CONTENTS
09.18
10 how to evaluate church communications Innovation without evaluation can mean self-deception.
4 the heart of national back to church sunday
identity theft: what are YOU worth on the dark web?
It’s really all about focus and intentionality.
They’re after more than you know!
14 who are you building for? A Radical Idea: Build for your community and then have your church in it.
6 TECH CHECK 09.18
communication –i.t.'s key to success Is it easy to switch our communication style to match our audience? No!
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A Word from the editor Ray Hollenbach
Managing Editor
Ray Hollenbach
Art Directors
Troy Irvin, Henny Vallee
Contributing Editors
Matt Farrand, Russ McGuire, Caleb Neff, Nick Nicholaou, Mike Norris, Yvon Prehn, Jonathan Smith, Steven Sundermeier
Copy Editor Laura Severn
ADVERTISING VP Advertising Sales
Jared Bryant
National Media Consultants Cody Binder, Nikki Dirks, Malari Foster, Joseph Landry, Seth Rankin, Barbara (McDonald) Wolfe, Ryan Yoder
Account Associates
Leslie Massey, Bethany Payne, Syndie Porter, Nicole Vargas, 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 2018 Outreach, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
All of us at Outreach Inc. are retelling the good news. Offering excited about this month’s National grace and mercy to others—and who Back to Church Sunday event. doesn’t need grace and mercy? Imagine: For 10 years we’ve been Jesus has made this possible for equipping churches to remind, call us, and we are called to make this and invite members back—and to invitation available to everyone. welcome new members of God’s Church technology exists to serve family as well! this great goal. Whether we use Those of us at Ministry Tech technology for children’s church, for Magazine praise and worship, welcome everyone or for ministry, Think about a community-wide back to church. technology exists celebration that happens It’s not that in the church to each and every week, all year, church (by itself) make these for two millennia! is the full functions possible. expression of Christianity. But it is I invite you to read our feature story true that no expression of this month about the 10th Christianity is complete without anniversary of National Back to participation in a local, healthy Church Sunday, and then consider all church community. As pastors and the elements that are required to staff members, there’s so much to make this happen each and every take into consideration for every week. single Sunday gathering. Think about Of course, our regular contributors a community-wide celebration that have valuable things to say. I’m happens each and every week, all grateful for contributors like Yvon year, for two millennia! Prehn, Steven Sundermeier, Jonathan At home, it would take plenty of Smith and Nick Nicholaou. Their planning to welcome people to your faithfulness serves us all, and dinner table each week. Now imagine reminds us that we should use such planning on a much grander whatever technology is necessary to scale. Think of all the preparation in create life-giving connections within terms of hospitality, kindness and the church. celebration. And this is what church is about: celebration, kindness and hospitality. Remembering and 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.
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The Heart of National
Back to Church Sunday A Good Idea That Became a Movement by The Back To Church Team
H
appy 10th Anniversary! Can you believe National Back To Church Sunday (this year: September 16th) is now in its 10th year as a nationwide movement? Over the last decade, we’ve seen a lot of changes in our culture and how the church interacts with it. What hasn’t changed is the need for people to hear about Jesus, and the need for churches to share God’s love with their communities. In some ways, the need is even greater now. Studies show there are more “Nones”—people who have no religious background or have never been to church—than ever before, not to mention “de-churched” people who attended church but left for one reason or another. National Back To Church Sunday exists to create a day when churches can unite together to reach every home in the country with
MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
The average church sees a 25 PERCENT increase in attendance on Back to Church Sunday – even small churches. an invitation to give church a try. How can we accomplish this? By engaging churchgoers in the invitation process. When National Back To Church Sunday started, research showed 80 percent of people would come to church if invited by a friend or neighbor, but only 2 percent of Christians ever invited someone to church! With statistics like that, it seemed natural to make it easier for churches to engage their members and empower them to invite others to church. National Back To Church Sunday offers easy-to-use, compelling
