ccmag2010_08

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

August 2010

No. 8

4 cover story

The State of Mobile Computing

by Steve Hewitt

Copy Editor Gina Hewitt

3 editorial Our New ChMS Online Feature Comparison Chart is UP!

By Steve Hewitt

11 Special Feature 7 Ways Technology Helps Churches Win at Making Disciples

14 ACS ideas to impact

By Lauren Hunter and Ben Stroup

Corporate Home Office

Mailing address: PO Box 319

Belton MO 64012 Delivery address: 311 Manor Dr.

Belton, MO 64012 Phone: (816) 331-8142 FAX: 800-456-1868 © Copyright 2010 by Christian Computing®, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

Five Sundays: The Power of Online Giving

from ACS Technologies

16 accelerating the dynamic church Dynamic Churches Focus on Equipping

17 tech talk

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

from Fellowship Technologies

Google Chrome Redux

20 higher power with kevin

By Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson

Setting Up a WordPress Blog

25 nick at church

By Kevin A. Purcell

Getting the Most Out of Your Church Management Software

27 launching online

By Nick Nicholaou

Client-Side Programming

30 ministry communication

By Russ McGuire

Clipart, Images, and Articles - If it’s on the web is it OK to use it?

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.

By Yvon Prehn

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

Christian Computing® Magazine

August 2010

2

editorial

Our New ChMS Online Feature Comparison Chart is UP!

O

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

ur newly designed Church Management Software (ChMS) chart is up on our site with around 30 different products and services for you to view. While it looks similar to our previous chart, it is actually very different. What makes it different? We have designed the chart to allow each company listed to have control over editing their portion of the chart. This means the chart will be constantly updated! As a ChMS company adds a new feature, they can simply come back to our site, log in, and update the chart on their own. This also means it will be very easy to allow new companies to join the chart as they enter the marketplace or launch new ChMS products.

But wait, there’s more (I have always wanted to say that!) Now that we have created the template for this chart, we are moving forward to provide others. Kevin Purcell is almost finished with the list of features for our Bible Study Software Chart, as well as one for Mobile App Bible Study Software. I expect within the month we will be contacting representatives from Logos, WordSearch, Biblesoft, etc., to register and edit their portion of the chart. We also have charts in the works for companies that provide Web site solutions for churches as well as one to help our readers compare the features between those companies that provide facilities management and event registrations!

It is our desire that by providing these charts with our editorial content (interviews, articles and reviews of specific products and services) and our Webinars, our readers will have an abundant amount of information to help them find the right product or service when they are ready to make a new purchase!

Don’t forget to register!

If you haven’t visited our site recently, be sure to visit us and click on the word register (upper left side of the home page). When you register at our site, you will be able to access back issues, leave comments in our articles, AND will be in our upcoming drawing for a $500 gift card for Apple products! Do it today if you haven’t already!

Together We Serve Him,

Steve Hewitt Editor-in-Chief steve@ccmag.com

Christian Computing® Magazine

August 2010

3

cover story

The State of

Mobile Computing

E

by Steve Hewitt

veryone seems to agree that the fastest growing sector in computing today is in the area of mobile devices. Smart phone sales and use have grown at such an alarming rate that they have swamped wireless networks, created new markets for apps (instead of programs), and have created new and exciting ways to compute; leaving many of the former technology leaders in the dust, trying to catch up in an industry that is advancing at break-neck speed. And, the innovation that Apple has brought to the market with the iPhone has drawn consumers into an awareness of what mobile computing can do, as well as push the entire wireless industry far past the simple ability to place a phone call on a mobile device.

Just as there are never ending debates on which brand of computer is the best to buy, or what virus protection program does the best job, opinions vary as to the best direction to go when it comes to purchasing a mobile device. What are the most important features when deciding which direction to go? Is the actual hardware the most important thing to consider when you make your purchase, or is the operating system? Or, should the wireless carrier be the determining factor or should it be specific applications that might run on one device but might not be available on another?

No one can give you a definitive answer to these questions, since as soon as they do, the marketplace will change with the introduction of a new device, app, or growing connection speed of each wireless network. There are some exciting events in the news that might impact your decision, and, since I get paid for my opinions, I will give you my two cents worth on what I purchased, what I am using, and why!

Christian Computing速 Magazine

August 2010

4

Christian Computing速 Magazine

August 2010

5

First, realize that computing, as we know it, is turning upside down!

It was September of 2008 that I wrote an article titled, “Something Important Is About to Happen!” I not only published it in Christian Computing Magazine, but I sent a very special email to over 450 companies that create programs and computer services for the church and Christian market.

What was so important? Mobile computing! Some companies caught a vision and began to prepare, while others have probably missed the mark and might not be able to catch up!

Even some of the major computer technology companies in America have found themselves trying to play catch up. Intel has only recently realized that the growing market for computer devices is smart phones and not desktop computers. They don’t make the chips that have been used in the mobile devices we are purchasing, such as the iPhone, Android phones, Blackberry’s, etc. So, since it was too late to start retooling for this fast growing market, they are buying the companies that have been making the chips for these new devices. They recently purchased Infineon Technology AG, a company out of Germany that makes such chips for the iPhone and other devices. So, in the near future we will probably see marketing encouraging us to purchase specific phones because the now have “Intel Inside”, but frankly, they almost missed the boat and had to pay a grand price to jump into this market.

Microsoft has also been left in the dust. Yes, they have a smart phone OS, but it isn’t very popular. They missed the boat when it came to encouraging the development of applications, which everyone now knows is key to the success of a mobile OS. I am not sure Microsoft “gets it” even now. Watching the popularity of the iPad, they have announced they are going to strike back with an exciting tablet computer of their own that will run Windows 7. Really? Is that what makes the iPad such a popular device, the fact that it is a tablet? Or is it that it turns on instantly, and you have access to 100’s of thousands of cool applications at your finger tips. If Christian Computing® Magazine

you don’t know the answer to this question, then you are probably a VP at Microsoft.

So, what IS hot in mobile computing? There are several important things to note. And, if you are an Apple fan, pour yourself a new cup of coffee and try to find your happy space, because all of it is not parroted praise for Apple and their iPhone. The fact is, once again, Apple led the way and they SHOULD be the standard for mobile computing, but that isn’t what Steve Jobs really was after. He wants to create cool devices that are used by a minority. This was true when he made computers, and it is true now with the iPhone. Look at Google and their Android OS. You can August 2010

6

walk into any major wireless carrier’s store (T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc.) and you can get a variety of cool mobile devices that run the Android OS. Yes, they are playing catch up, just like Microsoft did after Apple came out with those cool WYSIWYG Macintosh computers that came out long before Microsoft had a version of Windows. Apple fans that get upset that everyone doesn’t buy Apple products and help them dominate the marketplace simply don’t understand Steve Jobs or two decades of Apple history. If Jobs really wanted everyone to use the iPhone, why did he lock it up with AT&T and a wireless network that doesn’t provide decent phone connections once you leave a major city?

So, do I like the iPhone? Yes, I have had several, and I have an iPad and love it (more on this coming up!) However, I haven’t been shown the secret Apple handshake and I haven’t taken the pledge. Loving Apple for Apple’s sake is an interesting phenomenon.

There was an interesting article on how Apple is similar to a religion. Fox news published it, and you can read it for yourself at http://www.foxnews.com/ scitech/2010/07/28/new-religion-apple-say-academics/ I can tell you that I found it very amusing when I purchased my last iPhone. The salesman (not a genius, granted, just a salesman) brought it to me cradling it in

Christian Computing® Magazine

two hands. After he handed it to me, he looked breathless as he asked me, “So, how do you feel?” Really?

I felt like I just paid too much to upgrade my previous iPhone to the new version!

