CONTENTS
11.17 4
16
Christ-Centered Christmas Gifts— Online! Shop from your keyboard and support Christian ministry.
Telechoice’s Purpose Pyramid
the church has always crowdsourced
(Part 2)
Don’t just talk about innovation: define it!
Discover how the ancient practices of the church are relevant to tech.
13 5 Bad Questions Church Bands Ask About Recording The best free recording advice money can buy
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TECH CHECK 11.17........................................................................................ 7 How Technology Unites The Church......................................... 22 Networks Change, ChMS Should, Too...................................... 25
A Beginner’s Guide to SPAM What’s Your Protection Strategy?
20 2 | MinistryTech.com
A Word from the editor Ray Hollenbach Marketing Director Joey Tindell
Marketing Manager Rudy Kovac
Managing Editor Ray Hollenbach
Art Directors Troy Irvin, Henny Vallee
Contributing Editors Matt Farrand, Steve Hewitt, Russ McGuire, Caleb Neff, Nick Nicholaou YvonPrehn, Jonathan Smith, Steven Sundermeier
Copy Editor Laura Severn
ADVERTISING VP Advertising Sales Jared Bryant
National Media Consultants Charles Fleece, Joseph Landry, Stephanie Large, Seth Rankin, Dan Whitfield, Barbara (McDonald) Wolfe
Account Associates
Pamela Burton, Megan Foster, Alice Gifford, Trish Hughes, Gabriel McKinsey, Bethany Payne, Lara Whelan
Administrative Director Rebecca Meyer
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 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.
S
ometimes it seems tech news is all over the map, and it all competes for our headspace. Should we pay attention to the latest virus alert, the latest updates, the newest toys, or the human factors like the decline in relationships (which always seem to be blamed on technology)? But it’s a serious issue: How can one person keep up with it all? And the short answer is that one person cannot keep up with it all. This is what I love about Jonathan Smith’s cover article, The Church Has Always Crowdsourced. Jonathan reminds us that the church is well positioned at the intersection of tech and ministry. As he points out, crowdsourcing is really about volunteers: finding the gifts, equipping the workers and accomplishing ministry. It was like a revelation to me when I read his words, “Crowdsourcing, or to use a more common phrase, volunteering and serving in the church, is what makes church ministry possible.” Here’s something every church leader should understand: We don’t know it all. We can’t know it all! I recently sat with two pastors, both church planters, who sat
together and traded tips about apps, podcasts and sound equipment—and both pastors were operating on a tight budget. In just one hour I learned so much from them about creativity and resourcefulness. I thought to myself, “I edit a magazine about church tech and these guys are totally schooling me!” Whatever position we hold in the church—pastor, worship leader, tech guru or whatnot—there are always shortcuts to learn and new technology to be discovered. This is one area that smaller, start-up churches have over larger, more established churches. Tight budgets and bi-vocation ministry force us to be more creative. If you lead in a larger church, perhaps you ought to take some tech wizards who operate on a shoestring budget to lunch and listen in on their conversation. (For example, contributing writer Caleb Neff runs a high-quality recording studio out of his living room—you can read his advice in this issue.) Here’s to the one social environment made for crowdsourcing—the church!
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.
November 2017 | 3
the church has always
crowdsourced
New buzzword, Ancient Practice by Jonathan Smith
W
hen you think about crowdsourcing you probably don’t also think about the church—but you should. In fact, the church has been crowdsourcing as a basis of operation since it was founded. What is crowdsourcing? The basic definition of crowdsourcing is outsourcing work to the crowd (or in the case of a church, the congregation). It is different from straight outsourcing in that the work is coming from within the church, and not without. When you think about it, churches have been crowdsourcing long before crowdsourcing was even a thing. The word “crowdsourcing” was coined in 2005, but in practice,
4 | MinistryTech.com
God may have placed the exact skill set you need in someone in your church right now. churches have been doing it for centuries. Crowdsourcing, or to use a more common phrase, volunteering and serving in the church, is what makes church ministry possible. It would not be feasible or practical for churches to hire and pay staff to do all the work that goes into making local church ministry possible. As a result, churches use the congregation, or crowd, to do the work. IT techs, audio/visual techs, nursery workers, ushers, parking lot
attendants, choirs, worship teams, musicians, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders and food service workers (to name a few!), are almost always volunteers from the congregation (the “crowd”). There is also a biblical aspect to crowdsourcing as the Bible says we are to serve in the church and use our gifts and abilities from the King for the work of the King. These serving opportunities are made possible when the church uses the crowd for the work—crowdsourcing!
