Many of you are aware of the synod’s cooperative buying program called ShopWELS. We are constantly trying to find vendors that provide WELS congregations, schools and other related organizations the best value for their budgeted dollars for things like office products, technology, etc. One area that can be particularly challenging is computer software. It seems like every software company sells their product a little bit differently. They call them CALs, seats, packages, bundles, licenses, and on and on. Some require you to purchase more than one, or claim that one license can be installed on some number of computers provided that… You get the idea. It’s CONFUSING. It’s no longer as easy as running down to the local store, pulling a box of the shelf and paying the price listed on the box.

Beginning today the ShopWELS welcomes SoftwareONE into the program to hopefully clear up all the confusion. SoftwareONE has weeded through all the confusion that companies like Microsoft and Adobe have created with their miriad licensing models. A simple call or email to them with what your needs are will prompt a response that will give you the appropriate license you need, whether that be a charity license or academic, depending on who you are. They will also provide the lowest possible price on products from Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, McAfee, Techsmith, VMWare and Citrix.

With SoftwareONE’s sole focus on software licensing, they can provide the expertise through a consultative, long-term approach to address:

• Confusion around multiple software licensing programs
• Licensing implications with solutions such as virtualization and cloud
• Changes in IT personnel and misplaced information
• Frequent changes in software publishers’ programs
• Existing infrastructure unable to change along with your company
• International currency, multi-language, or taxation

To see sample prices on Microsoft and Adobe products, see all the vendors they resell, or to contact SoftwareONE go to http://www.wels.net/shopwels/softwareone.

This is the fourth post in a series of articles on Social Networks and their usefulness in the church. I’ve spent a couple posts just on Facebook, not it’s Twitters turn. The two are very different, even though both can be considered “social networks” in their own right. Twitter is less about building relationships and more about building audiences. That may sound bad at face value, but the church that can leverage that effectively has a powerful communications tool.

Recently an ebook was published entitled “The Reason YOUR CHURCH Must Twitter,” and on the cover of that book is the tagline “Making Your Ministry Contagious.” An interesting way to think of ministry and its relationship to social networks, but I believe valid. The point of ministry is not to cloister the saints and the message of Jesus Christ, but to “infect” as many as possible — the Great Commission. It is a going out process. It is a constant proclamation, a telling, if you will, of the love and grace of God. Interestingly Twitter’s tagline is “What are you doing?” Perhaps Twitter in the hands of the church would vary that moniker to “What is Jesus doing?” Both for us and for you.
So how can a church use Twitter? Here are a few ideas:

• Set up multiple Twitter accounts to reach different segments of the church and ask that people in those groups “follow” that Twitter account.
• Create one related to spiritual topics and broadcast short follow ups on sermon concepts, Bible class questions, short devotional thoughts or Bible verses. There are tools to automate some of the content that can be “pushed” to Twitter, especially if your church regularly posts sermons or devotions on the website. A potentially powerful side benefit of this is that followers of that Twitter account can “retweet” or share that with their followers, thus “spreading the word” in a very seamless way. An organization that does this well is Time Of Grace (@ToGministry). They have a “GraceMoment” that is a quick thought or Bible verse that people can both enjoy and share. On a recent episode of the WELSTech Podcast, we interviewed their Creative Marketing Manager, Katy Klinnert-Ellison, about their use of Social Networks. She shared that social networks play an important role in their organization, both in staying connected with their followers, but also building relationships.
• Create a Twitter account for general announcements for the church/school to share schedule changes, weather-related news, special guests, event reminders, etc.
• There have been several creative uses of Twitter by churches to highlight a particular season of the church year…specifically Christmas and Easter. I’ve seen Twitter accounts set up that tweet Jesus’ words during Holy Week which try to simulate the actual time of day and sequence of events. The words from the cross are particularly powerful. I’ve seen the same done for Christmas with thoughts from Mary, or the shepherds or magi. Tweeting through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, or a series of Proverbs would also lend itself well to 140 character sound bites.

Of course, there are many more ideas out there, but the key is to be consistent, have a plan and then promote what you are doing. Building an audience and then “going dark” with few tweets will kill the effort put in. Make sure people are aware of this new communication channel via emails, newsletter, bulletin, announcements, brochures, business cards and the like. Then set a time frame to evaluate how things are going. Don’t attempt to try anything less than a year. That gives you all seasons of the church year and chance for the word to spread.

