Ministry Tech Magazine - January 2018

CONTENTS

01.18 4

10 BAM! IT'S A NEW YEAR Why should we be surprised that time is precious?

5 COMMITMENTS INNOVATIVE TECH LEADERS WILL MAKE IN 2018

even your tech tools can burn Don’t wait until a disaster strikes to get a good backup system in place.

Why today’s challenges won’t be solved with yesterday’s thinking.

14 YOUR DEFINITIVE IT NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS From firewalls to backups, now is the time!

8 TECH CHECK 01.18.......................................................................................13 STARTUP: Telechoice's Purpose Pyramid (Part 4)..............21 Paint a Clear Financial Picture........................................................ 24 Where a Leader's Heart and Mind Meet................................. 26

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never-ending updates and their dark potential Sure, it’s inconvenient to look after security. But it’s necessary!

17

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, Russ McGuire, Caleb Neff, Nick Nicholaou, Yvon Prehn, 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, Syndie Porter, 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.

In spite of technological advancements (or perhaps because of them?) we find ourselves surprised as another year has flown by—but also filled with expectation because the New Year is upon us!

There’s one resource the Creator has distributed equally among every person on earth: our time. The minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and yes, the years, pass at an equal rate for us all. That’s why I’m so pleased that this month’s issue of Ministry Tech features a piece from our long-time advertising partner, eChurch, that calls us to focus on the intangibles that accompany technology. Their article, 5 Commitments Innovative Tech Leaders Will Make in 2018, reminds us that technology is always used in the service of people, and in order to serve people in a Christlike manner we must ourselves stay connected to our own all-too-human needs. In particular I’d like to call your attention to eChurch’s Summit 2018, scheduled for this February. It’s a great blend of Christian service and the use of technology within the church.

In this month’s issue you’ll also find Yvon Prehn’s very close call with last month’s fires in Ventura, CA—another reminder of our human condition and the limits of technology. Long-time contributor Nick Nicholaou presents a definitive list of I.T. New Year’s resolutions, and Jonathan Smith’s pastoral observations about the hope presented each New Year. It’s ours to steward!

Finally, our monthly TechCheck feature this month is dedicated this month to the issue of Net Neutrality, which every church staff should be investigating, especially as it relates to your ministry’s web-presence in live-streaming, video and audio podcasts, or any other data-intensive arm of your church’s ministry. Every pro-active tech staff should be in dialogue with your ISP. Internet connectivity has become a necessarily utility in the Western World, and a huge part of our ministry outreach.

Let’s not leave things to chance!

Meanwhile, Happy New Year to you, faithful readers! We wish God’s deepest blessings on you in 2018!

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.

January 2018 | 3

5 COMMITMENTS innovative tech leaders will make in

2018

New Thinking for New Horizons 4 | MinistryTech.com

T

he church faces big issues in the coming years. The communities we’re trying to engage with the gospel have changed rapidly in the last few decades—and all signs point to the fact that they’ll change even more in the coming years.

Our communities are becoming more diverse, less religious, more isolated and more technologically intune that ever before.

Just consider the dramatic change in human knowledge in recent years.

According to govloop.com, human knowledge was doubling at a rate of every century in 1900. In 1945, it doubled every 25 years. Currently, it doubles every 13 months. IBM predicts in just a few years it will double every 12 hours. Change is coming rapid-fire to our churches and our communities. We face problems today we couldn’t have even imagined a decade ago.

And we can’t solve today’s ministry problems with yesterday’s solutions.

Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Never has that thought been more accurate.

God’s Word won’t change. The gospel won’t change. But the world we’re trying to reach is changing like never before.

That’s why the job description for anyone in church ministry—whether pastoral leadership, administration or technology—has to include innovation. Craig Groeschel once said, “To reach people no one else is reaching, you have to do things no one else is doing." That’s innovation.

To reach people in 2018 that aren’t being reached, your church will have to do things no one else is doing in technology.

You can become more innovative in 2018 by making these five commitments:

1. Take a vacation.

Tired people don’t innovate.

They may get things done. They may manage people well. But they generally don’t solve new problems (and they continue to struggle with the old ones, too).

Too often, we laugh at the need for vacations among church leaders. We hold up the overworked pastor or staff member as a paragon of virtue.

That’s dumb.

American workers lost 222 million days of vacation in 2015 simply because they didn’t take the amount of vacation days allotted during the year. Church workers likely weren’t any better than the general population.

In trying to respond to the question, “Should leaders go on vacation?” Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes in The Harvard Business Review, “Everyone needs down-time to renew, re-energize and re-bond with family. Time away while accumulating new experiences can

stimulate imagination and support innovation.”

So take a vacation. Schedule it today. Don’t save it for a rainy day.

Don’t skip it to be more productive.

Certainly don’t let it evaporate.

2. Take a risk.

Innovative leaders take risks. It’s almost a cliché. You can’t innovate without risk. But let’s be clear.

Innovative leaders don’t take wild risks. They take calculated risks.

They take good risks.

Seth Godin says it this way to business leaders: “Playing it safe and not taking a risk is probably the most dangerous thing you could do in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive business environment.”

That’s true for church leaders, too. The gospel is too important for you to not take risks in the technology your church will use to communicate.

God’s Word won’t change. The gospel won’t change. But the world we’re trying to reach is changing like never before.

January 2018 | 5

HERE’S THE SECRET TO GROWING YOUR CHURCH IN 2018 FREE EBOOK: Start Strong: Must-Have Goals for Your Best Year Yet

Too often we think about risk in church ministry and assume that our resources are stretched too thin to be able to afford to take risks. But the opposite is true. Our resources are too precious not to take risks with them. Re-read Jesus’ Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. Our faith should lead us toward risk, not away from it.

So what are the calculated risks you need to take this year? That’s up to you.

