“I think our pastor is spending too much time on his blog,” said the voice on the other side of the phone. I had to disagree with the caller and spend some time talking with him about why blogging was one of the best way for his pastor to spend his time, even if it meant that he had to cut some of his office time short or send someone in his place to make a hospital visit.When done well, social media will help a pastor connect with his congregation in a level that, previously, he could only do with a select few. My pastor, for example, Pete Wilson, is an avid blogger, Twitterer, and Facebook user. He has over 6,000 people who daily visit his blog and whose lives Pete speaks into, even though our church only runs 2,500 people in attendance. I keep up with him mostly through…

I have the best job in the world. I really do. I get to work with great men and women who have a passion to make the world a better place. Some of them are church leaders, and some start or lead amazing organizations. My friend Wayne Elsey is one of those rare people who has a winning combination of passion, business acumen and relentless drive. Less than four years ago he started Soles4Souls. Since then he’s managed to give away several million pairs of shoes. As a matter of fact, every 22 seconds, S4S puts shoes on the feet of someone in need. Today they’re starting a new challenge: 50,000 pairs in 50 days. And they’re doing it through social media. It sounds like a lot of shoes, but for $5 you and I can help change two lives with the gift of shoes–giving them comfort, dignity and even…

A few weeks ago, my friend Anne Jackson blogged about American Airlines. Her inspired blog post aptly titled “American Airlines is the Devil” drew a lot of comments from weary travelers who had similarly painful experiences with the airline. It took American Airlines a long time to notice and respond to Anne’s post, which is read by thousands of people. Eventually someone from the company acknowledge her complaints and even confessed that AA needs to do a better job managing its online reputation. As far as I’m concerned, they need to do a better job managing their entire business let alone their online reputation. But I’ll leave that discussion for another time. In contrast with the flying woes of AA, I had a WOW experience with Southwest recently. They did something I didn’t expect them to do. Last Wednesday I boarded a Southwest airline flight from Nashville to Hartford and…