Founder & Editor-in-Chief Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com VP of Operations Michael Hewitt - mike@ccmag.com
Applying Tomorrow’s Technology to Today’s Ministry Volume 22
February 2010
No. 2
7 cover story
CDM+ Offers New Web Ministry Tools! by Steve Hewitt
11 special feature
4 Ways to Use Social Media During Capital Campaigns
Copy Editor Gina Hewitt
by Ben Stroup
Corporate Home Office
3 editorial Christian Computing Magazine iPhone App Is IN the Store!
Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com
4 Press Releases 13 ACS ideas to impact
from ACS Technologies
15 accelerating the dynamic church Accelerating Dynamic Churches
from Fellowship Technologies
17 tech talk Cool Utilities 10
Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson - docwatson3228@qwest.net
Digital Bible Study Is Breaking the Banks of the Personal Computer
Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org
24 nick at church It’s Spring Cleaning Time!
Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com
26 the mobility revolution
Launching Online: Cloud Computing vs. Virtual Private Servers
30 church web strategy
By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com
Church Website Communications Teams and Content Strategy Research
34 making ministry happen
Mailing address: PO Box 319 Belton MO 64012 Delivery address: 311 Manor Dr. Belton, MO 64012 Phone: (816) 331-8142 FAX: 800-456-1868 © Copyright 2010 by Christian Computing®, Inc.
Key Elements of Connection Success
19 higher power with kevin
Contributing Editors Dr. J.D. “Doc” Watson Terry Wilhite Yvon Prehn Nick Nicholaou Kevin A. Purcell C. Brian Smith Russ McGuire Drew Goodmanson Bradley Miller Michael Curylo
Drew Goodmanson - drew@monkdevelopment.com
With Web Videos, Prayer Requests Go Global
Jason Otis
32 ministry communication
All Rights Reserved
Christian Computing® is a registered trademark of Christian Computing, Inc. Written materials submitted to Christian Computing® Magazine become the property of Christian Computing®, Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Christian Computing® 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 Christian Computing®, Inc. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees of Christian Computing® Magazine, or Christian Computing, Inc.
How to Get People to Come Back After Easter Sunday
Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com
Articles that are highlighed are provided by our partners www.ccmag2.com/2007_03/2007_03editorial.pdf
Christian Computing® Magazine
February 2010
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editorial
Christian Computing Magazine iPhone App Is IN the Store! Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com
C
hristian Computing Magazine was the first Christian publication to put their entire content of each issue up on the Internet for people to read around the world. Christian Computing Magazine was the first Christian publication to provide their publication in a digital format, digitally delivered. And, now, Christian Computing Magazine is the first Christian publication to provide their entire magazine, via an iPhone App! If you are an iPhone user, our app is now ready! And, of course, it is entirely free. You can read all of the articles in the current issue, check out the sponsors that partner with us in providing our publication to you free of charge, AND you will be able to access additional content (such as a rant/blog from me!) Simply go to the iTunes store, click on the App section, and do a search for either Christian Computing or CCMag. We are excited about offering the App for those that want to read us on the go. In addition, we will soon offer content in exciting new ways, such as video, on our App. Our thanks to the folks at RightBrainMedia.com for helping us create the App that best serves us and our readers! They were fantastic to work with and we are very pleased with the final product! RightBrainMedia.com Christian Computing速 Magazine
is a sponsor here in CCMag, and they are helping churches across the nation develop their own iPhone application for their church and ministry. Prices start at just $5,000. If you are interested in getting your own iPhone application for your ministry, give them a call! Together We Serve Him,
Steve Hewitt
February 2010
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Press Releases can also print their own contribution statements at any time, saving the church time in preparing the mailing and the cost of postage.
Icon Sytems Announces Moorhead, MN –– Icon Systems, Inc. is pleased to announce the release of our full blown Parishioner’s Module for IconCMO – Church Management Online. Parishioner’s Module now enables church members to log into a secure website to verify and update their personal information, view their giving patterns and print their own contribution statements. Each household is given a unique 8 digit user name and password similar to what a bank or brokerage firm gives to their customers. Church staff can simply send reminders to the congregation, asking them to login and review their personal profiles. This will ensure that giving information, mailing addresses and contact information is correct and that special events information such as birthdays, communions, confirmation, graduations, baptisms, etc. are complete. This leads to greater reliability of information as congregational members monitor their own profiles. The church database administrator can view changes made by the congregation by simply running a report. The database manager can define who has Read-Only, Read-Write or No-Access. In addition to allowing access to their own membership information, members Christian Computing® Magazine
Icon CMO is web-based church management software that provides organizations with systems for accounting, membership, contributions and communications. And all of these systems can be utilized from any computer with access to the Internet. ### For more than 19 years, Icon Systems has been developing high-quality software exclusively for religious organizations. The two prominent offerings from Icon Systems are Revelations - a single user or network based church management software package - and IconCMO - an Internet based online system. Icon Systems has a deep software engineering heritage that has enabled its products to achieve unprecedented performance, reliability and customer satisfaction. Icon Systems is located in Moorhead, MN and can be contacted at 1-800-596-4266 or on the Internet at www.iconcmo.com
MyMinistryLife.com Announces...
Product Application Release! Colorado Springs, Co. February 1, 2010 - We are proud to announce the release of MyMinistryLife.com. The first product that focuses on the capturing of personal ministry events, opportunities and history. The following applications are now available: Ministry Section • My Mission Work • My Weddings February 2010
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Press Releases • My Funerals • My Sermons/Messages • My Conferences Resume Section • My Education • My Ministries Served • My Testimonies • My Resumes People Section • People I Led To Christ • People I Led To Christian Ministry *Store a photo of each event **Accessible from mobile devices ***More applications are already in development and will be added to this list. Visit: http://myministrylife.com The Purpose Three reasons why we developed MyMinistryLife.com First, as we spoke to our friends who were in the later stages of their ministry, they expressed regrets about not being able to go back and remember or recall key moments of their life’s work. Second, we saw a variety of ways that personal ministry history would disappear, whether through destroyed files, bad or lost flash drives, pda’s or office software files that would change or become cumbersome to use...and the list goes on. We knew there needed to be a better method for preserving personal ministry history. Third, we discovered that many Christian Computing® Magazine
ministry events in a person’s life were left behind as they moved from one ministry to another, or from one position to another, or as they attended or spoke at different events and places. Pricing Introductory Price- $49.00 per year (save 45%). Limited to the first 250 Subscribers or until 3/30/2010. Regular pricing is $89.00 per year after the first 250 subscribers or until 3/30/2010 • Hosting • Updates and enhancements • Backups • Email support • Unlimited records • Unlimited logins Sign up now at MyMinistryLife.com Other subscription options include five year, 10 year, and lifetime subscriptions. For pricing on these and other group options email us at info@myministrylife.com Contact Us Contact us at info@myministrylife.com
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Logos Online
Bible and Technology Enthusiasts Flock to San Jose for BibleTech:2010 BELLINGHAM-February 4, 2010-Programmers, Bible scholars, publishers, and technology enthusiasts passionate about the intersection of technology and the Bible will come together for the third-annual BibleTech conference (www.bibletechconference.com) in San Jose, CA on March 26th and 27th. BibleTech:2010 features twenty-seven leaders in the field of technology and biblical studies, presenting insights into the ways technology is being used in translation, education, and expanding biblical studies. “BibleTech is a one-of-a-kind conference,” said Bob Pritchett, President of Logos Bible Software. “It provides an opportunity for anyone with a background or interest in how technology is shaping the way we translate, study, and experience the Scriptures to gather and discuss current developments and future possibilities.” Hosted in Seattle in 2009, the upcoming 2010 BibleTech Conference will be held in San Jose, CA. “With more than 6,600 technology companies employing more than 254,000 people, Silicon Valley is an ideal place to host a conference like BibleTech,” said Pritchett. Featuring both advanced and introductory technology tracks, BibleTech offers something for the technical programmer, interested layperson, and hobby technologist. Featured presenters include: Randall Tan, Asia Bible Society; Jon Riding, British & Foreign Bible Society; Jim Albright, Wycliffe Bible Translators; Stephen Smith, Zondervan Publishing House, and many more. A complete list of 2010 conference speakers is available at www.bibletechconference.com/speakers. For more information and to register, visit www.bibletechconference.com About the Conference BibleTech is sponsored by Logos Bible Software. Logos Bible Software, a privately held corporation located in Bellingham, Wash., is the leading publisher of high-end, award-winning, multilingual Bible software. The company serves church, academic and lay markets, striving to bring the best in software innovation to Christians worldwide. Logos can be found on the web at: http://www.logos.com.
Christian Computing® Magazine
February 2010
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cover story
CDM+ Offers New Web Ministry Tools!
