ccmag2011_04

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 23

April 2011

No. 4

4 cover story

CCMag Interview with Jeff Hostetter, Elexio CEO

By Steve Hewitt

Copy Editor Gina Hewitt

3 editorial

Corporate Home Office

We are Close

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

7 special feature The Kool Kindle and Nifty Nook

By Dr. J. D. “Doc” Watson

15 ACS ideas to impact

from ACS Technologies

17 accelerating the dynamic church

Multisite - Less about Your Church, More about Your Community

from Fellowship Technologies

Top 5 E-mail Collection Strategies for Your Church from ParishSOFT

from ParishSOFT

22 higher power with kevin Topical Sermon Writer Helps Pastors Find Sermon Topics

24 nick at church

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

Office 2010 (Windows) and 2011 (Mac)

26 big ministry - small resources

Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

Let Them See

28 tablet time

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

Free Android Software!

32 ministry communication

Love Your Easter Visitors? Keep Them Safe

19 parishsoft’s catholic connection

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

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

Don’t Go AWOL in Your Outreach Communications the week after Easter

Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

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

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

Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

editorial

We Are Close! Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com My staff was a little upset with me back in January when I announced we were going to launch a new online community. I knew my announcement was too early, but I was very excited about all we would soon be offering. Well, the good news is NOW we are very close, and now that I can see all that we will be offering, I am more excited than ever! Here is the plan. Hopefully, before the May issue is released, we will send out a special broadcast email, giving everyone instructions on what to expect. With the release of the May issue, you will have two choices. You can simply click the links in the email, as before, and read our magazine in the PDF format, without going to our new site. BUT, if you follow our suggestions and follow the link to our new site, you will be able to quickly register, allowing you to go to our new site, and read the magazine in a new visual online format that allows the magazine to load tremendously fast as well as present the magazine in a new visually exciting format. Besides a quick load and new view, the new magazine viewer will have many exciting new features such as allowing you to quickly scroll through thumbnails to the pages you wish to view and read. And, just as exciting, the main purpose of our new Online Community site is to allow our readers to connect with each other! You can upload your picture, enter your bio, and fill out our demographic information, allowing you to be entered into a contest with a long list of exciting prizes! You will be able to join communities and receive daily digests of questions, answers and comments submitted by other readers. These digests can be sent directly to your email address or to your favorite smart phone! We have a growing number of bloggers who will also be posting on our new site. And, you can start connecting with others and create your own friend lists or groups that connect around common interests! Some of the communities you might wish to join will include; Ask CCMag a Question, Church Management Software Solutions, Website Content Management Solutions, Mobile Computing, Bible Study Software, and many more. So, watch your email for this special announcement. If we can stay on schedule, we will officially open with the release of the May issue of Christian Computing Magazine! I hope you will join me in my excitement about the potential ministry the new service will provide! Together We Serve Him,

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

April 2011

cover story

CCMag Interview with Jeff Hostetter, Elexio CEO

By Steve Hewitt

have been watching the growth of Elexio, and the exciting host of services they provide churches, for many years. I believe a few years ago, we had three different cover stories or special features about new services they were offering! Now they provide a fantastic service for churches by combining many of the services most churches are looking for in one package, integrated to work together seamlessly! Read more about Elexio and all they have to offer in my interview with Jeff Hostetter, Elexio CEO. Tell us about Elexio. Elexio is focused on providing vital software and creative design for churches to help people know Jesus. We have a strong mission and core values. Our staff is what makes our company and our culture unique. We don’t care about titles or who gets the credit; we care about making a contribution to what God is doing around the world. Our people are business professionals who are church leaders involved in ministry. Some of us are pastors, youth leaders, worship leaders, and more - kingdom minded people. A distinction of Elexio is our creative team and design talent. Making software that works great is essential, and then we polish it off with a cool look and feel so it’s fun to use. We hope churches see us as an extension of their staff,because that’s why we’re here – to make churches successful. We are up to our eyeballs in church software because God has chosen the local church to advance his priorities. Our passion is to come along side church leaders to leverage software and technology to that end. Since we get fired up about ministry and technology, we really enjoy serving thousands of churches in this way. Christian Computing® Magazine

How has Elexio changed over the years to meet the needs of churches and ministry? Along the way we recognized some trends. Churches were beginning to see greater value in having a high quality website, and church leaders were looking for ways to connect their church management software and their website for more interaction. However, church software was getting fractured, and with so many smaller pieces of software out there, church leaders were getting confused and frustrated trying to get separate software to talk. Another trend is that people in churches were replacing their basic cell phone with a smart phone. As we were listening to church leaders and the problems they were facing, we realized it was all connected. This caused us to look at the big picture and work toward providing a solution. We invested the last few years in building a new website content management system that would help churches make websites that are more engaging and have better content. In November 2009, God orchestrated the steps for People Driven Software to merge with Elexio. This was a significant milestone in our journey and a huge win for churches. Together we invested 18 months integrating church management, April 2011

our new website solution, and our check-in system into one. Plus we also added a mobile app and a ton of other cool stuff while we were at it. Tell us about Amp. Elexio Amp is an integrated church software suite. Amp integrates your website, database, mobile app, and check-in. Amp has complete solutions built-in that can be used individually; but, when a church uses them together – that’s when the integration magic happens and a church realizes the full benefits. Here’s a quick rundown. Website: Amp Vibe is a brand new, state of the art church website solution with a powerful content management system and unique design options only found at Elexio. Easy. Powerful. Gorgeous. Integrated. Database: Amp Fusion is a complete church management solution including a people and contact manager, mass communication, small group management, welcoming / follow-up / assimilation / discipleship tools, giving and pledges, and reports to gauge church health. It also comes with a plug-in to the church website that allows people to update their own info, online giving, event registration, and to connect with their small group and ministry teams. Mobile: Amp Wave is a mobile app that provides access to the database from a smart phone so a person can text, call, e-mail, locate people on Google Maps® and get directions. Check-in: Amp Touch is a complete electronic church check-in solution allowing people to check-in at events, conferences and seminars, Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

retreats, concerts, etc., plus check-in children to their classes and take attendance. Churches can use it attended or unattended and we provide options for everything from iPads to complete touch screen kiosk hardware packages. I’m so thankful for our team who worked tirelessly to pull this all together. What an honor to be among so much talent. The Elexio team hopes churches love Amp. What are the benefits of Amp and what makes Amp unique? To start, Amp is the only church software that provides churches with a complete website solution AND a complete church management solution – totally integrated. Churches don’t need separate providers for their website, church management system, online giving, event registration, member portal, children’s check-in, mobile app or other software systems. With one database, when information is updated in any one place, it’s up-to-date everywhere in the suite. Another benefit is that everyone who interacts with Amp has one universal login. That means church leaders and others only need to remember one username and password to access all parts of the suite. Also, Amp has a smooth common look and feel throughout the software suite. There are also unique benefits in Amp Vibe, Amp Fusion, and Amp Touch. Amp Vibe includes a content management system with a fresh approach to updating your website and making great content – plus website design options to fit every church’s need and budget. Amp Fusion and Amp Touch are the only church management software with 24/7 access to your data from anywhere, anytime even offline. With Amp, you eliminate double entry and there’s no more importing and exporting data into separate pieces of software. When a church needs help, they contact one team, Elexio. All this convenience saves churches a lot of time and money. Our goal is to make them more effective in reaching their goals. What does the future of Elexio look like? The launch of Amp is exciting, but what’s even more exhilarating is that this is just the beginning. Amp sets the stage for integration that church leaders haven’t even thought of yet. But they will. Elexio is positioned to meet churches’ software needs long into the future. Christian Computing® Magazine

We have a new www.Elexio.com that helps church leaders who want to gather, connect, grow, serve, and reach out. The new website features search options by product, ministry role, or ministry goal, making the search function easy for anyone to navigate. Elexio’s future is brighter than ever. Amp is a huge win for churches across the nation and around the world. We are looking forward to providing vital software and creative design for more churches to help people know Jesus. About Elexio Headquartered in Elizabethtown, PA, Elexio® is an industry leader in integrated church software and creative web design for churches and ministries. Founded in 1984, Elexio has grown with technology trends over the past three decades to specialize in content management website solutions and church management software. Elexio serves thousands of churches and Christian ministries in all 50 states and across 27 countries. For more information on Elexio visit www.Elexio.com or call 888-997-9947.

