12% say develop online games for company website

In other words, if your church wants to reach the millennial generation, create a great church experience that is remarkable (creates word of mouth) and targets the key influencers and social catalysts of your local millennial community.

Also, show that you care about the things that they care about by sponsoring local events or participating in causes that they are passionate about. Blog about what you do and use text messaging. And be sure that you keep things fresh and fun with occasional special events, games, etc.

For Discussion:
- What techniques have you found are most effective at marketing to the millennial generation?

[via eMarketer]

The August 2008 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health shares two insightful research studies that explore how family interaction reduce teen sex and teen drug use.

Study #1: Using Sibling Differences to Estimate Effects of Parenting on Adolescent Sexual Risk Behaviors

The first study conducted by Rebekah Levine Coley of Boston College discovered that teens who regularly took part in family activities had sex less frequently, less unprotected sex, and fewer sex partners. These family activities include eating together, having fun, and doing something religious. At the same time, negative and hostile parenting increases risky sexual behavior among teens.

Negative and psychologically controlling parenting behaviors may inhibit adolescents’ development of self-efficacy and identity, interfere with mature and responsible decision making skills, and affect the development of healthy relationships, in turn leading to an elevated likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors.

Study #2: Family Meals and Substance Use: Is There a Long-Term Protective Association?

The second study conducted by Marla Eisenberg of the University of Minnesota discovered that eating family meals together significantly reduces the odds of teen girls smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. Among teen boys, no influence was found between family meals and substance use.

Middle-school female adolescents reporting at least five family meals per week were significantly less likely to report regular use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana during their high school years than their counterparts whose families did not have regular meals.

What does this mean for your church?

If you want to have a healthy youth group, encourage parents to create healthy families. Remember that some parents may not know how to do this and some parents may not have the motivation to do this. But by creating church events that are built around family interaction , your church can simultaneously encourage families to practice being a family while also giving them the opportunity to see other families in action.

For Discussion:
- What are some successful or even unsuccessful family events and programs that you have tried?

[via Reuters]

ChurchMetrics.com is a new, free church management web app that enables your to track trends within your church.

LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) created Church Metrics as a resource to help track trends in attendance, salvations, baptisms, and financial giving. And soon the free church management app will be available for any church to use at ChurchMetrics.com.

In the future, more features may be added to Church Metrics, but LifeChurch.tv wants to keep it simple and easy to use for its launch.

When it comes to short-term mission trips, often it is the lives of the missionaries that are impacted the most. The Barna Group recently published research that explores how short-term mission trips affect those who take them. Here are some highlights:

Who takes short term mission trips?

• 9% of American adults
  >> only 3.5% of American adults went in the last 5 years
• 11% of churchgoers
• 23% evangelical Christians
• 12% of Mosaics (ages 18-24)
• 9% of Busters (ages 25-43)
• 7% of Boomers (ages 44-62)
• 9% of Elders (ages 63+)

How do short-term mission trips affect those who go?

• 75% say the experience changed their life in some way
• 25% say it helped them become more aware of other people’s struggles
• 16% say it taught them more about poverty, justice, or the world
• 11% say it increased their compassion
• 9% say it enriched their faith
• 9% say it broadened their spiritual understanding
• 5% say it boosted their financial generosity

For Discussion:
- How have short-term mission trips (local, national, or international) affected your congregation?