Apple really blew it with the iPhone 4. Before it was released, they allowed one to be pilfered by the press, so much of the surprise was gone when Job’s had the opportunity to show it off to his followers. There is little doubt that it was impressive to see the crowds line up to purchase the new phone, but the circus that followed with the dropped signal problems due to the exposed antenna was a greater fiasco then I can ever remember with any of Microsoft’s problems with their past releases of Windows. When it was first reported , that holding the phone in a certain fashion would cause the signal to drop, Apples response was, “Don’t hold it that way!” Apple didn’t provide any real solutions to the problem until Consumer Reports came out with their own study and recommendation that people NOT buy the iPhone 4. I think we have seen our last of the Apple commercials with the cool young Apple user making fun of the frumpy PC guy because his products were buggy.

However, again, my hat’s off to Apple for showing everyone else the way. I loved my iPhones, and, for the last two years, they were the way to go. However, once

August 2010

7

again, they refused to become the standard, allowing others to provide better solutions, products, and services. They made several mistakes that are unforgiveable for me, and, while they will always have loyal followers, I have made the move away from the iPhone and love my new smart phone! So, what do I use now? I purchased the Sprint EVO 4G, which is an Android OS phone. I still have the iPhone (my wife is using it now), and, as I stated before, I purchased an iPad, so, I am not missing my cool Apple applications (I finally did get bored with Angry Birds though.)

But, in my opinion, the EVO 4G, and many other Android phones computing out through AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizion, etc., are far better than the iPhone. With the Android OS, you have a choice.

You can decide which wireless carrier YOU like, and works for you. It makes a big difference if you travel or stay put.

You may have great AT&T coverage in your city and you are very happy with the coverage you get with your iPhone.

But, for me, frankly, the coverage AT&T provides across the nation was one of the leading reasons I had to leave them. I actually opened an account with Verizon and purchased a MiFi (an additional monthly charge of around $40) so that I could connect to the Internet with my iPhone as I traveled across the country. This didn’t help with phone calls, and on a road trip to the NACBA conference a couple of months ago, the inability to keep phone connections while on the road became the straw that broke this editor’s back.

Besides coverage (much better with Sprint now that I have the EVO), many of the features of the EVO are better than the iPhone. I like the larger screen, higher resolution, better camera and video and, in my opinion, the Android OS (paired with the hardware with Android based phones) is easier to use. Let me explain. Apple prided itself on making the iPhone easy to use by giving it one simple button. However, this meant that each application could decide how to present functions of the app—like the menu or “back” ability—as they pleased.

Granted, most are not that hard to fine, but the fact is, each application can handle this differently. In some apps, you simply swipe your finger across the screen to go back to the previous screen, but in others you must find a “back” icon to touch. And, in a few, there is no actual way to exit the app other than clicking the one Christian Computing® Magazine

button Apple provides. With Android phones, such as the EVO, there are four buttons physically on the phone below the screen. One of these is Menu while the other is Back. This means, with any and all applications you are using on an Android phone, you always know how to pull up the Menu, or either go back to the previous screen, or back out of the app to get to the main screen.

Frankly this is easier, and a much simpler method since there is a standard way to find your way around ALL apps.

I know that Apple has more apps than the Android OS, and I love particular apps that, so far, I have only found for the iPhone. I think their use of the iTunes store rocks and hope everyone soon clones their approach to marketing applications. However, I have found all of the main applications I love on the EVO, and, while some have different names or come from different companies, some are better than the ones I used on the iPhone.

With that in mind, let’s remember who is behind the Android, Google! Why is that important? Google is the leader in searching and mapping. Frankly, they have stacked the deck in favor of the Android OS, and it is just a matter of time before Apple will either find themselves behind in these two areas, or they will have to either get busy in development or find some new partners.

August 2010

8

As I have crossed the nation speaking on this subject, I suggested it was just a matter of time before Google would begin saving their best for their own OS. Now that I have an EVO and an iPhone, and can compare the apps side-by-side, I can tell you the Google apps they provide for the Android are FAR superior to what they are providing the iPhone. The mapping programs for the EVO offer many features not found in their iPhone mapping apps, and Google’s Goggle for the Android is really exciting, while the one they provide for the iPhone is very limited. Using Goggle on the Android one can snap pictures (on a high megapixel camera) on the EVO of a large variety of objects and gain instant search results. They are not making these features available for the iPhone app. Google has become a major player in today’s present technology and Internet use, and I see their influence growing in the near future. Their support for Android OS phones will have an impact.

The fact is iPhone sales have been incredible. But, all reports are showing that the fastest growth in mobile devices is occurring with those running the Android OS. This doesn’t mean more people are buying Android phones than the iPhone. iPhone sales with the release of the iPhone 4 were fantastic. However, for the percent of growth in the market, according to Nielsen, CNN and others who are checking the figures, Android is the fastest rising. The fact is, the Android OS has matured, the apps are now in place, and the price and power is there. Not only can you use an Android phone and pick the wireless carrier you like, you can pick the phone that has the physical features you want. If you want an actual keyboard, you can get an Android phone with a slide out keyboard. If you want more screen space, you can get one with the keyboard on screen. Options and variety are going to be a large part of Android’s success.

What about BlackBerry? They have had a dominate place in the mobile computing/smart phone market, but they have had a steady decline in numbers. They are making some fantastic attempts to turn that around and their new OS offers some cool features, and several of the wireless carriers are offering new devices with real Internet access, larger screens, etc. However, it is all about applications, and I think their efforts might be too little too late. And, while BlackBerry was seeking to provide a unique feature in their encryption abilities, they have now opened a door that is causing them tremendous problems. Many companies do not like the fact that they can’t access the information that people are sending out of their countries while using a BlackBerry. BlackBerry (RIM - Research in Motion) is based in Canada, and, I don’t think they thought through the international issues when they established their system of communications Christian Computing® Magazine

and their encryption of data. They are in deep discussions with many countries right now, and at least one country has banned the use of their smart phones within their country.

Church and Christian applications for mobile devices continue to pop onto the marketplace. However, since we have such a division of OS use and applications, the smart money might be on developing online services that can be accessed by all smart phones. I know in a recent Webinar we held here at CCMag with Tim Whitehorn of ServiceU, he shared that they have recently revised their online giving experience so that their donation pages render automatically in a format better suited to mobile browsers. This means their site is designed to be accessed by all smart phones, since it is Internet based and designed specifically for smart phone access, yet is not an app specifically designed, and limited, to one mobile OS. Since we do not have a standard, churches and ministries should work to provide their content, services, information, promotions, etc., in a format that can be viewed by smart phones of all types.

This article is long, but I must say a word about the iPad. I love it. But, I can’t recommend it due to its limitations and price. For the price you can purchase two August 2010

9

netbooks. In addition, when it comes to Internet access, you are limited to the AT&T network unless you are near a WiFi spot (or carry your own like I do with the Verizon MiFi.) However, there is little doubt that, once again, Apple is showing us the way. I am sure they will offer a newer one in a year, with more features (like the camera they left out) and a better price. However, they will have some competition! iPad copy cats will be popping up everywhere. BlackBerry has announced they plan to offer a tablet that uses their operating system. Microsoft has announced their version of the iPad, running Windows 7, expected to ship this fall. And Motorola has announced they will come out with a tablet computer that will run Google’s Droid OS. HP and others are also working on tablets. This may mean that the iPad, and the popularity of the iPad, will impact the way we compute for many years to come. The big question is if we want to access just Web content, such as would be possible with the Microsoft tablet, or do we want to download apps to run on these devices, such as is available with the iPad, and would be available with the Google Droid

Christian Computing® Magazine

devices and the Blackberry Tablet. Once again, I don’t think Microsoft’s tablet will be that big of a hit if they are just trying to offer a new way to do old computing. It is all about quick, fast, apps!

