What's Up Archives - Page 12 of 42

Did You Get a Letter From Me?

You might be asking, “What do I do with this?”

You were one of 100 letters mailed out in the last few weeks. You might be a church, individual, or business. Whoever you are, here are some suggestions on what to do with that letter:

Pray as I serve in this transition between working a day job and working full-time ministry with WorldVenture. In the midst of raising a full years support to be cleared to serve with WorldVenture, I am also working on necessary reports for 2019 social media strategy, managing The Bible Study Project, and setting up Roots Writers and Social Media Critique Group as its own entity as I co-lead it with Sherry Rossman. I’m also attending conferences and keeping up with education to stay relevant in social media.
Consider support. Please. Most non-profits do not have someone JUST doing their social media. Most people running a non-profits social media are also doing other things, like pastoring. This supported-staff position with WorldVenture enables WorldVenture to jump into the world of digital discipleship in partnership with you. You would be helping a missionary organization. Whatever the Lord puts on your heart whether that is $8/month or $100/month. Click here to begin that process. Or, feel free to check me out. Contact WorldVenture. Email me to set up a video conference or invite me out to meet you. I am willing to travel. You are also helping the 500 plus workers and partner churches, allies, and individuals understand digital discipleship.
Support us because digital discipleship shouldn’t be an individual effort. We should work together to share the Gospel with unreached people groups. The sooner I get to full-time ministry, the sooner work can begin to develop these things. My time is limited now to before or after a 40-hour a week day job.

Thank you for your anticipated support. Thank you for your prayers. Don’t forget to sign up to receive my prayer newsletter.

3 Ways We Are Limiting Ourselves

When someone like Bill Gates presents a list of books he is reading this summer, people pay attention. More importantly, his choices influence others towards his worldview. The church, in general, according to some sources are losing its influence on the world. This trend can change, but only if we stop limiting ourselves.

Fast Company wrote,

“One of the world’s most revered painters and thinkers was largely self-taught and didn’t let the technological restrictions of 500 years ago limit his conjectures about how the world around him might work.” Bill Gates suggested a book about Leonardo DaVinci. Recently, a pastor at a local church shared his own book suggestions.

Pastors and people like me are expected to share what they are reading, even our faith journeys through reading the Bible, but as I explore digital discipleship and talk to people about supporting WorldVenture by supporting my position within WorldVenture, I find unusual roadblocks in sharing the vision of digital discipleship.

People get an opportunity to share their faith and, like handling a hot potato, try to give it to someone else more qualified quickly. Maybe they doubt their own capabilities and lack some confidence? My typical response: Trust in the Holy Spirit to give you an answer in your conversations. There’s no harm in saying, “Let me get back to you on that.” Come to the conversation as a learner, too. Learn together. Friend them online. You don’t need to have all the answers right now.
Ageism. A recent article about Liv Tyler reported how she feels like a second-class citizen in Hollywood. The roles for top movies go to much younger actresses. 32 and 38-years of age are considered “old” according to that article. Age and how people view age affect even the church. Our Senior Adults hold a special place in my heart. We are quickly losing their wisdom as the age gap widens between them and the younger crowd. Social Media gives our Senior Adults an opportunity to remind their grandchildren and “spiritual children” about their faith journeys and that God is indeed real and alive. When the topic is brought up about social media, many back away from it. Social sites like Facebook and Instagram are not just a way to see what the others are doing, but a chance to interact, share our faith and have real conversations. Refrain from automatically hitting the share button. Share your story. Be you. Be personal. Learn how to be discerning in what you share.
“We’ve Always Done it This Way Before.” In the article by Fast Company, the quote that struck me the most was how Leonardo Da Vinci, “…didn’t let the technological restrictions of 500 years ago limit his conjectures about how the world around him might work.” Many digital discipleship programs are showing up on the web. The church doesn’t lack the opportunities to learn digital discipleship, but many, many ministry leaders all share the same roadblocks to mobilizing their church. Social media is polarizing. People go from anger to apathy regarding its use in missions and evangelism. I’m interested in teaching our partner churches, allies, and individuals to team up with their church and have their church team up with WorldVenture (or other missionary organization) for a massive movement of discipleship–unity in one purpose. Teaching the solid Christians within the church, mobilizing the retired missionaries to think about serving from home using that knowledge they have gained, and connecting those who know a second language. Don’t limit yourself. Continue to live with hands open to whatever and wherever God leads you.