resources that help church members step out of their comfort zones to invite friends and neighbors to church. They can feel confident inviting people to a service tailored specifically to make newcomers feel welcome. As one pastor said: “It is a superb way to get your congregation involved and excited about having friends and family come back to church. So much so, that it just doesn’t apply to only that one day, but for us will extend into the months to come.” Making National Back To Church Sunday all about visitors helps keep the focus on making church a place of belonging. When newcomers have a great experience visiting church, current members will be more motivated to keep inviting their friends and neighbors throughout the year. In 2018, we know that even if some
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members aren’t comfortable handing out invitations or going door to door, they’re probably willing to post something on social media. That’s why there are more digital graphics and videos created for Back To Church Sunday than ever. Churches can post a fun, inviting video that makes it easy for members to share with their friends across social media. One thing we’ve learned over the years is that there’s no magic formula—no one invitation that appeals to everyone, no video or graphic that works for every church, and no secret behind the day when the event is held. Instead, National Back To Church Sunday is a catalyst for discussion to help churches evaluate everything from how to engage church members in outreach to the way a new guest experiences church. There is still work to be done! We’ll continue to listen to feedback from church leaders so we can serve you with better resources to connect your church with your community. We hope the third Sunday in September will continue to be a special day in churches all across America for years to come. Thank you for being part of the movement! MT
TEN YEARs OF BACK TO CHURCH SUNDAY BY THE NUMBERS:
5,296,234 invitations sent 13,399,472 people reached 38 videos created Over 120 different denominations and affiliations have participated since its beginning in 2009 The average church sees a
25 PERCENT increase in attendance on Back to Church Sunday—even small churches
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Now in its 10th year, National Back to Church Sunday is a single-day event focused on extending an invitation of love, peace and hope to our unchurched friends and neighbors. A single day to reclaim the true nature of Church – exactly as Christ commanded. Since the beginning of Back to Church Sunday, more than 4-million Christ-followers have participated through over 30,000 churches. BECOME A BACK TO CHURCH SUNDAY CHURCH IN 2018!
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“If you are serious about your church reaching out and about reminding your church about the Great Commission, this event is an answer.” GRAND RAPIDS INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP
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Free Fall Kickoff Resources
Video Social/Web Graphics Powerpoint Template
500 Free Engager Invitations
Fall community outreach tip sheet
Church listing on BacktoChurch.com map of participating churches
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WHO ARE YOU
building for? One Question That Can Change Everything
by Jonathan Smith
T
his month the ministry where I’m blessed to serve will open our fourth Community Center. Churches all across the country are building new buildings, and I’m often asked to provide input on technology needs. One of the first questions I ask is, “Who did you build this for?” That may seem like an odd question, but stick with me. For centuries, churches have built buildings for church. Their purpose and design focused on what happens on Sunday morning. Beautiful cathedrals and large worship centers are everywhere, but their purpose is highly specific: Sunday morning.
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One of the guys on our leadership team asked what else we might spend $10 million on if we didn’t build an auditorium for ourselves? What if the church built something for the other days of the week? In many ways, the model has changed. I believe churches should stop building churches and start building community centers. We have done so three times and the impact has been tremendous. Here is our story.
