Jon Acuff, Anne Jackson, and Carlos Whittaker discussed blogging at Catalyst’s first lab. They shared their blogging journeys and answered questions. Here are the highlights:

Carlos: With my blog, there is an actual expectation from my readers that there is a real, tangible relationship.

Carlos: After four years of blogging every day, I temporarily quit blogging because suddenly my life was taking shape because of my blog rather than my blog taking shape because of my life. So what I am learning right now is how to create very safe boundaries in my life with my blog.

Jon: The devil will never attack something that you are horrible at. The devil will try to get you to ruin your story. He wants you to discount your story. He wants you to lie.

Jon: I think fame destroys more ministries than anything else right now. Reality God knows who you are, and no other acknowledgement is greater than that. God loves to pour His stories into us so that we can pour it out.

QUESTION: How do you reevaluate the balance between your blog and your family?

Carlos: I see it as a constantly evolving decision making process. All three of my kids are different. And as they are getting older, I am realizing that they are they own persons, and I can’t use them as puppets.

QUESTION: Should a youth pastor blog?

Jon: Don’t start a blog unless you have something to say. The first question needs to be “What can I give to my readers?” rather than “How can I get more readers?”

Anne: Writing is one of those things that takes time. Don’t be intimidated by the art of writing.

QUESTION: What are things you would warn against?

Carlos: Manipulating relationships online is something you can do online without even knowing it.It is probably setting the same boundaries as you would with people offline.

QUESTION: Why do you not autofollow everyone on Twitter?

Carlos: There are too many porn sites that are on Twitter, and I don’t want to follow them. Also, it takes time to answer direct messages.

Jon: I was judging the value of my self-worth as  my stats and followers rather than how God sees me.

QUESTION: How do you look at tough topics that are import to talk about but could offend affiliations?

Anne: There is a difference between a story and a testimony. Exploiting a weakness is wrong, but a testimony gives glory to God.

QUESTION: As we are learning what our story is, where should we start?

Jon: Writing is just about writing. Perfectionism says it needs to be perfect, which is crazy. Your story is like your life… it is not done. Don’t wait for it to be done before you share it. Often you audience helps guide your story.

QUESTION: How should an organization start up a blog for its brand?

Carlos: When an organization starts a blog specifically to build their brand, bloggers can smell that. But when there is a story, people listen. When there is a heart and a face to a company it goes miles.

Further Reading:
View Upcoming Church Conferences

Want a sneak peek at YouVersion Live?

A public webinar giving you a glimpse at this free tool’s capabilities will be on Wednesday, September 23rd from 2-3pm CST. Simply visit youversion.com/live to participate.

Each week MinistryCSS.com adds plenty of great ministry websites to inspire you.  Here are four of my favorite recently added church websites:

Brainerd Baptist Church

Access Church

Mission Community Church

Broadmoor Baptist Church

If you have a great looking website that you want added to this church website gallery, visit MinistryCSS.com and submit it for review.

Printed business cards are being used less and less.
And more and more of them are almost thrown away instantly once given out. People digitize most of that nowadays.

But what about a digital business card? You can email it or link to it from your printed card, which will maximize the lifespan of your contact information.

John Saddington of ChurchCrunch has released a free Digital Business Card WordPress theme for download. It’s beautiful, sleek, and highly efficient.

If you are going to have a business card, think about making it a digital one. Be sure to stop by John’s blog and thank him for giving away such goodness for free.

LifeChurch.tv’s interactive online Bible, YouVersion, is about to take the interactivity up a notch and to congregations around the world.

It’s called YouVersion Live (October 2009 launch). And it allows pastors, conference speakers, teachers, and group leaders to share content and real-time feedback on mobile devices during live events. Essentially, YouVersion Live is interactive digital message notes that allow the audience to:

• take notes and save them online
• read the Bible
• ask questions and get answers during the message
• do surveys anonymously via a YouVersion Live poll
• get extra content via blog links, YouTube videos, and other resources
• share the message with a friend
• request prayer
• give online

It is easy to create a YouVersion Live message guide. All a speaker has to do is drag and drop the features he wants to use into his template on a super-simple YouVersion Live admin area. All an audience member needs is a web-enabled phone, netbook, or laptop.

