ccmag2010_11

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

November 2010

No. 11

7 cover story

Halo Merchant Services by Steve Hewitt

Copy Editor Gina Hewitt

3 editorial

Corporate Home Office

Thanks for Everyone Who Supports CCMag’s Ministry

By Steve Hewitt

4 press releases 11 tech talk

Thanks for the Memories

By Dr. J.D. (Doc) Watson

15 ACS ideas to impact 5 Key Principles of an Effective Web Ministry

from ACS Technologies

17 accelerating the dynamic church Dynamic Churches Leverage Efficient Processes

18 higher power with kevin

Contributing Editors Dr. J.D. “Doc” Watson Lauren Hunter Terry Wilhite Yvon Prehn Nick Nicholaou Kevin A. Purcell C. Brian Smith Russ McGuire Drew Goodmanson Bradley Miller Michael Curylo

from Fellowship Technologies

Mac Bible Software the State of Affairs

22 nick at church

By Kevin A. Purcell

Strategic IT Outsourcing

25 launching online

By Nick Nicholaou

Should I Serve Non-Christians?

31 ministry communication

By Russ McGuire

Connect Your Congregation with Technology

By Yvon Prehn

Christian Computing® is a registered trademark of Christian Computing, Inc. Written materials submitted to Christian Computing® Magazine become the property of Christian Computing®, Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Christian Computing® Magazine reserves the right to make any changes to materials submitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publication may not be copied in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Christian Computing®, Inc. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees of Christian Computing® Magazine, or Christian Computing, Inc.

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

Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

editorial

Thanks For Everyone Who Supports CCMag’s Ministry Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com It is that time of the year again when I specifically think of being thankful for my blessings, and that includes all of those that help the ministry of CCMag. And, this month, I am especially grateful for our many writers who work so hard each month to provide valid content for our publication. As you will notice if you read Doc Watson’s column, he will be retiring his monthly column, and this will be his last installment! I started Christian Computing Magazine in January 1988. Doc Watson had a column in that issue, and has been a regular ever since. That is a LONG time to provide content. He (and I) have seen major changes in computing since those early days, the adaptation of Windows and the Internet were the biggest. I hope we hear from Doc again in the future, and expect he will offer up an article whenever something exciting catches his eye, but we will be retiring his jersey with his regular column. I am grateful for all of our writers. I mention it here now and then, but it is important to do so again. Doc wrote for us all those years for free, as so all of our writers. CCMag is not your normal magazine. Our writers provide fantastic content free of charge, our subscriptions have been free since we went digital, and yet we are able to continue our ministry of publishing the magazine, allowing me to travel and speak at conferences, and be available to other forms of Christian media, such as radio. We are able to do this because of another group I am especially thankful for, our sponsors. These companies have made the decision to not only invest in CCMag by placing ads in order to make a sale, but many do so because they believe in all that we do here at CCMag. To them, I wish to also give a heartfelt,” Thank you.” And, finally, were would we be without our readers! I have attended or spoken in at least a dozen conferences this year and always find readers wherever I go. I so appreciate your kind words of encouragement and your suggestions and feedback. Many of our new subscribers read CCMag because a friend recommended us to them. Thank you as well. And, of course, I appreciate our staff. Mike, my son and Web programmer, has done a great job this year with our new charts and other developments. And, I appreciate all of our staff for their continued dedication and work. I hope during this time of Thanksgiving, you will take a few minutes to reflect on all of those that you are thankful for, and of course, our biggest thanks should be to our Lord for allowing us the opportunity to serve Him! Together We Serve Him,

Steve Hewitt Editor-in-Chief steve@ccmag.com Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

Press Releases ServiceU Supports Accessible Giving by Releasing TransactU Kiosk Software

“We’ve developed several features that ensure givers their privacy,” says Whitehorn. “For example, credit card information never appears on the screen, and receipts are emailed to the giver. And, church members and guests will have peace of mind with our industry leading PCI-validated security.”

ServiceU Corporation (http://www.ServiceU.com) announces the launch of its kiosk features for the popular TransactU online donation and event registration software. The kiosk features of TransactU give churches the opportunity to provide their members and guests with a secure and convenient way to use their debit or credit cards to make donations or register for events.

In addition to being in compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) as a Level 1 Service Provider, ServiceU has also installed numerous security features to ensure the security of the financial data. Because givers will be swiping their credit cards, there are no numbers to be entered, making the locked down PC impenetrable to keystroke logging software to which other programs fall pray.

Convert Any Existing Windows PC into an Affordable Giving Kiosk

“Because people rarely carry cash or checkbooks when they attend church services, churches are eager to look at different ways to encourage faithful tithing and giving,” says Tim Whitehorn, Founder and CEO of ServiceU. “The TransactU kiosk features provide church members and guests with an easy way to give onsite, while giving is on their minds, with just a swipe of their debit or credit card.” With the kiosk features of TransactU, churches can easily turn any Windows PC into a giving kiosk without purchasing expensive hardware. “Because ServiceU is a software development company, we focused on developing the best software to allow church members and guests to give onsite with their debit or credit cards,” says Whitehorn. “This way, a kiosk enclosure is not required. Churches can purchase a commercial kiosk that fits their budget or simply turn any Windows PC into a secure giving kiosk.” To turn any Windows PC (Vista or 7) into a kiosk, ServiceU recommends that churches position the computer screen so that it faces a wall or private area. This way, givers still have privacy while making their gift.

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In addition, the kiosk features of TransactU also allow for church members and guests to register and pay for events with their debit or credit cards. Each kiosk requires a point of sale pin pad and a customer provided PC with a specified operating system, Internet browser and kiosk software. Contact ServiceU at 866.709.7238 to learn more about your church can implement onsite, in person giving with the kiosk features of TransactU. About ServiceU Corporation Since 1999, ServiceU Corporation (http://www. ServiceU.com) has been the trusted solution for providing software that helps churches, schools and nonprofits simplify and automate administrative processes by moving them online. ServiceU’s core product line includes: EventU™ for event, resource, and facility management through web-based calendar scheduling software; EventU Green™ is an addon to EventU that automates facility heating and cooling (HVAC) online based on a facility’s events schedule; TransactU™ provides secure online, mobile and kiosk donations, payment, and event registration tools; TicketU™ provides online ticket sales, box office management, and theater software.