When talking about crowdsourcing it is important to differentiate it a bit from committees. Churches have had committees forever but sometimes committees come with a negative connotation. Sometimes committees talk and don’t get anything done. Other times committees can become power struggles and control blocks trying to force agendas. That is not crowdsourcing. The congregation does the work of the ministry. Some may be more obvious than others, but all require a willingness to find the gifts and abilities in your congregation, equip them, and then use them to accomplish the work of the ministry.
finding the gifts Crowdsourcing doesn’t work unless your people know what the needs are; only then can the needs can be lined up with the crowd. Does your church have a mechanism or process in place to match up needs with those able to fill the needs? Many in churches today are desperate to find a way to meaningfully connect and be used but often feel adrift and unable to connect. The gifts you need are out there; you just have to put the time into finding them. God may have placed the exact skill set you need in someone in your church right now, but if you can’t connect with them and match up the needs with those gifts and abilities, that resource may go untapped. Finding the gifts in your crowd can be done through software and online forms but can also be as easy as building relationship with folks, learning about their passions, and then connecting those passions to needs.
equipping the workers Once the workers in the crowd have been found, they have to be equipped. Equipping is the job of everyone in the church, not just the pastors. We should all equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12). There is no room for pride or egos here. It is my job to be constantly trying to work myself out of a job so the ministry can continue to move forward and I can move on to the next thing. Just think what could
be accomplished for the Kingdom if everyone had this focus! This takes time, but the benefits are eternal. Once a worker is connected, you don’t want them demoralized because of all the barriers placed before them. You want to provide the tools and access they need to accomplish this task and then move on to the next one.
accomplishing ministry Once the gift has been matched with the crowd and the worker equipped to accomplish the task then ministry
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gets done. Crowdsourcing does not mean there isn’t any responsibility on the part of the crowd or any accountability on the part of the church. You don’t want the crowd aimlessly drifting along, nor do you want the crowd missing the target. Churches should be crowdsourcing, whether they call it that or not. Using the resources God has provided is a key aspect of local church ministry, and while crowdsourcing may imply a high tech task, it can be applied to all aspects of church life and can be a vital tool in helping churches accomplish their missions. MT Jonathan Smith is the Director of Technology at Faith Ministries in Lafayette, Indiana. You can reach Jonathan at jsmith@faithlafayette.org and follow him on Twitter @JonathanESmith.
tech check
11.17 ONE BUTTON STUDIO Recording—and using—video and audio doesn’t get much easier than this. The One Button
Studio is a simplified video recording setup that can be used without any previous video production experience. The design of the studio allows you to
Unique Font Styling From Calligraphr
Create your own font, or convert your handwriting into a font. Your church graphic, advertising or bulletins can stand out from the rest thanks to this software from Calligraphr. The basic software is free, with upgrades available. The process is ridiculously simple: Freehand your font on to a template; scan your creation, and use their software to create a font driver. The Swiss form Maklabu GmbH launched this site in February. It currently supports English, Dutch and Spanish. n
create high quality and polished video projects without having to know anything about lights and cameras. You only need to bring your flash drive with you and push a single button. Any church, regardless of size, can produce video. Download the setup guide
here or check out the App here. n
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.
No More “Death By PowerPoint” Check out wired.com’s feature on Prezi, the presentation software that keeps pushing the envelope. Wired reports that the makers of Prezi are beginning to enable augmented reality solutions for everyday users. Support your worship and preaching graphics in ways most people have never imagined.
n
November 2017 | 7
5
Bad Questions Church Bands Ask About Recording (And What You Should Be Asking) [
by Caleb Neff
]
O
nce I was complaining to an older studio veteran about the headaches I was having Find out if you can self-producing a record for my band. He responded with one of the best axioms I’ve afford to hire someone ever heard, something that I still think about on a near daily basis. that worked on a “Making a great record is a lot like flying a plane. If you have a good approach, you’ll record you love. Often, have a good landing. If you take the wrong approach, it’s going to be a disaster.” you actually can. I’ve never flown a plane, but you get the idea. I had so much excitement about recording my songs and the mystique of going in “The Studio” that I blew by several crucial phases of planning, and now was in the very common situation of trying to piece together a record through endless edits, overdubs and mix trickery. To help prevent others from ending up in this situation, I’ve compiled a list of the five most common bad questions I get from prospective clients, and I’m going to try to answer them with better questions that should lead you to the right approach.
Bad question #1: Can’t we just do it ourselves? Now that everyone has a laptop and GarageBand, and with quality recording gear getting cheaper all the time, it’s understandable that many people consider the DIY approach. The truth is, you can do it yourself, but in most cases, you shouldn’t. I’m being honest because I want to help you: In most cases (like with my first band) these records sound really terrible. Yeah, your girlfriend is going to love it, and you and your band mates are going to be enamored with it because it’s from your heart, but that’s where it stops. As the saying goes, you don't get a second chance at a first impression. Really learning the art of recording takes about as long as learning an instrument. If you’re not looking to dedicate
years and thousands of dollars to this pursuit, you should adjust your expectations. Documenting song ideas, musical skill development, demoing and making scratch tracks are great uses for a small recording setup that can be put together pretty inexpensively. I often tell artists that are intending to go the DIY route to keep track of their hours and pretend they were paying themselves minimum wage for all that time spent Googling (usually at 2:00 a.m.) "why don't my drums sound good." If you do that, you'll find in the end that it would've actually been cheaper to hire a reasonably priced professional, also it would've been way more fun, also you would've ended up with a better record.
