TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERING MINISTRY www.ministrytech.com
July 2017
Mobile work force: Where is your “staff”?
Pulling Together Software and People in the Same Direction | Mobile Freedom vs. Accountability | Paying the Cost of Going Mobile
CONTENTS
7.17
How to Make Software & People Pull Together in the Same Direction To get to a clear destination with a scattered communication team, we need at least three things.
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Boomers or Bust– Using Tech to Minister to Baby Boomers at Church
Mobile Freedom vs. Mobile Accountability
If no one sees you working then why are you being paid?
24 Who Should Pay The Cost of Going Mobile? By 2010 there were more cellphones in use than there were people in the U.S.
12 TECH CHECK 7.17............................................................................. 11 START-UP | The Story Behind Piktochart, Part 2.........................15 5 Expert Tips to Manage a Remote Team.....................................18 WFX Conference & Expo: An Experience That Will Change Your Church.......................................................21 Do You Have a Disaster Recovery Plan?........................................27
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A pilgrim’s progress of giving The ancient tale retold: church donations and technology
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A Word from the editor Ray Hollenbach Managing Editor Ray Hollenbach rhollenbach@outreach.com
Art Director Beth VanDyke bethvandyke.com
Contributing Editors Yvon Prehn Nick Nicholaou Russ McGuire Jonathan Smith Steven Sundermeier Kevin Purcell Steve Hewitt
Copy Editor Laura Severn
Publisher
Outreach Inc. 5550 Tech Center Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80919 (800) 991-6011 Ministry Tech® is a registered trademark of Outreach, Inc. Written materials submitted to Ministry Tech® Magazine become the property of Outreach, Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Ministry Tech® Magazine reserves the right to make any changes to materials submitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publication may not be copied in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Outreach, Inc. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed
Mobile, And Yet Connected
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mobile workforce is good news for churches and church staffs, because the church is called to “go.” As never before, the connected and technological church can fulfill the Lord’s Great Commission in ways unimagined by previous generations. It’s a great reminder that at the intersection of technology and ministry we can always discover obedient, committed disciples ready to obey the Lord’s commands—in increasingly inventive ways. The mobile workforce is one technological change that fits the church perfectly, because the work of the church is about reaching the world. It’s a good development when the work of the church can be done flexibly and allow both staff and volunteers to go beyond the walls of the church building, because the mission of the church is in “out there.” As one church leader said: “The meat is in the street.” Imagine a highly connected group of people, trading information, encouraging one another, and directing resources directly to the point of need—and you’re imaging a mobilized church!
In this issue our church communication specialist Yvon Prehn addresses the need for clear communication within the church, and practical suggestions on how to divide the responsibilities for such communication between full time staff and ministry volunteers. Jonathan Smith reminds us that whether we are dealing with staff or volunteers there’s always a necessary balance between freedom, flexibility, and responsibility. Sometimes, increased freedom calls for increased accountability because the work of the church is accomplished by a community of people. Russ McGuire provides Part Two of the story of Piktochart and the Christian entrepreneurs behind the company. It’s a moving reminder that behind every technology, and behind every data set, lay people and relationships, which is the very soul of Christian ministry. We’re thrilled that you are a part of this ever-growing community, and that you’re willing to invest time learning about new ways to live at the intersection between technology and ministry. God bless!
within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees of Ministry Tech® magazine, or Outreach, Inc. © Copyright 2017 Outreach, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Ray Hollenbach is the Editor of Ministry Tech magazine. He has previously served as the editor of Outreach’s Better Preaching Update, and as the editor of the Pastor channel at Churchleaders.com. You can reach him at rhollenbach@outreach.com. July 2017 | 3
LEAD STORY
How to Make Software and People Pull Together in the Same Direction
Where is your mobile communication team heading? [ by Yvon Prehn ] 4 | MinistryTech.com
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll (1871)
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ith the tools of technology available to us today, the communication team at our churches is comprised of those who work at the church office full-time, part-time staff who work at the office and home, plus volunteers who work from the immediate area or anywhere on earth if they are traveling! That’s the good part about a mobile, distributed communication team today. The challenge is, unlike Alice in the quote from Through the Looking Glass, it does matter where we want to go. We want to get to where our church communications are involving people in the activities of our church so they can come to know Jesus as Savior and grow in their faith. To get to a clear destination with a scattered communication team, we need: XX A clear understanding of roles and goals XX Coordinated software XX A common vision and purpose Here’s some advice for each area based on interactions with many churches over the years, and what I’ve seen work well.
A clear understanding of roles and goals Many churches are hesitant to use volunteers outside the church office staff because of the spoken or unspoken fear, “What if I can’t get them to do what I want them to do? What if volunteers create materials that are not appropriate or up to the quality we want for the church?” These are valid concerns. I’ve found that almost all these concerns can be answered if you divide your church communication team into Two Production Levels. This way the church can keep tight control over essential, core communications, but delegate to team members those communication tasks that need to be done but that the staff seldom has time to do. The two production levels of effective church communications are the Public Relations (PR) level and the Ministry Communication level. Let’s look at both:
PR Communication Production Level n WHAT IS PRODUCED? These are the showcase pieces, the ones that represent the face of your church
overall to your community and the world. They include the logo, stationary, business cards, primary bulletin, newsletter, major outreach pieces, and the primary website and social media creation.
n WHO DOES IT? Usually a staff person. The larger the church the more that church needs to hire someone to create and oversee communications. This level of communications is the face and voice of the church: it’s important that the person who does these pieces is at the church as much as possible— attending staff meetings to get to know the heart, vision and people of the church. For these reasons, it’s difficult for this person to be mobile.
n WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS? Usually somewhat strict, as these pieces reflect the overall vision and reputation of the church. This is the level where the standards are set for what is expected in all other communications. A style manual for the church is very helpful where you list accepted ways of referring to pastors, staff, committees, etc., where you clarify logo usage and any style and grammar expectations. July 2017 | 5
The most important thing of all is that everyone on your team should understand they’ve been entrusted with the words of eternal life, that the eternal destiny of human souls can be determined by their communications. Ministry Communication Production Level n WHAT IS PRODUCED? Everything else, from very simple notices, lessons, flyers and announcements to more complex communication projects. These are the multitude of pieces needed by individual ministries of the church. Volunteers can work on these anywhere, at any time, and be effective and useful. Mobile interactions can work extremely well at this level, when the person at the top level has a clear vision and has set up style guides as suggested previously.
n WHO DOES IT? THIS IS IMPORTANT: Here a staff person (or perhaps a key volunteer) should oversee, train, encourage and help, but that person can’t do everything needed for a complete 6 | MinistryTech.com
communication ministry in the church, nor should they. Ideally, every ministry in the church should have at least one person who can help do the communications needed for that ministry, who is often a key part of that ministry. At this level, the overall ministry communications staff member becomes a coach and encourager.
n WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS? You do not need the same high standards of design or perfection for a one-time postcard to remind the guys of the men’s breakfast, or the flyer to remind parents of a special event for a Sunday School. If you’re too hard on volunteers, they’ll quit. The ministry communication staff person needs to decide what is essential and important in standards and what is simply picky personal preference. Also, don’t try to make every volunteer create ministry
specific communications in the same style as everything else in the church.
Coordinated software To help the PR and Ministry Communications levels work together well, you need to have coordinated software and a way to exchange files seamlessly. Fortunately, this is very easy to do with both Microsoft products (Word, Publisher, PowerPoint) by using Office 365 and Adobe Products (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat) by using the Adobe Creative Cloud. Here are two links to resources that will help you evaluate, understand and purchase the nonprofit licenses to get these products:
n Consistent Computer Bargains— I highly recommend these people as I’ve known them and how they help
churches since they were founded. Call them and they can explain the products, programs and whatever else you need. They can help with both MS Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud.
n TechSoup—TechSoup provides an excellent secular explanation on how MS Office 365 works for churches. There are many useful programs today that have features to enable distributed teams to work together well on projects. (One of them is Canva, where you can create shared templates, folders and stylistic guidelines.)
Yvon Prehn is the founder and director of Effective Church Communications, www.effectivechurchcom.com, a ministry that helps churches create communications that will help them fully fulfill the Great Commission. She has been writing and teaching about church communications for over 20 years. Her latest book is The Five Steps of Effective Church Communication and Marketing.
A common vision and purpose Your team can be well-organized and have a flawless digital, distributed workflow (all of which is very important), but the most important thing of all is that everyone on your team should understand they’ve been entrusted with the words of eternal life, that the eternal destiny of human souls can be determined by their communications. Take time to create a clear, Bible-based and spiritually challenging vision statement for your communication team. Remind people of the eternal importance of what you are doing. Once everyone has the same vision, is praying together and working hard to accomplish the goals of the church and the Great Commission, they can work from nearly anywhere, and you’ll have an effective church communication team. MT July 2017 | 7
Mobile Freedom VS.
Mobile Accountability The Hidden Dangers of Tech Flexibility by Jonathan Smith
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY is making it possible for ministries to save money while being more productive. A mobile workforce allows employees to work from where they are most comfortable while saving money on office space, furniture, maintenance, HVAC and corporate infrastructure. The employee has access to all the same tools they would have in a traditional office without any of the traditional office costs. Almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? 8 | MinistryTech.com
From a cost perspective this makes a lot of sense. Equip an employee with a tablet or laptop and you’re practically done. However, from a productivity standpoint it gets a little more complicated, and when we talk about accountability— well, now we’re getting deep! Recently in the news we’ve seen both sides of the work-from-home challenge. Dell Corporation allows many of their employees the option to work from home. Their internal studies suggest that employees are more productive when they can work from home and avoid what can sometimes be a long commute. Dell said they find employees login earlier and stay logged in longer on the days they telecommute as opposed to the days when they have to actually commute in the real world. IBM however recently cancelled its program to allow many employees to work at home, citing the traditional office team environment as being better for productivity. They say being together in a traditional office environment is worth all the time and costs associated with it, as it improves productivity. IBM went so far as to say if you work from home and you’re unwilling to give that up, then you may not get to keep your job. For churches and ministries a mobile workforce has many benefits. Construction dollars can be spent on ministry space that is more flexible for ministry needs, because let’s face it: an office is an office. The staff is also able to nimbly serve those they are called to serve, as they can access all the data they need for ministry from anywhere. Mobile technology also helps get
the staff out where the people are. Sometimes folks may want to meet with someone at your church but the stigma of actually going into a church drives them away. With mobile technology the staff can work from anywhere; setting up shop at a coffee house so you can meet with folks no longer means any loss of productivity because you aren’t in the office. For multisite churches this is huge: many large churches are building co-working studios. Instead of tying staff to a specific office at a specific campus, church staffers can move freely between co-working
a dedicated and motivated person to work remotely. In the remote world, though, it is easier to take advantage of the situation and shortchange your employer. Just because you were at a coffee shop for three hours, does that mean you did three hours worth of work. Perhaps you were there for three hours and only did two hours worth of work. Think about that. I hope no one wants to shortchange God, whether you work for a ministry or not. If your expectation is 40 hours then you should work 40 hours, whether those 40 are in a coffee shop, airport or traditional office.