But make a commitment to take at least one this year. Start small. Think about a risk that’ll move your church forward in reaching your community. Get buy-in from other leaders in the church. And go for it. Make calculated, healthy risks a habit.

3. Find a mentor.

We talk a lot about mentoring in church circles, but we often struggle with the actual work of mentoring. But for the sake of real and meaningful innovation, mentoring is a must.

More than anything else, we need outside voices in our lives. Nothing blocks innovation quite like a silo mentality.

Finding a mentor is a step in the right direction.

Pick the right mentor, though. You want

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY AT

echurch.com/StartStrong2018 a mentor you trust. You want a mentor who will make you think outside of the box. You want a mentor with competence in an area where you’re weak.

But don’t get stuck thinking of potential 6 | MinistryTech.com

mentors as necessarily people older than you, either. Mentors can be younger than you. Mentors are simply a step ahead of you in an area where you need to grow. You can have multiple mentors in multiple areas—from your professional life, your personal life and your spiritual life. Innovative leaders, particularly innovative church leaders, grow in all those areas.

Just make a commitment to meet regularly with the person. Come to those meetings with questions and a pencil and paper. Make good use of the time you have with your mentor.

It’s some of the most valuable time on your calendar.

4. Get training.

You don’t know everything you need to solve 2018’s problems.

Yes, innovation will require new skills of you. But more importantly, innovation will require you to think differently about the tech problems your church faces. You need training that expands your vision of how your church can use technology to engage people with the gospel.

Identify some specific areas where you need further training. Invite the feedback of others, including coworkers and mentors. Of course, look at some tech topics where you might need training, but don’t stop there. Innovative leaders are wellrounded leaders who learn inside and outside their fields.

Check out upcoming conferences, like the echurch Summit. You particularly want to find conferences where you can learn from creative leaders who will stretch your thinking. Do some research on them

before signing up. Look to learn from people with a history of bold leadership in topics where you need to grow.

But conferences aren’t the only training you can invest in. Online classes, books, webinars and meetups can all provide opportunities for growth as well.

5. Build relationships with other innovative leaders.

Lone innovators are an American myth. We tend to look at people like Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell and Steve Jobs and assume their creations were the product of long nights locked away in an office or garage.

But that’s not the history of innovation. Innovators gather.

Innovators network with other innovators. It’s when innovators connect with other innovators that good things happen and impossibleto-overcome problems get beaten.

To do that, you’ll have to put yourself wherever there are other

innovators. Again, the upcoming echurch Summit (Feb. 13-15) is a great place to start. The conference will bring together some of the most innovative leaders in the church world to talk about leadership, communication and technology.

Check out echurch.com/summit to find out more.

Look for ways in 2018 to build your network with people inside your church, people in other churches in similar positions as yours, and people outside of church ministry. You need a growing network of people in all three of those categories if you’re going to become an effective, innovative technology leader.

Our churches need innovative technology leaders. As you know, technology will play a critical role in solving some of the most important problems the church will face in 2018 and in the years to come.

Innovation isn’t a bonus for today’s ministry tech leader: It’s a necessity.

January 2018 | 7

YOUR DEFINITIVE IT NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS Five Things Worth Doing in January

by Nick Nicholaou

N

ew beginnings are part of the Christian life, and January is a great time to make certain a few IT items are ready for the New Year. Let’s focus on protecting systems and data.

FIREWALLS The most common entry point for malware and other system ills is the Internet. The best way to protect your system and data from bots, rascals and compromised websites is to be certain your firewall is adequate and is current. Some points worth examining: • Is your firewall adequate? There are many options to consider when buying firewall solutions—whether hardware or software. My firm’s preference is SonicWALL firewalls (we don’t sell or benefit from our hardware and software recommendations). We find the features and price point are a good ‘sweet spot’ for churches and ministries. Yes, you can buy more expensive and capable firewalls, but very few churches and ministries benefit from any features beyond what SonicWALL includes in their firewalls. We also recommend purchasing their Total Secure package, which can filter Internet content.

• Is your firewall subscription current? Regardless of which firewall you use, make certain that if it requires a subscription to stay current, your subscription is current and in force. Not doing so is the equivalent of welcoming intruders, rascals, bots and malware that have developed new methods for gaining access to your systems and data.

• Make certain there is no connection from your systems to the Internet that doesn’t go through your firewall.

We have seen many churches and ministries mistakenly connect their Internet connection directly to their network switch. The Internet connection should connect to your firewall, and then your firewall to your switch, so that all Internet traffic MUST go through it.

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SPAM The second most common way for malware to access your systems and data is via email attachments and links.

SonicWALL is not our preference for this important role; we prefer the Barracuda SPAM Filter. It is best of breed and a best practices solution.

My firm inexpensively hosts SPAM filtering for many churches and ministries. I don’t mention that to try to sell our service, but to point out that we were surprised to see how many users of Microsoft O365 email use our hosted SPAM filtering solution (yes, we use a Barracuda SPAM Filter, model 600). We moved our email to O365 for six months and were shocked at how much SPAM got through their filter! Now we know why so many O365 users have their email scrubbed by other solutions!

ANTI-MALWARE Protecting systems and data requires multiple layers. An important one is your anti-malware solution. And simply purchasing and installing is not enough! These solutions also have subscriptions that keep them updated and identifying new methods used to cause you harm. It is essential that the subscription on your anti-malware not be allowed to lapse— the same as your firewall subscription. I know churches and ministries that have been hit by new ransomware methods because they didn’t keep their subscriptions current.

The anti-malware my firm recommends is Thirtyseven4. com. It is capable, and it is reasonable in cost.

BTW… it should be installed on every Windows and Mac computer—whether notebook, tablet, desktop or server. Some say it’s not necessary on Macs, but that isn’t true. Even though

These five things will likely take less than an hour to check and can help ensure your organization’s systems and data are well protected for 2018.

few anti-malware threats are written to impact Macs, Macs can be carriers that infect shared data drives and more.

