It’s been awhile since we posted a freebie twitter background. . .since Valentine’s Day.

If you’ve been on Twitter for a bit, you’re background probably hasn’t been changed recently.

Here’s your chance to throw up a fresh look for your Twitter backgdrop.

Just download the free Tweetback image and follow the instructions below to install it on your profile.

If you don’t like this one, there’s plenty of other free Christian Twitter Backgrounds available in our Twitteratti Tuesday Series. . .

RIGHT-CLICK>SAVE LINK AS… to DOWNLOAD this free background image

How to upload a custom background to your Twitter account:

1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design
4. Select a template, change your text and background colors, or upload your new background image
5. Save your changes!

QUESTION: HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR TWITTER BACKGROUND MORE THAN ONCE IN THE PAST YEAR?

Just got my hands on the world’s latest Bible translation of the New Testament: The Voice from Thomas Nelson Publishers – in joint production with the Ecclesia Bible Society, headed by Chris Seay.  For the academics and Bible nerds out there, be warned, you’re in for a ride.

That’s because The Voice is more of a retelling of the Bible for the new generation than a new academic translation of the text.   After the first time you sit down with the Voice Bible, you’ll notice some really distinctive devices that are used:

• screenplay formatting so that you know who’s talking and with what type of tone, attitude or force of message
• color-highlighted text to help readers follow along with what’s going on in the passage
  
• devotional commentary intentionally using modern day language and concepts
  
• explanatory book introductions and notes within chapters gives context and details normally found in footnotes – again put in plain English

The “translation committee” drew from traditional academic scholars, pastors, writers, musicians, poets, and other artists.  The collaborator list includes heavyweights such as Brian McLaren and Leonard Sweet.  They have the standard ivy tower theologians on the list too so that critics can be satiated, or at least rebuffed.  Because of this unusual cast of characters, the final product captures your attention from the first words you read aloud (which by the way is also one of the assumptions in the writing – that it will be read aloud in public settings similar to the oral tradition of the text) whether in public worship, in more intimate bible study groups, or even when you are reading it by yourself.

But sometimes it’s better to see it than hear it.  Here’s an example of just how differently The Voice audaciously retells the story:

THE VOICE TRANSLATION : John 3:16-17

¹⁶ For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. ¹⁷ Here’s the point. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction.

THE NRSV TRANSLATION : John 3:16-17

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

See the difference? Personally, I found this translation refreshing.  While the publisher claims it is written so that it can easily be read aloud, I really like how The Voice is attentive to the reading experience. I did not find myself re-reading parts of a chapter over and over as I do sometimes with other translations.

The Voice Bible which Thomas Nelson sent to me as a review copy was a paperback with heavy off-white pages.  It is well laid out visually.  Even though it has screen play foratting, etc, it reads really well – not one verse at a time for reference, but read — as in sit down and read the book just as if it any of your other narrative books in your library.  And unlike the NIV, this translation is pretty accessible in the fact that it is available for 8 bucks on Amazon right now. (Supposedly all profits also go to missions-based activities/ministries too).

If you like The Voice NT, they are working on the OT translation as we speak.  In fact, you can get the [NT + Psalms + Proverbs] during the summer of 2010 (pre-orders already being taken).

Is this a replacement for your NRSV, ESV or RSV Bible?  Probably not just yet.  But is it a dynamic voice you should add to your casual Bible study praxis or study group discussions? Definitely YES.

QUESTION: What translation of the Bible do you own or carry with you?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a review copy. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

This year’s SuperBowl became the laboratory for a church experiment without many people know about it.

The Doritos crowd-sourcing platform enabled Mosaic Church to gain an instantly wider audience because of broadcast TV’s reach.

Mosaic is not your regular local church — they have access to resources and funding which most other churches don’t.

You can get your church onto TV — even national TV — for as little as $150.00. SERIOUSLY.

