Blog

You Can't Do That on Facebook: Serve

People often point to Facebook and wonder why the church would even need the Table. Facebook is ideal for outreach, but it falls short at building community. That's what the Table is all about. We encourage churches to use Facebook and the Table together. But the fact is there are things you can't do on Facebook that the Table is designed to do.

Like serving one another.

Serving & Sharing on the Table
The Table's Serve App allows you to post volunteer needs and items to give away or share. It's a way to help and encourage the church to serve one another. When you're posting needs, you can add specific tasks, invite people to get involved and more. When you're giving away or sharing stuff, you can post a picture, categorize what you have available and easily re-post something to loan out again. You can even see a record of how many people have been served or items shared.

It's designed for the church to serve each other. It encourages an attitude and culture of serving and sharing. That's pretty cool.

Serving & Sharing on Facebook
Not so much on Facebook. You can certainly post needs and give away or share things on Facebook, but not very well. You'd have to post those things as a status update, which means the system doesn't encourage you to serve or share, people aren't expecting it and there's no place to go to find a bunch of needs to serve.

You could certainly give away a random item or ask for help with something like moving, and you'll get a response. But there's no culture of serving. It's a one-time thing and it's not likely to happen again.

There are some marketplace apps on Facebook that allow for classified listings like Craigslist, and a few that offer Freecycle-like sharing, but they're pretty buried, not widely used and don't allow for posting volunteer needs.

Squash Apathy
The Table is designed to squash apathy. We're built that way. Facebook? Maybe it'll step on apathy once or twice by accident, but that's about it.

Of course that shouldn't be too surprising. Facebook is a worldwide social network that's designed for loose connections. It doesn't foster intimate community and that means it's not a good place for serving and sharing to take place. But the Table is designed for that intimate community. It makes serving and sharing natural, the way it should be in church.

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August's Table 101

If you're curious about the Table join us for next week's Table 101 webinar. We'll give a tour of the Table, talk about best practices for launching the Table and take questions at the end. It's a great opportunity to learn more about the Table and see if it's a fit for your church.

We offer the Table 101 on the first Wednesday of every month. The next Table 101 is Wednesday, August 1st at 3 p.m. CDT.

Register now for this free webinar.

(If you can't make it for the live webinar, check out the archived Table 101 webinar from May.)

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Email: Have it Your Way

Remember these ads?

Priceless aspects of this video: the hat, the turtlenecks, the customer's right to choose! 

We here at the Table Project want you to have as much or as little ketchup as you want!! Okay, this is getting to be a stretch. Cue the drumroll and let's get on with it. 

You asked for it, now it's here, the Email Digest!

Most of us aren't able to check the Table 16 times a day. We want to know what's happening but we don't always want to comb our inbox to find it. Well, now, you can have it your way. Sign up for an Email Digest from the Table by going to Edit Profile > Notifications & Email.

By selecting Highlights from the Simple Setting menu (seen below) you will be signed up to recieve those alerts in digest form. To further customize your digest click the Advanced Settings link. 

In the Advanced Settings menu you can hand pick what you get notified about and how. Click the icons to green to turn them on and grey to turn them off.

Still not enough ketchup for you? We have more features coming your way this summer. We are so excited that we've been able to commit time to real tangible features--stuff you can see and feel. Performance upgrades are great and scalability is exciting but they are exciting the same way that removing a sliver is, worthwhile but painful. Now we're letting the devs off their leashes and knocking out some highly requested features! (Note: No devs were harmed in the making of this platform.)

And we're not done yet. We have more big news coming your way very very soon. As always, stay tuned. 

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Calendar Upgrade

Our summer of awesome upgrades continues!

Today we released a new feature on the Calendar app that allows you to subscribe to Calendars on the Table. You use Google Calendar? No problem!

Now you can add a Table Calendar feed to your Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCal by simply clicking this button (pictured below).

This is only the beginning! Stay tuned all summer for more awesome upgrades. Did I mention the awesome upgrades already? I may have. But just in case...these upgrades are going to be awesome. 

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Discussion Board for iPhone Released

The Discussion Board just went mobile.

