ccmag2010_05

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

May 2010

No. 5

7 cover story Churchteams

by Steve Hewitt

11 special feature

9 Tips to Successfully Manage and Maintain Your Church Facility by Tim Cool

Copy Editor Gina Hewitt Corporate Home Office

3 editorial Will Facebook Self-Destruct?

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

4 Press Releases 13 Special Feature

by Minnie Lamberth

15 ACS ideas to impact Special Events Planning

from ACS Technologies

17 accelerating the dynamic church Is Your Church Creative?

from Fellowship Technologies

18 tech talk Mozilla Thunderbird E-mail Client

Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson - docwatson3228@qwest.net

Bible Apps for the iPad

26 nick at church

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

Mac’s Amazing Reputation

25 launching online

Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

Selecting Amongst Open Source Options

33 ministry communication

How One Company Created Web Videos to Inspire Others

21 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

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

Why You CAN and SHOULD Create Your Own Blogs and Websites Part One

Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com

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.

Articles that are highlighed are provided by our partners www.ccmag.com/2007_03/2007_03editorial.pdf

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

editorial

Will Facebook Self-Destruct? Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

his Sunday I was visiting a church where the pastor was doing a series of sermons on women in the Bible. He mentioned that he put a question on his Facebook account asking women of his church to comment on how others within the church had impacted their lives. In the past, I would have immediately been delighted to see a pastor using Facebook in such an innovative way. But lately, I am leaning toward those that are hesitant to use Facebook due to their privacy issues! It seems that Facebook is under attack from every side. Some Senators such as Charles Schumer of NY, Michael Bennet of CO, Mark Begich of Alaska and others have joined forces in asking the FTC to get involved in regulating Facebook concerning privacy matters. It seems, in an attempt to make Facebook better the Facebook providers add new services and change the way their site works. However, when they have done this, they have reset everyone’s account and left it to Facebook users to opt in to privacy and security features. They could have just as easily introduced new features and given their users the option to opt in, but instead they opened up the Facebook user’s site, leaving up to us to quickly log in and turn off our profiles. Some might wish to give Facebook the benefit of the doubt, but it is common knowledge that Facebook sells marketing to many companies wishing to target their marketing dollars. By opening up everyone’s account, they made it possible for these companies to use software to quickly grab information from millions of accounts. Information that before Facebook opened the door would have been restricted as a result of the privacy settings of their users. A new survey by Sophos, a computer security organization, reveals that as high as 60% of those Christian Computing® Magazine

claiming to be Facebook users are leaving Facebook, or plan to leave in the near future. My wife has enjoyed using Facebook in the past, but she was a bit upset when she logged in to discover that Facebook had reset her privacy settings three days earlier. For many, Facebook had become the new email. However, along with the increased use by our society, the security risks have increased as well. And, with Facebook’s recent decision to disrespect their users’ privacy, it might have a major impact in social networking overall. Does your church have a Facebook site? Do you? How will the recent behavior of Facebook affect your future use? I would love to hear from you on this subject! Together We Serve Him,

Steve Hewitt (steve@ccmag.com) Editor-in-Chief Christian Computing May 2010

Press Releases Effective Church Communications announces free webinars on website creation Every church and ministry needs a website or blog and these webinars are designed to make it possible for anyone in your church who has the most basic computer skills to create a website or blog easily and with very little cost. The webinars are all by Yvon Prehn, who has taught church communications for many years and whose training is able to make the most complex communication tasks enjoyable and possible. Many large churches have complex sites that work well and these webinars are not for that situation but are tailored specifically for small churches, church plants, and individuals who would like to create a website or blog and have no money or training. All the webinars are free and will last about 45 minutes. For more information on the webinars and expanded descriptions please go to: www.effectivechurchcom.com. Webinar: Websites & Blogs, a Foundation, Answers to Questions before you begin or revise a Website or Blog When: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time In this webinar, we’ll answer these quest ions: why do websites and blogs, the most important issues you need to consider, what you need to have in place before you begin or revise them. Some of the biggest misconceptions about websites and blogs for churches and ministries will be listed and discussed. We’ll also look at the difference between a website and a blog and why you might want more than one for your church. To sign up for this webinar, click here: https:// www2.gotomeeting.com/ register/414182083 Webinar: WordPress Overview; Extraordinary Cheap and Easy Ways to Build Blogs and Websites When: Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Christian Computing® Magazine

at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time This webinar will be an extremely valuable seminar for any church wanting to create websites or blogs in house and for either no cost or very low cost. It will be an overview of WordPress.com and WordPress. org, features of each, differences, recommendations on what a church might want to use. To sign up for this webinar, click here: https:// www2.gotomeeting.com/register/734955227 Webinar: Writing for Your Blog or Website When: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 11 a.m.Pacific Standard Time Once you have the structure for your website, you’ve got to create the content. Is writing for the web different than writing for print? Or not? Is it true that people won’t read long material on the web? What is the place of headers, quotes, other format options in making it easy for people to skim and read? How do you write so search engines can find you? To sign up for this webinar, click here: https:// www2.gotomeeting.com/register/571624586 Webinar: How to get People to Sign Up for Your Blog or Website Updates? Email Newsletter Programs Evaluated When: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time When you work hard on your blog or website, you want folks to look at what you create. This webinar will overview the various email programs, costs and features comparisons. Additional tips on how to create effective emails and how to grow your list will also be given. To sign up for this webinar, click here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/ register/279630674 Webinar: Blogging for Boomers, A Way to Regain your First Love of Ministry When: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time May 2010

Press Releases If you are under the age of 46 you may attend, but you must sit quietly and listen. This is not for you, though you may learn something useful. This is for you Boomers, my cohorts and even more specifically for those of you who came to faith or who were first involved in ministry in the days of the Jesus people, One Way, and the genesis of praise music from Calvary Chapel. You know who you are. Remember how exciting that was to be on fire for Jesus? Remember how we wanted to win the world for Jesus in our generation? Does that same passion still burn inside? Or has it been smothered by years of responsibility, hard work, and perfunctory church involvement? Has financial hardship or ill health or age labels made you feel side-lined for service? If any of these things describe you, attend this webinar and let me share with you an area of ministry wherein you can rekindle your passion for ministry by creating a blog. To sign up for this webinar, click here: https://www2.gotomeeting. com/register/625601762 For information about any of these webinars, contact Yvon Prehn at yvon@effectivechurchcom. com or 805-339-0650. For expanded information on these and other materials to help train church communicators please go to: www. effectivechurchcom.com. ServiceU Connect™ Enhances Data Functionality for Churches & Developers ServiceU’s REST API Allows for Custom Application Development, Feed Generation, & Mashup ServiceU Corporation has recently released a Christian Computing® Magazine

new REST Application Programming Interface (API) that will allow organizations to access their ServiceU data seamlessly through the standardized web formats XML, JSON, JSONP, RSS, ATOM and iCal as format options. This new REST API and future APIs are part of ServiceU’s initiative, ServiceU Connect™, through May 2010