April 2011

special feature

The Kool Kindle and Nifty Nook

By Dr. J. D. “Doc” Watson

n my last regular column a while back I said I would return on occasion with something of interest. Well, I hope you agree that e-Readers are, indeed, of great interest. In all my years of writing, I have never stooped to misspelling a word for the sake of cheap alliteration, but this time I just couldn’t help it. Forgive me, but the Kindle is just kool (and the Nook is nifty). Here’s why. I read a lot. As a pastor, teacher, researcher, and writer, books are the most important tools I own. At one time, I had about 5,000 hardcopy volumes in my library, which I whittled down to about 2,000 some years ago. That number crept back up a ways but thankfully e-books replaced a great many. On top of that, I have hundreds of articles and other documents in Word and PDF format. Now, for portability, of course, I have a Netbook, which I love, but it—as well as even a full size laptop—is not quite suited for just reading, as odd as that might sound. Enter the e-Reader. As a truly hard core Star Trek fan (I mean from 1966 on), I join the ranks of many others who sat captivated by the technology. How many of us looked at those hand held devices and didn’t dream of their reality? (I mean really! We’ve got the communicators, right?) I even made a few drawings several years ago of what such a reading device might look like. (If only some of us would have had the money and know-how!) There are several choices in the e-Reader arena, but the only two real choices (IMHO) are the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. The Sony is carried by some retailers but suffers a devastating blow by not having a good content delivery system, as do Kindle and Nook (obviously!). With Sony, and others, you will have to rely on self-published stuff, PDFs of out of print titles, or torrents. (How about the iPad? Please, don’t even get me started!) Christian Computing® Magazine

The Amazon Kindle 3 Technology Figure 1 pictures the latest iteration of the Kindle, as it sits on my oak desk. Measuring 7.5” x 4.8” x

Fig. 1 – Amazon’s Kindle 3 right out of the box.

April 2011

0.335” overall, with a 6” diagonal screen (which delivers 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi and 16-level gray scale), and weighing a mere 8.5 ounces, the Kindle (both the WiFi and WiFi/G3 models) is a true modern marvel. What makes this thing so amazing is the E Ink technology. It really is like reading ink on paper. This is vastly superior to a backlit screen, which is used on laptops, Netbooks, cell phones, and so forth. When you step into bright light with one of those . . . forget about it; they are virtually unreadable. Not so with E Ink. Yes, tilt it a certain way, and there is glare from a direct light source, but if held square, even sunlight is Fig. 2 – Cover of the public domain Tale of Two Cities. no problem whatsoever. Manufactured by E Ink Corporation, founded in 1997, their work is based upon research started at the MIT Media Lab. Here’s how it actually works, according to the manufacturer: “Electronic ink is made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a positive or negative electric field is applied, corresponding particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white or black at that spot. To form a smart ink display, the ink is coated onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. The microcapsules are suspended in a liquid ‘carrier medium’ allowing them to be coated using existing coating processes. The final laminate can be applied onto virtually any surface, including glass, plastic, fabric, and even paper. Ultimately electronic ink will permit most any surface to become a display, Fig. 3 – Normal Kindle text.

Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

Fig. 4 – A PDF displayed in Portrait mode.

Fig. 5 – A PDF displayed in Landscape mode.

Christian Computing® Magazine

bringing information out of the confines of traditional devices and into the world around us” (www.eink. com/technology.html). Simple, huh? All this was actually improved for the Kindle 3 with “E Ink Pearl,” the second generation display technology. This provides a dramatic increase in contrast, giving e-Readers (including Kindle, Nook, Sony, and others) a contrast ratio close to a paperback book. Pearl also sped up page turning from previous Kindle models. Additionally, it provides very low power consumption. Are you ready for this? A fully charged Kindle will go for three weeks with the WiFi turned on and four if it’s left off (obviously, you don’t need to be connected to read books). This plunges to 10 days, however, if you are using the WiFi/3G model with the wireless left on. (More about this later in “The Bottom Line.”) Not only has the screen been improved on Kindle 3, but so has the memory. It now has 4 gigs (3.3 actually usable), enabling you quite literally to carry an entire library in your hand. Amazon claims 3,500 books, which is a realistic projection. The public domain, moderately sized Tale of Two Cities, for example (Figs. 2 and 3), is only 526 kilobytes in Kindle PRC format, so you can do the math. Other files, of course, are going to be larger. PDFs, for example, can get rather large. I loaded several ranging from one to eight megs (more about PDFs later, too). Features First, the pros. The first thing that struck me when I picked up the Kindle was just how comfortable it is to hold. Being a “book purist,” it’s borderline blasphemous to say it’s more comfortable to hold than a book, but it is. One-hand reading is simply a delight. Turning pages is accomplished using the very quiet buttons on both sides (Fig. 1). Page turns are 20 percent faster than Kindle 2 and are actually faster than I can do on a real book (yes, it’s possible I’m just old and slow). Navigation is accomplished by the Menu, Home, Back, and joystickApril 2011

like “5-Way Controller” buttons. The real QWERTY keyboard is great (I don’t care much for on-screen keyboards). It enables you to type in searches within a book, across your library, in the Kindle Store, or even the Web. The New Oxford American Dictionary, with over 250,000 entries and definitions, is also built into Kindle. Not only can you type in a word, but you can also access a word directly as you are reading. Just highlight the word and the definition pops up. If that’s not enough, and this is really cool, you have direct access to Wikipedia. The keyboard also enables you to add annotations, just like you do now in your book margins. You can even edit, delete, and export your notes, as well as highlight and clip key passages and bookmark pages for future use. And in case you’re wondering, yes, Kindle automatically remembers where you left off in every book you open. Also, if you’re into social networking, you can post stuff to such networks directly from your Kindle. Again, reading the Kindle is a joy. Since it’s not a backlit screen, eye relief becomes a non-issue. Pressing the Aa button in a Kindle formatted book displays a box that offers you three typefaces: “Regular” (a Caecilia font) “Condensed” (a smaller version of Caecilia), and “sans serif” (a nice alternative)—and yes, you can also control the size of the print, up to 3/8” high. (No reading glasses needed.) The display itself also provides additional control. Rotating it from portrait to landscape automatically enlarges the font. This is particularly valuable for PDF files because you do not have the same font control (still more about PDFs later). Figures 4 and 5 compare portrait and landscape in a typical PDF. Landscape is also great for viewing maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages. Can’t find anything to read? Well, the Kindle Store has over 810,000 choices, with over 610,000 that are $9.99 or less. That’s not all. You’ll also find over 1.8 million pre-1923, out-of-copyright, and therefore free, books, such as: A Tale of Two Cities, which I downloaded, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, Treasure Island, you name it. There are also many Christian books in this category. Many others that do carry a price tag are still inexpensive, such as the Bible, of course, as well as: Pink’s The Sovereignty of God ($.99); Dagg’s Manual of Theology ($.99); Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening ($.89), Scrivener’s Interlinear Greek New Testament ($2.99); Unabridged Matthew Henry ($4.99); and much more. You can also find more on other sites, such as Project Gutenberg, which has over 30,000 free titles (www.gutenberg.org), and Open Library with about one million titles (http://openlibrary.org/). If that’s still not enough, you can choose from several newspapers and receive them automatically to your Kindle before they even hit the newsstand. You can even get a 14-day free trial. The downside, however, is that it’s pricey. The Wall Street Journal, for example, is $14.99 per month ($180 per year). More reasonable is Reader’s Digest at $1.49 per month (and there are other magazines), and you never have to be inundated with advertising. You can also subscribe to several blogs. Need a little diversion? How about a game? Among many others, you can buy Scrabble or Monopoly for $4.99, Hangman or Chess for $2.99, Backgammon for $1.99, or Word Search for $.99. Okay, how about free? Well, there’s Every Word, Shuffled Row, Mine Sweeper, and more. Speaking of downloading, Amazon’s claim that you will be reading the book of your choice in less than 60 seconds is no empty boast. Hit the Menu button, select “Shop in Kindle Store,” select a category (e.g., Books), a subcategory (e.g. Religion & Spirituality), and then either browse the list or just start typing a search (e.g. john calvin or charles spurgeon). Page through the results, select a title to read more about it, including the usual Amazon reader’s reviews, select the “Buy” button, and you’ll be reading your book by the time you get to the couch. BTW, you can use the “Try a Sample” option to download and read the first chapter or two before you decide to buy. (Shareware books! I love it!). Many books also have the Text-to-Speech feature enabled Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