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by Steve Hewitt
n a recession, some companies go into lockdown, hold expansion and new developments, and just try to “ride it out”. However, others take the time to move forward, adding new services and invest in developments to improve their services, even during hard economic times. CDM+ is one of those companies that have continued to expand their offerings to ministries this last year, and I thought our readers would be interested, as I was, in some of their new services. Enjoy this interview with Randy Clay. “It has been at least over a year since we had an article in CCMag about all that CDM+ has to offer, how are you doing?” From the business side 2009 was a good year for us. Revenue was up and we were able to keep our expenses in check. As far as program development is concerned we spent 2009 retooling CDM+ with a new database backend and updating to the most recent release of our development software Omnis. This investment in architecture positions us in 2010 and years to come for many exciting new features and services. For the past several years we have been developing a new technology that we call, “Web Ministry Tools” (WMT). “For this interview I really want to learn more about your new Web Ministry Tools, but remind me and our readers about your other services!” Christian Computing® Magazine
Our church management program (CDM+) contains programs for Membership, Visitors, Attendance, Contributions, Memorial Giving, Event Registration, Facilities Scheduling, Check-In and Check-Out and our Fund Accounting program which includes Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Budgeting, General Ledger and Payroll. In 2006 we acquired DonorWorks and ChurchWorks and in 2010 we are beginning to incorporate those products into the CDM+ architecture. We also have software solutions for denominational offices. All of our software runs on a very powerful SQL database. This allows our users to very easily, securely and powerfully connect to their data remotely via the Internet. Many of our users do that with their data on their servers. One of the more popular services we offer is data hosting. We maintain multiple servers and our usFebruary 2010
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Finally, over the years we have expanded our training opportunities by using the web to conduct group and individual online trainings. As part of our support program users get free training credits to use for these online training opportunities and towards any of our other training events such as regional events and our annual users conference.
ers’ interest in this service is growing daily. By having us host their data our users are assured of daily off-site backups. In addition, we are responsible for all server maintenance. This is a huge benefit for churches with limited IT support.
Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine
What exactly is a Web Ministry Tool? Web Ministry Tools (WMT) are points of access to data in CDM+. It is a web application that allows users to create, edit and publish different parts of the information they maintain in CDM+ to the Internet. The tool can be viewed by anyone who visits a website or, if the user chooses, visitors are required to log in to access the information. We have two types of tools: basic and premium. Basic tools access CDM+ data in real-time and renders it on the church’s website. In the basic tools package we have interfaces for directories, calendaring, statistics, and financial information. Premium tools allow visitors to the site to enter data on the website which is instant-
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emailed to anyone or copied onto a smart phone browser interface. Tools can be activated and de-activated at anytime without consulting a webmaster. Tools can also be linked to payment processors so charges related to an upcoming event or donations entered through the online giving can be accepted, approved and automatically deposited in the user’s bank account.
ly entered into the CDM+ database. We currently offer two premium tools: one for online registrations and the second for online giving. Every tool can be linked to specific data within CDM+. For example, you can publish a list of board members and have that list only accessible to members of the church. You can use the same tool to create another link to a directory of youth and have that youth directory only available to members of the youth group. With the directory tool you can select what information is displayed and how that is rendered on the website. The youth director may want birthday information to show on the youth web page while it can be simultaneously hidden on the directory of board members. When you want to publish a tool, WMT provides an html link that your webmaster simply copies onto the website. After that the WMT user can edit the look and feel of the tool and even change what data is used to build the tool, all without engaging the webmaster. When someone accesses the church’s website the tool displays the most current information from the database. That means if a staff member in the church office changes an address in CDM+, that information is immediately available to those who look at the church’s website. In addition to creating an html link to publish information on a website, WMT will also create a hot link that can be Christian Computing® Magazine
Does someone have to know html or be a webmaster to use Web Ministry Tools? Absolutely not! The tools generate one line of html code that needs to pasted onto a website where you want the information to be displayed. The creating, editing and maintenance of the design, information and login rules are controlled by anyone who can log into the Web Ministry Tools website. WMT uses a simple point and click interface to change the look and feel of a tool, and you see a live preview of your changes as you work, making it easy to get the exact look you want. How long have you been offering Web Ministry tools? We have been developing Web Ministry Tools for several years. We first launched the basic tools and the Event Registration tools in early 2009. Our online giving tool will be available on March 1, 2010.
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Does someone have to be on your data hosting services to use Web Ministry Tools? No, as long as the church’s database is visible via the web. Many of our users invest in having a public static IP and the infrastructure to protect their data. Since the communication to the CDM+ data is through the Web Ministry Tool this solution is extremely secure. How can I see an example of WMT? We have created several tools on a faux church website. These can be accessed at www. cdmplus.com/wmtdemo. On the upper left corner of the home page is an Event Listing tool. On this website if you register for Vacation Bible School you will be interacting with the online Event Registration premium tool. On the other pages of this website are Directory and Statistics tools. Our faux church website gives you a sense of how visitors to your site use Web Ministry Tools. Contact our sales team to see how to create, design and publish tools as well as how data from CDM+ flows to and from Web Ministry Tools. What makes this solution better than a church moving to a web application for their church database needs? Web Ministry Tools and CDM+ bring the best of both worlds of information management and global access to the ministry of the church. Web applications have limited ability for navigation and ease of use. When developing web applications you are at the mercy of the browser’s limitations and can’t take advantage of standard software conventions such as multiple windows Christian Computing® Magazine
easily manipulating large amounts of data rapidly. You are always at the mercy of the speed of your Internet connection and how many others in the office are accessing it at the same time. Desktop software on the other hand leverages the full power of the personal computer. A user can easily have multiple windows open and control their work environment. With desktop software we only access the data over the network and not the windows, reports and menus, whereas a web application must download not only your data, but also the entire software interface as you move from screen to screen. Desktop software offers a greater level of security than a web application. With any web application all one needs is a user name and password to get access to the information. With CDM+ the user not only has to download the software but they need to know the log-in information to their database. Because our software is completely crossplatform the church can have users access their information on both Macs and PCs. Because we automatically keep all users updated whenever there are enhancements to the software there is no additional overhead for IT personnel to manage the distribution of the CDM+ desktop software. One of the challenges with desktop software is how to expand its accessibility to those who need to see the information without the need to maintain the data. Through Web Ministry Tools the church can push out and gather information via the web but have greater control of who sees and accesses that information without having to install any software. Web Ministry Tools also tailors that information to be friendly to congregants and visitors so they just see what they want to know and nothing more. Where can I go to get more information on Web Ministry Tools? There is a wealth of information on our website at www.cdmplus.com. We also invite you to email sales@cdmplus.com or call us at 877-891-4236.
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special feature
4 Ways to Use Social Media During Capital Campaigns
I
By Ben Stroup
t’s interesting that we live in a digital, multi-media world of RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., until we go to church. Even some of the strongest users of these platforms in other areas of their lives fail to see the impact technology can have in church life.
A capital campaign is one of the most intensive and comprehensive tasks a church chooses to take on. It requires a tremendous amount of communication to keep everyone up to date and on board. And the six-month campaign also comes with 18-36 month pledge fulfillment period which means the energy of the first six months has to continue until the final dollar is raised. Thus, a capital campaign is the perfect opportunity to introduce technology as a way to manage communication with the larger church membership. (And social media isn’t just for young people. The fastest growing group on Facebook is women 55 and older.) Consider these four ways to leverage social media and technology to support the communication and funding efforts of your next (or current) capital campaign. 1. Announce upcoming events. People forget. They have a lot going on in their life. It’s difficult for the church leader to remember this because they are so close to the situation. Most of the people who occupy the pews of our churches only interact with their church once every seven days in 59 minute segments. Don’t expect people to rush home and put everything in the bulletin on their personal calendars. Make it easy for them to remember. As participation increases so does funding. Christian Computing® Magazine
2. Share personal testimonies. Giving is an emotional process. Stories are emotional by design because they are grounded in our human experience. Don’t wait until Sunday to share how God is speaking to someone or moving in someone’s life as a result of their commitment and participation in the capital campaign. Personal testimonies are a great way to keep the momentum rolling. All you really need is a Flip Video and access to YouTube. Don’t forget that link to online giving. 3. Create an electronic photo gallery. (Think scrapbook.) Remember those albums your Mom kept of you from the time you were a baby until today? You can easily see the progression and re-live specific moments in your past by glancing through this collection of pictures and captions. It’s the same with a capital campaign. Use an online photo gallery as a scrapbook so that people can remember the campaign from beginning to end. It also becomes and easy way for others to share about the ministry of the church with others. The saying is true, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” People are looking for churches who are investing in Kingdom impact. It’s not unusual to see numerical growth as people are attracted to the energy a campaign creates. 4. Remind people to give. Make it easy for people to give. A capital campaign is designed to raise a large sum of February 2010
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money in a short period of time. People don’t attend church as often or as consistently as they have in the past. We live differently and our schedules are much more sporadic and unpredictable than they ever have been. Reminding people how they can support the campaign and making it easy for them to do so online, increases the opportunity to maximize the giving capacity of your congregation. The people who sit in your pews already use social media. Maybe the church should consider harnessing the power of this communication platform, too. Bio information: Ben Stroup recently joined GENERIS, an innovative stewardship consulting firm focused on accelerating generosity and funding the work of the Kingdom, after more than five years of ministry with LifeWay Christian Resources. His primary focus is helping churches maximize their giving capacity and diversify their funding streams while providing the structure needed to build long-term sustainable ministries.