Press Releases which new features and enhancements will be developed to continue meeting the growing need of web 2.0 applications. “Through ServiceU Connect, we are giving our clients the ability to utilize their ServiceU data so that they can deliver content most effectively for their organizations,” says Tim Whitehorn, president and CEO of ServiceU. “The information available can be used to build custom calendars, web pages and even mobile apps. The opportunities are endless, and ServiceU wants to provide the organizations we serve with the most accessible path to their data.” Through the newly released REST API, organizations can drive their church event listings and calendar items into their website seamlessly through the standardized web formats XML, JSON, JSONP, RSS, ATOM and iCal as format options. By using these standard formats and technologies, ServiceU hopes to allow every organization an easy way to use the ServiceU data to fit their needs. “We have a lot of data that ServiceU maintains, and we want developers to be able to write their own applications and make the most of the incredibly reliable ServiceU backbone.” says Jesse Brown software developer for ServiceU. “Since we already maintain this calendar and event info, the API makes this data available for someone else to write their own calendaring software or display software and use us as their event-management platform. They don’t have to rely on our website pages that list their data, they can drive their data to their own site.” Organizations can also develop their own applications or combinations of applications such a mashup, to create a web page or application that uses or combines data or functionality for two or more external sources to create a new service. (Wikipedia) By using open APIs that provide fast integration, users can easily produce incredible results for customized solutions. Through ServiceU Connect, Christian Computing® Magazine

churches, ministries and other organizations that rely on ServiceU will continue to have the best technology support to customize their solutions to meet their needs. ServiceU plans to add additional APIs in the near future to further enhance the user experience. About ServiceU Corporation Since 1999, ServiceU Corporation has been the trusted solution for providing software that helps churches, schools and nonprofits simplify and automate administrative processes by moving them online. ServiceU’s core product line includes: EventU™ for event, resource, and facility management through web-based calendar scheduling software; EventU Green™ is an addon to EventU that automates facility heating and cooling (HVAC) online based on a facility’s events schedule; TransactU™ provides secure online donation, payment, and event registration tools; TicketU™ provides online ticket sales, box office management, and theater software.

May 2010

cover story

Churchteams

Interview with Boyd Pelley, Co-founder & President, Churchteams

by Steve Hewitt

ecently, while attending the CLA conference (Christian Leadership Alliance) I saw the exhibit for Churchteams. I was familiar with their name from seeing it at conferences in past years, but never really took a look at what they had to offer. I spent some time at CLA visiting with Boyd Pelley, Co-founder and President of Churchteams and enjoyed the history of how and why they got started, and thought their services were unique. It seems that over the years, many ChMS (Church Management Software) companies have sought to add features to help churches with their small group ministries. Churchteams started out with the goal of helping churches with their services designed for small groups, and grew into a ChMS company! I hope you will enjoy this interview with Boyd, and, as you see from the artwork on the cover, in this article, in their ads, and on their website, their logo is centered on a gold fish. Check them out and drop me an email with your guess as to why. It took me awhile, but I found the answer, and I think you will be amazed as I was and appreciate the company and their services even more when you discover the answer to the gold fish. What motivated you to start Churchteams? I spent the 80s involved in discipleship ministries in the US and abroad as a student, staff and seminarian. In the 90s I was part of the church growth movement as a discipleship and administrative pastor in local churches. My training gave me a very clear idea of what it means to make disciples in a local church. However, my experience Christian Computing® Magazine

proved a significant gap between vision and successful, ongoing implementation. For example, we teach that God exists in community and that our pursuit of Christ likeness includes living in authentic community with others. I realized that the system of having staff connect people to groups, though better than no one championing the effort, was still strangling the potential of people finding community. Why not build a tool to connect people to leaders directly? As far as we know we were the first to use the terms Groupfinder and Small Group Software back in 2000. In the late 90s I read about the ways Internet applications were going to change the future of computing away from locally hosted applications. I was also the church administrator and that seemed to me to be a far better approach to managing software applications. May 2010

Secondly, it seemed to me that this was the perfect medium for an application designed around the discipleship process. I shared the idea with Mark who is a world class software architect and we formed a partnership to begin what has been a decade long process of learning and developing what I like to think of as discipleship and teambuilding software. What have you learned about the use of software in ministry during the process of developing Churchteams? First of all, you have to look at the whole thing through a ministry lens first and a business lens second. Daily we commit the company, our service and our clients to Him. He is the owner, we are stewards. He sets the development priorities as we interact closely with clients/friends, talk together and pray about how and when to design features that will be most helpful. This is our way to love God. Secondly, from our experience has grown this little saying, “just because software can do something, doesn’t mean people will”. It drove me crazy as a church administrator to have to budget hundreds of dollars to train staff to use software. Our passion is to build a tool so simple and intuitive that no training is necessary. That’s a challenge, but it’s being done all the time nowadays with other software services. If you accomplish that objective, you can also offer the service at an extremely reasonable cost. With cloud based software the finest service in the world should also be very cost-efficient. This is how we love people. Thirdly, I have been a student of ministry for a long time. I was thinking about the ministry process a few years ago and discovered a universal and very simple cycle that is built into the nature of every ministry. Ministry always starts with an idea, a vision. This vision initially comes in the form of a calling or response to some leading from the Lord to a person or group of people. As the vision gains clarity, a strategy is developed to accomplish this vision. This strategy might be a seeker service, small groups, cell groups, Sunday School or a huge number of other related strategic initiatives. We hear about these all the time in articles, books and conferences. Eventually the strategy takes form and structure begins to develop. People are recruited, times and places are identified, curriculum Christian Computing® Magazine

or agendas are set. Events, meetings and groups take place. The vision is actually happening! Eventually the structure gives way to feedback. This is the time for reflection and evaluation. Did our strategy work? What went well? What didn’t? Vision-casters and strategyimplementers love getting feedback. Why? Because that helps them rethink, refine and then recast their vision or strategy. And the process starts over again. As I thought about this process, I asked myself, “what role should software best play in interacting with each one of the steps in this process?” I love the original Star-Trek series and many of the subsequent movies. Remember the role technology played in Star Trek? It was always behind the scenes. In fact if it ever came to the forefront, there was a problem. Just as in ministry, the real story always revolves around relationships and vision. We’re living in the decades of rapidly expanding technology. The change is so rapid that technology often comes to the forefront. If I’m right, this means there is a problem. So, what would technology (software) in ministry look like when it is working properly? First of all, software doesn’t force or design strategy, instead it reflects the strategy. It uses the language and tools the strategy prescribes. This makes May 2010

it intuitive and easy to use. Secondly, the software helps define the structure. It necessitates that people, times, places and plans are identified. It connects all these and even prompts action or response. Thirdly, the software gathers and collates the information necessary to provide feedback at a level pastors and staff have never seen before but intuitively long for. Finally, through the feedback provided, the software informs the vision so that the vision-casters know well the condition of their people. Here’s my summary diagram of the role of software in ministry. We are certainly not the only ones thinking about feedback or analytics in ministry. It seems to me there is a groundswell of discussion on this topic. Software generated analytics are changing everything in our culture from inventory control at Walmart to how many pitches a player should throw in a game. So here’s my summary thought: “I believe that analytics will do for ministry in the next 10 years what the arts have done for worship the past 20.” Think about what worship was like 20 years ago. What makes Churchteams unique? Like most companies, the people behind them are what make them unique. That is definitely true for us. Mark and I bring to the company the unique blend of our experiences as ministry implementer and software

Christian Computing® Magazine

architect. We’re both consummate learners in and beyond our fields of expertise. Perhaps most significant is the way we’ve learned to work as a team to design and implement a software application that people actually use to assist the disciple-making process. As this idea has rippled, the Lord has brought together a phenomenal group of friends committed to the same goal with different backgrounds and helpful perspectives. I think of the hours we’ve spent