Let me know what you think! I would love to hear how our readers are using mobile computing, what apps they think are the best, why they love THEIR smart phone and mobile OS. There are many variables, and I have shared my purchase decisions based upon my experiences and opinions. What do you use, and why?

August 2010

10

special feature

7 Ways Technology Helps Churches Win at Making Disciples This article is a condensed version of a free e-book made available in full here: http://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com/ebook

I

By Lauren Hunter and Ben Stroup

t’s tough to break a cycle. You know this, and I know this. The cycle of not paying attention to the ministry data available through current church management software (ChMS) technology is one that you need to change, like yesterday. No longer can you close your eyes and hope to make disciples within your church without focusing, planning, evaluating, and realizing that church membership software data can work to your advantage by giving you a snapshot of how new members are really becoming disciples within your church.

Ministry is about people, relationships, ideas, and communication, not data analysis and complex algorithms. When I say “church technology,” you cringe and wonder how this pertains to what you do on a daily basis. Let’s face it. Those of us who raised our hand years ago and said we felt God calling us into ministry, are probably not naturally drawn to numbers. That’s part of what makes us feel like ministry “fits” our personality and natural inclinations.

We spend a great deal of time preparing for such things as pastoral counseling, preaching, education strategy, and effective leadership. The last time I checked there were very few seminary classes on technology, especially how to use church management software to make better ministry decisions.

It’s a tough cycle to break. And most will never “do church” differently than what is described above. Many who fill positions of ministry leadership in local churches will serve their entire careers resting solely upon intuition and simply hope for the best.

One way we can do that is by mining the depths of your ChMS. I’m sure you’ve assigned that responsibility to the IT staff or maybe even the education ministry. I want to challenge you to consider bringing it into the executive staff meeting room and see how this can be a tool to increase your Kingdom footprint in the lives of those God has entrusted to you.

Christian Computing® Magazine

1) Technology helps you build a system.

Engaging with any organization is a process. In some respects everyone knows this except the church leader. We just assume that people will proactively come, find their place, plug in, grow (and grow and grow with no setbacks or special attention needed), and then leave when “Jesus calls them home.”

Instead of approaching disciple making haphazardly, review the membership process in four stages: 1) expansion through outreach and evangelism 2) assimilation as a member starts attending events 3) cultivation when an individual commits to God and to your church and 4) evaluation after a break up has occurred.

By building an offline system to evaluate your membership and disciple making process, you can tailor your church management system to fit the specific needs of your church and monitor individual and church-wide growth.

2) Technology helps you define and measure engagement.

The great lie of church ministry says that if you get more people in the door (and keep more people than you lose) then you will, by default, make more disciples—wrong!

This is where many churches miss the boat when it comes to technology. It’s not just about tracking attendance, mailing August 2010

11

information, and contribution records. It’s about managing your relationship with the member.

Technology allows leaders to find ways to measure what’s working and what isn’t.

If 80% of the people who have attended a new membership class aren’t giving, serving, and connected to a small group within six months of completing the new membership program, that should concern you. It’s time to evaluate the content and structure of the program because you didn’t accomplish your goal.

3) Technology helps you uncover giftedness.

Assimilation is a somewhat awkward word that leaves many of us thinking about the Borg from Star Trek, but really it’s the best way to describe how a new member gets plugged in to the disciple making process. Finding out the members’ areas of giftedness, personal communication preferences, family nuances, and more enable you (the church) to better meet them where they are at and walk them through the disciple making process to grow, serve, and lead others to Christ (this should be the goal).

“The secret” to winning at assimilation is to use technology to profile the person, capture their interests and unique gifts, and find ways to build a relationship around their unique interests, skills, and desires.

Christian Computing® Magazine

4) Technology helps you track human interaction.

If ministry is about people, then the church HAS to be intentional about dealing with people as donors, learners, participants, activists, and evangelists. I’m sure you want to do this, but you just aren’t sure how.

Do you know who has enrolled in three consecutive Bible studies, but never volunteered to lead one? What happens when a new member gives money for the first time? What happens in your church when someone is actively involved and then suddenly absent?

Church leaders expect people with problems to recognize the “signs” and seek the leader out for help. Most often, the person doesn’t even know when the “problem” began or that God might be calling them to something greater unless someone encourages them.

Technology allows us to see what we didn’t even know was there.

5) Technology helps you uncover growth patterns.

Very, very few people are going to push themselves to grow spiritually all by themselves. Most of us need someone to challenge us to take the next step.

People are busy. They often find themselves overwhelmed, trying to balance church, work, parenting, marriage, and a million other things and people tugging at their attention and eating away at each day.

August 2010

12

It’s the job of the church leader to cultivate the resources God has already provided in the membership to accomplish the vision He has given the leader.

Technology gives the leader the information he or she needs to challenge others to take the next step of commitment.

6) Technology helps you evaluate history and plan for the future.

Operating a church is little different from the local nonprofit. You’re responsible for program management, volunteer recruitment, leadership development, and that nasty “f” word...fund-raising! Through all these responsibilities, communication is absolutely critical to building community and fostering a sense of connection.

The trick is not to focus on efficiency but impact. It’s not about the leader’s personal preferences but what motivates people to do something. There is only one way to know this. You’ll have to ask, record, implement, test, measure, and do it all over again.

Trends aren’t just for an economic conversation. Understanding what has happened in the past is an excellent indicator of what will happen. Your ChMS can help you watch for trends and uncover valuable data that will help steer the ship of your church – determining what programs you run and how to best meet your church members, thereby drawing them closer to their church family.

7) Technology helps you evaluate the results and plan the future.

In order for us to preserve the trust needed to build and foster relationships with our membership, churches must embrace this “new normal” and voluntarily hold themselves accountable to measuring impact and reporting the good news...and the bad.

People don’t need your church as much as you need them to be the church God has called you to become.

Technology gives us a tool to demonstrate a ministry “return on investment” to the member who decided to “invest” in your church.

When you can trace the dollar given through the disciple making system that resulted in true life change, you achieve three things: 1. You build trust by doing what you said you were going to do.

2. You pave the way for future investments.

3. You discipline yourself through self-imposed systems of evaluation that ensure “your gut” is matched with data to validate your intuition.

Can you run reports over membership, giving, service, etc. and determine if your church is making more disciples and moving people to deeper levels of engagement?

If you can’t, you risk losing the people God intended to be part of accomplishing the vision in your church.

This article is a condensed version of the e-book, “Get Disciple Making Right: 7 Full-Proof Ways Technology Helps Churches Win at Making Disciples,” made available for free download from Church Community Builder here: http://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com/ebook.

Church Community Builder (http://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com) provides powerful, easy-to-use, web-based church software tools to empower church leaders and staff to manage ministries and help build community. Our enterprise-level, web-based church software solution saves time and money by unifying core church needs and information into one right place.

Lauren Hunter is a writer, blogger, and church technology public relations consultant in Roseville, CA [http://www.laurenhunter. net; http://churchtechtoday.com]. She is a contributing editor for CCMag. Ben Stroup is a writer, consultant, and blogger on the subjects of church funding, stewardship, and generosity. [http://www.benstroup.com; http://churchgivingmatters.com].

Christian Computing® Magazine

August 2010

13

ACS

ACS ideas to impact

Five Sundays:

The Power Of Online Giving

O

from ACS Technologies

nline Giving has been compared to having five Sundays every month – that’s the equivalent of 64 revenue weeks each year. What would that kind of extra revenue mean to a church’s ministries? Would they be able to send more funds to relief organizations or missionaries throughout the world?

Help more people in the community?