The biggest challenge with a mobile workforce is accountability. While there are many advantages to working remotely, it’s also a privilege that can be easily abused. It is easier to take advantage of the situation and shortchange your employer. studios. In addition, co-working space can also be shared as a great community asset. The biggest challenge with a mobile workforce is accountability. While there are many advantages to working remotely, it’s also a privilege that can be easily abused. The traditional 8 am –5 pm work hours (for illustration only, because we all know that ministry is not 8–5) and the need to have your physical presence seen and noted by those writing your paychecks is no longer viable. This is often why many organizations shy away from a mobile work force. If no one sees you working then why are you being paid? There’s no doubt that it requires
Employers also have to be ready to help remote workers with accountability. If the expectations are not clear then the employee may falter. Employers need to have the necessary technology in place to empower their remote workers. Providing hardware is only part of it; software and services are the other part. Don’t send a remote employee into the field with five-year-old technologies and very little support. Hopefully some of the money saved by not maintaining a traditional office environment can be used to provide hardware, software and services for employees. While accountability can be done remotely through emails and phone July 2017 | 9
calls, it is also a good idea to for employers to make sure their remote employees get some face time with those they supervise. While remote employees may not be seen very often, it is important to make sure they don’t feel like they are out of sight and out of mind. People are still a ministry’s greatest asset, whether remote or traditional. As challenges are faced with remote employees, they must be dealt with. Once word leaks out that you can work remotely and spend most of your day playing video games, then you may find a rush of people who want to work remotely. What’s expected out of a remote employee should be the same, if not a bit more, than what’s expected out of a traditional employee. In many cases churches have been early adopters of mobile workers. In many cases smaller ministries with only one or two employees have been working remotely for decades, back before there were cell phones and pastors named their boats “Visitation.” Today, thanks to technology, working remotely has gotten easier and is just as effective as working in a traditional office. For both the employer and the mobile employee, responsibility and accountability are key. MT
Jonathan Smith is the Director of Technology at Faith Ministries in Lafayette, Indiana. You can reach Jonathan at jsmith@faithlafayette.org and also follow him on Twitter @JonathanESmith. 10 | MinistryTech.com
tech check
7.17 What? Live stream Our Services? Yes, you! These days Facebook provides an easy distribution platform for as-it-happens video. Any church with an Internet connection can provide real-time audio and video of its services, or even small group meetings. Just because people in your congregation are traveling doesn’t mean they have to miss your meeting. There are plenty of hardware choices for live streaming cameras, and they are quite affordable. Check out this YouTube offering from MEVO, which demonstrates how easy it is to live stream (even from your kitchen!).
Editor’s Note: Who can possibly keep up with all the tech options available these days? TECH CHECK highlights tech news and new gadgets that save you time, energy, money—and keep you from re-inventing the wheel. Have a hot tech tip or news item? Email rhollenbach@outreach.com.
Multiple-platform ChMS is Within Your Reach! Your ministry is about more than managing data—it’s about connecting with your people, and helping them connect with each other, so they can grow in their faith. Fortunately there are integrated software and app solutions that foster healthy communities. Even the smallest or newest churches can benefit from these solutions, whether they are off-the-shelf or customized for your unique situation. The folks at Church Community Builder Software are a good place to start, as they integrate giving, small groups, checkin, attendance, and connectivity.
Your DIY Guide to Acoustic Panels: Acoustic panels are an overlooked aspect to great sound in your facility. After all, it seems so low-tech, but it’s rare to find a church building with naturally good acoustics. By the time you add in pianos, organs, electric guitars and over-enthusiastic vocalists, you could have a tech problem of epic proportions. The folks at Sound on Sound provide an online primer that starts with the differences between absorption and diffusion, and leads you all the way through to assembling and installing your own customized acoustic solutions. As a bonus, this kind of project could be a great church fellowship team project.
The Definitive Guide to Podcasting The folks at RazorSocial.com have curated everything you need to know about establishing and producing a podcast for your church community. Keep the connections flowing within your church through podcasting, which is mobile, and always available to the people in your congregation. Take a few minutes to watch their video, or scan their selections and you’ll be up to speed on what it takes to leverage this redout means of connecting with your community, and reach new friends as well. July 2017 | 11
Who Should Pay the Cost of Going Mobile? [ by Nick Nicholaou ]
Should Churches Continue to Reimburse Cell Phone Fees?
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hurches reimburse some staff members for their cell phone and Internet costs. In the early days of those technologies, doing so made sense. Has the way we communicate changed so much that it’s time to reconsider? What are the issues? I got my first cell phone in 1987, and was one of only 1 million in the U.S. who had one. But it was worth the cost (often $750+ monthly for one line!) to be available to our clients as I travelled across the USA. Five years later that number had grown to 11 million, and in 2000 passed 100
million! By 2010 there were more cellphones (and smartphones) in use than there were people in the U.S. By 2015 half of all households no longer had a landline connecting their home to the telephone system network (we removed our landlines in 2007). Why does that matter? In the earlier years of cellular phones they were very costly to buy and use, and were perceived as additional phone lines. As great tools enabling a burgeoning mobile workforce, churches wanted their staff to have cellphones to facilitate better communications between themselves, their teams,
and their congregations. Because they were an added phone to the home phone, many church team members couldn’t afford to have one. The same is true for Internet connections at team members’ homes. In the 1990s and early 2000s they were considered optional. Reimbursing staff for the expense of being connected made sense for many team roles. So churches developed a number of ways to underwrite the cost for these services for their staff via reimbursements, allowances and more. The IRS finally helped by simplifying the tax treatment of cellphones provided to employees in 2011 following the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. There may be circumstances where those are appropriate, but for most the answer going forward should be no. Those communications services are no longer considered additional methods in the U.S., but are now integral to our communication fabric. At a gathering of megachurch church business administrators and managers (CBAs) I recently attended, one of the CBAs asked, “When staff leave the church, they don’t want to turn in their cellphone or terminate their service! If they will pay for it themselves after they leave our staff, why do we pay for their service and phones while they are on staff?” It’s a good question! Today nearly all working adults in the U.S. have a cell phone (or more accurately, a smartphone), and most households have broadband Internet service. So why should the church reimburse the cost of these services? It no longer needs to.