May 2010

with small group pastors, executive pastors and support staff from some of the most incredible churches in the U.S. and Canada. I think of the informal mentoring we’re receiving on analytics from a phenomenally gifted guy whose profession is with one of the largest technology companies in the world. Then there are the countless conversations over lunches, at workshops and in conferences all over the place that we only hear about second hand. All of these remind me that we are stewards of what God is doing among us. Beyond the people, our approach to design and our values make us unique. Churchteams starts with a group-first architecture built around the idea that everything we do in church life is done in the context of community whether that’s a class, a small group, a mission team, a service team, an event, a project or even a process. It all is most simply managed thinking collectively rather than individually. You really have to see it to get the significance of this distinction. Thirdly, we established ourselves in the market as the prototype small group software. Yet, we heard so many people say they wanted just one database that we made the decision a couple of years ago to expand so that we could also handle all the traditional church membership management software functions including membership, kid check-in, contributions, assimilation, etc.. We are glad to say all of that is now in place and serving a growing number of churches well. A final distinctive is that we grew into this business by building a reputation as a cloud-based, cost-effective software that serves pastors and staff. This operational approach to business is different than many companies who operate on venture capital while trying to get the business to a sustainable point. It has given us a solid financial position allowing us to operate in the black so that we can be around for the long haul. Churches have felt the effects of the great recession as much as anyone. It is our privilege to be able to offer the finest software services for churches at a reasonable price that serves church budgets well. How can we learn more? Investigating Churchteams starts on our website, www. churchteams.com. From there you can receive passwords to play around in the software or begin a free 30 day free trial. However, over the years we’ve learned that the best way by far to get a feel for all the tool does is by joining me for one of the small group or membership webinars I do each week. The webinar is especially helpful because it allows me to show you what the software does. How it links with your website, alerts your leaders for response, and collates then emails your analytics. You can’t really see these by looking just at what the software is. Once you’ve done the webinar, you can get a whole lot more from the sample account access or your own 30 day free trial. Click here to see the demo options. For those of you who want more detail first, here is our feature list.

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

special feature

9 Tips to Successfully Manage and Maintain Your Church Facility By Tim Cool, Cool Solutions Group

ow do you track and process Work Requests and Facility Management tasks at your facility? Do you use a legal pad? Excel spreadsheet? Post-it Notes? Cross your fingers, then hope and pray?

Let’s explore the options for tracking work orders, service history, equipment inventory, capital improvements, vendor logs and much more. We will investigate the needs of most churches to track service requests and work orders as well as being proactive on tracking capital improvements to assist in your annual budgeting process. To keep this all in perspective let’s not forget that our ministry facilities are large complex commercial structures with lots of very expensive moving parts that need to be maintained, serviced and repaired. These facilities have been ENTRUSTED to us, so let’s do our part to steward them. 1. Be Intentional: There is a quote that most of you have heard: “People do not plan to fail, we fail to plan.” Having a proactive system that will serve as your “reminder” for these items will not only save you time, but assist you in being intentional with the care and maintenance of your facility. 2. Central Database: Do you have a spreadsheet here…a post-it note there…an e-mail requesting work to be done…a legal pad full of ideas… your computer calendar with dozens of reminders? Unfortunately, this is more the norm than the exception. So, what happens when you lose one of these items? Christian Computing® Magazine

3. Hit by a truck: What would happen to all of your data, plans, procedures, systems, process, etc. if your key person at the church was (heaven forbid) hit by a truck? Would you lose all of the data that is squirreled away in their head? 4. Long Term Capital Improvement Planning: We have been pretty surprised by how many churches do not have an active “sinking fund” or some form of capital improvements process. When we ask them about their planning process for major capital expenses (i.e. replacing flooring, replacing HVAC equipment, resurfacing parking, etc), the common answer is, “we wait until it breaks and then replace it.” OUCH…does not sound like planning. 5. Prioritize work: Does the “urgent” take precedence over the important? Does that last email or call take you off task? Well, you are not alone. Trying to keep all of this in your head or on a legal pad will only increase the stock value for Advil. 6. Manage Vendors: Who is approved to work on your site? How do you track their names, address, e-mails, phone numbers, etc? How do you dispatch work to the vendors. Most good facility May 2010

management software solutions will at the very least provide a section to list all of the pertinent data about your vendors and subs and provides a means for assigning work orders to vendors. 7. Historical Data: I have been using the P90X workout series, and the trainer keeps reminding us that we need to write down what weights we use and how many reps. He uses a cute little phrase to say “if you don’t know what you’ve done, how can you know what you need to do?” That same applies to our building management and maintenance 8. Asset Database: Do you know the make, model, serial number and filter size of each piece of equipment at your facility? Do you know what kind of light bulbs you have and how many fixtures in the facility use that type bulb? Now, I would not expect you to know all of this off the top of your head, but could you, with a few clicks, get to this data? 9. Warranty Tracking: Have you ever paid for a service call to later find out that it was under warranty? How did that make you feel? Were you able to get a full refund? Knowing what the warranty is for your major components can save you a great deal of money in the short term and long term. These are just a few of the items that churches should be concerned about in order to be good stewards of their organizations. Be proactive and take the time to plan ahead. It will benefit you and your church in the long run. Investigate the best solutions to manage your facility and it will surely pay off in the end!

software. Cool Solutions Group assists churches and ministry-driven organizations to develop the right solution for their facility stewardship. Tim has also just released his first book, SUCCESSFUL MASTER PLANNING: More Than Pretty Pictures which is available on Amazon http://www. amazon.com/Successful-Master-Planning-TimothyCool/dp/1450221971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books &qid=1273695193&sr=1-1 . Tim can be reached at tim@coolsolutionsgroup.com

Tim Cool Is the Chief Solutions Officer of Cool Solutions group (http://www.coolsolutionsgroup.com), the developer of ministrEspace and facilitEspace Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

special feature

How One Company Created Web Videos to Inspire Others By Minnie Lamberth

haring inspiring stories of how Web tools were used to transform ministries was the impetus behind Axletree Media’s creation of eight short online videos.

Axletree Media is the Alabama-based developer of E-zekiel.com, E-zekiel.tv and HelpRoot.com, all Web-based tools designed to help churches, ministries, non-profits and small businesses create and manage online communication. In an article last month, Jason Otis, the company’s marketing vice president, discussed the thinking processes behind Axletree’s hope to spread technological encouragement through the voices of its customers. “There are endless ministries doing wonderful things to make a positive change, and we thought sharing their experiences may encourage other ministries to begin their own online storytelling,” Otis said. One of Axletree’s first steps to make this project happen was to enlist the help of The Electric Company, a production company focused on developing online brands, especially through Web entertainment. “After we found the right creative and editing team, we started focusing on the process of pulling the project together,” Otis said. This process ultimately brought The Electric Company and eight people from across the country to Birmingham, Alabama, over a two-day period to tell personal stories that would be published globally. “With Axletree, we knew that the best way to showcase what E-zekiel could do for their customers was to reveal personal stories from people who were using their services,” said William Hamilton, The Electric Company’s president and CEO. Christian Computing® Magazine

