@stickyJesus. Toni Birdsong

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СКАЧАТЬ of every generation. Sticky is an eternal message independent of time, change, and cyberspace. It's the supernatural movement of God unaffected by Wi-Fi, bandwidth, or gigabytes. A sticky message is unyielding to cultural fodder or trends. It's a holy whisper in a noisy land.

      Of all the messages the world has ever heard, the gospel is still the stickiest. The good news is that God's message is your message, which makes your presence and voice online wholly (and holy) indispensable!

      This book is for every Christ follower residing on this side of heaven. It's for those who realize—and those who have yet to understand—the awesome moment into which we've been born. It's for technology novices, casual surfers, and those already folded comfortably into the online world.

      Wherever you are in your skill level, it's time to direct your heart toward the sticky things of God.

      We challenge you as a Christ follower to change your mind-set of the way you spend your time online. We challenge believers around the world to forgo denomination, sit in the same pew, and write this ongoing story together and share new ways to reach a fragmented world for Christ.

      Together, we can light up the online space. We can "go" and we can "tell" as Jesus asked each of us to do. And we can change absolutely everything.

      Changing the world doesn't begin with knowing technology; it begins with knowing Christ. In Sticky Jesus we will equip you for the online world by looking to the Equipper, Jesus. We will show you how He connected, created community, and ignited a buzz the world has yet to replicate. We will look at His character, His process, and His priorities and how you can echo His heart online.

      In these pages we will do the following:

       Explore how Christ honored and built relationships and how you can do the same online.

        Give you a practical understanding of the marketing-driven culture online.

       Point to the Holy Spirit as your Power Source.

        Provide personal stories that show God moving and transforming lives through social networking channels.

       Summarize each file with a download and a prayer that are 100 percent retweetable.

       Alert you to the danger zones.

       Demystify the world of social networking with easy instruction on getting started on Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and content gathering (RSS).

       Provide ongoing resources to help you grow beyond this book at http://www.stickyjesus.com/.

       Include a glossary in the back of the book to help you aong the way.

      So who are we to author this book? We are professional communicators by trade and passionate practitioners of all things social media. More importantly, we are Christ followers who understand the power of the gospel and how it can radically change the game online if— and only if—we get in the game. And by the way, God connected our two hearts through the power of a single tweet.

      We've seen the amazing, eternal fruit that honestly sharing our lives with others—and listening—online produces. So, we've stepped off-line to share that knowledge with you.

      Pssst! We'd also like to let you in on a little secret: if we can do this, so can you!

      Yes, the online culture is full of strange language (Plaxo, Google+, Twitter, Flickr, You Tube, and the like). But don't let that scare you. This is easy stuff. Really easy. And we'll prove it.

      Take up your charge, believer. This is your time. You are the light of the world. God has entrusted you with circles of influence online filled with people—all kinds of people—whom He loves deeply. We pray that you grow in your desire to know Christ and explore the special way He's calling you to shine in this new digital land. So, let's get started—together.

file 01

you: born for such a time as this

      @stickyJesus The land is shiny, but you are My light.

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       Welcome to the Land of Shiny Things. Your citizenship was not overtly solicited, but gradually you made your way here. You are an unwitting but active, dues-paying resident. The Land of Shiny Things is a finely manicured mental, spiritual, and physical subdivision of our universal domain. It is the cookie-cutter context that wraps itself around your mind daily, and for lack of an intuitive escape route,youfall into it...way too easily.

       The Land of Shiny Things begins to define itself when you hit the snooze on the digital alarm in the morning. Without waking up fully you point the remote at the television, and an impersonal, albeit strangely comforting hum paints a layer over the room...and overyour thoughts.

       The morning sun rises in supernatural splendor but fails to compete with the shiny box that has reeled in your gaze. Your need to know far outweighs your need for much else. Amid the stream of shiny things coursing through your mind, you hope to catch a glimpse or deduct a rational prediction, based on your library of shiny apps, reliable resources, and mobile reports, of what the unopened day ahead might hold. The shiny coffeepot is programmed to perk. You punch the shiny toaster and poke the shiny blender. You pet your shiny dog that now has a shiny chip surgically implanted so he can't get lost in the Land of Shiny Things.

       You kiss your shiny kids good-bye as they get on a bus where all the shiny kids blindly slide into their seats, careful not to interrupt an intense texting tango, blowing out the next game level, or snagging a hot song download.

       Rather than swap stories or baseball cards, they peer into their shiny Game Boys, PSPs, cell phones, and iPods.

       Meanwhile, you get in your shiny car, complete with a shiny GPS that gives you a 0.2 percent margin of error that you will make it to your destination within 0.6 percent of the estimated time without wasting a moment on a wrong turn or inefficient route. Stop! Go back! You almost left your shiny cell phone, which would render you unreachable and unconnected—the equivalent ofbeing among society's electronically disabled.

       At the office you ache to skip the pleasantries. Cordial people move soooo slowly, you think. Chitchat and office banter exist to delay the euphoric cliff dive into the shiny stream of e-mails and other online destinations corralled on the other side of your shiny laptop screen. Ahhhhhh! Finally one with the Wi-Fi, you are officially powered up and a contributor to a world fueled by batteries, power cords, and chargers. You are persuaded of your unique presence as you join the other 2 billion people on the planet who inhabit the In-ternetdaily.1

       You need to know and be known, and there's little room for God in this shiny equation.

       what time is it anyway?

      We live in a time when information and the access to it are more powerful than ever. Armed with the right content (information), you become (or feel) more in control of the world around you. The right information helps you make better decisions about how to live, interact, and succeed. You seek information to help with purchasing, investing, staying СКАЧАТЬ