If you're new here, read more about the More Good Foundation. We help members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) share their beliefs on the Internet. Learn more about what Mormons believe or talk with Mormons at LDS.net.

A new analytics program called Woopra allows website operators to not only see who is visiting their website in realtime but to initiate a conversation with them. This has interesting implications for online missionary work since it means that investigators could be offered help as they search online.

Here is a 3-minute video demonstrating Woopra on MormonWiki.com:

This strikes me as the online equivalent of the store clerk who asks, “Can I help you find anything?” You usually answer, “No, I’m just looking around.”

Elder Cook has touted privacy as one of the great benefits of learning about the gospel online:

“There are a lot of people today who would like to know more about our faith but they are concerned about having their privacy invaded. They want to look at things in their own time and in their own way. They do not want to feel like they have any pressure…. We feel that the Internet and the privacy that it affords people is a wonderful way to do that….” (Internet to find, Missionaries to Teach)

I suspect that most people will prefer not to be interrupted while searching for information about the Church. However, I wonder if a small handful of people would appreciate being offered some help?

Public Relations students, Ashley, Brett, and Kate, assisted More Good Foundation at a service booth at BYU (Brigham Young University) on Friday, October 31, 2008, surveying students about their willingness to share their Mormon beliefs online.

As part of their ongoing research to assist the foundation in facilitating online conversations about Mormons–our faith and our lives–these students shared information about ways other students can use the New Media to engage in the conversation on the Internet.

We appreciate their efforts to help us and help others participate in increasing the dialog about who we are on the Web.

To join the conversation, or for more information, please contact us at email@moregoodfoundation.org or visit our websites (Click on tab, “Our Sites”).

Ashley & Brett at More Good Foundation Booth at BYU

Ashley Chats with BYU Student at More Good Foundation Booth (It's Halloween!)

Kate and Karen at More Good Foundation Booth at BYU

Tags: Add new tag, lds beliefs, More Good Foundation, Mormon beliefs, Online missionary work, sharing faith online

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has recently launched an official Tech Web site,  LDS Tech, at www.tech.lds.org.  With a Wiki, forum, Q/A, and listing of current projects, the aim of the site is to give viewers a glimpse of what the Church is doing globally in technology, and to solicit feedbackand assistance from those in the community whose talents lie in technical areas.

As stated on the site, the site developers hope specifically to:

Share

We want to share with you some of the technologies that we currently employ at the Church and provide you the opportunity to comment and contribute to technical issues, challenges, and problems we encounter.  We want to give you visibility into how we approach and accomplish this important technical work for the Church.  We want to share with you the fulfilling experience of working for the Church as well as showing you different career paths that are available.

Engage

We want to engage you as a technology community in meaningful and helpful dialog around the various technology products that we develop.  We recognize that there is a lot of specialized technical talent within the membership of the Church that can provide needed and valuable input on the various technical challenges that we face.

Enlist

We want to enlist your help in testing the various products and services that we produce.  Your feedback will be critical to the effective deployment of these products, and your support and productive use of them will be our measure of success.

Encourage

We want to encourage you to participate in the discussions around the different solutions, products, and technical documents that we provide.  We want you to share your expertise and ideas about the different technology challenges that we face.  The broad depth of your experience, and the innovation of your ideas will  help us to create better products benefiting the membership of the Church.

Projects already posted on tech.lds.org include maps.lds.org which leverages several different data management technologies; the Internet Mission Office System; and scaling Nagios to span multiple Church servers.

Pass this on to those you know who would like to be involved in the site or in testing products and offering feedback to those involved.

Tags: Church technology, LDSTec

LDS.net is a social network that invites people all over the world to engage in real-time conversation with those of all faiths. 25% of LDS.net users are actually friends of other faiths, coming to inquire, to see how we live, what we think, how our lives and the gospel of Jesus Christ are entwined.

A member of the McDoodle family came to LDS.net based on an interest in the Church in October of 2007. Before her baptism, on December 2, 2008, she posted asking for advice on how to help her 9 year old son understand and be ready for baptism at the same time. She is one of many who have used the online forums to seek advice in overcoming her fear of emailing the missionaries. Talking with them, then, accelerated her spiritual progress.