November 2010

Press Releases Web-based Faithful Steward Church Management Software provides resiliency, accessibility, and coaching

The biggest threat to most church offices may surprise you: it’s tasks that waste our time. Any church secretary whose hard drive has failed, who spends hours coordinating the sharing of data and tasks with people outside of the church office, and has such a full plate that training a volunteer seems like the straw that broke the camel’s back, knows about the need for time-saving tools. With the new web-based Faithful Steward Web church management software, Diakonia has provided churches an affordable way to make their church information resiliently accessible with built-in step by step coaching of tasks typically done in a church office. Now even small churches can afford a web-based system with the limited time introductory package price of $90 for 6 months of usage (yes, that’s $15 a month!). Resilient Disaster Recovery Does your church’s record keeping system have resiliency? Think of the time that it would take to rebuild your information and be ready to continue doing church office duties in the case of a natural disaster. According to the National Fire Protection Association, an average of 1,890 church fires are reported each year. Many church offices don’t have church management software and are at risk of losing their important records. Or if a church office has software, many of them forget to back up their data, or don’t have an offsite backup plan. In the worst case scenario, when disaster strikes they might lose some or all of their data, or in the best case scenario they would have to spend a lot of time rebuilding and installing their software on new computers and restoring from their most recent backups. Compare this to the resiliency of the Faithful Steward Web web-based application, which performs several real-time backups of your data off-site; automatically keeps you up-to-date, running the latest version of the software; and lets you recover from a disaster in minutes by simply bringing up the application in a new computer’s browser to continue where you left off. Accessible from Anywhere What about the accessibility of the church information? How much time do you spend coordinating the exchange and collaboration of information in a church office? Churches without management software have to use the copy machine way too often to get their information to various staff and volunteers. Or if a church has software, without special infrastructure others who need to access the data from outside of the church office can’t do so very easily, and working from home is impossible. In comparison, web-based software such as Faithful Steward Web harnesses the ubiquitousness of the internet to allow those who are granted access to securely work with church data from anywhere. It does not matter if they are using Windows or Mac or some mobile device – just open up a browser and log in. Coaches You through Tasks Have you ever sat down to figure out how much time is spent doing the typical tasks in the church office such as updating membership, getting a deposit ready for the bank, getting a list of names to another staff member, and training a volunteer how to help you with some of your work? Do you even have time at the end of the day for ministry? What about the time it takes to remember how to perform occasional tasks like quarterly reports, annual donor statements? What if you need to have someone else help you get through the mountain of tasks on your plate right now. Do you really have time to train others to help you too? What if your Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

Press Releases software was like Faithful Steward Web and guided you through the process of each task step by step? How many hours would you save each week? Imports Data from Existing Desktop Software Another barrier of entry into web-based software is the transfer of a church’s existing data that’s in a desktop system into the web-based system. Thankfully there’s a built-in export utility built into the latest version of the desktop version of Faithful Steward that allows users of this desktop program to easily move up to Faithful Steward Web. Diakonia continues to support and enhance their desktop product, giving churches the ability to choose between desktop and web-based church software. Giving You More Time for Ministry Diakonia created Faithful Steward to help save church staff and volunteers time. Since it simply handles church information, it gives you more time for ministry. To find out how your church can start protecting their data and your staff’s time, visit http://www.church-software.com or call 314-256-9073. About Diakonia Diakonia is a leading provider of solutions for churches and ministries. Since 1994 the company has specialized in developing easy to use church management software that meet the needs of small and medium sized churches and parishes at a price they can afford. Best known for their Faithful Steward church management software, the company’s software has been used by thousands of churches, ministries, and non-profits in the USA, Canada and around the world. ### Diakonia PO Box 618 Manchester MO 63011-0918 Office 314-256-9073 Fax 314-856-0888 Email info@church-software.com Website http://www.church-software.com

Christian Computing® Magazine

Yvon Prehn and Effective Church Communications - NEW version just released of— Connection cards: connect with visitors, grow your church, pastor your people, little cards, big results This book has been our best seller at Effective Church Communications because it works to grow churches! People visit our churches every week and for special events, but if they don’t tell us they are there, we cannot connect with them. Our people come to church every week visitors come on holidays, but if we don’t know their needs, we can’t help them. Connection Cards can do all this and so much more. This 8 1/2 x 11 in., 110-page book will give you detailed ideas, advice, samples, and a ministry plan to make connections, grow your church, and serve your people using this seemingly small, but very powerful ministry tool. The book gives detailed instructions on not only how to make sure you get the largest number of people to fill out the cards, but specific ways to manage your follow-up to most effectively serve the people who filled them out by detailing what you need to have in place for follow up and then how to triage (divide into levels of ministry need) the cards so you can respond to people in a timely manner.. We’ve recently made the book even better by adding new sections on how to create and use connection cards for special outreach events to make the most of them and to get continuing attendance from your holiday outreach events. In addition, we added information and samples on how to use Prayer Cards to more effectively pastor your people. You cannot personally check with everyone in your ministry every week, but these cards can enable you to know the needs and prayer requests of your people. This book is an invaluable tool if you want to grow your church and pastor your people. It is available through www. lulu.com/yvonprehn.

November 2010

cover story

Halo Merchant Services

Why does a church need a merchant account?

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

always like opportunities to meet new people who seek to serve churches with technology solutions. I also had the privilege this year to travel and speak at more ChMS user groups than ever! While attending the national user group for Church Community Builder, I ran across Jax Carroll, President of Halo Merchant Services. Several of us in a group began talking about mobile computing, online giving and how these technologies are beginning to fit together. I liked Jax’s enthusiasm for providing technology solutions for ministry, specifically, in his case, when it impacted merchant accounts. The following is a recent interview I conducted with Jax, not only about the services he provides, but about why a church would want or need to get a merchant account and how he sees his mission in helping churches make the right decisions in this area! Who is Halo Merchant Services? Well first, Steve, I have to thank you for having me here. I’ve got great respect for you and what you are doing and the impact you are having on the Kingdom. To answer your question, the simple answer is that Halo Merchant Services provides merchant services to the Christian community. However, we are really much more than that. We are a service oriented company. At Halo we serve organizations through credit card processing solutions that are specifically geared to their needs. Christian Computing® Magazine

For those who might not know, what is merchant processing? Merchant processing or credit card processing is a service that allows a merchant –a business or organization—to accept credit card payments. When you go to your local coffee shop and pay with your credit card, they are using a merchant account to accept payment for that transaction. In the case of a non-profit or ministry, a merchant account helps an organization accept credit and debit card donations.

