Author

Rich Kirkpatrick

Writer, Speaker, and Musician. Rich Kirkpatrick was recently rated #13 of the “Top 75 Religion Bloggers” by Newsmax.com, having also received recognition by Worship Leader Magazine as “Editor’s Choice” for the “Best of the Best” of blogs in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

5 Sins of Social Media Users – How to grow a flimsy, fake following!

by Rich Kirkpatrick August 19, 2015

written by Rich Kirkpatrick

Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram are now not only personal expressions but company branding machines. With the proliferation of this new media, I have identified five sins that create weak impact—unless you are into rewarding stupidly bad behavior. And, they drive me crazy! The dark side of social media might hurt you more than help. Many companies see added stats to follower lists, but do they know that their supposed social media manager is cheating a system instead of engaging people?

August 19, 2015 22 comments

Social Media Web/Tech Weblogs

5 Lessons on how influential blogging actually works

by Rich Kirkpatrick August 5, 2015

written by Rich Kirkpatrick

There is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and many techniques to draw people to click to our blogs. But, how do you have a conversation that actually influences and reaches the right people? It is one thing to attract traffic to your blog or social media. You can get people’s attention once. However, that could do more harm than not if your desire is to actually influence thinking. Is your message worth a discussion or simply a click?

August 5, 2015 6 comments

Art Church Stuff Communication Music Worship Leading

Utility versus Beauty: When the bottom line invades our worship

by Rich Kirkpatrick July 20, 2015

written by Rich Kirkpatrick

In our society, what works and produces profit is what we value. While we hunger for a post-modern identity and story, the structures, all around us scream utility, conformity and results. Money rules. This might even be true in our houses of worship as we may have unintentionally turned business metrics on our expression of worship. The question is this: do we value utility more than beauty in our worship? The answer is that our culture-infused church in modern America apparently does.

July 20, 2015 0 comments

Church Stuff Leadership Reviews Web/Tech

Crowdsourcing Church Tech: 5 Ways the Cloud Empowers Volunteers

by Rich Kirkpatrick June 18, 2015

written by Rich Kirkpatrick

I have enjoyed being part of worship and music ministry in the local church since the days I used to develop Kodak Kodolith slides projected over a cyclorama curtain. The changing colors and the sharp, crisp slides were all in analog, including the spelling errors! The Saturday night ritual of developing in my darkroom-closet was quickly terminated upon the purchase of our church’s first digital projector. Then, the horrors of PowerPoint as applied to congregational singing commenced.

June 18, 2015 11 comments

Christian Life Culture Social Media Television Weblogs Workplace

FEAR: Media’s Motivator, Our Trap

by Rich Kirkpatrick June 3, 2015

written by Rich Kirkpatrick

Old stories such as “Hansel and Gretel” and “Little Red Riding Hood” were meant to put fear into children. Lessons such as Aesop’s “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” were likely to prevent a child from basically ringing the fire alarm for fun. Fear is a motivator. It works. Fear of losing your job can be leveraged to keep you and your coworkers from offering legitimate grievances and used in turn to add hours and workload without additional compensation. From TV news to Facebook posts about the ending of the world, fear sells and gets our attention. Our fight or flight chemistry is amped to the max. It’s a science and it works.

June 3, 2015 16 comments