If your church has used Twitter and has insights to share, please comment below. We are all trying to figure out how these social networks can be used by the church and their ministry endeavors.

Connect is the official WELS Intranet web site. An intranet is an “internal” web site set up to serve a specific audience, as opposed to an internet site which is more “public.” The audience for Connect, which can be found at http://connect.wels.net, is synod employees, WELS called workers (pastors, teachers, and staff ministers) as well as church leaders/workers like presidents, councilmen, Sunday school teachers, choir directors and financial secretaries.

Connect’s purpose is to house all synod owned or generated content, promote the sharing of materials across the synod, and along with the Together newsletter, keep interested parties up to date on synod work. It is also the place synod boards and committees come to share reports, work on projects and provide resources for their respective audiences.

Last month the Connect home page was totally redesigned to provide not only a fresh look, but make information easier to find. There is a synod announcements section, important synod documents and quick links to the most often used functions on the web site like entering annual statistics, updating your congregations Mission Offering subscription, and viewing call reports.

Much of the content on Connect does not require a login to access – Bible studies, reports, and other resources from Areas of Ministry to name a few. There are some functions and content that do require a login however. Over the years there has been some confusion over who should have a Connect login. By default each congregation and school has a unique login. Only the pastor or principal has the authority to change that organization’s password and should guard it’s use. Individuals who are called workers or church leaders may also request a login at http://connect.wels.net/signup. It is at the discretion of the Connect administrator to determine who is ultimately eligible for an account.

With an account there are a few privileges you will enjoy. One is the ability to contribute content. Very soon the Lutheran Schools office will be launching a new resource site for teachers that will include many different kinds of content including Administrative and Classroom resources like sample policies, lesson plans, etc. It is their goal to have teachers from across the synod both use the resources, but also add their own or collaborate with others to create new ones. Watch the Connect home page and the Together newsletter for updates on that project. Other ministries will be considering similar plans.

Once logged in you also have access to an electronic yearbook of sorts. Just go to the Search Center link at the top to search for any called worker, church or school. The synod is refreshed a once a year similar to the paper yearbook you are familiar with published by NPH. If you would like to learn a little more about how Connect works there is a complete help section on the site.

There is much more coming to Connect included improvements to usability, more content and the ability to update your own information. If you have suggestions don’t hesitate to let us know as we continue to make Connect an even better resource.

This is the third post in a series of articles on Social Networks and how they can, and perhaps can’t, be used in the church. When I say church I mean the corporate church (i.e. the organization of believers). In my last article I talked about a few key considerations when thinking about using Facebook within the church. Today’s post continues that discussion by dealing with concerns about “virtual church” and how to take the virtual relationship to an even better place.

So how did the church survive before Facebook? Clearly the church doesn’t “need” Facebook or any other social network. It simply needs the Word and Sacrament. Right? Well sure. Nobody can debate that. But is that it? In the context of this discussion, the church could also be defined as a “social network?” The Oxford Dictionary defines a social network as “a network of social interactions and personal relationships.” That sounds like what any church leadership team would like to see in their church — people interacting with each other socially and developing personal relationships. In churches where this is the case, you find descriptors like a “friendly” church or a “caring” church. When people interact with each other, God’s Word has an opportunity to build a caring spiritual relationship. Clearly one of the churches goals.

Then how does Facebook help that? Yes you can create online socialization. Facebook is actually pretty good at that. But to leave it in the digital space without some analog goal isn’t all that helpful. You can share Christian love, teach, encourage, comfort and support each other online, but to play that out in person is Acts 2 kind of stuff. “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” Acts 2:44-47

