Wayne Hedlund

Category: Web Presence

  • Get Your .church Domain While You Can!

    Get Your .church Domain While You Can!

    A couple years ago I remember my wife and I discussing the idea of picking up a particular toy for one of our gradeschool kids for Christmas. We looked it up and saw that there were a few available. The problem was that we hadn’t decided if we wanted to get it or not. So we waited. And we missed our opportunity. A few days later, they were out of stock and we were hard-pressed to find it anywhere at the price we could afford. It was a serious bummer.

    Believe it or not, YOUR church is likely in that same place.

    You have a very UNIQUE opportunity to get something for your church, right now, that may not be available later. This past July, the ‘powers that be’ in the internet world, released a new web domain to the public. A web domain is the last few letters of your website, after the dot. So .org is the domain of my website here: www.waynehedlund.ORG.

    What’s cool is that you can now get a .CHURCH domain. And if you’re quick, you can get “JUST THE RIGHT ONE”. I suspect some of you still don’t get why this is cool. Let me give you a couple of examples of real churches I know of right now. 

    Current Web Address (as of today) Could Actually Be:
    www.elimgospel.org www.elimgospel.church
    www.elimgrace.org www.elimgrace.church
    www.lovejoy.org www.lovejoy.church

     

    By adding the .church domain, you are pretty much giving your community the literal name of your church. It looks professional and sounds good. 

    What about all the people who are used to our current web address?

    Not a problem. You can still keep your current web address. Many people don’t realize it, but you can actually have SEVERAL web addresses and have them all point to one real address. So you could own www.yourchurchname.com, www.yourchurchname.net and www.yourchurchname.church all point to www.yourchurchname.church. If anyone typed in any of those three, the web will automatically redirect them to the one you prefer. 

    Why do I have to hurry?

    It’s pretty simple. Eventually, a lot of churches will also figure this out. If they have the same name church as you’re church and they get the .church before you, then you missed it. After all, you probably don’t want to have your website named: www.elimgrace2.church! 

    So if it’s still available, you should grab it up before someone else does. For all that matters, you DON’T EVEN HAVE TO USE IT right now if you want. Just get it so nobody else can snatch it first! This is called ‘Brand Protection.’ With an entire globe having access to .church domains, there’s a good chance someone, somewhere beats you to it if you don’t leap soon.

    How much will it cost?

    It will probably cost you between $20-$30 for the first year. After that, you might have to pay as much as $50/year. Hopefully, those prices will get lower as time goes on. But if you wait until they’re ‘lower’, you still might miss out.

    Where do I go to buy it?

    As of the time of this writing, 1and1.com is offering a special discount, allowing you to get your .church domain for $19.99 for the first year. I recommend you check them out at www.1and1.com/church-domain.

    What do I do next?

    After you’ve bought your new domain, you’ll want to talk to your web programmer or someone in your church who understands this stuff, and ask them to set it up for you. It’ll be up to you how much you want to promote the new domain name or not. For instance, do you want to replace all of your promotional material with that new name? Food for thought.

    Here’s another idea for you. If your whole website is in need of an upgrade anyway, perhaps it would be a good time to give your whole website a facelift. Check out my website services, created specifically to help churches with their web presence, at www.tlsites.com.

  • Why I Began Offering Web Services

    laptop-supportOver the years I have had the distinct honor of working with some absolutely amazing pastors and ministry teams. As I got to know them more, I became increasingly impressed with all that they were doing to fulfill their respective purposes; each and every one of them making a difference in their communities.

    At the same time, I often noticed a major problem. I found their website to be grossly inadequate and out of date. I am very discouraged when this happens. In today’s culture, the website is usually the first place guests and prospective clients visit. It determines how interested they will be in pursuing the ministry or services they are searching for. In cases like these, people’s first impression of the organization are always way off the mark.

    Attempting to address the issue usually didn’t help. It’s one thing to tell a pastor or leader they should really get their site updated. It’s another thing altogether to expect them to get it done, despite their deep desire to do so. The fact is, websites are often forgotten or neglected because leaders already have too many irons in the fire. It can be very overwhelming to try to figure out what to do to get the website fixed.