Christian Computing® Magazine
Ben writes and presents at various events on the subject of establishing sustainable funding models for ministry. His writing has been published in magazines such as Church Solutions and Church Executive. He maintains an ongoing dialogue about stewardship and giving with pastors and church leaders through the Church Giving Matters blog, Twitter (@ben_stroup), and Facebook (Ben Stroup). Ben calls himself the “Chief Broker of Opportunity” because he helps pastors change the conversation from “What do we have to cut to survive?” to “What does God want us to do next?” He graduated cum laude from Belmont University. Ben and his wife, Brooke, and son, Carter, live near Nashville, Tennessee. Ben published his first book in 2009 which has sold more than 6,100 copies. http://picasaweb.google.com/benwstroup/BenStroupAuthorI magesHiRes?feat=directlink
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ACS
ACS ideas to impact
Key Elements of Connection Success
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from ACS Technologies
any church members don’t feel as though they belong to their congregation. Providing a genuine connection between members, guests, and the surrounding community is essential to the growth of any ministry. The connection process allows the church to bring people in, prepare them for ministry, and provide them with opportunities to share their gifts within the church family.
The following article, excerpted from the ACS Technologies ministry guide Key Elements of Connection Success, discusses the ways technology can help church leaders, staff, and volunteers focus on the more personal aspects of the connection process.
Key Elements to Connection Success
Without a system in place to help staff and lay leaders connect with guests, this process may seem a bit complex, but with planning it can be easy to accomplish. Some key elements that will help contribute to a successful program are: • Encourage guests to return through personal invitations • Involve multiple members’ interactions to help establish relationships • Utilize technology to facilitate and track these interactions • Engage guests in activities and volunteer opportunities as soon as possible
Take Advantage of Technology
Contact management software allows the church to expand its ministry by providing access to information anytime, anywhere. All that is needed is a Web-enabled computer, mobile device, or PDA. By taking advantage of this technology it is possible to: • Assign team members to follow up with specific guests • Submit updates to group members’ records online • Keep track of assigned contacts and tasks • Track the guest’s response to follow-up visits or emails
Christian Computing® Magazine
• Email messages to team members or individuals • Create reports and lists • View statistics and metrics • Accept, edit, or reject changes made by others in the system • Manage volunteer positions and needs
Follow-Up Is Critical
The key to any successful connection process is follow-up. The more time that passes between a guest’s visit to the church and the follow-up process, the less likely the guest is to return. Guests contacted within the first 48 hours of their initial visit are much more likely to attend another ministry event, worship service, or small group meeting.
Get New People Involved
By putting ministry programs in place to keep your guests and attendees involved, you increase the likelihood that they will consistently return. According to Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, author Thom Rainier states that 62 percent of formerly unchurched people remain active in the church because they were invited to become a part of their church’s various ministries.
Join A Ministry
Contact management software can be used to track the process of getting someone involved in the church’s individual ministries. As each task for involving a new member in the ministry is completed, the system automatically updates the guest’s
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record and marks the task as finished.
New Member Small Groups
Another great way to get new attendees involved is to have them attend an orientation class or a small group specifically designed for new members. These meetings will help them acclimate to the church and feel at home in the church by quickly developing relationships with other new attendees.
Keep Regular Attendees Involved
Is everyone invited to participate in the connection process and expected to contribute to reach the church’s overall goals? People on every level of ministry must be willing to do their part if the ministry is to succeed. Map out the church’s goals and make sure each individual knows what their part is in reaching the overall goal.
Move Your Connections Ministry Forward
These solutions will help any ministry overcome the difficulties of the connection process. By applying them, churches will find themselves leading motivated members that are committed to the growth of the connections ministry. To get more information about taking the connections ministry to the next level download the ACS Technologies ministry guide Key Elements of Connection Success today.
About ACS Technologies
ACS Technologies is the leading provider of information management solutions to nearly 50,000 faith-based organizations with focused development and service efforts in 6 key areas: megachurches, medium/large churches, and small churches, organizations, schools, and the Catholic market. With leading brands ACS, PDS, Membership Plus, and Headmaster, ACS Technologies enables churches to manage every vital area of their ministry from finances to relationships, from events and groups to giving and serving. Whether online, offline, or wireless, the passion that drives ACS Technologies is maximizing technology’s value for ministry.
Christian Computing® Magazine
February 2010
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accelerating the dynamic church
Accelerating Dynamic Churches !CCELERATING 4HE $YNAMIC #HURCH¸
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from Fellowship Technologies
t doesn’t matter who you are, going fast…acceleration, is an invigorating experience! There’s just something about hearing the phrase “step on it!” with the feeling of rapidly gaining momentum. Maybe it’s the classic movies that made stomping on the gas pedal a fun idea, or even the personal experience of “burning rubber” while shifting through all four gears in a ’69 Ford Mustang Mach 1.
For whatever reason, we find value in movement, speed and momentum. In that same spirit, there are many churches that aren’t afraid to get into the fast lane and “step on it!” in order to further their vision for the church. Here at Fellowship Technologies we call these churches dynamic churches. They are in stark contrast to the churches weighed down by the status quo. Those churches more closely resemble a Chevy Suburban than a Mustang: they have all of the intention to get going, but lack the capacity to truly accelerate. Going fast, in a car or in ministry, isn’t the point; it is simply a result of getting up to speed because of acceleration. It’s the acceleration that’s needed, and it requires having the intention and capacity to change. It is that intention, coupled with capacity, which enables dynamic churches to grow and impact their community. Our experience partnering with some of the world’s most dynamic churches has provided us with tremendous insight in their success. We have observed that dynamic churches share a Christian Computing® Magazine
number of common characteristics while remaining unique in their vision and style. Dynamic churches typically have strong leadership with a clear vision of where they are headed, and the staff members are in alignment with that vision. They are often considered to be highly creative and innovative in their approach to ministry. The church is proactive rather than reactive, never satisfied with the status quo but instead embraces change that results in growth. A dynamic church places a high value on the spiritual growth of its members, often seeking to establish key insights into their spiritual maturity and well-being. They invest in equipping the core and committed members of the church, helping families address the dysfunction in their lives, and to become full-time followers of Christ. The church looks to establish meaningful relationships within the congregation through small groups, and by demonstrating Christ’s love through acts of service in the local community. Dynamic churches realize that leveraging best practices and implementing efficient February 2010
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processes will enable them to be good stewards of their time and resources. In addition, the leaders of a dynamic church recognize the value of analyzing data and turning it into meaningful information for use in ministry decisions. The team at Fellowship Technologies is passionate about helping churches to become more effective and efficient through the proper mix of people, process, and technology. Our monthly article, Accelerating the Dynamic Church, will focus on relating the insights, best practices, and processes that we will help churches to accomplish their goals, or in other words, accelerate their ministry. We would love for you to join in the conversion by sharing your feedback and ministry experiences. Shoot us an email at ace@fellowshiptech.com or connect with us on Twitter (@ F1ACE). About Fellowship Technologies Fellowship Technologies provides solutions that help dynamic churches of any size or denomination to be more effective in ministry, more efficient in administration, with the essential information to make decision. Their flagship product, Fellowship One, is a web-based church management software solution used by ministries around the world ranging from new church plants to mega-sized, multi-site, churches. For more information please visit http://www.FellowshipTech.com
Christian Computing速 Magazine
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tech talk
Cool Utilities 10 Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson - docwatson3228@qwest.net
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y column this month is dedicated to all my fellow geeks out there who contributed much to what you are about to read. Sorry I can’t do better than just “honorable mention.” We first revisit HJ-Split from last month and consider an alternative, and then we’ll take a look at three other utilities that make things a little easier. Best of all, as usual, everything is free. HJ-Split Revisited First, last month I mentioned HJ-Split, which enables you to split files into manageable chunks that can be more easily e-mailed. Reader Kelvin Smith had a friendly bone to pick with me here, however. He submits that there is a better way to handle large files, namely, just use www.YouSendIt.Com, a file hosting service. Using the free “lite” version, you can send up to 100 MB to their web site, where it is hosted for up to 7 days, and then have a link to download the file emailed automatically to whomever you wish. Two subscription versions offer more options and up to 2 GB transfers. Kevin adds that “this is also useful in situations where hyperactive email sentries block attachments of certain file types; often it’s easier to get a file through the walls when it’s a web download rather than an email attachment.” Thanks for the tip, Kevin. Sound Volume Hotkeys My computer geek son, Paul Watson (BTW, I don’t know where he got his nerdness from), directed Christian Computing® Magazine
me to this handy little tool. Sound Volume Hotkeys (http://www.softarium.com/soundvolumehotkeys/) is a simple little utility that enables you to control your speaker volume using the Windows key and arrow keys in combination. I hate using the slider icon in the System Tray, and God forbid that I have to reach over and turn the knob on the speaker (I mean really!). Once installed, all you have to do is press +Up Arrow to increase your speaker volume and +Down Arrow to (you guessed it) decrease the volume. In either case, the Volume Indicator appears (Fig. 1) and changes as you press the keys. An icon is also installed in the System Tray, which you can double-click and specify a couple of settings.
