For whatever reason, lots of “good news” comes in on Friday.  

This has happened off and on for several weeks now.  Well, this past Friday was no different.

Well, this past Friday was no different.  Larry and Lee Ann came back from the road with some great news.  They have been traveling all across the state of Alabama making presentations about CharityTracker, our shared case management software.

Greg, who we consider to be the chaplain of Simon Solutions, got great news on Friday as well.  Alabama Baptists are catching the vision for CharityTracker.  We have been invited to speak at the annual state conference of the Alabama Baptist Convention in November.  We will have the  opportunity to address hundreds of pastors about the development of our new online “power tools” for prayer, missions, and evangelism.

I also got great news on Friday.  I talked with an old friend who I have not seen in many years.  Sandra Leatherwood helped me in youth ministry when I served at Saint James United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, back in the mid 80’s.

On Friday last week, I talked with Sandra over the phone.  What a reunion!  We both discovered that the Lord was setting the stage for our conversation.  

I had been thinking last week about how we could share “our story” with United Methodist ministry leaders and suddenly Sandra’s name came to mind.  I called her office, and she later got back with me on Friday.  She said that it was timely that I called.  She had recently dreamed about our family and was wondering how we were doing.

Sandra said that she would be happy to open doors for us to talk with United Methodist ministry leaders about our “power tools” for the Body of Christ.  We both agreed that God does orchestrate personal relationships for divine purposes.

Later on that day, I talked with Dean Gambill and Dana Simons from Harvest Prayer Ministry, of which Dave Butts is the President.  Dave is also the Chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee.  I had a great conversation with Dean and Dana.  We talked about the possibility of collaborating together on implementing a “global prayer network”, called PrayerPipeline.net.

Right now, we are building the network’s technological framework and user-friendly interface that’s simple to use.  We do not want to get too far into development without first talking with international prayer leaders.  We want to hear what they need and how to better serve their mission. 

For more information about the network, go to www.prayerpipeline.net/minister.

My conversation with Dean and Dana was incredibly hopeful.  We have the technology.  They have the intercessors.  I believe God is really up to something here.  The chance to connect and empower millions of intercessors all around the world in real-time, interactive prayer is now possible.  Think about what could happen!

What else can I say?  It’s quite obvious.  God is bringing people and technology together.  He is building relationships that will lead to the development of more coalition forces, mobilized for divine purposes.

I will keep you posted as more “good news” comes in on Fridays.

Getting people to work together is not easy; but it’s worth the effort.  

I have been at this for many years.  I served in churches, non-profit organizations, and businesses.  My main objective has always been to help people learn the value and benefits of working together.

When people really get on the same page, great things can happen!  This is especially true in community work.  I have spent a lot of time working on community projects.  I truly enjoy working with people with different giftings, passions, and expertise.  I’ve had the pleasure of serving as “architect” for many community projects that have touched the lives of thousands of people.

Tina told me that CharityTracker has been the catylst for getting people to work together.  She said, "For the first time in history, we have found common denominators that have rallied community service providers; an online tool that’s easy-to-understand, simple to use, and inexpensive."

So, if you want to get people to work together, find those common denominators that make it easy for people to come together.  Find their common interests or passions that everyone values.  Find a valid reason for working together that makes sense; a "win-win" situation for all.

Our team is at the MinistryCom Conference in Franklin, Tennessee this week.  This is a national conference for church communication and marketing professionals.

The conference is being held at The People’s Church where Rick White is the Senior Pastor.  Thousands of participants are expected to attend.

We are one of many exhibitors who are at the conference.  We hope to learn much from others who share our same passion for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in new and effective ways.

We hope to make new friends and build working relationships with other ministries.  We expect to hear a great report from our team.

Helen Keller once wrote, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." 

These words resonate within my soul.  They have become my mission in life – to help people discover the benefits of working together for common purposes.

This is especially true for community service providers; those who help meet the needs of people during times of crisis and despair.  Every community is faced with this enormous challenge.  So, would it not make good sense to share the responsibility?

Just think what would happen if every community service provider suddenly began working together.  By this, I refer to churches, non-profit charities, and social service government agencies.  Suddenly, service providers would say, “Count on us to help.  We don’t care who gets the credit for acts of service.  We simply want to see all the people within our entire community benefit from our working together.”

If this was to truly happen within a community, no one would go hungry; no one would go without shelter and clothes.  No one would feel alone in their sorrow or desperate situation.