PASSWORDS What is your password policy? Here are some quick thoughts on this important topic: • Passwords should be strong (minimum of 7 characters that include uppercase and lowercase alpha, numbers and common punctuation).

• Passwords should not be required to periodically change!

Our firm has been saying for many years that forcing users to change their passwords actually lowers system security. In 2016 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission agreed with us based on two studies! You can read about it here.

BACKUP Some say protecting the integrity of system data is IT’s most important responsibility. Do you have a comprehensive backup strategy? And do you test it? An untested strategy is dangerous! Here’s what we recommend: • Establish a strategy that makes certain all important data is on your server. This is worth doing because 1) it is the organization’s data, and 2) it eliminates the requirement

that all systems need to be connected to the network (facilitating notebooks, etc).

• Backup all system data nightly to an appropriate device.

LTO tape is the most affordable and durable technology for this, and is preferred by most of corporate America.

Our favorite backup solution is Veeam. It’s powerful, easy to use, and they offer churches and ministries very reasonable pricing.

• Take a copy of your backup tape off-site weekly to protect your organization from a larger disaster.

• Create a monthly task in whatever task tracker you use (like Outlook) to test the backup. You can do this by restoring a random file or folder, and then confirming that the restored files are intact.

These five things will likely take less than an hour to check and can help ensure your organization’s systems and data are well protected for 2018! Happy New Year! 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.

January 2018 | 9

Bam!

it's a new year!

How Time Management Can Soften the Blow

by Jonathan Smith

I

t’s hard to believe we are starting another year. No sooner do we get to Thanksgiving and then BAM! It’s Christmas and then a New Year. December seems to always fly by. Just when I’ve gotten used to typing and writing 2017 it’s time to start typing and writing 2018 on everything.

This is also the time of year when most of us take a look back, reflect on what’s gone by, and look forward to what’s ahead. Many of us will set goals and resolutions for the new year—and most of those goals and resolutions will fail. (Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the stats on New Year’s Resolutions aren’t good. While a worthwhile endeavor, they just don’t seem to have the staying power.)

One of the biggest challenges with any resolution or goal is finding the time to make that resolution or goal happen. Every year we tell ourselves next year will be better and we will have more time, but again, the stats don’t point towards us having more time and less to do. As Willy Wonka says in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate

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Factory, “So much time and so little to see. Wait a minute—strike that— reverse it.” That’s where we live, so much to see and so little time.

Perhaps one goal for this year should be to make better use of the time God has given us. One common denominator we all share is time. No one has 65 seconds in a minute, or 65 minutes in an hour, or 25 hours in a day. The variable is when time ends for each of us, and that is only known to God. So: How do we use the time we have better? There are tons of books out there on this topic and the ultimate irony is we all struggle to find time to read them.

Whether you need to find time for greater Kingdom impact, greater family impact or greater personal impact, here are some simple things I hope will help you better steward your time this year.

Accountability We are all going to be held accountable for how we use our time.

That alone should motivate us to use it well. How do we use our time to

most glorify God? While spending too much time at work and ministry and neglecting your family is not a good use of time, neither is spending too much time with family and neglecting work and ministry. The key is to remember that our time is limited and finite this side of heaven and to use our time understanding that it has a definite end.

We are all different It is easy to view stewarding our time with a one-size-fits-all approach. After all, we all have the same amount of time each day, right?

There is no magic potion for time management, because God made us all different. Time itself may be constant but each one of us has different gifts and abilities. The Bible addresses this in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. Read it if you have time. (See what I did there?)

In this parable there are three slaves each entrusted with a different amount of money and each with a different ability to manage that money. The master didn’t give

So much time and so little to see. Wait a minute—strike that —reverse it. everyone the same amount; he gave each one “according to his own ability.” Think of the money in this parable as time. Each one of us has different abilities to manage time.

Some of us can do 20 things at once.

Others struggle with one thing at a time. That’s not bad. God made us all different, the question is do you recognize that and are you doing your best with what God has given you?

It isn’t a matter of how many time management apps you have or how complicated your schedule is, but rather when you stand before God, did you increase what you were given or did you bury it in the ground?

his decisions so he put his one in the ground. This same discipline also applies to how we use our time. While we can’t make 24 hours into 48, we can do more with the 24 hours we’ve been given. Doing so takes a mental shift in approach. Do you get up every day doomed to fail because you only have 24 hours or do you get up every day looking to work hard to fit the proper balance of priorities into the 24 hours of the day?

Priorities So how do you set your priorities?

Do you operate under any priorities or do you just do whatever feels right as things come up? The Bible lays out several priorities for us: God, family, work. Simple when you look at it but difficult to apply, especially when God and work merge together in ministry. You can’t be disciplined with your priorities unless you know what your priorities are. Do you?

Available Now

By Jonathan Smith

MinistryTech Monthly Contributor & National Speaker

Discipline If you’ve done any reading on this topic, you probably guessed that discipline was going to be included.

You may have hoped we could have skipped over it but you can’t talk about managing anything without discipline. It is great to say you want to manage your time better or you want to better balance family, work and ministry, but unless you are willing to discipline yourself to stay focused on the task and maintain your priorities then you are most likely doomed to failure.

In the parable, the guy with five was disciplined and went out and made five more. Same for the guy with two. However, the guy with one had no discipline and let fear rule

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Bear in mind a priority is not whatever you feel like doing whenever you want.

Priorities require some time to figure out and may require the input of those around you, like co-workers, supervisors and spiritual leaders. Oftentimes folks don’t want to get input on their priorities because the thing they want to do least will be the thing everyone else wants them to do the most.

Since we are not all the same, getting input will also help us steward the time we have according to each of our unique abilities.