Fig. 1 – Sound Volume Hotkeys enables you to have easy control over your speaker volume.
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tool. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is then encrypted and locked with one master key and/or a key file. You only have to remember the single master password and/or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and Twofish, the most secure algorithms currently known (e.g., banks use these algorithms). There is a plethora of features in this program; too many to even list here. So, I encourage you to take a look if you need some good, solid password manageFig. 2 – The main window of KeePass Password Safe. ment. KeePass is just one more example among many of the Open KeePass Password Safe Source Initiative, which provides quality software Reader Steve Steiner, an IT Security for free. We should all do our part to support open professional, admits that he “stumbled across” source products. this “wonderful little utility” (http://keepass.info/). KeePass Password Safe (Fig. 2) is a free (openFastStone Image Viewer source, in fact) tool that enables you to totally I’ve been using a graphics viewer and organize and “remember” passwords to the endconverter utility called IrfanView for a long time, less web sites and services that demand them: but reader Ken Philpott (this poor guy has been Windows network logon, e-mail account, your reading my column for over 20 years!) brought homepage’s FTP, online passwords, etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Of course, while one might an even better one to my attention. For a free (to home users) program, FastStone Image Viewer choose to use one password for everything, it’s not a good idea for obvious security reasons, such (http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm) is a truly multipurpose, feature-rich tool (Fig. 3). Feaas identity theft. Well, after more than 18 million downloads, tures include: resizing, cropping, removing redeye, multiple folder slide shows, and adjusting KeePass has proved itself to be a very valuable color, brightness, and contrast. It even enables you to add a few simple effects and filters, such as Lens, Waves, and Morphs. It also can batchconvert files into virtually any file format, including digital camera formats. The slide-show creator even enables you to apply transitions, specify the interval between images, and add your own MP3s as a soundtrack. If you are not professional, this might be all you need. Enjoy! REMEMBER: If you come across a “killer utility” that you would like to share with your fellow readers, please let me know. You’ll receive honorable mention as the submitter. Fig. 3 – FastStone Image Viewer, a full-featured graphic viewer, converter, and editor.
Christian Computing® Magazine
February 2010
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higher power with kevin
Digital Bible Study Is Breaking the Banks of the Personal Computer
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Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org n the early days of doing Digital Bible study, you had really only one option – a personal computer of some kind. Today, that is changing with many devices and formats possible.
How is this affecting the task of studying God’s word and reading content from Christian publishers in a format other than paper and print? It is breaking out of the banks of the PC just like an overflowing river. The flood of digital Bible study resources makes this a great time to be studying God’s Word. The Good Old Days Weren’t That Great The computer industry is now old enough that there are people who sound like my father. When I was young, I remember listening to the stories my dad would tell of listening to his favorite radio programs. He was born in the 30s and his formative years were the 40s when WWII was raging and television was an invention that few heard. The idea of gathering as a family and simply listening to a radio was something only done on Television by the Waltons; I couldn’t imagine doing it. The radio was something that filled the background like elevator music. My kids look at the radio as that thing their parents listen to in the car or they plug their iPods into. I wonder if that is how twenty-something Bible teachers/preachers today think about us old timers as we describe inserting multiple, large, black, floppy disks into a slot on a large box on our desk to search for the word grace in the NIV Bible. But that is how I did it with my original copy of QuickVerse. It came on a stack of the old 5.25 inch floppy disks. You started the program and typed in your search term and clicked on the reference. The Pentateuch was on one floppy and history books on another. By the time you go to the later parts of the Christian Computing® Magazine
New Testament you swapped out five or more disks. Until a basement flood destroyed them about 4 years ago I still had those disks. You could do little more than search and read the Bible with that program. Now, a copy of QuickVerse has as much or more content than many pastors had in their whole library during the preDigital days. Searching for the word ‘grace’ is almost instant. If I had to swap out anything to search in a program today, I’d not bother. We’ve come a long way. For the majority of my adult life, I have undertaken digital Bible study the same way. I sat at a computer and clicked on an icon to open a computer program. I read my passage in multiple translations and searched for supporting material in a large library of
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books that cost a fraction of what it would have cost years ago when they were only available in books. This was a wonderful blessing. At first, I followed the same study methods I learned to do with those books and legal pad. What used to take 10 hours of study in my college or seminary libraries in the late 80s and early 90s would take only 6 or 7 using software. The biggest change was when I started using a laptop and could transport my library from home to office to coffee shop. But it was still the same basic format. Then I got smart and instead of cutting off prep time, I used the same amount of time and went deeper. But all of this was still done in software installed a desktop or laptop computer. A couple of years ago something changed. Many Platforms for Digital Bible Study It started in about 2003 when I bought my first Palm Pilot. I hated that thing so I retired it and got an HP Jornada Pocket PC and started using Bible study programs on it. One of the people who helped me get into computer Bible study was Craig Rairdin. I didn’t know him personally, but I recognized his name from my days with QuickVerse. Like many of us he ventured out into the mobile Bible study arena with his company Laridian (http://www.laridian.com) and produced mobile Bible study programs for Palm and PocketPC. I also discovered some other programs like Olive Tree (http://www.olivetree.com) and Pocket e-Sword (no longer supported). The next shift was when I replaced my Compaq iPaq with a smartphone from Palm. I had a Treo 650 and then a 700w. It was so nice to have one device for my PDA and my phone. And I installed Bible study software on those as well. One thing that has been consistent is that I have always had two or three Bible programs on those devices. Another constant was that I never really wanted to do serious Bible study on them. I used them for quick reading, searching, or short stints of serious study while out and about. I could have gotten by with these devices when I had to. On occasion I did; a handful of times in the five or six years of using them I studied a passage and wrote the short outline of a Bible study or sermon on my PDA/smart phone. But it was painful without a keyboard and mouse. The stylus was a great tool but the devices had inconsistent handwriting recognition. The small screen also made it a challenge. These devices and software were supplements to my desktop and laptop computer programs. Something has happened. The devices and the software have improved to the point that one could use them as primary study tools. You can create an outline or study and even use them to preach or teach that content to a group. In a few cases you could even do presentations to a group from one of those devices. I would not want to give up my laptop computer which I carry to coffee shops in my area and do my study. But if you had forced me to do give my PC up two years ago, I would have griped and complained and possibly even fought you. Today, I’d still gripe and complain, but it would not be the tragedy it would have been. Do not misunderstand. I still rank a PC as the best way to do digital Bible study. I’m not a Mac guy, but I’d put them in this category as well. Powerful computers with high resolution screens are still the Ferrari or Cadillac of digital Bible study. A couple of years ago my second best method doing digital Christian Computing® Magazine
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Bible study would have been old fashioned books and a notepad. Not anymore. Today, my second choice would be my iPhone. The creativity and innovation of mobile and online Bible study software publishers is making the mobile platform a great tool and my second favorite method. Some people rank the mobile platforms ahead of PCs. There are many mobile platforms available. The iPhone is probably the fastest growing mobile platform for Bible study. There are a lot of people still using Windows Mobile and Palm devices as well. OliveTree, (http://www.olivetree.com) which publishes the popular Bible Reader, also lists Blackberry, Symbian, and Java as other supported platforms. If you have a device that can run apps, they likely have a version for your platform. Laridian (http://www. laridian.com) lists Palm, Windows Mobile and Desktop, iPhone/iPod Touch, and even the iPods without the touch screen as platforms for its software. If you have a mobile device with a browser, then you can access the online library produced by Logos (http://www.logos. com). That’s right; the company that publishes thousands of books for the Windows based PC and now the Mac has a browser based version at http://library.logos.com. Their online library is improving so much that soon it will look and feel very much like the desktop application. There are three more platforms that I think are worth mentioning. I love my Amazon Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/kindle) for reading the Bible and Christian books. I have even exported some books that I have in text based format to the Kindle to read. The device is great for linear reading – which is to say reading a book from cover to cover. It is not great for searching and jumping from place to place like you do with a concordance or Bible dictionary, but it can be done. With the Kindle software now available on the iPhone and the desktop PC, you can read books on one device and open the book on another and sync to the place you stopped reading on the other device. Soon your notes Christian Computing® Magazine