Better question: What can we do on our own time and with our own gear to make sure we are as prepared as possible for this project? November 2017 | 9
Bad question #2: Can I visit the studio and do a tour? Basically, studios all do the same thing: capture audio. I’m not saying all studios are created equal, but I do want to tackle the ridiculous hyped magical mystique of “The Studio.” As I referenced earlier, there is this fairy tale affinity for the studio environment because we’ve all seen so many movies and heard so many stories, and we want to create our own legend, too. We want to sit on that couch behind the big mixing desk and tell each other it's a hit. We want someone to call so we can tell them, "I'm in The Studio." We must Instagram everything. The only thing wrong with that childlike sense of wonder about the
whole thing is that it gets in the way of you making the right decision for recording a quality project. Are you making your decision on where to make your record based on the artist lounge? Of course not. Big expensive recording facilities (just like the big budgets for making records) are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. So many of the big facilities I’ve been in in the last five years have been totally underwhelming if you actually know what you’re looking at. In many places, that giant mixer is just a stand for the computer. Check out, for comparison, the place that Taylor Swift made her first three
records with Nathan Chapman. This is by and large where the world is going (and really already has gone). Don't make a decision based on the amount of knobs and blinking lights. Looking for the most visually appealing place is not the way to do it, if what you care about is a great record. What you want to focus on is the quality of the work of the people you’re hiring, and secondly, will you like working with them. This is where a pre-production meeting may be absolutely necessary. Find out if you can afford to hire someone that worked on a record you love. Often, you actually can.
Better question: Can I listen to some things that you’ve worked on in my genre?
Bad question #3: What's the cheapest we can get this done? Or its close cousin: “What can we do for $100?” Everyone is on some kind of budget, and you absolutely should make a plan for how you're going to afford your project. You should be able to get at least ballpark prices from anyone in advance, and that's part of wise planning. The reason this question is bad is because of where it comes from. First, many of the people asking it still haven’t settled question #1, and are expecting a professional to essentially compete with zero dollars. Let me say a few things without hopefully being too defensive: I don't know anyone in this industry that is out to cheat artists. We got into recording and producing because we're crazy about music,
we understand the seriousness of someone trusting us with their songs, and it's a big deal to us that everything is as good as it can be. A great producer or engineer pushes themselves as hard as the artist to deliver a great record. Also, I don't know anyone that is getting rich doing this. The market for music is changing rapidly, competition is crazy and prices have fallen like crazy. Good news: You're already getting a great deal on your record because it's 2017. Your record would've cost five times as much 20 years ago. Here's the thing: When you are handing the deepest part of your heart and passion into someone else's hands, maybe “how cheap we can do this?” isn't the thing you want to be thinking. If you really do believe in
your potential, and you're entrusting your future to someone else in a big way, maybe you don't want to be looking for the most budget way possible. Unfortunately, a lot of recording professionals get so tired of arguing with and explaining things to the client that they will cave and let things happen that shouldn't. I've been guilty. Corners get cut because after awhile you give up caring more about the quality of the project than the client does. You are going to get what you pay for. One of the biggest things that can help is simply doing fewer songs. In 2017, no one cares if you did a fulllength album. Better to spend your entire budget on a great single than have a mediocre EP.
Better question: Based on our budget, how many songs do you think we can do? 10 | MinistryTech.com
Bad question #4: Do you do mastering? I have never had anyone ask this question that actually knows what mastering is. I really wish I could be spending my time talking about something more important, but this might be the most common question I get. When they ask about mastering, most people mean mixing. When the tracking (recording of the parts) is done, the next step is editing and mixing. Editing often takes longer depending on the project, it involves going through all the multiple takes of each instrument and vocal and cutting together the best parts for a master take, fixing performance and timing issues, and pitch correction for vocals. The last step of the song production process is mastering. Traditionally, mastering is done by a separate engineer who does only mastering. One of the biggest benefits of mastering is a new set of ears on your song, to listen for anything that could be balanced or polished better, however your song is already mixed. They can make global changes to the song, but they have a finished mix to work with, not your individual tracks. They do not have the ability to adjust the level of a background keyboard part, but they can make the whole track brighter or bassier. The typical benefits of mastering include your mix translating better on all different types of sound systems, the levels of your songs staying consistent and transitions sounding smooth from track to track on your record, and the entire project being "commercially loud" so that you don't have to turn up your song in comparison to the radio. Mastering is a really helpful final polish on your song or project, but it is not a drastic change or a step where
problems should be solved. When we send something out for mastering, I tell clients to expect their song to come back the same but 10 percent better. One thing to look out for is people who include mastering in a super cheap price. When someone says, "Your song mixed and mastered for $50," you should be wary (for so many reasons!). More and more small studio folks are opting not to
have their song sent out for mastering but rather just put some "mastering" plug ins on it themselves and call it a day. This doesn't mean the song is crap, but you should understand what the ideal situation is and plan accordingly.
Better question: Who do you use for mastering?