Online Giving can help churches reach their goals more quickly and efficiently, so harnessing the strength of this solution is ideal for ministry maximization. This article has been excerpted from the ACS Technologies white paper Five Sundays: The Power Of Online Giving.

Online Giving: A Stronger Spiritual Walk Online giving includes all of the money flowing from the church Web site to the church. This includes recurring and one-time online gifts, contributions from members and non-members, and event payments. The individual organization can decide between accepting just Credit Cards, just ACH payments, or both depending on their preferences.

Some churches are still on the fence about the feasibility of online giving. They question its safety and stability compared to weekly offerings. Some feel that giving electronically takes away from the spirituality of tithing in the traditional manner. Others worry that online giving is impulsive, which may cause their members to financially over-extend themselves. But many people feel that being able to give online actually strengthens their spiritual walk because it allows them to give whenever they choose or feel compelled to do so. If contributors want to give, why not accept their money how they choose to give it?

Online giving is also beneficial to the church because a person’s funds can be received even if they are sick, on vacation, or live elsewhere. Those that don’t attend the church can give as well. Having an Online Giving system can help

Christian Computing® Magazine

the church overcome the “summer giving slump” and meet year-end giving goals.

Why People Give Online Churches often find that the congregation is ready to change how they give to the church. In the past, most people give to their church once or twice a month based on their payroll schedule. Giving electronically allows people to be more consistent in their commitment to give. Some of the benefits of online giving include: • Convenience o Online giving is much faster than writing a check.

Plus, giving online allows the user to choose if they want to give a one-time gift, set up recurring gifts, or make event payments.

• Immediate Crisis Response o Being able to immediately respond to crisis

situations provides a sense of connection. Users feel like they can make a difference in someone else’s time of need without delay.

• Consistency o People love being able to give even when not

physically in attendance at the church, which can help improve the consistency of giving during the ‘summer slump’ months.

• Year-End Generosity o Studies show that giving levels increase during the

August 2010

14

holiday season each year. Online giving helps ensure people have met the contribution levels they pledged during the year before this time period ends.

• Manage & Track Contributions

In One Place

o Donors can contribute to several

different funds or ministry needs in a single transaction, plus enjoy the added convenience of having all their contribution records sent to them for tax purposes.

Getting Started With Online Giving With a solid implementation plan, any church can make online giving a successful element of their contribution strategy, and truly achieve the equivalent of five Sundays of giving each month.

The timing to launch Online Giving is crucial. Since the majority of churches experience a “summer slump” in giving and attendance, online giving launched early in the year should be in place - and in use - before the summer season starts.

Likewise, since most donors tend to contribute more at year-end, churches might want to consider launching in the fall so that the users are comfortable with the system by the time the holiday season rolls around.

The Power Of Five Sundays The “Five Sundays” giving concept is a compelling one for many reasons.

Organizations ready to make even more of a positive difference in their congregation, community, and around the world need to harness the power of Online Giving to make those ministry goals a reality. For more about the benefits of online giving plus information on setup, Web site maximization, and a detailed implementation timeline; download Five Sundays: The Power Of Online Giving today.

Christian Computing® Magazine

August 2010

15

accelerating the dynamic church

Dynamic Churches Focus on Equipping

H

from Fellowship Technologies

elping people move from casual attendees to fully devoted followers of Christ is ¸ !CCELERATING 4HE $YNAMIC #HURCH the unending work of every church leader. It is because of this continuous need that these leaders place a high priority on creating repeatable, measurable processes for equipping people.

Quite a few churches have built entire buildings dedicated to Sunday school classrooms while others offer weekly evening studies and ministry training. Others put their efforts into creating as many small groups as possible. All of these are viable methods for educating and building relationships, but equipping goes beyond offering Bible studies or volunteer training. Equipping is preparing people for approaching various situations with Biblical confidence, selfless humility and service in the Kingdom.

Church leaders to need to measure the results of these offerings to ensure that the equipping is effective and determine how (and how often) they will evaluate the results of countless hours of staff and lay leaders pouring into people’s lives.

Good leaders know that you must “inspect what you expect” and therefore need a consistent, unified method for ensuring that all ministries are updating and sharing information about their equipping efforts.

To support the processes for equipping people, church leaders, staff and lay leaders need to build the habit of following up with their volunteers and attendees to encourage and ensure that the equipping opportunities are meeting the needs of individuals. Therefore, setting realistic expectations and measuring results go hand-in-hand.

It is important to note that this is not an attempt to measure the “faith” or “spiritual maturity” of people.

Instead, the goal is to better understand how people need to be equipped, encouraged and enabled to plug into the life of the church through study, training, outreach and discipleship. When a church places a priority on gaining this insight, they will naturally need Christian Computing® Magazine

the proper tools and continually refine the process to promote healthy growth.

Equipping people is more than another class or small group; it is a purposeful, focused effort to create, measure, modify and take part in the shaping the lives of every person in the church. As a result, dynamic churches focus on equipping disciples to face the challenges of life with godly confidence and conviction.

August 2010

16

tech talk

Google Chrome Redux

B

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

ack in November of last year I did a review and recommendation of the Google Chrome web browser (you really might want to review it: http://www.ccmag. com/2009_11/ccmag2009_11.pdf). While I did not actually switch to it exclusively then, I since have. I honestly never thought I would ever switch from my beloved Firefox, but I did. Why? Because not only is it simple, sleek, secure, and speedy, but it’s getting more supercharged by the day, and we’ll look at how in this two-part article.

Plug In Some Plug-Ins Let’s be honest. One of the main reasons for using Firefox (other than “anything is better than Internet Explorer”) is because of the huge number of plug-ins (add-ons, extensions) available for it. While this has not been true of Chrome, that has changed. It now has extension support, enabling third-party developers to have a blast. Here are just a few of the add-ons that are available for Chrome.

First, there is AdSweep, which blocks almost all ads in websites. While it is still in developmental and will let some ads slip through, it’s a work in progress.

Just go to http://adsweep.org/ and click on the “AdSweep.crx” link to install it.

Second, Google Chrome Backup (Fig. 1) enables you to create, backup, and restore, and manage Chrome profiles in case of system problems. Each profile holds personal data such as history, bookmarks, browsing history and cookies, among other personal elements.

Christian Computing® Magazine

Your might want to define profiles for multiple users or different ones for your self (such as one for work and one for play). By default, Chrome does not make creating profiles as easy as Firefox does, but this extension solves the problem. Check out this plug-in at: http:// www.mychromeaddons.com/chrome-addon-google-

Fig. 1 – Google Chrome Backup.

August 2010

17

Fig. 2 – ChromePass password recovery tool.

chrome-backup/.

Third, Session Saver is a little gem that enables you to save, manage, and reload multiple sessions. Just open the tabs you want and save that session with its own name, and then do it all again to additional sessions. Take a look at: http://www.computingunleashed.com/download-google-chrome-session-saver.html.

Fourth, Dual View enables you to view two different web pages in a single tab. In other words, the current tab will split to two equal halves. Why not just switch between tabs? Because this way you could compare search results on both Google and some other engine, or do side by side comparisons of products, or reference something in the left panel and then type about it in the right. Find out more and download it from: http://www.chromeplugins.org/plugins/google-chrome-dual-view/. To use it, simply drag and drop the “Chrome Dual View” link into your bookmarks. When you click this new bookmark, a pop-up box asks for the first URL, which will be the left panel, or leave the current one as the default. You will then be prompted for the second URL, which will be displayed in the right panel.

Fifth, assuming you use Gmail, once installed, ChromeMailer enables you to click on a “mail:to” link to directly open Google Mail or Gmail to send mail. This doesn’t happen by default. Learn more and install it at: http://skaelede.hu/?e=chromemailer&lg=en.