and highlighting will also sync. Just recently, Amazon announced that they are going to allow third party companies to produce “apps” that will run on the Kindle and allow you to do more than just read books. If and when Bible study software publishers jump on board I will review them and share my views here. A second, yet to be released device, is the Apple iPad – a tablet that will work and run very much like an Apple iPod Touch, just bigger (http://www.apple. com). Apple announced it at the end of January and it should be available in March. It will have Wi-Fi and a cellular modem built in so that you can get online. If you have seen the iPod Touch, then you know what it
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will be like. The primary purpose of these devices is content consumption, not creation. However, with great tools, like Apple’s iWork suite (like MS Office) or apps like Documents To Go, which allow you to create and edit MS Office documents on the iPhone/Touch, available for the iPad, you will be able to create content. I plan to get one and will share my experiences of studying the Bible with the device as soon as I can; look for that here and at my web site at http://www. kevinpurcell.org. There are actually many of these devices soon to be available. The one that I think will best compete with Apple’s offering is the Joo Joo Tablet (https://thejoojoo.com). It had a difficult beginning but looks very much like the iPad and has a similar price point. It will be available soon. One thing it will be able to do that the iPad cannot is utilize sites that require Adobe Flash player, like the online video sites like hulu (http://www.hulu.com) and some online Bible study sites. It looks interesting enough that if it were not for the iPad, I think it would be garnering all the attention in this category. Sadly it is going up against the 900 pound gorilla that is Apple’s marketing geniuses. Finally, the web itself has become a rich platform for doing digital Bible study. With many sites that offer Bible study content and with online word processing and presentation creation tools like Google Docs (http://docs.google.com) or Zoho (http://www. zoho.com), you can do all your work online in the cloud without installing a single application. This is not necessarily that great if you have a powerful desktop computer. But if you have a very small netbook or one of the tablets like Apple’s iPad, then this might be your best option. And now it is actually a viable option. An Exciting Time for Digital Bible Study It is truly a great time to be a student of God’s word. If you use a computer, smart phone, or book reader, then you have more tools available for studying the Word of God then at any time in history. And I Christian Computing® Magazine
think the best thing this does for us is not cut the time it takes to do our studying, but rather it helps us go much deeper. If your primary goal for doing Bible study on any of these platforms is to cut minutes or hours off your time in the Word, then you are missing the greatest benefit. Instead your goal should be to go deeper in the same amount of time. When I was in college and seminary preparing to become a pastor, it would take me hours to outline my text, read it in multiple translations, look up words in the original language and in dictionaries, and then write out my outlines and type them on my typewriter. If I was lucky, I would consult two or three commentaries and one Bible dictionary. Looking for suitable illustrations to help explain, prove and apply the text meant that I had to read and read and read. And usually what I found was not valuable for that week’s study or sermon. I would have to file it away by clipping or photo-copying it. This became an unwieldy mess. Honestly, I just didn’t do it. Today, in the same amount of time that it took to write an acceptable sermon using hard copy tools and my typewriter, I can access so much more. I read at least five or six commentaries. But that only February 2010
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comes after I’ve done a few hours of research in Greek or Hebrew. My Greek is pretty good but my Hebrew is lacking. Thanks to these tools I can do some study I could not do in my early years without software. After having done this original language study with the software and having compared the text to dozens of other passages and read dozens of translations, I have a pretty good idea what the passage is saying without the use of commentaries. But I still consult them to go deeper and check my interpretation and challenge my interpretation. I have access to so much illustrative material that I could never use it all, whereas previously I was struggling to find enough. I can also save illustrations and find them so much faster thanks to software. Finally, when I am finished studying, I can search and find how others have treated this text. That helps me to be more creative and get ideas for how I can present it. And with all the visual resources available both in Bible study packages and online, I can present the message in a way that grabs not only the ear but the eye and sometimes the senses of touch, taste and smell. Have I left any platforms out? What are your experiences with studying the Bible on something other than just a PC or books and paper? Comment in the online version of this article or send them to me via email (kevin@kevinpurcell.org), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/kapurcell) or Facebook (http://www. facebook.com/kapurcell). It truly is a GREAT time to study the Bible.
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nick at church
It’s Spring Cleaning Time!
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Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com
t’s Spring, and to many of us that means “Spring Cleaning”. Computer data is one of those areas that needs constant grooming, and the payoff is big! But to some just thinking of it feels like a chore. In this article I’ll help you organize your data and delete unnecessary files easily. Not Your First Choice for a Fun Date! I love creating an organized and uncluttered space. Others, though, can almost feel their energy drain just thinking about it. I know this topic isn’t a fun one, but there are great reasons to clean up your data files, including: • Hard drive space is inexpensive today, but trying to recover from a disaster is not. Minimizing the amount of data necessary to survive a disaster— from natural disasters to system failure disasters— helps make disaster recovery/ business continuity strategies more effective. • Many save multiple copies of files while they are ‘in process’ on a project. Keeping those early files can create confusion and even lead to frustration when trying to find the ‘latest’ file. I have seen people repeat hours of work only to learn later they had a more complete file, but couldn’t find it! The government found this was one of the problems in financial disasters like Enron, and now CPAs are required to test for the existence of multiple copies of the same file that could lead someChristian Computing® Magazine
one to make a bad decision because they didn’t have authoritative information. While data cleanup isn’t fun, it is important. And if done strategically, it’s easy to maintain! First, Categorize Your Data I like to organize my files as though my hard drive was a room with file cabinets in it. The room has a label on the door that says Data, and there are a bunch of file cabinets in it with labels above them that say things like Work-Related, Personal, etc. On a network I might think of Data more like a building, and its rooms are controlled by keys making some private, some departmental, and some open to the entire team. With this analogy in mind, the following folder structure makes more sense. We create a Shared folder under Data, and under it we have an area for the entire team called Common as well as departmental folders. With network security only those who should have access to a departmental folder can see its contents, while everyone on the network can see the contents of Common. The private— actually it is mostly private since network administrators and leadership have access to it— area is under Users and is organized by login name. February 2010
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And under each individual’s login name they can create folders to organize their data files, just like labeling the drawers on file cabinets. This is also what can be done under Common and in the departmental folders. My favorite way to create a folder in Windows is to go where I’d like to create the folder, maybe in my My Pictures folder, right-click and select New. One of the options will be to create a new folder, and then I can name it whatever I want that will make sense to me later, maybe Beach Trip. The next part of this process is to move your data files into the folders you’ve created. While doing so, make sure the filenames make sense. When you find duplicate files, decide which one to keep and delete the other. Another helpful tip when categorizing your data is that some files are best organized by categorizing them further. For instance, maybe you have a Bulletin folder in which you may want to create folders for each year. Decide What is ‘Old Data’ Some data must be kept forever, like board minutes, certain personnel records, etc. But most data has a shelf life, just like the Must Sell By date on milk, and once it gets stale will never be useful again. In a church or ministry, the shelf life should be established by that organization’s leadership and set into policy. Pictures, for example, may have a longer useful life than the files used to print the weekly bulletins. Some common aging categories might be pictures, email, legal documents, letters, budgets, etc. Decide how long each category should be kept and delete those that are older! Those are a few guidelines that can save you and your ministry time and money. They’re not hard, don’t take a lot of time, and are easy to maintain once set in place.