I believe this can happen in any community in America if we would follow Henry Ford’s simple formula for success.

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." 
-Henry Ford

Service providers should start by “talking” with other service providers in their community.  Get to know each other; after all, service providers have the same passion and burden to help people.  This is true, regardless of what name appears on the organization’s letterhead.  They all have the same mission.

The second step is a little more difficult.  Service providers should make considerable effort to build relationships with each other.  This may mean cutting through all the busyness and noise in our own organizational environment; finding time to gather together with others from different organizations.  Luncheons, casual visits, telephone conversations, and roundtable discussions are all good ways to build friendships that lead to working relationships.

Another way to stay together is to find a "common tool” that helps facilitate an on-going working relationship.  One that helps all community service providers stay “connected” in communications, collaborate, and shared case management.  This progressive step with ultimately lead to a better understanding of needs and a focused approach to care.  This can happen through a web-based software solution that everyone has access to and really likes.

The third step in actually working together will provide a broad-based solution for care that covers the entire community.  Everyone benefits.  Service providers can now share responsibility. No one is overwhelmed.  More resources are identified for meeting needs.  Referrals are easily found.  Recipients are given proper care.  No one “falls through the cracks”.

This shared working environment will also cut back on duplication of services and combat benevolence fraud.  This saves organizations time and money. The right resources get into the right hands.

Another great benefit of a shared working environment is innovation.  Innovation happens as we capitalize on knowledge-sharing, which becomes a powerful asset.  I’ve come to realize that all of us are smarter than any one of us.  This then leads to a collective-knowing, which serves as a catalyst for community-driven solutions with creative applications for other areas of concerns.

By working together, community service providers can find hope in transforming their community from the inside out.  Instead of only seeing problems, needs, and deficiencies, the focus can shift to solutions and assets. 

This ignites progress and growth.

When people work together, great things happen!  

For years I have rallied the cause for relational synergism – people working together for greater purposes realized only through concerted efforts.  The results can be phenomenal.

When hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August of 2005, the aftermath impacted my community in Northwest Alabama.  Over 330 displaced families from the Gulf Coast found refuge in our community.  Social service agencies, non-profit charities, and churches came to the rescue.

Many resources from different sources were allocated to Katrina victims, but a problem emerged.  Who was getting what and how much?  Were services being unnecessarily duplicated?  Were the right people getting the right resources?

This awareness sparked much dialog among community service providers, who realized that this problem was not an isolated incident, but a “big problem” that had been prevailing for years.  Something needed to be done to help service providers “get on the same page” in communications and collaboration.

Leaders from the United Way, Red Cross, Salvation Army, government agencies, and churches sat down together and talked.  This rare encounter paved the way for a collaborative solution for “shared case management”.

These leaders approached us at Simon Solutions in October of 2006.  Looking for a software solution, they handed us a single sheet of paper with only a few ideas.  They said, “Can you build us something that we all can use; something simple to understand and easy to use?”  We said “Yes, but only if we work together throughout the entire development process to see if this solution is something everyone will like and use.”  They agreed.

Combining our knowledge of software design with ideas from community service providers, we built CharityTracker (known as SEANTracker in our community).

Tina Scott, director of the United Way of Northwest Alabama, said “For the first time in our community’s history, churches, non-profit service providers, and government agencies have found a common way to work together; using a simple, easy, and affordable tool everyone can use.”

CharityTracker is a “shared community database”, a centralized hub for communication that is networked throughout the entire community.  All information is entered and edited by individual case workers with shared access.  And because CharityTracker is powered by internet technology, service providers have instant access to information 24/7, 365; whether at the office or in the field. 

CharityTracker works best when only one “community network administrator” is designated for the entire community.  This organization is usually the one who has built working relationships with other service providers.  As administrator, this organization maintains the integrity of the database by qualifying organizations that share access to confidential information.

All information in CharityTracker is safe and secure.  Only authorized users with a password have access to shared case files.  No IT department or webmaster is needed to host or maintain CharityTracker.  We (Simon Solutions) do it all.  We also upgrade the software; depending upon feedback from service providers and their needs.

CharityTracker has given our community a simple and easy solution for “shared case management”.  With better communications, service providers are seeing measurable results in reduction of fraud and duplication of services. 

Becky Daughtery of Woodmont Baptist Church says, “Just in the last few weeks, the software has proven itself more and more valuable; and we are really starting to see that the more benevolence organizations that use it; the more effective that it becomes.”

