ccmag2010_07

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

July 2010

No. 7

7 cover story

EC Group Paves the Way for Bible Translation Acceleration by Lauren Hunter

Copy Editor Gina Hewitt

3 editorial

The Buck Stops Here - It Was My Fault!

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

4 Press Releases 12 Special Feature

Help Brand Your Church with Customized Tickets for Your Event

By Lauren Hunter

13 Special Feature Are YOU Ready?

By Phillip Elmore

14 ACS ideas to impact

Children’s Ministries In the 21st Century

from ACS Technologies

16 accelerating the dynamic church

Dynamic Churches Communicate Effectively

17 tech talk

from Fellowship Technologies

Windows Live SkyDrive: Another Freebie from Microsoft

20 higher power with kevin

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

Making All Your PCs Play Together

24 big ministry - small resources

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

Wag the Dog

26 launching online

By Bradley Miller - bradley.w.miller@gmail.com

Accepting Payment

30 nick at church

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

Nick’s Mobile Tools

32 ministry communication

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

Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

Corporate Home Office

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 Use a Website to Revive Adult Sunday School and Encourage Outreach

Yvon Prehn - yvonprehn@aol.com

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

Christian Computing® Magazine

July 2010

editorial

The Buck Stops Here - It Was My Fault! Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

n last month’s editorial, I encouraged our readers to rush to our Web site to register for a chance to win a FREE $500 Apple gift card. We picked that reward because many people want to purchase an iPad or an iPhone, and with a gift card, they can apply it to the product they wish. However, our Web site was really not ready for my announcement. I pushed my staff into a situation they were not prepared for, at a time when many were going to be either on vacation or on other projects. As a result, many of our readers were left confused and a little disappointed in CCMag. So, this month, I want to apologize both to my staff, as well as to our readership, for pushing this forward when it wasn’t really ready. We haven’t made a public announcement about this yet, but our Web site was hacked about 6 weeks earlier. Actually, our Web site had been under attack for over three months before the actual break-in. When our site was hacked, we actually were offline one complete day, and our Web staff, led by my son Mike, has been rebuilding. It would have been easy to purge the Malware that infected our site, but Mike made the decision to rebuild and reorganize in such a way as to provide the needed security to insure that this doesn’t happen again. This meant encrypting around 5,000+ pages of code and implementing several new layers of security. This has been a great blessing in disguise, since it has pushed us to open several new features we have talked about, such as guest registration (which is required if you wish to leave a comment after an article or to access our back issues). And, we have some other exciting new features that are in the works. However, many of the basics simply were not ready when my announcement encouraged many to rush to our site to register for this contest. First, it was hard to find the registration button. Second, once you registered, there was no mention of the contest. In addition, at the time, several of our links were not working, and our staff had not finished fine-tuning the registration form. All of this caused some confusion, and it caused Mike to have some extra long hours at a time he was to be off from CCMag involved in some mission work.

Christian Computing® Magazine

So, to all, both staff and readers, I am sorry. I am seeking to learn more patience (never my strongest attribute) and ask the same from you. Our site is still missing a few basics that haven’t been rebuilt since we were hacked. We do not have a “contact us” form up yet, because we don’t just list contact information on a page, but rather use a submit form that is emailed directly to specific staff members; however, I am sure this is coming soon. We also had to take down our CMS online feature comparison chart. We have a new one that is really cool, and it should be ready to post within a month. We are waiting for our ChMS clients to provide the data for the new chart. One of the improvements that has been added with registration is the ability for each ChMS company to provide a representative to register at our site and that representative will be able to log into the chart and update any feature at any time. This will enable our charts (more are coming soon) to be a living document, constantly being updated and current. Finally, if you haven’t visited our site lately and registered, please do so. Hopefully you will be able to find the link, the form will work properly for you, and you make better use of our site and register for the drawing (to be held October 1, 2010). Thanks for your patience, and pray for me to get some extra myself! Together We Serve Him,

Steve Hewitt steve@ccmag.com

July 2010

Press Releases Intuitive New Church Management Software Simplifies Ministry Aimplicity is a beautiful thing. Concordia Technology Solutions, a division of Concordia Publishing House, announces Church360º, a new Church Management Software that makes church management simpler than ever. Concordia Technology Solutions (CTS), a division of Concordia Publishing House (CPH), is a trusted leader in providing technology that helps church leaders efficiently and effectively manage their church ministries. Last week at the LCMS Synodical Convention in Houston, TX, CPH unveiled Church360º, a brand new web based Church Management Software (CMS). The software received a very warm welcome from the attendees. “People responded very positively,” said James Christy, the marketing manager for Church360º. “They were very excited that someone was finally offering a CMS solution that makes sense and is easy to use.” The software is used to manage and grow membership, coordinate schedules, track attendance, manage and track contributions, report on congregation statistics, and much more. But, it is more than a glorified database; the new program allows a Pastor and his staff to spend less time on church management which means they have more time to spend on ministry. “Simplicity is a beautiful thing, and that’s what Church360º offers, a simple and easy to use Church Management Software” said Christy. One major feature that CTS is extremely excited about is the fact that this software is completely web based. That means that Church360º will never need to be installed, instead, customers will just Christian Computing® Magazine

log on securely from anyplace they have an internet connection. It also means that the customer automatically receives updates to Church360° without having to do anything. Plus, the software works on both PC and Macintosh and is compatible with all major web browsers. “The purpose is to give our church pastors and administrators the freedom to work anytime, anywhere it’s convenient for them.” said Christy. “It also provides them with state of the art technology that is extremely reliable, secure and effortless to maintain. For more information or a free, no obligation demonstration of Church360º, please call 1-800325-2399. Tim Cool of Cool Solutions Group Announces FOREVER FREE Version of ministrEspace Software Tim Cool, Chief Solutions Officer of Cool Solutions Group, announced the release of their FOREVER FREE version of the popular ministrEspace room scheduling software. The new version is ideal for smaller church venues with limited funds and facility requirements and those that do not need all of the features of ministrEspace PRO. “When we moved into our newest facility, we began to have a lot of activities happening during the week. We didn’t have anyone specifically designated to reserve spaces in the facility and, needless to say, things would occasionally get a little confusing and messy. Tim introduced us to Ministrespace.com. It also puts the responsibility on our staff to plan ahead and reserve the space that they need in advance. We’re forming good habits! I would recommend this program to any growing church or organization interested in saving money on headache medicine for their staff,” said Beth Brown, Office Assistant, Elevation Church. July 2010