The challenge of course is how to take online community to the face-to-face. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Connect digital posts to physical places. As you try to determine what content to post on Facebook think of content that has it’s root or fulfillment in a physical gathering. For instance, post a question or insight based on a good discussion that happened in the previous week’s Sunday morning Bible study class. Assign a person on the social network team to attend the class and cull appropriate material to be used during the week.
2. Allow organic growth. It will be important to promote and encourage people to create relationships on their own. Allowing members to post freely, comment, and form their own affinity groups will provide opportunity for deeper relationships around topics, projects and events. The temptation many churches have is to limit member participation and make their Facebook presence not much more than their web site which is fairly one dimensional. A more open environment, of course, requires over site, but the benefits are numerous including the chance that these online groups flourish and continue “on the ground” at church.
3. Intentionally create activities that start on Facebook and end in person. Promotion is critical to the success of any church-sponsored event. You certainly want to promote the event on your Facebook page, but creating online activity before the event will allow members to get excited about it and spread the word to their other Facebook friends. If it’s “movie night” create some intriguing questions. If it’s a presentation on Internet Safety, solicit questions/answers on related topics. If it’s an upcoming Voter’s Meeting or Open Forum, ask all members to submit questions that board members can address or feed topics that can be discussed ahead of time. The whole point is to get your Facebook folks “invested” in the event.

Facebook has a lot to offer to increase the social networked quotient of your church. It does take work and thoughtfulness. But it is where a lot of your members already are. Why should the church exclude itself from this portion of its members lives? They want to engage with their church. That is why they are members.

This is the second post in a series of articles on Social Networks and how they can, and perhaps can't, be used in the church. When I say church I mean the corporate church (i.e. the organization of believers). In my last article I talked about the purpose of the church and how social networks in general can meet a need in most circumstances as long as they are aligned with the church's objectives. Now we are going to get a little more specific and start with perhaps the most popular social network that has ever been — Facebook.

Late in 2012 Facebook claimed over 1 billion active users with over half of them regularly interacting with the network via mobile devices. That last bit of info will be discussed in more detail in later articles of this series. It has significance.

With that many users it is pretty safe to assume that many of your church's members, if not a majority, use Facebook. Why? That's an important question to answer as it will in some ways determine how the church might use Facebook for ministry. A very good place to find the answer is a short book by Jesse Rice called “The Church of Facebook.” Sallie Draper, my WELSTech Podcast partner, and I interviewed Jesse last year to talk about the book we had been reviewing on the show and asked him “why Facebook?” You can listen to that episode to find out what his answer was. The brief answer is people desire to connect with other people. God created us as social beings that need interaction with other people on a regular and meaningful basis. Facebook provides faciliities to do that. Yes, it does also provide avenues for the humanist in all of us to “blow our own horns”, but at it's core Facebook makes connections.

Connections are also an objective of the church. To connect believer to believer in a meaningful way that God can use to provide encouragement, inspiration, education and correction through the Word. Some would say the church wouldn't be a church without these believer to believer connections. So in this regard Facebook acts as an “amplifier” for these connections. It can create connections where they don't exist and it can enhance connections that have already been made.

With busy schedules and increasing distances between church members, a virtual tool like Facebook can help people stay connected with each other and their church during the week. That will not happen by itself however. The church, or to be more specific, it's Facebook administrator(s) needs to intentionalize things to achieve this objective. Here are three things they can do to increase the chances for member to member connections via the church's Facebook efforts:

1. Go on a Facebook member drive. Facebook will not be a very effective ministry tool if you don't have your Facebook using members “liking” your page. This can be done through email, bulletin announcements, after service announcements, etc. Along with that the message of why they should like your page should be very clear. This is what they are going to get out of it. More on that in a future post.
2. Post to your Facebook page every day. There is plenty of content the church can repurpose or create to fill 7 slots a week. Key sermon or bible class points, pictures, prayer requests, announcements, events, etc. A tool that can assist in keeping content flowing into your account is RSS Graffiti. This will allow you to automatically push any RSS content either from your own site (blogs, sermons, etc.) or from any other RSS enabled content like WELS Daily Devotions or Bible Readings.
3. Create opportunities for members to interact with each other through posts that promote feedback, discussion type questions or even Facebook hosted Bible studies. Other options are to encourage members to submit their own “ask the pastor” questions, photos, or thoughts on a daily Bible reading.

These are just a few options to get people talking with each other and perhaps enchance the brief encounters made on Sunday morning, or find new friends which wouldn't have normally been possible. In my next article I'll focus more on how to further enable these virtual relationships and perhaps move them to face-to-face opportunities for fellowship, spritual growth, and support.