    So I decided to offer a solution. I began TL Sites (the TL stands for ‘Transforming Leader‘) to offer web services to churches, ministries & small businesses who are struggling with developing & maintaining their organizational website. I and my team take pride in each website we develop and are committed to ensuring our clients are truly happy with their new website.

    I’d love it if you’d visit the TL Sites website to explore options for you and your ministries website! If you have any questions at all, feel free to let me know.

    THERE ARE ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY SPECIAL OFFER TO TRANSFORMING LEADER READERS! Click here to learn more.

    [su_button url=”http://www.tlsites.com/” background=”#710200″ size=”4″ center=”yes” radius=”5″ icon=”icon: question”]Visit TL Sites Now[/su_button] [su_button url=”http://www.tlsites.com/contact/” background=”#710200″ size=”4″ center=”yes” radius=”5″ icon=”icon: question”]Have a Question?[/su_button]

          

  • Announcing New Website Services!

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    It has long been my hope to help local churches transform their outdated, clunky websites into something easy on the eye, relevant, and perhaps most importantly, Guest Friendly. Today, I’m pleased to announce that I finally can.

    Transforming Leader is very happy to now offer website services for local churches!

    I believe your church website is a very important part of your ministry. Unfortunately, most churches fail to give it the attention it needs. It used to be that churches had an excuse, but that’s not true anymore. Website management has become easier to do every year, and shouldn’t require experienced programmers. Your staff should be empowered to update pages, create events, upload videos & sermons and a whole lot more.

    With that in mind, we are offering to rebuild your church website using the popular WordPress web platform, including coaching & instructions for accessing & updating it upon completion. 

    The new website will feature a customizable home page with sliding banners, image boxes and custom widgets for special events, sermons and more. It will also come bundled with an events calendar, a built-in media section to showcase sermons, an image gallery, staff profile pages and a blog. 

    For a one-time fee of $850, we will design a brand new website for your church. 

    Please note:
    • This price does not include the costs associated with web hosting. Click ‘What You Need to Know’ below to learn more.
    • Additional features may also be included at additional rates.

    Note: Transforming Leader is partnering with Elim Fellowship to provide this offer to anyone who signs up as an Elim Fellowship Affiliate Church at a greatly reduced price. Click here to learn more!

    Current EF Affiliated Churches are also eligible for special rates on this offer.

    [button link=”http://www.transformingleader.org/website-rebuild-conditions/” target=”_self” color=”blue” shape=”rounded” size=”large” align=”center”]What You Need to Know[/button]  [button link=”http://www.elimfellowship.org/churchwebdesign/” target=”_self” color=”blue” shape=”rounded” size=”large” align=”center”]   Preview Website   [/button]  [button link=”http://www.transformingleader.org/sign-up/” target=”_self” color=”blue” shape=”rounded” size=”large” align=”center”]       Sign Up Now       [/button]

  • Leveraging Technology for Ministry

    chris-zieglar

    This is a guest post by Chris Zeigler. Chris is the Assistant Director of BASIC College Ministries. He was a student leader with BASIC at the SUNY Oswego Campus and has never lost his heart for college students. He has started BASIC groups at SUNY Geneseo, Monroe Community College, and the University of Rochester and also advises new groups while travelling, speaking, and writing a blog for campus ministers along with many other things.


    For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in computers and technology    . In high school I got involved in the student-run TV station. When I went to college I chose to get a degree in broadcasting and worked as a campus representative for Apple. Since that time I’ve learned Photoshop, built websites, and started a love/hate relationship with social media. But I recognize that for many, living with technology is just a necessary evil.

    Now that I’m working in ministry, I’ve realized that my love for technology can be used for good and for more than just posting pictures of the delicious dinner my wife made (but really she’s a great cook and I love to brag on her). My job gives me the great opportunity to reach out to college students who are considered by many to be the minority in the church.

    Here’s what I’ve seen over the last 4 years working in college ministry: students (and many adults now) are extremely connected to technology. Their iPhone has become an appendage and they are constantly connecting with the rest of the world. While we could easily choose to bemoan this fact, the truth is that the world is only going to become more centered around technology 

    It is becoming more common to see young people their phones during church services. This will continue happening whether you want it to or not. The past response has been to get frustrated and demand that they put their phones away. Instead of pushing them further away though, it’s important to recognize this as an opportunity to connect with them in new ways. In addition to connecting with the younger generation, there are many ways technology can benefit you as a leader too.

