Make Ping.fm work with Ning

24 05 2009

I searched for a while trying to make my Ping.fm account update my ning account and could not find a way to do it. Finally I made it work using ShoutEm.

First setup your ping.fm account to post to your ShoutEm blog. This is easy to setup through your ping.fm account. Now that ping.fm is hitting your shoutem blog you need to plug shoutem into ning. Here is a link that will tell you how to do it.

http://blog.shoutem.com/2009/02/27/how-to-add-your-microblogging-network-to-ning/#comment-550

Once you have all these pieces in place go to your ping.fm account and ping it. Your message will show up on your Shoutem blog as well as your ning page. ShoutEm is basically a middle man but you get a cool ShoutEm blog to boot.

All this web 2.0 stuff is way to cool. I can sit and lunch and send a text message to ping.fm who in turns broadcasts to my world of sites and updates them all at one time. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, ShoutEm, Vox, WordPress, Ning, and just about any other site you are on. Way to cool!!!

Tell me how this works for you by commenting below.





GodTube is Changing it’s Name

27 01 2009

If you have not heard the news yet, GodTube.com is changing their name.

Here is a quote from the GodTube.com CEO Jason Illian:

“Changes are coming and soon! We will still have the features on our current site, but will be adding all the cool functions of a social network, too! You’ll be able to interact with people from around the world, meet people with shared interests, connect with Churches and ministries you’re involved with, blog about what’s important to you, create band pages and keep up with what’s happening. Our hope is that our new site will allow you to experience a deeper level of interaction with those in your life than you ever have before.”

So it looks like GodTube is going to go Social in the near future. Maybe something similar to a combination of www.FaithOut.com and www.GodTube.com

I’m not saying FaithOut and GodTube are merging. I haven’t heard anything like that. But, GodTube is definatly taking on the whole FaithOut/FaceBook social network thing.

What are your thoughts????





True Story of St. Nicholas

25 12 2008

He was a boy when he lost his parents very early in life. It was an epidemic that took them, but not before he was old enough for them to help him discover the gift of faith. Little Nicholas went to Myra and lived a life full of self-offering, and giving of himself. His life was full of sacrifice and love, just like Jesus. Nicholas lived such a Christ like life that when the town needed a bishop he was immediately elected. Later he was imprisoned for his Christian faith, but released by the Emperor Constantine. Thereafter, many stories of his generosity were collected and they spread from mouth to mouth all through out the lands. It was told how he begged food for the poor and how he would somehow get money for girls to use as a dowry so that they could have husbands. The story most often repeated was about how he would put on a disguise and go out and give gifts to the poor children. In factNicholas gave away everything he had, plus everything he could get. He died in AD 314; his body was moved to Italy where his remains are believed to be to this day. The story of Nicholas has spread all around the world, and today there are more European churches named after StNicholasthan any other person in the history of the church, aside from the famous Bible characters. People have done many things to old St. Nick. Clement Moore the poet gave him a red nose and eight tiny reindeer. Artist Thomas Nast gave Nicholas a round belly and a red fir trimmed suit. But those things really aren’t that important are they? What is important is that he lived in the mind set and the life style of Christ. And because he lived that lifestyle, the life of Nicholas touched the whole world and it does to this very day. But here is the really important part of the story. That same Christ like mind set and that life style is supposed to be in all of us and lived by all of us. And that is the true story of St. Nick.

– Author Unknown





Audio Tours – A Podcast Cousin?

10 12 2008

I found an interesting website today. At first glance I called it a podcast cousin. Not podcasting in it’s true sense, but it offers a fresh approach to what you can do with audio and an iPod.

Is there someway you could turn this into a useful idea for the Church?

http://www.tourcaster.com/Index.aspx





e-Vangelize Archive

4 12 2008

For those of you who subscribe to our free weekly publication called e-Vangelize, here is a link to our archives page.

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs031/1102093008148/archive/1102354575610.html





Church Podcast in a Box

29 11 2008

Just released a new product and a website. One of the goals of Sermon Shout is to provide products and services that empower the Church to spread the gospel over the Internet. Pod-casting has been our main focus thus far.

Pod casting is a powerful way to broadcast using the Internet. You can syndicate your own show in a matter of minutes and be “on the air” spreading the good news.

However, the Church is not using this new technology to it’s fullest extent yet. This could be partly because some ministers do not fully understand what podcasting is. Podcasting is a ministry avenue within itself.

A few years ago I was at a youth lock-in and kids were walking around everywhere listening to portable mp3 players. I was sitting near a table where some older ministers were talking. I overheard one of the men say that he hated those iPods. His attitude was that they should be banned in public places.

The church should be trying to find out every way possible to get into those iPods instead of finding a way to ban them.

Could your church create a “Comedy Club” podcast or a “Youth Worship” pod cast that would end up on every iPod in your community? The possibilities are endless, just use your imagination.

If you would like to start, or jump start, a pod-cast ministry in your church we have a new tool that can help.

Church Podcast in a Boxwww.churchpodcastinabox.com

Take a look!!!





Reaching the Masses

16 05 2008

This article is from a recent issue of our Free newsletter “e-Vangelize”.

Extending the Churches Reach
by Raymond Brady
 
It was around 10:30 am on a Sunday morning in Amarillo, Texas when I was awakened by the ringing telephone and a loud thumping sound coming over the speakers. A buddy had called to find out what the problem was. Over twenty five thousand listeners where now hearing the thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump of a stuck record being broadcast over the airwaves.
 