Christian Computing® Magazine
February 2010
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the mobility revolution
Launching Online: Cloud Computing vs. Virtual Private Servers By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com
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or the past several issues of Christian Computing, I’ve written about mobility topics. Starting this month, I’m heading in a new direction. Recently, I’ve worked with a group of homeschooled students to launch a new online ministry/business and I think the lessons that we’re learning may be applicable for anyone else looking to launch a ministry online. Launching Hschooler.net: A Bit of Background My wife and I home school our son – okay, to be honest, she does 99% of the work and I provide encouragement and support. The one area where I actually help is in teaching two subjects: computer skills and business. In 2008 I taught a class to students from three homeschooled families on the disciplines required for Biblical business success. As an outcome of that, in 2009 my son and I started developing and implementing a plan to create an online social network for Christian families, especially those that home school. We believed that there was a need for a safe alternative to Facebook, MySpace, et al. I decided that launching this service was also a great opportunity for homeschooled students to learn about being owners and operators of a business while providing a valuable ministry to Christian families. We formed Christian Homeschool Network, LLC, registered the domain Hschooler.net, and set up a virtual ownership structure where participating students will share in the business profits. We also recruited two additional homeschooled students. We now have Brian heading up Product Development, Austin running Marketing, and Kevin leading Revenue Generation. But most relevant to our discussion here, we also Christian Computing® Magazine
started wrestling with the technical details behind launching the service. How would we develop the software? Where would we host it? How would we handle payments? How could we simplify administration of the domains? These are all meaningful issues for anyone launching a new ministry online. Over the next several issues, I will describe how we addressed issues like this. Our solutions may not be the right answer for you, but I hope to describe each decision process in a way that helps you apply it to your specific situation. Hosting Has Changed! I launched my first online business in 1995. Digital Frontiers, LLC was a web development firm I started with two Christian partners. We launched the first web site for major corporations including Thrifty Rental Car, Phillips Petroleum, and PennWell Publishing. But we also dedicated Friday afternoons to free development work for Churches and Ministries. In order to host these web sites, we established our “data center” with a couple of Sun servers (costing about $20,000 each) connected to the Internet with a T1 line (1.5Mbps for close to $1000 per month). The Lord used those servers, and the complexities of configuring them and keeping them running flawlessly with multiple domains, to teach me perseverance February 2010
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Christian Computing速 Magazine
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and patience, to say the least! I particularly recall the Sendmail utility to be a “sanctifying experience.” By the time I launched my second online ministry/business in 2000, the costs and challenges of hosting had come down by an order of magnitude. Seek First Networks, LLC used a Sun Cobalt server (about $2000, with a very simple web-based configuration and management interface) connected to the Internet over a business-class DSL link (about $100 per month for about 1Mbps). When I launched Living Stones Ministry (lstones. com) in 2005, I went entirely with a hosted model. I chose Arias Web Hosting for about $20 per month and never had to touch the server (their equivalent plan today costs $9 per month). Wow – it’s amazing to see how much easier, and more affordable hosting had become in just 10 years. But even since 2005, the world of hosting has changed dramatically. Now We Can Gain Reliability and Scalability without All the Hassle It’s hard for the cost or complexity to come down any further (although I’m hosting some of my ministry work at BlueHost.com – virtually unlimited everything for $6.95 per month). So, most of the advancements have been in the areas of increasing the sophistication, reliability, and scalability that’s available to smaller organizations. We don’t know how big Hschooler.net will get, but we know that many social networks have stumbled and fallen because they were unable to deal with the scalability issue as they grew. We didn’t want to find ourselves in that position. At the same time, we didn’t have the skills, manpower, or money to build out our own server farm with load sharing or cluster computing or any other fancy tricks. Maybe someday Christian Computing® Magazine
we’ll get there, but for now, we needed to start more simply. Into this breach, step new forms of hosted services. The two that I seriously explored were cloud computing and virtual private servers. Cloud Computing Promises Scalability and Reliability in a Pay As You Go Model Optimally, if Hschooler.net continues to grow, I expect we’ll end up on a cloud computing infrastructure. According to Wikipedia, “Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized February 2010
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resources as a service over the “How to have more time for ministry!” Internet.” Amazon launched cloud Do you want to save time, get more done and have fewer headaches? Then Donarius Church computing services in 1996 under Management Software will make it easy for you the name Amazon Web Services to track your members, contributions, pledges Starting at $59.97 (AWS) and is arguably the leader and more. Imagine what you can do with the for the base version with in providing these services to 25% off for small churches extra time! Donarius will also: startup organizations. According to Download a free demo at: • Print your tax receipts their website “with AWS you can www.donarius.com • Show the giving pattern of your members requisition compute power, storage, • Print your church directories 1-888-479-4636 and other services–gaining access • Send personalized letters, emails and text Nuverb Systems Inc. messages to keep your members informed to a suite of elastic IT infrastructure “Software tailored for you” services as your business demands them. … You pay only for what plete control over the hosting, as if we owned a dedicated you use, with no up-front expenses or long-term commitserver. We completely control what software gets loaded on ments, making AWS the most cost-effective way to deliver “our” server; we can reconfigure it however we like; and we your application to your customers and clients. And, with can even reboot it whenever we like. However, we’re really AWS, you can take advantage of Amazon.com’s global comcontrolling a virtual server that is sharing the actual underlyputing infrastructure, that is the backbone of Amazon.com’s ing hardware with other organizations. That means that the $15 billion retail business and transactional enterprise whose service is significantly more affordable than any dedicated scalable, reliable, and secure distributed computing infrastruc- hosting ever will be. ture has been honed for over 13 years.” We also can grow our server as our traffic grows. Sounds perfect for a growing business with uncertain We’re using a service called Slicehost from Rackspace, a leaddemand. And maybe someday, it will be perfect for Hschool- ing hosting provider. We’ve started with their low end service er.net. However, the pricing model can be a bit complex and which provides 256MB of memory dedicated to Hschooler. unpredictable. Implementing and managing AWS also seems net, 10GB of storage, and a guaranteed share of the processdaunting to a team of part timers working to get a basic service ing cycles on a hefty server for $20 per month. We can easily off the ground. create a duplicate slice as a redundant backup. We can also For example, AWS is broken down into a variety of resize our “slice” to handle increasing traffic – up to 64 times discrete component services. To launch Hschooler.net, we as many resources for $800 per month. would need to use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (or EC2 For now, we’ve chosen to use Slicehost because it services) which costs $0.085 per hour for a standard small gives us an affordable starting point for Hschooler.net and on-demand instance (or $61.20 per month for 24x7 operaan easy path to scale up as our traffic grows. This approach tion) plus Amazon Simple Storage Service (or S3) which costs doesn’t provide the reliability promised by cloud computing, $0.15 per GB of storage per month plus $0.10 per GB data and the scalability is limited on the high end. My hope and transfer in plus $0.15 per GB of data transfer out (or at least prayer is that our revenue will scale with the traffic so that we $1.50 per month for 10GB of storage). We may also need to can afford both the increased resources and the expertise and use Amazon’s Relational Database Service (or RDS) which time to implement a robust cloud computing approach. costs $0.11 per hour for a small database instance (or $79.20 So, with the (seemingly) simple question of where per month for 24x7 operation) plus $0.10 per GB per month to host Hschooler.net off the table (for now), we could move for provisioned storage and $0.10 per one million I/O requests. on with other pressing questions – which I’ll get to in coming In startup mode, you can understand our reluctance to months! embrace this model, however, as the service begins to outgrow the path we’ve chosen, I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to lever- Russ McGuire is an executive for a Fortune 100 company and age the scalability and reliability benefits promised by cloud the founder/co-founder of three technology start-ups. His latcomputing. est entrepreneurial venture is Hschooler.net (http://hschooler. net), a social network for Christian families (especially homeVirtual Private Servers Marry Affordability with Dedischoolers) which is being built and run by three homeschooled cated Performance and Scalability students under Russ’ direction. So, for now, the path we’ve chosen is a Virtual Private Server (VPS) service. This service gives us comChristian Computing® Magazine
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church web strategy
Church Website Communications Teams and Content Strategy Research
Drew Goodmanson - drew@monkdevelopment.com
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hurch websites are updated by communications teams of all shapes and sizes. Some church websites are updated by a whole team of people, whereas other church websites are updated and maintained by just one person. Most churches’ communications teams fall somewhere in between, with varying degrees of responsibility assigned to a varying number of personnel.