(still experimental), so your Kindle can read Englishlanguage content out loud to you. And oh, books you purchase from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon. Re-download such books anytime for free. While it’s one of the so-called “experimental features,” I found the MP3 feature pretty good. By uploading your favorite music (or Podcast), you can create a little atmosphere while you read, either through the speakers or headphones. There’s only rudimentary control, however; your files will play only in the order you copy them to your Kindle, although you can at least pause using Alt+Spacebar or skip a track using or Alt+F. BTW, Kindle software is also available for PC, Mac, Android, BlackBerry, iPad, and iPhone, so you can read the same content on these devices as you can on your Kindle (except magazines or newspapers). Second, the cons (both real and only perceived). Some users might find the Back and Menu buttons a little too close to the up/down portions of the “5-Way Controller,” and I really can’t disagree. Once in awhile I accidentally hit the Back or Menu button, and I actually have fairly small fingers for a guy. Some users are disappointed that the Kindle doesn’t have a touch screen, but I do disagree here. For this type of device, I think it’s totally unnecessary and would serve only to jack the price up. (More about this later in the Nook portion of this review.) Still other users are disappointed that the Kindle doesn’t have color, as does the Nook. But again, that just jacks the price up, takes much more power, and is really not necessary in an eReader anyway. I mean really, unless you are looking at an illustrated astronomy book (another of my own interests), why do you need color to read a novel, theology book, or just about anything else? I have not felt cheated at all when viewing pictures in grayscale (e.g., Figs. 2 and 6). Still others gripe over not having more font choices or that it’s not a full fledged MP3 player (sheesh!). I also sense a little haughtiness in the question, “Where are the apps?!” I read one reviewer who harangued, “I expected to find a calculator, notepad, maybe a simple calendar, and perhaps a to-do list.” Okay, granted, one could make at least a small case here. In fact, these actually are available, thanks to third party developers. Notepad is excellent at a mere $.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Notepad/dp/ B004LSLN0I/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=digitaltext&qid=1300492262&sr=1-32), as is Kindle Calendar and Day Planner ($2.99; http://www.amazon. Christian Computing® Magazine

com/1900-2101-Calendar-Planner-Holidays-ebook/dp/ B004C4465A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5 XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1300498746&sr=1-2), and Easy Calculator ($.99; http://www.amazon.com/EasyCalculator/dp/B004JOKW5G/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1?ie=U TF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2). BTW, if you don’t want to pay a dollar for the Calculator, an undocumented Kindle feature is the ability to do arithmetic. Press Home, and then select “Menu” and then “Search.” Now just type in the calculation you want, and then select “Search My Items.” You’ll also want to use the shortcut keys for numbers: Alt and then Q through P for 1 through 0. But on the other hand, let’s be fair: Do we have all these sitting on our lap or bedside table when we read a regular book? Again, Kindle is a book reader; it’s not a PIM, smart phone, or any other multifunction device. It’s a book reader—okay? If you want an iPad, go right ahead and give Steve your $500 (minimum!), but you’ll also be stuck with a backlit screen, so don’t go to the beach. (If I may interject, I’ve read several gripes from people who don’t even own a Kindle; I half expected someone to slam it because it can’t open a time portal . . . maybe Kindle 4.)

Fig. 6 – One of several Kindle screensavers (Erasmus).

April 2011

I do, however, jump back over the fence (hope I don’t get splinters) onto the agreement side concerning the web browser. While it’s a huge improvement over Kindle 2, it’s still a little slow and navigating it by jumping from link to link using the “5-Way Controller” is a tad tedious. But to be fair again, this is another “experimental feature.” And I, too, have to admit that being able to choose your own screensaver, or even adding new ones, would be kind of nice. This is very minor to me, however. In fact, I like the one in Figure 6; as a serious researcher of the Reformation, a picture of Erasmus is ironic. My chief complaint with the Kindle is that it comes with no case whatsoever. Amazon offers two cases. The $34.95 protective model and the wiz-bang cool one that includes a retracting light for night-time reading. The downside of the latter, however, is the frankly horrendous price of $59.99, close to half of what you pay for the Wi-Fi only reader itself! I think $40.00 would be reasonable (barely). Thankfully, several third-party companies make nice covers and lights for the Kindle, because you definitely want something; if you take it out in public, it (like you) really needs to be adequately clothed. I actually found a nice generic padded case for $15 at Wal-Mart and a nice clip on book light (“Mighty Brighty”) for $16. Some criticism is also warranted for the Kindle’s handling of PDFs, although I don’t think it’s as bad as some reviewers opine. As mentioned earlier, viewing them in landscape magnifies them nicely. Also, pressing the Aa button enables you to zoom the display 150, 200, or 300 percent and then scroll where needed. Also warranted is criticism for Kindle not supporting the stand ePub file format. In fact, of the leading eReaders, Kindle is the only one that does not read ePub format. (A work around is to use a little program called Calibre to can convert ePub files to Kindle-friendly format: http://download.cnet.com/Calibre/30002125_4-10910277.html?tag=mncol;txt.) TIP: After a little trial and error, I found a very effective method for using PDFs if you create them yourself. This is, of course, easy nowadays with numerous free utilities (I did two columns on this back in Aug. and Sept. of 2009). First, create your text in Word (or other word-processor), using the following: one-inch margins all around; 20-point Times New Roman font for the main Christian Computing® Magazine

text; 26-point for titles and main headings; and 20-point again for sub-headings. Second, feel free to insert any pictures or other graphics you want. Third, insert page numbers (20-point); Kindle will actually be consistent with these. Fourth, it’s also a nice idea to create a header (16-point); this way you’ll always know what you’re reading. Fifth, also create a Table of Contents, either manually or automatically if you’re a Word guru. Sixth and finally, just use a PDF creation utility, such as CutePDF, to create the finished product. The result will be a PDF with large enough text that you can read in portrait and without zooming. Alternately, using Amazon’s conversion service, you can convert files to Kindle format. Just e-mail your PDFs, as well as the following file types, to your Kindle’s e-mail address: Word (.DOC); HTML; RTF; JPEG; JPG; GIF; PNG; and BMP (.DOCX is supported in Kindle’s experimental category). Cost? If you use Wi-Fi, your converted documents will be delivered to your Kindle at no charge. A small fee will be charged for the wireless delivery over 3G. Still another alternative, if you are a little more ambitious, is the free MobiPocket v. 4.2 Creator, which converts many formats—Word Docs, PDF, HTML, MS, and Text—into native Kindle .PRC files. (Interestingly, the foundation of a true Kindle file is actually HTML, HTM.) It’s pretty easy to create a basic eBook if that’s all you want, but the program’s other features will take a little effort. I have now converted dozens of books into Kindle format by first creating a Word document, then a PDF, and finally a PRC using MobiPocket. Also, as my website is theologically oriented, I am committed to Kindle and will be posting a lot of material formatted for it. Bottom Line Okay, so how much for this tantalizingly trendy technology? Well, the WiFi only version (in White or Graphite) is $139, which also includes a USB cable for charging on and data transfer to your PC, as well as an adapter for that cable for charging with an electrical outlet. I think we can actually expect that price to drop before year end, although I don’t think the current price is bad for what you are getting. For another $50, you can get the WiFi/3G version. “So which one do I need?” I’m glad you asked. I think this can be answered by one simple additional question: Do you travel a lot? If so, and April 2011

Fig. 7 – The Barnes and Noble Nook Color (LCD only).