At this point you may be wondering where the list of things to do to better manage your time in 2018 is. Well, sorry to disappoint but there is no list. Time management is not a series of lists or additional tasks to schedule and get done.

Time management requires each person to sit down and understand individual accountability, and maybe corporate accountability if you manage others. Then we have to recognize that each one of us is different (this applies to you helping someone else and you getting help). Next, we have to understand what discipline is and what it means to live a disciplined life.

Finally, we have to work out our priorities.

Have you sat down to figure yours out?

Are they measurable and attainable?

I like to watch rocket launches. I’ve had the privilege of joining NASA and their partners on numerous launch opportunities. Someday I’m going to retire and do nothing but chase rocket launches around the planet. Until that time, I have to use my time well so I can be effective in ministry, serve my family well and still enjoy some down time watching rockets light up the sky. 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

01.18

NET NEUTRALITY CHECK-UP Just a few weeks ago the FCC changed its stance on Net Neutrality regulations. Now is a good time to consider the effect of bottlenecking on your church’s live-stream outreach.

New Year.

New Volunteers.

New Resources: The people at the Life.Church Open Network have a treasuretrove of tech resources. As we begin the new year you might be looking for new volunteers and new expertise in your church or ministry. Check out this excellent article-plus-video entitled, “11 Church Volunteer Recruitment Ideas: Find Them, Train Them, Keep Them.” n

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR PROVIDER:

□W hat guarantees will you provide in writing about my upload and download speeds?

□W ho (if anyone) will receive priority service? □ H ow will you determine who gets priority service? □W ill you post a complete list of who receives priority service from you?

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR MINISTRY:

□W hen is the last time we reviewed our ISP agreement and pricing?

□ A re their new alternatives available? □W hat are our priorities for determining in what we want from an ISO?

□ H ow can we determine/measure if our ISP is affecting our Internet service?

HERE ARE TWO RESOURCES FOR YOU TO USE RIGHT NOW: 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.

• Our partners at eChurch have a superb resource, “How The Loss of Net Neutrality Will Impact Your Church.” This is must-read material!

• This piece from Wired Magazine (which opposes the changes) is a good place to start educating yourselves on the possible effects on your church or ministry. n

January 2018 | 13

COMMUNICATIONS

Even Your Tech Tools Can

Burn

The entire horizon, from one end of my town to the other, was burning.

by Yvon Prehn

B

efore this last week I was going to write about taking time as the year starts to evaluate where you are in your use of technology and to consider what changes you may want to make in the coming year. But then, last Monday night before I went to bed, I got a text that there was a fire in Santa Paula, the city just east of the community we live in. I went outside to look and the sky was red. I slowly turned to the left and the entire horizon, from one end of my town to the other, was burning.

Then the phones went dead. The power went out. My husband had to get in our car to listen to the radio and learned what had started as a small fire was whipped into a tornado of flames with the Santa Ana winds

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and was traveling at 59 miles an hour (as fast as a car speeding down a highway) consuming everything in its path. We were up for several hours.

The fire was growing, but it was quite a distance from us, and from the reports and the wind, moving away from us. My husband stayed up all night by the window and listened to the radio.

It’s been five days now. We live in Ventura, Calif., ground zero for the Thomas Fire, the largest fire ever in the state. We are still OK, though so many have lost everything.

Large parts of our town are totally destroyed. The fires continue and though we don’t appear to be in any danger, the winds continue. There is fire west, north and east of us.

From this current challenge I decided to encourage you to evaluate where you are in emergency preparedness. Technology obviously can’t solve or heal the tragedy of a situation like this, but it can mitigate some of the difficulties. I do hope few of you experience something like this, but in this world we have no guarantees and so I’d like to share some thoughts I’ve had about technology and tragedy and a few suggestions on preparation. There is obviously much more advice online, but some of these ideas may get you started.

Preparation is essential. I’ve realized from this situation that I am not as prepared as I should be. We never think a disaster will happen

COMMUNICATIONS

Technology obviously can’t solve or heal the tragedy of a situation like this, but it can mitigate some of the difficulties. to us; we never realize how quickly things can change.

Backup, cloud systems for computer files This was the one area I was comfortable with. There are lots of software programs today that back up your computer, but I use Carbonite and felt very comfortable with it in the midst of the trauma. One other thing I really like about Carbonite is that it will back up your Dropbox files if you have Dropbox installed on your computer. Many people use Dropbox to back up their files, and for them this provides a backup of your backup—it’s a double safe system.

Currently I store the files I’m working on in progress on Dropbox.

I can access them from whatever computer I’m working on and since both my laptop and desktop have Carbonite installed, no matter what I’m working on, it’s backed up to Dropbox and to Carbonite as I work.

I don’t have to stop and think about any of this and I knew my files would be safe, even if we had to evacuate quickly.

Don’t wait until a disaster strikes to get a good backup system in place.

Carbonite and Dropbox are what I use and have worked well for me, but there are many good ones out there— just get one and use it.

That was the only thing I was prepared for. After the initial threat to our home was over, I realized how totally unprepared I was for a tragedy

like this if we would have to evacuate.

We somehow assume we’d know what to do immediately when a disaster strikes, but an odd numbness can also set in where we aren’t sure what to do next. Now that it appears we are safe at least for a time, I’m turning to technology to help me be better prepared in the future, no matter what my feelings at the moment. Below are some of the things I am looking at and working on.

Important Papers, digital copies are essential

go bags It’s easy to relegate “Go bags” with spy movies, but again, when faced with possible evacuation, all emergency services recommend that every family have enough supplies in a kit for 72 hours as it may take that long for services to be available or if you have to evacuate without any clear destination. We don’t have to put our own together. There are numerous online sources that have selections for every size family and dietary needs. A company called Stealth Angel Survival provides Family Preparedness Kits, and Northwest Fork markets gluten-free resources!