Tags: member missionaries, Mormon missionaries, Online missionary work, overcoming fear of missionaries

Perceptions of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are changing as the Internet provides new opportunities for faithful Mormons to share their lives and faith online.

If you’re wondering if you can really make a difference by coming off the bleachers and entering the field, we hope to settle it in your mind and heart that your voice is needed.

Let me share with you comments made in an on-the-street survey of random individuals approached by a Public Relations firm eleven years ago to find out what they knew about us as a Church and people. As you read these remarks, I’d invite you to ask yourself: “Do I have anything to say on these issues?” “Would I not eagerly respond to questions like these if I could?” If the answer is, as I imagine it will be, a resounding “Yes,” then I invite you to begin to participate in the online conversation about us on the Internet. For ways to do that, please contact us at email(at)moregoodfoundation(dot)org or km(at)moregood.com. We’ll show you how you can help.

“You know, on family issues and stuff like that; they have good values, it seems like.”

“As a minority, I don’t know of any minorities or blacks that are Mormons. Maybe because I haven’t been around.”

“I might be wrong, but I believe it was a religion originated in probably the 1800s by someone on the East Coast. I thought they uncovered some written material and developed a religion around that.”

“The first thing that comes to mind is that they are allowed to have multiple wives.”

“They give a certain percentage of what they earn to the Church right off the top. I think it is called, ‘tithy’”

“I don’t know about Latter-day Saints, but I was very much interested in the Mormons, and I liked the fact that they were very close and supportive of each other.”

“Very strict, rather conservative in their outlook, and very patriarchal as far as the church structure is concerned.”

“Up until recently, they practiced bigamy.”

“I know a bit. I mean, joseph Smith was the town drunk. Had a vision…. He wnet out West, took the whole thing with him. They lynched him there because they thought he was nuts… They’re really rich; I mean, they know what they’re doing. They live a nice clean life….”

“Something was found in a cave, I believe, by Mr. Smith.

“Caring, open.”

“I know that they’re based in Utah. I know that they have very strict guidelines, that there are not a lot of female priests. I know that Brigham Young University is sort of breeding ground for Mormons.”

As you can see, these interviews–conducted in New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago–reveal much fiction and misunderstanding in the public mind, mixed with a few accurate observations about our morality and lifestyle.

If you feel stirred by these comments, I’d invite you to follow the nudge to participate in sharing your voice online.

Tags: Member missionary work, misperceptions about mormons, mormon image, Online missionary work

At Have you born your testimony on YouTube yet? Jane shares a concern about sharing the Gospel online:

I am ready to put a link to the church under “what I believe” on my About page, and to swear less (never, I think) online than I do in real life. I talk about our family reunions and about odd things that occur to me in church. I post videos of my seven-year old practicing her primary talks. But I’m not sure I’m the best example.

Sometimes I worry: will people judge the church by my words and actions…? Will they think I’m hypocritical for drinking Mountain Dew and oppressed because sometimes I hate being a mother?

Is this a problem?

I don’t think so. Jane’s authenticity should be considered a strength, not a weakness. Our friends of other faiths aren’t anxious to discover that all Mormons are alike. I think they’d be glad to discover there’s a Mormon out there just like them, with the same background, education, tastes in food, skin color, and hair color. Maybe they’re even from the same area. (Maybe there’s a Mormon out there for everyone!)

In the comments below Jane’s post, several women say that Elder Ballard’s talk inspired them to start blogs.

Sharing the Gospel online doesn’t need to mean posting your testimony on YouTube or necessarily sharing your testimony, in the traditional sense, at all. While speaking in Washington, D.C., Elder Ballard explained it this way:

Clearly, in this context I am not talking about declaring your testimony of faith in the traditional sense. Naturally, you can and should do that where the setting is appropriate and the audience is receptive, such as a church meeting. Rather, I am talking about taking part in everyday conversations in an unforced way, where your values and your religious beliefs will arise naturally. No one likes to have religion thrust down their throats. Instead, allow people to see how your beliefs lift and shape your life for the better.

