Steve Heyduck of banditsnomore points us to an insightful take on the prevailing theology of teenagers. Christian Smith and Melinda Lunddquist Denton are calling it, “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”. That’s a mouthful, but it says a lot.

Teenagers are among the prime populations we’re seeking to serve through the web, so we better know what they think.

David Gillaspey of Great Church Websites likes the picture and testimonial on the home page of our Resurrection website, as well as Senior Pastor Adam Hamilton’s weekly e-note to the congregation.

In the same article he also mentioned the Transformation Journal at Ginghamsburg church. Open source software developed at Ginghamsburg for this is now available from Web-Empowered Church.

Tony Morgan posts today about leadership. I’m printing this one and putting it up in my cubicle.

Rob Williams of Effective Web Ministry Notes points us to Ann Wylie’s tipsheets on writing great copy. Good stuff.

Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users posts here about making the culture of a large company more customer-focused. I thought a lot of her comments were helpful in thinking about how to write web page copy for seekers. Here are a few ideas I found particularly interesting …

Language matters. Frame everything in terms of the user’s experience.

In meetings, phrase everything in terms of the user’s personal experience rather than the product. Keep asking, no matter what, “So, how does this help the user kick ass?” and “How does this help the user do what he really wants to do?” Don’t focus on what the user will think about the product, focus everyone around you on what the user will think about himself as a result of interacting with it. Study George Lakoff for tips on using language to shift perceptions.

Capture user stories.

Keep a notebook or hipster PDA with you always and whenever another employee, blogger, (or user) tells you something good or bad about a real user’s experience, write it down. Build up a collection, and make sure these stories are spread. Be the user’s advocate in your group and keep putting real users in front of employees (especially managers). Imagine that you are the designated representative (like the public defender) of specific users, and represent them. Speak for them.

Look for first-person language from users about their own experience. Challenge others to solicit first-person, user-as-subject language.

Do everything you can to get user feedback phrased in first-person terms. Rather than feedback that talks about what the user thinks should be in the product, try to solicit feedback that gets the user talking about himself. Users tend to want to tell you what you should add/subtract from the product, but what you need is feedback where the user tells you about himself in relation to the product, even if it’s negative.

Useful: “I tried to use the XYZ feature, and I couldn’t figure out how to make it work.”
Not useful: “The XYZ feature doesn’t work properly.”

Useful: “I was able to make a really cool image as a result of your app.”
Not useful: “The app does a great job of image processing.”

Set it up as a challenge for yourself and others you work with to figure out ways to generate first-person feedback where users talk about themselves. Make it a game or a contest to see who can get the user to use the “I” word the most often. What kind of questions could you ask that would lead to the user talking about himself rather than YOU or your PRODUCT?

I promised Mark Stephenson would make an exciting announcement about Web-Empowered Church at at Church of the Resurrection’s annual Leadership Institute, which is Thursday through Sunday: Sept. 29 through Oct. 1. Well, I just previewed Mark’s announcement in the post below!

It’s not too late to plan to come to Kansas City for Leadership Institute. This is your first chance to hear directly from Mark and see the Web-Empowered Church technology demonstrated. I’ll be presenting along with Chuck Russell from United Methodist Communications (UMCOM), another of our Appian Way bloggers, and Mark. This is a great learning opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new wave of innovation and cooperation to create more effective church web sites.

Mark Stephenson, Director of Cyberministry at Ginghamsburg Church, and also the director of Web-Empowered Church, announced yesterday the availability of the “Pre-Release” of the Web-Empowered Church software and documentation, based on the TYPO3 open source content management system.

This release includes software and documentation for:
1. WEC Common Configuration
2. Six Templa Voila Templates (+ variations)
3. Devotional Journal Extension
4. Flash Player Extension
5. Flash Presentation Extension
6. Prayer Connector Extension

Also, the WEC User site is now the place to be with its greatly expanded user information and a CHC Forum with user topics.

Seth Godin gives us a way to articulate the value of blogging. His key idea is that when people read a blog, they are giving the blogger their attention. And, when it comes to marketing and communications, attention is very valuable.

Thanks to BetaChurch for linking and commenting on this.

Does it help to know that even professionals can struggle when trying to market the church? Church Marketing Sucks tells us the story of Angus Kinnaird, a marketing pro who worked on the “Jesus: All About Life” campaign in Austrailia.

Have you ever worked really hard on a church-related marketing campaign without the level of success you desired and expected? I definitely have and I’d think most people who have worked in church marketing have as well. Thanks to Church Marketing Sucks, I feel a little better … I guess.

BetaChurch points us to MarketLeap, a company providing some very cool free tools for search engine optimization.