Press Releases As technologies evolve, ministries and churches seek to implement web-based solutions that increase efficiencies and save on costs. In response to the demand, Cool Solutions Group has developed the best web-based solutions available to ministries and the only applications developed by ministry facility experts for ministry facilities. According to Cool, organizations are looking for easy-to-use solutions that do not require a degree in Information Technology to operate. “ ministrEspace is the easiest-to-use room scheduling software anywhere,” says Cool. The new FOREVER FREE version of ministrEspace offers the following features: - Web-based - No long-term contracts or setup fee - Unlimited users - No additional hardware or software to purchase - Easy to set up and use Cool Solutions Group is based in Charlotte, N.C. Visit them online where you can read their blog and find out more information on their products and services at www.coolsolutionsgroup.com. On July 23, 2010, Cool will present a Workshop on Church Facilities Management at the annual National Association of Church Business Administrators conference in Orlando, Fla. To learn more about the solution visit http://ministrEspace.com/setup. Get Online Church Ticketing Software for Free – and Start Reaching Your Community Today MEMPHIS, TN., July 7, 2010 – As the summer begins to heat up, your thoughts might not be focused directly on this year’s upcoming fall productions or Christmas services; however, we all know they will be here sooner than we think. For groups that sign up to use TicketU, ServiceU’s (http:// Christian Computing® Magazine

www.ServiceU.com) church box office software, before December 31, 2010, the first 300 tickets (a $300 value) are free. During the holidays many churches rely on special events – larger and more frequent church services, holiday-themed performances, concerts and even art galleries – to draw people into their church as a form of outreach to the community. These events are wonderful tools to communicate the Gospel beyond your front doors and assist with the overall growth of your church. One of the fastest growing ways of using productions as an outreach tool is the use of online church ticketing software. Instead of simply advertising your event via the Sunday newsletter or bulletin, today you can reach across town or across country to attract those who may have never accessed your church, but may be interested in seeing your latest event. TicketU, the complete solution for church box office management, is looking to help you plan ahead and look more professional all at the same time. “TicketU has streamlined our entire event -- from allowing us to cut down on labor to making it easier for members and nonmembers alike to purchase tickets for our Christmas events,” says Richard Buoscio, director of facilities for Phoenix First Assembly. “We now are able to provide 20,000 to 30,000 tickets and provide those who attend with a ‘white glove’ total experience. Although we still offer tickets at our physical church box office for those who may not be as computer savvy, more than 70 percent of the tickets we sell are sold through our online church ticketing software.” With fall productions, Christmas services and shows—and before you know it—Easter popping up on the calendar, offering online tickets is a great way to grow your membership and reach out to your community and beyond with the use of TicketU custom-branded ticketing software. July 2010

Press Releases As major church productions and events have grown and become more popular, so has the desire to use these types of events to grow a church brand throughout your particular community. However, hiring graphic artists to come up with a catchy ticket design can be both expensive and time consuming. TicketU’s custom branded ticketing provides an online hub for generating, designing, selling, and accounting for your tickets and ticketing events. The custom-branded ticketing software makes it possible for church and event leaders to create and sell their own personally-designed tickets for church events. That not only makes your tickets look great, it gets your brand and your church’s name out in the community.

Christian Computing® Magazine

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 add-on 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.

July 2010

cover story

EC Group Paves the Way for Bible Translation Acceleration

by Lauren Hunter

n a remote jungle village, a bearded Wycliffe missionary sits close to a campfire. As mosquitoes buzz around, he listens closely to a tribal elder speak in an undocumented language, yearning to understand the dialect in order to bring them the Good News in their own tongue. Thirty years later a Bible is produced – the missionary’s effort of a lifetime. Today another “missionary” sits in a cubical writing software that will forever change the process of how Bible translation is accomplished. These advanced and innovative programs address the full spectrum of the translation process from creating dictionaries through to final publication. Technology is the single most powerful factor in reaching the 350 million people who do not have God’s Word in their own language. It increases the efficiency of the 6,000 Wycliffe team members addressing translation in over 90 countries. Wycliffe’s “IT Missionaries” Wycliffe generously shares its technology and translations with other ministries. As a result, Wycliffe’s work is reaching hundreds of millions of people through products like the Jesus Film, audio bibles, radio broadcasts, television programs, and the new and exciting http://Bible. is project from Faith Comes by Hearing. A small elite team of dedicated IT professionals is reshaping how the Gospel is brought to the world. “Before working with Wycliffe, I had no idea such ‘IT Missionaries’ existed,” remarks Tom Christian Computing® Magazine

Sudyk, CEO and Chairman for EC Group International (www.ecgroup-intl.com). “I had only heard the ‘missionary’ stories of those joining organizations to go overseas and working on the front lines.” His experience with Wycliffe started in 1977 when he moved to Dallas and attended church with some Wycliffe members. Adds Sudyk, “I supported them financially because they were people I knew and went to church with, and I believed in the ministry.” He didn’t think too much about it for the next twenty years. He started and sold several companies and then in 1999, went to India with a mission agency. God inspired him to establish a subsidiary of his company in India. Business as Mission “My vision was to build a Business as Mission (http://www.businessasmissionnetwork.com) company with Christ at the center that sought to have a deep and meaningful Christian influence on our employees and the surrounding community.” EC Group provides a service called Hosted Offshore Software Teams, where they build cusJuly 2010

Christian Computing速 Magazine

July 2010

tomized, dedicated software teams to work with their clients. On a business trip back to Dallas in 2003, Sudyk re-connected with a long-time friend who was an administrator with Wycliffe. He learned how Wycliffe was using software to accelerate Bible translation and was very excited to get involved. “It seemed God had prepared me for this very task. We had extensive experience in offshore software development with commercial clients across a number of industries and technologies,” he adds. Over the last few years EC Group has been able to provide over 80,000 man-hours of programming, developing and maintaining critical applications. EC Group has also been able to assist them in securing major grants from foundations to accelerate Bible translation through the use of technology. Sudyk remarks, “I am grateful for the small contribution we have been able to make, but I think there is a huge amount of untapped potential within the Christian computing community to accelerate the pace of Bible translation and reach the Bibleless people of the world.” Innovation Leads the Course of Change The challenge now is to look beyond the dynamic work being done today with translation software and visualize innovation that will catapult translation to a new level. The time has come to think outside the box. Wycliffe is doing just that, working on game-changing advancements by tapping into the exciting and transformational innovation of companies like Google and others paving the way for advancement in translation. Here are a few examples of how innovation can impact translation:  CAPTCHA is the squiggly letters you must type to enter a website or post a comment. Researchers are now reporting on a successful way to identify the words that computers can’t handle: turn them into CAPTCHAs, and get people to do the work. 1 Carnegie Mellon researchers have launched 1 http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/08/captchasworkfor-digitizing-old-damaged-texts-manuscripts.ars

Christian Computing® Magazine

a new service that will not only protect email addresses on the web from spambots, but also help digitize a backlog of old books, magazines, and newspapers so that they can eventually be computer searchable. The service, called reCAPTCHA, uses the eyeballs of millions of Internet users to identify thousands of words for the Internet Archive.2 It is estimated that 200 million or more CAPTCHAs are solved each day, with each test taking about 10 seconds. That’s more than 550,000 precious hours of human work that are lost each day, that can be put to good use with reCAPTCHAs. Challenge: Can CAPTCHA like technology be used to help define words in the translation process?  Mobile phones present a tremendous opportunity to reach less developed communities. Currently there are 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers in a global popu2 http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/05/anewtwist-on-anti-spam-tech-can-help-digitize-books.ars

July 2010

lation of 6.7 billion people. Bible translation software and delivery methods are leveraging cell phone technology to jump over the infrastructure limitations in developing countries. Challenge: Could pictures be sent to the mobile phones of native speakers of undocumented languages who then text the description of the picture in their native language creating the foundation for a new dictionary in the process? Could this be a “game” people play and compete with other native speakers?  Digital cameras on mobile phones can be used to build information databases where a picture is taken of an object and language references are indexed to it like Google Goggles is doing with images.3  Cloud Computing creates methods for connecting users with multiple computers so that their combined processing power can be harnessed. This allows complex computer programs needed for language analysis to be initiated and interfaced using low powered devices like telephones since the processing power is in the “cloud.”  Crowdsourcing lets the users or “the crowd” create a solution and impact the way that a business runs. This can involve giving feedback into a product, or in the translation industry it can mean that the crowd might translate content. Collaborative methods for language development, using a Wikipedia type environment, backed by powerful computer farms that can process huge amounts of data and link remote teams and bring a greater “crowd” into the development process. It may change the future of the translation indus-

Google Goggles lets you search Google using pictures from your camera phones. We take an image as input, and using several image recognition backends (object recognition, place matching, OCR, etc), we return relevant search results.

