From today until Launch Date the Four Bridges Ministry will develop various ways to communicate with the intercessors, advisors and donors. These forms of communication will emerge by use of trial and error. What follows is an initial plan. The parts that work well shall continue after Launch Day. Then there will be many more and different people to be included in the communication loops.
The continual challenge is to offer both the simple summary as well as ready access to the kinds of details that each person wants. Fortunately the web can do this well by use of hyperlinks. As you have seen on various web sites. There is a core article that tells the featured story. There are key terms that are underlined that when clicked will jump to a sentence to define an unusual term or leap to another article that is related. Also along the sides of the web page are attractive buttons that link to all kinds of other information. During the coming months and years Four Bridges Ministry will explore and develop these kinds of ways to communicate in both short and long ways.
But for now we must begin where we are with what we have.
This web site will be the central hub until Launch Day.
This web page will be the central way to communicate with the Launch Team.
BLOGS
From here there will be links to four blogs. This is a handy place where simple summaries and updates will be posted. Also from here there will be links to more detailed documents.
Four Bridges Intercessor blog
Four Bridges Advisor blog
Four Bridges Donor blog
Four Bridges Testimony of Answered Prayer blog
EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
Hopefully sooner rather than later there will be five kinds of email newsletters. A person will opt into subscribing to each one. Each newsletter will give a one or two paragraph summary of a few articles with a link back to the relevant blog or web page. Constant Contact www.constantcontact.com has the templates and tracking software. So it will be the initial vendor for this service.
General email newsletter
Monthly intercessor email newsletter
Weekly intercessors email newsletter
Monthly advisor email newsletter
Monthly donor email newsletter
QUARTERLY PRINT AND EMAIL NEWSLETTER
This very brief publication sent over the web and mailed out will be the simplest summary. It will eventually be done in a very public relations kind of way. The aim will be to enroll interest, prayers and donors. But mostly this will provide many attractive reasons to visit the web site. At the web site there will be various ways to invite people to opt into the various email newsletters. Convio www.convio.com is a company that has been helping clients to harness the Internet for fund raising. They use proven ways to gather email addresses and gently guide people to give.
FORUMS
A forum is an interactive way to use the Net.
This will allow the founder to interact with the intercessors, advisors and donors. There can be an open dialogue between the founder and those who have registered. This can address both the frequently asked questions as well as the latest developments. Parts of the forum can be a monitored discussion about matters related to evangelism, discipleship and benevolence.
Part of the 40K from the Strong Start Capital Campaign will fund the beginnings of an intranet. This is like the Internet that is open to the pubic but it is used for internal purposes. Before we have an intranet for the ministry we will work out ways for the advisors to collaborate with each other on complex projects. They will submit various reports for review to other advisors and the Board of Directors. This will allow the ministry to move forward wisely as we together pioneer better cooperation in the Body of Christ both locally and globally.
ONE-WAY MIRROR
Four Bridges Ministry is unlike any other ministry ever. We are bravely going into the wild frontier of cyberspace. No other Christian organization has ever done what we will do in the coming years.
One of the important parts of the funding for this ministry is to make appeals to those who are wealthy. One percent of the population controls more then 40 percent of the wealth. Some of those who have huge net worth will want to participate in supporting this emerging ministry. According to the web sites that are oriented to appeal to them they are seeking maximum impact for their dollar. They will find that here. This enterprise will leverage their donation by creating the four communication bridges that others will use to conduct all kinds of ministry for years to come.
These major donors are located all over the globe. Only a small fraction of the possible donors live in the Dallas area where the founder is located. Most of them recognize the amazing potential of the Internet that has been proven by the commercial and entertainment industries. They realize that this can be better used to fulfill the great commission especially as there is better communication and cooperation within the Body of Christ.
Understandably these people are busy and want to protect their privacy. They may wish to ask probing questions before making a large donation. The technology allows them to remain behind a kind of one-way mirror. They can see the web site and ask questions confidentially of the founder. But the founder cannot see them unless and until they decide to reveal themselves. There is a ministry named Generous Giving www.generousgiving.org that uses this system. We will find and work with such a third party.
The links below go to related Four Bridges web sites.