    Here are two ways to leverage technology for your ministry’s benefit:

    Encouraging Interaction

    Twitter is a great way to encourage community interaction in your church using short messages. The church I attend just recently did a series walking through the books of Peter and humorously called it ‘Tweets from Pete’. Using social media in this way encouraged people to share what they were learning on social networks with unsaved friends and also kept discussion going throughout the week.

    A fun way to incorporate this into your services is by using the service twitterfall. With this you can display posts associated with your church on the screens before and after the service to promote discussion. As a side note, Twitter is also a great way to network, find resources, and learn from other ministries. If you’re not sold yet check out the article ‘3 Reasons You Should Tweet In Church’.

    This all sounds great, but it was while I was traveling a little while back that I fully realized the benefits of combining technology and ministry. My wife and I were speaking on the topic of relationships at a college ministry. After preaching we had decided to hold an anonymous Q&A time. Since no question was off limits, the topic was relationships, and the questions were anonymous you can imagine some of the things we were asked 

    People texted in their questions and they showed up on the screen behind us as we worked through each one. This was a moving time as people asked questions they wouldn’t normally ask. God’s presence showed up and allowed us to speak to people right where they were at.

    We’ve done this a couple times since then and had great success. There are a couple of services out there you can use. We used one called Poll Everywhere; but there are others available as well.  

    Leadership Training

    It seems these days that great leadership and ministry training is happening all the time. But paying for your staff to attend a conference can be costly once you add in hotels, airfare, meals, etc 

    While going to a conference can still be very beneficial, the good news is that many conferences now stream the entire event online. The admission for this varies from free to still fairly expensive, but it will definitely be cheaper than attending the event in person. Here’s a list of some of the best that I’ve come across:

    • Leadercast – a leadership conference hosted by the popular fast food chain that requires viewing at a local host site
    • Willow Creek – a leadership conference hosted by Bill Hybels’ church that requires viewing at a local host site
    • Exponential – a conference focused on church planting and other various topics
    • Verge – a conference focused on building missional communities

    The last resource I have to mention is the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast. This free monthly podcast consistently offers some of the best leadership training I’ve been exposed to.

    Now that I’ve sufficiently overwhelmed you with links, my hope is that these ideas and the subsequent ideas you gain from them will benefit you, your leaders, and your congregation.

    What are some other ways your church or ministry has found to leverage technology? Feel free to comment with any questions or ideas. 

    photo credit: mjdave via photopin cc

  • The Internet is a Mission Field

    I ran across this great little video today (90 seconds) that challenges us to include social media and the internet in our creative outreach strategies. How about your church? How’s your website look to guests and those in your community? If you’d like some genuine, unbiased feedback, send me an email. I’ll look it over and give you some thoughts to consider.

    You also might want to check out this article by the good people over at Willowcreek entitled, “Your Digital Front Door“.

    Internet: A Mission Field from Resolute Creative on Vimeo.

     

  • I Love What I Get To Do . . .

    This short video clip (3:30) by the people over at Youth Specialties does a fabulous job of telling a story that is engaging and moving. The story happens all the time in ministry (or it should). Little touch points here and there that eventually lead to a powerful and transforming God moment.

    So often we don’t even realize how often we are touching another’s life. We reach out, speak kind words, say a prayer, and then move on. It can be easy to forget how much God uses each and every one of those moments. What a great privilege and responsibility we have!

    The closing line in this video sums it up great – “I Love What I Get To Do!” I hope you do!


    If you can’t see this video, try clicking this link.

     
     

  • Should Your Church Have A Blog?

    A few weeks ago I posted several articles about the benefits of creating a blog for your church or specific ministries within your church. As an avid blogger I’ve determined that this tool has a TON of potential to increase communication, build momentum, and align ministries with vision.

    That said, it may not be for everyone. I ran across a post by Eric Dye over on www.churchm.ag the other day that I think makes a great addition to what I’ve already written. So I’ve included links to my posts below, as well as a link to Eric’s post on his blog. Enjoy!