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Bad question #5: Why is this going to take so long? Often as part of the budget conversation, a prospective client will say something like this: We only have four songs, and at about 5 minutes each, I would think we could get it all done in an hour. When I suggest that they shouldn't expect to even be tracking anything in the first two hours, sometimes these folks are nearly fuming, thinking that I'm trying to rip them off. A typical session (with let's say a four-piece band) will be nearly an hour of load and discussion (how are we going to do what we're going to do before we set everything up and then waste time rearranging it later), an hour of drum set up (which requires the most microphones, the most variables, maybe testing different snares and cymbals), and an hour of dialing in the other sounds and the headphone mixes. There are ways to speed it up (like using the house kit), but you
get the idea: other than for maybe a vocal-only session, you usually can't just walk right in and play. This is just the setup "day-of" part of the equation: Often I suggest that we have a preproduction meeting or two, and this is not free. The reason is because I want to have a great plan in place for the artist, to save them time and money and make the best record they can. If we decide we are going to hire a keys player, maybe we should have them there for the initial tracking sessions, so we are not paying extra time for them to come in separately and record their parts: Or maybe we shouldn't. Everything depends on the band, the material and the approach that's desired. What's clear is that when you don't have a great plan and you're figuring it out as you go, it can get very expensive.
Better question: What’s a reasonable ballpark timetable for my project?
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STARTUP
Telechoice’s Purpose Pyramid (Part 2)
Move From Message to Purpose
| by Russ McGuire
L
ast month, I introduced you to the Purpose Pyramid. This month we’re going to dive in and learn how to actually use it to develop a powerful purpose or mission statement.
What Is the Purpose Pyramid? As a reminder, the Purpose Pyramid is a tool that can be used early in the life of an organization to coalesce on an overarching mission; it can help teams deeply understand what they need to do to achieve that mission; and it can be used to communicate what they’re doing, why they believe they’ll be successful, and why it matters. Below is a diagram representing the Purpose Pyramid. As you can see, there are three main layers to the pyramid. The top layer is the overarching Purpose. The
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. 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 think and act entrepreneurially in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com.
middle layer is made up of the Pillars that support that Purpose. The bottom layer is a foundation of Proof that grounds the Pillars and Purpose in reality. In this article, our focus is on how a team can use the tool to develop the top layer—a powerful purpose or mission statement for a new organization or initiative. To get there, we’re going to start at the bottom and work up.
What Is a Great Purpose Statement? A great purpose statement captures the passion that motivates you, indicates how your approach is unique from others, and is intriguing, causing others to wonder, “What exactly do they mean?” That’s a lot to try to accomplish, and to make it even harder, a great purpose statement will be concise, impactful and memorable. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said that His purpose was “to seek and to save that which was lost.” That, of course, is a great purpose statement. November 2017 | 13
STARTUP Finally, a great purpose statement has to be true. It has to be true to who you are—what drives you (as I said above) but also what your strengths are and what you can reasonably accomplish. It also has to be true to those you serve—what their needs are and what will be valuable to them. Not surprisingly, Jesus’ purpose in Luke 19 is perfectly true. What are some other examples of great purpose statements? Here are some that I’ve come across: • “Know Jesus and Make Jesus Known” • “Love God, Love People and Make Disciples” • “To deliver the best possible shopping experience” • “To bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries” • “Make the best products on earth and leave the world better than we found it” • “Create a for-profit business that could positively impact the people of Honduras” • “Restore independence, dignity and hope through affordable assistive technology”
Each of these is concise, impactful, memorable and true to the organization and those they serve. The real magic is in using the Purpose Pyramid. I’ll come back next month and walk through the process in more detail, but I trust that you can begin to figure it out. For a team that hasn’t yet reached consensus on their Purpose, discussing aspects of Pillars and Proofs that everyone can agree on may help to bring clarity to the top level message. For a project with a clear purpose, focusing on crisply defining the Pillars and then the Proofs can crystalize an execution plan for accomplishing the Purpose.
How to Develop a Great Purpose Statement Some organizations start with a compelling purpose statement. They see a great need and they know they have the right capabilities to meet that need, so they set out to accomplish a great purpose. The detailed planning comes later. (We’ll talk about that next week.)
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14 | MinistryTech.com
STARTUP More often, a group of people see a bunch of needs and start doing lots of things to meet those needs without a clear and compelling overarching purpose. That’s when the Purpose Pyramid can really help. In this case, you start at the bottom of the pyramid—the Proof layer. What are the foundational capabilities on which you are building this organization or initiative? Look at your team—what sets them apart? Do they have information and knowledge that is rare? Do they have valuable relationships that would be difficult for others to forge? At first, you don’t need to try to organize these strengths, just create an inventory. Next, move up to the Pillar layer. How are you or how can you leverage those capabilities to create value? This is probably easiest to see by looking at your activities. What are the people on your team doing or planning to do? Do these activities naturally start to cluster into a small number (optimally three) of categories of activities? Or are there a small number of ways in which those activities are benefiting those you serve? Are all of those activities creating value? By doing this work, you should have a clear picture of “what is true” about your team. Hopefully your team has also been focused on activities that create value for those you serve. From my experience, this exercise also naturally draws out thoughts and discussions about “why” you do what you do. Although wordsmithing a concise, impactful and memorable purpose statement is not trivial, using the Purpose Pyramid from the bottom up helps bring order out of the diverse activities most organizations are pursuing and helps bring focus to the
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understanding of how these activities relate to each other. Hopefully this article has helped you see how to use the Purpose Pyramid to crystalize a great purpose when you don’t already have one, but once you have a great purpose statement, the Pyramid can be used to focus your team’s activities on the things that really matter in accomplishing that purpose. We’ll discuss that next month. MT
www.oc.edu/tech
Russ McGuire is a trusted advisor with proven strategic insights. He 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 he’s 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.