• How does the gospel help you as a parent engage with your teens?
• How do your values encourage you to participate in civic affairs?
• How has your experience as a home or visiting teacher enlarged your compassion or care for the sick and needy?
• How has your Church life helped you to avoid such things as pornography and immorality?
• How have family councils or home evenings helped you resolve differences of opinion with members of your family?
• How has your experience in speaking in church helped you address large public groups?
• Where did you learn to respect and not to criticize other faiths?
• And so on.

Last week we attended the FAIR Conference. Among my favorite talks were the conference opener by Mike Ash and the conference closer by Dan Peterson.

Mike Ash presented concepts from his new book, Shaken Faith Syndrome. He explained the idea of “inoculation” — introducing members to doctrinal or historical points that might be unsettling if received from unfaithful sources which intend to shock or confuse. For example, we might better inoculate Church members by linking to the relevant FAIR Wiki article on Joseph Smith and polygamy when discussing Joseph Smith or polygamy.

Dan Peterson spoke of softening and broadening the field of apologetics. Apologetics is meant to provide plausibility for faith, not prove anything. We need not debate. If our faith is rational, or based in things we consider plausible, the Spirit can testify of truths. Apologetics can help provide this plausibility, for those who want it, by clearing the thorns so the seeds of faith can grow.

Dan’s vision for broadened apologetics is making the Gospel more “attractive” (or more remarkable) by sharing our experiences, telling our stories, and encouraging others to experiment for themselves. This kind of sharing of beliefs is central to the mission of the More Good Foundation and seems to be what Elder Ballard has asked for.

Earlier this year, Dave Keller suggested that Church members who participate on the Internet should engage in a “vigorous self study program” so they’re prepared to discuss any issue that might arise online. Here I see an interesting convergence: Dan and Dave seem to be implying, respectively, that the apologist and the online member missionary ought to be more like each other.

See also: Dan Peterson on Humble Apologetics at MormonTimes.com.

LDSMediaTalk.com is a new blog created by several Church employees to share “technology ideas for LDS parents and youth.” While this blog is not an official publication of the Church, these bloggers are experts in their fields and are close to the issues. Anybody interested in how the Church uses and will use technology to fulfill its mission should subscribe to this blog.

Participants include the following individuals, as well as occasional guests:

• Larry Richman, LDS.org Product Manager
• Joel Dehlin, Church CIO
• David Nielson, Managing Director, Church Audiovisual Dept
• David Frischknecht, Managing Director, Church Curriculum Dept

A recent MormonTimes.com article quoted Larry Richman relative to the launch of this new site:

Richman said the principal writers for LDSMediaTalk.com will glean technology information useful to families based on each author’s area of expertise. The curriculum director will focus on teaching the gospel. The audiovisual director will focus on Hollywood, movie-watching and music. The CIO will dig into technology issues. “I’m somewhere in the middle of all of those,” Richman said.

The Church Newsroom has a good article about members of the Church who are using YouTube and other websites to share the Gospel.

The article includes references to MormonHunnies, the three Mormon college students who’ve shared their beliefs on YouTube, and youth in Las Vegas who recorded their testimonies at Youth Conference.

“Speak on what you know,” Las Vegas youth leader West Allen says. “Make it personal. They [members] should share how the Church or the gospel has personally benefitted them and their families.”

Source: Mormons Make Their Voices Heard — Digitally

Youth of the Las Vegas Nevada Redrock Stake shared their beliefs on camera at a recent Youth Conference, answering Elder Ballard’s call to share the Gospel online. The production was beautiful, and I see several good things coming of this:

• Youth can tell their friends about the video and link to it from Facebook or MySpace pages.
• Parents can share the video with their co-workers and friends of other faiths. It may be less intimidating, for giver and receiver, to share a video of one’s son or daughter.
• The public at large can see what Mormon youth are like.
• Youth gain experience being missionaries, before serving full-time missions.
• When they grow up, youth can look back and recall the beliefs they formed while young.

Read more: Youth answer Elder Ballard’s challenge with video
Watch video: Youths in Las Vegas record testimonies