Christian Computing® Magazine

try.

 Distributed version control systems are another developing technology that offers solutions to remote access problems. Wycliffe works in many remote environments where Internet access is limited or even nonexistent, which has made remote collaboration a real challenge. A distributed version control system will allow remote workers to work productively and efficiently while not connected to the Internet. This technology will allow workers in diverse environments to all contribute, whether that be via a local network, high speed Internet, email, or physically mailing thumb drives to pass changes back and forth. Popular software development author Joel Spolsky describes distributed version control as “possibly the biggest advance in software development technology in the past ten years.” 4 http://blog.sdl.com/blog/2009/11/crowdsourcing-translation-industry.html?utm_source=blog. sdl.com&utm_medium=blog%2Bpost&utm_ content=Global%2BAuthoring%2C%20 Crowdsourcing%2C%20Terminology%20and%20Machine%20Translation%20in%20Prague%E2%80%A6.and%20 beer%2C%20of%20course&utm_campaign=blogging

July 2010

Technology Frontier The frontier of technology is an exciting place to be. It is even more exciting if it is helping reach people for Christ. EC Group and Wycliffe are working together to target cutting edge innovation and change the way Bible translation is accomplished fundamentally. This is a God-sized challenge for sure. Software development in a global ministry like Wycliffe, which spans 90 countries with over 6,000 members is complex. With language translation and publishing, the work becomes more specialized. Considering the fact that a great deal of the translation work takes place in areas with limited infrastructure amongst a diverse team of translators, one can appreciate the challenges these “IT missionaries” face. “We know that God guides our paths and prepares us for His service. I know he brought me to a place where my skills could contribute to Wycliffe and Bible translation and I believe that God is preparing others,” Sudyk notes. To find out how to get engaged in the discussion of how technology is accelerating Bible translation visit www.ecgroup-intl.com/wycliffeit. Lauren Hunter is a contributing editor for CCMag, owner of Lauren Hunter Public Relations (http://www.laurenhunter.net), and she blogs at http://churchtechtoday.com.

Christian Computing® Magazine

July 2010

special feature

Help Brand Your Church with Customized Tickets for Your Event

By Lauren Hunter

o you remember the first time you became aware of a brand? It might have been Coke and their “Have a Coke and a smile.” Or, maybe it was the U.S. Army’s “Be All That You Can Be!” For me, it was Nike and its “Just Do It!” campaign. The idea is to come up with a slogan or symbol that no one will forget and will recognize every time they hear or see it. Pretty simple, yet brand awareness can mean everything to a campaign – be it for a worldwide brand or your local church event. That’s where custom branded ticketing through online church ticketing software plays an important role. Make Your Tickets Recognizable For years, churches have sold tickets to major functions – from potluck dinners to church-side productions. And often, the tickets that were sold to these events were very bland and unrecognizable. Today, all that has changed. As major church productions and events have grown and become more popular, so has the desire to use these types of events to grow a church brand throughout your particular community. However, hiring graphic artists to come up with a catchy ticket design can be both expensive and time consuming. Enter TicketU with its online hub for generating, designing, selling, and accounting for your tickets and ticketing events. ServiceU’s (www.ServiceU.com) online church ticketing software can provide church groups with the very best in custom branded ticketing. TicketU church ticketing software is designed to put all the major aesthetic choices in the hands of the client. The custom-branded ticketing software makes it possible for church and event leaders to create and sell their own personally-designed tickets for church events. That not Christian Computing® Magazine

only makes your tickets look great, it gets your brand and your church’s name out in the community. How does it work? Event coordinators simply go online and design their own personal tickets and ticketing page using TicketU’s easy and convenient online tools. Of course ServiceU understands that not every group is capable of designing their own personally-branded ticket, so if time permits the company tries to help groups out as much as possible in the design process. Their highly effective staff can help most groups through the process when the help is needed. From there, attendees can simply go to the church ticketing software page, log in, and buy the tickets they want all via your website. TicketU handles the security and you’ll be able to simply run your event and keep track of tickets sold. Customers who buy from TicketU online will see your name, not TicketU’s, on their credit or debit card statements after buying – thus increasing your church’s brand awareness and raising the level of professionalism of your production or event. For many churches, custom-branded ticketing software is one of the key ways to do outreach and connect with people in their community. For groups that sign up to use TicketU, ServiceU’s (http://www.ServiceU.com) church box office software, before December 31, 2010, the first 300 tickets (a $300 value) are free.

July 2010

special feature

Are YOU Ready?

By Phillip Elmore of One Call Now - Phil.Elmore@onecallnow.com

ne of life’s greatest consistencies is—ironically— change. We spend each of our days attempting to not only make the best decisions we can given the information at hand, but to keep God at the helm in our decision-making process.

Technology One change that is prevalent in today’s society is the constant stream of new technologies being released. It seems there is a widget for everything these days. Keeping up with these new offerings can be overwhelming when trying to grow and connect your church with the most effective and efficient methods possible. What do you try? What will work? Do you mail, email, call, text, or tweet your congregation? Growth Growth is more than the number of people who show up on Sunday mornings. It’s about increased involvement of members, improved outreach in your communities, and increased giving for special projects and missions. How do you manage your growth in a way that provides stability as well as an influx of new unbridled energy? Outreach Yours is not the only congregation who is looking to grow. What are you doing that is new and different from the church down the road? How do you get your message to new residents and those who are looking for a new church home? How are you creating the sense of community that makes people stick week after week, year after year until yours is their family church for generations down the road? Safety A church’s sanctuary is just that, a place for sanctuary and to be nearer to God. What happens when this Christian Computing® Magazine

serenity is shattered by violence; when your church is defaced by vandals; or fire damages your facility? What do you have in place to deal with these unforeseen emergencies? What about less devastating safety concerns such as snowstorms that force you to cancel service? How do you reach everyone to keep them safe and informed? Your Communications Partner A single answer to multiple questions: One Call Now. Let us be your guide to navigating the sometimes challenging waters of church communication. Our state of the art message notification service connects your congregation in ways you may only have dreamed. Text and tweet announcements to your youth group, ensure the choir director has a simple way to reach her singers immediately with one call. Reach out to your congregation and community without costly mailers and increase attendance at cell group meetings by calling with member polls to determine the best night to meet. Let us show you how to safely and securely introduce or expand your social media efforts as a means for community awareness and fundraising. Perhaps most importantly, One Call Now keeps your members informed, whether it’s a prayer chain or a call for volunteers. Thousands of churches across America trust One Call Now to help with their Technology – Growth – Outreach – Safety. Can we help YOU?

July 2010

ACS

ACS ideas to impact

Children’s Ministries In The 21st Century

from ACS Technologies

magine a children’s ministry without checklists, clipboards, or stickers. Everything is handled electronically, making the entire check-in process smoother, faster, and more efficient. This article, excerpted from the ACS Technologies ministry guide How Secure Is Your Children’s Ministry, details how such a system can be implemented at churches of any size.

