• Top 200 Online Resources on Preaching
• Top 200 Online Resources on Leadership
• Top 300 Online Resources on Counseling
• Top 60 Online Resources for Battling Porn
• Top 70 Online Resources on the Psalms
  
• Top 200 Online Resources on Christ in the Old Testament
• Top 60 Online Resources on Abortion
• Top 20 Online Resources on Christ in Proverbs

You may also want to look at my list of Top 10 Books On Using Technology.

Top 40 Online Resources on Using Social Media In Ministry

Facebook and the call to ministry

A digital dictionary for leaders

10 digital commandments

The Christian Leader in the Digital Age

Leading Distracted People

10 Tips for Leaders who Don’t Want to Become Self-Promoting Jerks Online

Twitter as a Leadership Tool

Social Tools, Better Leadership

Not Tweeting? Repent!

A Post-website World

The Tweeting Disciple

The Discipline of Secrecy and the Joy of Honoring Others

Social Media and Christian Ministry: Reaching the World for the Kingdom of God

Using Social Media in Your Church

7 Ways to Think Differently About Your Church Social Media Content

4 Things a Pastor Should Consider Before Engaging Social Media

7 Ways Social Media Makes Pastoring More Difficult

Facebook Etiquette: Why Quitting Social Media Is a Losing Proposition

What Your Facebook Updates Say About You, Your Faith, and Your Mental Health

Five Questions We Should Ask Ourselves Before Posting on Social Media

Don’t Let Social Media Destroy Your Marriage

Why Pastors Should Blog

The Dangers of Online Christianity

Pastors: #rethink your Instagram

Pondering a Digital Future

The Plastic Fruit of Online Living

The Digital World Of Teens

The Pastor’s Guide to Blogging

A web of wisdom

A Social Media Heart Check

The 6 Essential Social Media Skills of Leaders

Using Common Media for Church Growth

12 Social Media Tips For Church Leaders

Social Media Changes Everything

Your Best Image Now

Posting Strategy for Social Media

The Best Social Media Tip I Can Give You

Facebook, Privacy and Marital Oneness

The Ultimate List of Social Media Policies for Churches & Ministries

Social Media Best Practices

The Perils and Promise of Social Media by Collin Hansen

Social Media and Digital Discernment

Social Media: Blessing or Curse? 

5 Things to Do Before You Leave Your Church
Thabiti gives advice on how to close the door gently. And once you’ve left, here are 7 Things to Look for in a Church.

10 Surprising Social Media Statistics
Some of these really are staggering.

How Monk Mode is the Key to Insane Productivity
The most productive people structure solitude into their working lives.

35 Lessons from 35 Years as a Pastor
Tom Ascol: “As I recently reflected on the last thirty-five years I wrote down some lessons learned and convictions I’ve come to or continued to hold. Here are thirty-five of them.”

The Godward Struggle of Ordinary Parenting
Been there. Am still there.

In 6 Tips for the Social Media Loudmouth, Christian social media expert, Nathan Bingham, says:

Remember, social media—by definition—is intended to be social. Social media is in many respects akin to an online dinner party or market square of ideas and dialogue. So whether you’re an organisation, business, church, ministry, or an individual, if you want to use social media well you’re going to have to be social, present, listening.

If social media is sociable, that means:

1. Make it two-way
Don’t be just a broadcaster. Follow others, comment on others, interact with others, reply to others, encourage others. Erik Qualman said: “You will attract more followers digitally in two days than you will in two months if you show interest in them versus trying to get them interested in you.”

2. Reveal
One area that requires a bit of trial and error is how much to reveal about your own personal life or church life. Some let it all hang out, while others prefer to be a “Reformed Robot,” a stoical humanoid like Dr. Spock. This is something I’ve found very hard to get right, and I’ve probably tended to err on the privacy side of things.

In face-to-face conversation, we don’t just talk theology. Rather, we usually reveal a bit about ourselves and expect others to do the same. Transparency and honesty builds relationship and trust. Ed Stetzer testifies that “on countless occasions, young pastors have thanked me for blogging and tweeting about my family and how I prioritize them. Many listen more readily to me because they feel they know me already.”