November 2010

What makes Halo different from other merchant processors? The most striking difference in the way we do business is in our priorities. Our priority is serving the ministry, not servicing our bottom line. We specialize in working with Christian organizations and take a service oriented approach to merchant processing. Our goal is to serve. Who are your clients? Who are you serving? We provide merchant processing for Christian churches, ministries, non-profits as well as Christian businesses. In addition we also partner with many companies who serve these organizations through church management software, accounting software, website development and other technology solutions for Christian churches and organizations. Why do you work in the Christian industry? Wouldn’t focusing on the secular industry be more profitable? I’m sure it would be. But I look at this as much of a ministry as a business. A “businesstry” as a friend recently described it. I see a real need for someone to serve the needs of churches and ministries in this area and felt compelled by the Spirit to do so. I can’t sing, can’t play an instrument and am deathly afraid of public speaking. This is where the Lord decided to use me. How does your faith effect how you approach what you do? I think of how Christ came to serve and not be served. I really look at this as my service. I sincerely want to serve the best interests of the organizations we work with. Here’s an example: I was asked by a local church to analyze the statements from their current processor to see if I could save them any money. We do this a lot. It’s a service we provide that gives clarity to how an organization is setup and what kind of cards they are taking. It Christian Computing® Magazine

allows us to determine the best solution for their needs. I won’t go into the boring details, but I saw some things that they could easily change and that would save them a lot of money. I met with them, discussed what I saw and developed a new process for accepting credit cards which immediately began saving them over $1,000 per month. And they saved this without even switching their account to me—they were still using the old merchant account. Now, they did switch to Halo Merchant Services soon after and saved even more money. But even if they hadn’t, just helping more funds go back to their ministry was enough for me. And this is just one example of how I and my employees try to emulate Christ in our daily lives. Why should a ministry get a merchant account? Or should they? A merchant account is like a refrigerator. No one really needs a refrigerator. What they need is a place to keep their food cold. Churches don’t need a merchant account. What they need is a way to make it easier for their donors to give. It November 2010

is a tool for ministry. “How to have more time for ministry!” Independent research has Do you want to save time, get more done and shown that by offering have fewer headaches? Then Donarius Church electronic giving a ministry Management Software will make it easy for you can increase their giving to track your members, contributions, pledges Starting at $63.97 between 30% to 40%. The and more. Imagine what you can do with the for the base version with younger generation does 25% off for small churches extra time! Donarius will also: all their banking online, Download a free demo at: • Print your tax receipts few carry cash and many www.donarius.com • Show the giving pattern of your members don’t even have checks. • Print your church directories 1-888-479-4636 • Send personalized letters, emails and text They make a majority of Nuverb Systems Inc. messages to keep your members informed their purchases with their “Software tailored for you” debit card. I’m sure the integrated online event registrations, school or class acceptance of checks was tuition payments and even online bookstores as a controversial in its day. And if you think about it, by not making some form of electronic giving part of their websites. accessible to them, they could miss out on the Are there fees involved? Who pays the credit card opportunity to teach the younger generation the fees? biblical principles of giving. This is a great question, Steve, and probably the greatest misconception about using a credit card. How can a church accept credit cards without Now I’m getting excited! This is the more hidden promoting debt? This is a HOT topic in the Christian community part of the business I love to shed light on. Ministries can save more money through educating their and has been for some time. Ministries don’t want members than probably any other area. Many people to encourage their donor’s debt but at the same think it is the credit card company that pays the fees time want to make it easier for them to give. I but it’s the merchant or in the case of a tithe, it’s think each ministry has their own views on acceptyour church, and the fees vary based on the type of ing credit cards or debit cards. I believe through card that’s used. So, for instance, if someone donates educating their donors on biblical giving habits, using their debit card the church pays less for that such as using debit cards to give rather than credit. than they would to accept a “Platinum Elite QuaChurches can use this as an opportunity to teach druple Airline Rewards Card”. It’s the church that’s donors to be financially responsible and still offer paying for those airline miles in the form of higher the convenience of online giving. fees. When we work with ministries we work with them on strategies for educating their donors. I think Where are churches using merchant accounts? if a donor knew that more of their donation would What are the benefits? go to the ministry if they simply used a different The largest area we are seeing the use of mercard, they would do it. But most people don’t know chant accounts by churches by far, is that of online and that’s another area where our service oriented donations. As churches are embracing the web and approach comes out. online technology they are increasingly adding the ability for their donors to give on their websites. What is the current state of the industry and its There are a couple of benefits in using a good online technology? giving solution: Donors are often able to split up Online merchant accounts, used to serve the their donation among multiple funds, giving a porgiving needs of today’s church, are becoming more tion to the general fund and some to the building common and accepted every day. And as you may fund or other area of need; they can also setup their know, the merchant processing industry typically gifts on a recurring basis giving the same amount on isn’t very innovative. Most restaurants and shops a schedule such as once a month. For someone like have been using the same bulky, slow credit card me who always forgot his checkbook this has made swiping terminals for years and years. Our goal is to giving to my church much simpler and convenient. be on the cutting edge and be early adopters of new Besides online giving, many ministries have Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

technologies. As the needs of the church grow we want to be right there alongside them providing solutions. What are some of the emerging technologies that are helping churches reach more donors? Beyond the standard online giving forms (which allow donors to setup their giving at home) we have developed technology that allows individuals to swipe their credit card on a computer at the church rather than typing in all the information. This has enormous benefits in areas like event registrations and special offerings. We have also developed a mobile solution which will allow people to donate or register from their smart phone. As people are using their web enabled phones for more and more it was a natural progression for us to develop software to serve that environment and allow people to give remotely. What are some of the recent trends in online giving and donations? Well, even though we’ve talked a lot about it, online donations are still something new to the church community as a whole. The majority of churches that have an online presence are still not offering an online giving solution. I think this is mainly due to the misconception about the costs and benefits and something I hope I can educate more organizations about. Which direction do you see online donation technology going in the next 5 years? Believe it or not, we have churches inquire about swiping transactions on an iPad as well as iPhones and other smartphones. We’ve also received requests for text giving solutions. Now I don’t think congregations are ready for an iPad to be passed down the aisle but it may not be that far away. I believe that donation technology is going to follow the larger trends in technology and will be going the way of mobile and in a big way.

Christian Computing® Magazine

What are you doing to keep up with these trends? We’re always looking forward and innovating in ways we believe will better serve the church. We’ve offered the ability to swipe a card on a laptop or computer for some time, and we’re currently beta testing our swipe solution for iPads and iPhones. We’re currently in development of a text giving solution and should be releasing it to some of our customers for Beta testing by the end of the year. We believe that looking for ways to leverage and utilize new technologies is good for our business, and most importantly, good for the church. What’s next for Halo Merchant Services? We’ve had humble beginnings and tried to keep that humility in everything we do. We’ve never taken the approach that we are selling something. Rather we are at work with our ministries, partnering in service and support to help build God’s kingdom. This is exciting work on many levels. So, we’ll continue to make this our focus: To serve the needs of the church through technology and innovation in merchant processing.