When families enter the children’s ministry, a computer kiosk handles check-in and registration. Returning families swipe a security card through a card reader located next to the kiosk. After confirming the child’s information, the system prints out security badges which feature the child’s photo and any important information, such as food allergies or special diets. New families can visit a hosted kiosk, where a trained greeter guides parents to enter the child’s information using a keyboard or touch-screen monitor. Once completed, the printer would generate security badges as well as directions to the appropriate classroom. Using a kiosk system like this allows for faster processing of new and returning children into classes. Depending on the number of people that attend a particular service and how many kiosks are used, this system can save considerable time. Classes can begin and end on time because there are no check-in or attendance delays. At pick-up time, volunteers don’t depend on registration lists and numbered stickers, but instead use the technology and barcode security badge as the “bad cop.” This ensures a match between the two before allowing the children to leave the class. One church-wide advantage of the kiosk system is immediate access to attendance counts. With reports generated after classroom time begins, ministry personnel immediately know how many children are Christian Computing® Magazine

being cared for, as well as the location of each child who has checked in – during the entire time he or she is on the property. Background Checks & Volunteer Management So what about the volunteers who spend three hours in the children’s ministry area during a Sunday morning? How can the church be absolutely sure they are qualified to work with kids? Parents entrust their children to the care of the church, so the church must do everything possible to ensure those volunteers are trustworthy. Internet security companies can also help ministries conduct valuable background checks on volunteers so they can maintain the highest level of integrity. Any blemished records will show up during this process, ensuring ministry leaders and parents alike the best possible experience for their children. Leaving parents with any doubt is an invite for trouble. In addition to background checks, volunteer management software solutions can help churches identify, qualify, and screen its volunteer force. The software can also help track volunteer certifications and special licenses, including educationally relevant careers and training. For example, it would be valuable to know if a volunteer is certified to handle children with special needs or to counsel teens. In any case, properly managing volunteers in this way ensures the best possible scenario for the care and ministry of children. July 2010

Information Is Power Using relatively inexpensive technology, churches have the opportunity to provide an added degree of security to its children’s ministry. All ministries can benefit from electronic solutions that drastically reduce the need for judgment calls on a volunteer’s part. These tools can also help manage volunteers in order to encourage the best possible spiritual education for children. Having the ability to conduct background checks can reveal any problems before they have a chance to materialize, and assigning volunteers based on their gifts and previous training is a win-win for all parties. Be sure all workers are aware of their responsibilities so they can spring into action if the need arises. Remember, information is power. Knowing how to access vital information and distribute it to the right people in a timely manner is crucial to the success of any children’s ministry. Standardized training should be required of all volunteers. Only with this information will workers be empowered to introduce families into the ministry in a way that builds confidence. A church’s procedures will rise only to the level of the weakest link. Child Security From Start To Finish Investing in the lives of children requires full commitment to their safety and security. To read more about these important child security issues and many others, download the ACS Technologies ministry guide How Secure Is Your Children’s Ministry today.

Christian Computing® Magazine

July 2010

accelerating the dynamic church

Dynamic Churches Communicate Effectively

from Fellowship Technologies

e live in the Information Age, but!CCELERATING 4HE $YNAMIC #HURCH are we as churches really informing ¸ people or simply inundating them along with everyone else? The science and art of communication – from personal eye-to-eye contact to mass email campaigns – is constantly changing as new methods of communicating are introduced. Does your church have a strategy and methodology for finding the right way to communicate to the right audience? Know Thy Audience Rather than sending out email blasts to the entire church body at once, targeting specific groups focuses the message to the proper people. When people are given clear, concise information that provides an actionable response to something they care about, the results are greater involvement and a better understanding of the opportunities. For example, promoting Vacation Bible School means inviting children, volunteer workers and communicating clearly with parents that have kids within the age range of VBS. In addition to reaching the right people with the right message, the information gathered from registrations, volunteer sign-ups and parents’ questions must be shared to the right staff for appropriate follow-up. Have A Distribution Strategy Though email has become the default method of communicating because it is fast, efficient and easy, it is not the only (or sometimes even the best) delivery tool. For each communications campaign, have a discussion about how best to reach the various audience groups and determine which staff and key volunteers will be part of the effort. It is necessary for a recipient to hear the same message over a period of time through different channels in order for them to understand and act upon the Christian Computing® Magazine

information. As a result, a communications timeline that includes email, social media such as Twitter and Facebook, phone calls, mailers or personal one-on-one conversations is a helpful tool for ensuring people get the message. Follow-Up Strategy Many of the same tools and methods that helped reach people before an event or opportunity will be useful as follow-up afterwards. Beyond the value of a personal connection, the chance to ask for feedback (good, bad and even ugly) can help both motivate your audience to re-engage again and give keen insight into changes that your staff can make to improve your processes and, hopefully, even the results. It is worth noting that though multiple channels are excellent for extending your reach, it is helpful to train your audience over time where and how they can get information on their own, such as on your church website. In this way, your external communications will support their self-service habits. Dynamic churches understand the value of planning in order to communicate effectively with the right people, at the right time, through the right channels.

July 2010

tech talk

Windows Live SkyDrive:

Another Freebie from Microsoft Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson - docwatson3228@qwest.net

hope you took a look at the freeware from Microsoft we mentioned last time: Live Writer, Bing Maps, Paint.NET, and Process Explorer. As noted, these products are excellent at what they do, better, in fact, than some alternatives. There’s one more, however, you also might want to consider. In light of all the online backup services that vie for your money nowadays, Windows Live Skydiver (SD) is a totally free, file storage and sharing service. We’ll first look at SD itself and then a Windows Explorer extension that makes working with SD much easier. Windows Live SkyDrive of minutes you’ll have your ID. With your ID in hand (so to speak), you’ll now be Originally called Windows Live Folders, SD has taken to your personal SD page. Figure 1 displays my come a long way since its initial launch in 2007. What used to be a “measly” 5-gig storage service has grown to five times that, providing you with 25-gigs of storage and sharing capability that you can access anywhere via a web browser. It utilizes a Windows Live ID to control access to your files, providing you with three options: keeping files private, sharing with selected users, or even making them public. To get started, just go to http//skydrive. live.com. This will take you to the Windows Live sign up page. If you already use a Microsoft service, such as Hotmail or Messenger, you already have a Windows Live ID. If not, Fig. 1 – A user’s “Home” page in Windows Live SkyDrive. just click the “Sign up” button and in a couple Christian Computing® Magazine

July 2010

Fig. 2 – SkyDrive’s “Add Files” page.