In 2005, Faith Church in Lafayette, Ind., was planning to build a “big box auditorium.” We had outgrown our existing worship space and were trying to figure out what to do next. Not only did we need a larger auditorium, but we also needed more lobby and transition spaces. At the time, the plans came back at $10 million dollars for a room we would struggle to use more than eight hours a week. As we moved toward this plan one of the guys on our leadership team asked what else we might spend $10 million on if we didn’t build an auditorium for ourselves. It was a shocking question, and one we were
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not prepared to answer! So we pressed the pause button and asked, what could we do with the money instead? The short story is we asked our neighbors and community. What would they like to see us build? How could we serve them? How could we serve our community? How could we serve those in need? We surveyed not only the homes near our first campus but our entire town. The survey was available online and in our local paper. We collected thousands of data points and compiled them into a list of needs we might be able to meet. From the list of needs, we conducted input sessions with our neighbors to find out our neighbors' thoughts. This information turned into a programming statement, which turned into a layout, which turned into our first Community Center. It was built around the needs of our community, and then we put a church in it on Sundays. It has several gyms, a youth room, a fitness center, a pool, public meeting rooms and a preschool. Using available technology, we were able to creatively address our attendance and growth issues while still providing a facility to serve our community all week long. Let’s face it: Church can be held anywhere. Churches today meet in schools,
school or adult Bible fellowships, and the preschool is used for children’s ministries and the nursery. This screamed a message to our community. Instead of building a church for us and inviting to them to use what we built for us, we built the building for the community and then we use it on Sundays. Think about it, Sunday morning is about six to eight hours. That leaves over 160 other hours in the week. I’ve got nothing
#RUHOOKED
Teens & Social Media By Jonathan Smith
MinistryTech Monthly Contributor & National Speaker
A book for teens and the people who care about them. strip malls, and just about anywhere there are four walls and a roof. A community center is the perfect place for a church. The gyms are used for worship space, the youth room is used for youth group, the meeting rooms are used for small groups or Sunday MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
#RUHOOKED ISBN: 9781939881175/$6.99 Available at TRISTANPublishing.com and Amazon.com |7
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against worship centers with sloped floors and theater seating or auditoriums with fixed pews, but it is hard to use those expensive spaces 160 hours a week. After we built our first Community Center at our main campus, we were able to repeat the process three more times. After gathering community input and facilitating various input sessions we have a Community Center near Purdue University, one in downtown Lafayette, and one opening this month on the north side of Lafayette. In many ways, I look at Faith Ministries as an inverse mega church. We reach more people through our community ministries Monday through Saturday than we could ever reach in a worship service on Sunday. (Again, I’ve got nothing against church on Sunday, I believe God ordained church on Sunday; but I don’t believe He said church in a church building, on Sunday, only for the church, and that’s it.) Technology has played a large part in these Community Centers. Tech allows us to use a gym as a worship space and flip it into a banquet space or use it for a blood drive or an emergency disaster shelter all with ease. (Oh, by the way, I’m told you can also play sports
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using various projectiles in a gym too.) Technology provides ministry opportunities through presentation spaces, guest Wi-Fi and children’s security.
You want the freedom to … reach out … minister to people … create fellowship … contribute to your community
My encouragement to you is to stop and think about your next building project. I’m not saying everyone should build Community Centers. Instead of building churches, though, look at it the other way. Build for your community and then have your church in it. Don’t build for your church and then have the community in it. Trust me, the community knows the difference. Build for 168 hours a week, not eight. A radical idea? Or an incredible way to impact the community where you live for the Kingdom. MT Jonathan Smith is the Director of Technology at Faith Ministries in Lafayette, IN. You can reach Jonathan at jsmith@ faithlafayette.org and follow him on Twitter @JonathanESmith.
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COMMUNICATIONS
how to evaluate church communications (Wait, What? You Don’t Have a Plan to Evaluate?)
by Yvon Prehn
A
recent article from the Marketoonist (a secular resource I highly recommend everyone interested in church marketing read) had a challenging article that related the current crisis of CMOs (chief marketing officers) in corporations who are being fired or replaced because their work isn’t producing results. Here’s a key quote from the article: “As long as marketers continue to position themselves as experts in advertising, brand positioning, millennials and the latest digital fads—instead of being growth drivers—we’ll see more CMO positions disappear. The message is pretty simple: As a marketer, stand for growth—or else.” The article emphasized that no matter what complex, flashy, current or exciting things marketers were doing, if the evaluation of their work did not result in growth for the organization, the marketing person was replaced with someone who got the job done.
MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
How this applies to the church Lest we think that this kind of evaluation is unspiritual, let’s recall the parable of the talents, in Matt. 25:14-30. Here Jesus tells the story of the master who entrusts his fortune to three servants and then leaves. While he is gone the Master expects them to do something with what he entrusted them with; he expects a tangible return on his investment at his return. Christians love to jump to the statement repeated to the servants who gave their master a good return, where he says (and we assume correctly this means Jesus and his judgement of our lives), “Well-done good and faithful servant,” and then rewards them proportionately.