Bill Gates shares his summer reading list. A pastor or worker may share their reading list, thus creating solid, online conversations. What about sharing your reading list this year? What about sharing what you are learning to tease out some conversation about tough topics? The world is changing. Church and missionary organization should work together for greater results. Tap into the knowledge of social media experts and start with the small stuff.

Your first step should be in prayer.

**If you feel led to support this work, please go to this link to start your financial partnership today. You can also use the contact form here to send me a message and arrange a meeting to talk more about this supported staff role. I am only at 34% support. I cannot serve this new role with WorldVenture without full funding. Help me and you help WorldVenture and its workers. Contact me for a full list of duties this new role has for me to do.

2 Reasons a Video Matters

“How can a video like THAT get a thousand views?!” My husband punched the next button on Youtube after growling out his protest. The video’s title indicated a subject about a trail. Little of the trail was actually shown. Most of the video was a selfie of someone talking, his face taking up the whole screen.

Lesson here?

If you log into your own Youtube account, you’ll see the actual view time of one of your created videos. According to Cynthia Hoppe of Mobile Ministry Forum and other sources, videos need to be 2 minutes or less.

“This breaks my heart a bit, as I was in a classic literature program during my university days, and the Torrey Honor’s Institute gave me a strong respect and appreciation for dusty tomes of wisdom. I love literature. But with literature, in particular, there has been very little serious effort to translate Aristotle, Plato, Dostoyevsky, Spencer, Chesterton or Augustine into engaging popular level, 2-minutes-or-less videos. Which in turn, makes it very difficult for me to share compelling insights from those works with my peers.”

According to Cynthia’s article from here, video is becoming more influential than text. Her article indicates that…

Videos mean 1200% more shares. Shares are viewed in marketing terms, but from a discipleship viewpoint, it’s great for building your own personal brand. Brand is a fancy term for, “the core of who you are.” More shares means fostering relationships and meaningful discussion.
Viewers, Hoppe says, retain 95% of the message compared to 10% in text.

Two minutes or less is not a lot of time, but if you follow Strunk and White’s Element of Style, whatever material you write, eliminate unnecessary words. Learn to to tell the visual story of your church, your faith, and help people come to know the hope you have within.

And this isn’t just positive talk or some New Age hype, but sharing the hope visually and meaningfully through video or photography with some words can be an effective way to share the Gospel.

3 Reasons Why You Should Get Involved in Social Media

I shared with 50 women at Grace Baptist Church’s Women’s Luncheon on May 5:

Pastors of less than 100 congregants are usually bi-vocational.
When a pastor says he is part-time, he is being paid for part-time, but working full time.
Depending on where you get your data, there is 1 missionary for every 200,000 to 400,000 people. That is a lot of friend requests on Facebook. It is difficult to give that many people (if not impossible) quality interaction.
The church is still polarized regarding social media.
Average 300-people churches don’t have a large staff. Therefore, it is difficult for one pastor to do both discipleship and run a church by himself.
Shared about my new role with WorldVenture. It is not uncommon for non-profit organizations to have their social media person do multiple duties. This supported position is important as my duties focus solely on social media and technology, including mobilizing the church to serve online in missions alongside WorldVenture.
A generation gap is widening. In our post-Christian generation, we need our Senior Adults online more than ever.

Here are the main 3 reasons to get involved with social media and technology:

Missions need all of us involved in discipleship. Every Bible-believing church. Every solid Christian.
Lack of discernment and vision is destroying American Christianity. American Christianity is losing influence. With only 7-20% of Americans measurably active in their Christian faith and Bible illiteracy reining, using social media for teaching and discipling is a priority.
People move from different countries. They have retired from missions. They know a second or third language. Family relationships are international. People in church like this are important for online discipleship and sharing of the Gospel.