November 2017 | 15
COMMUNICATIONS
Christ-Centered
Christmas Gifts—Online! One Way to Use Technology for a More Christ-Centered Christmas [
C
by Yvon Prehn
hristmas has become incredibly complex. Balancing gift giving, elaborate decorating, entertaining and managing expectations can leave us all exhausted. At the same time, we carry the burden of feeling we ought to be more focused on the truth of Christ come-to-earth to be our Savior. As you prepare for the season, why not take some quiet time at your computer and check out the resources below for some alternatives that will combine celebration with a focus on Jesus. The following are three areas technology can help us achieve a more Christ-focused Christmas in our gift giving, gift alternatives for kids, and finally two ideas that I especially liked.
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] Gift purchases from these groups not only provide wonderful gifts, but they directly provide a livelihood to individuals and community development.
COMMUNICATIONS
Christ-focused gift giving
Gift giving itself isn’t the challenge at Christmas for many Christians. The challenge is that much gift-giving has become so self-centered, so materialistic and we suspect so useless, as most of us have more than we could ever need and know that many gifts are simply tossed or exchanged. Yet, we want to give. One solution might be to give from the many extraordinary resources from around the world that the web makes easily available to us. Rather than supporting a faceless corporation, gift purchases from these groups not only provide wonderful gifts (the quality and selection is astounding), but they directly provide a livelihood to individuals and community development. Below I’ve highlighted some of my favorites, and at the end of this section is a link to dozens of additional sites.
TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES One of the oldest and largest of the free trade ministries offers a huge selection of all kinds of gift items from beauty care to toys to decorative items and jewelry. They have a unique selection of Christmas ornaments; my favorites include a red glass firebird ornament and a tiny nativity scene nestled in a flower.
JESUS ECONOMY Jesus Economy creates jobs, plants churches and meets needs in the developing world. They fund their efforts through donations and our fair trade store. They're dedicated to holistic community development. In addition to Christmas ornaments, the site features attractive jewelry, scarves and decorative items. One of my favorites is the “Give a hoot” pillow, which is not only a fun decorative piece, but also a conversation-starter to introduce people to fair trade nonprofit ministries.
GLOBAL HANDMADE HOPE Large selection of beautiful items, many of the metal decorative pieces are equal to the ones in high-end design shops. Tasteful pottery, adorable knit angel and animal ornaments, plus lots of jewelry and accessories and so much more fill the site.
THE FAIR TRADE FEDERATION Dozens and dozens of shops of certified fair trade organizations. Not all are Christian, but all are doing commendable work. Browse through for all your Christmas shopping in an immense list of items. One that caught my eye is JusTea, a delightful fair trade tea company.
November 2017 | 17
COMMUNICATIONS
gift alternatives
for kids
This is what we do with the kids in our family: I go online to one of the organizations (such as World Vision) listed below and print out gift items along with the prices and stories that go with them. At gift exchange time, we give the kids an amount of money, a selection of the stories and pictures. They choose what to buy, what programs to support, what countries to give to. It’s fascinating to watch how they decide, how they discuss priorities and how to make the most of their money. At the end of the process they are both excited about what they give to and conscious of the many needs yet unmet. We then go the computer, enter in all the gifts and they get a thank-you card from the organization for their donation.
WORLD VISION Lots of options in all price ranges from soccer balls to shares of building a well, school supplies to sewing machines.
THE HEIFER PROJECT One of the oldest surrogate-giving sites, The Heifer Project, began with the idea that you could give a cow or a share of a cow. This has expanded to numerous programs that they describe in this way: “The core of our model is Passing on the Gift. This means families share the training they receive, and pass on the first female offspring of their livestock to another family. This extends the impact of the original gift, allowing a once impoverished family to become donors and full participants in improving their communities.”
HOPE INTERNATIONAL This group primarily provides micro financing to help people in poverty start their businesses. This site is recommended as a giving project for older students with the same idea: Give them an amount of money and then have them decide what businesses to fund.