November 2010

tech talk

Thanks for the Memories

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

fter some 22 years of a regular column in CCMag (I missed only two months), this will be my last regular installment as Technical Editor. I’ll contribute something of interest occasionally, but I must take my leave from monthly offerings. I’d like to take this final opportunity to just reminisce a bit. Now, if you find yourself nodding off, there are no hard feelings. Some of us older folks tend to ramble . . . what was I saying? Oh, yes, about my years with CCMag. One day way and still is, an honor. (The downside was this disqualified me back in the last century I (along with thousands of other pasfrom the contest. Rats!) tors) received a free copy of a skinny little magazine in the And so began those early days of personal computing in mail (yes, “the mail”). It was titled Church Computing and ministry. As the tech guy, I got into various hardware issues, was published by a guy that had some silly notion about how made recommendations, and so forth. More difficult, I tried the still fledgling personal computer (with the 8088 microto help our readers comprehend DOS and battle their way processor no less) could be used in ministry. Was that crazy, through the labyrinth of that operating system, armed only or what? It had a couple of interesting little articles in it, but with “stone knives and bearskins” (for the hardcore Star Trekits primary purpose was to announce that another periodical, ker). I tried to explain COMMAND.COM, AUTOEXEC. Christian Computing Magazine, would soon launch. BAT, CONFIG.SYS, and a plethora of DOS commands you An additional feature of Church Computing was a quest had to type at that terrifying DOS prompt. (A cupie doll for for writers. It described a contest—I don’t remember what anyone who knows what the command in Figure 1 means.) I the prize was—for who could write the best article relating to explained things such as disk fragmentation and nagged about using a computer in ministry. Because I was such a total geek defragging regularly. I even tried to teach them how to write (before the term was even invented), I was so intrigued that batch files to make their work easier and more productive. I called this guy, told him that I had just started doing some consulting, and that I would be interested in contributing to the magazine. That crazy guy—Steve Hewitt, I believe his name was—made me the Technical Editor on the spot, the position I’ve held to this day. It was, Fig. 1 – XCOPY, one of the best of the old DOS commands. Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

Ah, the good old days! Favorite Moments (and one unfavorite) My phone rang one day in 1990. It was Steve, who asked, “Doc, you’re our tech guy, so what do you think of this new Windows thing?” “Oh, I don’t know, Steve,” I answered. “I’ll give Bill a call and get a review copy and check it out. From what I’m reading, I think I’ll need to pray over my machine before I install it. Apparently it crashes about every twelve minutes.” Well, I got it (Fig. 2), I installed it (on my 386SX at the time), it crashed a lot, I rebooted a lot, and the rest is history. In 22 years, my best prediction was Fig. 2 – Ah, good old Windows 3.0. when I wrote in my review: “Windows is the future of the PC.” It’s now many moons later and we’ve been through My second most shining moment was when I reported on (in my tenure) six versions of DOS, about ten versions of an IBM press conference at Comdex in Las Vegas back in the Windows, and a mile high pile of apps, applets, and utilities. day. I wrote: “IBM’s much touted OS/2 will fail miserably.” It A mainstay of this column over the years has been tips and did. (Anyone out there remember OS/2? There you have it.) tricks for using all the above. I would, therefore, like to leave Another favorite moment—this one I share with Steve you with a few of my favorites. and other CCMag guys at the time—was the stand we took against that Y2K nonsense. Yes, there were issues, and we Favorite DOS Trick: Creating a Directory Listing addressed them, but it wasn’t Armageddon as many silly Hey, I have many favorite DOS tricks, but many don’t alarmists prophesied. work anymore or have just been rendered moot for one Okay, I know what you’re thinking: “So, Doc, what was reason or another. One that still works, however, is a way your worst moment.” Well, one that Jim Shaver (another to generate a printed listing of files and folders. First, press early CCMag alumnus) never let me forget. It was (yes, I Windows Key+R to open the “Run” dialog box, type cmd, actually wrote this): “An 8088 computer might be the only and press Enter. Second, navigate to the directory you want computer you will ever need.” There really isn’t a second to list. For example, on my Windows 7 system, I entered cd worst moment because nothing could be in the same league as that one. In my own defense, the only thing “better” at that time was the brain-dead 286, which really wasn’t better. But still . . . BTW, Figure 3 is me sitting in front of my first computer. Yep, it’s an 8088, which I still have, and was built by a little company called PCs Limited. Never heard of it? Well, it was started by a guy named Michael Dell in 1984, who changed the name four years later to Dell Computer Corporation and went global. I bought that very “Turbo PC”—the first computer Dell produced that was its own design—for $795. It was Dell, in fact, who lead the pack of companies who built IBM clones that made it possible for average people to own a computer. It wasn’t IBM or Apple who did that for you . . . but I digress. Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

c:\users\doc\my documents (cd means “change directory,” the old term for “folder”). Third, now enter the following command: dir /a /b /-p /o:gen >filelist.txt. Dir, of course, is the old DOS (internal) command for listing directories and files. The /a switch displays files with their specific attributes (this won’t actually display if you use the next switch). The /b switch suppresses the heading, summary, and other information so that only the name of the directories and files is displayed; this switch makes the listing a whole lot easier to use. The /-p switch insures there won’t be any pauses in executing the command. The /o: switch specifies the order in which you want the listing sorted: g is “group directories first,” e is “by extension (alphabetic),” and n is “by name (alphabetic).” For your further knowledge, other switches include: /w is for wide list format, /s displays files in specified directories and all subdirectories, /l forces lowercase, and /4 displays year with 4 digits. Finally, >filelist.txt redirects the listing to the specified text file in the folder you’re listing. Open it in Notepad or a word processor and print it if you wish. When I first wrote this tip (July 2000), I included a way to add such a command to the context menu in Windows Explorer, a very cool trick, but this no longer works in Vista or Windows 7. Progress is in the eye of the beholder.

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Favorite Windows Trick: Hiding the Taskbar Having the Taskbar always on the screen takes up real estate and obscures your work area. To fix this, you can “hide” the Taskbar so that it appears only when you point at the bottom of the screen. First, right-click on an empty area of the Taskbar and select “Properties” from the pop-up menu. Second, click the check box beside the “Auto hide” option to place a checkmark in the check box. Third, click “OK” to save the settings. Notice that the Taskbar vanishes and is replaced by a thin gray stripe at the bottom of the screen. Fourth, move the pointer down to the bottom of the screen, but don’t press the mouse button. Notice that the Taskbar reappears when the pointer touches the stripe. Fifth, now move the pointer up, away from the Taskbar. The Taskbar shrinks again. This setting keeps the Taskbar out of sight until you need it. Favorite Windows Explorer Tip: Replace It! My second favorite tip for Windows Explorer is actually how many ways there are to start it. The fastest way using the mouse is to right-click the “Start” button and select “Explore” from the pop-up. The fastest way with the keyboard is WindowsKey+E. Other ways prior to Vista and W7 are to right-click an icon such as My Computer, Network Neigh-

