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.





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





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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Sermon Shout

6 05 2008

Great things are happening at SermonShout.com. Each week we are adding new features and functionality to the site. Now you can get on board and be a part of this revolutionary new site that will enhance your on-line ministry.

Get started today by signing up for a free account. A free account is only limited by the number of media items that you can have on the site at one time and limited to one broadcast channel. But it is the perfect way to play around with the features and see how you can use Sermon Shout.

You will definitely want to keep your eye on Sermon Shout, it is going to revolutionize the way you minister on-line.

Try a free account today at http://www.sermonshout.com/

 





Welcome to Sermon Shout

24 04 2008

Sermon Shout is like having your own radio station and television station. It makes broadcasting audio or video very easy. Have you always wanted to put audio or video on your church website? Sermon Shout is the tool to make it happen.

Not only can you create a podcast, but imagine creating multiple channels to broadcast on. You could have a channel for your pastors sermons, bible studies, etc. You could turn your youth group loose with a video camera and create a youth video channel. How many visitors do you think you will drive to your church website if your youth are broadcasting crazy videos.

Think of the people you could reach if your imagination gets plugged into Sermon Shout.

This blog will compliment the Sermon Shout website and offer insights, tips, and tricks for using Sermon Shout.

Visit Sermon Shout at www.sermonshout.com