Selecting the Stories The logistics began with the selection of customers themselves. “It was a collaborative effort where our side managed finding the stories and the people who could come visit with us, and Will’s side focused on developing the visuals and core message of each story,” Otis said. “We wanted a range of experiences and ages,” Otis added. “The prevailing theory is that online technology is for younger people or people that already have some technological experience, but these testimonies show that people across ages and backgrounds are still looking for solutions to accomplish their work, and they’re finding these solutions in Web tools that aid communication and administration.” One of those selected, Yvonne Dayries, saw the effects of Hurricane Katrina in her own home. Furniture was scattered everywhere. Her refrigerator was floating. “Cabinets were pulled down like someone ripped them from the wall,” Dayries said in her testimonial video. Her memories, her children’s pictures, the history of her family was gone. “But I decided that I was going to go out and see what I could do in the community,” she said. Yvonne became the volunteer manager for a Louisiana disaster relief organization dedicated to helping rebuild the affected areas. With volunteers arriving from around the world, the information coming in and out needed to be well managed. “We had no system set up,” Yvonne said. “We had no organization. We needed a system to manage data. E-zekiel May 2010

has helped our agency to organize the volunteer database in an effective and efficient way.” For Bill Gammell, his testimonial was based on a basic need: creating a Web site for a small Mississippi congregation. The folks at Saltillo First United Methodist Church knew they needed a Web site but couldn’t find the right solution. That changed when Gammell discovered E-zekiel and was able to get his church on the Web without any need of technical skills. “From my experience with E-zekiel, if you have a computer, you don’t really need the technical know-how that you might think,” Gammell said in his video. “If I can do it, I think anyone can do it.” Among the other videos, Glenn Davis talked about the use of E-zekiel.tv to help share videos during worship services and on the Web site of Countryside Christian Center, a Florida congregation of about 4,000. And Bob Fielding, in his role as national and international missions coordinator for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, needed a better way to connect 1475 churches to missions opportunities in North America and internationally. He explains that once he began using the HelpRoot system, he was able to post mission job requests in a much easier fashion than before. “I can literally cut and paste from an email sent to me by a missionary right into the system, and it’s instantly available to churches online,” Fielding said on video. “It really simplifies your life.” Creating the Videos With stories like these waiting to be told, the taping went smoothly. From a logistical standpoint, the plan worked better to bring all the participants and the video crew to the Axletree Media offices in Birmingham, rather than having the video crew travel to each location. The testimonial participants were scheduled for taping sessions over a two-day period. “Shooting the interviews for this particular project was like watching a windup toy,” Hamilton said. “We asked each person how E-zekiel’s Web design and hosting services helped their organization, and they would talk about how they achieved their goals until we were out of time and tape. In the end, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to condense the interviews into bite-size pieces because the customers had so many great things to say about E-zekiel’s products, which in this case, was the best problem to have.” Besides the actual interviews, another part of the process was deciding how the stories would be told in technical terms. “Another decision we had to consider early on was the style of the presentation,” Otis said. “That not only included the visual graphics, but also the level and class of special effects and polish.” Axletree Media knew through talking with The Electric Company that they didn’t want “talking heads.” Yet while they focused on the individual for the shoot, one thing that helped give visual interest and reinforce the main points of each testimonial came in the form of a chalkboard. In addition to the on-camera testimonial, the video crew shot footage of participants holding a small chalkboard with key words that reinforced their stories. “We ended up with more effects than we anticipated, but they are all very subtle so the overall style did not change,” Otis said. Now that the videos were done, the next step: releasing them to the public. “Because we have E-zekiel.tv, it was easy to choose that as our primary delivery vehicle,” Otis said. “We also subsequently released the videos on other video-sharing sites and linked it through social media and customer communications.” For Axletree Media, the satisfaction of a “job well done” was more than the display of their own tools. “We were happy to be a part of the customers sharing their success stories. But more than that, we were pleased that our software played a part in helping achieve their goals. One of our hopes is that these stories will inspire others to do the same,” Otis said. “Even in Axletree Media’s case, the process we went through to create these videos is not much different than a church or ministry would go through,” Otis added. “And I think the fact that they are using technology, and none would consider themselves techno-savvy, is an important part of their messages.” To view the eight videos, visit www.e-zekiel.tv.

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

ACS

ACS ideas to impact

Special Events Planning

from ACS Technologies

pecial events are some of the most valuable and visible aspects of the church ministry, attracting potential new attendees and members to the congregation. The following article focuses on event planning. It has been excerpted from the ACS Technologies ministry guide Events from Start to Finish.

The way the administration of church events is handled is a critical and often daunting task--both in organizing the event and managing the people that coordinate the event. The planning portion of the events process includes: • Building an event team to plan and execute the event • Identify the target group • Brainstorm event ideas • Stay on task Build An Event Team The first step in planning events is to put together an “event team,” consisting of church staff, leaders, and members who can plan the event and make it happen. Those involved will benefit from using their gifts and experiences to serve the church; more people involved means greater creativity and fewer chances of being unprepared for the event. After determining the gifts and abilities of the congregation, churches can use volunteer management software to help organize the data. Performing a simple search will help find people with relevant interests and skills to volunteer for the event. Identify The Target Group Look at the people the church is best equipped to serve—those that currently attend—and try to attract a similar group of people. Plan events with the target group in mind; focus on the church’s strengths, the programs offered, and the church’s worship style to naturally connect with the Christian Computing® Magazine

target group. It is also crucial to identify the demographics of the community. This information helps determine appropriate events for the community. Event Ideas Another important aspect of event planning is understanding the people trying to be reached. Understanding their hopes and fears will help the church offer events that address their needs and attract them to the church. Ask questions about who they are, what concerns they have, and what interests they like to pursue. The answers received will help further determine appropriate events to hold in the community. For instance, depending on the community, the church may consider offering: • Blood drives • Bereavement support • Literacy classes • English language classes • Job skills or training • Sports leagues Stay On Task First, consult the church-wide calendar to choose a date, time, and event location that works for the team and target group. Many churches use ministry-scheduling software that interfaces with their church management software, allowing them to create event calendars. These calendars can be placed on the church Web site or sent to a PDA quickly and easily. This type of scheduling software eliminates disorganization and overbooking. May 2010

Effective Calendar Use • Allow staff, leaders, and members to create their own calendars • Add events not just to personal calendars, but to multiple calendars at the same time • Add events as recurring or spanning multiple days • Create an infinite number of calendars and event types • Keep calendars updated • View resource availability on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis • Book extra time between events for setup and teardown • Give authorization to view and add events to each calendar to those who need it After scheduling the event, make a list of tasks and resources needed for the event: audio/visual equipment, online or onsite registration, food, security, publicity, or anything necessary to make the event a success. This list should also include volunteer needs. Estimate how many volunteers are needed and what skills they should have, then delegate responsibilities accordingly. Consider using the church Web site to post task lists. With an online data management system, volunteers can have passwordprotected access to their list so they can log on and update it. Leaders can then identify areas where help is needed. First Step to Success Planning is crucial to the success of special events. Building the team and defining the target group allows churches to come up with ideas that appeal to the community and make it easier on the event team to stay on task prior to the event. By implementing these ideas the bar can be raised in any special-events ministry and move the church closer to accomplishing its vision. To get more information about how ACS Technologies can help churches be more effective in event-planning & measurement efforts, download the ACS ministry guide Events from Start to Finish.