November 2010

borhood, Recycle Bin, or any folder or disk drive, and then click “Explore” on the pop-up menu. Vista and W7 are close to all this except for the various icons above. I’ve also shared with you how to start two copies at once and other tips on using WE. My first favorite tip, however, is just replace the wretched thing. It’s always been awful and is even worse now. I’ve written about FolderBox (http://www. baxbex.com/products.html), which is great for enhancing WE, but it doesn’t work on Vista or W7. Sheesh! I’ve also recommended replacements such as Gyula’s Navigator (http://www.wanari.com/Index.jsp), a great Norton Commander clone, and xplorer² (http://www.zabkat.com/x2lite.htm). (See my October 2009 column for full reviews of both.) Favorite Microsoft Word Tip: Keyboard Shortcuts Having been an MS-Word user since version 1.0, I grew up with it (so to speak) and eventually became a MOUS certified expert and taught it in a local college. Out of hundreds of features, tips, and tricks I’ve learned, nothing equals keyboard shortcuts. As I’ve written before, no single thing makes a user more productive and efficient. There are dozens you’ll use daily; just a handful include: Ctrl+S (Save); Ctrl+P (Print); Ctrl+C (Copy); Ctrl+V (Paste); Ctrl+I (Italics); Ctrl+B (Bold); Ctrl+F (Find); Ctrl+Z (Undo); Ctrl+E (Center); and on we go. My all time favorite, however, is how to increase or decrease the font size: Ctrl+] increases the font size by one point each time you press it, and Ctrl+[ decreases the font size one point. Favorite Utilities Finally, besides the above, I have shared hundreds of utilities over the years and choosing my favorite is like trying to pick my favorite pie. Ah, but I have a solution. Since I have three favorite pies, I get to have three favorite utilities (in no particular order). I use all three on a daily basis. WinEject (www.wineject.com/), which I mentioned back in my December 2009 column, quietly resides in the System Tray waiting for you to use it to open and close one or more CD-ROM and DVD drive trays (you can also use shortcut keys). Other removable media (such as ZIP disks or streamer tapes) can also be ejected. (This might be my number 1 favorite.) I’ve been using CutePDF Writer (http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/Writer.asp) for years to quickly create PDF files from Word documents (I mentioned it in August 2009). This little gem installs itself as a printer driver, enabling you to create professional quality PDF documents from virtually any Windows application that has print capability. Okay, I get one more, and it is . . . Sound Volume Hotkeys (www.softarium.com/soundvolumehotkeys/), which I mentioned just last February. It is a simple little utility that enables you to control your speaker volume using the Windows key and arrow keys in combination. Thanks for the Memories So, as old Bob Hope used to sing: “Thanks for the memories. / Aw’flly glad I met you, / cheerio, and toodle-oo / And thank you so much.” Or to put it biblically, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you” (Phil. 1:3). From the bottom of my heart, I thank each one of you who has patiently endured my scribblings since it all began, as well as those of you who have joined in over the years. It’s been a privilege. Au revoir and adieu.

Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

ACS

ACS ideas to impact

5 Key Principles of an Effective Web Ministry

from ACS Technologies

very church that seeks to reach out to its attendees and the community needs to address the issue of building an effective Web ministry. In these technologydriven times, it’s imperative to take Web ministry as seriously as any other ministry within your church. Although every organization strives to meet different needs, the goal for effective communication remains the same. This article, excerpted from the ACS Technologies white paper 5 Key Principles of an Effective Web Ministry, outlines the basics of an effective Web ministry. 1. Create a Memorable Web Presence. Dynamic, interactive content is the most vital part of your organization’s Web site. Although graphics and branding are also important, they won’t attract visitors to your site if the content isn’t top-notch. Interactive content will encourage your visitors to come back for more—to find out about the latest church announcements and volunteer needs or even to listen to last week’s sermon that they missed. Content isn’t limited to a reposting of the Sunday bulletin, it can include many dynamic items such as explanations of new programs and classes, online registrations for all types of events, community resources, online donation engines, streamed sermons and more. 2. Use Effective Communication Tools. Churches can utilize several online tools that assist in creating a powerful Web ministry. E-mail newsletter applications have become a wonderful way for churches to communicate with attendees, members, visitors, missionaries and youth. Through secure e-mail newsletter applications that provide optin capabilities, churches can provide customized e-mail newsletters to meet the needs of their congregations. Christian Computing® Magazine

Providing online donation capabilities on your Web site is another way to increase communications from the church to its congregation. Enabling people to give can provide a freedom that encourages regular giving, whether or not people are able to attend weekly services. Posting your church’s calendar online is another great way to encourage involvement and boost your Web ministry. There are always people who attend events based on what’s in the Sunday bulletin. But what if you’ve missed the Sunday services due to travel or illness? Many of your members will automatically look to the Web. Make sure answers are available. 3. Encourage Online Involvement. Church information can also be made accessible to authorized site visitors who log in to a protected section of a church’s site. Vital information such as name, contact information, activity details and notes can be viewed and edited, making it simple for pastors to review contacts before visitations. You can also use your site to help members view class or group rosters, e-mail other group members, sign up for classes and activities, and even view church directories. Churches decide what level of access they want to give to members and provide secure information. 4. Provide Small Group Connections. One of the reasons small group campaigns often fail is that the administrative tools needed just aren’t in place. Fortunately, managing small groups has come a long way. Through online November 2010

access to church management software, leaders now have the ability to log in from their home computers and manage small groups. It’s important to remember that meeting together in places outside the church building does more than just connect people that already attend your church, small groups are an evangelism tool to that can help draw people in from the community and expand your ministry and your church. 5. Discover a New Way to Manage Volunteers. There are two ways that churches can streamline and create efficiencies as they relate to the volunteer management process: 1) Provide staff and lay leaders with technology tools to communicate and fill volunteer needs. 2) Provide avenues for potential volunteers to search and locate the best fit volunteer opportunities. Online tools can put volunteer management into the hands of those who are searching for volunteers: ministry coordinators and lay leaders within your church. Online software applications can be accessed through a church Web site, making it possible for church staff and lay leaders to post volunteer openings online and for volunteers to sign up online. Users can easily set up the attributes and qualifications used in their church, allow members and attendees to select the attributes and qualifications that describe themselves, create volunteer needs or openings, let people search for the ones that interest them, and allow staff and leaders with permissions to assign volunteers to fulfill the available needs. It’s easy to see that managing volunteers online and shifting the burden off one person and spreading over many can be of huge benefit to any church — small or large.

Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

accelerating the dynamic church

Dynamic Churches Leverage Efficient Processes

‘S

from Fellowship Technologies

unday comes every seven days’ is an axiom that churches know all too well. Week in and week out, staff members coordinate, connect and prepare for the week’s activities and impending weekend services. It is because of this regular- ¸ !CCELERATING 4HE $YNAMIC #HURCH ity that church leaders value consistency, while the most dynamic churches also value and leverage efficient processes to minimize effort and maximize results. Efficiency Saves Resources Whether it’s eliminating redundant administrative Work, Streamlining Email Communications With Specific Groups Or Reducing The Number Of Printed Materials Per Week, Churches Are Feeling The Need To Be Excellent Stewards. The Current Economy Is Only Reinforcing The Need To Re-Evaluate Processes That Are Not Efficient. According To Barna Research, One Out Of Every Six Churches Has Had To Eliminate Positions, Reduce Salaries And Cut Hours From Full-Time To Part-Time, While One In Five Churches Has Cut Spending Dramatically (From The Economy’s Impact On ChurChes - Barna.Org). Efficient Processes, Especially When It Comes To The Day-To-Day Administrative Workload, Are Most Easily Implemented When Complete Systems, Such As Fellowship One, Are In Place To Aid Staff In Leveraging Volunteers More Effectively.

the amount of effort necessary to achieve these results. With Fellowship One, church staff and key volunteer leaders have varying levels of secure access to the information needed to enable efficient ministry. By evaluating their processes, churches can let the software do the heavy-lifting and free up their staff to spend more time connecting with people.To be a dynamic church means to be constantly evaluating what’s working, what’s not and defining new, efficient processes for making the most of their time.

Efficiency Saves Time Though The Church Does Not Exist To Make A Profit, Dynamic Church Leaders Understand That Time Is Still Money. With Salaries And Hourly Wages Being Paid To Staff And Contract Labor, Efficient Processes Such As Online Giving And Secure CheckIn For Real-Time Attendance Reporting Save Hours Of Manually Capturing Data And Provides Valuable Insights For Understanding Attendance Trends. When Pastoral Staff Has Access To The Right Reports, Key Insights And Contact Information For Every Member, They’re Able To Spend Their Time Ministering To People Instead Of Administering Data. Value Efficient Processes Several tools have a workflow and methodology for maximizing results. The key is to also minimize Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

higher power with kevin

Mac Bible Software the State of Affairs Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

ere at Christian Computing Magazine we normally focus on the Windows side of things, but with more than a fourth of all new PC sales being Macs and with Apple saying half of those news sales were to first time buyers, it is certain that many of our Windows friends are becoming “switchers.” I am one of them. I am not going full bore into the Mac OS X camp. In fact I am writing this column on a computer running Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. I like Windows and have never bought into the hype that it crashes more and is less secure than a Mac. In fact my new Mac has crashed more in the two weeks I’ve owned it than any of my Windows systems have in the last year, which is to say it has crashed twice. But that is two more times than my Windows computers. Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is easy to use, looks nice and has a lot of great features. You can read my thoughts on the matter at http://notebooks.com/?p=39810. It is no wonder that many Christians are also joining the parade to Cupertino (headquarters of Apple, Inc.). And in doing so, many will want to use Mac Bible software. Every time I set up a new PC for my own use I install updates, get set up on the Internet, and then install an office suite and my Bible software. So when I got a new MacBook Air (you can read my thoughts about that here: http://liten.be//PfBMP) I followed the same protocol. I first got Logos for the Mac running since Christian Computing® Magazine

they just launched the product and it is free for those who already own the PC version (http:// www.logos.com/mac). It is a good product with a few minor annoyances. It has most of the great features available in the Windows version, except for one or two like sentence diagramming. Also, it is a little bit slower than the Windows version. But there is no reason not to use it, if you choose. And if you get in on it soon, you can get a 20 percent discount. Their holiday specials each year are also good ways to add great content. My next step was to seek out the Mac version of WORDsearch (http://www.wordsearchmac.com/ macindex.php), since I knew they had one and I have WORDsearch for Windows on all my PCs. Like Logos, it is a great tool on the Windows side. However, I was quite disappointed when I finally got it installed and realized it is just the Windows version running in what is called an emulator – a layer over the top of Mac OS X that makes WORDsearch think it is running on Windows. The result is less than ideal. It is buggy, slow and has some really strange problems. The good news for WORDsearch users who November 2010

are switching or want to switch is the developers know their product is not yet ready and are working on an update that should be ready soon. I haven’t seen it yet, but someone that seems to be a trusted source said it is pretty good. If you are interested, I will definitely share my experiences of it at http://www.kevinpurcell.org. If you don’t want to wait, the folks at WORDsearch also produce Bible Explorer, which has a free Mac version and it uses the same book files as WORDsearch. I will be checking it out soon and posting to my web site linked above. You can get it along with around 200 resources here: http:// www.bible-explorer.com. I also checked out was MacSword, a free program that is produced by the Sword Project (http:// www.crosswire.org). They have versions for Linux, Windows, and

Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

Mac OS X. They also have versions for mobile platforms (iPhone and other iOS devices, Android, Windows Mobile, Nokia and Palm; I would bet a Windows Phone 7 version will be forthcoming). Finally they also have one online at http:// www.crosswire.org/study. MacSword is a decent tool if you don’t mind only using public domain or free content. I like the interface and adding content from their libraries is doable. It did require a little configuring and tweaking to make it happen, but anyone who can follow instructions can do it. It is a good tool for basic Bible study. Many believers will need nothing more, unless they must have one of the commercial Bible translations like the NIV or want an up to date commentary or other recent reference works. Accordance is one of the earliest adopters of the Mac platform and from all accounts produces a great tool. I have not yet had a chance to play with it, but from what its users say it is excellent – every bit as good as Logos. You can find out about it at http://www.accordancebible.com. Finally, one of the earliest Bible software programs ever was QuickVerse. I have not been a huge fan of their Windows product since version 4 in the early nineties. But they do make a Mac version. If you like the current versions for Windows, then it might be a good choice. I have not yet used it, so I cannot tell you how good it is. Believe it or not Zondervan is still selling their product for the Mac. They discontinued the PC version to focus on book production for the other programs, like Logos and WORDsearch. You can get theirs here: http://liten.be//7lxOc. Again, I have not used it. Another free product that is associated with Crosswire (the Sword Project) is Bible Desktop. It looks very basic, so I doubt it would satisfy many serious Bible students’ needs. But it is free, so you Christian Computing® Magazine

can try it (http://www.crosswire.org/bibledesktop/). I have not. Do a search and you will find others. Here is my problem however. As great as the Bible software offerings are for the Windows platform, there is just not the full and rich choice on the Mac side. I just had a discussion with a Bible software insider who works for one of the above companies. He agreed that the Christian computing market is starting to see more Mac users. He said at a recent meeting of ministers about a fourth of them were using a Mac. In my own experience it has not been that high, but the majority of younger pastors (under 40) are using Macs, at November 2010

least in my circle of friends. This is a call for the Bible software companies to get going. One software person told me that from start to launch it takes around 2 years to get a product out the door. It is time to get going Bible software developers. If you know of a great program that I have not used or you want me to take a look at what you do have now, contact me through my web site at http://www.kevinpurcell. org or leave a comment on the web site below the online version of this article. I will be posting about Mac Bible software on my web site. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worry Windows friends. I am not leaving that market behind.