**To ask me to speak to your church, please email me or leave a comment. You can send a comment through here: www.worldventure.com/nhahn.

Book Discussion: The Downfall of American Christianity

The first police cruiser pulled up in front of the park, followed by another police officer striding across the lawn. Two men lay beneath a tree, curled around their belongings, on top or near their own human excrement. I sat on the park bench across the way with the book, Hope of Nations opened in front of me, distracted by the scene unfolding. At the encouragement of both police officers, the two men eventually stumbled off in two different directions. It’s not exactly Mayberry here.

Every day there are real-life illustrations of Hope of Nations’ sentence on page 24, “A post-truth society is the only logical end of a post-Christian society.” Some of the points he brought up so far:

American college professors prefer not to hire Christians.
Journalists are not reporting news through the lens of ideologies.
Both Democrats and Republicans are struggling in a “truth-based war of ideologies” within their own parties.
Experts say America is 70% Christian. His sources indicate there are actually only 7-20% of meaningfully active Christians in America.
Most people don’t know the history of Christianity.

But, it was his chapter of 1938 Germany that struck me the most. On November 9, 1938, the Night of Crystal exploded in Germany. Formerly peace-loving Germans burned 260 synagogues, destroyed 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses, and mobs of architects, professors, brick-layers, etc murdered dozens of individual Jews. Wilhelm, Corrie Ten Boom’s brother saw Nazi Germany coming because he understood the power of ideas. Christians need to understand the power of ideas and see what they read through the lens of ideologies.

At this moment in time, the power of ideas stream through your social media, manipulated by people schooled in marketing and communication. All have an agenda, even the groups we agree with politically. However, Christians can take back that power by making the Christian ideology more important than their own agendas through online sharing of the hope we have in Christ with people who don’t have a relationship with Him.

But first, are we someone people can trust? Are we discerning in what we post? Do we exercise self-control in how we respond or react online? Are we researching what we post before we post? Don’t take this lightly. If we always post or send information that later becomes disproven by other websites, how can people trust what we say when we talk about Bible verses and Christ? This went through my mind as I sat in the park, reading this book.

Watching the second man stumble away from the tree, a slave to his next high or his next drink, I wondered what decisions and circumstances brought him there? If Hope of Nations says only 7-20% of Christians are measurably active in their faith, and growth of Christian ideology in the future will be the result of births, not conversions, it’s urgent the Church body step up in this age of social media and technology. Thom Rainer said it on his blog that real church growth happens when a church is focused on evangelism. Otherwise, he said, it’s just a recirculation of the saints going from church to church.

Let’s change this.

Learn more about what I do and how you can support a missionary organization: www.worldventure.com/nhahn. Book given by the publisher to review.

Book Discussion: Hope of Nations by @JohnSDickerson

“They (Oxford Dictionary) noted that our society now defines truth by feelings rather than by facts.” John S. Dickerson “Hope of Nations”

Reading books on culture and being in culture helps a person serve online. I rarely read introductions in a book, but this one is necessary. When Dickerson spoke about a parent bringing his child to a bondage sex fair in California and how morality has shifted, becoming skewed, I see that every day online (in Facebook groups most notably). The past solid Christians are aging out of influence. Dickerson’s generation will see a rise in brutality and violence. What can we do now?

Read the Bible. Seek to understand and apply it both to your online and face-to-face world.
Explore why you feel a lack of urgency for your community and the world to know Christ.
Audit your social media. Is it an accurate depiction of you and your faith walk? Are you having real conversations with people online? Or are you hitting the share button more than the comment button? Are you reflecting Christ in your responses or reactions to others? Are you expecting unbelievers to live as believers? Are you thinking like a missionary?
Living out your faith is being different than your culture. Are you allowing sin in your life? Are you understanding who God is and seeking His face?
It’s the little things, too, that make a difference. Unbelievers do acts of kindness. You could say it’s a trend. What makes our acts of service and kindness different than others? What makes us different?
Serve online. God has given us this great tool to further love others. The church is still grappling with social media and feels a love/hate relationship with it. Add to this the marketing tactics used by Christians to sell a product, like cloaking a number to make it look like a local one, is not a good testimony. Jesus doesn’t need marketing help. He needs us to live in obedience to His calling in our lives. Reflecting this online is powerful.
Make time for people you don’t know on and offline.