    • Tumblr vs Blogger
      My friend, Josh Cummings, challenges my belief in Blogger by recommending Tumblr instead.

    In 2011, 300 million websites were added to the Internet. The volume of digital data floating in the sea of the Internet is creating a tsunami of information that is completely overwhelming. The World Wide Web has seeped its way into our lives and taken root like no other piece of technology ever has before. We find it at home, work and play. It’s on our computers, tablets and smartphones.

    It. Is. Everywhere. So, should a church even bother adding to all of this noise with a blog of their own? Heck, yeah! Read More Here!

  • Get Permission To Post Guest Speakers Online

    A few months ago we hosted a guest speaker at Elim Gospel Church. Before the message he approached me and requested that a certain portion of his message be excluded from the live broadcast and media posts on the web. Since we knew about this in advance, we had time to create a special image which we posted on the live stream during that portion of the message. At least once a year I have received requests like this. Often, the content of the message is such that public access could compromise a ministry or relationship.

    This is why we have made it standard practice to ask before posting, recording, or selling anything from a guest speaker. About 90% of the time it’s simply a formality, but the remaining 10% of the time your guests will feel honored and know that they are cared for.

    It’s very simple to do. My friend, Stephanie Zeller, has created a great form on her website which you may  download and utilize just for this purpose. Simply ask all guest speakers to complete the form in advance of their messages and honor any special requests made when they hand it in to you.

    Don’t wait – download and begin using it this week!

  • Tumblr vs. Blogger

     

    This is a guest post by Josh Cummings. Josh serves as the Technical Director at Elim Gospel Church in Lima, NY. Josh is passionate about all things audio & visual. His world includes wires, cables, buttons, knobs, computers, software, lights, speakers and a million other odd and weird knick-knacks. He is, by far, the coolest tech-dude I know.

     

    If Facebook got married to Blogger and then had a trendy teenage son, that would be Tumblr. When I saw the Transforming Leader post on 2/14, teaching you how to create a simple blog using Blogger, I immediately thought of how Tumblr could be useful for ministry leaders. I have used Tumblr for a personal blog for a while, and I would advise anyone contemplating creating a blog for their ministry or organization to consider using Tumblr.

     
    Here’s a few quick thoughts on using the Tumblr blog platform:

    First things first: if you don’t know why you should blog, check out some of the older posts in the Transforming Leader that explain the rationale of using a blog for your ministry or organization. You’ll want to read those first before getting into the details of how to create a functional, appealing, and effective blog.

    Both Tumblr and Blogger are free and have features such as: mobile apps, customizable design templates, custom domains, photos, videos, group blogging, email and mobile posting, additional pages/tabs, Feedburner support, third party apps, scheduled posting, and custom CSS and HTML. Tumblr has many of the same features as Blogger, but if you’re deciding which blog platform to use, you want to know what the advantages are of each blog. Let’s take a look at appearance, media, social interaction, and comments in order to compare Tumblr vs. Blogger.

    Appearance: Tumblr
    The Tumblr theme garden has much more visually appealing themes than Blogger. The first thing that people will notice when they visit your blog is the visuals. If a blog’s layout is outdated, it is likely that the reader may assume that the content may also be irrelevant. Both platforms allow customization, but in general, Tumblr blogs have a better design than Blogger blogs. You’ll be able to create a more attractive blog with a smaller time investment.

    Media: Tumblr
    Blogger does allow you to post photos and embed videos in your posts, but Tumblr simply outperforms Blogger in this department. Tumblr supports photosets similar to Instagram, allows you to post audio clips (as long as you don’t break copyright law), and to post quotes.

    Social Interaction: Tumblr
    Tumblr is basically a cross between Facebook and Blogger. With one click, you can reblog another users post. Not only can you follow Tumblr users (or subscribe via RSS if you’re a non-user), but you can favorite posts and post automatically to Twitter and Facebook. One killer feature for users of Tumblr is that you can subscribe to tags. For example, I am subscribed to tags such as Tozer, Tim Keller, and Francis Chan. Whenever one of those names is mentioned in a post on Tumblr, it is sent to my list on my dashboard. If I click on that list, I can read all posts that include those tags in their posts.