you want books on the go anywhere, you might want 3G (be aware also that sending your own material to the Kindle via Whispernet costs $.15 cents per megabyte). If, however, you are mainly at home or the office that has WiFi, there is really no need for 3G. Besides, more and more places even on the road have hot spots. (Can you spell S-t-a-r-b-u-c-k-s, boys and girls?) Do I like the Kindle? I love it. Do I recommend it? And then some! For the avid reader, it’s a godsend with instant access to thousands of books that you’ll be interested in? What’s not to like? For student use (and eventual graduates), while it won’t fill the bill for science and engineering majors who need serious graphics (and color), it sure seems ideal for history, English, and theology majors who do nothing but read text. It’s fairly priced and easy to learn—the full manual is built in or you can download a PDF if you want the manual in front of you as you learn. Christian Computing® Magazine

The Barnes and Noble Nook Technology Barnes and Noble was nice enough to send me the truly wiz-bang Nook Color (Fig. 7). It’s one of those really “WOW!” kind of things when you first see it. While the Nook Wi-Fi and WiFi/3G models (E Ink with LCD color touch screen navigation) are both 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5, the full Color LCD model is a bit larger: 8.1 x 5.0 x 0.5. All this translates into a slightly larger unit than the Kindle. The major difference is weight. The E Ink models are 11.6 and 12.1 ounces respectively, while the Color is a whopping 15.8. Technologically, everything said about the Kindle is true here, except the LCD additions and a complete touch screen navigation system. That leads us to the features. Features First, the pros. The chief feature that just jumps out at you with the Nook is the interface. Even the E Ink models still have an LCD area that pops up and is used for navigation. I do admit, it is very cool and is by far the main attraction to Nook. Many people are simply drawn to this kind of approach. It is very easy to get around, barely requiring you to read even the Quick Start Guide (but you should anyway). Like any such device (e.g., iPad), you can tap, drag, swipe, press and hold, and pinch and zoom. It also switches automatically between portrait and landscape when you just turn the device in your hands. As for memory, while the Color has eight gigs built in, the E Ink models have only two (about 1,500 books). The upside is that you can expand this with a Micro-SD card (up to 16 gigs for the E Ink model and 32 for the Color), but it can be argued that this is just an added expense. I think Kindle’s four gigs is a good compromise; after all, your books are stored at Amazon anyway and/or you can archive everything on your PC and other media, deleting from and adding to your Kindle as needed. How about something to read? There are again millions of things. Magazines are a hoot, especially on the Nook Color. It’s just like reading the real thing, although you also get all the advertising, unlike the Kindle. It’s easy to download what you want. Surfing the Web is also easier than with the Kindle because of the touch screen. Like the Kindle, there are also games galore to download.. The E Ink models have a replaceable battery that is accessed on the back of the device, while April 2011

you’ll have to send your Nook Color back to B&N, as well as your Kindle back to Amazon, to replace the battery. A strong advantage of the Nook is that it reads the popular ePub format, while the Kindle does not. It’s yet to be seen if Amazon will deal with this shortcoming. At one time, only the Nook had the ability to lend books to your friends, but Kindle just recently added that feature as well. There is a caveat with both, however: you can only lend each book once. Also, like Kindle, Nook software is available for PC, Mac, Android, BlackBerry, iPad, and iPhone. Unlike Kindle, however, magazines and newspapers are supported in the desktop software. Second, the cons. Again, the Nook is extremely cool. The touch screen interface will lure many. But as the old saying goes, looks (and coolness) can be deceiving. There’s more to think about than just a fancy interface. For example, even with clean hands, I had smudges all over the screen within half an hour. Yes, most of them are rendered invisible when you fire up the backlight, but some are still there and visible as you read. By far, the first thing that struck me when I picked up the Nook was the weight, and personally, I find this a major drawback. The greater weight simply makes it less comfortable to hold than the Kindle, at least for me. I had to constantly switch hands after reading for awhile. The second thing is that we are right back to a backlit LCD screen, which is true even for the navigation area of the E Ink models. It seems to me that this almost negates the whole purpose of an eReader. This is not a laptop; it’s an reader. I stepped outside and could hardly even see what was on the screen much less read it. I saw mostly my own reflection (which I really don’t need). And again, an LCD promotes eye strain; that’s a fact. While I have not seen the E Ink display on the Nook, some reviewers report that it is not quite as good as the Kindle. Compared to the Kindle, the battery life of the E Ink Nooks is a troubling one-third less (10 days) and is positively abysmal with the Color at only eight hours. This is simply another byproduct of all the LCD stuff and touch screen technology. File support is also less in the E Ink Nooks than in the Kindle, including: EPUB, PDB, PDF, Christian Computing® Magazine

JPG, GIF, BMP, MP3. The Nook Color adds several more, including DOC and DOCX. While it can actually display these directly— they must be converted for the Kindle—it doesn’t do it very well. Also like the Kindle, the Nook does not come with a case, so you’ll have to pay extra for one of several choices B&N offers. If you travel internationally, you should also be aware that you will not be able to buy new Barnes & Noble eBooks (through Nook or their website) when you are overseas. Kindle has no such restriction; you can still buy books while in over 100 countries. A final comparison: the Nook has only a 14day return policy, while the Kindle’s is 30 days. Bottom Line So, how much for the Nook? Each of the E Ink models is precisely $10 more than its Kindle counterpart: $149 for Wi-Fi only and $199 for Wifi/3G. The Nook Color is a somewhat more shocking $249. Like the Kindle, this includes a USB cable for charging on and data transfer to your PC, as well as an adapter for that cable for charging with an electrical outlet. Final Conclusion: Kindle vs. Nook Obviously, Kindle or Nook—like Ford or Chevy or peach or apple pie—is going to be a matter of preference. Do you want color or is grayscale E Ink enough? Do you want a backlit screen, or do you want to be able to read outside? Do you want a touch screen or is less wiz-bang okay? Do you want a more multipurpose device or just a simple reader? Do you want heavy or light? Do you want short or long battery life? Do you want to be able to buy books while overseas? Do you want expensive or less so? For me, while Nook has some commendable features, some which will lure some users, I think in the end Kindle is the winner by at least a nose. As of the completion of this review, I’ve been using my Kindle for a month, and it is quickly becoming an essential tool. I would even dare prognosticate that this will be true of the general population of planet Earth in the future. “Scotty, beam me up.”

April 2011

ACS

ACS ideas to impact

Love Your Easter visitors? Keep Them Safe!

from ACS Technologies

epending on the size of your church, you could be getting ready to see anywhere from a handful of new attendees for Easter services to hundreds more packing the pews – and packing your children’s ministry, too. It can be tough to handle all that foot traffic! It’s long been known that number one way to encourage occasional visitors to your church to become regular attenders is to make your campus a safe and secure place for everyone, but especially for kids. All other efforts are lost if people don’t feel safe leaving their children in your care. “How Secure is Your Children’s Ministry?” is a great resource if you’re ready to create an atmosphere of safety. The fact is, stranger kidnappings grab headlines, but most abductions in this country look much different. More than 350,000 familyabductions occur in the U.S. every year—more than 1,000 every day. While you want your church to be an open, welcome place, you can’t afford to let it become a target for people seeking to take unlawful custody of a child. The confusion and crowds at drop-offs for school, athletic events,and even church can all be beacons for frustrated, estranged non-guardians. In today’s world, manual security systems are becoming obsolete. Numbered stickers and attendance sheets, popular tracking devices at many churches, are prone to error. If these manual systems fail, churches are at risk in many ways, including risk of costly lawsuits and a damaged reputation.Consider, too, that many children have serious allergies to peanuts, Christian Computing® Magazine

wheat, dairy products or even certain fabrics and materials. Well-meaning volunteers could be endangering these precious little ones, simply because it’s so easy to lose track of these special needs. Old, manual methods of tracking check-in and check-out leave the burden of judgment at pick-up time up to the volunteer, who could very well get overwhelmed by eager parents and kids. And speaking of the volunteers who spend all those hours with your ministry’s children on a Sunday morning; is your church doing everything possible to ensure those volunteers can be trusted? Fortunately, there are proven ways to conduct your children’s ministry with the utmost of safety in mind. These new methods leave checklists and clipboards where they belong: in the past. The information-packed white paper “How Secure is Your Children’s Ministry?” outlines how the savviest ministries set up their security procedures, including check-in procedures for returning families using security cards. All families have to do is swipe, confirm, print a sticker, and they’re ready. The badges featurea bar code and the child’s photo along with important information such as food allergies. April 2011

For new families, hostedkiosks can be set up, where a greeter guides parents toenter the children’sinformation, print badges, and then direct families to the appropriate classroom. At pickup time, volunteers are free from registration lists and numbered stickers. Instead of making a judgment call about the person picking up the child, the volunteer would be sure they were doing the right thing. Intentional preparation and planning is the key to success should an emergencyoccur, especially during a service, event or activity time. If such an event were to happen at your church, couldyou quickly identify and locate all the children in your care? How you set up your security plan depends in part on the layout of your church. Where are your entry points? How does foot traffic flow? “How Secure is Your Children’s Ministry?” includes detailed examples, with a 3-D illustration of a possible setup and tips on emergency planning, volunteer screening, check-in/check-out procedures and communicating all of your plans with the people who can help you succeed. To get started on your church’s plan for a safe and secure children’s ministry, download “How Secure is Your Children’s Ministry?” today.

Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

accelerating the dynamic church

Multisite – Less About Your Church, More About Your Community

from Fellowship Technologies

ultisite church is a model that’s rapidly being adopted in churches of all sizes, across denominations and in both rural and metropolitan !CCELERATING 4HE $YNAMIC #HURCH¸ areas. There are many churches looking to multisite primarily as a growth strategy, assuming that what’s working in their church would be reproducible in another community. But what if launching a multisite campus was the best thing for your church but the worst thing for your community? Before You Plan, Ask “Why?” Jim Tomberlin, a renowned consultant and considered to be the greatest authority on church multisite, believes that churches need to determine why they want to launch a multisite campus by first defining the mission instead of thinking exclusively of the benefits to the church. A multisite strategy, while it could produce some wanted results of providing more space, could also backfire creating an over-commitment of church financial and human resourcesas well as being ill-received by the community thus hurting the church’s reputation at large. “The reason why church leaders should consider multisite is because they are convinced that it’s the single best way to fulfill the mission of their church.” “Multisite is about leveraging and reproducing strengths of a church in the context of each community,” declares Tomberlin. To simply assume that everything that “works” at the main campus will work the same way – or even as well – in another community is poor planning. Kevin Penry, Operations Leader at LifeChurch.tv and a multisite veteran, added his concerns for churches wanting to leverage multisite. “If the DNA of a church is not focused on extending reach, then how they impact a commuChristian Computing® Magazine

nity will be different from a church that’s focused on expanding into communities and cultures,” Penry stated. Because LifeChurch.tv has multisite as part of their core DNA, the decision is not if, but when and where they launch campuses. For other churches, multisite may not be a part of the very core mission of the church, making it a more deliberate process of planning and considering the options prior to deciding on a multisite methodology. Be Militant in Multisite Strategy? Tomberlinfeels that the same concept that U.S. General David Petraeus conceived for helping the people of Iraq trust the U.S. troop presence is the same strategy that helps communities accept the introduction of a new church in their neighborhood. “You’ve got to ‘win the hearts and minds of the locals’ is as true for church multisite and church planting as it is for our forces in Iraq,” shares Tomberlin. People want to know that you understand their culture and can meet their needs, so building out small groups in those communities and getting involved in community projects helps to build key relationships that will form the core of a new multisite campus. Even if a church plant is relatively nearby, people want their campus to be unique and “fit” the local culture while retaining the DNA that makes the main church campus unique from other churches. April 2011

Penry has a slightly different take on it. “The [LifeChurch.tv] message will take place in 128 countries around the globe this weekend. I believe how we define and measure outcomes determines how we execute multisite campuses. The distinctive forLifeChurch is that we’re called to a global perspective and we put our focus into that,” said Penry. He continued, “Right now, we have 145 network churches around the world. They are distinctive in their personalities, but unified in their outcomes. The systems, environments and training are what we export to make multisite work for us.” Good Information For Good Decision-Making Instead of asking “what can our church bring to this community,” ask “what does this community need from our church”?Tomberlin says that if God has blessed your church with influence and resources, ask the community leaders of the town where you want to launch a multisite campus in what the community needs. “It’s often a different answer than what you assume,” reports Tomberlin. It’s important to understand the various methodologies for leveraging multisite. Generally, there are four multisite strategies:

campus. Some members live nearby, but the goal is to make it easy for people to be involved with this campus instead of driving to the main campus. • Charter Campuses – these are churches campuses that have their own staff, including their own teaching pastor(s). • Church Campus Plants – these are true church plants that are partially/fully funded for a period of time and are under the influence of the main church that planted them. Often they will launch as a Charter Campus with the goal of being a fully independent church within 18 months to 3 years. Which method and strategy a church applies to multisite is dependent upon their unique vision and mission. Whichever method or methods your church applies, ensure the best thing for each community will be delivered by your multisite campus.

• Extension Campuses – they are located minutes away from the main campus and share the same staff and as many physical resources as possible, often share the same weekday office space as the main campus. Additionally, these are existing members who live in large numbers near the new planned campus, making for instant attendance. • Satellite Campuses – these are not integrated from a staffing standpoint, but instead have some/ all dedicated staff that live and work near this Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

ParishSOFT

ParishSOFT’s Catholic Connection

Top 5 E-mail Collection Strategies for Your Church

from ParishSOFT

re you looking for ways to better engage parishioners? Email is a great place to start! Email reaches people where they are—fast—and it’s still the best deal in town. But to use email effectively, you need to begin with a little planning. Establish an email communication policy Your communication policy sets the ground rules for all the particulars, like email frequency, content, design, subject lines, “from” address(es), review/approval process, and delivery times. It should also give staff and volunteers guidelines for determining the correct target audience from your census software. The policy doesn’t need to be fancy—the important thing is to think it through, document it, and communicate it to all staff and volunteers. . . before you ask members for their email information. Why take the time? The average sized Catholic parish of 699 families has lots of ministry groups and committees. Clear policies give your groups the freedom to communicate with each other, while directing all parish-wide communications through the proper, central channel. This keeps well intentioned staff and volunteers from overloading members with mass emails. It provides the framework to let you ask for email addresses with confidence. Launch an email drive, and tell them why There are three primary reasons people hesitate to give you their email addresses: (1) they don’t want junk mail, (2) they don’t know why you need their email, and (3) they don’t understand how they’ll benefit. Gain their trust by stating upfront how often they can expect to receive emails from the parish and what kind of information they’ll get. Let them know that your parish will safeguard their information and not share it with that African prince. . .the one who offers to share his fortune if you would only send him your banking information. Your average parishioner doesn’t think about what it takes Christian Computing® Magazine

to run a parish office or get a mailing out the door. Most attend services on Sundays, blissfully ignorant of your canon law recordkeeping requirements, diocesan policies, and day-today administrative challenges—this is why the parish office is typically the last to know when a family moves. Put yourself in your members’ shoes and identify what they’ll gain from parish emails. Are you providing convenient online registration for events and ministries? Paper-free parish news? Father’s homily? Time-sensitive announcements, like cancellations or funerals? Would email help them participate more fully? Too often, the inspiration to sign up for the spring retreat or summer picnic ends up on the car floor after mass, along with the bulletin. People get busy with life. They’re forgetful. But deep down, they’re looking for God, and your parish emails can help them be the informed, involved Christians they want to be! For financially-minded members, quantifying the time and expense of a parish mailing compared with emailing the same information makes a powerful statement. In a parish with around 699 families, the numbers would look something like this: First-class letter: $375 and 8 hours staff time Email: ½ hour staff time

Sum up the benefits for people and the church and share them through announcements during services, on your website, and in your printed materials. While you create good feeling about interacting with the parish online, you’ll educate members about why their church records are important. April 2011

Collect email addresses at every opportunity Keeping accurate parish census records for all your families is an ongoing task. Catholic churches using ParishSOFT systems have shared the following strategies for managing email addresses, and these can be adapted for any church: • Have regular “Update” weekends. Set up stations where members can see their record in your system and make any corrections on the spot. If you’re using a self-serve system like My Own Church, members can update their own records, and once your staff approves the change, it updates your parish database. If you can’t directly access your church management software from where your events are happening, use Excel® or Word®—that way, you can save the file and copy the updates into your member records. •

Use every sign-in sheet and registration form to collect updates. Whether it’s a new member registration or an event for your parish children, ask for email addresses. If you’ve got a laptop or iPad® handy, those sign-in sheets can be electronic.