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COMMUNICATIONS
TWO FINAL IDEAS These last two particularly resonated with me. The first speaks to my tendency to collect Christmas decorations far beyond what I need and can possibly use and comes from the challenging Be More With Less website. You can decorate less! Easier said than done for some, but by making the decision to decorate fewer parts of your home, or to put up fewer decorations than normal, you’ll simplify your holiday almost instantly. Then donate the supplies you don’t use! You’ll be storing less, dusting less and packing/ unpacking less each year! I wanted to share this last one because it made me remember the simple Christmas seasons of my youth when homemade Red Jell-O Salad (red jello with hot candies and applesauce added) was a big deal favorite. Check out this wonderful recipe! (Perhaps some might be offended by the sugar and candy and simplicity of the recipe, but when so much holiday entertaining requires expensive ingredients and hours of effort, I can’t help but think that our Lord who used a child’s lunch to feed a multitude would appreciate the simple joy of this colorful Christmas treat.) MT AN UPDATE: Yvon Prehn’s ministry to church communicators now has two parts: http://www. effectivechurchcom.com, now a training, template and resource site, and http://www.yvonprehn.com, a church communication blog.
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a beginner's guide to Big or Little Phish, No One Is Safe!
SPAM
by Nick Nicholaou
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PAM email can be dangerous and painful to the recipient and to any data they have access to. Whether it’s ransomware, phishing, pushing of malware, or impersonation, we need a strategy to protect ourselves.
SPAM COMES IN MANY FLAVORS In addition to what some think is a tasty lunchmeat, SPAM also refers to unsolicited email. Those emails are usually intended to do the recipient harm. Sometimes the pain is small, but often it’s big—and costly. The most costly kinds of SPAM to an organization are usually ransomware and business email compromise; the most costly to an individual are usually phishing scams. Here are some categories of email SPAM and how to respond to them: • BUSINESS EMAIL COMPROMISE (BEC), A.K.A., IMPERSONATION EMAILS • Form: These SPAM emails used to only target businesses working with foreign suppliers and businesses that use financial wire transfer methodology. But in the last year we have seen many occurrences hit churches and ministries using checks! The form of the attack, as it affects churches and ministries, is usually an email supposedly from a pastor or executive in the organization directing the recipient to immediately transfer funds or cut a check. These attacks are usually well researched (we are welcoming and friendly environments, and we give them all of our staff structure and names on our websites!), and can feel legitimate. • What to Do: Never comply with the request. Always require a live voice confirmation of the request in person or via live telephone call. • RANSOMWARE • Form: Ransomware is malware installed on your computer that usually gets introduced through a SPAM email, compromised website or even through 20 | MinistryTech.com
a bot (Internet program) that looks for Remote Desktop Protocol vulnerabilities. Once infected with the ransomware malware, data is encrypted and held for ransom. • What to Do: One of the best defenses against ransomware is to keep multiple days (we prefer a full month) of full data backups so your system can be ‘reset’ if an infection gets through your defenses. In addition to ensuring good backups: 1. Never click on a link or graphic in an email you weren’t expecting. Even if it came from someone you know, do not click any links. If you think the email and its links may be legitimate and want to click them—before clicking on them—hover your mouse pointer over the link without clicking. Doing so should show the destination of the link. I recently did this on an email I received from Microsoft that looked legitimate, but the link would have taken me to a very different location than what I expected. Best rule: If you’re not sure that it’s OK to click, do not click! 2. Make certain your computer has a good antimalware program running on it. That’s true whether you’re using a Windows or a MacOS computer. The solution my firm recommends is www.thirtyseven4.com…doing so will help prevent you from accessing most compromised websites. • PHISHING • Form: Phishing has a few forms, almost all of which happen through email SPAM. Phishing is the attempt to get the recipient to provide personal information about them that could be used to accomplish some form of identity theft. Phishing is sometimes referred to as clone phishing (a previously legitimate email that has been recreated with malware embedded or in links and re-sent to the same list of recipients as the original), whaling (phishing attacks
aimed at executives and high-profile targets), and spear phishing (attacks targeting specific individuals that may even contain information about them discovered through websites, social media and other sources. • What to Do: Never respond to a request for personally identifying information in an email without first confirming the source. I even take this a step further if I get a phone call from my bank about possible fraudulent activity in my credit card account! In the call they ask for my password to prove I am who they intended to reach. I decline their request and tell the caller they need to tell me my password to prove they are who they say they are since they initiated the call! They’re not allowed to tell me, of course, so that’s when I disconnect and call the number on my credit card—that way I know I’m talking to my bank. These are a few SPAM categories. It’s imperative that every organization use a high-quality SPAM filter on its email server to eliminate most of the SPAM from being delivered to email account holders. There are a lot of SPAM filter solutions available; our favorite is from Barracuda. They are the gold standard and best of breed in
that industry. Just an FYI: We host SPAM filtering for churches and ministries nationwide using a Barracuda SPAM Filter 600. We process more than 90,000 emails daily, and Barracuda blocks about 80 percent. That means about 80 percent of the email pointed toward your email inbox is unwanted! And some of it is dangerous! Using a solid SPAM filter won’t stop all SPAM from getting to users’ email inboxes, but doing so will stop almost all of it. That reduces the likelihood that someone will click on something they shouldn’t. But the best protection will only come from repeated training to all team members. I recommend reminding the team of the danger on a monthly basis during all-staff meetings. And if you know a story in which an organization was hurt as a result of SPAM, tell it! Doing so will help those who don’t take threats and threat-mitigation seriously to re-consider. 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.