Already over 1.8 million iPhone users have YouVersion on their phone, which is equivalent to 1 in 27 iPhones. YouVersion’s rapid growth means your user base already exists. All you need to do is use YouVersion Live’s super-simple admin panel, and you can take your audience engagement to incredible new places.

YouVersion Live launches in October 2009. Until then, you can sign up for updates at YouVersion.com/live.

Further Reading:
View Upcoming Church Conferences

Something exciting is happening! More and more churches are getting great church websites.

In fact, there are so many great church website designs that it is becoming difficult to list and keep track of them all. Fortunately, MinistryCSS.com takes on that challenge beautifully. Instantaneously, it is the new top church websites list.

If you have a ministry website that looks great and was designed with XHTML/CSS (tableless), you can submit your ministry web design for free to MinistryCSS.com. All submissions are:

1. Archived with a full screen capture of the homepage.
2. Able to be rated by other MinistryCSS.com users.

In other words, over time MinistryCSS.com will become an archived gallery of the best church web designs ranked by you and other users around the world.

View it.
Contribute.
Use it.

Many consider SXSW to be the best interactive media conference in the world. You learn from minds like Guy Kawasaki and the people at Facebook and Google. Unfortunately, SXSW has had little if any church oriented content in the past.

You can change that.

You can vote for SXSW Interactive to have several church oriented sessions in 2010. Why should you have to choose between SXSW and a church media conference? Let’s merge them together! If enough of us vote, then we have a good chance of getting these church panels.

FIRST STEP
Create a free profile for voting at http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/users/register
(an email confirmation will be sent)

SECOND STEP
Vote today for the church panels by clicking the “thumbs up” icon located near the top left of the following four pages:

#1 :: Creating Authentic Online Community
>> Tony Steward, Carlos Whittaker, John Saddington, & Cynthia Ware (moderator)

#2 :: Technology For Results Not Profits
>> Bobby Gruenewald, Brad Abare, Kent Shaffer, & Terry Storch (moderator)

#3 :: LifeChurch.tv – Reaching 2 Million+ With Technology
>> Terry Storch, Tony Steward, Bobby Gruenewald, & Kent Shaffer (moderator)

#4 :: Pushing Technological Change Without Alienating Your Co-Workers
>> Kem Meyer & mystery experts

Please spread the word and help us rock the vote!

When Clover launched their church website company in May 2008, I appreciated their immediate sponsorship of Church Relevance. But more than that, I was intrigued by their premade church websites that did not look like premade websites. They were clean and beautiful.

Now 14 months later, I am simply impressed.

I see more and more church websites sporting a “Made by Clover” icon. Their content management system is outstandingly simple yet powerful. And Clover has become an active supporter of many of my favorite church blogs, conferences, and magazines.

THE PROS

• Very Low Cost
  Every Clover website costs a one-time fee of $1,000 plus $20 per month for hosting and support.
• Quick Turnaround
  Rather than waiting months for a custom developed site, a Clover website is available the same day as purchase.
• Easy to Use
  The content management system is one of the easiest to use (if not the easiest) I’ve seen.
• Robust Features
  You can have online calendars, sermons, videos, and more.
• Search Engine Optimized (SEO)
  Despite being Flash websites, they are optimized for search engines.
• Beautiful Aesthetics
  As you can see below, the websites look good.

THE CONS

• So Easy It Is Dangerous
  Clover’s content management system is so easy to use that it risks empowering aesthetically-challenged users to turn a beautiful premade site into an ugly site through poor color choices and media uploads. However, in fairness all content management systems risk to some extent empowering people who should not design.
• Flash-Based
  I am not a fan of all Flash websites, primarily because of visitor inconveniences such as the inability to copy and paste useful info like a church address or event details. But Flash does look cool.
  *UPDATE* – Clover informed me that their sites actually do provide for the ability for visitors to copy and paste content.
• Premade vs 100% Custom  Tailored
  Theoretically, a 100% custom tailored website is better than a premade site. Ideally, a church website will be custom designed by a very talented designer that understands how to create desired responses and communicate the church’s unique DNA through the smallest online details. However, this is very, very expensive and difficult. And sometimes the beauty of a premade design can do a better job communicating your brand than the custom design of a designer still learning the ropes.

Visit CloverSites.com to see a video of their content management system and actually demo it yourself.