•

During announcements, ask everyone to text the pastor their email address and name! In most Catholic parishes, using smart phones in church would be a special treat. It gives you immediate results to pull into your parish database and is most effective as you launch a new email collection campaign. Be sure to record the cell numbers you’ll also capture using this method.

Target, don’t flood Avoid sending every email to everyone in your church—that’s the fastest path to ending up ignored or in their junk folders. Follow your communication policy to target exactly the right member groups with information appropriate for their involvement in parish ministries. Keep “global” communications, like your parish newsletter, short, snazzy, compelling, and on-schedule. Better yet, direct members to your online email signup form, where you can let them choose the specific communications they’ll receive. Christ the King Parish in Toledo, Ohio, has designed a nice form using Constant Contact (available to email subscribers on www.cktoledo.org). New subscribers get a short welcome email from Fr. Bill Rose, along with assurances about email privacy. Fr. Bill’s photo and contact information are included, which adds a warm, personal element. Choose the right email service Email marketing services offer many advantages over plain messages sent through your regular email provider. They can transform a blah communication into a professionally designed layout, with your church branding and interactive links that direct people to places where they can learn more or sign up. We like Constant Contact—it’s easy and they offer hundreds of templates and a spam check, so your emails will look great and reach members without being blocked. Their educational resources give you access to tips on everything from design to marketing. We’ve also integrated it with ParishSOFT applications for easy list management from your programs. Whatever email service you choose, be sure it provides email scheduling and reports on statistics, like how many members opened the email and what links they clicked. These results show you what’s working and what isn’t, so Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

you can make adjustments for next time. You’ll also know who has “opted out” and whose email address is no longer valid. If you must send group messages using your standard email service, ask your provider how they limit the number of emails you can send at once. You can then select exactly the group of members you need and email them, either directly from your church management software or via an export/import or copy/paste of their email addresses. When emailing groups, remember to BCC (blind carbon copy) or create an address group to protect the privacy of member email addresses and keep their trust.

•

Update from Holy Spirit Parish, San Jose, California, on www.holyspiritchurch.org. Read more on parish staff communication strategies on www.parishsoft.com

We look forward to helping you connect people with your church in the coming months!

What’s next? With these items in place, you’re ready to start using email effectively to keep members informed and engage them in parish life. Look for our column in May’s issue for tips on creating email communications that bring your members into a closer relationship with your church community and, ultimately, with God. If you’re anxious to get started, we recommend you look to the following ParishSOFT users for examples of beautifully designed, successful church email communications that are enhancing parish ministries. • •

View a newsletter from Christ the King Parish, Toledo, Ohio Subscribe to the weekly Community

Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

higher power with kevin

Topical Sermon Writer Helps Pastors Find Sermon Topics

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

ike a topical Bible, Topical Sermon Writer aims to assist pastors in sermon preparation. It could also be useful for Bible study teachers, the average believer wanting to just find a passage about any topic, or anyone who wants to find the primary subject of a particular passage. We got a look at the new software (www.topicalsermonwriter.com) and decided that it is potentially a useful tool for quickly finding passages by topic or topics by passage. Most pastors or bible teachers who use computers have a Bible study package. Whether you paid a pretty penny for yours or downloaded one for free, you might need a lightweight and quick too like Topical Sermon Writer. Each of those other packages have topical bibles. It is unlikely that Topical Sermon Writer will ever be used to replace them. But alongside them, this could be a good tool.

this tool, we would recommend it for a couple of tasks: 1. It is simple and therefore quickly opens – you can find topics and verses fast without firing up that bloated study program that takes a long time to load.

“Topical Sermon Writer is a simple software program that will allow you to quickly research 1,000s of Biblical Topics and form the basis for highly relevant, and inspirational Sermon and Bible study outlines.” (From software’s website) While we would not suggest replacing your Bible study software with Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

2. Enter your sermon passage and it quickly suggests topics covered by that passage; this helps in finding the topic of your passage making it easier to communicate to hearers. The author has a nice overview video at YouTube: http://bit.ly/i66nVc. And there are three useful help videos on the company’s tutorial site at http:// www.topicalsermonwriter.com/tutorial.html. Click those to see if you think it will fit in your arsenal. We won’t go into a lot detail bout how it works. The software is primarily a list of topics. The main screen has hyperlinked letters. Click a letter and see the list of topics under that letter. Another way to use the program is to do an advanced find. Since the files are mainly just Windows help files, the search tool looks like a Windows help search function. Enter your bible passage in the find box and it will return a list. Click on each item in the list and you will see your verse highlighted in the topic listing. For example, I searched for John 3:16 by typing Jo 3:16. I found “The Love of Christ” under 1Jo 3:16 among others. The above results lead to one warning. You will have to search using the program’s book abbreviations. I searched for John using “Jo”, but you need to use the abbreviation “Joh”. However, instead of “Mat”or “Matt” for Matthew, you have to use “Mt”. Notice none of the acceptable abbreviations include periods. The website has a PDF with a list of acceptable abbreviations here: http:// www.topicalsermonwriter.com/ TSWSearchTerms.pdf. At only $15 we think this is a good, inexpensive resource. We hope there will be some other features added. But it is a good start. It works on Windows only.

Christian Computing® Magazine

“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” April 2011

nick at church

Office 2010 (Windows) & 2011 (Mac) Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

icrosoft released two versions of their Office Suite last year, and folks want to know if it’s worth upgrading to them. The bottom line is, yes! On either platform! Here are a few reasons why. Office 2010 for Windows Microsoft first introduced us to their ribbon concept in Office 2007, replacing the familiar pull-down menu bar options with a series of tabs across the top of the application window. Most I know did not like the change, but Microsoft said that focus group studies found that most people really liked it. I have spoken with a few thousand church and ministry computer users since Office 2007’s release, and in my unscientific study I found that 10-15% liked the ribbon, the rest did not. Well, as we often say, software changes don’t need to be better, they just need to be different! And the ribbon was different! But Microsoft had begun traveling down a road they were unlikely to return from, so we were stuck with it. In Office 2010 some of the good news is that the ribbon is greatly improved and much more usable, intuitive, and it is customizable! I think Office users will like it much more than the 2007 ribbon—maybe this is the ribbon those focus groups reacted so positively to in the first place! lol Another across-the-board improvement of Office 2010 is that it fully supports 64-bit operating systems. Here are a few more specifics: Christian Computing® Magazine

• Word. Many are pleased with the new paste preview feature because it saves them having to paste and then undo the paste. The keystroke to undo is so easy (Ctrl + z) that using it never bothered me, but the preview is helpful for many. • Excel. Graphs and formatting tools have been greatly enhanced and improved. Power users who work with pivot tables will love the free downloadable PowerPivot tool for Excel 2010 that calculates tons of data from multiple sources very fast! • PowerPoint. There are new transitions and the ability to trigger/ control videos in slide presentations. You can even edit videos directly in PowerPoint! • Outlook. Outlook now supports multiple email addresses in one profile, making sending and receiving from multiple accounts easy. This is especially helpful for those working for churches and ministries with multiple domains. Outlook 2010 also has great calendar improvements, especially regarding emailed appointments. Office 2011 for Mac Office 2011 also has the ribbon, and thankfully it is more akin to the Office 2010 ribbon than April 2011

2007 ribbon. In most respects, Office 2011 for Mac is equivalent to Office 2010 for Windows, so the items mentioned above also apply here. • Word. Many ask where Publisher is in Office 2011. It’s one of the views in Word—the publishing layout view! One caution, however, is that you cannot open a Publisher (*.pub) file on the Mac; you need to open Publisher files on a Windows computer and save them as Word documents. • Excel. Excel 2011 has been improved greatly from its 2008 predecessor. The formula functions have been expanded as has the overall usability. • PowerPoint. PowerPoint 2011 is greatly improved over PowerPoint 2008. The ability to incorporate graphics and videos is much stronger, including the ability to edit them from within PowerPoint. • Outlook. Outlook 2010 replaced Entourage 2008 as the Microsoft Office email, task, and calendar management platform. Like it’s older Windows brother, it provides most of the functionality and features running in Office for Windows’ Outlook. Email, task, and calendar files now fully integrate with Exchange 2010. They also fully integrate with iPads, iPhones, Androids, etc. There are a few things we hope to see in the next release of Outlook for Mac, but the overall review is that this is a solid thumbs up over Entourage.

