Greg Atkinson

Greg Atkinson is a consultant, friend and partner with a select group of strategic partnerships. Greg works with these partner companies (listed in alphabetical order) and encourages you to contact him at greg@gregatkinson.com for more information on how we can be a resource to your church. Click on the logos to go to the company website.

• Greg is Director of Creative Strategy and works as a consultant with BigBadCollab and churches to create innovative technologies for the Kingdom. Currently Greg is helping churches develop a tool for assimilation and discipleship with next steps for spiritual growth. If your church would like a web-based tool like this, contact Greg. We also do custom websites, logos and complete branding consulting and implementation.

• We focus on your finances. You focus on your church. We’ve created a web-based system that allows your church to outsource all aspects of day-to-day financial management. Greg is also available for financial consulting for your church or organization.

• HelpStaff.me is a church staffing company. If your church is looking for a new staff member or you’re a church leader looking for a new ministry position, contact Greg. Many organizations have hired employees to fill needs without having a master plan for their organizational goals and growth. HELPSTAFF.ME can do an overall assessment and help you set up your staffing more effiiently and effectively. Again, contact Greg for more info.

• TruthCasting creates custom iPhone apps for your church. Greg is your connection to this amazing mobile resource.

Recently, I spoke with my friend (and Center for Church Communications Executive Director) Cynthia Ware. She asked me to be a Regional Network Coordinator for the Center for Church Communications and I agreed. Last week she announced this on the CFCC website. Below is what she said:

So – BAM – yesterday Google Buzz dropped. There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not people like it. I’m still not sure myself. I’m such a huge fan of Twitter. I did just do my first “buzz” though. So, what do you think about it? Will it survive?

In July of 2008 I was speaking to a group of Church leaders in Santa Cruz, California. I held my phone (this was just before I got my iPhone) up in my hand and I said, “This is the future.”

It’s been a year and a half and mobile technology is the “now”, not the future. My friend, Bobby Gruenwald, Innovation Pastor at LifeChurch.tv, constantly encourages his staff to think global and mobile – global and mobile.

I’m currently working with churches and organizations on helping them to create, dream and plan strategies around mobile technology. Your people are constantly becoming one with their phone (for good or bad) and it’s a reality that we need to be intentional about speaking their language. Again, as I’ve said before: we are digital missionaries.

As you know, I work often as a Secret Shopper/Mystery Worshiper. The first thing I check is the church’s website. The second thing I do is pull up their website on my iPhone. I have recommended several times that church’s follow the lead of Seacoast Church and get a mobile version of their website. I applaud and praise Seacoast for blazing a trail in this area. My hat’s off to my friend Shawn Wood and his team. Well done! If you have your phone handy (and I know you do) – pull up Seacoast’s website on it.

My church (and many others) send out text messages to attenders and members that opt in. My church also encourages you to text in questions and decisions that you may make as a response to the message. Many churches are utilizing text and SMS during services as an interactive piece. As I’ve blogged about before, many churches are using the free service from YouVersion Live.

I’ll be talking more in the near future about other mobile strategies and tools. In the meantime, if you and your church would like to strategize and put together a comprehensive plan that includes Web 2.0 tools, mobile technology, social media and social networking – give me a shout. My only goal is to help and equip you to speak the language of the people you’re trying to reach (digital missionaries).

Wow – what a crazy last week this has been.  I hope you had a great holiday and are enjoying the beginning of 2010. One thing I recently did was to sign up for one of YouVersion’s new reading plans. I encourage you to check them out, too. I also use and read the Bible on my iPhone – their mobile version is sweet. Happy New Year!

YouVersion Reading Plan Details:

• 20+ plans are available online and on your mobile device, so you can keep up with your reading no matter where you are.
• You can customize each plan to match your schedule by making it shorter or longer.
• Easily track where you are by checking off each day’s reading. We’ll also show you how far along you are with a percentage of completion.
• Your online and mobile accounts will synchronize your information, including your plan and your progress.
• Soon, you’ll be able to build a support system by opting in for accountability emails to you and/or a friend.

