daveferguson.org

www.facebook.com/daveferguson is mine!

At 11:00 pm tonight they allowed people to get a user address on facebook.  I got on early enough I was able to get www.facebook.com/daveferguson  It may not seem like a big deal...but I'm pretty happy!

Explanation of Why We Love Social Media

 

Great NEW Features at www.communitychristian.org!

I'm excited to announce some major additions to communitychristian.org -- Now all registered users can participate in a virtual community together, share photos, create and join groups, send messages, engage in discussion, and generally have a good time. Find out what other attenders are up to, create a private group for your small group to stay in touch, or meet new people from your campus! Whatever your flavor, there's something for everyone at communitychristian.org/connect.  For more information on all the cool feature click HERE.

Many of these new features are inspired by social networking websites like Facebook, so you'll instantly recognize many of these enhancements. And while we don't aspire to become a private version of Facebook, we do hope that these features will allow our attenders a chance to connect both online and offline in a private, protected community. Every user can manage their own privacy levels, but by default no user profile can be viewed except by registered users.  If you create a profile you can do a lot of cool things:

• Update your status so everyone else knows what you're doing.
• Add friends so you can keep in touch (make sure you add me!)
• Join a campus group and find out what's happening at your location.
• Create a group of your own for your small group or a common interest and find people like you.
• Upload your photos and share the pics you took with everyone.
• Add applications to your profile like an RSS feed from your blog or your Twitter account.
• Write on someone's wall to let them know you've been thinking about them.

Another cool new feature is a user forum for our attenders to network with each other: Classifieds, Want Ads, Donations, Job Listings, Resumes and more.  At least initially, these forums are in response to a need to help attenders find work, ask for help, and exchange business contact info. So tell all your leaders: We have a place for people to go and network on communitychristian.org 

Is Twitter for Guys & Facebook for Girls?

    I got a hunch and here it is: facebook is more for girls and that twitter is more for guys.  Not sure why, but it's a hunch. It started when my wife Sue told me that she wanted to watch the final episode of The Bachelor tonight.  So I complained to all my friends on twitter in 140 characters or less, "my wife just explained to me how she will be watching the 2 hour Bachelor finale tonight...look for me on twitter."  Since I have my twitter automatically update my facebook status it showed up there too.  I had a hunch that I would get a reaction from people by whining about The Bachelor. What I didn't expect is that the comments and responses I got would reveal something else about these two favorite types of social networking.  Here's is what I noticed:

• I got 17 responses on facebook and 16 of the responses were from women (most declaring their love for The Bachelor) 
• I got 11 responses on twitter and 9 of them were male (all in favor of anything other than the Bachelor)

So my hypothesis is that there are a higher percentage of women who utilize facebook and that there are a higher percentage of men that are on twitter.  Agree?  Disagree?  Why?   Is there any research out there to support this?

I've Never Got So Much Credit For Doing So Little!

One of the things that occurs when you are the Lead Pastor of a large church is that you often get credit for things you with which you have very little to do.  People will tell me, "You have amazing programs in Kids City" or "I love what you are doing with students" or "where do you get all those great musicians" or "what you are doing in under-resourced communities is so inspiring".  I think all those things are true, but I have little to do with why each of those ministries is so terrific.  We have some amazing staff and leaders that make it all happen! 

So, I'm used to getting credit when I don't really deserve it.  But perhaps never before have I received so much credit and done so little, as to when it comes to the 365 CLUB.  If you haven't got the scoop, I basically bought three cups of coffee for some workers in a FedEx Kinko's just to be kind and they really liked it! I put that on my twitter and facebook status and Scott Couchenour read about it and started a facebook group called the 365 CLUB.  The 365 CLUB challenges people to do one act of kindness everyday.  Well, there are already over 9,000 members who have committed to doing more than 3 million acts of kindness in 2009.  That is cool!  The crazy part is that I have done interviews for radio stations all across the country and also in London, England and Auckland, New Zealand.  And today, this article: 365 CLUB Spreading Kindness Across The World Via Facebook ran in the Sunday edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

It's a God-thing.  Only God can take three cups of coffee and turn it into 3 million acts of kindness.

LEAD Conference LIVE on the Planting Channel

If you can't be in St. Louis for the LEAD Conference, don't worry - you can watch all the main sessions LIVE on streaming video through the Planting Channel.  It all starts on Tuesday, October 21st at 9:15 CST with Darrin Patrick (great leader, who loves church planting!) session on Gospel-Centered Repentance.  The Planting Channel (which includes a NewThing Channel) was created to bring you the best in online training for the reproducing church.

Community Christian Church Facebook Fan Page

Community Christian Church now has a facebook fan page.  So, if you are on facebook and a fan of CCC, you should join now!  Second to the CCC website, it is a great way to get the inside scoop on all the stuff happening at CCC and it's an awesome way to interact with other fans of CCC.  And while you are on facebook, check out my facebook home page.

Twitter- Lost & Found?

I have become a big advocate of Twitter over the last several months.  It is a great way to share what is going on with others and find out the latest from friends, Chicago sports writers and even the CEO of Twitter.  But in the last 24 hours Twitter has mysteriously lost about about 10 of the people that I follow and about 100 of the people that follow me.  So, if you were lost and want to be found, click HERE to follow me. 

Pownce? Anybody Using It?

I'm always interested in new technology.  I'm totally loving Twitter, facebook and blogging. But is anyone using Pownce? And if you are using it; how are you using it?

Wanna Twitter?

A few months ago I started twittering. What?  It's like a mini-blog that allows you to post quickly throughout the day and to easily follow others too.  Now some of you are thinking, "doesn't this guy have anything better to do?"  Good question; but new technology fascinates me. and I like to stay on the edge if possible. If some of you who are a part of Community or NewThing and are interested in twittering, let me know. I'd like to see if this technology really enhances community or not. And if you are interested in following my twitter, click HERE.