page. The only thing I added is the “My Documents” folder. I am in the process of uploading about 18-gigs from the folder (and its sub-folders) of the same name from my main PC. Note the little gauge to the right that displays how much space is being used and how much is still available. You will also note in Figure 1 an icon labeled “Test Doc.” This is actually a document I created in the Word Web App that’s right online for you. It’s a much scaled down but still very usable version of Word that enables you to create and edit documents online. The other three Web Apps are: Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. These are accessed from the “New” menu option on your page (or from the “Office” option at the top of the page). Also on this menu is the “New Folder” option that enables you to create a sub-folder under the current folder. This is how I created the “My Documents” folder on this page. Under it, then, I created several more. To upload files, I prefer to navigate to the correct folder first. In Figure 1, I would click on “My Documents” and then on another folder under it. I would then click on the “Add Files” option, which displays the page you see in Figure 2. One way to add files is to click the “select documents” option. This opens an “Open” dialog box from which you can select files. The better way, however, is to open Windows Explorer (or other file manager we’ve mentioned in this column) and just drag-and-drop files right onto your page. The only limit here is a file size of 50-megs. You also have several options for files. Pointing at a Word document, for example, displays the following options: Edit in browser, Share, Version History, Move, and More (which in-turn lists Copy, Rename, Download, and Properties). Clicking the “X” deletes a file. We will look at another way to upload and manage files in our “SDExplorer” Christian Computing® Magazine

section below. Of particular interest is SD’s file sharing capability. While “My Documents” is locked and allows only me to enter, you can put files into the “Shared” folder or even “Public” folder so other people can access them. Anyone in the universe can access files in the “Public” folder, even if they do not have a Windows Live ID. To control those who access files in the “Shared” folder, first click on the icon on your home page, click on the “Friends” link, and then the “Edit permissions” link. This displays the “Edit permissions” page (Fig. 3). Here you can type in a name (if it’s in your Contact List) or an e-mail address. Alternately, you can click the “Select from your contact list” option and then on the “import” link. This displays the “Import Contacts” page. Here you can import your contact list from Hotmail, Outlook (using CSV), Outlook Express (using CSV), Windows Contacts, Yahoo! Mail (using Outlook CSV format and comma separated), and Gmail (using Outlook CSV format). Also, the drop-down lists allow you to select either “Can view files” or “Can add, edit details, and delete files.” You will also want to explore the Windows Live features at the top of the page. Under “Windows Live,” for example, you will find “Devices.” From here you can access SkyDrive synced storage, a service that enables you to sync files and folders across different computers. For example, if you have music files on your home computer but want to access them from your laptop on the road, just install Live Sync on both computers and add your “My Music” folder to your “Personal Folders.” Your entire music collection will now be accessible on both computers.

Fig. 3 – SkyDrive’s “Edit Permissions” page. July 2010

There’s also the Calendar “How to have more time for ministry!” applet under the “Hotmail” menu option. With this service Do you want to save time, get more done and have fewer headaches? Then Donarius Church you can schedule appointments Management Software will make it easy for you and meetings, set reminders, to track your members, contributions, pledges Starting at $63.97 sync multiple calendars, and and more. Imagine what you can do with the for the base version with let others know when you’ll be 25% off for small churches extra time! Donarius will also: available and when you’ll be Download a free demo at: • Print your tax receipts busy. www.donarius.com • Show the giving pattern of your members The “Photos” option links • Print your church directories to Windows Live Photos, with 1-888-479-4636 • Send personalized letters, emails and text Nuverb Systems Inc. which you can share photos, tag messages to keep your members informed “Software tailored for you” them, and even allow family and friends to add comments. Here is a nice substitute for those who aren’t crazy SDExplorer about Facebook (which would be me!). Figure 4 displays a simple but very powerful exten As you can see, SD is extremely easy to use. It has an easy and elegant interface, is reliable and stable, pro- sion to Windows Explorer. Downloading (and installing SDExplorer (SDE) enables you to manage virtually vides an incredible 25-gigs of space, and enables you all aspects of SD without actually having to go to the to share files with others. And did I mention it’s free?! I have listened to a lot of wearisome whining and snide website itself. SDE simply mounts SD as another “drive” scorn about Microsoft for many years. Granted, it’s not on your computer. This is especially great for uploading files. Just open another instance of Windows Explorer, perfect (who is?), but here is an undeniable example of tag a whole bunch of files or an entire folder, and then their service. Bill obviously does not need my defense, drag-and-drop into the appropriate folder in SDE. The but I have often wondered where PC computing would Pro Version is $13.75, but the free version will be enough be if it had not been for the innovations that Microsoft has provided. Yes, this is my personal opinion, and you for many users. The features of the free version are: SD secure connection, browse files and folders, create new are certainly free to disagree, but having studied this folders, copy files and folders to and from SD, delete industry for 20+ years, I am forever thankful we didn’t and rename files and folders, rename the “SDExplorer” have to rely on Steve Jobs and/or Big Blue (full body root folder, create links to SD folders, drag-and-drop shiver!). support, preferred language selection, copy shortcuts to selected objects to the Clipboard, and notification of new version availability. Without the Pro version, you’ll still have to go online to do such things as open files, move files and folders, change file and folder sharing, change folder content type, and folder share mode indication. Just download and install SDE from http://www.cloudstorageexplorer. com/download.php. The first time it runs, a sign-in box appears. Just enter your Window Live ID and password and select both the “Remember me on this computer” and “Remember my password” options. That’s it! Working with SD is now as easy as working with the familiar Windows Explorer. Enjoy!

Fig. 4 – SDExplorer, a Windows Explorer Christian Computing® Magazine

July 2010

higher power with kevin

Making All Your PCs Play Together Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

o you have more than one computer that you use to do your work? If so you might be looking for a way to keep all of that work synchronized. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve talked about this before, but I want to offer three basic solutions that will help you keep it all playing together. I call these the hard way, the easy way, and the best way. The Hard Way The hard way is using some sort of hardware backup solution. I call this the hard way; but, for you it may be the best way. What you have to do is get a USB drive and put the important stuff on it and carry it from computer to computer. You can often just open files directly from the USB drive or copy them back and forth as you work. For example, you are working on a sermon and you have the Word document on your desktop system at your church office. But you plan to be away from the office for a while and so you copy that file to the USB drive and take it with you on the road along with your laptop. You have some time to work on the sermon so you fire up the computer and copy the sermon over to the laptop and work on it. I know some of you are saying, why bother even copying it. And that is a real possible solution. Just leave the file on the USB drive or at least only copy it from the desktop to the USB and not to the laptop. The main storage location for it will be the desktop system. But even though this is called the hard way, there is a better way to do it. One solution I have tried in the past is PortableApps (http://www.portableapps.com). These are free, open source applications that can be run from a USB drive all the time. You can install a word processor, a media player, a Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

July 2010

web browser with all your bookmarks, favorites and passwords for the web, and even photo editor. There are a huge number of applications that you can legally run from your USB drive. There is even a version of the Sword Bible, a free Bible application. The way it works, you install it on your USB drive and then add programs to it. You can then store your files on that same drive. Get a big enough one and that may be all you ever need. Now, every time you insert it there is a small application that runs and stores an icon that when clicked gives a Windows Start Menu style popup. The Easy Way I like the Portable Apps solution, but to tell you the truth, I don’t like the applications they offer. I want to run Microsoft Office, my favorite Bible Study programs, and many others that cannot be legally or easily run on a USB drive and transported from computer to computer. So, the other solution is to get a service like LogMeIn and just use the same computer no matter where you go. It may sound like I am saying just get one computer and don’t bother with your others. That is not what I am saying. I have a desktop system on my desk at home that has plenty of horsepower to edit video and large pictures. I also use it for word processing and Bible study. But it is too big to carry around. That is why I have may laptop which I like to take to coffee shops or other places and get some work done. Finally, I have a very basic desktop system at my church. It was cheap and that way I don’t have to unload my big laptop or even carry it to church with me every day. I want all my stuff available to me on all three of my computers. And sometimes, I even use someone else’s PC. So what I can do is just log into them using a service like LogMeIn (https://www.logmein.com). This isn’t the only one, but it is the solution I use. It is free for basic use. You can also pay to upgrade to some more advanced features. The way it works is you install a small utility on Christian Computing® Magazine