Recently, our research team sought to discover what types of communications teams existed, what the sizes of the teams were, and what roles were fulfilled by each team member. We also sought to discover how often, and what sort of content was being updated on church websites. Through our interviews with various surveyed church communications directors, we were able to discover some interesting trends, which will be shared below. (For more studies and research on church websites and the people that use them, check out Campus Church Central Christian Church City of Grace Church Park Community Church
http://www.churchwebsiteguide.com) First, we mention the churches that participated in this study. In this study, churches with memberships of 1,000 or greater were contacted for comment. Participating Churches in Communications Teams and Content Strategy Research The seven churches that were available for interview include:
Norcross, GA
(2,200 members)
Mesa, AZ
(8,000 members)
Scottsdale, AZ
(5,000 members)
Chicago, IL
(2,000 members)
Preston Trail Community Church
Frisco,TX
(2,000 members)
Redeemer Presbyterian Church Second Presbyterian Church
New York, NY Memphis, TN
(5,000 members) (5,500 members)
South Barrington, IL
(27,000 members)
Willow Creek Community Church
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Church Communications Team Staff Sizes In general, of all the churches surveyed, there is an average church communications staff size of 6. Occasionally, some of these roles were shared amongst other ministries in the church. For instance, a video person could find himself shooting, editing, and creating video for both the website as well as sermons and clips for other ministries. The average church communications staff size for churches with 2,000 members and greater has 7 staffers, which include:
• 1 communications director • 1 designer for print, web, or both • 1 administrative position • 1 video position • 1/2 web developer position • 1/2 content writer • 2 regular social media users As well as: • 1 position outsourced to outside vendors. All churches desired to add at least one additional staff member to their communications team, regardless of whether or not the funding was in place for such a position. All churches were also interested in social media, and all but one church was interested in search engine optimization. Church Website Content Updaters In general, it is the communications director, ministry leaders, and pastors who update content most frequently. Communications directors tend to be more consistent than ministry leaders and pastors in updating content unless the pastor is web savvy and likes communicating with his flock frequently through the Internet. It is usually communications directors who are making daily updates to social media or content on the website. There is, however, a very strong trend indicating that communications directors are often performing more than one role, impacting their ability to focus on the strategic vision of communication at their church. Church Communications Directors Need More Help
Most communications directors have multiple job titles (and occasionally full-time jobs on top of this!). For example, Second Presbyterian Church’s director, Robb Roaten, must
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handle IT, communication, and technology. Central Christian Church’s director, Mark Miller, handles marketing, print, and content. Park Community Church’s director, Tim Schraeder, handles all aspects of content, web, technology, social media, and print. Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s director has a hand in video, web admin, and media, and all content goes through him, while Willow Creek Community Church’s director wishes he had a dedicated content editor and he is actively trying to recruit someone to fill that position, and he wishes for someone on staff to help with social media. The bottom line is that because of the very oversight-type nature of a Communication director’s role, the amount of separate and often varied responsibilities means the director often has to pick and choose just a few areas in which to focus his efforts, while prioritizing the rest of his remaining tasks into a holding pattern. All communication directors asked for more help on staff in this study. Outsourcing Central Christian Church was able to double the amount of work for the money they were investing into their website by reducing one fulltime position to two contract positions, with the result being higher quality work, and a greater quantity of work completed. This is not to say that all positions on a church communications team should be contract, but perhaps that a communications director who is thinking about adding full-time staff, might want to think about the additional flexibility and expertise that can come from hiring outside help. Services that lend well to outsourcing include design, development, video, print, and search engine optimization. Church Web Optimizer (http://www.churchweboptimizer.com ) is rolling out just now, and is an example of a service that allows a communications director to outsource many of the church website functions that are important, but would normally slow down a director in his normal responsibilities. Getting help from outside can free the director to focus on vision, or other areas of the ministry that require more of his immediate input. Church Web Optimizer features Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools installation and review, Google local search listings, directory submissions, quarterly performance evaluations
and benchmarks against dozens of other churches, from basic to advanced search engine optimization strategies, a church website communications forum, and much more, all specifically tailored to growing churches. Keeping Church Website Content Fresh All the churches in the study except one updated more than once a week. Keeping content fresh is a function of having the staff to either pre-write these comments, thoughts, or exhortations. It also involves getting ministry leaders on board with keeping their content sections up to date. Church Website Content Quality Every director of communications we talked to said they had not only issues with updating compliance, but quality of content. Issues of excellence occurred when ministry leaders were not taking care to speak within the voice of the church. According to Mark Miller, Central Christian Church’s Director of Communications, “Ministry leaders need to be held accountable to their content, both how it looks, and how it reads.” Mark recommends Attack of the Zombie Copy, www.alistapart.com/articles/zombiecopy/ What Church Website Content is The Most Effective at Engaging Church Members? Sermons, Groups, Events, email newsletters, and video were the most often mentioned content from this sample. City of Grace’s Pastor Terry finds that his short video vignettes on topics or sermon introductions, or just simply an “e-exhortation” online have a great effect on his congregation. K.C. Walsh from Willow Creek Community Church (www.willowcreek.org) finds that his church’s highest traffic is to Facebook, photos, videos, special events, compassion, and human interactions, with an emphasis on connecting. Other website content that has high traffic include: Bible studies, prayer pages, church information, conferences, functions, and connecting people and groups. We will continue a more in-depth conversation about what individual church communications directors noticed as effective sources of content in a later article. Wisdom from Other Church Communications Directors We condensed key wisdom points from all the contributing churches, asking them what was most important in terms of con-
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tent creation and communication. • 5 churches said keep it simple • 3 churches said try new things • 3 churches said video works phenomenally • 2 churches said avoid content heavy websites • 2 churches said make the website smaller • 2 churches said community is about people face to face, not just online • 2 churches said tailor website to your audience, not audience to website • 2 churches said branding was important to website, church and individual ministries • Also mentioned were outsourcing, online member polls and personality engines, design your system to scale as you grow, be willing to help others find other churches, write good copy, and make sure to measure with analytics. On Keeping Church Websites Simple In closing, we include some thoughts from our panel of Church Communications Directions on the topic of keeping things simple below; however, their other thoughts on various topics will be shared in a following article.
Communications Director
Church
Location
Website
Comments
Bridget Jentszch
City of Grace Church
Scottsdale, Arizona
mesa.cityofgrace.com
“Don’t overcomplicate and make your website busy.”
Cregan Cooke
Redeemer Presbyterian Church
New York City, New York
www.redeemer.com
“Don’t allow the website to do too much... community happens in person... the website should not become a crutch with loss of real interaction.”
Jason Mundie
Campus Church
Norcross, Georgia
www.campuschurch.org
“Overcome the temptation to put everything on the website, it’s overwhelming...Keep it simple, just put up the essentials...Too much content means a lot of work and upkeep!”
Allison Harrell
Preston Trail Community Church
Frisco, Texas
www.prestontrail.org
“Keep it simple, clean pathways...the website is for preparing people so there are no surprises on the day of their church visit.”
Tim Schraeder
Park Community Church
Chicago, Illinois
www.parkcommunitychurch.org
“Always improve, get more accessible, get smaller and easier to navigate...Events are the main content, let people find out about your ministry in person.”
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making ministry happen
With Web Videos, Prayer Requests Go Global
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By Jason Otis
f you’ve been in church life for awhile, you might be familiar with something known as a “prayer chain.” In an earlier form, a Sunday school class would provide a list of names and phone numbers to class members, so that when a concern came up, the first person on the list would call the second person on the list who would call the third person on the list – and so on – until everyone had been enlisted to lift the need in prayer.
That concept hasn’t changed. Christians still want to share their prayer needs with others and give updates about answers to prayer. The use of Internet-based video technology, however, has opened up a way for those needs to go global within minutes, while also giving a more personal context to the requests. “You get so much texture by watching the video,” said Bill Nix, president and CEO of Axletree Media, Inc., the developers of E-zekiel.tv. “If you go to E-zekiel.tv and you look at the prayer requests that are there, you will understand what I mean by that. You learn, you understand, you feel the need that is being put there so much more than just seeing text on a page.” Internet video technology has played a large role in how the story of Katherine Wolf was told to a global audience – and continues to capture hearts and prayers nearly two years after she suffered a massive brain stem stroke. Katherine is the daughter-in-law of Dr. Jay Wolf Jr., pastor of First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. As Wolf tells the story, in April 2008, Katherine and his son, Jay Wolf III, were living in Malibu, California, where Jay III was in his last month in law school at Pepperdine University. Prior to taking a final exam, Jay III stopped at home on a lunch break to find his 27-year-old wife vomiting and experiencing an excruciating headache. “She didn’t realize that in the back of her head a little pipe had burst, and she was bleeding to death,” Wolf said. “My son discovered her just in time to get her to the hospital. They were able to give her a brain shunt just before she ‘died’, and they plunged her into a 15-hour operation.” Christian Computing® Magazine
Following a surgery during which Katherine received 80 units of blood, she was given only a one percent chance to live. “In the middle of this horrible experience, the Internet came alive and people starting praying from all over the world,” Wolf said. “We fully expected Katherine to die. But the mercy of God prevailed. She lived.” Later that week, Wolf’s teenage daughters made a video asking people to pray for Katherine, and they posted it on the Internet. “In no time, it had been viewed by over 20,000 people,” Wolf said. The family made more videos. “We took one of the cameras with us to California, and we made a video right there in the courtyard of the UCLA Medical Center updating people that Katherine was against all odds making some progress and inviting the body of Christ to pray,” Wolf said. “Literally tens of thousands of people viewed these videos, and much more importantly they began to pray.” The physical repercussions of Katherine’s brain stem stroke have been tremendous, but she has battled back in a slow and uphill recovery. She had to learn to swallow, to eat, to walk. Even now, none of these areas are easy for her. Her voice sounds different, her face is partially paralyzed, and her use of her right hand is limited. Even so, she and Jay III traveled from California the week of Christmas, and they addressed an Alabama congregation that had lifted them in prayer for 20 months. “It’s still shocking that people care, frankly,” Jay Wolf III said. “We have short attention spans. Life is busy. For people to still be with us on this journey is almost more than we can bear. Because it is unbelievable. It gives us such encouragement February 2010
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on the walk we are experiencing right now.” “I think that one of the main things we are learning through this very, very difficult time is that what’s true in the light is also true in the dark,” Katherine Wolf told the congregation. “Even when you almost die, I really think God can feel just as near to you as He does when things are good, maybe even more.” Connecting to Others Studies of American life today have suggested that social isolation is a growing trend, with Internet and mobile phones contributing to the problem. The theory is that because the interpersonal connections aren’t grounded in traditional social settings, they tend to be weaker. However, a recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life project challenged part of that perception – that an increasing number of Americans don’t have anyone with whom they can discuss important matters. The results the “Social Isolation and New Technology” survey show that few Americans are actually socially isolated (only six percent have no one with whom they can share personal matters). Instead, the Pew research found that technological tools were actually creating larger and more diverse networks. Among the findings:
you along the way. Here’s all it takes:
· Internet users are 55% more likely to discuss important
· Record a short message with a digital video camera.
· Internet users who upload photos to share online are
· Transfer the video to your computer. Camcorders often
· Bloggers have a 95% higher likelihood of having a
· Follow the instructions that lead you through saving
matters with someone outside the family; the figure is 45% for Americans overall.
