I love this!

Risk. Try. Ask.

I recently wrote a post for MySanAntonio.com entitled “What the Church can learn from Google” and it made me begin to think about other people, organizations, and ideas that we can learn from as the Church.  Another one of those is Facebook.

My guess is that you are probably reading this post because you saw a link on Facebook.  The Social Media website has transformed the way we interact and helps us to stay more connected than ever before.  I have learned a lot about Facebook over the past couple of years and there is one big takeaway from the site and organization as a whole that I think we can really learn from as the Church:

Facebook is ALWAYS changing!

Have you noticed this?  Sometimes they are small changes that you hardly notice, but if you look back over the past couple of years it is almost a completely different site.  Facebook’s purpose is to help people better connect to each other and that has not changed a bit, but their methods in accomplishing this goal has changed dramatically and likely will continue to change.

Most people would advice Facebook to leave it alone.  It’s the best Social Network out there and people are comfortable with the way it is.  Every time there is a new update you begin hearing complaints and threats of people that are going to shut down there account and leave.  Do you ever wonder if it bothers people at Facebook when they hear complaints over the new features that they’ve worked so hard to develop?  I’m sure that it does, but they have a bigger picture in mind for the online community that they have built.  Their response then is to listen to feedback that is given while staying focusing on the goal at hand.

What do you think  would happen though if Facebook didn’t change?  Here’s what I think:

The site would become stale and people would leave.

Does this sound like any churches that you know?  There is often a fear of people leaving if we do make a change when the reality is that our stagnancy often causes an even greater fall out.

Facebook has not always gotten it right and neither will the Church.  I can say confidently though if we do not try new things we will become stale and people will leave.  What might have worked in the past will not always work in the future.  The mission of the Church should not change, but the methods by which we accomplish that mission should always be changing.

Take some risks, try new things, lead with boldness!

As I think back to my top 5 ministry experiences, one of those has to be hosting a worship night with the Robbie Seay Band and John Mark McMillan about 3 years ago.  It was right as JMM was becoming better known and How He Loves Us was beginning to get some radio time.  That was a night I will never forget and I have followed John Mark’s music very closely since then.

I was honored then when I was sent 5 of the tracks from his new album, “Economy”, to preview.  Honestly, it’s all I have listened to over the past two weeks and I think you will have the same experience once you download this album.  I encourage you to take a minute to watch the video below where John Mark discusses this album and then go to http://thejohnmark.com to purchase this great music.

Let me first introduce you an incredible children’s book titled “Mommy, What is Salvation?” written by June Gray Wyrick and Kristen Wyrick Jones.  As a new parent, I love a resource such as this that I can share with my daughter communicating the gospel to her in such a beautiful way.  Beyond the impact to my family alone, I’m even more excited for the Kingdom impact that this book will have on thousands of children all over the world!

This book was written by Kristen Jones sharing the story of how her mother communicated the gospel message of Salvation to her and her brothers.  Kristen was my Youth Minister as a teen as well as my boss in one of my first ministry opportunities.  Her life has communicate the gospel to so many and she has personally impacted my life and ministry more than I could begin to communicate in this post.

Whenever anyone thinks of Kristen they immediately think of missions and the ministry impact that Kristen has had all over the world.  This mission of this book is at the core of what Kristen’s life and ministry represent as the goal is for this to be a ministry tool used all over the world.  The book is already available in Creole (for Haiti), Spanish, Portuguese, Burmese, and Thai.

I just received a message that there is a ministry in mainland China that is ready to print 10,000 of these books to be distributed to migrant children!  You can be a part of making this a reality!  By purchasing 1 book you are making it possible to print 5 more in China!

To purchase a book and to find out more about this incredible ministry please go to http://www.strategicglobalmissions.org.

LinkedIn is much more than a place to post your resume and get a job.  It is actually one of my favorite social media sites that I don’t use enough and their newly updated iPhone App has really caught my attention.  I honestly believe that LinkedIn has more staying power than Facebook or Twitter because of it’s target audience and professional usefulness.

People often tell me that they just want to use 1 social media site and they have already chosen Facebook.  That’s fine for some, but I think there are many more people who desire to separate their professional life from their personal life which is where LinkedIn enters the picture.

LinkedIn offers you a chance to share your about your professional experiences and connect with others coworkers, clients, or former classmates outside of Facebook.