I was working my way through college at a local radio station as the assistant production director. My job usually consisted of writing and producing radio advertisements, but we were short handed and I was pulling extra shifts on the weekends. The late night before had finally gotten to me and I was worn out.

After starting the Sunday morning church service broadcast, I thought I could sneak a quick power nap without anyone knowing. This was before audio cd’s were around and this particular program came recorded on multiple records, which had to be switched out every 30 minutes or so. You can imagine what happened. My power nap turned into me sawing some massive logs. The record ended and so began the thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump. Thankfully, listener volume was down on Sunday mornings from other times in the week, but at least twenty five thousand people heard me make an awful blunder.

It was during my days working at the station that I learned the power of broadcast radio. One person sitting behind a desk pushing one button could pump anything into the minds of the listeners. In television or video a viewers imagination is limited by what he or she sees on the screen. On the other hand a writer or radio advertisement feeds you information and your imagination has to draw the images. Try the following:

As little Johnny opened up the door it began to squeak and creek through the long dark hallway. Johnny’s brown eyes opened wider and wider as he slowly walked though the door. Peering into the even darker room his imagination began to run wild. What was in the room? He thought he saw the outline of a large creature of some sort. Whatever it was it must have been at least 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide…

Now as you read this story you began to draw out the stage. Your imagination did all the work of drawing each image. Your picture and my picture may not match exactly, but that is the purpose and the point of using word pictures. Once someone draws the story in their own mind it sticks with them. They have a sense of ownership, if you will, with the story.

By now you may be asking what does this all have to do with reaching the masses. I used this illustration to help you understand the power of your spoken message using broadcast audio. With video and television taking over our culture, broadcast audio has taken somewhat of a back seat, but it is still one of the most powerful ways to spread the Word of God.

My embarrassing moment in my younger days just re-enforced the reach I had with the listeners, the content I was spreading proved to me how powerful broadcast audio really is.

It was just a few months later when changes came our way. Broadcast radio was changing. It was expensive to operate a station and executives across the country were trying to figure a way to solve the financial problems. Besides the cost of towers, transmitters, and utilities, people were their next largest expense. If they could find a way for one disc jockey to operate multiple stations at one time that would cut costs tremendously.

That is eventually what happened. The technology was available and soon one disc jockey sitting in Colorado could push a button and broadcast instantly across hundreds of stations at a time reaching millions of people. Now we have stations like Klove which operate over 400 stations across the country at the time of this writing, and one person can operate them single handedly. The power of duplication and distribution is at work and it’s easy for you to reproduce in your own ministry.

Imagine if you could put these same principles to work in your ministry. Is there a way to push one button and reach not only everyone in your church but everyone in your community? Yes, and I will show how to do it. The technical term is RSS (Really Simple Syndication) but a more popular term used is podcasting.

You can record your sermon or bible study and publish it on the Internet. Then using the power of RSS your single click of a button is instantly duplicated and distributed across the Internet to possibly millions of people.

To read all the details click below.
Learn How - Click Here for the Details

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Free Audio Resources

11 05 2008

If you look hard enough you can find just about anything on the Internet for free. You also need to have some “street knowledge” and know where to go and which types of sites to stay away from. If you’re not careful you can get into trouble or your computer can catch a nasty virus.

With that said, are you looking for just the right sound to make an audio introduction for your weekly podcast? Need some exciting background music for a youth slide show? Keep reading and I will show you just how to find what you are looking for.

There are tons of aspiring music artists out there that are willing to give away there music just for some recognition. So, if you do not mind giving honor to who honor is due then you can find the perfect audio track to produce your next podcast.

If you know a little about audio file formats and are willing to spend some time digging through some of thes site you can find just about anything you are looking for and get it converted to the format you need.

 http://www.opsound.org/index.php - Musicians, and Sound Artists
http://creativecommons.org/audio - Creative Commons Links
http://www.wavsource.com/sfx/sfx.htm - Free Sound Effects

This blog compliments our website at www.sermonshout.com

Sermon Shout is an easy way to broadcast you audio sermons or podcasts online. You can setup a free account today.





Intro to Podcasting

9 05 2008

I will be posting periodically to this site about sermon podcasting for pastors, minister, evangelists, churches, and anyone else who wants to spread the Word of God using the Internet.

We can thank the folks at Apple for this wonderful technology. It all began with the iPod. Wikipedia says this about podcasting:

The term is a portmanteau of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”,[1] the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasting scripts were developed (see history of podcasting). These scripts allowed podcasts to be automatically transferred to a mobile device after they are downloaded.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

Now just about any portable audio player can be setup to receive a podcast. Think of it like a radio station and each portable device is a receiver for your broadcast. Always wanted to own your own radio station? Well, now you can have essentially the same thing by podcasting and you can get started for very little cash.

Some people buy specialized podcasting software and have an elaborate setup for recording podcasts. Some of these even have the professional sound complete with bumper music and all. It all depends on how far you want to go. Want to hire a professional voice over guy(or Gal) to record your professional intro? You can do it for as little as $30. Need some free background music you can use to make your own intro using Audacity? It’s all listed below. You can do it all for free or you can go Pro.

Here are some links that you will find helpful in setting up your podcast ministry.

http://www.sermonshout.com/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://www.beatsuite.com/
http://www.provoiceusa.com/





Broadcasting, Podcasting, or Godcasting?

8 05 2008

Podcasting, as many call it, has changed the way Christians receive and preach word of God. Many different terms are out there to describe this high tech way of preaching. So the purpose of this post is to stir up some feedback.

What do YOU call it when the word of God is distributed through the Internet? Go ahead let me have em all!








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