Simply deciding to no longer reimburse for these services could be problematic. I suggest the following:
will no longer be made to church staff. This policy would apply to all new hires.
■■ Set a policy that reimbursements for cell phones and Internet service
■■ To ‘grandfather’ those who have been receiving assistance for these services, add the amount they have
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Today nearly all working adults in the U.S. have a cell phone (or more accurately, a smartphone), and most households have broadband Internet service. So why should the church reimburse the cost of these services? It no longer needs to.
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been receiving to their base pay; a sort of one-time adjustment to their pay. This allows you to eliminate assistance going forward without hurting any team members that depend on it. It also simplifies the payroll process—a win-win! Transitioning in this way will remove the discussion for any new team members, and continue meeting the needs of existing team members. People no longer need assistance with their cellular or Internet service. It’s part of the standard way we
communicate today in America. It’s OK to end the practice of evaluating who to assist, how much to assist, and then accounting for those decisions in budgets and in the payroll process. Handled in this way, no one will get hurt in the process, and no one will suffer because of the policy. MT Nick Nicholaou is president of MBS, an IT consulting firm specializing in church and ministry computer networks, VoIP, and private cloud hosted services. You can reach Nick at nick@mbsinc.com, and may want to check out his firm’s website, www.mbsinc.com, and his blog at ministry-it.blogspot.com.
STARTUP
The Story Behind
Piktochart (Part 2)
A worldwide story of Faith, Love and Tech by Russ McGuire
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ast month, I introduced you to Andrea Zaggia and Ai Ching Goh, husband and wife and co-founders of Piktochart. In sharing their story, we learned how God had used technology, and even their web-based business, to bring them to Himself and to saving faith. This month I am pleased to share how God is using them and their business to bless others.
A Transformed Life As you may recall, Ai Ching was raised in Malaysia. Her family is Buddhist. Growing up, she didn’t even like Christians. She told me, “I was wrong my whole life!” Andrea was from Italy where his family identified as Catholics, but the church wasn’t an important part of their life. They met over Skype, then in person. Andrea moved to Malaysia to be with Ai Ching. They started a business together and were married. But they were lost. Ai Ching said, “It’s so hard to work with your spouse. In retrospect, it seems impossible
without Christ in the center.” She said that they would often get into heated debates over trivial aspects of the business. They each had a “rights” mentality, insisting on what they thought they deserved. In Ephesians 4, Paul commends us “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:22-24). He goes on to describe it this way: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:31,32). Andrea and Ai Ching admit that they aren’t all the way there, but after joining the church, they are being transformed as Paul describes. Now, they always pray together. No longer is it a zero-sum game with one winning and the other losing. They strive to make
Russ McGuire russ.mcguire@gmail.com A trusted advisor with proven strategic insights, Russ has been blessed by God in many ways including serving as a corporate executive, co-founding technology startups and writing a technology/business book. More importantly, he’s a husband and father who cares about people, and a committed Christian who seeks to honor God in all that he does. His newest venture is as Entrepreneur in Residence at Oklahoma Christian University.
every decision in one spirit.
Challenged by Scripture When they joined the church, they also joined a care group in the church that met weekly. The group was studying the book of Daniel. In the first chapter, we see Daniel’s faithfulness demonstrated in verse 8: “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.” We don’t know exactly why Daniel thought the food and wine would defile him, but his faith required separation from the culture around him. Likewise, Ai Ching was challenged to consider whether she was defiling herself by continuing to engage in the cultural practices with which she had been raised. In her hometown of Penang, there are many idols. It is a common practice to literally eat food offered to idols. July 2017 | 15
Create attractive infographics online using Piktochart’s wide selection of easy-to-use templates. Twice in a very short time, Ai Ching ate food that had been offered to idols. Each time, she came down with a very high fever that lasted exactly one day. She understood that she, like Daniel, was to separate herself from the cultural norms that had been defiling her. Not long after, the care group looked at Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being bold and standing for their faith. Ai Ching realized that she also needed to be bold. She had been lying to her parents about what she did every Sunday. She realized that she needed to tell them the truth and she shared with them her testimony. Her parents were not happy, but Andrea and Ai Ching were strengthened and encouraged as they continued to 16 | MinistryTech.com
grow in their walk with the Lord.
Business and Technology Connections Being in a country where less than 10 percent are Christians made it hard for Andrea and Ai Ching to learn how to build a business with Christian values. They turned to Google to try to find Christian mentors. One of the top results was Praxis, which I have featured before. Later, they attended SXSW in Austin and there met Evan Loomis, co-founder of TreeHouse, who had been through the Praxis program. They applied and were accepted into Praxis, where they built great relationships with mentors and peers that continue to serve them as they grow in God’s grace.
To summarize some of their key takeaways, each of the Piktochart co-founders shared a verse that guides them. Andrea recited Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” By the world’s standards, entrepreneurs are expected to follow a pattern: raise money fast; fail or succeed fast; fire struggling workers fast. At Piktochart, by God’s grace, they haven’t conformed to this pattern. As I mentioned last month, they had the opportunity to take money from investors, but didn’t feel at peace with the offers. If they had accepted those offers, they now would have investors that would be opposed
to many of their current decisions, including tithing from the business to support Kingdom work. God has provided. They haven’t needed outside financing and the business is still growing five years in. Ai Ching quoted Jesus from Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” As a businessperson, we have so many responsibilities to juggle, including serving customers and employees, ensuring product quality, dealing with never-ending new versions of browser and web standards and technology trends, and adapting to changing market conditions. She says, “It is so important not to be focused on these ‘waves’ but on Christ, our Head, who is ready to pull us out when we start to sink.” As Jesus said in John 14, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” As technology entrepreneurs, Andrea and Ai Ching have learned lessons that can benefit us all. We are trying to do great things for God, but we so often get caught up in the craziness of the latest javascript framework (jQuery, Angular, Vue), the new trendy web design model (one page, responsive, material design), or the next big thing (virtual reality, augmented reality). We lose sight of the fact that God is doing a great work in us and through us. It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world, but about seeking Him, and being transformed by Him to His glory.” MT
In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as a person driven to glorify God in all he or she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com.