Facebook recently announced that after now reaching 750 million users they are no longer focused on building the base of users but now building a better user experience.  I believe LinkedIn is about a year away from making this transition.  The user base continues to grow rapidly and I believe that in the coming years this will be an incredible site for users to really build their professional network and simply just build their business within LinkedIn.

I grew up watching the master networker, my father.  He worked in Sales and one of his greatest networking activities was being a part of the Rotary Club.  The best way that I can describe LinkedIn is that it is a virtual Rotary Club.  It’s a community though that you don’t have to wait until the weekly or monthly gathering to share or connect with.  In this online community you can connect with your network whenever and wherever you are.

In ministry it has been a great way for me to connect with other pastors and ministry leaders with similar interests and passions.  I have also been about to connect with other Social Media enthusiasts in the marketplace, some that I have met in person and others that I have not.

LinkedIn still has a long way to go when it comes to development of the site, but as its user base continues to grow and the site continues to develop I believe that LinkedIn will be a site that most will begin using on a daily basis.

If we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, I hope you will go here and send me an invitation to connect.

In a previous post I shared about my most recent purchase of an Acer Android Tablet.  After about a month now of getting used to the tablet there are few responses that I have:

1) I love what it can do.

I love that it has a USB drive and expandable memory!  I love that it plays flash video and that I can use it for CBC Online.  It really has incredible customization options and can do far more than I can even comprehend.

2) I miss the simplicity.

I have been a committed Apple user for the past 3 or 4 years and comfortable with their functionalities.  When it comes to syncing my iPhone with my Macbook it’s a piece of cake, especially when it comes to media transfer.  There is nothing simple about my Android tablet and transferring data, especially media, has been a great pain.

3) I don’t need it.

I’m glad I paid $300 for an Android tablet rather than $600 for an iPad.  It’s a fun toy, but it’s not a real useful tool.  At least not yet.  I am constantly finding more that it can do and I’m sure it will be something I will lean on heavily a year from now.  If you were to take away either my iPhone or my laptop, I would have a hard time functioning effectively.  If you take away my tablet, I hate to admit it but I might be even more productive.

This has been my experience so far.  I’m not giving up on it by any means and look forward to continuing to develop my understanding of the Android system.  I would love to hear from your experiences with an Android or Apple tablet.

The first wedding that I ever officiated was outdoors on a hot summer day in San Antonio.  I was incredibly nervous and don’t remember much about the ceremony.  I will never forget asking my wife how I did afterwards, and the first thing she said was: “Did you notice that you never told everyone that they could be seated?”

That wasn’t in my notes.  I didn’t think people needed to be told to be seated.  I was so focused on the 2 people in front of me that I somehow lost sight of the 100 people behind them.

Too often we assume people know what action to take so we never communicate it to them.

About a year ago I began researching some of the most interactive Facebook pages out there and connected with  Dr. Aaron Tabor who manages a page called Jesus Daily.  Jesus Daily then had about 2 million “Likes” and today has over 8 million.  Beyond the number of people on the page though, was the incredible amount of interactions.  I asked Dr. Tabor what his secret was and his response was so simple: “We communicate how we want people to respond.”

If you go to Jesus Daily, you will see that at the end of each post they will ask for you to “Like” if you agree or “Comment” to share your prayer request.  It seems so simple but as we began to apply this simple technique to the CBC Online Facebook page we watched our interactions almost triple!

In case you did not know this already, Facebook’s algorithm as to what is shown on the News Feed is based on the number of interactions (Comment, Likes, and Shares).  So if someone “Likes” your post it will then show in more news feeds and if they then “Like” the post it shows even more.  It basically creates a domino affect.

We have also found that as our interactions continue to grow on the CBC Online Facebook page, so do the number of people who now “Like” our page.  I’m guessing this is key to why the Jesus Daily page has grown by 6 million “Likes” in a year!

I encourage you to give this technique a try on your Facebook page, I can almost guarantee that you will see similar results.  That is unless your content isn’t worth liking, but that’s another post for another day.

A couple weeks ago I bought my first Tablet, an Acer A500.  I honestly have been drooling over the iPad for 2 years but couldn’t justify buying one.  The cost was too high and one of my primary uses is CBC Online which cannot function effectively on an iPad because it does not play flash.   I’ve been curious about Android devices for about a year, but I’ve been very committed to Apple as my past 3 computers have been Macs and my wife and I both have been iPhone users for several years.

