Thank you for your prayers and action for Strategy 1 of the Double Our Numbers campaign. We welcome all our new signees. You are like reinforcements in our fight to protect Christian values in Australia. With God's help, we are wanting to double our numbers to 100,000 by our fifth anniversary on 23 July, 2015.
| DOUBLE OUR NUMBERS CAMPAIGN UPDATE
Two weeks ago, the counter on www.canberradeclaration.org.au read 54,307. Today it's 56,310. Praise God that's 2,003 more signees :)
This was partly the result of the special forwarding email of Strategy 1 called "Will You Stand With Us?". We still have a way to go but we are off to an excellent start!
If you haven't forwarded the email to your friends yet, there is still time. Find the email we sent you on 23 April and forward that. Or you can click on this link which allows you to view the email on the web (to forward it, copy the URL and paste it into an email to your friends). As a result of the newly released New Signees' Survey we have 40 new members on our Prayer Team plus some new volunteers for other tasks. If you haven't done the 5-minute survey yet, we invite you to do that now.
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Today we are excited to release Strategy 2. This will be to use social media to spread the word about the Canberra Declaration. If you don't use social media, then we are suggesting you use another form of technology - your telephone or mobile phone.
1. SOCIAL MEDIA
It is a great joy to introduce to you Canberra Declaration volunteer, Natalie Lonsdale, our social media coordinator. She has been using her gifts of creativity in bringing freshness to the Canberra Declaration Facebook page since August 2014. She has reactivated our Twitter account and created an Instagram account.
This is one of the images she has created. You can find it under photos on Canberra Declaration Facebook page.
Today we are asking you to help us increase the number of signees of the Canberra Declaration through any social media that you use. We are especially interested in reaching the younger generation through this means. Many of you will have children and grandchildren who use social media.
Facebook - Over half of those surveyed use Facebook. If you do, we want to give you some simple instructions on how you can use it to spread the message of the Canberra Declaration. Follow these steps.
- Like our Facebook page (click the Facebook button at right, then click 'like' on the actual Facebook page).
- In the drop down box that appears, click 'follow' and 'get notifications' (these words will become bold). You can also add Canberra Declaration to your interest groups (our logo will appear on your homepage).
- On the left hand side of the page look for 'Invite your friends'. Click on this and all your friends will be shown. Click the word 'invite' beside those you would like to invite to like the Canberra Declaration page.
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Go to the first post on the Canberra Declaration timeline. This post includes the Canberra Declaration promo. You can use the buttons under the post to like it, comment on it and, most
importantly,
share it t
o your own timeline. Just click 'share'. In the 'Have your say' space, type something e.g. "I have signed the Canberra Declaration - will you? Go to www.canberradeclaration.org.au" Then press the blue button at the bottom right 'share'
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Natalie, or others, will generally do 1 or 2 posts each day on relevant issues to the Canberra Declaration. These will appear on your timeline or as notifications (there will be a red number on the small globe on the blue bar at the top of your timeline). You can 'like', 'comment' or 'share' any of the posts you see.
You can share to your timeline so it can be seen by the public or friends. This setting is at the bottom right as you share. You can also share to other pages you manage, groups you belong to or individual friends. All these choices are found in the dropdown menu at the top of the comments box. You can add your own comment there or you can leave it blank.
We hope this will help you become a Facebook advocate for the Canberra Declaration!
Twitter and Instagram
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Click the button on left to follow us on
Twitter. This works like Facebook but has a limit on characters used. Our Facebook posts go automatically to our Twitter account. In Twitter you can reply, retweet or make a favourite any of the twits. @CanberraDeclara
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Instagram is used to create and share photos. We have some very beautiful images Natalie has created on our Instagram account. It's definitely worth following, liking and commenting on. Take a look for yourself by clicking the button on the right.
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2. TELEPHONING
For those who don't use social media, we encourage you to use the telephone or mobile phone to ring your friends and relatives who might not have heard about the Canberra Declaration. Here is a suggested script you might like to use or modify as you ask them to consider signing the Canberra Declaration.
Hello ....................
I am ringing to ask if you are concerned about what is happening to Christian values in Australia today.
If you are, may I ask you to consider signing the Canberra Declaration?
The Canberra Declaration
is a statement written by a cross-section of Christian leaders in 2010. It focuses on areas that are foundational to the Australian way of life.
These are freedom of religion, marriage and the natural family and the sanctity of human life.
To date it has been signed by over 56,000. We have a campaign at present to have 100,000 signatures by 23rd July, the 5th anniversary of the Declaration's release.
By signing the Canberra Declaration you are letting our political leaders know that there are voters who cherish Christian values in Australian society. This in turn has an impact on the laws that are passed for the future of our nation and our children. Please will you stand with us?
If they want to sign but don't have the internet, then you can take their full name, address and email and then enter these details yourself into the sign-the-declaration form (use [email protected] if they have no email address).
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The apostle Paul didn't have digital social media like we do today to spread the Good News. But in the Bible we read how he willingly ministered outside of his comfort zone. He wrote,
"I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings"
(1 Corinthians 9:22,23)
. While social media is the comfort zone of many; for others it is not. Yet for the sake of Christian values in Australia, we reach out to others by all possible means.