However, also consider the impact on your family. Not just baby scans, but pregnancy tests, nappy and potty pictures are now routinely shared online. In Parents, do you think before you post? Jen Wilkins suggests “imagining a 13-year-old version of them reading over your shoulder.” “Ask yourself,” she says, “Does it provide short-term gratification for you or honor long-term relationship with them?” Tell your story without compromising theirs. Same goes for your congregational details. Not everything is for everyone.

3. Add value.
As in all social situations, ask, “What can I add to people’s lives?” rather than just adding to the hub-bub and noise. Some easy options for pastors to get started in blogging are sermon summaries, sermon snippets, or sermon discussions. Or you could try a reading plan where you work through a book in an online community. You could write historical or theological articles, or you could make it more practical, evangelistic, or topical.

Even when you do find your niche, it’s a good idea to break the mold from time to time. Just as you do in ordinary conversation, mix it up by varying frequency, length, and subjects of posts, Tweets, and updates. Experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.

4. Learn from experts.
Again, as in ordinary social life, we learn from people we admire. In The Digital Leader, Erik Qualman wrote:

Determine a digital leader you admire. Spend at least 20 minutes a day watching his or her activity. Pay attention to: Who is he conversing with? What topics does she post and in what tone? Why does he post? When does she post? Where does he post and what tools or sites does he use? The best digital mentor is generally someone that is in your industry or shares similar interests—someone that you find intriguing. Learn from these mentors and practice what they are doing.

The three men I’ve learned the most from, and continue to do so, are Tim Challies, Justin Taylor, and Nathan Bingham.

5. Be accountable
We’ve all driven home from social occasions with a silent wife (or husband). “Okay,” you eventually ask, “What did I do/say wrong this time?” Similarly we need loving accountability in our social media use. In A Social Media Heart Check Tim Challies explains how you can access all your Facebook activity at a glance – what you’ve seen, people you’ve searched for, comments left, things “liked,” etc. He suggests sitting down with your wife and reviewing this regularly. And with all your social media he proposes the following questions:

• Ask for input from family, friends, elders. What impression am I creating. Is it real, helpful?
• Am I “present” when I am present?
• Am I stoking controversy or making peace?
• Am I using this as a diversion to avoid real problems, real people, real world?
• Am I modeling and mentoring by my social media presence and practice?
• Am I taking a regular digital Sabbath, a weekly time of unplugging, and maybe even a digital fast for longer periods to allow spiritual growth?

Conclusion
Be positive, be intentional, and be sociable. And you’ll be a blessing to many.

Ligonier’s social media guru, Nathan Bingham, says that the most important question we must ask ourselves with social media is “Why?” (see The Best Social Media Tip I can Give You)

Why do I want to do social media? What’s my motive and aim? Is it for myself? is it for the church? Is it for unbelievers? Is it to evangelize unbelievers? Is it to disciple my flock? Is it to draw attention to resources? Is it to serve the wider Christian community?

Once you answer the “Why?” question it becomes a lot easier to answer other questions like:

• How? What practical steps do we take to accomplish this?
• Who? Will this be done by the pastor, a volunteer, or paid staff? Will we need to train someone?
• Where? What platform will we use – Twitter? Facebook, Blogs? etc. Which medium is best for edification of the church? For reaching unbelievers? For gathering and promoting Christian resources? etc.
• When? How much time should be spent on this?

Nathan illustrates the connection between “Why?” and these other questions by describing three churches that answered the why question differently and hence approached the how and who questions differently. What follows is a summary, but you can read more detail at his own post.

Church One – Information
Their goal for social media is “to target existing members of their church and supplement, if not replace, the bulk of their weekly bulletin.”

If that’s they “why” the “how” is quite easy. The pastor or a volunteer spends an hour or more a week scheduling this information and encouraging the congregation to check in.

Church Two – Edification
Their goal is “to target the wider body of Christ as well as existing members of their church. They want to build up and encourage Christians in the digital realm—sharing edifying sermons, challenging quotes, and links to resources that are helpful to the wider body.”

The “how” needs more thought and time to gather the content, to post it, to respond to interaction, etc.