July 2017 | 17
5 T
Expert Tips TO MANAGE A REMOTE TEAM How to do it right!
echnology now enables workers to do their jobs from pretty much anywhere. All they need is their favorite device and an Internet connection. Even if your team doesn’t work remotely all of the time, the option to work remotely allows employees greater flexibility. For churches, the ability to work remotely also gives part-time volunteers with day jobs more opportunities to help. Research has shown there are many reasons to provide your team with the ability to work remotely. Here are some of the benefits: ■■ Training new employees and volunteers is a big drain on the church’s resources. Working remotely has been shown to reduce turnover. ■■ Avoiding unnecessary meetings and office distractions creates more uninterrupted time for getting work done and increases productivity. ■■ Greater schedule flexibility means employees and volunteers will have more availability. ■■ Less office space to manage and fewer utilities used reduces costs significantly for the church. ■■ Whether it’s by car, bus or train, the morning commute in rush hour traffic
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is usually something to dread. Skipping the commute not only reduces stress, but also gives employees more time to get work done. And it’s environmentally friendly! ■■ People who work from home reportedly exercise more, eat healthier and have a better work-life balance. A healthier team means fewer sick days. Managing a team remotely is different than managing an in-house team and has its own set of challenges. Here are five tips for managing a remote team.
1
Start with a great team of people. Hire
people you trust: this is imperative. If you can’t trust your employees and volunteers to do their jobs when you’re not looking, then they’re not a good fit. Your team should consist of people who are motivated to get stuff done. You don’t want to have to micromanage or constantly cheerlead anyone.
2
Use tools to plan and organize. Church
management software helps you manage your membership and financial data. A web-based church
[ by Bill Gifford ]
management software will enable your team to work from anywhere while keeping everyone on the same page. This also has the added benefit of reducing redundancy. Mobile access is a must-have. The pastor should easily be able to look up a phone number or address on the go. The treasurer should be able to review reports quickly on a tablet before and during a council meeting. ■■ Trello is a great tool for organizing to-do lists. You can access it from a computer, and they have a mobile app so you can monitor progress from your phone. ■■ Google Docs is another great collaboration tool. You can upload word-processing documents and spreadsheets, put together a slide show, create forms for gathering information, and Google Drawings is a fun tool for creating mind maps and planning workflows. ■■ Google Calendar is another tool that keeps the whole team on the same page by giving everyone access to a shared calendar. A quick glance will tell you when someone’s on vacation or in a meeting. The shared calendar can be added to your phone and even schedules reminder
notifications so you don’t forget appointments.
Communicate, 3communicate. communicate,
Besides finding the right tools to facilitate your team’s communication, you’ll need to plan together with your team about communication expectations. When can you expect to reliably get ahold of someone and get feedback? When can members expect to be able to get work done with a minimum of distractions? These are things to discuss ahead of time. Be extremely proactive when you’re communicating via email, chat or phone. When you’re not face-to-face, people can’t pick up on body language, facial expressions and other nonverbal communication. This leads to an increased chance of misunderstandings. It’s better to err on the side of overcommunicating to make sure everything is understood clearly. There are video chat tools available like Skype and Zoom that allow you to host virtual meetings in place of face-to-face meetings. They definitely feel more personal than a phone call or conference call. Slack is our favorite communication tool at the office. You can download it on your computer, tablet or phone, or you can log in through your browser on any device. It allows you to chat individually with any single team member, or everyone at the same time. You can set up channels for specific topics, projects or events. The built-in emoji keyboard and gif integrations are not only fun, but also
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help fill in the gap left by the lack of nonverbal communication.
4
Set goals and objectives. Everyone should
be working toward common goals and objectives. Have long-term goals, but also break them down into actionable steps. This is where tools like Trello come in to help manage projects, set deadlines and make sure everyone is headed in the same direction. It’s easier to track progress for goals if you regularly schedule times to connect. Hold weekly check-ins so everyone can share what they accomplished that week, what they’re working on for the upcoming week and what they need help with. Hold
monthly one-on-one check-ins with each employee as well. If you have a large team, you can break it down into smaller teams to make this easier.
more and have a greater sense of community.
Is your team working remotely? New communica-
Support engagement and team building. This is important
5
tion tools have opened a world of new opportunities for colleagues to work together while apart. With the right tools, some forethought and careful communication, working remotely can not only be beneficial to your team, but also to the church. MT
for any team, regardless of whether they work remotely or not. Keep employees engaged by communicating well and encouraging the use of tools like the ones mentioned above. You can also host team-building events a few times a year where the team can get to know each other and talk about things other than work. It can help team members to understand one another better, empathize
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WFX CONFERENCE & EXPO: An Experience That Will Change Your Church
Discover why 800+ churches plan to send people to this conference
W
e are challenged with an already over-scheduled life. For many people working in church tech roles, carving out the necessary time to develop one’s skillset is a problem to be reckoned with. Amidst the hustle and bustle of our very busy lifestyles, we all have to weigh carefully the pros and cons of setting aside the time it takes to invest in our own skillset and spiritual development. Churches often look for ways for the entire church team to get away together, adding an additional layer of complexity. The WFX Conference and Expo (WFX) serves as a yearly retreat for many such churches, offering training and education
for everyone, all at the same place and at the same time. We are determined to help you solve your problems by offering five distinct, co-located conferences, where specialized training for the entire team is available. WFX promises to be an experience that will change your church. Justin Firesheets, production manager for Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama, says, “WFX has long been known as a preeminent destination for church tech directors looking to grow themselves both personally and professionally. It has always been a prime opportunity for me to network and strengthen my connection with fellow church TDs, and I know this year’s attendees will
benefit from being part of that larger church community. And even beyond just growing in technical knowledge, I’m confident that those who attend will also leave encouraged and feel more empowered to serve their
ministries to [the best of their] abilities as technicians and leaders.” In just a few months, the perfect solution will be descending on Dallas, Texas. WFX will be at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center this Fall, October 10–12. It will provide state-of-the-art July 2017 | 21
church team training and the largest dedicated church expo in the country. Unlike in previous years the 2017 WFX conference will be significantly different. For starters, it will be made up of five targeted, individual conferences related to tech arts, safety and security, communications, worship arts, and buildings and facilities. There’s something for your entire team. During the two-and-
WFX keynote presentations, each conference will have their own keynote speakers as well. Justin Firesheets will deliver the Keynote address at the Tech Arts Conference. Tech Art sessions include skill-based learning for church sound, live mixing, lighting design, streaming and video broadcast, technology project planning, and volunteer recruitment and training.
