-Z

Today, I want to share some “best practices.”

These are hacks to make your Tweets and status updates easy and more effective! Do these things and you will help the church rock it even more on Facebook and Twitter!

1. LIKE, like CRAZY. If you are on Facebook, click that “like” button like there’s no tomorrow. You can find the “like” button on Facebook and all over our website.
2. PICS! Tweet pics during the service. Or if you are a Facebookee, post them to the Revolution Church fan page.
3. Comment and share. Comment and share your thoughts by responding to things that the church posts. Conversation attracts more people!
4. GO MOBILE. If you have an internet enabled phone be sure to download the official Facebook and Twitter apps. Know that you don’t have to have an iphone…even if you use text messaging, you can Facebook and Tweet mobile. Go into your Facebook setting and click the mobile tab to start using Facebook via SMS. To use Twitter via SMS, read more here.
5. Use YouVersion for your Bible reading. Just go to YouVersion.com for a free account or you can get it on any internet enabled phone for free right now by going to http://bible.revyourlife.com. Seriously, if you aren’t doing this you are missing out. YouVersion will sync you reading progress, notes, and more across platforms. I use it on my mac, my iphone and the ipad. They even have over 30 amazing reading plans to choose from. Then go and link your YouVersion account to Facebook and/or Twitter to easily share what you are reading.
6. Tweet with a Hashtag. If you are using Twitter, attach our official Hashtag to ALL of your tweets. The hashtag is #REV. If you don’t know what a Hashtag is, learn here.

Got any other good tips? Please share!

Check out what Bay Area’s pastor, Bil Cornelius, and some of the Bay Area staff had to say (original link here):

After speaking two nights at the Glo Women’s Conference and 5 weekend services, she made time to sit down and pour into our staff.  This was a powerful time for our staff, leadership and key volunteers.  A few of the key takeaways from this time and Christine’s 20+ years of ministry experiences were the following:

• The staff of a Church must not only support the Pastor’s vision, but the vision must become theirs.  Only by grafting our Pastor’s vision into our DNA, will we ever be able to fully support him in carrying it out.
• Balance isn’t the Goal.  A balanced life is a myth when it comes to those called to lead the Church. Meaning: Nothing can compete for the HIGH calling God has placed on our lives.  No outside agendas should pull us away from the direction our Church is heading.
• Always check your heart.  We must frequently examine ourselves and purge ourselves of attitudes or actions that might prevent us from furthering the assignment God has given our Pastor.

50 kilometers = 31.0685596 miles

Yikes. 31. Miles.

According the Cowtown website, there are 18 men in my division. Coming off of my knee injury & a terrible race season, I am just hoping to finish.

I’ll be running with my dad and my good friend Wendy Oglesby. I’ll also have the good old iPhone again, so watch my twitter & facebook for video updates.

http://www.twitter.com/cadillaczak

http://www.facebook.com/cadillaczak

• PUMPED about tomorrow at Revolution Church! Hope I get some sleep!
• PUMPED about the incredible team God has built (and continues to build) at Revolution. It blows me away!
• PUMPED about seeing lives changed.
• PUMPED about sharing some BIG NEWS at Revolution tomorrow!
• PUMPED about the SuperBowl. I have a friend from High School that starts for the Saints. Hope he gets a ring! He’s an incredible, Godly young man that has always honored God. Now, God is honoring him!
• NOT PUMPED that my first Ultra Marathon (31 miles) is in 3 weeks. My training has been terrible. My left knee is having lots of issues…but there’s no backing out now. I’m going to get a shirt made for the race that says “Ultra SLOW Ultra Marathoner.”
• NOT PUMPED that its supposed to be rainy all week. GO AWAY RAIN.

So, as long as I have a signal, I’ll be Tweeting live updates and streaming live video during the race tomorrow. It starts at 5:40am Eastern time.

Watch my twitter feed HERE or facebook page here for the updates.

Anytime I am live streaming video, you’ll see a Tweet or a Facebook status update with a link that will take you straight to the live video feed.

10 - We have a Baby Registry

9 - New Years Resolutions are a Complete Waste

8 - Design a Logo. Win $250. Serve God.

7 - Vision Twitch

6 - I’m Pleased. I’m crushed.

5 - My Buddy Elijah and my Failure

4 – Sam and Esther

3 - You Just Don’t Know

2 – Update on Amber

1 – We are moving

When I found out she was a high school student, it blew my mind away! I HAD to learn from her. I thought that what she shared with me might be helpful to pastors out there. Incredible stuff…check it out:

Ileana, share who you are, what you love, what you do, age, etc in a few sentences.

My name is Ileana (aka @CountryCuban), I’m 17, and what I love are Jesus, and people. What am I most passionate about in life? Loving Jesus, loving people, and making sure the latter can tell I love the former. It really is that simple, the rest of my life is just details.

What ministries do you serve in at your church?