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how technology
unites the church More Than Ever, the Church Must Come Together
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can the news these days, and it’s easy to think the world is coming apart at the seams. America seems to be fighting over everything these days: race, politics, gender, etc. Close to half of Democrats and half of Republicans believe the other party’s views are a danger to the country. Racial divides have led to mass protests and even death. Rural vs. urban, rich vs. poor vs. middle-class, educated vs. uneducated—it goes on. Social forces seem to be ripping the country apart. The church hasn’t been immune to the divisions, either. We, too, are divided along racial, political and socio-economic lines. Even individual churches, with members living sideby-side, saw politics divide them during last year’s contentious election. But is there anything we can do about it? Technology may hold an answer.
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Here are three ways technology can help your church do this:
1. Technology has become a nearly universal language Though some economic disparities still limit access to technology, those limitations are declining. A 2014 study showed that 85 percent of Americans have access to a computer in their homes (and that number nears 95 percent in large, urban areas). Three-quarters of Americans have a smartphone. More than half of Americans own a tablet. Almost nine in 10 are on the Internet. Millennials and Gen Z (our two youngest generations) have an even higher adoption rate for new technology. Americans have few common experiences these days. But most of
us use technology on a regular, if not hourly, basis. Even those who brag about not being “technologically savvy” can’t escape tech’s pull. Most of the people in your church regularly use computers, mobile phones and/ or tablets. Technology has become a common language for all of us. On average, we all spend three hours a day on our smartphones. We know how to text. We know how to use mobile apps. We understand how to pay our bills, buy movie tickets and order groceries from afar. Take advantage of this common experience by looking for ways to engage technologies of choice in your context. It’s important for your church to be particularly focused on using mobile. Mobile apps are quickly replacing church buildings as the hub for community engagement.
2. Social media can give us opportunities for dialogue With nearly 70 percent of Americans on social media, we get the opportunity to discuss topics with a diverse set of people we wouldn’t have been able to a generation or two ago. Scroll through your Twitter or Facebook feed, and you’ll likely find people of various races and economic backgrounds. Those conversations, even in their minimal character counts, change us. They open our eyes up to the views of others.
FREE EBOOK
Americans have few common experiences these days. But most of us use technology on a regular, if not hourly, basis. That’s particularly important within the church. Increasingly, church members aren’t just interacting with each other in the halls of our buildings, but in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Two people who attend your church and live on opposite sides of your town likely get a better look into the Mondaythrough-Saturday lives of one another today than they would have 30 years ago. Your church has the opportunity to facilitate these conversations through your social media feeds. As you start conversations (rather than avoid them), you can bring people together from different backgrounds within your body. Granted, it’s not easy. Conversations over social media have a tendency to become echo chambers where people simply get their previous prejudices reinforced. But what if your church cultivated something different? Your social media isn’t just an opportunity to promote your church’s events. It’s a unique opportunity to begin dialogue over the tough questions that divide us. Let’s be the platform for the civility we’d all like to see cultivated on social media.
How to avoid these 5 fatal church staff hiring mistakes. DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY
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3. Technology gives us opportunities to give to united causes Giving often brings us together. Whether we’re giving toward a community outreach project, a new roof for our church building, disaster recovery or even our church’s general fund, we all have a stake in the endeavor. We’re seeing this now as churches pool their resources to help people impacted by Hurricane Harvey. It’s hard to focus on minor political and social issues when you’re focused on helping others. Now, the church has always been able to give to united causes. In fact, the Bible describes the early church’s efforts to rally generosity around the Jerusalem church.
But technology, specifically mobile technology, changes the dynamics. You no longer have to wait until everyone gathers to give. When a need arises, you can send out a notification on your mobile app and let people respond wherever they are. And every time you do so, you’re bringing people together around a common cause. Technology can’t unite the church on its own. It’s an accelerator, not a problem solver. But it can play a part. Connect the right tech tools to a defined mission and strategy, and technology can help you build bridges. MT
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Church management software has changed.
churchcommunitybuilder.com
networks change,
Chms should, too
Even With Software, Relationships Matter by Dean Phelps
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he division of labor that came with industrialization created organizations with distinct functional areas or departments. Each of these departments reported to a person or entity that was higher up, and so on until the top level was reached. This hierarchical organization was the norm along with the distribution of authority that came with it. The higher up in the organization a person was, the more authority that person had. These organizations used a hierarchical network for communication as well. Information flowed up and down in the hierarchy. For information to travel across the organization, it first had to flow up to a common point and then flow back down. Churches adapted the hierarchical model, creating functional committees or departments that would report to an administrative council, board or cabinet that would report to an executive committee or officers. Information tended to flow up and down in this hierarchy as well. Ministry often depended on the central location of the church building because that’s where the information was. In this mode, it was sufficient for a ChMS to limit its functions to tracking the things we could count:
Organizations are flatter, and information spreads across networks rather than following discreet lines. Churches reflect this change. people, households, attendance and contributions. We have long since shifted, however, from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Organizations are flatter, and information spreads across networks rather than following discreet lines. Communication is less vertical and more horizontal. Less and less information moves up and down the organization. More and more information moves across the organization. Churches reflect this change as the work of ministry becomes increasingly decentralized. The day-to-day work of the church’s mission and ministry depends less on credentialed leaders or on a central location. Functional departments and committees are fading from the church landscape. Ministry occurs in the field rather than in the office. The most effective churches have taken to heart Paul’s counsel to the church at Ephesus, “to equip the saints for the work of
ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12, NRSV). As churches draw on the spiritual gifts of their members and deploy more of the work of ministry throughout the congregation, it increases the chances that something or someone could slip through the cracks. In a distributed ministry environment, communication and accountability increase in importance.