Don't look at another church or trend to decide what to change in the communication program in your church.
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COMMUNICATIONS We tend to ignore the Master’s harsh judgment of the servant who did nothing with his talent and to whom the Master’s words were: “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Tangible, realistic, honest evaluation is important in the church if we want our Lord’s commendation. Following are some ideas on how you can evaluate, and if necessary modify, what you are doing in your church communications and the tools of technology you must have to serve our Lord effectively.
How to evaluate church communications Effective church communication evaluation involves much more than competing opinions over who thinks they are right and who doesn't. To do it honestly involves more than who likes what or who is not wanting to change a way they've "always done" something. It also means you don't change things or do away with something because somebody went to a big church conference, and that big church did this or that, and to be like that big church you think you need to do the same thing, or that you get rid of (or add) technology just because it is the “in” thing today and everyone who is anyone is doing it. Don't look at another church or trend to decide what to change in the tech ministry or communication program in your church. First get an honest assessment of what you are doing in your church. To evaluate, you don’t look primarily at your tools, instead: • Look at lives. • Look at behavior. Are these changing or not because of your communications or the technology or social media you’ve implemented? Most importantly, are the changes you see making progress in these two areas: •H elping people come to know Jesus as Savior. •E nabling them to grow into mature disciples.
you created and distributed your communications to market, inform and get people to the event, then assess the results. This is how you start the evaluation process of what works and what doesn't in church communications. Like success in any game, you keep score. The score is determined by asking questions such as these and recording your response: • Did you do a mailing? Send a postcard? An email? Web announcement? Pulpit announcement? Share on social media? • Did you equip your people with communication tools? Connection cards, postcards, website links? • Based on those actions, then how many people attended the event? How many were new to the church? The simple numbers of how many new people attend the church, why, and what brought them there is important because you cannot start the road toward sharing the message of salvation and growing people to Christian maturity without people first getting inside the church and becoming part of the process. Whether your church accepts individuals as believers with a simple confession of faith after one visit or whether becoming a Christian is defined by a series of explorations and classes, followed by a decision and baptism, or any combination of these events, whatever your tradition, it must start with simple attendance.
Start your evaluation by simple counting This is not rocket science. You create events or ministries to introduce people to the Christian faith or to help people grow in their Christian lives. They must get there for that to happen. Therefore, effectiveness in church communications or the technology you use is determined first by attendance, the simple numbers of people who respond (or didn't). After MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
Be honest in record keeping and evaluation If you spend thousands of dollars on seasonal outreach events, what was your return on investment? Again, ask
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COMMUNICATIONS the questions above: How many are now attending the church because of the event? How many have become Christians because of the event? I suspect far too many churches do seasonal and holiday events because the people currently attending the church really like to put on the events. To decide if this is the primary motivation—track the results. To repeat: • How many new people are now attending the church because of
the event? • How many have become Christians because of the event? •H ow many have taken discipleship steps because of the event? Or is it primarily members of your congregation and a few scattered family members who only come to big events who attended and was it put on primarily for their enjoyment.
If you aren't honestly tracking costs and results, why not?
To fully fulfill the Great Commission
RESOURCES FOR CHURCH COMMUNICATORS Training Templates Strategy Resources Podcast
Even without tracking it, if you know the answer is something like "We didn't do a very good job of communicating it to people outside the church and we can't honestly point to anyone who is now attending, who has come to know Jesus, or grown in their faith because of it” you need to make changes. Often the changes are simply a commitment to use the tools of technology and communications you have with a deeper purpose behind them of spiritual outreach and growth. Effective Church Communications has an in-depth course on Successful Seasonal Strategy that will help you understand what communications you need before, during and after your event, how to involve the entire church, and how to honestly evaluate the response. It will show you how seasonal events can not only grow your church in numbers, but your people in discipleship maturity. Check out the course and other articles on seasonal strategy at our Effective Church Communications website, brainstorm, pray, try new things, innovate, and then evaluate so that your use of technology and church communications will be worthy of our Lord’s commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” MT Yvon Prehn’s ministry to church communicators has two parts: http://www. effectivechurchcom.com, a site of FREE templates, strategy and resources, and http://www. churchcomtraining.com, a Church Communicators Online Training School.