Though digital copies of allimportant papers may not be legal, they can be helpful in securing new and legal ones. Here’s an article that has a good list of what you might want to scan and have a copy of online. The federal government provides a link where you go to replace lost documents.

Pictures Take pictures of all the rooms in your house (and of your valuables) so that if everything was lost, you’d have a visual record. In addition, don’t just have these pictures on your phone (which can be lost, damaged or stolen) but on a cloud backup such as either Dropbox or Flickr. In fact, you should carry printed pictures of all family members and their vital statistics in your wallet, should a tragedy happen and pictures be needed to identify lost members. Again, your phone may not work or be lost, so print copies are a backup in this case.

Amazon.com of course has lots of kits and equipment. I did not realize how sheltered and unaware I was until I started looking at these. One small item I want is a tiny stove—it seems silly, but when the power went out, one of my primary thoughts was, “How will I make hot coffee tomorrow?”

I have instant Starbucks, but really prefer it hot! (And yes, I am judging myself greatly for thinking such frivolous thoughts at times like this.)

Don’t forget to grab whatever medications or toiletries that you need. Emergencies can come in a variety of ways. You may need food January 2018 | 15

COMMUNICATIONS

kits to grab and go. You may be trapped in your home, but without power, or in some cases water. Think through how you might be prepared for these situations.

2 inches, weighs two pounds and has 50,000 mAh in battery capacity, which means it could charge your phones and laptops multiple times before it needs a recharge.

Your own charger for phones and laptops

Don’t forget about your church

For a time we were trapped in our home area and the power was out.

I had a small brick charger for my phone, but it wouldn’t work with my computer. I realized I need to get a power source for my computer.

One of the best ones I’ve found is this one: The Crave PowerPack CRVPP101 is a powerful portable charger for recharging nearly any device you can throw at it. It measures 6 x 8 x

One of the most positive things about this disaster has been how local churches have stepped up to shelter, support and help those in need. If your church doesn’t have an emergency plan in place for how you could do that, here is a very helpful PDF that you should review with your staff. Well-prepared churches who open their hearts and resources in times of need are a tremendous witness to their communities.

Rejoice in our eternal security “Soon to be burned.” That is the message one pastor’s mentor had him put on his expensive possessions shortly after he became a Christian. This week has been a good reminder of that reality.

Beyond the fear, uncertainty and loss we know that no matter what, we will arrive safely in our eternal home.

Though that is a comfort, I also realized this week that many of the people around me do not have that assurance and my prayer for all of us, as we see so many difficult things happening in our world, is that we will be motivated more than ever to share the message of salvation in Jesus. Through our technology or in person, that’s the most important thing we can do. 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.

16 | MinistryTech.com

PROTECTED WITH PURPOSE

never-ending updates and their dark potential

In Cyber-Security—and Bible Apps —“Meh” Doesn’t Cut It

by Steven Sundermeier

W

e all like to make exciting New Year resolutions: whether it be a renewed commitment to staying healthy and fit, purposeful savings (instead of spending!), or a desire to allocate more quality time with friends and family. On the Christian side of things, maybe our New Year’s resolution looks more like: renewed commitment to prayer, purposeful daily Bible reading, or a desire to commit devoted time and finances to worthwhile charities.

And as a security professional, I hope one of your New Year’s resolutions might include: a renewed commitment to the creation of complex and varying passwords for all your online accounts, purposeful restraint from clicking embedded links and attachments contained within emails, or a desire to maintain software/application updates. However, no matter how good our New Year resolution intentions are, most studies agree that less than 10 percent of us keep them. It’s probably less when it comes to passwords!

As the owner of Thirtyseven4, a leading provider of Windows, Mac and Android antivirus solutions, I

have a yearning for security coursing through my veins. If you have no care or are complacent about the thought of making purposeful strides in improving your data security in the New Year, this is troublesome to me. Your attitude of “meh” when it comes to cautioning yourself about attachments and clicking on socially engineered links is unacceptable: and this blasé attitude is exactly what cybercriminals are banking on.

In fact, just last month, we alerted our users about fake scanned documents appearing in your inbox.

The advisory was prompted due to the Necurs (malware) botnet. If you think that malware writers are gaining momentum and notoriety in their scripts and intentions—you are correct!

Necurs is the world’s largest email spam botnet and those compromised systems just distributed 12.5 million emails with the Scarab ransomware. What location was its main target? The United States!

Imagine 12.5 million fresh emails polluting our Inboxes (think about the shear volume of these ill-intentioned emails!). Yet most of us have no interest in taking new steps in protecting our systems more thoroughly. My 2018 crystal ball has a clear picture of even

more advanced cyber-threats that await us here in 2018!

While I could continue to point to endless examples of security advisories associated with weak passwords and email/social media habits, we should also concentrate on software updating behaviors. I’m first to admit that, despite my role and responsibilities in the antivirus industry, I get frustrated easily when it comes to updates. (I’m human!) My family owns multiple desktop systems at home that continually request updates (and restarts) for Windows or Java or Adobe, and it seems to always be while the kids are busy completing school work. It also seems like my smartphone is always wanting to update itself and update my installed apps at the most inconvenient times.

So that’s the good news and bad news: that these apps update on their own whether the time is favorable or unfavorable. However, my point is that applying updates is a critical part of safe computing. If you’re doing it, I say keep up the great work!

A Crazy, Apocalyptic Thought I think we can agree that maintaining updates and patches are a good thing (I highly encourage January 2018 | 17

PROTECTED WITH PURPOSE sarcastically asked the group—“What are they updating about God’s Word?”