Network of Relationships The church has always comprised a network of relationships. When communication in the church network moved up and down the hierarchy, and information was managed in a central location, it was easy to regard these relationships as being contained within the household or family unit. Because the network and the organization tended to be a hierarchy, the church could rely on someone “higher up” in the organization to have awareness of the more complex relationships that extended beyond the boundaries of a household. Today, those relationships have become more complex, and the notion of a family unit has evolved. Separated or divorced parents may have joint custody of children. Grandparents may be raising grandchildren. Then there are relationships outside of family relationships: coworkers,
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Looking for a TOTALLY Integrated Church Management Solution?
neighbors, longtime friends or the person who invited another person to the church. Not only has the network of relationships become more complex, but the need to share that information has also spread wider across the people engaged in the congregation’s ministry. In this environment, the ChMS becomes more than a system for tracking things we can count. It also has to become connective tissue for the congregation and its leadership: connecting members of the community with one another, providing insight into the many ways people are connected, and sharing information with leaders who do ministry on the go, not in an office. CDM+ from Suran Systems provides tools to help you manage and understand the networks of relationships and ministry that make up your congregation. It also keeps the variety of ministries in your church connected with shared information and accountability.
CONNECTIONS
In today’s rapidly-changing computing environment, you need a tightly integrated system to keep your church healthy and your people connected. CDM+ offers TOTAL integration in both devices and design. Whether you access CDM+ from your desktop, the web or your mobile device, you’re using a powerful solution that’s complete in itself. There’s no need to import or export data between programs to keep up with members and visitors, track interests and attendance, honor stewardship, manage church finances, handle clergy and staff payroll . . . and more.
www.cdmplus.com • 877-891-4236 Try out a full working demo:
www.cdmplus.com/demo 26 | MinistryTech.com
CDM+ Connections gives you the ability to connect any information in your CDM+ database with anything else and to describe the nature of that relationship. Connections record relationships in ways that go beyond a shared address, and it eliminates the need to rely on memory to recall those relationships. For example, with three generations living in a single household, Connections distinctly records the relationships of parents, sons, daughters and grandparents. Connections can record relationships beyond family ties as well, such as co-workers, neighbors and long-time friends. Use Connections to record who invited whom to church. With Connections, the way you view the network of relationships in your church endures even as the environment changes. People move; children grow up and establish their own lives and households; employees change employers. Still, the record of those relationships endures in data that is always close at hand. Connections in CDM+ is flexible. You set it up to reflect the relationships in your church. Connections thinks outside the box, so you can, too.
MOBILE CDM+ Mobile, a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, has provided ministry leaders access to church data directly from their mobile devices. Version 2.0 of the CDM+ Mobile app, released in September, builds on the mobility of ministry by adding push notifications to mobile devices. Using CDM+ Mobile 2.0, ministry leaders can create reminders for visitations and follow-up, assign those reminders to themselves or to other team members, and know when those tasks have been completed. With CDM+ Mobile 2.0, vital church functions like visitor follow-up and pastoral care can be managed entirely by those engaged in the ministry network, wherever they are. This eliminates the need for a central location or person to coordinate the work of the team. Furthermore, as they go about their ministry, the records of their ministry with members and visitors are being stored in your CDM+ database. Have you ever written a member’s email address on the back of business card and hoped you could remember to get the card back to the office in order to update the address in the church database? CDM+ Mobile 2.0 saves time and eliminates the risk of losing important information by allowing you to add and update contact information for members in your database directly from your phone or mobile device. Networks and organizations continue to change and evolve. Since its beginning in 1987, CDM+ from Suran Systems has kept pace with changes in the ways churches understand their networks, communicate and manage the information that guides their ministry. In the cloud, on the desktop or on the move, CDM+ keeps the network of ministry in your church connected and informed, giving you access to the information you need, when and where you need it. MT
A COMPLETE ADVENT & CHRISTMAS EVE SERIES
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10 FREE Advent Devotional Books (with kit purchase)
Take your members and visitors on an unforgettable journey of hope, love, joy, and peace with this new 5-week advent series that features stories of people in the Bible, as well as people today, whom God visits in unexpected ways filling their journeys with hope just as He did that first Christmas. Coming Soon! Invitation tools, banners, and a kids’ 4-week advent series based on the upcoming Sony AFFIRM animated film, The Star.
Visit Outreach.com/Star-Bundle to Get Started!
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THE LAST WORD
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. PSALM 107:1