each of the computers you want to access. Then you can log into the computers over the Internet by going to the LogMeIn web site. You can actually control your system while on the Internet. I demonstrate the iPad version of it in a YouTube video here: http://bit.ly/aL0ZGS. The paid version is actually not that expensive at $70 a year. What you get for that is the ability to transfer files across the internet between computers, printing from your local PC to the one you are logged into, drag and drop transfer of files, and some other things. If you use this solution you can then control everything on the remote system. So you could do some work on the PC at home while on the road or at a friend’s July 2010

house. I did this recently. I logged into my home system, edited a video, uploaded it to YouTube, and then included it in a blog post at the Tech web site I write for â&#x20AC;&#x201C; http://www.notebooks.com. I did this all on my iPad using the app LogMeIn Ignition (learn more here: http://bit.ly/bbBGaL). The iPad app is not free; it costs $30. But it is worth it and you can run it on your iPad, iPhone, USB drive, Laptop or PDA. There are some problems. It is not that fast. You can do some things but it requires a fast Internet connection on both ends. Each computer would need broadband access to make it workable. And as I said only the paid versions let you transfer files and print to your remote printer from a file on the local system. But other than that it would work. The Best Way In my opinion, the best way is to use a cloud based storage and syncing technology like DropBox or Windows Live Sync. Of the two, I think DropBox is the best and most ubiquitous of the two. It runs on Mac, PC, Linux, Android and over the Internet (DropBox is at http://www.dropbox.com and Windows Live Sync is at http://sync.live. com). What these services do is they take specific folders that you designate and automatically copy them to a remote storage location on the Internet. Then, on each computer that you install the utility file the service will automatically copy those files back to that PC. From then on each time a file is added, changed, or deleted, it will have the same happen to the online storage site and the other computers. For example, if I created a new Word document for my church newsletter, then once it is saved in the designated folder, that new file would then be copied to their online site and the other computers set up with the service. So you could save the file half-finished and within about a minute Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

July 2010

it would be on your home computer or your laptop ready to be edited later that day or when you come back tomorrow. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say you get home and remember that you want to add a new picture to the front page article. Add the picture on your home computer and save it again. The change is then saved to the Internet and your other computers once they are online. You may have to give your laptop a few minutes to update all the changed files when you first log onto the Internet. But it will be there. The differences between the two services I mention are minimal. Mostly it is a few minor functions and the amount of storage space. I prefer DropBox only because in addition to the free 2 GB of storage, you can buy more. Plus it is available on the iPad and iPhone, which I use. But if you have an Android phone you can get it, too. And if you have any phone that can go online, you can access both services. My strategy for using DropBox since it has one basic folder that is synchronized; is to put

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

everything in that folder. I put my files, my photos I want to sync and my videos. I also change the default location of my Microsoft Word default template and spell checking dictionary to a folder in my DropBox folder. And for my Bible study software I move the important files I need to that folder as well and tell the software to find it there, like the notes files for BibleWorks 8. It takes some setting up, but once you do you will never have to worry about it again.

July 2010

big ministry - small resources

Wag The Dog

Bradley Miller - bradley.w.miller@gmail.com

love a good story. I’ve been working on this little article for a couple of months now and I get it to a point and then it all falls flat on me and I decide to keep it under wraps. An interesting thing happened though the other night. We went with our daughter for her softball game night, a drive in the country and other merriment. We happened upon a local city park and found a little kitten and well, you know how one thing leads to another. I’ve been posting quite a few things up on Facebook but the story and pictures of the little scruff-ball got an instant response from a lot of my friends online. I was reading along in the chapter of Luke and two incidences in particular struck me, both concerning how we share information. Luke 8:38-40 (New International Version) 38The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39»Return home and tell how much God has done for you.» So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. And then further down: Luke 8:45-48 (New International Version) 45 »Who touched me?» Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, «Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.» 46But Jesus said, «Someone touched me; I know that power Christian Computing® Magazine

has gone out from me.» 47Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48Then he said to her, «Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.» Did you catch what happened? Each time the person who was healed was to tell of what had happened to them. This man who had demons, who was living in a cave and was called «Legion» because of all the demons in him . . . he's certifiable I'm sure. He is healed and told to share his story. The woman who has had bleeding, touches his robe and suddenly is healed. Christ didn't want the healing to go unnoticed and she explains in the midst of this crowd . . . which is huge . . . how she is healed. Now back to my cat story - as this is a saga that is July 2010

unfolding in our physical realm and also being retold in the digital arena. One of the great things about being interconnected to people is the ease with which we can share information. With the Internet, cell phones, and the other multitudes of technology we can easily click the «reply-all» or «carbon copy» and have whatever information sent out to our friends/family/acquaintances. The term «viral» whether it be an email, video or otherwise means that there will be a geometric progression of sharing information. Are you meeting people at their house? On Facebook the numbers are staggering on where people are and how they are spending their time. An estimated 400 million people are on the web's number 2 site (Google.com being #1) and they are spending an estimated 8.3 BILLION hours each month. Over half of that 400 million people are on Facebook daily and the number 14 status update term in popularity between 2008 and 2009 was the term «religion». Has your technology department/ministry been inundated with these types of emails or converations? «We need to have a _____ (fill in the popular social networking site) presence and we should be _______ (fill in a multitude of ideas) there.» The biggest issue on sharing is who is sharing and how. One example would be the most popular site (for right now) of Facebook. Facebook offers groups - which means a large body of people can associate with a particular group. These are great for churches or other entities to tie their members together - but how can you make an impact with this? The secret I believe lies in how you leverage your current web presence to utilize the social networking sites. Rather than re-create content on their site I would simply point people to your existing Web site. Then working with the people who are interested in reaching out to others, encourage them to share your current site via the social networking sites “Add” or “Like” buttons or responses. The reason is like this: In this diagram at the top you can see the problem of maintaining different sites. In a closed environment (like AOL, Yahoo, MySpace, and now Facebook) you can only get people to see information who are a part of that social ecosystem and connected together through some method. In church terms, this would be «preaching to the choir.» Instead sharing with others what struggles or joys you are personally dealing with is a more effective means of sharing the gospel message. If the woman who had been forgiven sat with a lot of other forgiven people they could have been a great Facebook group - but who would have heard the message beyond their closed circle? Instead we are instructed to take our message to everyone and tell how we have been Christian Computing® Magazine

personally changed. To do that we need to share with more people and they have to know a bit about the credibility of your story. The man who had been healed from the demons could not have effectively witnessed to someone who didn't know where he had been before. The various options available to us today to share Christ's message are virtually limitless, but unless we look to effective means of leveraging them it will simply fall on deaf ears. Next month I'll challenge you do some things to think outside the box on increasing the effectiveness of your church site as well as the ministry opportunities to helping others. Mark 2 (NIV) 15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and «sinners» were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the «sinners» and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: «Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'? 16

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, «It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.» 17

http://www.onlinephdprograms.com/facebook-facts-youprobably-didnt-know/ http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_ services/508676/801817/socialads Internet stats: http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/internetstats/

July 2010

launching online

Accepting Payments 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.