A friend at CBC, Craig, sent me a coupon though to Staples for $100 off a tablet making this Acer only $300 (half the price of the iPad).  I began comparing it to the iPad and it had more functionality and better features.  The Acer can play Flash, has expandable memory, a USB drive, and the list could go on.  My wife gave me the green light and I leaped into the Android world and bought my first tablet.

So far I have no regrets.  I was able to buy a stylus and keyboard/case (that connects via USB) for less than $20 on Amazon and have been loving the flexibility that it provides me.  It’s not a perfect device and I still have a lot of learning to do, but I will say that my first 2 weeks as an Android user have been a lot of fun!  I would love any advice on some great apps to download or any suggestions in maximizing the Android functionality (and flexibility!).

By the way, those HTC phones sure do look fun to use!

I’m honored and excited to share with you this article from Church Executive Magazine.  The article, titled Six Trends in Staffing, was written by my friend William Vanderbloemen of Vanderbloemen Search Group.  Below is a portion of the article that includes his interview with me, but I hope you will take the time to click here to read the entire article in this month’s edition of Church Executive.

Nils Smith: Church hires social media pastor

Last year Community Bible Church in San Antonio, TX, with weekly attendance of 21,000, hired a pastor of social media, Nils Smith, and credit some of their growth to leveraging these forms of communication and building relationships. William Vanderbloemen had a brief interview with Smith, who previously served as a youth pastor for eight years, and six months as a college and community online pastor before transitioning to Community Bible Church.

What are your primary responsibilities? Launching CBC online which is our online church campus, as well as oversight of our multiple Facebook pages and Twitter account.

What is the average CBC online attendance look like? We launched the online campus about a year ago with about 200 to 300 weekly attendees and today we average about 6,000 to 7,000 people logging in each week. We have an average of more than 100 countries represented every week and to date we have had attendance from every country in the world except for 12.

What exactly is CBC online?
It is our online church service where we broadcast one or two worship songs along with the weekly message. We also have live chat that people can log into through their Facebook account and interact with each other around the online service. We currently have four channels or sites that we have launched and we recently launched a Spanish channel that has allowed us to become much more effective in reaching people in South and Central America.

We also broadcast our music online 24-7, in a coffee shop style space that allows people to log on and chat as well as listen to the great CBC music. Our most recent addition to CBC Online is the launch of our Online Lifegroups where people can login at the same time and watch a video teaching, have a time of discussion and prayer, and simply experience community online just like they might in a living room setting.

What does your typical day look like? I don’t know if there is such a thing as a typical day, but generally I log in and check the prior day’s stats, make sure that our volunteer teams are checking up with new online believers, check in with the folks who are managing our Facebook and twitter accounts, and I also meet with our media team to see what updates to our online content we are going to be making. Our process with our online ministry has been to create, recruit, train, empower and support. As we’re constantly launching new areas of ministry online we are in different phases of this process, but my daily focus has quickly changed from primarily creating to now doing a lot more supporting as we have built an incredible team of volunteer leaders.

How have you implemented FB and Twitter with the Online Experience? For the most part we centralize everything that we are doing online with our Facebook Fan Page, which acts as our central hub for communication. We use an incredible platform called Media Social [ mediasocial.tv ] that has been our primary resource in our online ministry that integrates video content closely with Facebook.  Generally people connect with us through finding a link that someone posted on Facebook, attend an online service, and then “Like” our Facebook page.

We make unique videos and various online content specifically for Facebook and try and maximize our page as a place for community.We have found that simply asking questions of the community has been the most effective use of the page in building community. Currently we have more than 45K fans on Facebook, and interestingly enough, we actually have more fans in the Philippines now than we do in the U.S.

What is the best piece of advice that you can give churches that are looking to create a social media or online presence? Take the step and start somewhere, start with a building and regularly updating a Facebook page or try broadcasting on Ustream.com. Initially utilize the free online resources available. Once we started our Facebook page, our fellow staff members got on and promoted it and it really grew and took off. It isn’t perfect and continues to be a work in progress.

You don’t want to put out a poor product, but sometimes you can refine and polish things so much that they never get released. There is the need for some experimenting initially and you will begin to figure out what works and does not work for your ministry.  — WV