In less than one year of service within our community, CharityTracker has enabled over 74 agents (representing 33 agengies) to work together in shared management of over 4,000 cases.

CharityTrackers helps save time and money; enabling service providers to focus their resources on people with real needs.

Simply stated, it works!

Just as Katrina’s devastation swept across the Gulf Coast, a solution for helping victims more efficiently is sweeping all across the state of Alabama.  The word is getting out quickly.  Prior to our official nationwide launch on September 4th, ten networks of community service providers, scattered throughout Alabama, were already making plans to use CharityTracker to better serve their communities.

Our community’s synergism is a powerful testimony to other communities all across the United States.  If we can "get people on the same page" here in Northwest Alabama, you can do it also!

For more information, go to www.simonsolutions.com or www.charitytracker.net.

Last week I spent a much-needed vacation at the beach.  Armed with my fold-up chair and umbrella, I soaked-up some rays and lots of saltwater.  Most of my time was spent hanging out with my family and relaxing.

I was able to get in lots of reading and writing.  My main topics were “connecting” in relationships and online social networking for Christians.  I re-read Larry Crabb’s Connecting.  This is an excellent book on relationships and community development.  I highly recommend this book to church leaders.

I also re-read Heidi Campbell’s Exploring Religious Community Online.  Heidi’s book is a byproduct of her dissertation on internet technology and community development.  If you are interested in knowing more about how the internet has evolved from a place to gather information to a social sphere, this is a great book.

Well, vacation is nice, but it is always good to get back to my own bed and familiar surroundings.  Now that I’m back, I’m ready to hit the ground running.

Oh by the way, you might want to check out our new SSI newsletter.  It’s packed with interesting articles and videos.  Check it out:  http://www.simonsolutions.com/newsletter/

The Church must realize the importance of online social networking before it is too late.

Online social networking is not some fad that will run its course.  Its popularity is growing in leap and bounds.  According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, “More than half (55%) of all of online American youths ages 12-17 use an online social networking sites.”

If the Church is serious about reaching the next generation for Christ, then serious steps should be made in acquiring tools that bridge the gap between the traditional American Church and today’s young people.  I wonder if this is possible, given traditional models of local church?

If leadership within local churches is not “in-tune” with new technology, especially the internet, how will local churches successfully reach young people in their communities?

Many years ago I helped coordinate a youth retreat at a Methodist outreach center in rural Tennessee.  Over 100 young people attended.  One of the activities they were asked to do was write their names on a small paper bag.  These bags were then taped to a wall everyone passed by each day.

The youth were then encouraged to drop comments into the bags.  These could be words of encouragement, favorite scriptures; anything that was uplifting.  The goal was that everyone’s bag would have “good comments.”

The youth went way beyond the call of duty and made sure everyone, including new people, had new comments in their bags each day.  The youth used this as a form of ministry, and it worked extremely well.

I find similarities between this activity at the retreat and social networking sites.  Young people return regularly to their online profile pages to see if comments have been posted.  According to the Pew survey, “Almost half of social networking-using teens visit the sites either once a day (26%) or several times a day (22%)."

May I suggest that young people use social networking sites to invite “ministry” into their lives.  They want simple recognition and encouragement.  They want to know if anyone out there really cares about them– enough to make comments on their profile page.

Church leaders, I strongly encourage you to “bite the bullet” and spend some serious time exploring new technology, especially online social networking.  The internet can be a powerful tool for ministry in the hands of Christians.  Please seize the moment.

Visit the following research sites:

Pew Internet & American Life Project
www.pewinternet.org
Social Networking Websites and Teens
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp

Barna Research Group

www.barna.org

Surveys about teens and the internet

The Center for the Digital Future (USC Annenberg School)

http://www.digitalcenter.org/

2007 Digital Future Report

http://www.digitalcenter.org/pdf/2007-Digital-Future-Report-Press-Release-112906.pdf

Church websites that continue to look like “electronic brochures” will not reach the next generation for Christ.

Young people want more than just information about your church.  They want to engage and interact with your community from the comforts of their home, work, or school.

“The internet is the next generation;” this according to David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world in Seoul, Korea with 750,000 members.  Concerning the future growth of his church, Cho says, “Use the Internet - it is better…I have already announced to my people and ministers that the next step is to go into total cyberspace ministry.”