Sixth, ChromePass (Fig. 2) is a small password recovery tool that enables you to view the user names and passwords stored by Chrome. No more having to click the “forgot the password” link while logging into websites for which you don’t remember the password. Take a look at: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromepass.html.

Seventh, IE Tab is for those times when a site can only be displayed correctly in Internet Explorer. Instead of having to actually open IE, just use this plug-in to display the page in a Chrome tab (https://chrome.google. com/extensions/detail/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd).

Eighth, Tab Menu is for users like me who load more than ten tabs at a time. In fact, the more tabs you open, the more useful this plug-in becomes. Using a Christian Computing® Magazine

handy pull-down menu, you can select, close, rearrange, find, and more. (https:// chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/galfofdpepkcahkfobimileafiobdplb) .

Want more? Of course you do. Visit a few other places to find more Chrome plug-ins: https://chrome.google.com/ extensions, https://chrome.google.com/ extensions/?hl=en, etc.; http://www.chromeplugins.org/category/plugins/; http://www. chromeplugins.net/. Do your own search and you’ll find more.

The Keys to Chrome As I have written in this column many times (and used to nag my students about), keyboard shortcuts are the true separator of rookie and pro. While many of the shortcut keys in Chrome are the same as in Firefox (and IE for that matter), some are not.

Here is a list of the most used shortcuts. If you want to be a super-duper power user, go to: http://www. google.com/support/chrome/bin/static.py?page=guide. cs&guide=25799&topic=28650.

General Shortcuts F1: Opens the Help Center in a new tab Alt+Home loads your homepage.

Backspace: Goes to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab.

Shift+Backspace Goes to the next page in your browsing history for the tab.

Ctrl+N: Open a new window Ctrl+T: Open a new tab Ctrl+Shift+N: Open a new window in incognito (private) mode Ctrl+O, then select file: Open a file from our PC in Chrome Ctrl+click a link to open link in new tab Ctrl+Shift and click a link to open a link in a new tab and switch to it Ctrl+Shift+T: Reopens the last tab you’ve closed, up to 10 tabs Ctrl+1 [through] 8: Switches to the tab at the specified position Ctrl+B: Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off Ctrl+Shift+B: Opens the Bookmark manager Ctrl+H: Opens the History page Ctrl+Shift+J: Opens Developer tools Ctrl+J opens the Downloads tab.

Shift+Escape opens Chrome’s Task Manager.

August 2010

18

Address Bar Shortcuts Ctrl+Enter: Adds www. and .com to your input and then opens the resulting URL Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E: Places a “?” in the address bar Ctrl + left or right arrow: Moves the cursor to the preceding or next key term in the address bar Ctrl+L to move your cursor to the address bar.

“How to have more time for ministry!”

Do you want to save time, get more done and have fewer headaches? Then Donarius Church Management Software will make it easy for you to track your members, contributions, pledges Starting at $63.97 and more. Imagine what you can do with the for the base version with 25% off for small churches extra time! Donarius will also: Download a free demo at: • Print your tax receipts www.donarius.com • Show the giving pattern of your members • Print your church directories 1-888-479-4636 • Send personalized letters, emails and text Nuverb Systems Inc. messages to keep your members informed “Software tailored for you”

Webpage Shortcuts Ctrl+R refreshes the current page.

Ctrl+W closes the current tab.

Ctrl+F5 or Shift +F5: Reloads current page and ignores cached content Ctrl +D: Bookmarks current page Ctrl+U: Opens the source of your current page Ctrl+0: Returns page to its normal size Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, Ctrl+0 Enlarges, reduces, and restores default text sizes, respectively.

Ctrl+Tab cycles through open tabs (Ctrl+Shift+Tab reverse cycles) Ctrl+Shift+T opens the last closed tab.

Mousing Around While the keyboard is great, your rodent can do some tricky stuff in Chrome. For example, if you are several links deep on a web page, you don’t have to keep clicking that silly “Back” button until you stumble onto the right page. Instead, just right-click on the “Back” button to see a list of links you’ve navigated.

A unique feature in Chrome is the ability to paste a link and go directly to it without hitting Enter. Copy a link to the Clipboard and then just right-click anywhere in the address bar and select “Paste and go” from the pop-up menu (Fig. 3).

If you’re a blogger, or post on forums, you’ll like the ability to resize a text area by just clicking and dragging the lower right corner.

Use Ctrl+Mousewheel to zoom in or out on a page. To reset the page back to normal, either scroll back to the appropriate size, or just press Ctrl+0.

Oh, and how about this one? You can drag-and-drop a Chrome tab out into a new window or back into an existing Chrome window to dock it there.

Finally, you can drag-and-drop a download from the status bar onto your desktop (or any Explorer window) to save it there.

The Incredible Shrinking Tabs

The boys and girls on the Chrome team have been constantly tweaking the interface and here is a good example. Instead of (or even in conjunction with) the Tab Menu extension mentioned earlier, this little Chrome trick is really cool. It shrinks a tab to a small thumbnail, which frees up a huge amount of space across the tab bar. To use this, just rightclick on a tab and select “Pin Tab” from the menu. It will be moved to the far left side of the tab bar and marked only by its thumbnail.

We’ll look at some more next time. Enjoy!

Fig. 3 – The “Paste and go” option.

Christian Computing® Magazine

August 2010

19

higher power with kevin

Setting Up a WordPress Blog Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

R

ecently Yvon Prehn shared that churches should create their own blog or website (part one: http://bit.ly/czlVyj and part two: http://bit. ly/9MLRWv). One of the easiest solutions for doing so is WordPress (WP), the content management system that I use for my church’s web site (http://www.highpeakchurch. com) and my personal site (http://www.kevinpurcell.org).

WordPress is simple enough for the average user but can scale to become a powerful and advanced tool for the best web coders out there. Setting up a WordPress site is a simple, three-step process.

STEP ONE: Setting Up the Software The things you will need to get started are 1) the WordPress files, 2) a web hosting service that supports PHP 4.3 or higher and MySQL 4.1.2 or higher (almost all do so just ask that specifically when doing your search), and 3) a domain name. The easiest thing is to find #2 and #3 together by finding a good host that supports the necessary web technologies and then register your domain there.

One thing you could do is simply go to http://www. wordpress.com and set up your site there. That way you don’t have to download anything, tweak or edit any text files, use an FTP client or worry about the backend of your site. WP does it all for you. But, it can be expensive if your site gets large and you don’t want ads but do want to be able to have a lot of users. So I think it is best to do the hard work now of setting it up.

For hosting, I recommend to my friends ICDSoft (http://www.icdsoft.com). They are a inexpensive, but dependable solution. If you own a number of domains Christian Computing® Magazine

you can get discounts. They support MySQL and PHP and I haven’t had more than a few hours of down time in almost eight years with them. You can get a site for a little as $6 per month.

Once you set things up by purchasing your hosting space and registering your domain, your host will send you instructions on how to upload files. The best way to do that is a dedicated FTP (file transfer protocol) client.

One of the best is also free – FileZilla (http://filezillaproject.org). Download and install FileZilla and when you run it plug in your ftp address, username and password provided by the hosting company.

Now you will upload the WordPress files. But you have to download them first. Get them at http:// wordpress.org/download. They will come in a ZIP file.

Windows can unzip them for you by right clicking and choosing extract.

Now go back to Filezilla and upload the files. It is a simple program to use even though it looks complicated. In the center are file and folder lists. The left hand August 2010

20

side represents what you see on your computer. Navigate to the location of the WordPress files you extracted and then drag them to the root folder of your web site on the right, which will show up once you log into the web site via the information your host gave you. The address is placed in the Host box at the top. It will look like ftp.yourdomain.com. Add your Username and Password. Don’t worry about the port unless your hosting company tells you to use a special port number. Click on Quickconnect and from then on the address will be stored in the drop down list next to the Quickconnect button. Now you can drag the files from the left to the right.