Our iOS app just got a whole lot sweeter. We've added the Discussion Board! Now you can browse Discussion posts, comment on threads or create your own topic all from the comfort of your iOS device.

In version 1.2 of the app you will be able to access the Discussion Board for your church and all your groups. Discussions no longer have to stall while you are away from your computer. No more waiting. That's what we love about mobile! So, download that update get to discussing.

For more details on our mobile strategy check this out.

To download the app click here.

As always, we invite you to share any feedback you have for us via email at questions@tableproject.org or Get Satisfaction.

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We are all in ministry.

A few weeks ago, our VP of Development Josh Lewis sent me a voice memo that he recorded on his phone while driving home. He didn't intend for anyone else to hear it, so he ranted a little, but his passion gave me the chills and I want to share that with all of you. It's important that everybody can see the hearts of the people working here. Our entire team at The Table Project is deeply motivated to help the church be the church, and we think about these things all the time, even when we're driving home on a noisy highway.

I encourage you to listen to the whole recording.

If you're unable to listen, below are some paraphrases from the recording to help you get the gist.

"One of the things I wish people knew about the Table is that when a church rolls the Table out to their congregation... part of what they're actually saying to the congregation is, 'You are all in ministry now'". A lot people don't really get what that means.

"We're Christians. All of us are in ministry. It's not just your pastor's job, it's your job, because it's your faith.

"So now (with the Table) we can see who we are collectively, and we see what the needs are, and we see where the pain is, and we see all of these problems. Generally speaking you'll get two kinds of responses. The first response is, 'I didn't realize there was all this ugliness, and all this pain and all this difficulty. What can I do?' The second response is, 'Be quiet, leave me alone, I'm busy, I'm not interested.'

"That second response is not ministy, it's not church and, pardon me, but it's not Christianity. That's not what Jesus says to people who need him. And we're his disciples. They will know we are his disciples by our love. Not by our ignorance or by our 'leave me alone', but by our love. So make the time, because you are in ministry now."

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Top 5 Bible Verses

Perhaps the coolest stat we can share is the most popular Bible verses users have added to their profile.

Here are the top 5 most popular Bible verses:

1. Jeremiah 29:11
" ‘For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' "

2. Philippians 4:13
"I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

3. Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

4. John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

5. Romans 8:28
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

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The Serve app has exploded...

Check out their welcome video! This church really gets what we are all about!

Welcome to Bethel's Table! from BethelChurch on Vimeo.

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You Can't Do That on Facebook: Targeted Messages

People often point to Facebook and wonder why the church would even need the Table. Facebook is ideal for outreach, but it falls short at building community. That's what the Table is all about. We encourage churches to use Facebook and the Table together. But the fact is there are things you can't do on Facebook that the Table is designed to do.

Like targeted messages.

One of the secret joys of social networks is the demographic data. Advertisers love it. They can narrowly target specific people and not waste time and money reaching people who don't fit.

That can be pretty handy for a church. Announcements that only appeal to a small minority don't need to go to the entire church.

Targeted Messages on the Table
The Table makes targeted messaging simple and easy with the tip bar. It's the yellow bar that appears below the menu and above the content. It's a place where SuperAdmins can put targeted messages. You can target people based on age, gender, location and interest, as well as targeting your staff.

It's a great way to put up reminders and announcements for specific groups. Learn more about how to use the tip bar.

Targeted Messages on Facebook
Even though you have a whole list of people who like your page and want your messages, the only way to do targeted messages on Facebook is to pay for an ad.

Ouch. You can't do that on Facebook.

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June's Table 101

We're doing a webinar today!

If you're curious about the Table join us for June's Table 101 webinar. We'll give a tour of the Table, talk about best practices for launching the Table and take questions at the end. It's a great opportunity to learn more about the Table and see if it's a fit for your church.

We offer the Table 101 on the first Wednesday of every month. The next Table 101 is TODAY, June 6th at 3 p.m. CDT.

Register now for this free webinar.

(If you can't make it for the live webinar, check out the archived Table 101 webinar from May.)

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