Links:

Reading Plan Page: http://www.youversion.com/about/reading-plans
Mobile: http://www.youversion.com/download

The following is an article by Daniel Scocco that I found on Daily Blog Tips.

Sooner or later most of us need to collect some Internet statistics. Maybe it is for your homework, maybe it is for a market research you are doing for a project, maybe it is just out of curiosity. Over the years I came across several websites that provide these stats, and I decided to list the best ones in this post.

1. Pew Internet Project

One of the best resources for people looking for Internet statistics. Their research cover social networking, web 2.0, broadbandand digital divide. Apart from detailed reports you will also find infographics, presentations, trends and surveys. The research topics are quite actual as well. For instance, they already have a bunch of reports and numbers on Twitter.

2. w3counter Global Web Stats

w3counter provides a web analytics program for website owners. However, they also use the data collected on the websites using the program (over 28,000) to create a monthly report called “Global Web Stats.” On the report you will find the most popular web browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions andcountries.

3. w3schools Browser Stats

The w3schools website also publishes a report with browser, operating systemand screen resolution statistics. One advantage of this site over the previous one is the fact that you can see at a glance the market share evolution of the different browsers over time. They have data going back to 2002, and there is also a section about the adoption of JavaScript.

4. Internet World Stats

If you are looking for Internet usage and adoption statistics from around the world, this is the website to visit. It comes with data regarding the total number of Internet users, a break-down by continent and penetration rates. The data seems to be updated frequently as well.

5. Alexa Top Sites

Not all of us are Alexa fans when it comes to traffic estimations. However, we can’t deny that Alexa has been tracking traffic numbers for a long time, and its list with the 500 largest websites on the Internet seem to be relatively accurate. If you need to get an idea of what are the largest sites on the web, it is worth a look.

6. Nielsen Net Ratings

Another company that offers decent traffic estimations for large websites is Nielsen. On the free report that is available inside their website they list the top 10 web parent companies, top 10 U.S. web parent companies, top 10 U.S. video sitesand top 10 U.S. search providers. Nielsen also offers a monthly newsletter with the latest online trends and numbers.

7. Hitwise Data Center

Hitwise is a company offering competitive intelligence services. Inside its website there is a section called “Data Center” where you can access all sorts of Internet data. For example, they offer a list of the top 20 search engines, top 20 websites per industry, top 10 search terms per industry and the like. Make sure to check the Reports & Webinars section as well.

8. Point Topic

Point Topic is a research company specialized in DSL and broadband research. Most of their reports are paid, but they have a section called “Free Analysis” where you can get access to a bunch of free reports and studies. As far as broadband numbers go, they are the most complete I have found online. The only catch is that you need to register an account before getting access to them.

9. Internet Growth Statistics

If you want to see some data regarding the early days of the Internet (i.e. 1993 – 2000), check this website out. Apparently it was created by an MIT student, and it is not complete, but it does have some data available. For example, you can see the growth in the number of websites, web hosts, and the usage of the different protocols over time.

10. Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief

Verisign is the company responsible for the .com and .net domain registrations. As you can imagine, they have a lot of data regarding domain names, and they provide a quarterly report detailing all the latest numbers and trends on the domain industry. You can download the PDF documents directly, and they are well structured.

My friend, DJ Chuang, posted an article entitled “Can the online church really be the church?” Here it is:

This new book by Douglas Estes, SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World, tackles the brewing questions surrounding the legitimacy of an online church. Many church leaders are discerning and discussing the “what is the church?” question that’s been going for years, and now, growing numbers of church leaders are asking it in the context of online worship experiences and forming relationships and communities virtually.

The book’s official website poses the question as: “Church on the Internet? Seriously?” This is the question many people are asking as more and more people chose to congregate online, and more and more churches look to launch internet campuses. But are these internet churches real? Are they healthy? Are they productive for faith? This is a conversation you can’t afford to miss as together we ask, “What does it mean to be the church in the virtual world?”