www.effectivechurchcom.com MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
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tech check
09.18 Email Oops and Scoops You’re finishing up an email. It turns out that whenever you click “send” your email travels through cyberspace and eventually reaches . . . another human being! (Who knew?) Kristin Naragon is the global Director of Email Solutions for Adobe. Recently she summarized the results from an email user survey that contained predictable—but important—results. Nearly every church and ministry depends on email to connect people inside the organization and to connect with people outside as well. Naragon’s results include important findings such as a list of most annoying phrases used in email, and the most ignored points of email etiquette. Are you an email troll or an email saint? Find out where you stand, here.
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Tyndale Releases the World’s First Digitally Annotated Bible When you pick up an ink-on-paper Bible you’re looking for a distraction-free reading experience. When you want to study the Bible you want a rich flow of notes and explanations, which usually means turning to an online Bible. The problem is that online Bibles provide a taxing reading experience, and “study Bibles” in print are so filled with sidebars it’s hard to focus on the inspired text. There’s never been a way to take both needs into account—until now: Tyndale House has introduced The Filament Bible, which they describe as combining “the simple elegance of a premium Bible with the powerful capabilities of your mobile device. You get the best reading experience a print Bible can offer and instant access to more meaningful content than you’ll find in any one study Bible or devotional Bible.” But words fail: It’s actually really cool. Check out this one-minute video that shows you everything you need to see.
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Organize Your Organization’s Photos A photo is a file, right? So you store it in “Documents,” right? So why is it so hard to collect and organize all the photos on your mobile device or laptop? Or how about the fact that photo files use up so much storage space? The Photostick is a smart thumb drive that stores—and organizes—your pictures. It’s the perfect archive solution for churches and ministries. There’s a version for mobile devices and also USB connections for laptops and desktops.
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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.
MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
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PROTECTED WITH PURPOSE
identity theft:
What Are You Worth on the Dark Web? (Hint: It’s More Than You Think!) by Steven Sundermeier
D
oes anyone else’s brain have certain topics that it zones out on? I am not sure why, but remembering to renew my driver’s license on time is a real struggle for me. Maybe it’s the years-long gap in between expirations. I’ve inexcusably dropped the ball on the renewal process two times in a row now. Thank goodness I have never had a traffic violation (ever!), especially during one of these mind-lapse/ license-lapse periods. And honestly, there’s not a more exhausting experience for me than the thought of driving to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. It’s not personal; the workers there have always been helpful, it’s just the multiple long and confusing lines that drain years (this may be a slight exaggeration) from my life. And it doesn’t matter what day or time of day you go: you’re stuck. However, I must admit that the process this year proved
MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
enlightening, as I learned that there are new federal travel restrictions requiring secure identification for the state of Ohio, which will become effective in 2020. A brief overview: Starting in October 2020, the new federal travel restriction will make it a requirement for anyone looking to fly domestically, enter federal facilities or military bases to possess a “compliant card.” The newly issued compliant card is the equivalent of a driver’s license on steroids. To obtain a compliant card when renewing a license, customers will have to bring in additional documentation: passport or birth certificate, social security card, and two additional documents proving residential address to name of few. While the compliant license is said to be infinitely harder to fake, the bottom line is that it also stores a lot of valuable personal data on it as well. Identity theft is defined as the illegal use of someone else's personal
information (PII)—such as social security number, birth date, or driver’s license number—to impersonate another person especially with the intent to obtain money or credit. Identity theft happens hourly and affects millions of people worldwide each year. In fact, a recent well-documented security breach at the credit-reporting agency Equifax potentially exposed over 145 million customers to identity theft. There are also multiple types of identity theft: Child ID theft, Tax ID theft and Medical ID theft, just to list a few. And whether a fraudster is using your PII to open a new line of credit, falsify your tax returns with the IRS, or fraudulently billing your health insurance provider, it’s serious and downright scary stuff! Unfortunately, I’ve read about countless identity theft victims that ended up losing everything. The threat is real. The undisputable reason identity theft is on the rise is because your PII