    Comments: Blogger
    With Blogger, comments are built in to your blog. Tumblr users have to use a website like IntenseDebate to get custom HTML to modify their blog to support comments. Once you’ve done this, it’s no different than Blogger, but it requires some basic tech savvy to set up. Every blog should have the ability to leave comments.

    Tumblr also has a few more features that Blogger doesn’t, including private blogging, a Tumblr bookmarklet, call-in audio posts, blog rights, and a cool question and answer feature where readers can ask a blogger questions. This is similar to a comment discussion, but it’s a new post that will go to all of your subscribers’ inbox or RSS reader. If you want to compare more on your own, check out Tumblr’s features and Blogger’s features.

    I’m not trying to sell you Tumblr, but we all want to have the sharpest tools possible to accomplish our all-important mission of making Christ’s love known to the world. If you’re planning to do that through a blog, I think that Tumblr could be very useful to you, as it has been for me. If you go with Tumblr, I would encourage you to take all of the principles that Pastor Wayne outlined in his blog “Create A Simple Blog With Blogger” and apply them to creating your Tumblr blog. Make sure that your blog has comments and email subscription, and that you consistently update your blog with useful posts. 90% of blogs out there are quite narcissistic, and it’s the helpful, focused blogs that succeed and make a difference.

    If you’re curious, check out my personal blog Arthodoxy on faith and music or my (outdated) Elim Gospel Church tech team blog for an idea of what Tumblr looks like and works like.

  • Create A Simple Blog With Blogger

    Last week I posted two articles about creating a ministry blog to build momentum and create unity. Here are those two posts for your reference:

    In this post I will share the first few steps for creating your ministry blog using Google’s Blogger.

    CREATE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT

    To start, you must create (for free) or login to your Google account. You can do that by browsing to www.blogger.com. If you do not have a Google account, click on the ‘Get Started’ button on that page.

    CREATE YOUR FIRST BLOG
    After logging in for the first time you will see a button prompting you to create your first blog. After selecting that button you will then be prompted to name your blog as well as give it a web address.
    • Name Your Blog
      You can name your blog whatever you want. Obviously, the more descriptive and interesting your name, the better. For example, if you are creating a blog for church volunteers in your guest or host ministry, you might name the blog: FCC First Impressions (with FCC being the name of your church). Note: you can change the name at any time.
    • Give Your Blog a Web Address
      You will also see a place to give your blog a web address. This is the address you will eventually give to everyone to find your ministry blog. Try to make the address simple and easy to remember. For instance, using the above example you might try “fccimpressions”. Blogger will tell you if the address of your choice is available. Note: you can also change the address in the future. Additionally, you may want to choose to buy your own web domain later on. In that case, you pick your own web address and are not constrained to stick with the .blogspot.com extension at the end.

    SELECT THE SIMPLE BLOG TEMPLATE
    You will also be required to select a template for your blog. To be honest, this isn’t the place or time to finalize what template you really want. So just pick the ‘Simple’ template for now. You can adjust the look of your blog later. Note: do not select the ‘Dynamic’ template.
    CREATE A TEMPORARY POST
    The next step I recommend is to create your first post. You will DELETE this post later so the content and formatting are not very important. The reason I recommend creating a post, though, is to help you see what your blog will look like with information applied. Write out two or three paragraphs of text and click the “Publish” button. Remember, you haven’t created a blog design yet, so don’t worry if the blog doesn’t look nice yet!
    UNDERSTAND THE BLOGGER INTERFACE
    Let me take a moment to help you understand the links in your blogger interface. Refer to this image and then see my explanations after. If your blogger interface does not look like this, then you may have ti first click the link at the top right of your screen that says “Try the updated blogger interface”. Or if you are already viewing your blog, click the ‘Design’ link in the top right of your screen.
    Here is a quick run-down of each of these sections. You may click on each one to see the content associated with them.
    Overview: This will give you some basic statistics on your blog as well as some helpful links (in the Blogger Guide section) to help you be a successful blogger.

    Posts: This is where you can edit or delete past posts.