The official website links to a number of commentaries, including these positive ones: Internet Campuses from A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip, Responses to concerns about online church by Tony Steward, and A lesson from history for doubters by John Saddington; and negative ones:There is no virtual church by Bob Hyatt, Is Online Community real Community? Questions about the Virtual Church by Drew Goodmanson, Limitations of online church by Bobby Gruenewald.

As I’ve started reading through the book, I appreciated the author not taking a cautionary posture, throwing up warnings and fears of how technology could be misused. Estes digs behind the assumptions and cultural lens we have about being present with one another in inter-personal relationships. This is excerpted from page 60-61,

“If we want community to flourish in the virtual world, we’ll need to scrutinize our learned understanding of presence. Most people raised and educated in the Western world think of presence or being present as a physical act… Though defining presence simply as the location of our bodies is one of the foundational bricks of modern Western understanding of the world, itis not a God-given or biblical idea.” [emphasis added]

I think the book makes a compelling case for how relationships can occur through telepresence, and that a biblical community and a biblical church is not limited by the geography of a physical location.

And, last week, a SimChurch blog tour connected bloggers with reviews, commentaries, and interviews:

• Theology and the SimChurch [a chat with Douglas Estes] at Dan King’s blog,BibleDude
• SimChurch Blog Tour Discussion and Can a Church Exist in Cyberspace? at Chad Estes’ blog, Captain’s Blog
• Book Review of SimChurch, plus questions about WikiWorship at Eric Nygren’s blog, Returned Sheep
• SimChurch and Typical Churches at Mark Robert’s blog, MarkDRoberts.com
• Intro to Online Churches at Cynthia Ware’s blog, The Digital Sanctuary
• Discussion on the Advantages of Virtual Churches at Kent Shaffer’s blog, Church Relevance
• Book Review of SimChurch at Dave Bourgeois’ blog, Lessons from Babel
• Plus an unofficial post on the blog tour, my myth-busting In Defense of Virtual Church over at Christianity Today’s blog, Out of Ur

While I’m not so sure the discussions and reviews will change a lot of minds at this stage of the dialogue, I do think this book is one to be reckoned with. Where are you at with your thinking about the church in the virtual world?

Sunday night I stayed up late (with my wife) to see U2 again – this time live via the web. YouTube made history when it broadcast U2’s Rose Bowl concert live over the internet to the entire world. Millions watched and if you missed it, you can watch it HERE.

By the way, I think U2 is genius for giving the world what they want: a free live concert. This was a smart and strategic move and should be applauded by all for those that made it happen. It will be interesting to see what YouTube continues to do in the realm of live streaming.

Below are some screenshots I captured while it was happening live…

1. This is the band hanging out backstage before they went out. Note the links to buy their album, join their newsletter, visit their website and donate to RED – a passion of Bono’s:

2. This is how close the cameras got:

3. Of course the event incorporated live Twitter feeds – which was very cool:

4. This is a view of their sweet stage and set from a distance:

5. Actually, this is how close the camera got:

YouVersion Live gives you a way to interact with church services and other live events using your mobile device. You can follow along with message outlines and take notes, read related Bible verses and click through to the expanded passage, vote on a poll and see the results live, ask questions anonymously, give, request prayer, and take it all home with you on your phone. It works with any web-enabled phone, as well as any computer with an internet connection.

Introducing YouVersion Live from YouVersion on Vimeo.

Check out this blog post from Terry Storch HERE.

*** PERSONAL:
Tonight I’m taking my wife on a date to the U2 concert at Cowboy’s Stadium. Can’t wait!

As you know, I’m in the air (traveling) a lot. Lately I’ve been bringing some magazines with me to read during the flight. Magazines that I’m reading currently are:

• Outreach (I’ll talk more about articles from this tomorrow)
• Worship Leader (I was interviewed for a series called Worship 2.0)
• Church Production
• Wired
• Fast Company

What magazines are you reading?