Hot on the trail to investigate more into the Bible app (and its updates!), I went to the Google Play Store and downloaded the YouVersion Bible app. (You’ve probably heard of it, as the YouVersion Bible app looks to be on more than 250 million devices around the world, making it the #1 rated Bible app.) According to its website, the YouVersion app offers over 1,400 Bible versions in over 1,000 languages. Once downloaded and installed, I too noticed an unusual number of updates to its app. I tried searching through the app to find the

you to continue this practice!), but I recently had a contradictory thought (a realization?) pertaining to updates. Could applying updates ever be a bad thing? I’d like to engage in some speculation and imagination. Please hear me out.

In our couple’s Bible study we are in a sermon series covering the book of Revelation (a book full of apocalyptic visions and filled with 18 | MinistryTech.com

prophetic pronouncements). We discussed the dangers of compromise and complacency in our faith.

One member opened up about his dependency on his Bible app, rather than opening a physical Bible. He was making a separate point, but one thing he mentioned caught my attention and my got my security feathers ruffled. He shared how his Bible app was updating itself daily. He

possible update release notes but was unsuccessful and have also reached out over email (to get information on the updates) to the supplied email address available on the Google Play Store website but at this time have not heard back. The frequent updates and their contents remain a mystery.

I am not in any way disparaging YouVersion, quite the opposite is true: I find it a great and very useful app. I am so glad that millions of people are downloading YouVersion and other Bible apps: It is an excellent way to have the Word of God in your hands wherever you go. I simply wanted to confirm/ experience the updating process of the #1 rated Bible app.

Here was my crazy thought: How easy would it be to “rewrite” or “recode” a Bible app, as opposed to rewriting/replacing one of the 5 billion distributed physical Bibles, to release an update that automatically updates on 250 million devices at once slightly modifying the wording of the Bible, and thus the Word

PROTECTED WITH PURPOSE

No matter how good our New Year resolution intentions are, most studies agree that less than 10% of us keep them. It’s probably less when it comes to passwords. of God. Ponder that thought. How many of us would notice the slow fade of alterations? Scary.

This may seem cloudy, but to clarify, I am grateful for my Bible app, and very partial to it. I have been grown and stretched by God’s word through sermons on this app, and love being able to walk in the morning with a sermon in my ear. So, to be clear—I am not raising suspicion on Bible apps, but rather awareness that we need to be careful and not complacent with biblical content. We need to know God’s word, so that if it is altered or changed, we would recognize that.

So, what is your New Year’s resolution? If you feel a challenge to get better acquainted with a physical Bible and what God is saying to you through His Word in 2018—go for it! If you like, join me in making a commitment and promise to myself that I will read God’s word more regularly. Reading online or with a physical Bible is up to you. But I have a feeling that this resolution could change us—change our attitudes, our hearts, our faith even. No matter what your New Year resolution is, I’d encourage you to be in the less than 10 percent that actually keeps it.

The year is brand new, and possibilities and opportunities feel fresh and attainable and possible.

Jump on that bandwagon! It is

a positive one to ride on! Guard yourselves against complacency and compromise. Instead root yourself and gain a foothold in something solid.

On physical pages or on a device screen, let’s start 2018 by tuning in to God’s updates and the latest tweaks and developments He has for our lives. As discussed earlier, sure, they will take time to “upload” or develop,

but the results are positive and fruitful. It’s going to be a good year! 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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www.PowerChurch.com • 800.486.1800 January 2018 | 19

20 | MinistryTech.com

STARTUP

Telechoice’s Purpose Pyramid (Part 4)

The Finale of Our In-Depth Series

by Russ McGuire

T

his month we come to the final article on the Purpose Pyramid. Over the past couple of months, I’ve shown you how to use the tool to uncover a powerful purpose statement and how to develop a strategic plan for achieving that purpose. This month we’ll use it to communicate that purpose and that plan to various audiences.

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 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 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.

January 2018 | 21

STARTUP Designing a website is one medium where we can communicate the full purpose pyramid since our visitors will self-select what they care about and will dive as deep as they want.

In designing your site, you still need to keep in mind the audience and tweak the language of the pyramid to meet the needs of your site visitors, but hopefully the plan that you’ve developed to support your purpose is well aligned with the needs of the people you serve in bringing honor

Know Your Audience While an organization can only have one purpose and can only be successful if everyone is executing against the same plan, when you communicate that purpose and plan it’s important to keep in mind the audience and the context of the communications.

Whenever I speak at a conference, or write a persuasive article, or design a website, or hold an all employee meeting, I start with two questions: 1. Who is my audience?

2. What do I want them to do?

If I’m talking to the members of my team, I’m probably focused on making sure they are executing the plan that we’ve put in place, so my purpose pyramid from a messaging perspective probably looks a lot like 22 | MinistryTech.com

the purpose pyramid we developed in planning for the organization. But, if I’m talking to potential customers or investors, our company purpose and plan won’t change, but the way that I present them to the audience changes to reflect what the audience cares about and what action I want them to take after they hear my message.

Most audiences also have a limited attention span, so in any given communication with them, I’m probably not going to go through every element in all three layers of the pyramid in detail. I will pay attention to what they care about and go deep there, while ensuring that they still walk away with the solid top-level message of what we stand for.

and glory to God. So, for example, if the pillars in your church’s purpose pyramid focused on upward, inward and outward ministries, then your website might have sections on Worship and Preaching, Fellowship and Community, and Evangelism and Service with all the details fully explained under each (the “proof”).

Of course, a website will also have important elements that cut across all three pillars such as a statement of faith, details on when and where you meet, and an introduction to the church leadership, but the core of how you are living out your purpose will be communicated in those three sections of pillars and proof.

The Political Platform Unfortunately, most of us hear way too many political messages during election seasons. But if you ever paid attention to how political candidates communicate, you might notice that they are masters of using a pyramid approach to clearly communicate why voters should vote for them. No matter what you think of President Donald Trump, you can probably agree

STARTUP with me that he did a strong job of communicating his platform during the 2016 elections. One aspect of his approach is that almost every element of his pyramid was divisive—almost forcing people to talk about it. Every night the broadcast networks repeated his words as they ridiculed him and his statements, but that expanded the reach of his message. While we shouldn’t emulate that divisiveness, we can seek, by God’s grace, to make the words and sound bites in our messaging to be sticky and repeatable.