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PROTECTED WITH PURPOSE is a lucrative commodity. According to Experian, a consumer credit reporting agency, the 10 most common pieces of information sold on the dark web and their estimated worth (what they typically sell for) are as follows: Social security number: $1 Credit or debit card: $5-$110 (with CVV number: $5, with bank info $15, Full info $30) Online payment services login info (e.g., Paypal): $20-$200 Driver’s license: $20 Loyalty accounts: $20 General non-financial institution logins: $1 Diplomas: $100-$400 Passports (US): $1,000-$2,000 Subscription services: $1-$10 Medical records: anywhere from $1 to $1,000 or more! While the listed prices can change over time, or be dependent on how complete the information stolen is, and vary per person (an individual with a high credit rating can fetch higher money than someone with a lesser credit score), the estimates per PII is staggering. Remember— the Equifax breach was 145 million records! Since most of us are now accustomed to shopping online, registering students online, banking online, and routinely entering our valuable PII into websites without giving it a second thought, identity theft will continue to soar to new heights. Even youth sports programs now require online registration requesting proof of medical insurance, policy numbers, birth dates and digital authorizations. The amount of collected PII in today’s cyber world is mind-boggling. And the frightening aspect of identity MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
theft is that, for the most part it can be out of your control. After you’ve supplied your PII, you’re essentially at the mercy of the e-commerce website, banking or medical institute, credit score agency, or any other organization and their cyber security defenses (to thwart cyber-attacks). With that said, there are multiple measures you can take to protect your PII from showing up and being sold on the dark web. For example: For starters you can practice all the following security practices on all your devices (including your phones) that I detailed in a recent column. It may be a good idea to track and get alerts of your credit history from a consumer credit card agency. There are three national credit bureaus that
There is also an option to run a free dark web scan via Experian to see how much of your PII is viewable online. offer such a service: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.zone. There is also an option to run a free dark web scan via Experian to see how much of your PII is viewable online. With a standard driver’s license commanding $20 on the dark web, I wonder how much the Transportation Safety Agency (TSA) required compliant card will be worth to cyber criminals, as it will be a combination of a driver’s license ($20), domestic passport ($1,000-$2,000) and social
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PROTECTED WITH PURPOSE security card ($1) all wrapped up in one. Not to mention yet another agency or governmental institute that will systemically categorize all that PII into one comprehensive database. I believe it will be safe to assume that this database will be a high target for hackers. I trust those in authority, and the Bible instructs us to obey them, so I believe there will be overall value and benefit to this new security measure for United States citizens. But I also implore us to be vigilant and to open our eyes to the threat of
the risks associated with our personal information online. Sometimes you could not script the events of your life to be more ironic. I wrote the rough draft of this article yesterday afternoon. Possibly at the same time of my typing this article, my son and wife were online, and proceeded to attempt a purchase on a compromised website. They entered credit card information, a password and personal information. These are my people! They read my articles; they hear my speeches about online safety and security. And
yet, they fell prey to a fake-website and gave our information away. I say this (out of exasperation!), and also to realize with you that we are all susceptible to falling prey to illegitimate websites that imitate true-addresses. The struggle for keeping our information and identity secure is real, and it happens in my home as well as yours. Ultimately, we are more than our credit card information and passwords. Our time on earth is swift and fleeting and because of that we have to make it count. In serving the Lord and in living wisely. Despite everything, our “value” is not in our PII or credit score but it comes from God. If you need a reminder of that today, see: John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." I am sure that in the coming months and years there will be many new Security and Identity developments, which will include the new “compliant card” from the BMV. And although the world and its ways are always progressing, some truths remain timeless and true. Stay true to your good sense in staying safe online and enlighten your family about safety measures too! MT Steven Sundermeier is the owner of Thirtyseven4, LLC, a leading provider of antivirus/ security software. With 17 years of experience in the cybersecurity field, he is one of the nation’s leading experts in virus, malware and other threats. Before founding Thirtyseven4 in 2009, Steven worked in a number of roles in the antivirus industry dating back to 1999.
