Today all the buzz is location-aware tools and software. Where you are and who you’re around is what counts. Whether you’re playing foursquare, gowalla or using facebook’s new “check-in” feature, you’ve seen the benefits of this trend. Maybe you’ve just been playing the game and haven’t actually noticed the benefits, but you’ve seen the potential (kinda like when you first started using twitter). Well, it’s no different with ministry. Where you are and who you’re around is so hugely important. I think one of the biggest misses for ministry leaders is when they do ministry for years and never truly connect into the larger ministry community around them. Sure you can drive down the street and knock on every church door you see, or you can use the tools available to you online.

So, the coolest location-based tool I’ve seen yet is the site I mentioned last week: Imakidmin.com. It’s not GPS enabled or an app you install on your iPhone, but it’s a powerful tool for networking. Actually, it could be your first step to identifying both local and affinity based networks. When I wrote about this last week, I was marginally excited about the potential. However, after speaking to creator Michael Chanley twice this weekend and hearing his plans for the site, I’m really excited about what is next.

So, stop what you’re doing right now and head over to imakidmin.com and put yourself on the map. You can put yourself on the blog map, twitter map, facebook map if you want, but at the very least, put yourself on the US map and your state map (if it’s available yet). You need others as much as others need you, so please don’t do it for yourself, do it for the community around you. In 3 minutes you’ll be done and in the coming weeks as the maps fill in, you’ll begin to see the benefits of this new community.