Catholic Web Solutions Makes Top 30 List!
ChurchMag, a blog that tags itself as “The #1 Resource for Church Technology + Creativity,” released its 2014 list of the Top 30 Church Tech Blogs according to their proprietary rating system. The system is briefly described on their website. To my surprise and delight, Catholic Web Solutions came in at #13! I was informed via Twitter. Congratulations to all who made the list.
Two things surprised me:
1) I do not consider Catholic Web Solutions a “tech blog,” but a ministry blog focused on helping parishes, religious communities and catholic organizations create websites and social media that advance their mission. However, I do share best practices, tools and resources that I find helpful as wll as my critiques of how the Church at large is doing in the digital communications world (not that great, but improving). Thank you to the person who nominated me.
2) As far as I can tell, Catholic Web Solutions and CatholicTechTalk are the only two explicitly “catholic” blogs on the list. The other twenty-eight are church (mostly Christian) blogs which cover different niches. They offer content and resources for using the various visual arts, social media, audio, video and all other means of digital communication for church. A quick review indicates that these blogs exhibit a lot of technical creativity and energy around their topics. Two comments about this:
- I am wondering why there aren’t more Catholic tech blogs on this list.
- It is good to find blogs dedicated to church use of technology and I will be following some of them. At the moment, most of my “tech” content is drawn from internet marketing gurus and blogs which address social media best practices in general which I then apply to ministry sites.
I am grateful that Catholic Web Solutions was nominated and would love to hear if you follow any other church tech blogs that we could nominate for the next list.
Here is a link to the article and the list: http://churchm.ag/top-church-tech-blogs/#comment-183993
Comments (15)
Barbara Hosbach
July 8, 2014 at 6:09 am
Congratulations on the well-deserved recognition! Catholic Web Solutions is a terrific resource for all who want to share the Good News using social media!
Carol Dikovitsky
July 8, 2014 at 7:12 am
Congratulations, Sr. Susan. Thank you for all the research and hard work you have put into your blog.
Annamae Murphy
July 8, 2014 at 8:11 am
Congratulations Sister Susan. It is wonderful that your dedication and creativity are being recognized.
Fran Rossi Szpylczyn
July 8, 2014 at 8:27 am
What great news and so well deserved. You live generously through your digital missionary work and many of us are grateful.
I think that there are a lot of reasons there are not too many explicitly Catholic blogs that are resources, but slowly, like the church at large, we do change. Thanks for being on the vanguard!
Meredith Gould (@MeredithGould)
July 8, 2014 at 9:10 am
Excellent! You’ve long been a passionate, wise, and as Fran points out, generous pioneer in this domain. I’m grateful for your abiding support. And these additional observations:
1) I, too, count on “secular” resources and experts to provide current and useful info about digital technology, then extrapolate it for the world of church communications. I worry about church communicators who focus only on “Christian” resources.
2) At least one of the reasons (Fran doesn’t mention in her comment) is that those who are “explicitly Catholic” risk some sort of oversight or outright censure. Others intentionally mute or cloak their Roman Catholicism. Still other digital ministers, like me, end up working with other denominations.
In my case, I can’t/won’t speak at Catholic conferences because I refuse to deal with the vetting process to assess whether I’m a Catholic “in good standing.” More sad than bitter, although I have my moments of feeling bitter! Lord, have mercy.
Sister Pat Sylvester, SND
July 8, 2014 at 9:48 am
Congratulations Susan! I’m so happy Catholic Web Solutions is recognized ! This is another opportunity to thank you for creating a website that is relevant in content and also has an engaging design.
Sr. Susan Wolf, SND
July 8, 2014 at 9:50 am
Thanks, Meredith. You make some good points.
For clarification: I am not so much interested in “Christian” resources as much as Christian applications of the best communications methods available. We need pioneers who will demonstrate in as many ways as possible how to use all the digital media to communicate as effectively as possible: the gospel, the gifts of the Holy Spirit in everyday life, the mercy of God, the value of faith community, the requirements of justice, the hospitality of a parish, the charism and mission of religious communities, etc. My experience is that most people in Church ministry cannot figure this out for themselves.
Your writings and the work that you are doing with other denominations are making a great contribution to the field. Thank you for all of that.
Robert Dueweke, OSA
July 8, 2014 at 10:34 am
Congratulations! I refer to your site on a regular basis for ideas on ministry and social media. Thank you!
Susan Timoney
July 8, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Congratulations and it is so well deserved!
Larry Jurcak
July 9, 2014 at 10:37 am
Congratulations to you! It is a great acknowledgement of your service/ministry (as we would call it) to the Church. Well deserved!
Jim McGovern
July 9, 2014 at 11:04 am
Congratulations to all those who entered. I believe poor Church attendance is directly linked to poor communication of Christ’s message. Most Church bulletins witness to this truth. The more immediate challenge is to promote these web sites at the parish level.
We sent letters to every Bishop in our province and only one parish carried our prayer site. Reason some gave was the danger of error. Only site they accepted was USCCB. No regrets – the prayers have been a great personal help. And are we not doing it for the greater glory of God? May Jesus and Mary Bless all my American brothers and sisters. Jim
Sr. Susan Wolf, SND
July 9, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment here. I appreciate your words and your own efforts in this field very much.
Dion
July 9, 2014 at 7:44 pm
Susan,
Congratulations! I am grateful for the recognition of your excellent work. Thank you for helping us and so many.
Dion
Monique Jacobs
August 4, 2014 at 5:23 pm
Hi Sister Susan, you might check out Lane Plane http://laneplane.com/ as another blog that relates to Catholic tech and social media musings. Elaine Menardi, the author, was a coworker for a few years and she has an insatiable interest and skill set related to connecting our church to the online world. You might find her writings very interesting.
Sr. Susan Wolf, SND
August 7, 2014 at 8:57 am
Thanks, Monique. I am aware of Elaine’s work and your suggestion is a good one.
Comments are closed