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

accelerating the dynamic church

Is Your Church Creative?

from Fellowship Technologies

notable characteristic of dynamic churches is the freedom their staff has to imagine new possibilities. Creativity is defined by the use of our imagination for new ideas. “Imagination is the keystone, the most important building block for anything human ¸ !CCELERATING 4HE $YNAMIC #HURCH beings do,” says Tony Baxter, Senior V.P. of Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Baxter should know, too, as Disney has set the standard for creativity for decades. What Disney’s Imaginers’ know is that the power of creativity is greatly enhanced when a team of people is involved. Creative Teams There’s a saying that “teamwork divides the work and multiplies the results.” That’s true because the sum of the parts is exponential when people work together. While some people tend to be more creative than others, repeatedly relying on a single person will sap them of their creative energy. When a creative team approach is employed, those who may not see themselves as being creative can become a voice in the creative process and the highly creative members have more input to spur on their creative energies. One of the benefits of teams is the shared knowledge base. As projects come up, no single person holds key information hostage. The culpability and accountability are also shared, motivating teams to see a creative solution through. Another benefit to creative teams is the synergy that builds camaraderie while allowing for differences in opinions.

The Impact We’ll measure our results by the impact we make on our local communities and in how we interact & influence people outside of our church walls. The greatest measurement will be how seamlessly our people use innovation to reach our neighbors in tangible and relevant ways. Creativity and innovation without application are just ideas, not solutions. Follow through with those ideas, leverage creative teams and become known for fresh, new ideas for communicating the timeless truths of God.

Got Creativity? We’re all created in the image of God – the very author of creativity. It follows that we’re all creative in some way or another. Leveraging creative teams is part art and part science. A helpful resource for building and working with creative teams is the book “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward de Bono. If your creative meetings bog down into conflicts of personalities or focus on unimportant points, de Bono’s book will teach you how to create a simpler way to think about issues that involves the entire team. In the same way that excellence is doing something very well with what you have, creativity only requires intentionality and the freedom to do things outside of normal routines. “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way,” says de Bono. Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

tech talk

Mozilla Thunderbird E-Mail Client Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson - docwatson3228@qwest.net

ay back when I reviewed and recommended the Mozilla Firefox web browser, I also took a look at Thunderbird (TB), Mozilla’s e-mail client. At that time, I just wasn’t all that impressed. That has changed. With 3.0, TB (www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/) has reached a whole new level. Let’s take a look. Inexplicably, Windows 7 does not include an e-mail program as did previous versions of Windows (Outlook Express and Windows Mail). Because of that, many users are faced with finding a new client, of which there are many: Opera, Pegasus, IncrediMail, Mulberry, Foxmail, Eudora, etc. TB, however, is IMHO, the best e-mail client in the field of free choices (it is open source, by-the-way). It can, in fact, serve as a complete replacement for Outlook because of its full-featured Personal Information Manager capabilities. But I’m getting ahead of myself. New Features Besides its pretty simple to use interface, it’s really TB’s new features that recommend it, so we’ll stick mostly to those. First and foremost, in the modern tradition of tabbed applications, TB does tabbed e-mail, enabling you to load e-mails Christian Computing® Magazine

in separate tabs and quickly jump between them (note the tabs in Figure 1). Just right-click on a message in the list and select “Open Message in new Tab” from the context menu. This is great if you need to open several emails for reference as

Fig. 1 – Thunderbird 3.0, the best free (open source) e-mail client around.

May 2010

you compose another. BTW, if you close TB, open tabs will be saved and then restored when you open TB the next time. Another very nice new feature is the Archive folder system. I often want to keep a message but don’t want it cluttering up my Inbox either. What to do, what to do! Well, now I can archive it. I can either click the “Archive” button, right-click on a message and select “Archive” from the context menu, or just press the shortcut key A. This automatically creates a new “Archive” folder (if it doesn’t already exist), naming it using the year it was created (Fig. 1). The message is automatically moved to this folder. Fig. 2 – Thunderbird 3.0’s Add-ons Manager. New search capabilities are also an impressive improvement in TB3. For one thing, it indexes your emails, TB3’s Address Book has also been imand as any database guru knows, search speed is proved. Its one-click feature is a quick and easy directly proportionate to indexing. The interface way to add people to your address book. Just click contains filtering (including “and”/“or” operators), on the star icon in the message you receive to add and search results are displayed in a tab so you someone to the book. With a couple more clicks can easily switch back and forth from your search you can now add more details such as a photo, results to other e-mails. birthday, and other contact information. Have you ever meant to send an attachment In case you don’t know what RSS (Really to someone but after composing your message for- Simple Syndication) feeds are, they are a family of got to actually attach it to the message? Of course web feed formats used to publish frequently updatyou have. The new attachment reminder looks for ed works—including blog entries, news headlines, the word “attachment” (and other words, such as audio, and video—in a standardized format. An file types) in your message and reminds you to RSS document (commonly called a feed) includes add the attachment before hitting send. Very nice full or summarized text, plus metadata such as touch. publishing dates and authorship. All that to say TB2 was pretty good with handling junk that TB has a built-in RSS feed reader. mail, and 3 is even better. Every e-mail you re TB3 now has a very nice Mail Account ceive passes through junk mail filters. When you Setup Wizard. You used to have to know your mark a message as spam, TB “learns” and imIMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS) settings, but all you need proves its filtering. On a related note, TB3 helps to provide now is your name, e-mail address, and protect you from “phishing”—e-mail scams that password; the wizard checks Mozilla’s database try to trick you into handing over personal and and finds the email settings for you. confidential information—by alerting you to such BTW, in case you’re wondering, if you attempts. It also warns you when you click on a switch to TB, it easily imports everything (address link that appears to be taking you to a different books, mail, settings, and filters) from either Outwebsite than the one indicated by the URL in the look or Outlook Express (Tools > Import). message. Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

You can access many more add-ons by clicking the “See All Recommended Add-ons” link at the bottom of the manager. One add-on that is by itself worth switching to TB for is Lightning (Fig. 3), a full-featured Personal Information Manager (Fig. 3). It’s faster than the bloated Outlook, uses less resources, does everything most users need, and as noted earlier imports everything. Once installed, Lightning is on its own tab (note Fig. 1 again). Figure 3 displays the Month view, but you’ll also notice tabs for Day, Week, and Multiweek. The “New Event” dialog box shown appears by double-clicking a day on the calendar. Lightning includes what all good PIMs provide: scheduling, tasks, events, alarms, color coding for just about everything, and other whatnot. (BTW, Fig. 3 – Lighting, a full-featured PIM integrated with Thunderbird. if you would prefer just a standalone PIM without the integration with the TB Add-ons e-mail client, take a look at Mozilla Sunbird (www. You no longer have to visit the add-ons web site. TB now has an Add-ons Manager (“Tools mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/.) Finally, to spruce up the TB environment, > Add-ons,” Fig. 2), which you can use to find, you can choose from dozens of themes. How about download, and install TB add-ons (including exten“Walnut” (Fig. 4)? Enjoy! sions, themes, and plugins). It even includes ratings, recommendations, descriptions, and pictures of the add-ons to help you decide which ones are for you. One recommended add-on, for example, is AdBlock, which removes online advertising and blocks known malware domains. It’s supported by over forty filter subscriptions, as well as enabling you to customize your filters with the assistance of a variety of useful features, including: a context option for images, a block tab for Flash and Java objects, and a list of blockable items to remove scripts and style sheets. ImageZoom is a nice little add-on that enables you to zoom in and out, fit an image to the screen, or set custom zoom on individual images within a web page. This is really handy for seeing the finer details of pictures. Fig. 4 – The “Walnut” theme for Thunderbird, just one of dozens of themes.