    Pages: This is an advanced feature you may want to take advantage of in the future. It allows you to have multiple ‘pages’ on your blog. As an example, check out the various pages at the top of my blog at www.transformingleader.org. They include ‘about me‘, ‘services‘, ‘reading lists‘, etc.

    Comments: If your readers comment a lot on various posts, this is where you will go to manage comment options and individual comments.

    Stats: You can find out details about how many people are viewing different posts and when in this section.

    Earnings: This is for professional bloggers and probably not something you need to worry about right now.

    Layout: This is where you will adjust what else is on your blog page besides blog posts. For example, I have several elements in the layout of www.transformingleader.org, like subscription buttons, a general greeting, a search bar, the top 5 posts of the week, etc.

    Template: This is where you will determine what your blog will look like. There are numerous template options to pick from.

    Settings: This section will allow you to make various changes and tweaks to your blog to make it most like what you want it to be like. In particular, you can add authors in this section. For example, if you would like a volunteer or another staff person to be able to post to your blog, you can add their email address here and they will be able to create their own Google account and post to your blog.

    ADJUST THE LAYOUT
    Next you should spend time on your blog’s layout. This includes the various elements on the right side of your first blog. By selecting the ‘edit’ links next to each element you can adjust or remove them. To get you started, I recommend you remove ALL of the elements preinstalled except for ‘Blog Archive’. Next, I suggest you add each of the below elements (or Gadgets) to the right bar.  To add a Gadget, simply select the ‘Add a Gadget’ link. Drag and drop each element to your desired location after you have created each one. I recommend the following order:

    • HTML/Javascript (Welcome
      This will allow you to create your own text. I recommend a short greeting explaining the purpose of your blog. As an example, read the short greeting entitled ‘Welcome to my Blog!’ here at www.transformingleader.org.
    • Follow By Email
      This is very important. It will allow your primary audience to ‘sign-up’ for email updates whenever you create a new blog post.
    • Subscription Links
      Again, very important. This will give your more tech-savvy audience options to subscribe to your blog using a blog reader on their computer or phone.
    • Search Box
      Add the search box so that readers can search through past blog entries using key words. I suggest you only check the first check box. This will keep your readers on your blog when searching.
    • Labels
      Your blog will be much more useful if you begin using labels right from the start. You can always adjust labels for each blog later. For example, you might label upcoming event posts as ‘Events’, devotional thoughts as ‘Inspirational’, and particular topics as most appropriate, like ‘Leadership’, ‘First Impression’, etc. I suggest you uncheck the ‘Show # of posts’ checkbox.
    • Blog Archives
      This section should already be present. It allows your readers to go back and find blogs by date.

    ADJUST THE TEMPLATE (DESIGN)
    Finally, you will want to tweak the design of your ministry blog. You will do this by selecting the ‘Template’ link in your left toolbar. You will see a list of various blog designs and may select different ones to see how they look to you. IMPORTANT: First focus on everything except the background image. In selecting your template you’re looking for things like, “Is the text easy to read?”; “Do I like the design?”; etc. You can CHANGE the actual background image whenever you want.
    To change the background image, simply select the ‘Customize’ button after you have find your favorite template. Next, select the ‘Background’ link and then choose the background image and color scheme of your choice. When finished, select the “Apply to Blog” button at the top right of the screen.
    BEGIN CREATING POSTS
    You will learn best by doing. Begin creating posts and text by clicking the ‘New Post’ button. Always remember to create a Title for your post and 1 or 2 Labels for your post. By experimenting, you will eventually be able to learn how to add and adjust images, format text, etc. As you grow comfortable with creating posts, you will discover advanced features and options as well. For instance, it’s very easy to embed code (like for a video) into your blog by using the HTML button. Don’t forget that you can always delete old posts. You may also create as many Drafts as you want without actually publishing them.

    FINAL COMMENTS

    There is no way that I could explain all of the details of creating and managing a blog in one post. I probably won’t follow up with many other explanations either, since this is not the primary purpose of this blog. However, I think this article will at the very least get you started. I suggest you take your time and slowly get comfortable using Blogger by experimenting and through trial and error. You will also find some great tutorials and more help in Blogger’s Getting Started Guide. Happy blogging!