Let’s briefly examine his 2016 pyramid: • Purpose: Make America Great Again • Pillars: Immigration, Economy, Foreign Policy (America First) • Proof: Build the Wall, Ban Muslim Immigrants, Expel Illegal Immigrants, Bring Manufacturing Jobs Back, Lower Taxes, Repeal “Obama care,” Cancel Trade Agreements, Renegotiate Iran Deal, Destroy ISIS More meaningful to us is to consider what we might observe from Scripture as a purpose pyramid for Jesus and His apostles. In Luke 19, Jesus said that His purpose in the incarnation was “to seek and to save the lost.” In communicating that message to the lost, He used words that opened the door to many discussions, often referencing the Kingdom of Heaven. We can look at His encounter with the woman at the well in John 4 to get a sense for the top two levels of a pyramid that might be helpful to us as we share the gospel: • Purpose: The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand - Join the Kingdom (John 4:21-26)

• Pillars: Repent (vv 16-18), Believe (vv 39-42), Live a New Life (vv 28-30) Jesus is the greatest communicator of all time. His interactions with His people are not rigid and dogmatic, but loving and responsive to where each of us is. You can see in the Gospels and in how He has worked in your own life how He achieves His saving purpose through the gifts of repentance, faith and new life. His is the life we should emulate. MT

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.

For the scholar, the seeker, the servant.

OC is home. ·

Recognized as one of the best universities in the west by U.S. News and World Report and The Princeton Review.

· · ·

More than 80 areas of study.

More than 40 current National Merit Finalists.

Named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

www.oc.edu/tech

January 2018 | 23

SPONSORED CONTENT

paint a clear financial picture

Choosing the Right Accounting Software Is Key to Financial Communication

y

ou may have been in a board or church council meeting where a well-intentioned board member makes the statement, “The church ought to be run like a business.”

Around the table, you see a palpable reaction as half of the board members cringe while the other half nod in agreement. The statement is well intentioned, and it’s not all that unique. “The church ought to be run like a business” has been heard around many a meeting table in many a congregation.

Typically, the observation about running the church like a business is a reaction to declining resources or out-of-balance budgets. The concern is not only legitimate, but it is also biblically sound. Church leaders are called to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to them to do the ministry of the church. “Well done, good and faithful servant” is addressed to those who had taken a resource, invested and worked wisely, and made it grow. Likewise, those who support the ministry of the church should expect that the resources they invest in the church’s ministry will grow and bear fruit for the Gospel.

“But the church is not a business,” the cringers object, and they’re right.

The church is not a business. Its chief occupation is not the production of goods or services that it exchanges in the marketplace for cash or other value. The church is not, nor should

24 | MinistryTech.com

it be, driven by the financial goal of creating profit for itself, its employees or its stakeholders.

On the contrary, the primary calling of the church is the spiritual well-being of both its members and the community it serves. The church develops its members into missionaries who carry gospel light into their neighborhoods, communities, schools and workplaces. If the church is concerned with profit, it is only in an eternal sense: “Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20, NRSV).

At the same time, those who agree that the church should be run like a business are right as well. The church has received assets in the form of gifts from members and others. It may be blessed with real property, like one or more buildings that provide space for a variety of ministries.

The church may, from time to time, borrow against those assets in order to invest in its ministry. In much the same way that a business uses its assets to produce goods and services, the church uses its assets to build ministry that accomplishes God’s mission.

A key role of the church board or council is to manage the use of the church’s resources in response to the call to serve its community and the world. Because the church is a notfor-profit organization, it is required to honor the donor’s intentions when

a gift is received. Church treasurers and financial secretaries have the primary responsibility to inform church leaders and congregational members about the use of the congregation’s resources. Their reporting needs to be clear, easy to understand, and encompass all activities of the congregation, providing enough detail for decision-making but not so much that church leaders cannot see the financial forest on account of all the trees.

The need to receive and utilize gifts with a variety of designations creates an obligation to track and report balances in a variety of funds.

As a result, churches use a system of fund accounting as a way to report the church’s net worth reflected in different fund balances. The fund accounting system also demonstrates the inflows and outflows through those funds.

The church produces financial statements to demonstrate the church’s financial position that meet the requirements of Financial Accounting Standards 116 and 117.

These standards define the way the church should account for contributions and present their financial statements. The financial statements for a church should include: a Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet) to show the church’s assets, liabilities and fund balances; a Statement of Activities (Income and Expense Report) to show the results of conducting the church’s ministry

SPONSORED CONTENT in a period; and a Statement of Fund Activity that shows the inflow and outflow for the church’s designated and restricted funds.

The church depends on its accounting software to meet these requirements and to generate accurate reports quickly and easily.

The accounting system that a church uses should be easy to use. It should be a tool that builds ministry, aids in decision-making, and does not create obstacles to ministry or overly tax the church’s valuable human resources. The church’s accounting system ideally will integrate directly with other financial components such as contributions and payroll.

When choosing accounting software, churches have a wide variety of choices. Some may choose to adapt personal finance software or accounting software designed for small- to medium-sized businesses. These systems, though, are not developed with the church in mind, and so they do not speak the language of the church. They understand customers not donors, sales not contributions. In most cases, these packages cannot natively produce reports that meet the standards

for nonprofit financial reporting. At best, they require a complex system of journal entries to maintain fund balances.

Churches have other unique requirements that do not integrate well with most commercial accounting software. Take clergy payroll, for example. Many accounting systems do not understand the dual tax status of ministers, who are church employees in regard to federal income tax but are self-employed in regard to FICA and Medicare. As a result, they do not allow for a minister’s exemption from federal withholding or for the inclusion of a housing allowance that is not subject to federal income tax.