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

higher power with kevin

Bible Apps for the iPad Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

With the release of Apple’s iPad I wanted to give you a roundup of all the Bible apps available for the new device. I will share some pluses and minuses of these apps, but for a more detailed review go to my web site at http://www.kevinpurcell.org/bible-study. I have divided the apps into two categories. It is unfair to compare some of these apps with others. Simple Bible Readers are not as powerful as serious Bible Study apps. It would be like comparing a Honda Civic to a Ferrari. So keep that in mind as you read on. Also keep in mind the following: • I was given promo codes to review the paid apps • When I call an app an iPhone app I am referring to the iPod Touch as well • Most of these are Universal apps meaning they run on both the iPad and iPhone for the same cost Finally, I know I promised that this would be my last iPad column, but there are just too many of these to fit fairly into one. So this month I will cover the simpler Bible Reader apps, and next month I will cover the more powerful Bible Study apps. AcroBible – http://www.acrobible.com ($5.99 for basic app, $4.99 for some additional translations, others free) Christian Computing® Magazine

AcroBible comes with the KJV. For $4.99 you can download the ESV, NASB, NIV or NKJV for $4.99 each. Others are free including some references books. With AcroBible you can add notes, highlighting and tags. You can track your history through the Bible. I especially like how you can split the screen to show your notes and tags. However, AcroBible lacks daily Bible reading tracking, which is a big omission. The app is slightly more than just a simple Bible Reader because it has some open source reference books, like commentaries and dictionaries. I chose to put it in the Bible Reader category though because, while you can do a little more than just reading and marking up the Bible, it would be unfair to compare it to the others; they are just far more advanced. If you have the iPhone version, wait until it is updated to the iPad Universal app so you can use it on both devices. This may have happened by the time you read this. May 2010

Bible HD from YouVersion – http://www.youversion (Free) The Bible app from YouVersion is one of the most popular in the app store. It is mostly a Bible reader offering a number of translations that you can view if you are connected to the Internet. There are others that can be downloaded for reading offline. With Bible HD you can share verses via social networking sites. You can also search the Bible and bookmark verses. They have plans to update the app with more integration with their YouVersion.com web site. If you have not tried the site out, give it a look. It is like a social networking site for Bible readers. There is also a very nice lowlight reading mode where the text is white and the background is black. I think every single Bible reader/Study app should have this functionality. So the fact that Bible HD has it is a big plus. Sadly, much of the content requires an Internet connection, although not all. So this is a big consideration for Wi-Fi only iPad users. BibleScope - http://www.biblescopeapp.com ($3.99 for with KJV; $9.99 with The Message and ERV; $29.99 with NIV, The Message, ERV)

Christian Computing® Magazine

Aside from the content listed above; BibleScope also has some free books you can download. It has a split screen view, which should be a must on the iPad. But one thing that is strange, when in landscape mode and you tap the translation button at the bottom, it offers to change either the “Main (top) Display” or the “Secondary” bottom one. In landscape mode they are actually left/right, not top/ bottom. This is a minor UI mistake, but it can be confusing. You can add notes and bookmarks and sync them for back up. That is a nice touch for users of both the iPad and iPhone. You can sync one and restore to the other. The full version of BibleScope is a little more expensive, but you get more with it. Like AcroBible it knocks on the door of the Bible Study category. Since it has daily reading tracking, I would put it slightly ahead of AcroBible even though AcroBible is a little more polished. BibleXpress - http://www.biblexpress.com ($2.99 for the lite version; $29.99 for complete version) BibleXpress is also a little more than just a Bible reader in both function and price. That’s because it has multiple translations including ESV, KJV, NASB and NRSV among others. The only reference book it offers is

May 2010

the Easton’s Bible Dictionary. If you want modern translations and offline reading, then it might be worth the cost. It has the ability to add user notes and has excellent navigational features and in the left hand margin there is a white space that is sometimes populated by translation notes similar to how your paper Bible has margin notes. You can add bookmarks and track prayer requests with the built-in journal. You can view requests by person, category or date. This added feature makes the cost of BibleXpress worth it. ESV Bible HD from Crossway - http://mobile.esv.org (Free) One of the first Bible readers I downloaded was the elegant ESV Bible HD. It has a simple, clean interface. To move via the books you tap the Browse button on the toolbar. Alternatively, you can scroll from the beginning of Genesis all the way to the last verse in Revelation. If you want to trace your steps there is a History button. There are also buttons for creating Bookmarks, and Search. The settings are sparse; you access them via the button on the far right. The translation notes (little superscript letters and numbers) will bring up a window to display the notes. From that window you can tap the Highlight button and it will highlight the verse for you. You can also add a Bookmark or post the verse via Twitter or share it via email. Tap the

Christian Computing® Magazine

My Notes button and you can add your own notes with the keyboard. Finally, you can also access this popup window by pressing and holding on the verse. HandiBible - http://www.handibible.com/About.aspx ($.99 for KJV version; $1.99 for Romanian version; $9.99 for The Message version; $14.99 for the German version) HandiBible is also a very simple Bible reader. It has a toolbar across the top and the reading window. That is about it. You scroll through chapters and the left/right arrows move back/forward a chapter. Tap the Find button and the rolling drum pops up that lets you choose which book, chapter and verse you want to go to. The Share button allows you to email a friend to send them either a link to the app or to send “comments” I suppose about the verse. It would be nice if it placed the content of the verse or chapter in the email. One frustrating thing about the app is that it kicks you out of the app to open your Mail app. You then have to manually go back to HandiBible. It is nice to have the Bible offline, but I wish it had copy functionality and low light reading mode. I do like the zooming via the pinch gesture where you put two fingers on the screen and act like you are pinching. An update is around the corner and may be available before this article is released.

May 2010

holiwrit - http://holiwrit.com (Free for Gospels only; $.99 for whole Bible) holiwrit is a nice Bible reader. Yes I spelled it correctly. The “h” is not capitalized, which is confusing. While I don’t really like the name, I like the app. It has the ability to copy verses so you can paste them into other apps. Navigation is a little unusual. If you want to move quickly to another part of the Bible you will tap the Table of Contents button in the upper left corner. When you do, the tabs slide down showing two rows – one for books of the Bible and the second one for chapters. You swipe to make the tabs move left/right. The developer’s description reads, “Are you a pastor? A Theologian? A Master of Divinity? This app is not for you.” He is right if you want a lot of features. But if all you want is to read the New English Translation of the Bible, then holiwrit is one of the best looking of the Bible reader apps. Holy Bible HD - http://www.peejstudio. com/iphone/holybible.php (Free) Holy Bible HD comes with a few Bibles including the KJV and NET. You can download others, most of which are foreign language translations; but it does have the LXX. It is a very simple app. You can copy verses and add bookmarks, highlights and chapter notes. One unique feature is the automatic scrolling. There is a down arrow on the bottom toolbar. Tap it and the verses scroll up slowly. Free and simple make this a good choice for those who only want a Bible reader and don’t mind not having more modern translations. Touch Bible - http://www.touchbible.org (Free; $3.99 for “loaded” version) Touch Bible has a number of translations, but other than the NET, none are the more recent versions. It does give you offline access and is free “because the Bible is an incredible book that everyone should have,” says the developer. Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