Church Three – Connection
Their goal is “to reach out to those who live locally and are not a part of the body of Christ. In addition to providing a gospel saturated response to today’s issues and asking the difficult questions when appropriate, they’ll be introducing themselves to a community who may not of otherwise known of their existence.”

This is the most demanding choice in terms of time and thought. You need to be listening, following local trends, etc., and clear guidelines given to staff/volunteers as to what and how to engage with the public on behalf of the church.

Prioritizing
As you’ll never be able to do all kinds of social media well (blogging, Google +, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), you will need to choose which one to focus on – again determined by the answer to “Why?” As my main aims when I started using social media was to practice writing and communication for the education and edification of my students, 90% of my social media time has been spent on blogging – reading blogs and writing posts. Twitter gets about 9% of my social media time as it’s a good place for gathering links to good resources, and the other 1% is not much more than posting links to my blog articles on Facebook and Google+. Facebook has some good links to good resources, but I don’t usually have the time to wade through the daily trivia to get to the gold. I can do that more efficiently on Twitter.

How much time?
And that raises the “When?” question. How much time should we spend on social media each day? You should pray about this, discuss it with your wife, and, if you are a pastor, probably consult your elders too. Explain your motives and aims and ask for guidance. I probably spend an average of 90 minutes each day on social media, and most of that is in my downtime in the evening. About half of that time is spent reading others’ blogs and Tweets and the other half is spent on writing blogs and linking to good articles. Although I call this my “hobby” and I do it in “downtime” there is of course much personal edification, education, and training going on also as I’m exposed to multiple thinkers and doers in Christian ministry.

As I used to spend at least an hour every evening reading the daily newspaper, usually The Times, I view this as a much better use of time for myself and for the Kingdom.

What time of the Day?
A second “When” question is “When in the day will you do this?” The three biggest mistakes you can make are:

• To do this first thing in the morning. This diverts your attention and runs down your brain fuel before your main ministry work.
• To do it during what should be family time. If you’re doing social media when you should be with your wife and family, you’ve prioritized the wrong community.
• To do it non-stop throughout the day. Students, and ministers too, are discovering that non-stop social media habits make deep and long study increasingly difficult as the multi-tasking brain keeps demanding the short-term buzz of adrenaline that’s squirted into the body with every “Like,” “Retweet,” and “Comment.”

In The Digital Leader, Erik Qualman, says “multitasking is junk food for the brain” and explains the self-harm that results:

A study at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the moment by 10 points. This decrease is the equivalent of the effects from not sleeping for 36 hours—and exhibits more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana.

And if you are posting non-stop Instagrams of your latest exotic coffee, don’t be surprised if hard-working people in your congregation begin to resent this and think that this is all you are doing!

Be Intentional
Unless you are intentional, social media can devour your days and ultimately your ministry. Keep asking yourself “Why?” and so much else will fall into the right place and proportion.

Download here.

The Connected Kingdom Podcast is back after a long but not lazy summer break. In this episode, Tim Challies and I interview Nathan Bingham, Director of Internet Outreach at Ligonier Ministries and social media guru, about how Christians and churches can use social media for God’s glory.

If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

It all started a few weeks ago with a bag of candy left in our mailbox. No name, no note. Hmm!

Then, a few days ago, I noticed colorful packaging sticking out of the mailbox. Moving closer, I discovered two boxes of candy and three packets of Kit-Kats. Again, no name, no note. Hmmmm?

When I brought the booty into the house, the kids got so excited, first at the candy, then at the mystery.

“Where did you get that, Dad?”

“I found it in the mailbox.”

“Who put it there?”

“I have no idea. There’s no note, no name, nothing.”

“DAAAAD! You put it there, didn’t you?”

I didn’t…honestly.”

Their cynicism eventually gave way to faith in my innocence, and the investigation moved to, “Well if it wasn’t Dad, who was it?”

The neighborhood was mentally scoured. “Well they wouldn’t do it….He certainly wouldn’t do it…She might have done it;” and so on.

Eventually my wife said, “Maybe it’s a Christian who just wants to bless you without you knowing his name.”

