In Part I of this series, I observed that leaders who want to be more collaborative and communicate and minister over the Internet, often have little experience with online collaboration tools. The digital continent is a foreign land to them. It is a new culture and a new language that they are not sure they can embrace. And if they do want to embrace it—they don’t know where to start.
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Leveraging the Internet for Mission, Part I: Challenges
The purpose of Catholic Web Solutions is to help Catholic organizations and religious communities think strategically about using the Internet and Social Media for mission. This transformation from old world to new world communications isn’t easy. As I work on projects with communities and organizations that want to move forward with technology (as opposed to those who have no interest at all), I see some common challenges.
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Digital Natives Need Ministry Mentors
Frequently those who remember the days before the Internet (digital immigrants) will say that they have to find some young people (digital natives) to get their ministry on the Internet. Then they do something that they would never do to a beginner in any other ministry—they leave the young adult to deliver ministry content without any training or ministry support. Digital natives need ministry mentors. Let’s not abandon them.
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Seven Steps to Add Internet Ministries to Your Service Offerings
It is not unusual for people to expect a place of ministry or an organization to have a website. It is not unusual for people to ask if they can follow the ministry on Facebook or Twitter. And of course, all people in service and leadership ministries are expected to have and use email. So why are there so few good parish, diocesan and organizational websites? Why aren’t we using…
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Communications and Ministry in the Digital Age
On January 24, 2011, the Vatican released Pope Benedict XVI’s message for the 45th World Communications Day (June 5, 2011). In this message, the Holy Father invites “Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible… The web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness.…
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Innovative Uses of the Web for Ministry
This past week, someone asked me to give some examples of innovative uses of the web for ministry. As I started to list my examples, I thought that these sites would be of interest to my readers as well. Innovation, like beauty, may well be in the eye of the beholder, so you may look for other things when considering innovative web services. What I look for in innovative uses…