American Onslaught

These are changing times, but most of you have realized this by now. Things are not the same, and they will never be again. I’m not talking about the state of the union or the condition we find ourselves in globally. While my statement may be true for those two arenas as well, I am talking about what is happening in the changing communications industry that surrounds us.

Recently I was on the phone with an old friend of mine. He is currently in the process of getting a new style of church going. Having just completed some form of formal theology training, he would soon be returning home to the state of New Hampshire to help his father turn the 20 or so member Bible study into a full blown church. This peaked my interest.

With all this new and changing ways to do things, why be limited by the conventional. And this is exactly what I told him.

There is so much power in social media and new media that really very few people realize. By taking full advantage of things like internet television, blogs, and social connectivity anything is possible, especsially when you are talking about a church.

I explained to my good friend that he really needed to look into these various technologies. Imagine what new media and social media could do for a fledgling church, or any business for that matter though the kind of features to be incorporated would depend on the goals and nature of the business in question.

In this case I suggested the following. First begin with a social network. There are plenty of free services out there, the one I like to use however is Ning. I suggested Ning because of budgetary constraints, and initially all that is needed is a basic social network.

On this site there are three main things my friend’s church needs to be able to do. First, there needs to be a place for members of the church congregation to connect, and that is taken care of Ning. Second, blogs or in this case sermons. Then to tie it all together, video to broadcast Sunday service. And if they feel particularly trendy, I also suggested that use something like UStream to live cast the service. Add a paypal service to the site for donations and there you have it.

Now this is not the right combination for every organization/business but let’s take a step back for a minute and take a look at this.

The reason why I was so intrigued when my friend told me of the fledgling congregation was because of the mere possibilities. Imagine if he follows my advise to the letter. While it could take a year or more to get to its prime, the results could be amazing. 

He could, dare I say it, create the first digital church. You see, the church could reach out far beyond the congregation or the geographical location. They could begin attracting members from all over the globe. People could watch sermons throughout the week, take in the word of god every day with the various blog posts, and connect with one another at will. 

Stay with me, and keep thinking on the large scale. So now the church has people from all over the globe. Well maybe there are 20 or so members in one area and they start meeting much like the church did when it first started out. Pretty soon you have a satelite church of the original.

You see where I am going with this. The combination of new media and social media can have this same affect on any business, any organization if applied correctly. Use it to your advantage. Get people involved, keep them interested not only in what you are doing but what they are doing through you and your organization/business. 

Take whatever your business/organization is and find out what combination of new media and social media will work for you. 

My friend Steve Gonzalez has another interesting post on the subject. If anything it only goes to prove my point, hopefully made here.