At the top of Filezilla you will see a bunch of messages telling you what the program is doing. At the bottom is the progress of each file.

It will take awhile to upload so get a snack and then come back.

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

August 2010

21

Once it finishes uploading the files, you will have to configure some things on your host’s control panel and in a special file that comes with the WordPress files. This is a little complicated. It is easier to just follow the instructions here (http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress#Detailed_Instructions) than for me to regurgitate that information here. You may need to contact your host provider for help on how to do some of the steps. But if you can read, you can do this. For ICDsoft’s control panel it is not that hard. You click on MySQL Databases and under Databases: in the Database name: box enter a name for your database, like wordpress and then click create. Now add a new user and give it a password. Keep this screen open so that you can get information when editing the file in the next paragraph. Also remember this password.

Now you will need to set up the wp-config.php file. In the folder where you extracted the WordPress files after downloading them, there is a special sample file called wpconfig-sample.php that you can use as a template.

Open this file in Notepad and change the following using information from your MySQL control panel in the previous paragraph.

DB_NAME – the name you gave your database name DB_USER – the user name you created DB_PASSWORD – the password you created for that user name DB_HOST – this information is in your MySQL control panel screen (if you use ICDsoft it is the following: localhost:/tmp/mysql5.sock, but others just use localhost) The only reason to change anything else is if you won’t be using English. For more information about how to create this file go here: http://codex.wordpress. org/Editing_wp-config.php.

Now, save this file with the following name: wpconfig.php. Notepad wants to put the .txt ending on it. If it does, remove it. Then using Filezilla, upload it to the root directory of your web site just like you did before.

The last step is to run the simple installation script by going to http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php.

Christian Computing® Magazine

Don’t use example.com, replace it with your domain name. So if your domain was mybaptistchurch.com, then you would put that in the address instead of example.com. Follow the instructions on screen and you are then ready to go.

STEP TWO: Configuring Your WordPress Blog After you have set things up, it is time to configure your blog by logging into the dashboard. The dashboard is the interface that lets you choose how your WordPress blog will look and behave. You do so by going to http:// yourdomain.com/wp-admin. When you run the script at the end of the previous step you will get an email with your password and username. Check your email to get that information and enter it here. Then you will immediately want to go and change that password. You find that under Users along the lower left side of the screen. Also, I personally like to add a second account with my name. I use this second account to actually post articles to my blog.

We’ll talk about posting later.

Now, just explore the dashboard and click on all the links to familiarize yourself with it. There are three things you will want to do.

First, set things up to behave the way you want under all the different Settings pages. This is where you give your web site a title and tagline. For my personal site I August 2010

22

use the site address as the title. My tagline is “My brain explodes into cyberspace.”

You will also want to set the time zone and other aspects. How do you want the site to handle reading and writing of posts?

I strongly suggest you read through the tutorial pages at WordPress.org found here: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_ Lessons.

The next thing you want to do is customize your theme. This is the look of the blog. You can use the default themes at first, but later add some more colorful themes that match your personality and purpose.

In the dashboard you customize the themes under Appearance. There are two tabs under the appearance screen. One is to manage the installed themes and the other is to add new ones. Click Install Themes and you will see a bunch of options to choose from to search. If you want a particular color scheme like a mostly blue web site then click blue. If you want it to be one, two, three or four columns, click one of these. Maybe you want something like a Photoblogging site, so select that at the bottom. Then you can enter a keyword to search, like church or pictures. Then click Find Themes. The results are a grid of the themes that match your criteria. If you don’t enter a keyword in the search box it will just find themes matching the criteria you clicked.

If you are not sure what you want, just choose one of the links below the tabs like Featured or Newest. Then browse to see the themes. If you see one you like, click Preview to get a large screen preview.

Or just install it by clicking Install. The detail links under each thumbnail tell more about the theme. When you click Install, a window pops up. Click Install Now and it installs the theme automatically. But it has not yet changed the look of the site. You then have to click Activate to do that. Once you do, your web site will then look like that theme.

The other customization you can do is to add plugins. A plugin is a little tool that will help you add special functionality to your web site. I have a plugin that takes all of my Twitter messages and displays them along the Christian Computing® Magazine

side of my web site. To find these go to Plugins and then Add new. There are hundreds, so at the outset be careful.

You may have some very specific things you want. Search for that function and there is likely a plugin. But if you don’t know what you want, wait till you’ve gotten used to WordPress before adding too many.

August 2010

23

Once a plug in is active, it will either add a tap to the Settings list or it will add a widget to the Appearance section. Widgets are tools that can be added to the side bars of your web site. As I said before, I added a plugin to put my Twitter feed on my site. But after adding the plugin and configuring it with my Twitter user name, I had to add the widget to the side bar. To do that, go back to Appearance and then Widgets. Click the drop down arrow next to the side bar you want to customize and the drag the widget from the center to the sidebar.

There may be some settings to change or a place for a Title. Click the drop down arrow next to your widget to see.

Last you will want to add things like categories, links, and Pages. A category is to help you categorize the kinds of posts you may put on your site. For example, I have categories for my church site like Men, Women, Worship, News, etc. When I create a new post I give it a category so that people can search our site based on those categories.

Next, add some links. There is a Links section along the left. To add one, click on Add New. These also have categories. The links will be to web sites that you think your readers might be interested in. For our church, I have links to various sites related to our denomination, to services that might be helpful to members like weather, and to tools like Bible study sites. I place these along the sides of the page using Widgets.

Finally, you will want to add some pages. This takes some thought. What kinds of pages might people want to use with your web site? Often these pages will be in tabs across the top of the home page or in a list along the side depending on the theme you chose. For our church we have a page for Pictures, Downloads, Streaming (we stream our worship services live via Ustream.tv) etc. A page is different from a post in that a page is static and remains in that spot all the time. A post is a news item that will likely be time sensitive. For example, if you want to describe your youth ministry, make a page that will always be at the top or side of the web site. If you want to announce a youth activity, create a post that will show up near the top until you add more posts.

It will take some time to learn WordPress. Use the tutorial pages from the previous link in this article. But once you have things setup the way you want, start adding content.

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

STEP THREE: Adding Content There are two primary ways to add content. You can use the WordPress dashboard where you can go to either the Posts or Pages tabs along the left. Click Add New to add new posts or pages. You can use the WYSIWIG editor which is somewhat like editing a word document. Or you can learn some HTML coding and use the HTML interface.

The other way to update your page is use a program like Windows Live Writer. I don’t have the space to show you how to use Live Writer here. Just go to the web page at Microsoft and download and install Live Writer (http://explore.live.com/ windows-live-writer). In my opinion, this is the easiest way to update your WordPress web site. You install it, insert your address and username/password and it configures itself. From then on you can simply type the content into that program and it makes either pages or posts for you on your web site. It is very similar to using MS Word.

Just as an aside, if you own Word 2007 or Word 2010 you can also update WordPress sites using the new blog post feature.

Conclusion There is a little more than what we have covered to getting a really professional looking WordPress site. But you have the basics to get started. WordPress.org is a great help in getting through the hurdles not covered here. The forums at that site will have all the answers you need.

If you need help getting going, my advice is to find a local computer shop that also does web programming or find a volunteer in your church who has experience creating web pages. I have a limited amount of time to help get web sites set up, but for a fee I will. So you can contact me at kevin@kevinpurcell. org.

August 2010

24

nick at church

Getting the Most Out of Your Church Management Software Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

I

get to visit with churches and ministries around the country throughout the year. Whether I’m serving in a consulting role or speaking, I’ve noticed that most are either somewhat dissatisfied with their church management software system, or dislike it so much they are looking for a replacement product. Why is the dissatisfaction level so high? And is there a way to improve it?