“But why would anyone want to do that?” asked my young daughter.

“Well,” said my wife, “Some Christians like to give things to other people without letting everyone know about it.”

“That’s dumb!” was the response.

She said what we think
There you go. Did she not just blurt what so many of us really think? “It’s stupid to do good and tell no one.” What was that about, “Out of the mouths of babes and infants…?”

But doing good without tooting your horn is not dumb. The wisest man that ever lived said it’s actually meant to be the norm: “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 6:1).

It’s never been easier to live so much of our lives “before other people…to be seen by them.” Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., allow us to “livestream” every detail of our lives with multiple readers, friends, and followers. In fact “sharing” has become such a “default” for us that, yes, not to share what we’ve done for others does seem “dumb.”

Coram mundus?
We witness, then Tweet about it. We visit a sick senior, then “share a prayer request.” We help a neighbor, then sprint to update our status. We even have to offer live updates when hearing God’s Word! Living coram Deo (before the face of God) is no longer the pinnacle of Christian experience; rather it’s living coram mundus (before the face of the world).

Ask yourself: When was the last time I did anything worthwhile and told no one about it? When was the last time I visited a lonely person and didn’t drop it into the next conversation I had? When was the last time I shared the Gospel and didn’t share that I shared the Gospel?

How about we try to strengthen that ancient virtue of doing good without telling the world about it. Try to do one good thing a day and tell no one about. And once we can lift that without screaming, add another weighty but secret good deed, then another, then another, and so on. It’s going to be hard at first. It’s going to feel so alien to do something without others knowing about it. I mean, does a good deed exist if no one knows about it?

Warning and Incentive
But let me offer a warning and an incentive to help us through the pain barrier. The warning first:Let’s remember that every time we do something good and tell everybody, we “will have no reward from [our] Father in heaven.” So we’ve got a choice: a few seconds of sinners’ “likes” and “retweets” on earth, or an eternal reward from God in heaven.

And the incentive? Sometimes it can be very hard to persevere in well-doing when no one else ever sees or knows. But, Jesus assures us, “Your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly” (Matt. 6:4). What an encouraging promise! My Father sees, my Father knows, and my Father will reward me! Divine love instead of Facebook “likes.”

So, the next time you do something commendable and you’re tempted to stretch for your smartphone or computer to “share,” ask yourself: “Am I sacrificing a divine reward from my Father in heaven for the sake of a few seconds of social media crack?”

Mystery solved
And by the way, our young female detectives solved the mystery within 24 hours. Some door-to-door work eventually revealed that every neighbor had been similarly blessed with bags and boxes of anonymous candy. Well, not every neighbor, because they eventually found a house without candy, and a lady neighbor whose boyfriend works for a candy company!

A slightly edited version of this article first appeared in the August issue of Tabletalk. You can read more of the August columns and articles here. Or sign up for a free three month trial (US only).

Although I’d previously associated it only with trains on my daily commute to work in Glasgow, I now know that it’s probably the number one thing that most publishers are looking for. You can have the greatest idea or epic story, and you can write like C S Lewis or J K Rowling, but without a platform you’re not getting near the bookshelves, I’m afraid.

A platform is basically what we stand on to raise us above ground level. It’s what lifts us a bit higher than our surroundings. In the publishing or business context, it’s whatever gets our writing or product noticed or stand out from the crowd.

In the “olde world” a platform was built out of marketing and advertising, newspaper ads, TV and radio commercials, brochures and leaflets, etc. In the new digital world it’s built out of Blogs, Tweets, Status updates, Likes, Youtube, podcasts, etc.

Good and bad news
And that’s good news and bad news. The good news is that building a platform today is much cheaper and much more accessible. We can all do it; in fact, we are all doing it; the only question is how consciously, thoughtfully, and deliberately we are doing it. The bad news is that it’s so time-consuming, so difficult to do well, and so spiritually hazardous.

And that’s where Michael Hyatt comes in. Michael has been involved in publishing for many years and is presently Chairman of Thomas Nelson. I’ve learned so much from reading his lively blog over the past couple of years. He has great insights on leadership, writing, and publishing – his Writing a winning book proposal was a godsend to me.