61% more likely to have discussion partners that cross political lines. cross-race discussion confidant, while people who frequently use the Internet at home are 53% more likely to have a confidant of a different race.
Technology has certainly connected the Wolf family to networks they may have never known. When Jay Wolf introduced his son and daughter-in-law to a congregation that knew them well, he said, “I had a lady that I’d never met come up to me the other day. She hugged my neck until it hurt, and she said, ‘Do you mind if I call Katherine our miracle? Because I’m an owner. I’ve been praying for her. I’ve been reading her story and following it.’” Ease of Use As Wolf’s family discovered, if you know someone in serious need of prayer, you can start telling the story online in only moments, while software and video-sharing sites guide Christian Computing® Magazine
Web videos typically have a 10-minute limit; 2 -3 minutes is more common.
come with software and a USB cable that makes this simple. the video to your computer.
· Sign into a free video-sharing site and follow the instructions to upload your video.
Coming Next Month “Getting the word” out about events and activities has always been a fundamental of church life. But now churches are encouraging attendance and providing information in ways that convey high-quality excitement with low-cost video technology. Jason Otis is vice president of marketing and business development for Axletree Media, the company behind E-zekiel.com, a content management system for churches and ministries, and E-zekiel.tv, a free video-sharing site. Comments? Send them to Jason.otis@axletreemedia.com.
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ministry communication
How to Get People to Come Back After Easter Sunday Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com
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n most churches their biggest turnout of the year is for Easter Sunday. This doesn’t happen by accident—churches pour time, money, and resources into their church communications prior to Easter and it pays off with a full-sanctuary for multiple services. However, few churches have a continuing increase in attendance after Easter.
Easter week may have been fantastic, but without intentionally working on developing a continuing relationship with the people who only come at this time of year, we aren’t communicating the total message of Easter. Jesus came to earth, died on the cross, and rose from the grave to enable us to have an eternal relationship with him, not just a yearly visit to his church. For the Easter activities of your church to build relationships, you may need to expand your goals in the communications you create for this time of year. Make Easter a connecting point, not the end result In the church communication production prior to the Easter season, almost everything is geared solely towards getting people to the Easter week services. Though this is a worthwhile goal, if it is your only goal, you’ll not accomplish all you could to make a lasting impact in people’s lives and in the growth of your church. Instead of seeing Easter week attendance as the only goal and end result, consider changing your thinking and strategy. Look at Easter as a connection point between your community and Jesus and your church. You want to bring people into the church Easter week, but you don’t want them to go away and never come back—you
Christian Computing® Magazine
want them to meet Jesus, to begin and grow in a relationship with Him. In addition, you want them to get to know your church and to enter into a continuing relationship with your church community. To accomplish these purposes, you have to be very intentional long before Easter in not only the communications you create to get them there (which you most likely already have in place as you are reading this) but also in what you give people at each event or service during Easter week. There are two overall areas in which you need to create communications at this time: communications to introduce and connect them to Jesus, and communications to introduce and connect them to your church. Communications to introduce people to Jesus Some current studies show that because people in our post-Christian world know so little about Jesus and the Christian faith that it often takes seven or more (think multiple, at least) exposures to the gospel message before someone can make an informed decision to follow Jesus. People simply do not have the exposure to the Christian message that they did in years past. Some
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people (46% of un-churched people, in fact) do not even know that Easter has anything to do with the resurrection of Jesus. They may come to your church for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with spiritual seeking. They may want to spend time with family or hear the music or take their kids to the special programs. They may hear that Jesus rose from the dead for the first time—and like any new message they will most likely reject it initially. Make that OK. Acknowledge that people visiting the church may have questions about the message, invite them to question, dialogue and explore. For example, have a bulletin insert that invites them to seeker studies, offer websites that answer questions, do whatever you can to encourage them to continue their explorations. Still have questions? Many people do. You’ve just heard the story of Jesus rising from the dead, but after you leave the church, when brunch is over and you’ve had your fill of chocolate, you might wonder—Is it just a story? Or did it really happen? If it did, what does it mean to me? If you’ve got those questions, we’ve got options for you. On the back of this sheet we hope you’ll check out the websites and events we have to help you in your research. Take all the time you want. The issues are worth it. On the back of a handout like this you could then list some upcoming seeker Bible studies or discussions, some websites to explore, some books they might want to read. Be sure also to include emails or phone numbers of folks who would be willing to interact with people who have questions about the Christian faith and who are able to lead a seeker to Jesus.
Christian Computing® Magazine
Don’t forget the obvious—Easter gospel tracts Some people might come to your church Easter week, knowing quite a bit about Jesus and the gospel message, but it simply has not all come together for them. Sometimes a clear, gospel tract or pamphlet that explains what it means to be a Christ follower and how to become one will make an eternal difference for them. Check with your denomination for a tract that is appropriate to your church or look at the ones available through the American Tract Society—these are appropriate for any church. Their website is www.ATStracts.org. They have tracts, packages for children and all sorts of year round resources that clearly explain the Christian message. Communications to introduce people to your church and the ministries of your church In most churches Easter Sunday services are held at different times than usual; the programs are unique for Easter; some ministries hold extra-special events, some ministries don’t meet at all. Without thinking it through consciously at all, churches will often assume that just because folks really enjoyed bringing their kids to the petting zoo the church held at Easter and that the kids enjoyed the chocolate goodies from the Easter egg hunt that they will bring their kids back to Sunday school the next week.
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A big disappointment often takes place when this doesn’t happen. But church folks must realize that if you don’t specifically tell people (usually with a piece of PRINTED communications) what you do on a regular basis on Sunday, they may not even know what Sunday School is and that it is something that is available for their kids. Not only for the children’s ministry, but for all the ministries in the church and for your church overall, you must be intentional about telling people what you do on a regular basis and invite them to participate. Following are some specifics on how to do this: Invite them to your upcoming Sunday morning preaching series Many churches have extra services and times for their Easter Sunday service that are different than what they do on a regular basis. Be sure to include a bulletin insert made up like an invitation that says something like the material below to let them know the regular times of your services and your upcoming sermon series: We are so glad you took time to attend our Easter Celebration Service! We’d like to invite you back to church next week when we resume our regular weekly Celebration Schedule. Our regular service times are: Sundays, 9:30 am; 11 am, and Saturday 6:30pm. Use your Easter service as a lead-in to a continuing series of upcoming sermons. You’ve just preached about the resurrection of Jesus and after Easter is a great time to answer people’s questions about some of the most important issues of life and death. Tell them about the upcoming topics in your Easter bulletin and invite them to return. Our upcoming sermon series is: Week one: What does Jesus resurrection mean to me? Week two: Will we recognize our loved ones after death? Week three: Will people be bored in heaven? Week four: Can people get kicked out of heaven? Invite them to children’s events If you had special activities for children for Easter, again, don’t assume that just because people came to your petting zoo and Easter egg hunt that they understand what you do at Sunday School every week. You need a special insert or handout that says something like: We hope your children enjoyed our special Easter Events for Kids! This is just is just a little sample of the wonderful things our church does for children on a weekly basis. We’d like to invite you back next week at 9:30-10:30 am for our Children’s Hour. At that time we have classes for all ages with our carefully screened and trained children’s teachers. Your children will hear a Bible story, play games, make a little craft and have a snack. It will be a fun, safe, learning time for them. You can visit our adult church service while they are there and they won’t be released until you return to pick them up from their class.
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We’d love to have your children come next Sunday or any Sunday—for more information, please call Miss Betty at 555-5555, or check out the children’s ministry section on our web site at www.childrenssample.com. Invite them to events that you didn’t hold on Easter Do you have an adult education program? Small groups? A Single Adult Ministry? The schedule is very different on Easter for many churches and you many have a visitor who is looking for more than just the Sunday morning service, for example, for something for Singles or kids or men, but they have no idea what you do on a regular basis. Or, this might be their first exposure to church and they have no idea what other things churches do. It’s a good idea to give out to every visitor a brochure or booklet that outlines all the ministries of your church along with contact information on your website, email and phone numbers. If you don’t have time to put together something that extensive, at least have announcements like this in your Sunday morning bulletin:
that you went by on your way to the worship service). We’ve got great coffee and munchies; we listen to a challenging talk from the Bible and then we sit around tables and discuss the topic for about 20 minutes. Afterwards we all go out to lunch together. We’ve got lots of other events going on during the month that we’d love to tell you about. You can also check out our single’s ministry website at www.singleadultschurchstuff.com Child care is available or children are welcome to join us at all our events. We’d love to have you join us any Sunday or any time. For more information please call Pastor Paul at 555-5555. Creating invitations and material like this is a lot of extra work at this extra busy time, but it is vitally important if you want the efforts you have expended at Easter to be a time for continuing attendance and growth in your church.
Attention Single Adults! First Church of Everytown has a place for you! Our OASIS Single Adult Ministry is open to any single adult. We meet every Sunday morning from 11 am to 12 pm at the Fellowship Hall (that’s the big room that looks like a gym
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