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

November 2010

nick at church

Strategic IT Outsourcing Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

ecessions are uncomfortably challenging in many ways. However, they also help us improve our organizational health and mission focus. We find ourselves having to analyze and justify our expense choices, and when doing so the term outsource becomes a major part of our analysis. While we see it as a cost-cutting opportunity, it is really much more than that. It improves organizational health tremendously. Peter Drucker’s View of Outsourcing In a January 12, 2004 Fortune Magazine interview Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, said, “The inefficiency of knowledge workers is partly the legacy of the 19th-century belief that a modern company tries to do everything for itself. Now, thank God, we’ve discovered outsourcing, but I would also say we don’t yet really know how to do outsourcing well. Most look at outsourcing from the point of view of cutting costs, which I think is a delusion. What outsourcing does is greatly improve the quality of the people who still work for you.” True Confessions I must admit that I’ve fallen into that trap myself; believing that to do things well, our organization should do it all in-house. The benefits seem to be quality control, dedication to our mission by those doing the work, and maybe a little pride in that it also means that our team is growing, which gives the illusion of success. The truth, however, that Mr. Drucker points out is that this model is inefficient and costly. There are many roles for which outsourcing will not only lower cost; it will raise the quality of output. And for some of those roles, managing them distracts me from focusing on our mission. Christian Computing® Magazine

The “Pieces” of IT Ministry IT staff tends to fall into four categories. Depending on the scope and needs of your ministry, some might be easily outsourced.  Programming. Some ministries need programmers to customize the applications they use because there aren’t any that meet their unique needs. Having worked with churches and ministries in the IT field for more than twenty years, I think more feel they have this need than actually do have it. But even those that truly have the need for custom programming probably do not need fulltime programmers on staff. This is often a great area to outsource. I’m often privileged to serve clients in helping them find software solutions. At the outset of those projects I tell their staff that the best solution will probably only meet 80%-85% of their needs. Those who successfully convert to new systems adjust their processes to compensate for the remaining 15%-20%. The illusion is that the perfect solution is available. That illusion sets up expectations that result in never finding a good solution and/ or never being satisfied with the one finally chosen. Some even make the November 2010

mistake of deciding to write their own software. What they don’t realize until it’s too late is that doing so will cost immensely more in funds, time, and lost team productivity, and will never be completed.  Hardware. Some ministries choose to support their own computers. Rather than purchasing extended manufacturer warranties, they staff to do their own repairs. The cost is more than hardware and time, it also includes personnel— and it is usually inefficient. This is also a great IT area to outsource. And it can be done simply by purchasing extended manufacturer warranties in which the manufacturer will come to your office and fix whatever’s wrong on the next business day or by contracting with a local vendor.  Infrastructure. Many ministries make the mistake of hiring network engineering staff, which is costly, and figure it’ll make sense because that staff can also do user-level technical support. However, most who are good at network engineering are not the best personality types to do userlevel technical support. Also, the best network design strategies come from those who have designed, installed, and then had to support a lot of networks. Since network projects happen infrequently (typically annually), and since the best networks require very little support, this is also often a great area to outsource.  Help Desk. Many ministry computer users require a level of technical support that is above that required by their secular counterparts. Answering their questions and resolving their IT problems quickly in a culturally relevant way is important to ensuring a good user Christian Computing® Magazine

experience. Help desk is the one IT area that most ministries should not outsource. Looking at the Bottom Line The first three IT areas are expensive to keep in-house. Programmers and engineers are worth a lot in the marketplace, and so their personnel costs are higher. Having hardware support in-house actually increases team downtime while increasing personnel costs due to higher staffing requirements. Help desk staff, however, are not as expensive to hire. And if they are not programmers or engineers, they can be selected based more on their familiarity with software and November 2010

ability to communicate and empathize well, helping those team members who need support to feel better supported. This is an outsourcing strategy that makes good management sense for most ministries. I think it would gain the approval of Mr. Drucker, but even more so, of our Lord from whom we want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant! …Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matt 25:23, NIV) Nick Nicholaou is president of MBS, a consulting firm specializing in church and ministry IT 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.

Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

launching online

Should I Serve Non-Christians? We’re continuing the series on “Launching Online” – capturing the decisions faced and lessons learned in launching a new online ministry/business.

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

ast month we covered the hard topic of whether or not we should buy from non-believers. This month, we’re going to go a step further and consider whether we should serve non-Christians. What’s Your Mission? For the vast majority of Christian ministries, this is a really easy question. As believers we all are under the Great Commission, in which Jesus commanded His followers: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV) The apostle Paul further clarifies for us when he writes “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15 ESV) Therefore, most Christian ministries, especially churches are sent to “preach the good news” to those that don’t yet believe, “making disciples” and “teaching them.” If that is the mission of your ministry, then there is no question that you must serve nonChristian Computing® Magazine

Christians. However, this series is about the lessons learned in launching Hschooler.net. Our mission is “to connect families with the people, resources, and tools to train up young men and women to the Glory of God.” Our tagline is “A fun place to grow. A safe place to be.” Inherent in our mission and our promise to those we serve is that we provide a secure environment where Christian parents can feel safe about their kids meeting new friends. Therefore, the mission of Hschooler.net requires us to critically examine the question of whether to serve non-believers or not. Those we serve must trust that we’re providing an environment that is safe from physical and spiritual predators, what Paul referred to as the “wolves” (Acts 20:29). Perhaps your ministry is in a similar position. Because of our duty to Christian families to provide a safe environment, the only conclusion we can reach is that we should NOT allow non-Christians to become members of Hschooler.net. As we describe it in our terms of service “it is important that all members of Hschooler. net have a common Christian faith and a common heart in the raising and nurturing of our children.” November 2010

Excluding Non-Believers It’s easy enough to say that we shouldn’t serve non-Christians. It’s a much trickier thing to keep them out. How have we approached this challenge at Hschooler.net? We start by requiring everyone to agree to terms of service before they can gain access to the community. We provide a “plain English” version of the terms that is directly linked to the legal terms of service. You can read both here: http://hschooler. net/account/register.php. Note that our terms of service are published under the “Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike” license, so you should feel free to “borrow” from our example if it suits your purpose to the Glory of God. The plain English terms include this paragraph: “As such, it is important that all members of Hschooler.net have a common Christian faith and a common heart in the raising and nurturing of our children. Agreement with the Statement of Faith is critical to your participation in Hschooler.net. If you read nothing else in the Terms of Service, read this” (as referenced above, bolding is in the original). The legal terms include this paragraph, followed by a relatively broad, but clearly Christian statement of faith: Statement of Faith. Hschooler.net is only for use by Christians and their families. To use Hschooler.net, you must agree with this statement of faith. This is not intended to be judgmental, but rather to ensure that all members of the HschoolChristian Computing® Magazine

er.net community have a common heart in the raising and nurturing of our children: By definition, therefore, non-believers are banned from participating in Hschooler.net. Enforcing the Ban Of course, it’s one thing to tell non-Christians they aren’t welcome and it’s another thing to actually keep them out. We have to expect that the “wolves” will come in. The question is how to identify them and remove them. Jesus said “Beware of false prophets, who November 2010