Currently, I serve at Flamingo Road Church in Cooper City, FL. Flamingo Road is a multi-site Church, and I serve at the Internet Campus as the Director of Online Communities. I also serve on our outreach team called Seats2Streets. My heartbeat has to do with mass communications, social justice, and intertwining the two.

Honestly, my love for Jesus and people is what ultimately motivates me to serve my heart out. I love people way too much to just sit in a chair, and not try to impact their lives. Miami is the second most unchurched city in the United States, and I firmly believe it’s because many people here see Miami as a lost cause. It’s not a lost cause…it’s a city that God loves, Christ died for, and an amazing plan for it. If I can do anything to contribute to that plan, I’m going to do it.

The first thing that the pastors can do, is tell them that they need help! Us teens aren’t usually the ones who are going to make the first move. Tell us about the need, so that we can fill it.

Don’t assume that we’re going to say no…give us a chance. If you need help in the tech area, say it! If you need help in the children’s ministry, say it! Don’t only say it, but take time to actually know the youth in the youth group. Obviously it might be hard for the youth pastor to get to know everyone, especially if it’s a larger church. Get a core group of 5 young leaders (which is what Flamingo has) to really get to know the students. When the students feel that they belong, they will want to serve. We have to feel like we belong to something before we would want to contribute to that something.

Really, it’s the way that Flamingo chooses to partner with people to reach their God-potential. It’s not just a cheesy motto, it really is what they do. I’ve been a part of many churches, but none have invested so much into me, despite my age.

Flamingo didn’t see my age as a disadvantage like most did, they saw it as an advantage. I think that’s where the real problem lies in many churches. There are many kids like me, and not all of us are called to serve in the youth ministry, contrary to what many may believe. I started off serving in the youth ministry and it was great, but I wanted to do something different. Flamingo didn’t make me stay serving there just because I was a teen. They let me take on an extremely vital position in the Internet Campus, and it was a perfect fit, because it was a passion of mine. That’s the cool thing at Flamingo. Of course we have teens serving in the youth ministry, but we also have them serving in parking, children’s, the internet campus, doing tech, making food, and so much more. Flamingo firmly believes in building up people, not just ministries… no matter their age.

Really, I would just continue harping on not limiting teens because of their age. 1 Timothy 4:12 has a pretty big thing to say about that. I am grateful that they chose to not clip my wings.

The last big thing I would say would help is mentoring. I know mentoring can sound like a scary and intimidating thing, but us teens need more than you can imagine. The world we live in is a crazy, peer pressure filled environment, and we need to be able to turn to adults other than our parents sometimes for advice. Invest in a teen… you won’t regret it.

If you use a Kindle and you read a lot of news, blogs and anything else on the web you NEED to know this.

What if you find something you want to read but you don’t have time to read it right that second? And what if you found it on your iphone or computer, or the internet or twitter or just about anywhere else? And what if it could get sent to your Kindle to be read later?

“You mean it could all go to my Kindle? Or my iPhone Kindle app? That would be AWESOME!”

Go to www.instapaper.com right now and set up a free account.

Its SO easy! Instapaper gives you a Read Later bookmark.

• When you find something you want to read, but you don’t have time, you just click a “read later” bookmark.
• Instapaper saves it on their server
• Later, you can log in to instapaper to read it or even have it all sent to your iPhone or Kindle.
• Its all synced in the cloud so you always have the ability to read your saved stuff on any device later.
• If you use iPhone apps like Tweetie 2 or Netnewswire, Instapaper is integrated.

This little tech hack has changed the way I read blogs, news, stories, and etc that I find on the web.

Her name is Arminda Choque. She lives in Bolivia, was born Dec. 11th, 1997, and has 6 brothers and sisters. Arminda faces a harsh, daily struggle for survival. Just like many other kids, she goes for days with little or no food. She has limited access to safe drinking water and lives in much fear and danger.

And my heart breaks for her. We sponsor a Compassion child and it has changed our lives. The letters you get from your child put things into perspective and the letter you write to them change your heart.

I wish I could personally sponsor every single Compassion kid, but I can’t; so instead, I’ll do what I can to get her sponsored.

So what I want for Christmas this year is a sponsor to pray for, encourage, love and support Arminda. Go for it! It will change your life!

Don’t wait. The number to call Compassion is 1-800-336-7676 and Arminda’s Compassion number is B05330514. If you call and she’s already been sponsored that ROCKS. Just ask for another child and Compassion will get you hooked up.

Or, you can get in touch with me and I will personally answer any questions and help you sponsor a child. My personal email is zak@revyourlife.com.

Honestly, this post is nothing more than a question. Can you explain to me why a lead pastor would put a disclaimer on his blog? Usually, it reads something like this:

Although my official title is pastor of <insert name here> church the ideas shared here are my own and do not reflect the position of my church.

I suppose I understand staff members having this disclaimer…but not lead pastors. I would think that the lead pastors (especially church planters) disclaimer would read something more like this:

The ideas shared here are 100% a reflection of <insert name here> church because after all, I am the lead pastor.

Everything rises and falls on leadership right?

Just a question. Learn me.