Third-party payroll systems can address these situations, but they may not integrate directly with the church’s accounting software.

Payroll services often can provide data that the accounting software can import as ledger entries.

However, if the church’s accounting system can also process payroll with full knowledge of the church’s unique needs, write checks, create direct deposit and post those transactions directly to the ledger, less time

is required, the process is streamlined and the chances of error go down substantially.

The accounting software a church chooses serves as the tool church leaders use to communicate clearly with the board and the congregation about the church’s finances. Like any tool, it will be best used when it’s easy to use. When the church’s financial records and reporting integrate directly with other financial functions, no one has to pull together information from a variety of sources. As a result, the financial team is able to work more efficiently, and leaders and church members gain confidence in the church’s reporting. Confidence in the church’s financial systems inspires support for the church’s ministry.

CDM+ from Suran Systems provides a fully integrated accounting solution for churches and nonprofit organizations. CDM+ was developed by the church for the church and is backed up by 30 years of experience in church accounting. The system interfaces directly with CDM+ Contributions and Payroll programs.

This lets the finance team track a designated gift all the way from receipt to expenditure. Also, payroll transactions post to the ledger, eliminating the need for imports and intervention.

CDM+ Accounting can help your church paint a clear financial picture, plainly demonstrating how the church is using its resources to build its ministry. By putting the church’s financial records and reports under one roof, CDM+ Accounting eases the burden of financial reporting on church leaders, freeing them to focus on the ministry and mission. MT

January 2018 | 25

where a leader's heart and mind meet

Create Alignment, Avoid Drift

Third, communication is key. After initiatives come to a

T

he childhood game of “Follow the Leader” may seem a lot simpler and, arguably, more fun than leading a church staff. But it’s not that far off base. For the game to work the group must designate someone to be the leader and everyone must buy into the decisions the leader makes. If people decide to drift—following someone else or striking out on their own without seeing if anyone is following—the game falls apart.

And for church leaders, making your team a priority, communicating with them clearly, and casting a vision that they can understand and buy into creates alignment—and avoids the drift.

But this one little fact is often overlooked: Alignment is created—and it is the leader’s responsibility.

The biggest concept leaders need to grasp when seeking to create authentic alignment is this: Communicate the vision until your team grasps it, and then communicate it some more. A well-cast vision is the key to accomplishing anything great.

First, someone must step up and lead.

No matter the situation at hand, there must always be a leader. Different staff members should lead different projects. Consider the natural strengths, passions and habits of your staff.

Put them in environments where they will excel. Do you know where each member of your team fits best?

Second, alignment is more important than strategy.

This one is huge. No matter what the goal is, everyone must be on board. Even if everyone does not agree that it is the best strategy, everyone must voluntarily align themselves and give 100 percent. A unified mindset gets things done.

26 | MinistryTech.com

close, gather around and share thoughts on what you learned. This is the best way to celebrate your success and learn from what you experienced. We don’t always take time to do this but when we do, it can make all the difference during the next challenge. Try things. Make mistakes. Learn from them. And do better.

But oh, the dreaded drift. It happens. Even to the best of us. The shift is so subtle that we hardly even notice it until the signs appear that we've lost touch with the people that we lead. Over time, We stop helping others reach their goals and focus instead on achieving our goals.

We stop looking at what's best for our people and instead focus on our next pet project.

We stop considering the needs of our people in exchange for keeping up with the latest trends.

Every leader is guilty of it. And the only real remedy comes when we admit that our ideas, goals and expectations are out of step with the people we lead. Ask yourself the following questions to identify a ‘drift’ in your leadership. Have you … started using the word ‘they’ more than ‘we’? … stopped seeking insight from key lay leaders, volunteers and givers? … changed direction faster than you can articulate a new vision? … placed yourself at the center of your vision-casting instead of the community? … blamed a lack of participation on ‘the church’ having a commitment problem?

Do you see the common denominator here? It is possible that the greatest obstacle to engaging a broad base of people in your church in authentic community could be that you've lost touch as a leader with the people you are, in fact, supposed to lead. The spiritual temperature of any congregation can be measured by the attitudes of its leadership.

Conversely, strong leadership leads to healthy processes, like implementing new technology.

Why?

alignment is created –and it is the leader’s responsibility.

Leaders are looked to for the security and confidence to face change. And the best way to get people to trust and utilize a new technological system is to make sure your leadership team, specifically the head pastor, supports the decision and has the information needed to calm any fears.

There are three primary reasons leadership is needed when implementing new technology: 1. It builds cohesion within your various teams. Getting everyone on board is tough. It’s a huge task for pastors to get the various leadership teams, ministries and committees to agree upon and adopt a new technology. It’s the leader who has to grab the wheel and drive the church into adopting the new technology in unity.

2. It keeps everyone focused. Sometimes people lose sight of the task ahead simply because they get busy working on other things. It is the leader’s job to make sure deadlines are met and decisions are made on time. But this doesn’t mean that the leader should micromanage the process; it simply means they should be there to point back to the vision as needed.

3. It helps people choose what’s best for the church. The church leader who sees their church management software as more than just a piece of technology or a glorified Rolodex is the one who is acutely focused on the health of their organization. And church leaders who have the right perspective about their church management software are the ones who understand its value. It takes a strong leader to encourage everyone to be more concerned about what’s best for the church rather than what’s easiest for each team.

Every church leader would say they care about the health of their church. But to properly and effectively care for the flock God has entrusted to you, you must cast your vision, get the buy-in from everyone involved and communicate your goals clearly, then—and only then—can you effectively leverage technology and the data it provides to help you make better ministry decisions. MT

INTRODUCING:

L E A D. Know your people.

Wherever they are.

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January 2018 | 27

THE LAST WORD

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

JEREMIAH 29:11