I stopped reading this book for now because you can’t read a book like this without a highlighter. More blogs on this book later!

*Book given by publisher to review.

Active Online Ministries

The Bible Study Project

Consider joining, or starting one and be listed on this website. Click here.

Roots Writers and Social Media Critique Group

The website was formerly under Cataclysm Missions Intl LLC. It is now under my new digital discipleship role. The website is located here, but it will be updated later this week with the same information as on the previous website. It will always have a link here directing you to their own website. It has its own brand. I co-lead it with Sherry Rossman. You can find her website here.

Saying Goodbye

Today, I began the process of ending a ministry I began in 2014 called, Cataclysm Missions Intl LLC. The bank account will be closing this week. I’ve closed all its social media. The website will be taken down. Incorp, my registered agent, is doing the paperwork to terminate the LLC with the State of Arizona. Like a pattern for a new outfit, I created it to show WorldVenture what digital discipleship could look like, and now it has accomplished that mission. I say goodbye to it with peace in my heart.

My new role with WorldVenture can be read here: www.worldventure.com/nhahn.

I will write more about it. Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures from Saturday’s speaking engagement at Grace Baptist Church in Chino Valley, Arizona.

3 Takeaways From The Big Idea

Church Communications partnered with Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee to create The Big Idea Conference. A conference for church communicators. Because church communications bleed into other job titles, like people who work with and for other ministry organizations, I felt it was worth it to attend as a WorldVenture worker.

The swag bag was excellent. Any technologist would smile at the contents:

A mug. Everyone knows coffee is part of what makes us creative and awake.
An idea book that became my new vision book to scribble in.
A key chain.
And a gadget I am sure will come in handy with my phone.

Networking with other communicators was helpful. The breakout sessions were great. I was texting our pastor and WorldVenture ideas that came from the breakout sessions and speakers. Facebook’s Nona Jones was useful especially when one considers Facebook’s recent publicity. From the speakers and breakout sessions, I came away with ideas and revelations:

Nona’s speech reminded me that God is corraling all the techies in the world. Without any word ahead of time, we are on the same page as far as digital discipleship.
Old sermons can be useful. Create short “sound bites” with words to create online discussions.
Senior Adults need to get involved in their church’s online activity. Our younger generation needs them. Some churches are not moving forward because of how new digital discipleship still is in the traditional church world. We need our solid Bible teachers online in this era of Bible illiteracy. We need “grandparents”.

The new vision will be announced during the Women’s Luncheon on May 5 at Grace Baptist Church in Chino Valley, Arizona.

3 Mistakes in My Blogging Journey

In 2015, I ended my blog. For years I built it up as a book review and personal blog site, oftentimes pouring my heart out on the screen, hoping someone might care. I met a lot of people in the blogging community, and some I am still friends with online. Today, I permanently deleted my blog.

Years ago, I had printed off the old blog so the work was not wasted. The old book reviews remain on Amazon. The great articles and guest blogs are gone. More importantly, I began a new brand in 2015 and God continues to expand that vision as a worker with WorldVenture.

Here is what I learned from my first blog:

Organize your menu simply. Make it easy to find the articles. I kept re-branding my blog every couple of years, creating a mess on my menu.
No Regrets. I have no regrets about any blogs I wrote. The pain was immense. Finding comfort in the Christian blogging community was like breathing in the fresh mountain air. For those considering blogging your heart, consider the people around you. Do you have self-control and boundaries and legal knowledge to blog smart? Will blogging your heart help you with the situation or hinder your healing? Not many Ann Voskamp’s exist today. When the blog became more about writing and book reviews, I should have begun a new blog.
Website Name Matters. I called it thewritelife2. I wish I had used my name for easier Google searches or used a name to create a sense of place on the website. But, then I was a newbie at the whole website and social media thing.

To those of you who followed my blog regularly, your friendship inspired me. I hope you are enjoying my new direction.