But this video reveals something which got me pretty excited — because it really marries both worlds that I have been living in — online marketing via Google Adwords and church ministry.

Because of the targeting and control that enables you to select specific TV programs, this is going to become an increasingly interesting tool that could be an efficient means to spread awareness about your ministry or church to your greater local region.

Google Adwords allows advertisers to control geographic targeting right now to the point where I have been able to restrict exposure of my church advertising campaigns on Google to within 50 miles of our zip code.  If you are located outside of the target zone, you see our ads at all — and I won’t be charged at all.  The same type of geographic control when it is applied to TV ad buying over the Google Ad Network should make it even more enticing for churches.

Watch this video below to see the results of an experiment where they created a single 30-second ad and ran with a $150 ad spot budget:

QUESTION:  Does this make you MORE or LESS interested in church marketing to include TV ad campaigns for local churches?

Do you have a life verse?  What about for your ministry?

Perhaps a resounding metaphor that clearly identifies what your organization is called to in our culture?  Or a visual icon other than a standard logo?

Mustard Seed Generation, led by Dr. Josephine Kim of Harvard with Pastor David Jung, sports a neat visual identity which takes it all and wraps it into the “1 > 99″ textual image.

It’s perfect for t-shirts — take a look!

What I love about this visual representation of Luke 15 is that it takes most people a minute or two to figure out what it is referring to and you can almost see the light bulb turn on over people’s heads.

The neat part about this design is that when you look closer, you’ll see the tiny repeating “lost lost lost lost” and “found found found found” overlapping the “1″ and “99″ on the shirt.

It takes time to find something that speaks to your organizations DNA through and through.  But when you get it, you’ll know and it is a powerful tool to represent all that your ministry is called to do.

Don’t you love it?  Way to go Mustard Seed Generation!

Do you have any neat examples of visual identities for you ministry?  Please share them with us below!

This week, my bible study group kicked off a new 8-week series.

Our group is sitting down with Tim Keller over the next two months to go through The Prodigal God DVD-based study curriculum.  I’m excited since going through the book in a group will most definitely be different than my first read of the book when it first came out.

Our first group discussion already brought out some tangible thoughts and questions to chew on:  Just how do you know if you are really relying upon God for all your needs?  Repentance is a concept easily associated with the younger son’s position, but how can I come to a place of repentance for righteous living?  Do we all need to be able to identify with both sons? . . . and many more.  A lot of the questions started to veer towards how can I ensure that the Gospel is reflected in my life — my daily living?  It’s going to be a great study series for all of us.

But today, I have something to get even more excited about.

I found that latest DVD Bible Study curriculum put out by Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church — and it’s called: GOSPEL IN LIFE!

The materials include the Gospel in Life book by Tim Keller as well as an 8-lesson group study guide curriculum to go along with the book.

This is an intensive 8-session course on the gospel. It will the group members explore and understand how it is lived out in all of life—1st in your heart, 2nd in community, and 3rd out into the world. In each session, Timothy Keller presents a 10 minute teaching segment on the gospel. Session 1 opens the course with the theme of the city: your home now, the world that is. Session 8 closes the course with the theme of the eternal city: your heavenly home, the world that is to come. In between, you will look at how the gospel changes your heart, changes your community, and changes how you live in the world.

Each lesson is broken down into a little over 1 hour each:

• 10 Minutes: A summary of the previous session
• 20 Minutes: the actual Bible study
• 10 Minutes: A teaching video by Timothy Keller
• 25 Minutes: Discussion questions about the message
• 5 Minutes: An introduction to next session’s homework

Session 1: City – The World That Is

Session 2: Heart – Three Ways To Live

Session 3: Idolatry – The Sin Beneath The Sin

Session 4: Community – The Context for Change

Session 5: Witness – An Alternate City

Session 6: Work – Cultivating The Garden

Session7: Justice – A People for Others

Session 8: Eternity – The World that is to Come

QUESTION:  WHAT BIBLE STUDY CURRICULUM ARE YOU CURRENTLY USING IN YOUR SMALL GROUPS? If you have a link to the publisher’s page for it too, please feel free to share it here too!