Open Office’s biggest benefit is the amount you can save purchasing licenses—but that’s minimized when comparing it with Microsoft’s charity licensing. The cost to buy Microsoft Office 2010 or 2011 from Consistent Computer Bargains (www.ccbnonprofits.com) is only $80 (2010 for Windows) or $60 (2011 for Mac). At that low price, the cost difference is low— especially when considering the additional features offered by Microsoft Office over Open Office. (BTW… there is no upgrade price for charity licensing since Microsoft has already discounted the cost so significantly.) One of the additional benefits of using Microsoft Office is that it is already known by many users, which reduces training time and costs. What About Training? We have found the best training resource to be Lynda.com (www.lynda.com). They have more than 1,000 training courses on most shrinkwrapped software as well as many office functions, like bookkeeping, etc, and the cost is very reasonable. Our experience in upgrading church and ministry teams from Office 2003 or Office 2007 to Office 2010 has been very positive. Our experience upgrading Mac users from Office 2004 or Office 2008 to Office 2011 has been enthusiastic! These new releases are definitely worth considering.

What About Open Office? Many are quick to say that you can do a lot of what can be done in Microsoft Office in a free open source office suite called Open Office. While that is true, we have rarely seen Open Office successfully replace Microsoft Office in a church or ministry office. Users just don’t like working with it as much. Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011

big ministry - small resources

Let Them See

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

s you watch the slides rolling by on your next Sunday presentation - think about the possibility of interacting with people in real time, or sharing information all via a simple little device that many have ready access to on a daily basis. That simple device is the latest iteration of smart phones that are equipped with cameras and that with the proper software could be capable of scanning what is called a “QR code”. According to Wikipedia: “A QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.” So here is how this works, a QR code can be literally on anything, a billboard, a bus, or on a screen. As long as the medium you have it displayed on can be properly imaged with a camera and QR code reading software you can send information (the short string of a web site URL for instance) to the person viewing it. Because the URL can be whatever you want you can use this to gauge responses to that particular item. If you are advertising something and include your web address, you really don’t know too much about how someone got there if they simply type in the web site. (In working with some clients over the years, rather than typing in the browser URL area, many of them simply typed it into their default home page “search box” to get to the URL.) With a QR code you can give a very specific code to a particular location and track those hits coming in. While you can sometimes do the same thing with a specific URL (IE: myficticiousdomain.com/yellowpages or myficticiousdomain.com/flyer1) people might just ditch the extra page info and go straight to your myficticiousdomain.com site. When the QR code comes up they probably won’t delete the Christian Computing® Magazine

URL location just to obscure the originating item. Armed with another tool in your media arsenal, you can probably think of many ways to integrate it into your church’s workflow. In a bulletin, I could see a QR code box beside items to encourage further exploration on a topic. (Leaving another path in via information kiosks and a simple URL would be handy for those without smart phones.) What about providing a code that people could scan and instantly be transported to a page to type in questions or provide polls? What about having codes for various ministry opportunities to allow people to go instantly to a sign-up page on your web page? What about using links for people to jump to online donation areas? What about instant downloads in PDF format (many phones can download and view PDF) of additional notes or discussion questions? What about jumps to online calendars for the week? ICS (calendar) links that people could download or subscribe to via their phones to be updated on the latest happenings at church? This isn’t the first time something like this has been used to get people involved. In the tech world the words “Cue Cat” bring up a lot of interesting comments - it was a “free” barcode scanner that was pushed as the latest thing with bar codes appearing in a variety of places. The problem with the Cue Cat was it bound you to your computer (and the Internet) and each reader was chipped with a unique identifier that could be used to track your scans. (They didn’t exactly tell you that part.) With the advances April 2011

in cell phones and mobile Internet the possibility for bar codes and interaction is far greater. Perhaps a seemingly innocuous code block on a flyer or bumper sticker could be the path that someone seeks and learns more about Christ. As with everything, it’s limited by our imaginations at times or not following what God is calling us to do. If your church culture is not setup for technology use, then pasting QR codes in the hymnals or putting them on fliers at the homeless shelter probably is not going to be very effective. If they distract from the message or isolate too many because of the “haves and havenots” then it probably won’t work. Use them with discernment and to the Glory of God! Matthew 28:16-20 (New International Version, ©2011) The Great Commission 16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Christian Computing® Magazine

Making a QR code is as simple as searching for “QR code generator” on Google (or your favorite search engine). I’m looking at how to incorporate QR codes with our church CMS (content management system) Silverstripe. Some websites offer to shorten your web url into something smaller and more manageable. The quick way we have tried is to make a redirector page via the CMS that will point to the landing page we want. For instance: www. myheartland.org/easter-qr04242011 which forwards people to our Easter 2011 page. The part we are looking to incorporate further is to use PHP QR Code (http://phpqrcode.sourceforge. net/) to make a downloadable/printable QR code directly from the Silverstripe CMS system. This would save copying/pasting the QR Code to a 3rd party web site - and reduce our reliance on another place properly forwarding shortened URLs. We could then have our own short codes for various events and maintain our own redirects. If you would like to further explore that just write back on the CCMag comments and we’ll help out with some code snippets.

April 2011

tablet time

Free Android Software! By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

ack in January, this column talked about the free software available for the iPad. For the past couple of months, we’ve shifted our focus from the iPad to an Android-based tablet – the Galaxy S Tab from Samsung. Now it’s time to return to that most critical element of any compute platform – the software! Software and “Openness” In the January column, I also made the point that these day’s computers are mass market products whose success is almost entirely determined by what everyday consumers can do with them. I used the Macintosh and Windows operating systems as an example of how the importance of a vibrant developer ecosystem is critical for the commercial success of any hardware platform. I claimed that Microsoft’s platform was more “open” for software developer’s than Apple’s, and probably more importantly, Microsoft was very open to many hardware manufacturers to innovate with new computer products running Windows, so the market for Windows computers grew larger and became more attractive to software developers than the market for Macintosh computers. In last month’s column, I wrote about the advances Android has made in the marketplace. I talked about the innovative new hardware products being brought to market by many smartphone and tablet manufacturers. I’m guessing you’re Christian Computing® Magazine

already aware that Google is much more supportive of giving developers freedom in writing for Android than Apple is for iOS (the iPhone/ iPad operating system). We all have heard stories about developer frustrations with the process for submitting products to Apple’s app store, or Apple’s battles with Adobe and others who want to make it easy for developers to create crossplatform applications. Those realities would point towards Android being a more popular platform for developers than the iPad/iPhone. Surprisingly, that’s not yet the case. As of January, there were over 350,000 apps in the iPhone app store. At that time, there were less than 200,000 apps in the Android market (although that number has now crossed the 300,000 mark). I do expect Android apps to surpass those for Apple’s products in the coming months. Already, many developers are writing for both platforms, and my personal experience has been that if there was an app I liked on the iPad, either the exact same app, or one that works April 2011

just as well, is available for Android. Bible Software Disappointingly, that hasn’t been my experience when looking for Bible software. In my January column, I listed five free Bible apps I had installed on the iPad, and since then I added one more, so I could choose between Logos, Olive Tree, Laridian, YouVersion, Blue Letter Bible, and Crossway’s ESV. Of these, only YouVersion and Crossway’s ESV are available on Android. You may recall that I was a big fan of the Logos app, especially for the graceful way it handled cross-references. Sadly, the company doesn’t appear to be close to releasing a version for Android. On their website they say “We’re planning a version of Logos for the Android platform. It will likely be just like the Logos for iPhone application, with Android-specific interface as required. There is no additional information available about features or timeframe at this time.” Sigh… In the absence of Logos, I’ve installed six free Bible apps on my Android tablet: YouVersion, Crossway’s ESV, CadreBible, Bible.is, CrossConnect, and DailyBible. I use my tablet as my primary Bible on Sunday mornings for Bible readings and the sermon during worship, and for Sunday school. I’m not currently in a group Bible study, but I would like to use it during that time as well. I also have been using my tablet for my morning quiet time. In short, my tablet has become my primary Bible, although, when I’m home, I’m just as likely to pick up a “hard copy” version for quick references throughout the day. Given these uses, my primary needs are: Christian Computing® Magazine