pants explore how to best share their church’s message by utilizing idea sharing, leveraging social media, storytelling, branding and more. Len Wilson, author of 10 books on the topic of church communications, as well as a church staff veteran, will deliver his Keynote message, “Shareability: Transform Hearts, Lives and Communities with Messages That Click,” at the Church Communications Conference. The Next-Gen Buildings
Conference is meant for pastors,
a-half days, there will be extensive learning opportunities, including the annual Tech Leader’s Retreat, hands-on training, pre-conference boot camps, sponsored workshops, Keynote speakers and a vast array of educational sessions. Boot camps, the Tech Leaders Retreat and sponsored workshops will be offered on Tuesday, October 10. These deep-dive offerings will jump-start your WFX education experience and help you bring about change for your church. You can choose from two-hour ($35) or fourhour ($55) sessions, making it the most affordable learning experience in the market. In addition to two inspiring 22 | MinistryTech.com
“At WFX, you can get to see the manufacturers, you can demo and go over things, and the classes are a big deal,” says David Leuschner, Senior Director of Technology and Technical Arts at Gateway Church, located in the Dallas-Fort-Worth area. He will lead a session called “How to Start a Tech Internship Program.” When asked who would be ideally suited to attend his session, he noted, “I think the internship idea comes up a lot in churches. We have volunteers, but for any church that is looking for long-term stable health, they should look in-house to have interns.” The Church Communication
Conference will help the partici-
executive pastors, administrators and other members of church leadership involved in determining facility needs for their church. The conference will help uncover the building trends of today and provide guidance on planning, funding and overseeing building projects. The conference’s Keynote speaker is Karl Vaters, author of the book The Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches and the Small Thinking That Divides Us. While the targeted conferences are ideal in providing new expertise related to your role, WFX still offers plenty of time for conference attendees to connect with their team and share newfound information and knowledge. For those at WFX who will be looking for additional networking and team building experiences, there will be a reception on Tuesday night, loudspeaker demos and gatherings at The Spark, located on the expo floor where thoughtleaders, authors and Integrity Music artists will be available to co-create solutions to your problems.
“We want teams to receive the individualized training they need, have time to collaborate with ministry experts and leaders, and also have time to connect with their teams while there. Two inspiring Keynote sessions, worship with Integrity Music artists, dedicated expo time and cross-functional training sessions will enrich the team’s WFX experience,” said Beth Vinton, Program Manager for WFX. The expo floor offers the opportunity to do up close research on more than 225 church-related manufacturers, products and services. Product demonstrations and answers to your questions about the newest tools on the market are an added part of all there is to learn at WFX. Whether you are a small, medium or larger church—you’ll be among 800 other churches finding relevant, church-focused products and services. Most importantly, you will find the answers to your questions and the solutions to your problems. “You can see if you can fit things into your church culture, as the classes definitely bring a lot of information to the decision-making process. If you have issues and problems you can figure out how to fix them,” added Leuschner. The all-encompassing two-anda-half days at the convention center should be deemed YOUR perfect “solution center.” MT
FACT: Church Teams that Train Together have Greater Kingdom Impact
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BOOMERS or BUST USING TECH to MINISTER to BABY BOOMERS at CHURCH
W
hen you think about tech in the church it’s easy to think it only appeals and ministers to Millennials, but that’s not the case. Baby Boomers at church (the generation born between 1946 and 1964) are finally becoming more and more comfortable with technology. Consider these stats from the Pew Research Center: XX 66 percent of young Boomers (51–59) and 60 percent of older Boomers (60–69) have broadband Internet at home XX 59 percent of young Boomers and 46 percent of older Boomers use a smartphone
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XX 54 percent of young Boomers and 45 percent of older Boomers are on social media XX 52 percent of young Boomers and 46 percent of older Boomers are on Facebook If you think about it, Baby Boomers are the ideal generation to minister to with technology. As they retire, discover more free time and begin traveling, tech can be a way to keep them engaged. In fact, technology can enable them to become your church’s biggest promoters!
Adjusting Your Adoption Strategy Churches run into problems when
they have only one strategy for rolling out technology. They share a new tech tool and encourage everyone to start using it. Millennials are digital natives, so they’re the ones that can be trusted to adopt new technology the fastest. They’re not intimidated by a new app or program, figuring it out as they go. Baby Boomers don’t tend to jump in like that. A 2009 AARP article shared that Boomers will tend to adopt technology as younger generations—typically family members—explain to them how to use it. Once they catch on, however, they become enthusiastic evangelists to other Boomers, embracing a kind of tech peer
Churches run into problems when they have only one strategy for rolling out a new tech tool and encourage everyone to start using it. Millennials are digital natives, so they adopt new technology the fastest, but Baby Boomers don’t tend to jump in just like that. Once they catch on, however, they become
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enthusiastic evangelists to other Boomers. pressure to their community. The takeaway for churches is that it’s not enough to simply roll out a new tech solution. They need to invest some time walking Boomers through its functionality. Once Boomers become comfortable with it, they’ll become your biggest allies and more likely to commit to using it long term.