Touch Bible has a low light or as they call it “night mode” and another unique features is “dial a verse” which is your book, chapter, verse chooser. The last column is the history of where you have already been in the Bible. But that’s not the cool part. If you shake your iPad it will go to a random verse. Add to that some advanced search options and you have a unique and simple Bible app. Other benefits: you can copy from Touch Bible by tapping and holding the words. When you tap the verse number a popup displays options for bookmarking, highlighting and adding notes to a verse. If the translation has translation notes, then there will be buttons in the text which can be tapped to reveal the notes. Touch Bible is a great Bible reader with a lot to offer. If it had more modern translations it would be the best of this category of Bible apps. World Bible for iPad ($4.99) World Bible is an attractive Bible reader app, but it suffers from two major weaknesses. For that reason I cannot recommend it. First, it has no verse numbers in the text? That is amazing to me. Second, when you follow the link in the app store to the company’s web site you will find that they also sell one other morally questionable app. I choose not to support that, so I will not recommend the app. Conclusion All of these, with the exception of the last app, are good choices. If you want offline reading, then do not select the YouVersion. TouchBible has the best features but not the best translations. That crown goes to AcroBible Christian Computing® Magazine

or BibleXpress. My recommendation is pick what is most important – a specific translation, offline reading, lowlight reading, note taking, highlighting, bible reading tracking, or something else. And pick the apps that offer what you most want and try it first. Download all the free versions and compare them. And you may just want to wait before sinking too much cash into an app. I will be reviewing Logos, MantisBible, OliveTree, and PocketBible next month.

May 2010

nick at church

Mac’s Amazing Reputation Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

he Mac has an amazing reputation. If I could sum it up in one sentence: The Mac is a beautifully crafted computer whose operating system is so well engineered that it is not susceptible to malware attacks nor does it ever have problems, and it is comparable in price when compared to Windows computers, in part, because it is so trouble free. I agree with the first part: it is beautifully crafted. From a look and feel perspective, it is the nicest computer I have ever worked on. In fact, I probably love working on it because of how nice it is to sit in front of! But the other parts of its reputation are pure myth. I’m sorry, that is just the truth. Operating System As I wrote in a 2008 article, the operating system is easy to completely trash. I had another near call this week when I needed to delete some large reference files on my hard drive to make room for some I needed while serving a client. After deleting nearly 90gb of files to make room for the 110gb of files I needed to temporarily put on the desktop, my MacBook Pro started behaving poorly. I’ve gone through Mac OS issues enough times now to suspect that the hard drive had a bad set of permissions. So I ran the Disk Utility and told it to repair my permissions on the hard drive, and it had hundreds to repair. I can honestly say that I have never had a similar issue on a Windows hard drive, but this is the fifth or sixth time I’ve experienced it on the Mac. Christian Computing® Magazine

Susceptibility to Malware While speaking to a church’s staff this week, I was asked about this; it is a common myth. The issue is that those who write malware (viruses, trojans, keystroke trackers, etc) do so to make a name for themselves in the hacker subculture, and Macs don’t have enough market share to let one have much of an impact on the worldwide computing public. In addition, Macs are an easy target; so again, writing malware for them wouldn’t do much to bolster one’s reputation. Thus, there just isn’t much malware that is written for the Mac, which makes the unassuming public believe they are impervious to attack! Price Macs cost more than similarly equipped Windows com puters; usually 75% to 125% more. That’s the plain and simple truth. Perception is Everything! Most Mac users are very forgiving of Apple when they encounter a flaw, saying things like, “Oh, Apple will fix that in the next update.” But when they see a flaw in Windows, they are quick to point May 2010

out how bad Microsoft is, as though it were the Evil Empire. This is true of people in most aspects of life. If someone makes a serious mistake due to poor judgment, others will typically have one of two responses: 1. If they like the person, they’ll say, “Oh, everyone’s entitled to make a mistake now and then.” 2. If they don’t like the person, they’ll say, “It was just a matter of time before they really blew it!” It’s just human nature! Like 1 Corinthians 13:5 & 7 says, “love keeps no record of wrongs... always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (NIV) Would I Buy Another Mac? I’m asked that question a lot! Because of the job I have, the answer is yes. I could not support our clients’ Mac users without one. If I were buying a personal computer, the answer is probably yes. Because they are nice to look at, if I had the extra cash to do so, I probably would! When asked that question, I tell people the objective facts as I’ve explained them here. When I ask them if that matches the perception they had of the Mac, they always say no! My next question is usually, “And what other commercials and marketing hype do you totally believe?” Nick Nicholaou is president of MBS, a consulting firm specializing in church and ministry computer networks, operational policies, and CPA services. You can reach Nick via email (nick@mbsinc.com) and may want to check out his firm’s website (www. mbsinc.com) and his blog at http://ministryit.blogspot.com.

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

launching online

Selecting Amongst Open Source Options

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

e’re continuing the series on “Launching Online” – capturing the decisions faced and lessons learned in launching a new online ministry/business. Last month we talked about why we selected an open source starting point for our online social network ministry.

As you’ll recall, I noted that an open source solution gives us the benefit of a fully featured starting point, plus the opportunity to create unique capabilities that will set our service apart from all the secular services already out there. But, as I noted, I want to both make changes to the open source foundation, and also benefit from advances introduced by others to the open source starting point. This can get messy and it was critical to consider how we would manage this messiness before jumping in. What Options Are Out There? In starting our search for an open source social networking platform, we first needed to identify the functionality we wanted. The goal was to connect Christian families with the people, resources, and tools to train up young men and women to the Glory of God. We envisioned three dimensions to this task: academics, social opportunities, and homeschool administration. We also needed a way to generate funding for the service, so we needed to think about revenue generation from the beginning. Christian Computing® Magazine

Some of the specific functionality we envisioned included: • Tools for finding other like minded parent educators (forums, blogs, etc.) • Online reviews of curriculum, social opportunities, books, videos, etc. • A classified ads system for buying and selling used curriculum and resources • Bible study tools • Library search tools • An online writing journal • Calendar and scheduling tools • Online photo albums • Lesson plan and grade book tools • Online checklists and homework assignment/ tracking • Typical social networking tools including status, messageboard, messaging, chat, etc. However, the most important feature for us was giving parents the authority to set boundMay 2010