As many of the readers here at Godvertiser.com know, a big part of my background over the past decade has been in the strategic marketing / e-marketing arena.

I am currently in the midst of refining a new offering within Big Click Syndicate LLC, my consulting and coaching business — aimed at pastors, churches, ministries and non-profit organizations.

While I tinker with how the specific offering will be structured, I have decided to offer some free professional website audits to this target audience.

The twist with the website audit is that I would record it via a video screencast (which is a fancy term for a video recording of my narration while the computer activity on the monitor is recorded for the video) and publish it here on Godvertiser.com for others to benefit from some of the things I choose to highlight.  If will offer specific critique and a wide range of suggestions regarding user experience, branding, online marketing and website search engine optimization.

So here’s where I need your help: Would you be willing to let your ministry/organization website be a quick video case study for online church marketing?

Just fill out this free professional website audit request form.

QUESTION: ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CURRENT WEBSITE?  Yes or No?

It’s FRIDAY!

Yup, another week gone by.

Like most Friday’s, it is a time for a pause and break from the weekly grind, for sure.  Today, I am asking myself some questions which I bring up periodically:

• The year is almost 1/4 over, how have you grown so far?
• Where are you on your New Year’s Resolutions?
• What are you doing differently today than 1 year ago today?

Personally, if I’m not careful with how I live out my daily or weekly life, time flies by like a blur and all of a sudden I realize that I’m in a never ending pattern.  Although it can be a healthy one, most of the time, it can be realized as a rut.

Doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again…and with the sense of purpose lost in the air somewhere back there in the distant past.

So one of my most sacred praxis that I keep is a randomization ritual.  Each month I carve out some time on my calendar and purposefully mix it all up.  Do something different.

We all need some randomness in our lives.   Otherwise, there’s a method to our madness madness to our [repetitious] methods.

Here’s some ideas for what I personally have considered for my own randomization rituals:

• Go out to lunch at a restaurant alone and bring nothing else — No cell phones, no dedicated Twitter devices, no people, no books, no reports, no nothing. Nada. Nunca.  EXCEPT a pad and pen. I eat slowly and observe.  People watch.  Listen carefully to the environment.  And I jot down random observations, thoughts, axioms etc.  I try to avoid at all costs task lists, reminders, to-do’s, etc.  This is a time of reflection & brainstorming.  And oh yeah, don’t order anything you’ve ordered before on that menu.

• Go the library and walk into the non-fiction stacks and start perusing books in a category I have no experience with.  Perhaps it is knitting, aerospace, crock-pot cooking, music genres I don’t normally listen to.  You’ll be amazed how curious your mind becomes when you set it in front of volumes of books just waiting to be picked-up and discovered.  It is not about reading books cover to cover, but browsing, investigating, being inspired not about the technical aspects of the category — I’m not so concerned about remembering the 12 different knitting pattern techniques, but rather more about planting seeds in my head about the creative aspects of the genre.

• Call  and talk to 3 people you have not talked to in 6 months or more.  These conversations are casual, non-intensive, but more importantly, they jog your brain about subjects, themes, interests, and ideas that were alive in me in the past.  Some of those ideas should stay dead and buried of course! but more times than not, these talks ignite old ideas reincarnated to help you with your future.