Keeping Baby Boomers at Church in Mind Because churches tend to associate technology with Millennials, they unwittingly exclude Boomers. It’s important to ensure that when Boomers download your app or visit your social media channels, they’re not seeing content that only speaks to Millennials. If you want Baby Boomers at church to invest in using your technology, they need to feel that it addresses their interests. They need to see images of people their age and discussions of topics that address their concerns and needs.
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This means that a church’s social media person needs to be inclusive in their posts. Trying to be too hip and culturally relevant can actually backfire. Filling up your Facebook page with a bunch of Christian takes on the latest viral meme could actually convince Boomers that your tech isn’t for them.
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It will help to blur the line between your “normal” church ministry and your online or tech ministry. The more they weave in and out of each other, the more likely Boomers are to get involved with the high-tech aspects of the church. So find creative ways to bring these worlds together. Do Facebook polls and use the results in your sermon, or share lyric videos of new worship songs on your blog. If tech is a non-negotiable part of your church’s ministry, Boomers will be willing to use it. This becomes incredibly important if you’re using a tool like echurch’s Total Engagement Package. This is an app that not only helps keep the church engaged, but it’s also powered with Pushpay to make giving faster and easier. If you want to get your church acclimated to mobile giving, it’s imperative that you get Boomers on board—as they’re often the ones best poised to be generous. Getting Baby Boomers at church to buy into your technology goals isn’t difficult. You just need to be strategic and intentional about the way you do it. MT
Do You Have a Disaster
Recovery Plan? A Primer for Faith-Based Organizations
A
recent report from the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimated that an investment of $6 billion annually toward disaster risk reduction would save the world losses of more than $360 billion over the decade and a half ahead. Margareta Wahlstrom, a U.N. special representative on disaster risk reduction, said, “The report is a wake-up call for countries to increase their commitment to invest in smart solutions to strengthen resilience to disasters.” But disaster risk reduction doesn’t just happen on a global level, nor only on a corporate one. The reality is that faith-based communities aren’t exempt from disasters. And as with all organizations, planning ahead for disasters and having a disaster response plan in place can mean the difference between continuity and chaos.
seem like a lot of work for a situation that may never arise, doing so is something like taking out an insurance policy: If and when disaster does befall your organization, you’ll be glad to have the proper support systems in place.
Create Your Disaster Recovery Plan | The ultimate
Here’s a closer look at what all faithbased communities should know about disaster recovery.
Understanding the Threats The aim of disaster recovery is to anticipate disasters before they strike and have a plan at the ready that responds to the needs of your organization, its constituents and the surrounding community during and after an event. Unfortunately, faith-based organizations are vulnerable to a multitude of disasters, ranging in variety from natural to man-made. Not only are natural disasters, such as extreme storms and flooding, on the rise, but so are man-made ones, comprising everything from data breaches to active shooters. While planning ahead for each of the scenarios may
goal of disaster recovery planning is to minimize confusion and maximize safety and self-sufficiency following a disaster. Your starting point? Accepting that disasters can and do happen to faith-based organizations just like yours. Once you’ve assessed the threats to your organization, FEMA’s “Four Phases of Emergency Management” offers a handy guideline to the complete process of disaster management process, including the following: ●● Mitigation: Take steps to prevent or reduce the risk of both emergencies and their dangerous effects for each threat scenario. ●● Preparedness: Make rescue and response plans and operations for each threat scenario. ●● Response: Put your rescue and response plans into action during a disaster in order to prevent property damage and save lives. ●● Recovery: Take the actions necessary in order to resume activities following a disaster. Keep in mind that the more rigorous you are throughout these four phases, the greater control you’ll maintain during and after a crisis. July 2017 | 27
CAN TECHNOLOGY BE THE ANSWER TO
Better Church Communications? One Call Now users say...
By subscribing to our on-line service, churches can call, text, email and notify all their members at once through one simple platform.
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One Call Now allows us to reach and connect with younger potential members, and encourage them to be a part of the wonderful ministry we have here. Having improved technology and communications methods will help us connect with people who might never have attended church— or who have left the church and are considering going back to their roots.
”
Kim Cabrera, Associate Pastor for Discipleship and Ministry Coordination, Harvey Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church
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Ensuring Best Outcomes Through Communications Even the best disaster recovery efforts are guaranteed to fall short without one critical piece: making sure every member of your community understands the plan and their roles in it. If your constituents don’t behave in the prescribed way during a crisis, all of your planning may be in vain. Be sure to document your plan and share it with staff, volunteers and other constituents. In addition to having a hard copy available in a central location, electronic copies are invaluable if your facility is compromised or destroyed. However, the reality is that you can’t rely on everyone to remember what to do and/or to consult a recovery plan in times of stress and panic. Incorporating a multi-channel communication strategy ensures that people have access to the information they need when they need it. One last thing to keep in mind: When it comes to disaster recovery planning, your work is never done. From staff turnover to external emergency response protocol updates, changes that impact your discovery recovery planning are constantly underway. Routinely reviewing your plan and communicating with affected constituents about key changes can help ensure that the right actions happen at the right time. MT For more information about Disaster Planning and Communications, contact a Church Communication Consultant at One Call Now at 877-698-3262 or visit us at OneCallNow.com/Religious.