More and more young people are becoming disenfranchised with traditional Church.  According to Barna Research Group (www.barna.org), “61% of today’s young adults - had been churched at one point during their teen years but they are now spiritually disengaged (i.e., not actively attending church, reading the Bible, or praying)…For most adults, this pattern of disengagement is not merely a temporary phase in which they test the boundaries of independence, but is one that continues deeper into adulthood.”

Just because young people are disengaging from church activities, doesn’t mean they are not “spiritually hungry.”  They are now turning to the internet; looking for spiritual significance.  The internet is fast becoming the new “mission field.”

Another study by Barna Research Group shows that, “among the growing number of Americans who use the Internet, millions are turning to the digital dimension to get them in touch with God and others who pursue faith matters. The report projects that within this decade as many as 50 million individuals may rely solely upon the Internet to provide all of their faith-based experiences.”

So, how can the Church break the bonds of disengagement and “re-connect” with the next generation?  With millions of young people plugging into the internet each day, Web 2.0 websites can help.

Here are three “non-negotiables.”

1. Make sure your internet presence is not “cheesy.”  Today’s young are imagine or wow-driven.  If they like what they see, they will go deeper into your site.  Remember the old saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”  Don’t get a novice to do your website.  Get a professional.  Remember, you get what you pay for.  This will speak volumes to visitors.
   
   
2. Make sure your site has interactivity.  There must be way for young people to “virtually connect” with your community.  Web 2.0 technology makes this easy through forums, media sharing, IM, and more.  Not all web developers know how to make this happen.  Find the ones who do it well.  The investment is worth it.
   
   
3. Build an online community that is safe and easy to use.  Web developers who are experts in Flash development can create for you an “online gated community” experience that provides peace of mind.  Online community development capitalizes on the enormous popularity of online “social networking.”  Web developers can provide community-building tools that are simple to learn and easy to use.

The days of “electronic brochure” church websites are over! 

If we cannot speak the cultural language of their “online world,” how will we communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to the next generation?

If you want to excel at building ministry, learn the value of carpentry.

Perhaps the best example of this, is my prayer a number of years ago.  I was a new Christian and very passionate about serving the Lord.  My prayer back then will most likely be the title or a chapter in my biography:  “I prayed to be more like Jesus, and He made me a carpenter.”

Larry (one of my ministry partners) said to me the other day, “Why don’t we start an online revolution in Christian ministry?”  

Larry has been talking with ministry leaders across the U.S. about internet technology, and its potential use for worldwide ministry.  He has talked with seasoned veterans in ministry who are quite passionate about new technology. 

Most of these guys work in strategic positions in large Christian non-profit organizations.  Some are pastors; others are speakers at major conventions.  The point is that these guys recognize the needs of the Church and the apparent challenges that face leadership.

They are strong advocates of change, progress, and growth.  They are also practitioners of effective models in ministry.  They believe that an unprecedented opportunity awaits churches and ministries who are ready to embrace new technology and harness its power.

This is especially true of internet technology.  All of the ministry leaders that Larry has talked with have emphasized the importance of using the internet for reaching people for Christ.

Greg (another one of my ministry partners) was telling me the other day that he has encountered a lot of people turning to the internet, looking for fellowship and community.  Some of our research suggests that over 100 million Christians are now turning to the internet for social networking.

Do I see online community replacing face-to-face community?  Absolutely not.  But I am seeing new ways for people to connect and build relationships using the internet.  It makes a lot of sense; especially for young people who are growing up in a techno-savvy culture.

Whether we like it or not, the internet is here to stay!  So, why not take full advantage of its rapid growth, enormous popularity, and economical cost.  Let’s harness its power of communication and influence.  Let’s start an online revolution in Christian ministry that young people can rally behind and effect change in the lives of their peers.

History has proven that God has used innovative tools (like the printing press) in sparking spiritual awakening, renewal, and revival.  I believe He is now using the internet for new paradigms in ministry applications.  He is using it for prayer mobilization and evangelism.

The online revolution that I am talking about is a “back-to-the-basics” organic approach in reaching out and touching people’s lives with a message of hope – the good news about Jesus Christ.  We have the technology to do this, and quite well, through online community development.

So, let’s start an online revolution in Christian ministry.  We might even find ourselves tapping into a powerful “revolutionary tool” that God has ordained worthy and very effective for ministry usage, worldwide. 

Perhaps the internet (instead of television as previously suggested) will be the instrument in God’s hands to reach the globe for Christ and usher in His Second Coming.