The Dissatisfaction Reaction If the complaints about church management software were limited to only certain products, it would be easy to say the solution is simply to change to a better product. But because I have not yet found a system that is not highly complained about, the problem is either with all church management software (CMS) systems, or the users, or both. I think both are at fault for lessthan-satisfactory user experiences.

Why are there so few satisfied CMS users? Here’s what I’ve seen: • Complication. The better CMS providers, hoping to meet the needs of many churches well, must include so many options that the use of their software often feels too complex. The problem is that churches do so many of the same things differently that simple software is easily outgrown, and the only acceptable solution becomes one that is complex in it’s myriad of options.

• Unique Interfaces. Most users of CMS products have never worked with complex databases before.

The result is that even those CMS providers that have been careful to implement industry standards Christian Computing® Magazine

and have made their products’ interfaces consistent are challenging for their target users. This adds to the feeling of the product being overly complex.

• The Nature of the Church Business Office. Dan Bishop (Executive Director of the Houston CO+OP) once observed that church offices are similar to publishing offices because of their many and constant deadlines. Add that church offices are typically understaffed and under budgeted, and the situation is ripe for user dissatisfaction due to too little time to train users and manage databases.

The result is that CMS users often find themselves looking for quick and easy approaches of data entry and reporting, which translates into barely usable datasets that do little to help church leadership in the long run.

There Is Hope!

No wonder why churches— even those who are basically satisfied with their CMS— always seem to have an eye open to anything new that might serve them better. But there is hope! Following are some steps that CMS providers and churches can take to improve satisfaction.

August 2010

25

Suggestions for CMS Providers CMS providers can improve their customers’ dissatisfaction and build greater loyalty by serving their customers better.

That challenge is no different than how every other business niche is challenged. Please allow me to share a few thoughts that might help based on my conversations with many churches and church staff across the country.

• Complexity & Interface. You are doing a great job in meeting the varied needs of your customers by offering many ways to use your products. The complexity that results could be overcome by using some of the programming tools available today that allow a user to modify the screen they use. Consider allowing them to set their screen preferences, eliminating options and fields they never use, renaming them to match their business processes, and reorganizing the layout of the fields to best facilitate their processes.

• The Nature of the Church Business Office.

Training and technical support are the keys to help in this area.

• Training needs to be a requirement at the time of purchase to help those who have not worked with complex databases to become successful users; but it’s not enough. Look for ways to encourage your customers to establish a regular training program.

Because they have constant team turnover, they need training to help new team members. And because their ministry programs continually evolve, they need someone who is an expert in the use of your products to look at their databases and help them understand ‘best’ ways to facilitate their growing needs. (One possibility might be to include a number of days on-site each year in the annual support. Once it’s in the budget, it’s more likely to happen!)

• Technical support is often uncomfortable for users.

Continually remind your team they need to not be defensive, and they always need to help users find ways to accomplish what is needed. Phrases that never help the caller or the perception of your company (like, “No one has ever asked for that,” “It can’t be done,” and “It must be your computer or network”) only increase user dissatisfaction.

Suggestions for Churches CMS data is one of your most valuable assets, and it should be given the same level of care you would give to any other highly valuable asset—like your buildings! Here are Christian Computing® Magazine

some suggestions that can help you get the most out of your investment and data asset.

• Establish data entry standards to improve the quality of your data. Your CMS provider may have a document you can edit to help you accomplish this, and should address such things as searching to ensure a record doesn’t already exist before duplicating it, screen shots, etc.

• Make training a mandatory part of your annual budget. This investment will save you much more money than it will cost— I guarantee it!

I hope this helps. It’s sad when we see so many churches and ministries spend money to change systems unnecessarily, and reduce productivity while their teams learn how to use the new CMS. 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.

August 2010

26

launching online

Client-Side Programming

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

U

p until now I’ve focused on server-side technologies for our online social network. PHP and MySQL (especially leveraging many of the other platforms and web services we’ve looked at) can deliver tremendous capabilities. But today’s modern websites rely heavily on client-side programming capabilities to deliver a pleasing user experience.

What is Client-Side Programming?

People accessing your website generally do so using a web browser – this is the client – and your website sits on a server in the network. PHP is a powerful server-side programming language that can make your website dynamic – showing the most up to date information. However, for your users to see any new information; their client (web browser) has to make a new request to the server and the entire page gets downloaded again and redrawn on their screen.

Client-side programming allows a program to run inside the web browser so that new information is presented in a portion of the browser window without the entire web page having to be reloaded, and often without the user having to take an explicit action.

Let me give a very simple example. It is very easy for me to write a PHP program on the server which will embed the current time into a web page. I could even get fancy and represent it as a clock face. However, the clock won’t update at all until the web browser requests an update and the server sends the whole web page again with an updated clock. Using client-side programming, I can update the clock in the window every second if I like, without impacting anything else on the web page and without sending any additional traffic over the network.

Christian Computing® Magazine

What are Client-Side Programming Languages?

The vast majority of client-side programming today is either done in JavaScript or in Flash. Microsoft’s Silverlight is an emerging alternative to Flash, and HTML5 will introduce client-side programming capabilities as it becomes standardized. But for now, if you want to program in the client, you’ll probably be using either Flash or JavaScript.

Flash is a very powerful tool for creating impressive web interactivity. However, there are issues with Flash that have caused me to steer clear of it. First, Flash is a proprietary technology of Adobe, so to take full advantage of Flash, I need to buy development tools from Adobe, and my users will generally need to have the Flash plugin installed in their browser, which leads to other challenges.

Flash plugins haven’t generally been available for mobile devices, and even if they are, Flash is a bit of a resource hog, so performance on lower end systems (and mobile devices) can be painful. Some security experts have even recommended that users disable Flash because “bad guys” could use Flash’s power to do “bad things”.

JavaScript doesn’t perfectly overcome all of the challenges of Flash. There are security concerns with JavaScript (although fewer than Flash), JavaScript does August 2010

27

require more processing power than just plain HTML (but generally less than Flash), and not all browsers support JavaScript, especially on non-smartphone mobile devices. But, JavaScript doesn’t require a browser plugin, and there are many good JavaScript development tools available for free.

Javascript’s Strengths are Its Weaknesses Because JavaScript (unlike Flash) runs natively in the browser, it is susceptible to variances amongst browsers in how the script is interpreted. I’m sure this is nothing new to you since web developers already have to deal with differences in how Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc, interpret CSS or even some basic HTML tags. But it’s a pain, none the less.

Thankfully, open source developers have created JavaScript frameworks that not only handle the cross-browser idiosyncrasies of JavaScript, but also make it much easier to tap into the full power of the language. This is where JavaScript’s second strength becomes a challenge – unlike Flash (where you basically have to go to Adobe for good tools), there are so many JavaScript frameworks to choose between – how do you choose?

Christian Computing® Magazine

Here are a few of the most popular JavaScript frameworks: • jQuery • Prototype • YUI • Google Web Toolkit • Dojo How Do Frameworks Help?

I’ve found that there are three basic concepts that demonstrate the value of JavaScript frameworks.

The first concept is selectors. Everything on a web page can be considered an object that can be used by JavaScript.

That means every header, every paragraph, every list, every list element, every image, every link, every form element, and every button – basically anything that has an HTML tag – can be selected by JavaScript for action. The technical name for this is the Document Object Model (DOM). JavaScript can respond to the user’s interaction with those elements – such as mousing over a header, clicking in a form field, or checking a checkbox. However, from a programmer’s perspective, being able to identify that element and set up the appropriate

August 2010

28

actions for it, can be a real pain – especially since it works slightly differently in different browser versions. JavaScript frameworks generally make it simple to pull out a single element. Frameworks especially make a big difference in the area of DOM traversal –for example, being able to easily identify the 3rd item in the second ordered list on the page.