A
Pilgrim’s Progress OF GIVING
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THE ANCIENT TALE RETOLD: Church Donations and Technology oney is the one area where the church and state intersect more than any other. Perhaps because donations are the sole source of funding for most churches, the weight of legal opinion stands strongly behind the givers, with recipients shouldering the burden of making sure the gifts are used as intended. This burden means churches and charities have to face a complex web of regulations and tax implications with every gift they receive. So how do you ensure accuracy, consistency and compliance in an area that’s as littered with pitfalls as The Pilgrim’s Progress? Like that novel’s hero, you will need persistence and some reliable guides to help your church get safely past each obstacle. Here’s how to chart the path:
M
THE MARSH OF RESTRICTED GIFTS The Bible isn’t kidding when it tells us “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Your members can be deeply attached to their hard-earned dollars, even the ones they’ve released to God through tithes and offerings. This is why you’ll often receive a single donation earmarked to several different areas, with specific amounts designated for youth ministry, missionary support or a building fund. As a nonprofit organization, by law, you must obey the wishes on these restricted gifts to the letter. Ignore them, and you could find yourself sucked into a legal wrangle. Nonprofits have been ordered to repay misplaced gifts and risk charges of fraud if they deny donors’ direction, “even if the conditions that existed at the time of the
gift may have materially changed.” Your best friend in this quagmire is a Church Management System (ChMS) that allows you to easily document and disburse gifts as they’re received, before they’re accidentally sloshed into a general fund and forgotten. Your ChMS will immediately divert the restricted dollars into a named fund, or allow you to create a new fund on the fly to suit the donor’s request.
THE GATE OF DEDUCTIBILITY Because churches qualify as 501(c)(3) organizations, donors tend to expect their gifts to your church to be taxdeductible. But not every donation to a church qualifies for a deduction. Among the exceptions: ■■ Raffles, auctions or dinners. Even if all proceeds are going to fund ministry needs, the IRS will not award July 2017 | 29
Like the hero in Pilgrim’s Progress, you will need persistence and some reliable guides to help get safely past all the obstacles churches and charities face in the complex web of regulations and tax implications with every gift received. deductions to the extent that donors receive a benefit for their donation. However, donors can claim the difference between their purchase price and fair market value, so it’s a good idea to state the value of what you’re providing to your donors at fundraising events. ■■ Undocumented gifts. When your church receives cash or non-cash gifts (anything from missionary supplies to real estate), the IRS requires that the giver show proof of all donations to be deducted. Choose a ChMS flexible enough to record noncash donations and to issue a receipt for any non-anonymous gift valued between $250 and $500, and your donors will thank you come tax time. (To mitigate the risks of restricted gifts, your receipts should also note in writing whether there was any expectation attached to the gift, like naming rights to a new building.)
TECHNOLOGY THICKET The advent of smartphone banking means churches have to embrace new ways of accepting donations. If you’re a healthy, multigenerational church, this task is now even harder. How can a single system cater to Millennials’ demands for e-payment and also honor the checks and change of the traditional offering plate—managing two completely 30 | MinistryTech.com
different processes with to-thepenny accuracy? A web-based payment service is the solution here. Look for ones that accommodate more than just secure online payments (like Paypal). You’ll also want the ability to offer ACH deposits (scheduled automatic withdrawals from members’ bank accounts) and church giving apps that streamline payment from phones. Other important features include ereceipts delivered immediately after the donation, and auto-notification in the case of a failed transaction. When the payment service is tied into your ChMS, you can also solve the problem of restricted gifts by letting donors select their desired funds as they pay online.
THE FOREST OF DOCUMENTATION The requirements for church and nonprofit accounting are not vastly different from those of for-profit companies. For most, this means a seven-year record retention policy. That means you’ll need a strong database within your ChMS, as well as cloud-based storage to save you from generating a forest’s worth of paper files. Once you have your database in place, train your staff to be continually updating and analyzing data on
their ministries and the congregants in their care—ensuring you can sift through your data to see the forest over the trees. Use up-to-the-minute giving reports from your database to understand who’s giving regularly, with what frequency and through what method. Nonprofits are also held to a high standard of accountability for the gifts they accept. Non-cash gifts must not appear to represent a conflict of interest to church officers or key employees. Churches would be wise to develop a documented policy that subjects any non-cash gifts to church leadership for approval. This way, you can avoid any appearance of impropriety in accepting the gifts, and if accusations arise, you have a paper trail to show how the gift was submitted, approved and used.
THE CREVASSE OF INCOMPLETE DATA It doesn’t matter how clean your financials are: if you can’t deliver a tax statement to your donor, you might as well have thrown it to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Church staffs bear a heavy responsibility to coordinate giver data, manually clearing differences in spelling or duplicate records. All it takes is a missing email or an out-of-date mailing address to doom your delivery and undo your careful record keeping. The church is also under pressure to properly attribute gifts based on what little information donors make available. For instance, it seems like a no-brainer to lump together all contributions from the same
address, especially when the donors have the same last name. But what if one of those donors was an adult living with their parents and filing their own taxes? You can’t have the child’s donations showing up on the parents’ tax statement. Fortunately, the same church apps that allow people to make donations electronically can also give users full control over their account profile, right from their phone. Without an app, it’s up to church staff to coordinate their data, manually clearing duplicate addresses or differences in spelling. The app spares the church business office or finance team from having to interpret or investigate the data and lets members load their info directly into the database or ChMS. This way, a change of address or change of dependents can be modified as easily as posting to Facebook—and the church can publish tax statements with confidence.
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FIND YOUR WAY These pointers are not intended to cover all the regulations a church can expect. Please seek the advice of a financial advisor who’s well versed in the regulations governing nonprofits and charities. Proper support and guidance will keep your church free of legal scrutiny, of course, but these best practices also have a better purpose. Your conscientious handling of your members’ gifts builds trust within your congregation—so givers can know with confidence that their funds are going to the exact needs God inspired them to support. MT
Reporting & Analytics The Church App
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July 2017 | 31
THE LAST WORD
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. —Psalm 139:13-14 (ESV)
32 | MinistryTech.com
Photo: Jenn Evelyn-Ann, unsplash.com