Social Media Pioneer
But it’s in the vast and challenging area of social media that Michael really excels. As one of the world’s social media pioneers, he has huge experience and expertise to share. And if Michael’s anything, he’s one of the world’s sharers. That’s probably why he’s been so successful in social media; because the willingness to share value, to involve, engage, benefit, and bless others is the DNA of any edifying and effective social media strategy.

Well, you’ll be glad to know that Michael’s impulse to share has led him to publish a book on this subject. It’s called Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. He describes it as “A step-by-step guide for anyone with something to say or sell.” And if you buy before May 25 you can get $375 worth of bonus material.

Blook?
I finished the book last night while waiting in the forest for Thanksgiving Dinner (they didn’t oblige, but we’ll be back tonight!), and appropriately enough it was the first book I’ve read entirely on my iPhone! The format of the book really helped that because it’s split into five main sections with numerous blog-length chapters in each section, all of them characterized by compact, practical, lively writing, and most of them presented in list/bullet format.

And whether we like it or not, I think Michael’s ahead of the curve here again in his employment of blog-style writing in book form (a blook?). It definitely works. And I learned a lot, or at least realized how much I have to learn, because this is a book I’ll be coming back to again and again.

Spiritually hazardous
But let me briefly return to the “spiritually hazardous” nature of social media and platform building. Probably most Christians, especially those in ministry, wish that this subject would go away. The idea of building a platform seems, on the face of it, so antithetical to the essence of Christianity. How can we possibly square this with personal humility, meekness, self-denial, and John-Baptist-like “He must increase, I must decrease” etc? Although Michael touches on this, its a question I’d like to see him tackle at greater length, perhaps on his blog or on his podcast.

There must be some specifically Christian guidelines for this, some way that Christians can be refreshingly different from the world. For those in ministry, maybe it all comes down to who’s really on the platform. Is it me? Or is it Christ? Am I building up myself? Or am I building a platform for Jesus?

1. I’ve never clicked on a Facebook Ad in my life
If 85% of Facebook revenues are from ads and I’ve never clicked on one in my life, either I’m a weirdo or else I’m normal and the advertisers are wasting their money.  The General Motors decision to stop FB advertising is a “Facebook has no clothes” moment that’s only going to gather momentum.

2. It’s so ugly
As a Mac user, so used to beautiful, minimalist simplicity, I can hardly bear to look at the dump-truck of the FB interface. Did they ask Bill Gates to design the Timeline? Maybe it’s only PC users that keep FB alive. Google+ is a model of Zen compared to this fiasco.

3. Immobile Apps
Mobile is a huge threat to FB. There’s just not enough screen estate to get ads on to. FB’s solution? Invent the slowest, junkiest mobile Apps in the world. “Oh, that’ll work!”

4. Security
How would you feel if your bank changed its privacy rules every other week without telling you? And when you find out via the media, you discover you need an IT PhD to figure out the pages and pages of privacy settings.

5. Stupidity
In the course of the last few weeks I’ve seen at least two ministries potentially ruined by the Yahoo and Socialcam FB partnerships. In case you didn’t know, when you read Yahoo articles or watch Socialcam videos, FB will often post those facts on your Facebook Wall, Page, or whatever they call it. No, of course, people shouldn’t be reading or watching certain things, but how insensitively stupid for FB to set this up without MEGA FLASHING LIGHTS WARNINGS.

6. Facebook Mail
How difficult is it to design email software that maintains a chronological thread?  What a mess!

7. Everything else
Farmville, Facebook Chat, Group Invites, Event Invites, Pokes, Photo quality, Notifications, Quizzes, Breakfast updates, Lunch updates, Dinner Updates, Supper Updates, Midnight Feast Updates, etc. (Want to make a million? Create an App that only lets FB status updates through if they pass a certain IQ/EQ threshold).

And please, please, don’t anyone ever add me to a Group again without my expensive and explicit permission. Oh, and one last thing, don’t ever TAG me in a photo. And if I remove a TAG, it’s because I do not like your photo. And if you add it again, prepare for a menacing knock on your door.

Apart from that it’s quite good.