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Christian Computing® Magazine

November 2010

come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? … Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-20 ESV) Therefore, we will know any “wolves” in our midst by their fruits – what they say and do within the service. We can’t personally monitor everything that is written or added to the site, but we can rely on the fact that the vast majority of members share these Christian values and have the ability to discriminate between what is right and true and what is not. Throughout the site, virtually every page has a link in the top left labeled “Report as inappropriate.” When members click on this link, the page is sent to the Hschooler.net administrators who check out the content and take appropriate action. Thankfully, so far, most of the reports have been false alarms. We have had a couple of members reported who weren’t acting as graciously online as I believe their Christian character would have them treat their neighbors offline. In these cases, a gentle admonition has had the desired impact. But, if we ever do encounter true “wolves” as demonstrated by their fruits and their unrepentant responses to our correction, we will need to remove them from the service. We have the legal basis for doing so because of the terms of service that they agreed to when joining. In addition to the agreement to a Christian statement of faith, the terms say “Hschooler.net may not be used for any immoral purposes. Specifically, Hschooler.net may not be used in a way contrary to the Glory of God. Examples of such forbidden activities include publishing any materials or promoting actions defined as sin in the Bible, or using Hschooler.net in a way that lies to others, steals from others, or otherwise fails to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’.” The terms also say we “may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, Christian Computing® Magazine

effective immediately.” Therefore, we have the legal basis to remove the “wolves” from the service. The open source software we use (Elgg) provides an easy way to remove users from the system. Blocking them from rejoining isn’t a feature of the software, but relatively easy to implement if it becomes a problem. As always, your needs, experiences, and approaches will undoubtedly differ from ours, but hopefully it’s been helpful for you to consider how we’ve approached these questions and decisions. May the Lord bless you with wisdom and discretion in your online ministry work! 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 four homeschooled students under Russ’ direction.

November 2010

ministry communication

Connect Your Congregation with Technology Apps, Website Media Center, Text and Text Giving Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

t the recent Outreach Convention in San Diego, I was struck with the variety of multi-channel forms of communication available to and used by churches today. The exhibit floor was especially useful and I spent time with a number of vendors with very low cost, but high tech products for churches. Below I’ll highlight three of my favorite companies, give an overview and contact information about them and finish with a low-tech tool to help you make the best use of all of them. Be not afraid—all of this is far easier than you can imagine One of the most encouraging things about the products I am going to share with you is how easy their implementation appears to be. When I saw each one demonstrated and was able to ask the representatives about the products, I came away convinced that any church with any level of technical expertise could make use of these products. However, having said that, when I got back home and checked on each website, it was not nearly as easy to figure out the applications as it had been having a live person explain them. There seems to be a prevalent view that websites (or at least the home page) for complicated technology should be short, snappy, and oh so cool – though that might make an appealing home page, it doesn’t really help you figure out the system – the bottom line is that if you dig deeper into the sites, most do provide explanations and instructions. In addiChristian Computing® Magazine

tion, the vendors at each one assured me they do answer emails and provide help. Bottom line—the costs are so low for each one and the value so high, it is worth the time and effort necessary to dig into them. There is an app for your church http://www.methodapps.com Apps for the iPhone are an essential connection tool if you have a congregation that is young, cutting edge, or wants to be. However, creating an app in the past was an extremely expensive and a technologically advanced operation. Method Apps has created a template-based system to build them that costs only $499, and $10 a month to host. Their demo on how to create an app for your church, where you can easily update your content was extremely simple. Though they currently only have an app system for iPhones, they also are working on ones for other smart phone systems. November 2010

Put a media center on your church website http://uroomtech.com/ Media Fusion is the tool they have created that allows church members or visitors to watch sermon videos, listen to audio versions, and access sermon notes and weekend bulletins on demand. It is all done with a very simple, template based form that churches can add to their website, once again for a very low cost, only $10 a month or $99 a year. There really isn’t a lot more to describe this service, but it is wonderful and an essential for churches today. Create text blasts, enable textbased giving http://www.greatercalling.org/ Here is how they describe their service: We provide non-profit organizations with audio conferencing services and text messaging services to allow for greater communication and greater fundraising. You can register on our site for our FREE audio-conferencing service, start an application for a text giving campaign or launch a FREE trial of our unlimited text messaging service. We are here to serve those who serve, so just call us to learn more about how to use our technology services to enhance your communication with your donors, members or customers. Text Giving is a great way to enhance your fundraising activities. Using Text Giving, donors simply text a keyword to a short code (for a demo, text GIVE to 56512) in order to make $5 or $10 donations to your non-profit organization. The charge will appear on the donor’s cell phone bill, making the transaction easy and quick. Greater Calling specializes in working with non-profits who are looking for a quick, easy and affordable solution for their text giving campaigns. If you are looking to try Text Giving to collect $5 or $10 donations that are charged to the donor’s cell phone bill, select our Standard Text4Giving service. This service requires application to the Mobile Giving Foundation and is only available to certain Christian Computing® Magazine

non-profit organizations that meet the MGF qualifications. This service will provide you with one keyword that will allow you to collect either $5 or $10 per text message from a donor. They also have a variety of services and service levels that go along with this and all are very reasonably priced. How to link your congregation with the tech tools You can have the most cutting edge tools available, but if members and visitors don’t know they are there, the tech tools are useless. One of the most useful tools to make the initial connection with visitors to your church as well as how to get contact information from your members is the Connection Card. These humble pieces of card stock provide the essential link between what your church has to offer and the people who come into your church. If they don’t give you initial contact information, you can’t tell them about all the media sources you have and the ways you can communicate with them. At Effective Church Communications we have just updated and added new material to our best-selling book: Connection Cards, connect with visitors, grow your church, and pastor your people: little cards, big results. The book is available in paperback and e-book download form through www.lulu.com/yvonprehn. We November 2010

are also giving away the e-book format as a free bonus for a new yearly membership in Effective Church Communications. If you carefully study this book and do what it recommends, you will be able to grow your church and pastor your people more effectively than ever. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have a way to connect personally and through all the digital tools available. For more information about connection cards and other ways to create communications that will help your church fully fulfill the Great Commission, go to: www.effectivechurchcom.com .

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

November 2010