The Table Project is a non-profit, pre-launch, remarkably innovative social networking service for churches of any denomination being delivered right here in Minnesota. The project’s mission is to, “…help churches “Live Church Together” through community-building software.” They do this by going beyond traditional social media through their platform called “The Table,” one which enables churches to custom tailor a solution for their congregation.
Recently I sat down with the executive director of The Table Project, Ken Finsaas, to learn more about the project, their mission and get some more background. I have to admit that I was more than a bit skeptical about YASN (Yet Another Social Network) being developed when I was introduced to Ken by a guy I know who specializes in placing senior leadership in tech organizations (Kevin Spanbauer, a Senior Partner at VTL Search in Eden Prairie).
My skepticism came from the fact that there are so many other social networking, group collaboration and other similar platforms already in existence. Since Ken has a senior leadership background in I.T. systems, consulting, and outcome-based project delivery, it wasn’t until meeting him and understanding more about their approach—and mostly because Ken later provided me with login credentials so I could poke around inside The Table and actually experience what they’re delivering—that I completely changed my mind and realized that YASN for churches was not only needed, but perfectly positioned for the next phase of growth and meaningful connections by church-going youth.
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An non-profit organization called YouthWorks is the parent organization spearheading The Table Project. YouthWorks’ purpose is to, “…provide life-changing, Christ-centered youth mission opportunities. This is our reason for being. We create extraordinarily fun and significant mission adventures, targeted to the needs and capabilities of youth, ages 12-19.” That organization sprung forth due to a recognition that outside-the-U.S. mission trips were incredibly costly and beyond the reach of most youth and their families. Besides the positive impact on youth who engage in these mission trips, YouthWorks saw a great need right here on U.S. soil for youth to help communities and individuals in a myriad of ways.
Experiencing the acceleration in the always-on, always-connected, increasingly-mobile, and socially connected young people that comprise the core demographic YouthWorks serves, The Table Project was begun to empower churches to deliver a platform to connect their members together, while simultaneously extending their respective ministries in to the online and social realm, and to be where young people are increasingly congregating, connecting and socializing….and that’s online.
So is it likely that YASN for churches will work?
The beauty of the The Table Project platform is how simple it is to use and configure. From the moment I logged on the little touches impressed me. The signup process had elegant javascript transitions and the flow of the process (one which often feels jarring) was simple and visually attractive.
A box popped up to ask me if I wanted to take a tour or skip it and dive in. It took me just a few minutes to go through the tour, perfect for the non-web-savvy anxious to get going, but the logical and intuitive layout means that a youthful user with any online experience would be up-n-running in seconds.
APPLICATIONS
Next I jumped in to poke around adding apps. For a pre-launch platform I’m very impressed with what is already available. Facebook and Twitter are here, but The Table Project has curated many others like: USA Today; Dropbox; TED Talks; eBible; Calendar; and dozens of others. By integrating these sorts of applications within The Table Project, the intent is to make it a core place youth will hang out online and help to make their church something other than a place they appear at on Sunday and possibly in a group or two during the week.
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CHURCH INTEGRATIONS
Also seeing that The Table Project couldn’t be some “thing” that sits “out there” on the internet separate from a church itself, Ken and crew have already taken strategic steps to partner with leaders in the church space.
One such organization is Fellowship Technologies, a provider of web-based church management software solutions used by ministries around the world. While Fellowship offers rudimentary social networking within their solution suite, they instantly recognized the quantum leap forward made by The Table Project and ensured that those churches opting to extend their member’s social experience to The Table could manage aspects of it from Fellowship’s dashboards.
WILL THEY SUCCEED?
Will The Table Project succeed? If you’d have asked me that question a week ago I would’ve given them a 50/50 chance due to my natural skepticism and the sheer number of other like products in existence. Today I’d say their chances are over 90% since: The Table is already highly focused; aligns the incentives of the churches, their congregations and the youth; and embraces/connects to other relevant services with apps like any good platform should.
The objective is to make The Table Project a self-sustaining non-profit. One way is through the Store on the site. The Table Project will curate, and offer for sale, books and other products that will help generate revenue. We’ll have to see what else is in the offing as they come closer to launch.
All-in-all I’m pretty impressed with The Table and saw few downsides to their approach. The upside of a platform that churches all over the U.S. (and world, I assume) can use, evangelize to one another and help make better through recommendations to The Table Project leadership, holds the promise of being Yet Another Social Network that Christian ministries will embrace to extend themselves directly in to the always-on and always-connected world.