We think of our business as a ministry to Christian families, but it is a business, which means we need a revenue source to fund it. If your ministry primarily operates in the “real world” (e.g. a church), maybe you can get by without eCommerce, but if your ministry is entirely online, then at some point you’ll probably need to figure out online payments. Our business has a number of revenue sources, but the main ones require parents to make credit card payments. This month’s column will cover how we approached this challenge. Shopping Carts and Merchant Accounts Unlike cash, credit card payments are actually multi-party transactions. The flow of information and payments is pretty complex: • The consumer enters their (encrypted) credit card information in a website. • The website passes the (encrypted) information to a payment processor for authorization. • The payment processor passes the (encrypted) information to the ministry’s “acquiring” bank. • The acquiring bank contacts the credit card Christian Computing® Magazine

association (e.g. Visa) who then passes the information to the consumer’s “issuing” bank. • The issuing bank either authorizes or declines the payment, passing back through the entire chain. • Once it receives authorization and completes the transaction with the consumer, the website sends the actual payment request back through the chain. • Within about three days, the issuing bank deposits the funds in the bank account specified for the ministry’s “merchant” account. Since each of these entities is a business, they all expect to get paid a small transaction fee for helping out. In addition to the complexity of the transaction flow, there’s also this issue of “issuing” banks and “acquiring” banks and “merchant” accounts. The issuing bank is the one that issued the credit card to the consumer and who sends them the bill each month. The acquiring bank is the bank used by the ministry to collect payments from all the issuing banks. Just as the consumer needs a special kind of account (a credit card account) to make payments, the ministry needs a special kind of account (a merchant account) to collect July 2010

payments. A merchant account with your bank likely has a variety of fees including a “discount fee” (typically 2-3% of each transaction), a “transaction fee” (typically 20-40 cents per transaction), a monthly service fee (typically $10-20), an annual fee (varies widely, but not uncommon to be $100+), and various other fees for different situations. But setting up a merchant account only gets you half way there. You also need to add a shopping cart to your website to present the transaction to the consumer, collect their credit card, and present them with a receipt. Shopping cart software is available from a variety of vendors, or there are free open source options. Do I Really Need All of That? Wow – that’s a lot of work and a lot of fees. Aren’t there any simpler options? Since many small businesses have struggled with the challenge of setting up eCommerce, offers have emerged which greatly simplify the process. PayPal is the most well known of these options. PayPal was started to provide an easy way for eBay vendors to sell their wares and was later acquired into eBay. However,

Christian Computing® Magazine

there’s a pretty good range of options that can be considered that fall along a spectrum from the simplicity of eBay (no merchant account or shopping cart required) to hybrid models that require either a shopping cart or a merchant account. A few examples include: • Amazon Simple Pay: provides a simple, button based mechanism that takes consumers directly from a page in your website to Amazon’s payment system. If they already have credit card, billing, and shipping information on file at Amazon, they don’t need to re-enter it. Amazon generally charges 30 cents per transaction plus 2.9% of the transaction. • Google Checkout: provides a shopping cart solution (or can integrate with other shopping cart software) and then handles the payments through Google’s system. If the consumer has used Google Checkout in the past, their previously entered information is available. Google generally charges 30 cents per transaction plus 2.9% of the transaction. • Checkout by Amazon: provides a complete

July 2010

shopping cart solution where consumers pay through Amazon’s system. Amazon generally charges 30 cents per transaction plus 2.9% of the transaction. • Foxy Cart: a hosted shopping cart that eliminates the need to install shopping cart software on your site, but still requires you to get a merchant account. Foxy Cart charges $19 a month (plus you pay your merchant account fees). There are many other similar offers out there. Most of the ones listed above also provide discounts to non-profits. How to Decide? With so many choices, how did we decide which path to pursue for Hschooler.net? There are basically three decisions to make: • Do we want to get a Merchant Account? • Do we want to implement a Shopping Cart? • Which vendor do we want to use? The decision for whether or not to get a Merchant Account comes down to a question of scale. For a business or ministry doing lots of transactions, it may make financial sense to set up a Merchant Account. A Merchant Account also may look more reputable since all the interactions with the consumer will be in your business/ministry’s name. In the end, it’s a question of whether it’s worth the time, trouble, and expense to set up and manage the accounts. Deciding whether or not to implement a Shopping Cart is a similar exercise. If you have low transaction volumes, it’s probably not worth messing with. If you have high transaction volumes, integrating a shopping cart into your site will give a more professional image to those visiting your site Christian Computing® Magazine

July 2010

and making transactions. However, there’s another factor that led me away from either implementing a shopping cart or a merchant account. Titus 1:7-8 says “For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, selfcontrolled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” (ESV) This passage is specifically dealing with qualifications for church office; however, as a Christian in business, I believe I must act as God’s steward. For me, it’s important for Hschooler.net to be “above reproach.” If you’ve ever had your credit card number stolen, you know that the first thing you do is start guessing which of your transactions led to the fraud. With that in mind, to remain above reproach, I don’t ever want to touch my customers’ credit card numbers – I want to leave that to companies whose business absolutely depends on protecting the security of my customers’ information. I know that they have put resources against this important task that I could never afford. So, for us, the decision came down to which vendor we would use, with the leading candidates being PayPal, Google, and Amazon. For our purposes we needed specific functionality (recurring subscription payments with a free trial period) that Google couldn’t immediately support. Between Amazon and PayPal, it merely came down to one of brand strength. I think my customers will feel more comfortable doing business with Amazon than they will conducting business with PayPal. Therefore, we went with Amazon Simple Pay. As you go through your decision process, you very well may reach a different conclusion, but I hope hearing our approach has been helpful to you. Russ McGuire is an executive for a Fortune 100 company and the founder/co-founder of three technology startups. 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

July 2010

nick at church

Nick’s Mobile Tools Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

travel a lot and rely on a number of mobile technologies to help me stay productive while on the road. Whether you travel a lot or not, mobile technology can help you in your personal and professional life. Staying in Touch is Not Enough Mobile tools, like smart phones, are obviously good at helping us stay in touch. But today it’s important to have the tools at hand that help you be productive when you want to be productive. In addition to the time you’re at the office, of course. Tools I Use I’m writing this article while flying on a plane 38014 feet over Arizona at 478mph. Because I always have mobile tech tools with me, I’m able to be productive on my terms. Here’s my arsenal… Notebook Computer I use an Apple MacBook Pro for the heavy lifting. When I’m in my office it’s connected to an Apple 24” display, full wired Apple keyboard, and a Magic Mouse. When I take it with me it has a full copy of our network’s data drive so I can use any file at any time for any reason. The software I use most on it is: • Microsoft Office 2008 Business Edition. It completely synchronizes with our email and calendar server (Exchange 2010), and lets me create sharable documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with ease.