• Quick and easy navigation • Integrated note-taking – both linked to a passage and easy to find independent of passage • An integrated reading plan • Easy access to reference materials (at a minimum, cross references, footnotes, and translation notes; optimally, also easy comparisons between translations and links to commentaries)

April 2011

Sadly, none of the free products do a great job on this short list of requirements. CadreBible is the most sophisticated of the products and may, by definition, check off each item on the above list. However, the productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rich feature set gets in the way of ease of use. For example, the product supports a long list of translations. However, most of the translations must be purchased for an extra fee. When I first started using the app, I would choose the Library from the Tools menu to switch between translations which then required scrolling through the entire list of available translations. It is helpful that those that are installed are highlighted, but still, it took five clicks and lots of scrolling to change translations. Only later did I figure out that I could more easily click on the translation name

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

April 2011

at the top of the window, see a pull down list of installed translations, and select the one I want. This reduced the effort to three clicks and minimal scrolling. There’s yet another way that Cadre provides an even richer view. By clicking and holding on a verse, a new menu becomes available with a variety of tools for that verse, including adding a note, adding a bookmark, sending the verse as an e-mail, opening a commentary, and seeing a parallel comparison across all the installed books (translations and commentaries). By providing multiple ways to accomplish the same task, Cadre actually hurt my experience because I stumbled into the less friendly approach first instead of having to find the one easy way. The app that has earned its way into my daily use is YouVersion. As with the iPad app, YouVersion makes available a broad array of translations, most of which can be downloaded to your device. Unlike Cadre, YouVersion has a very clean and crisp interface that is easy to figure out. I can easily add notes or a bookmark to a text, and YouVersion is focused on socially sharing notes if you so choose. I really like the way the app handles reading plans, making it easy to track your progress, and since it’s all network connected, I even get e-mail reminders to encourage me when I’m not keeping up. Bible.is and CrossConnect seem to be focused on providing an audio interface to the Bible, with limited additional functionality, while DailyBible is very focused on verse of the day and reading plans, and is a bit more cumbersome to use for general Bible reading. The ESV app is beautiful and solid, and the only one that has a rich set of cross-references, but the interface isn’t as comfortable as YouVersion – I have to work too hard to figure out how to add notes or select a passage for action. The two biggest disappointments with all of the free Bible apps available for Android tablets are their lack of graceful support for reference Christian Computing® Magazine

materials and the lack of support for two-column display. Even though the ESV app supports cross-references, reading a cross-reference requires jumping to that part of the Bible, and getting back where you were requires finding the History button and selecting your previous verse (three clicks). The lack of two-column display is likely due to current tablets being based on the smartphone version of the Android operating system. Hopefully both of these limitations will be addressed by future products (Logos – please come quickly). It is my hope and prayer that these articles on tablets have been helpful to you in your daily walk with Christ. Whether it is the printing press, radio, television, personal computers, the Internet, or mobility, new technologies continue to advance our ability to know God through His Word, wherever we go. 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.

April 2011

ministry communication

Don’t Go AWOL in Your Outreach Communications the Week After Easter Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

ome church staffs take the week off after Easter, but if you do, you’ll be AWOL. AWOL means “absent without leave” and applies to soldiers who run away from battle or a guard post or who, because of fear or hardship, do not do their duty. If you worked hard to get unchurched people to attend your Easter services, to not follow up immediately is dereliction of duty for a soldier of Jesus Christ. Harsh? Perhaps, but if we take seriously the death of Jesus we preached, consider... To run away in the midst of battle is serious At various times in the history of the military being AWOL was punished in various ways including wearing a sign announcing the crime, prison time, and the death penalty. Currently, the most frequent punishment is “bad conduct or dishonorable discharge.” Being tired or afraid is not an excuse for a soldier to go AWOL and it isn’t an excuse for a soldier of Jesus. Of course you will be tired after Easter. If you are putting your heart and soul into your ministry, you will often be tired. But the Bible clearly tells us that we are involved in spiritual warfare for the souls of the people our church is attempting to reach. If you have worked for months to get many people to come to your Easter services, if you have created communications to connect with them during the service, don’t run away from duty now. Do not be a dishonorable soldier, but stay at your post and continue the work you started. As the ministry of Effective Church Communications has worked hard to teach church leaders, Easter or any special event is not an end in itself, but the start of a relationship with your church and Jesus. See video: How to get people to come back to church after Easter and other special events http://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2009/04/how-to-getpeople-to-come-back-to-church-after-special-events/ Christian Computing® Magazine

Follow up after Easter to complete the connection you started To start the connection with visitors, churches are encouraged to create connection cards so that you’ll get the information you need to follow-up. To use that information most effectively, there are a number of things you can do, but one of the best is to simply invite people to interact with you. **An invitation to “Latte with the Pastor” a time for “Coffee and Conversation” either at a local coffee shop, a church member’s home, or the church, if you have a casual setting or room, will be a great opportunity. The Latte with the Pastor idea came from a church that sent out coupons for a free latte to guests and told them that they could use them whenever they wanted, but that the pastor would be at the local coffee shop from 3-5 on certain days of the week. People were invited to come down, have latte with the Pastor and ask any question they wanted about the Christian faith. Pray people will respond, so you can interact with visitors, answer their questions, and/or invite them to other activities such as a Seeker Bible Study or Small Group where they can explore questions about the Christian faith. At this link are ideas for follow-up postcards for Latte with the Pastor and Coffee and Conversation: http://www. April 2011

effectivechurchcom.com/2011/04/easterfollow-up-postcards-email-messages-andlatte-with-the-pastor/ These are useful, but the design of any follow up communication is not the most important thingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that you take the time to follow up with people is what is most important. These cards have been intentionally designed to not only work for Easter follow-up, but anytime with visitors. **You might also plan a sermon series that answers questions or do a series of podcasts, videos, blogs or tweets about the basics of the Christian faith. In one church, the Sunday after Easter the pastor preached a sermon every year on Life after Death. It was promoted as strongly as Easter itself and powerfully applied the resurrection of Jesus to people who came to the church. After two weeks of clear preaching about the reality of the cross of Jesus and its impact on individuals, plus purposeful communication about the ministries available for newcomers, the church had significant numbers of people who continued with the church after Easter. **Best of all would be a combination of print and web-based activities, as many as you and your congregation can do. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have the largest pool of potential members immediately following Easter. You must make the most of it if you want to be faithful as a church. Additional ideas for email or your website: As with the mail out pieces, you need to do this right away. To wait a week or so, they become worthless. To send out materials and then not have anyone at the church office to interact, to answer emails or follow up is again, not leaving your post. Here are some digital ways to follow up and some can be done ahead: **At the very least, do simple emails thanking people for coming and inviting them back to church next week. Remember to give simple, specific details to remind them about what your church does on a regular basis and where to find out more. Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

April 2011

**Do a video interview with your pastor about questions people have after Easter and give answers. **Do “man on the street” videos at the Easter service—guests, pastors, friends! Have some planned questions and answers. **Do podcasts of the above videos. **If you don’t have the time, equipment or expertise to do these, find similar ones on the web and link to them. http://www.leestrobel.com/ is one site that has lots of videos that explain the Christian faith. **Provide links on the web to answer faith questions. Stand your ground and keep fighting the good fight Whatever method you choose to follow-up at Easter, or any special event, pray for strength and do it. I know you will be tired, we all will be. At this time and many others I always remember what Ann Ortland said one morning many years ago at a conference for a Christian writer’s devotion time, “much of the significant work for the Kingdom of God is done by very tired people.” Yes, you’ll be tired, but don’t quit. Don’t go AWOL—remain at your post—do your duty for your risen Lord and coming King. Yvon Prehn’s ministry Effective Church Communications, www. effectivechurchcom.com provides training, resources and encouragement to help churches fully fulfill the Great Commission. Follow Yvon’s church communication tweets & tips at http://www.twitter.com/yvonprehn and get special church communication offers, links, and advice at http://www.facebook.com/EffectiveChurchCommunications

Christian Computing® Magazine

April 2011