is “Elgg is free and open source software. It provides Do you want to save time, get more done and the components you need to have fewer headaches? Then Donarius Church build a fully-featured social Management Software will make it easy for you environment, including: to track your members, contributions, pledges Starting at $59.97 Profiles, Activity Streams, and more. Imagine what you can do with the for the base version with 25% off for small churches extra time! Donarius will also: Blogging / Microblogging, Groups, Access controls, and • Print your tax receipts Download a free demo at: • Show the giving pattern of your members Web Services API.” www.donarius.com • Print your church directories Elgg is true open 1-888-479-4636 • Send personalized letters, emails and text source. There are no fees Nuverb Systems Inc. messages to keep your members informed “Software tailored for you” associated with the software, although Curverider, the aries for their children in using all of the above. original developer, has recently introduced hosting Of course, I didn’t expect to find all of this and customization services as options. Elgg is also in a package already out there – in fact, if it alconstantly being extended by developers around ready existed there was no reason for us to create the world who develop and share “plugins”. There Hschooler! But we needed to find a package with currently are over 900 plugins available and 5 new the flexibility to create these capabilities. (As ones have been submitted in the past week. a side note, we haven’t yet created all of these We first experimented with Dolphin. The features, but have implemented the parent controls feature list for Dolphin is much richer than what and about half of the other capabilities.) comes out of the box with Elgg and the user in What we found was a broad selection of terface is much more polished. We were able to open source social network tools. Many were quickly get into the source code and make simple single function packages, such as to create a book- modifications. However, it concerned us that the mark sharing network or a news headline sharing modifications we were making were directly into service. So we quickly narrowed our considerthe core functionality of the package. It also bothation down to two different packages: Dolphin and ered us that Dolphin seemed particularly oriented Elgg. towards developing dating sites. Our initial work Dolphin bills itself as “the world’s most effort was digging in to turn off many of the feaadvanced community software” and describes tures that apparently are popular in worldly dating itself in this way: “Open-source, independent, and that certainly didn’t represent the kind of indownloadable, scalable, customizable, full-feaformation that Christian parents want their children tured, free software for building social networks, to share. dating sites and web-communities. Loaded with So, we quickly switched our focus to Elgg. video chat, recorder, video player, forums, groups, Elgg is architected as a core set of functionality events, video messenger, mailbox, desktop app, supplemented with plugins. Aspects of the core video sharing, photo sharing, iPhone app and (for example, formatting how information is premuch more. Build your own business or advance sented) can be modified by a plug-in extension or your hobby with Dolphin!” override. Plugins can provide virtually limitless Dolphin’s licensing is a bit different from additional capabilities, and much of the value in most open source projects. You can download the Elgg comes from plugins that have been developed code, use it, modify it, etc. just like any other open by independent coders. source package. But, unless you pay them a fee Elgg is also very focused on control over for a commercial license ($99 for a year+ or $299 privacy. Every entity in Elgg (a user profile, a for lifetime) you must leave in fairly intrusive blog post, a photo, a photo album, etc.) has an links back to BoonEx, the developer of Dolphin. access setting that limits those who see the entity. The Dolphin software also appears to be complete- This access structure became our first priority, ly developed by the BoonEx team. giving parents the ability to set the broadest access Elgg’s tagline is “a powerful open source boundary within which their family members can social networking platform” and their description share information.

“How to have more time for ministry!”

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

Perhaps most importantly, since Elgg keeps the core separate from the plugins, if I make all of my modifications within plugins (including overrides for core functionality), then I can easily upgrade to the latest version of Elgg without fear that I’ll lose the modifications I’ve made. Since starting on Hschooler.net, Elgg has progressed from version 1.5 to version 1.7.1. Dolphin, meanwhile, has progressed from 6.1.4 to 7.0.1. Making the Choice By now, you may have guessed that we went with Elgg. The major factors in our decision included: • Elgg is really free and enjoys the full benefits of open source • Through plugins, Elgg’s capabilities are constantly being extended and provide a good starting point towards our desired functionality • Dolphin’s focus on worldly dating activities is in conflict with Hschooler.net’s focus • Elgg is structured around privacy controls that could be modified to meet our most important need • The separation of our enhancements from the core Elgg software simplifies our ability to take advantage of Elgg updates Your evaluation criteria undoubtedly will vary, but hopefully considering how we approached our decision will be helpful in developing your own criteria. Russ McGuire is an executive for a Fortune 100 company and the founder/co-founder of three technology start-ups. His latest entrepreneurial venture is Hschooler.net (http://hschooler.net), a social network for Christian families (especially homeschoolers) which is being built and run by three homeschooled students under Russ’ direction.

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

ministry communication

Why You CAN and SHOULD Create Your Own Blogs and Websites Part One Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com

on’t panic—I am not suggesting that every senior pastor or church leader drop the website creation and maintenance service they currently use, get a Mac; learn html, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop. The current service you use may be working out fine and if you have an affinity for the Mac and high end graphics, you are most likely comfortable in your work. This article isn’t for you, but for everyone else working in church communications, please read on to understand... My goal in this article is not to make every church leader into a webmaster Just because you can paint a room doesn’t mean that when the church needs repainting that you pick up a paintbrush and begin. It doesn’t mean that because you change the oil in your car yourself that when the engine needs a tune-up, you do it. But as in the instances above, if you have experience in painting or car repair, even on a modest scale, you can better understand and evaluate the work of others, so too with work on the web. If you have done some work on the web, even on a limited scale, your work overall in the digital areas of church ministry will be far more effective.

extremely simple. For example, in print communication, when desktop publishing was first invented and the primary way of doing it was with Aldus PageMaker, yes it was “easier” to create a church newsletter than in the days of when you have to specify and order type and then physically layout the page, but you still had to painstakingly set up columns, select type, leading, and line width. Adding images, especially photographs, was a complex and time-consuming job. Fast forward to today, when a layout that took hours in the past, is available to anyone completely finished and ready-to-use in the form of dozens of templates in Microsoft Publisher.

Why you CAN create your own blogs and websites If you can type an email message or a word processed document with the computer you can create your own websites and blogs. As with many of the tasks that we do with the computer today, what used to be very difficult has become

Blog and website creation today is just as easy as creating professional print documents in Microsoft Publisher When websites were first created they were most often coded in html (hypertext markup language). Complex and expensive programs like Dreamweaver or cheap

Christian Computing® Magazine

May 2010

and complex programs like FrontPage were required. These programs were not for the faint of heart or those who needed to do other things than sit at a computer for hours. Just as print creation has changed drastically with the invention of MS Publisher, so too website create has changed drastically with the invention of systems such as WordPress. Yes, there are similar programs such as Joomla and others, but I will focus on WordPress because that is the system I use for my ministry website: www.effectivechurchcom.com and the one I use to create ministry blogs for our church. I LOVE this program. It really is as easy to use as word-processing (once you learn the basics, more about that in a minute) and using it to create a blog or website can be extremely empowering. Don’t confuse vocabulary difficulty with skill difficulty The actual skills you need to learn to use programs like WordPress are minimal. What is difficult and not intuitive is the vocabulary, especially for those of us who did not grow up with computers. Once you learn what the program creators are talking about, using it becomes simple. An example of this is the term “dashboard.” For me “dashboard” has always been what is in a car. I was very confused when I first looked at WordPress and found that it was controlled through the “dashboard.” The term in conjunction with the web meant nothing to me and I had no idea how to control anything through it. After I watched an online video about it, I found out that the “dashboard” is the part of the website where you can add new articles, edit things, look at your site statistics and perform other tasks. It was very simple to use —once I learned what the term meant. The language of the web is the language of the future of communications One of the most important reasons for learning to do your own blogs and websites is that all communication is moving to digital formats and if you do not learn to communicate in this way, you will become mute in this method of communicating the gospel. I don’t know how long it will take for digital communication to become the primary communication method. I have no idea how long we will to continue to Christian Computing® Magazine

create communications in many formats from paper to web-based. I do know that for the lifetime of many of you reading this that you will continue to carry the burden of needing to create communications in every form you can imagine from your bulletin to your church website. Paper production may never totally fade, but for certain, from now on, it will always be one of many forms, not the primary one. Learning how to do even a simple blog with WordPress will teach you the grammar of digital creation. You may not become an expert speaker, but you will be able to navigate the digital landscape. I do believe in practicing what I preach and I don’t want to leave you without practical help. I am offering free instructions and WEBINARS on how to create websites with WordPress. Please go to www.effectivechurchcom. com for the schedule and articles. The information will be in a special side-bar notice on the homepage. This is an intimidating task and next month I’ll have more reasons for you. If you have specific questions you’d like me to answer in this upcoming article on in the Webinars, please email me at yvon@effectivechurchcom. com.

May 2010