The second concept is DOM manipulation. Each element on the page has attributes that can be modified by JavaScript.

That includes visibility, color, background color, border, location, text, link, etc. JavaScript frameworks make it easy to modify these attributes in very sophisticated ways. For example, an element can gradually change from one color to another when the mouse is placed over it. JavaScript frameworks even provide a way to create new elements on the page. For example, when you’re filling out a form, each time you complete the last text box in a list, another text box can appear in case you have another item to add to the list.

The third concept is user interface elements, or widgets.

JavaScript frameworks, either natively, or with plugins, make it really easy to add sophisticated user interface elements to your page. For example, when the user clicks on a date field, a small calendar widget may appear making it easy to select a date. This widget is easily implemented using a JavaScript framework.

Choosing a Framework We’ve only tried two JavaScript frameworks. We first used YUI and were hooked on the concept, but then struggled with a particular implementation and searched for an alternative. We came across jQuery and have been using it ever since. One difference between the two is that YUI is focused on making Yahoo’s user interface elements available for other developers, while jQuery is a more typical open source project focused on harnessing the innovation of a large Christian Computing® Magazine

community of developers. To further explore the differences between the framework options, I would recommend Wikipedia’s comparison table and IBM’s article titled “Compare JavaScript frameworks.”

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 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.

August 2010

29

ministry communication

Clipart, Images, and Articles-If it’s on the web, is it OK to use it?

Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

G

oogle can find anything you want—an image, a devotion, an article, a sermon. One click and you can view it; copy and paste and you capture it. But, just because it’s that easy to do it, does that mean you should do it? If we want our digital lives to match the beliefs of our analog lives, as believers and servants of Jesus, the answer is no. Read on for specific guidelines….

The old rules still apply I’ve been astounded (and that strong word is used intentionally) by the number of people lately who have contacted me asking if it is OK to use anything they find for ministry purposes. The excuses are often the same: “We don’t have money, time, whatever…..” to do the right thing and find out if it is OK to use these materials.

Just because budgets are tight, and we are stressed out in our schedules, does not mean we can grab and use anything we find. We need to be just as careful today that we are not using something that does not rightly belong to us, just as we did in junior high school when we were taught not to plagiarize material for school papers.

To help us do that, a quick review of what constitutes copyright, fair use and public domain may be helpful. Following this brief overview and some recommendations is a list of links to the U.S. government sites and additional articles that explain these issues in Christian Computing® Magazine

more detail.

Copyright laws In very brief summary, since 1976, which is the date of the most recent copyright revision in the U.S., if you create something, you own the copyright to it.

You do not have to register it or even use the copyright symbol. If you create it, you own it. Because the creator can grant use of it to someone else, that is why it is important to ask permission to use things that don’t belong to you.

What this means in practice: You also own the rights to give it away or allow others to use it. It also means if you don’t own it, it isn’t yours for the taking with the exception of what is known as Fair Use. Fair Use The law recognizes the right and need for people to be able to quote parts of a book, article or essay for education, editorial, and review reasons.

August 2010

30

It is easiest to apply Fair Use to written material. Obviously if you copy an entire piece of writing and sell it to someone else or print it on the web without permission— that is stealing. If you just quoted perhaps a passage, a paragraph, an example or a statement, it would be Fair Use. The Fair Use guidelines are much harder to apply to images because you seldom take just part of an image. One of the biggest guidelines here is whether or not you use the image in an educational setting or if you use it for commercial purposes. To use an image to illustrate a Sunday school lesson is one thing; to download and use it on a T-shirt that you sell is totally different and a clear violation of the law.

For images, for ministry uses, the best thing to do is to either sign up for a service that sells images (usually these groups have very reasonable prices), or use images from some of the free to use, no attribution required sources. Two resources of images that allow use for a low payment are: www.churchart. com and www.faithclipart.com. On my website, http:// www.effectivechurchcom.com/category/skills/cliparthow-to/ I have videos and lists of copyright-free image sources and other related resources.

Fair Use however, can get very tricky. It is NOT OK to cite where you got something from and have it fall under the Fair Use rules if you copy the whole piece. That is simply telling people where you stole it from. If you tell people where you got it from or cite the reference, it is true that is not plagiarism because you are not claiming it as your own, but it still not right to do it.

Public Domain Many older materials (many of the writings of the church fathers, for example) or samples of Victorian art work, if they were not in a private collection or did not have their copyright renewed are in the Public Domain and this means that they can be used by anyone.

This however, is another extremely complex area.

There are two articles below that explain this in much Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

more detail, but as always, this is an area, where if you are in doubt about whether something is legal for you to use or not, it is always best to contact the owner of the work or site where you found it.

Creative Commons This is a newer system created by an international group of web-based individuals who have designed ways for the creators of works to label their works in the ways they will allow them to be shared. The various ways include with and without attribution, for commercial purposes or not, and any combination of these restrictions. You can read more about them at www. creativecommons.org.

The website also has a very useful search feature on the home page that allows you to find items that can be freely shared. The group has also developed a way to label materials that are legally in the public domain however it will probably be some time before this is widely implemented.

Some practical advice In addition to the Creative Commons listings, there are a number of places on the web (click here for a August 2010

31

listing of them) that have copyright free clipart and images you can use.

There are also some websites (such as this one) that encourage you to copy and pass on material and give you permission to do it. Most of the ones that do make it clear. If they don’t, take the time to email and ask.

In conclusion, back to the initial question of whether or not you can just grab something off the web.

Here is a three point checklist to ask yourself from the article by Goehner (the link is listed below): • Would I perform this use with print media in this setting?

• Am I doing something to prevent purchase, lease or licensing?

• Do I hope that I will not get caught?

I especially like the last question, “Do I hope that I will not get caught?” We often know (I do believe it is the Holy Spirit who speaks to our spirit) when we are doing something we shouldn’t. If you have that nagging sense that you ought to be checking more carefully into whether or not it is OK to use something, don’t ignore that feeling. Check it out to see if you are doing what is right or not.

“As is often said, the devil is in the details — and so is the angel. Signs of character are most visible when they are least visible — that is, demonstrated by what people do when they think no one is watching, such as following the rules or taking the moral high ground with no audience observing them. That’s why the signals of a leader’s judgment lies in the small things.

That’s why we don’t want to entrust national security, corporate finances, or leadership of a major enterprise to people who can’t put institutional interests above personal indulgences.” From an article by Roabeth Moss Kanter, in Harvard Business Review online 9-92010 Yes, it always does take more time and care to make certain that it is legal to use the materials you want to use on the web, but we serve the Lord and no matter if it takes more time or not, we should do it the correct way.

Christian Computing® Magazine

Additional helpful links Overall U.S. government site on copyright, if you want to know the law and the history of it, this site has it. It is not overly complex or hard to understand. http://www.copyright. gov/ A U.S. government site with an explanation of fair use: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html A very readable blog explaining public domain:http:// blog.ebusinesslawgroup.com/2008/11/are-works-youre-usingreally-in-public.html This site consists of a great chart on public domain that contains the specifics about a wide variety of the dates and types of materials and when they fall into public domain: http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm An excellent summary of what is and isn’t correct on the web as related to copyright: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/ copyright-internet.htm Good article about copyright for educators, but with excellent comments on teaching morality: http://www.goehner. com/copyright.htm The site that explains creative commons and links to its search function: http://creativecommons.org/ Video tours of free image sources and online webinars of how to use and modify the images. http://www.effectivechurchcom.com/category/skills/clipart-how-to/

August 2010

32