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• Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection. When I need to quickly access our SQL database or manage our (or our client’s) servers, I use RDC to fire up a Terminal Services session. • VMware Fusion. When I want to do work that requires more Microsoft Windows software and utilities, I run a virtual Windows PC on my Mac. It’s configured with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and runs Office 2010, Visio 2010, SQL 2008r2, and a bunch of other stuff. I also run SmartSync Pro to synchronize data between our network and my Mac and Windows drives. Even though I have written many articles that objectively assess the Mac, I really like mine! Tablet Computer For lighter mobile duty I carry an Apple iPad WiFi 64. I use it for managing my email, calendar, and tasks, to keep in touch with my social communities via TweetDeck (which I also run on my Mac), play a few games (you’ve got to have some fun, right?), and it also carries a full set of my personal data and a lot or our corporate data. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t have a version of Office that runs on the iPad, so I use iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote). In fact, I’m writing this article on the iPad in Pages right now! I also have The Logos July 2010

Scholar’s Library installed on my iPad, which is a great Bible study tool. (I also have it on my Mac!) SmartPhone My smartphone is a Google Droid by Motorola. Our firm is a Verizon shop, which means I don’t have the option of an iPhone. The advertising about Verizon is really true! It really does have the best coverage map, and because our ministry work takes our team to all parts of the country, Verizon keeps us connected like no other provider can. • TouchDown is a good Exchange tie-in that goes beyond email, contacts, and calendaring. It also synchronizes tasks, which is very helpful when I’m out driving and need to look up an errand task I created in Outlook (or Entourage, the Mac’s version of Outlook). • I’m an analog clock guy, so I have a couple of them on my Droid. Tiny Clock Widget is always on my home screen, and I run NHK Clock full screen when I speak publicly or if I am in a meeting and need to keep track of time. • Advanced Task Killer is a free app that kills all of the processes when I tell it to, which is easier than powering off the phone to reset it. • The You Version Bible, courtesy of LifeChuch.tv, is a terrific free Bible app that I use when in church or doing devotions. I also have it on my iPad… its terrific! • EStrongs File Explorer is like Filer on the Mac or Windows Explorer. It nicely gives me great access to the entire file structure, something I wish I had on the iPad. • Google Goggles is a free fun app that’s also a great tool! I won’t say anything further about it here so you can check it out and discover what it does yourself. Have fun! Well, those are some of my favorite applications that I run on my mobile devices. There is one other device I should mention though… and it’s one I jokingly Christian Computing® Magazine

like to say makes me a walking cellular tower! It’s a Verizon MiFi card, and it lets me host up to four computers (via WiFi) to the internet at a time. It’s a great way to avoid the vulnerabilities that come with public hotspots. Well, we’re in our descent to LAX, so I better shut down. I hope you find that helpful! And if you have some tools you think I might like on my mobile devices, email me (nick@mbsinc.com) and let me know! 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://ministry-it. blogspot.com.

July 2010

ministry communication

How to Use a Website to Revive Adult Sunday School and Encourage Outreach Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

ou don’t have to read the numerous published studies and reports that lament the lack of Biblical learning and application in the lives of many church goers today to know it’s true. Wringing our hands won’t accomplish much—but we have new tools in technology that can help us revive a tried and true way to get people into a study of God’s Word—read on for how one church is doing that. The situation The challenge: a church that at one time was one of the largest in the area, but a combination of changing pastors, changing denominations, and a community suffering from especially challenging economic circumstances reduced the congregation to a fraction of its former size. Along with a decline in attendance came the inevitable financial meltdown and over half the staff was terminated. There was no money and no one in church office able to do virtually any communication support of ministries outside a tiny notice in the bulletin. The main adult Sunday school program had gone from a number of well-attended electives to one class that met sporadically and showed outdated videos as the lesson. The last meeting of that series consisted of six people. That’s when they asked my husband and me to take over.

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What we’re doing First of all, my husband and I firmly believe that it is only through a rock solid belief in the Word of God and our growth in it, that significant Christian maturity and a passion to reach our world and fully fulfill the Great Commission can take place. We also knew that the church had zero money, staff, or time to promote or support the class. Our church is not a young, tech –savvy group, but we also knew from a few things we’d done in the past that most of the people did have email, which meant to us at least moderate skill with the internet, so we decided, we’d use that for PR and interaction, initially because we had no money or resources to do anything else. We have just started the class (only 4 classes into it as I write this), but things are going extremely well. We have over 30 adults involved and the enthusiasm of those involved is encouraging. July 2010

What I’m sharing is just a start, but we haven’t really done anything like this before in such an intense and focused way for our church. Though I’ve used these things in my communication ministry, (and had all the required software) it is great to see them at work at home. Basis for all: the website More and more I find that the basis for ministry, the anchor in many ways for everything else, is the website. For the class, the site is: http://coastlinelifein3d. wordpress.org. As is obvious from the URL, I created the website totally for free using WordPress. On my ministry website, www.effectivechurchcom.com, there are a number of entries on how to do this in this section: http://www.effectivechurchcom.com/category/ church-communications/churchwebsites/ . On the website for our class, we post the materials from the previous week’s class: the lesson and handouts. I’ll share here briefly how I create what it is on the site and the tools used: 1. Each week I prepare the lesson in PowerPoint. I take the presentation outline from PowerPoint, put it into MS Word and make handouts. Because I want people to have God’s Word in hand, I always include the ENTIRE passage for the lesson. People today do not take the time to look up passages. 2. After the class, I then record the lesson using Camtasia. This is one of the most expensive and complex programs I use, though at $299 Christian Computing® Magazine

July 2010

(available at www. camtasia.com) it is really not very expensive. This is a fantastic program –I have the PowerPoint presentation open on the screen on my computer. I speak into the headset mic as I go through it and Camtasia saves the presentation and audio as one file. The file can then be edited (which for me consists only of cutting out a section if I cough or really mess up something I said). 3. After editing it I then produce a video. This consists of hitting a couple of buttons to produce an mp4 file. 4. I then take the mp4 file and use a Tune Convert (www. tuneconvert.com) to, with one click, convert the mp4 video into an mp3 audio file. You need the $49 Ultimate version to do this. 5. I convert my MS Word note to a PDF file. Usually this is done quite late at night and I do not have the mental energy to carefully edit them—so if you download them, please don’t email me with critiques of them—my class is aware of my shortcomings in this area. 6. Then all of these materials: video, audio, notes, are posted on the website. For WordPress, you do need to get a space upgrade and an upgrade of VideoPress if you want to host the videos yourself. If I wanted to break them into shorter sections I could have hosted them on YouTube, but I chose not to do that, so I won’t have the distracting YouTube links. 7. After putting in all the above info, I realized it is a bit difficult to simply read about and have it make sense. I decided to do a FREE WEBINAR to demonstrate how I do all these things on August 4, 2010 at 11 am Pacific time. To sign up, go to: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/ register/42169409

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July 2010

Email outreach After the site is updated, there are two ways people find out about the updates: 1. We email the people who have attended the class and others who are interested. The response to this has been far above what we expected (again, we are only on week 4). People email me with very positive comments. Also, they are forwarding links to friends and looking at the lessons if they can’t attend. They stop us in church and thank us for it. 2. WordPress has a wonderful little tool, where people can enter their email address and they will receive an immediate notification when a new lesson or post is put on the site. As I said earlier, we’ve just started, but already the response to the website has been extremely positive—we are using some additional tech tools to extend our outreach that I’ll share later. Again, please check out the site at: http://coastlinelifein3d.wordpress.com and plan to attend the free webinar where I show you how I created all the materials. https://www2.gotomeeting.com/ register/421694090 Sunday school may seem “old-fashioned” to some, but it is still one of the best tools we have to share God’s Word with people and to train them in the faith. Let’s use every new tool we have to encourage people to attend and grow in their faith.

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July 2010