Conference Channel Hosting WhiteBoard

Just because I'm in SoCal doesn't mean that I have to miss the WhiteBoard Conference taking place back on the east coast.  Thanks to the genius of Todd Wilson you can now check out WhiteBoard on Conference Channel.  The amazing technology of Conference Channel will allow you to watch the conference, catch behind the scene video interviews, twitter and interact with people while sitting in front of your computer in your underwear.  So, click HERE and enjoy!

How Do You Use Twitter?

Ok, I've been playing on Twitter for about four or five months.  I have a bunch of people that are following me, but I haven't started following anyone yet  So, those of you that are using Twitter, how are you using it?  What are the practical benefits of Twitter?  Teach me.

CCC videos on Nightline tonight!

I just got a voice mail from Eric Bramlett telling me that Tom Greever (CCC's video guy) got a phone call from ABC Television saying that they are doing a special on GodTube.com tonight on Nightline.  They said it will include the Christian vs. Christ-Follower videos. This series of videos has had more than a million total hits so far! They already have a preview on their site which includes our Mac/PC parody and also Dan Smiths parody Baby Got Book.  Funny stuff!  So if you get a chance to check it out on Nightline let me know what you think.

10.19.07 edit:  I watched Nightline last night and did not see our videos...??  But if you check out the ABC News website it is showing the Christian vs. Christ-Follower video.  Still cool.

Is Everybody Getting A Facebook Account?

About 3-4 months ago I got a Facebook account.  At first it was pretty dead and my daughter Amy was my only friend.  But it seems like in the last month everyone who I have ever heard of from blogging is now on Facebook.  It's like I can feel the momentum of this social utility growing.  True?  If you have a Facebook account and are reading this...let's connect via Facebook.

Time magazine had an interesting interview with Mark Zuckerberg (see pic), the 23 year old CEO of Facebook in an article:  The Future of Facebook.  He says they have been doubling their membership every 6 months for quite a while.  The article also says there are now 30 million active members.  So, it's not just my imagination...Facebook is really booming!

CCC - #7 America's Most Innovative Churches

About 6 weeks ago I told you we got a call from Outreach Magazine wanting to talk with us about some the innovative ways we are doing church at Community Christian Church. In the process they hinted that we would be on the list of the the top 25 most innovative churches.  Well, I just got an e-mail from Eric Bramlett telling me that Outreach published their list and Community Christian Church is #7.  It's kind of like being the 13th Most Influential Church in America - I'm not sure it really means anything...but I hope it means something.  You know?

Since I just found out I haven't read the article, but I will.  After I get a chance to read it I'll give you my take.  But for now take a look at the list, read the article and let me know what you think.  If you want to read the article, click HERE.  If you want to check out their top 25 list, click HERE.

"Pod Preacher" in Crain's Chicago Business

Crain's Chicago Business has a section titled On The Clock where they highlight different business leaders.   I mentioned that they did a phone interview and a quick photo shoot with me a couple weeks ago.  Anyway the article came out today and is titled Pod Preacher.  They thought it was cool that we do a podcast and they ran with it.  In the article they give me credit for the podcast.  The truth is that our podcast includes the teaching of Jon, Tim and myself and it's Eric that does all the tech work and gets it on the web.  The podcast is the audio of the shortfilm that we produce every week as one of our teaching products on the BIG IDEA.  If you want to read the article you can click HERE.  If you are interested, you can subscribe to the CCC podcast by clicking HERE. 

"First Christian Viral Videos"

A couple months ago during our Christian No More series we produced four "Mac vs. P.C" parody videos.  Eric has been doing a good job of keeping many of you in the know.  But for those of you out the loop the first of the four videos has now recieved more than 132,000 views and they are being called the "first Christian viral videos in the online era". In case you haven't been following this it has created quite a bit of conversation (some good and some not).  Throughout this little controversy the CCC staff has stayed out of the discussion.  Tom Greever, CCC's Media Arts Director who produced the videos decided to do an interview with MicroExplosion and explained his take on the videos.  Tom did a great job.  If you are interested in the interview, click HERE.

Interview with Crain's Business Chicago

Something a little different today.  I was interviewed by Crain's Business Chicago for the On The Clock feature.  They seemed very surprised and interested that a church would have a podcast and produce a shortfilm every week.  I guess maybe it is different; it just seems normal around here. 

On The Clock is a once a week feature where they do a profile on a Chicago business leader.  Usually it profiles a person with a career that is a little different than your average business person. Last week it was Jay Congdon who is President and one of the disc jockeys for Fourth Estate Audio. The week before that it was Edith Vosefski who is the founder and owner of The Etiquette School of Northern Illinois.  So I'm not sure how you jump from DJ to manners to pastor, but they did.  It should be published in the next couple weeks. 

Can I Get A Translator?

There is a blog titled Perjalanan Kehidupan that has a link to my post U2's Bono on Celebrity, Jesus,  Africa and More.  There are several blogs that have linked to this post of Bono quotes, but this one has me curious because it is not in English and I have no clue what they are saying.  So, is there a translator out there that can tell me what this person is saying on their post Inovasi Baru?  Leave a comment.

Kirsten Strand is Blogging!

I want to welcome Kirsten Strand to the blogosphere!  Kirsten is the Director of Community Development Ministries at Community Christian Church and provides leadership for our dynamic Community 4:12 ministry. 

Kirsten is a passionate leader ready to risk it all for the Jesus mission (loving God and loving people) and you will be inspired by reading her blog.