• Write a thank you note.  Yup, this is so old school that some of you readers might get offended.  Just to be clear, I am in fact suggesting that you use a physical writing instrument and get a note card out (for some, that means you’ll have to physically go out and buy some at the stationery store, but you have to do it!) to share the blessings you’ve received from someone else’s actions, words, or presence.  The easy way out is to send it to someone you know closely.  Here, I challenge you to write a thank you note to those who are in your sphere of influence, but to people would never in a million years expect something in the mail from you.  If you want to go a step further, write to someone who doesn’t know you personally – like a public figure, a speaker you heard at a conference, or guest speaker at church.  How about the head of a company regarding a recent positive experience with one of their employees?  You would think that writing a thank you note to someone who is technically a stranger is the easiest of the categories, but it’s not.  Your brain actually works harder to think about who to write, what to write and how to say it.  In the end though, this is more for you than for the recipient.  Going through this process reverses so much of the hard-wired processes we use on a daily basis.  It will loosen up that sludge in your brain and get your creativity going.  I promise you.  Plus I have never heard of someone getting offended for receiving a thank you note.  Have you? WARNING: thank you emails, text messages or tweets don’t count!
  

As you can see, they don’t need to be time intensive or cost intensive at all.  But you can bet that the benefits will be intensive changes to your life as you continue to infuse randomization rituals into your weekly or monthly routines.

What other ideas do you have for randomization rituals? Please share some new ideas with me so I can try them out in my own life! Leave one or two ideas in the comments below.

As of now, there are 48 fully online churches that exist in the world like www.liquidchurch.com and www.lifechurch.tv.

Full-fledged online communities complete with pastoral leadership and ministry leaders specifically attending to the online participants around the world.  “Online Church Pastor” is new title for many people to find out about.

CNN apparently has recently discovered that thousands of people are gathering online in community via the Internet.

Like many CNN segments, this one is cursory in nature, but at least it helps introduce the masses to this new, but fully-here-to-stay permutation of doing church:

What do you think was the takeaway which the public got from this TV segment? Is it an accurate portrayal of doing church online? Leave your thoughts in a comment below please!

Perhaps the Protestants *do* have something learn from the Vatican even after breaking away a long time ago.

First Pope Benedict XVI said to his troops, go ahead and blog away!

Next he launched his own YouTube channel – called Pope2You (gotta love that!)

If you’re a Pope that’s hip with YouTube, you’re obviously already on Facebook.

And what ultra-hip clergy would be without his own Pope Iphone App?

If these were not evidence that the Catholic Church has embraced the digital sanctuary and church online, here’s another dose of example of how the Vatican sees technology’s usefulness and validity in the expression of faith:

Every year, over 1 million of the 5 million people in Costa Rica make a yearly pilgrimage to the Nuestra Señora de los Angeles Basilica in Cartago.  But with H1N1 making the rounds, the country’s top health official banned the pilgrimage last year.  What did the Catholic Church do?

Nope, they didn’t protest (well, of course they did a little).

But instead, they embraced technology and launched www.romeriavirtual.com to that hundreds of thousands could still participate in the 288 year old religious ritual — and still do it in community.

Participants log in, upload a photo, choose their own walking feet/shoes and make the pilgrimage online amidst thousands of others doing it at the same time, sharing all the while to the destination, Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Our Lady of the Angels Basilica):

The H1N1 threat has subsided enough that the offline pilgrimage is back on this year, but what’s happened is that a virtual version has been birthed and will continue as this new tradition evolves and becomes part of the annual rite now involving participants from around the world.

You might say that, faith really does have no boundaries — at least in this case!

If you’re involved with ministry on a daily basis, you know that sometimes you need a breath of fresh air once in awhile.

This is what the AHA! web conference look like it is going to be.

It is a free conference that is webcast just like The Nines, recently put on 09/09/09 by Leadership Network.

They’re back, but this time it’s 40 speakers providing 40 great aha! moments.

So sign-up and clear out next Wednesday March 3rd on your calendar.

Here’s why you should register now:

• It’s FREE.
• It’s a one-day event, no need to kill your week or weekend
• Instead of just one or a couple of people going to a conference, you can make it an group event in your church or ministry org.  Put it up on the big screen and inspire everyone on your team!
• Did I mention, it’s FREE?
• It’s efficient — you get to hear great content from FORTY leaders in our field in one place.

Are you planning to register?  Please leave a comment with which of the 40 speakers interests you the most right now