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communication i.t.'s key to success Sure – You Know What You Mean – But Do They? by Nick Nicholaou
ow we communicate dramatically affects our success in every aspect of life! We often forget how important that is, and forgetting limits us. This is especially true in Information Technology (IT). The question becomes, then: How successful do you want to be? And along with that: Do you want to maximize how the Lord can use you?
H
getting practical
bible perspective
key point
Paul says in Ephesians 5:15, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise.” The phrase to be very careful is translated in some versions as “walking circumspectly.” The word circumspect means to have full awareness of your entire surroundings, like an animal cautiously walking through an open field. That is a good way to communicate, but it’s not easy. It leaves no room for laziness; in fact, it requires a high level of focus! But the wise pay attention!
It is always the responsibility of the one communicating to do so in a way that their audience can understand their message. When I’m talking with a fellow engineer, it’s okay to say something like, “You could speed up that system by swapping the HD with SSD and bumping the RAM.” Simple. But if I’m talking to someone who is not technical, it would be better to say, “You could speed up that computer by replacing the old hard drive with a newer technology, like a solid state storage device,
MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
Every profession has its acronyms, and in IT we have a lot of them. When IT professionals talk to each other we use those acronyms; when we’re talking with non-professionals, however, using them limits our ability to be understood. Is it easy to switch our communication style to match our audience? No! But the wise do so because it is essential.
and increasing the memory available for processing the amount of data you’re working with.” Those who can quickly adjust their communication style to match the needs of those they’re communicating with have the greatest chance for success. Who can do that? Anyone who chooses to put in the effort to walk circumspectly. It requires more brain processing power, but that additional power consumption is worth it! Some who know my story know that before becoming a Christian I was a major drug user. That’s not something I’m proud of, but it is part of my story. One of the drugs I used a lot was LSD. So much so, in fact, that I was losing my ability to communicate! How could I tell? By being observant and interpreting the facial expressions of people I was talking to. Their facial expressions told me they were struggling to understand what I was trying to say. So I started listening to myself while I was talking, and realized
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that the subject of my sentences was changing so often that I didn’t make sense! No wonder they were struggling to understand me! I concluded that I had work to do if I wanted to be successful.
Humility & Dedication A good communicator interprets the facial expressions and body language of those they’re talking to and makes real-time adjustments to improve the success of their message. Some are too lazy or don’t care enough to communicate well. Realizing you’re not communicating successfully and making adjustments takes focus, effort and humility. Good communicators do not insist that their audience rise to meet their communication level, but instead humbly adjust their style as needed.
knowing your audience When I talk, speak, or write, I try to identify my audience to increase
MinistryTech.com SEPTEMBER 2018
my success. My professional topics are usually related to technology, so I often ask questions after using a term that might be unfamiliar like, “Is that a term you’re comfortable with?” Their response to that non-judgmental question helps me modify my content to increase my communication success. Often there are multiple audiences we’re communicating to all at once. Writing a response to a support ticket is like that! I usually try to meet the communication needs of the user who opened the ticket, their supervisor, my supervisor and sometimes (depending on the issue) our legal system. All at one time! Can I do that effortlessly or quickly? No, especially since it’s in writing. I have to re-read the content with each audience in mind and make terminology adjustments before it’s ready for the SEND button.
The Bottom Line Don’t limit how the Lord can use you
It is always the responsibility of the one communicating to do so in a way that their message can be understood by their audience. or your professional success by not communicating circumspectly. Slow down and make the effort to communicate well to your audiences, whether in a one-on-one conversation, in a group setting or in writing. Watch for visual cues when possible and make adjustments! Those you’re communicating with will be blessed, and so will you. MT Nick Nicholaou is author of Church IT: Strategies and Solutions and 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, and his blog.
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THE LAST WORD
Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. MAT THEW 28:20