Christian Computing Magazine

Founder & Editor-in-Chief Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com Online Community Manager Kevin Cross - kevin@ccmag.com

Applying Tomorrow’s Technology to Today’s Ministry Volume 24

January 2012

No. 1

4 cover story

By The Book Helps Churches by Serving From the Heart

Contributing Editors Lauren Hunter Yvon Prehn Nick Nicholaou Kevin A. Purcell Russ McGuire Bradley Miller Michael L White

By Lauren Hunter

7 special feature

Copy Editor Gina Hewitt

An Interview with SiteOrganic

Corporate Home Office

By Steve Hewitt

Mailing address: PO Box 319 Belton MO 64012 Delivery address: 306 Eagle Glen Ct Raymore MO 64083 Phone: (816) 331-5252 FAX: 800-456-1868

3 Editorial

CCMag’s Online Community is THE place for content!

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

11 Minstry Leadership

Turn Christmas Visitors Into Engaged Members

13 Parishsoft’s Catholic Connection

from ACS Technologies

5 Ways to Prepare Our Hearts to Serve

from ParishSOFT

16 Logos CMS

of Christian Computing, Inc. Written materials submitted to Christian Computing® Magazine become the property of Christian Computing®,

Working Out the Workflow Kinks

Tony Ferraro

19 Higher Power With Kevin

Bible Reader for Mac and Soon Windows

24 Digital Evangelism

Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Christian Computing® Magazine reserves the right to make any changes to materials sub-

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

mitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publi-

Christmas Evangelism: The Star of Bethlehem

Michael L White - mlwhite@parsonplacepress.com

27 The Power And The Danger Streaming Video Services

31 Nick at Church Keyboard Shortcuts

33 Ministry Communication

cation may not be copied in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Christian Computing®, Inc. Views expressed in the articles

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees of Christian Computing® Magazine, or Christian

Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

Computing, Inc.

Why clear communication is essential for Christmas and how technology gives you the tools to do it

36 Big Ministry - Small Resources Tending the Flocks

Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com Bradley Miller - bradley.w.miller@gmail.com Articles that are highlighed are provided by our partners www.ccmag.com/2007_03/2007_03editorial.pdf

Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

editorial What Features Do You Want Your ChMS App To Have? Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com Apple likes to run those commercials that say, “There’s an App for that!” And, in fact, there are apps being developed every day that can do some pretty cool things. And, in most cases, what makes them cool is that they take advantage of the fact that we are mobile. For example, Sears now has a line of garage door openers that work with an app so that if you are across the country and your neighbor tells you your kids left your garage door open (happened to me), you can simply use the app on your iPhone or iPad to close your garage door even though you are across the nation. If Sears can hardwire their garage door openers so that people can operate them from across town or across the nation with an app, it seems obvious that more and more inspired applications will be released as people start realizing the potential for how mobile computing is changing the way we compute. Several ChMS companies have released apps for the products and services, both for the iOS and for Android. I also know that others are working on releasing apps for their ChMS services later this year. I have watched ChMS products and services evolve for 25 years now and I am very interested to see how mobile computing will impact the direction of ChMS. I know some will simply develop apps that basically allow you to do the same thing you could do with a browser on your tablet, however, some are working to take advantage of the fact that their services will now be mobile. So, my question to our readers is to help us all think outside the box. What would you like to see your ChMS product do if or when it is available as an app. How will the fact that you are now using it Christian Computing® Magazine

while sitting in a restaurant, in a member’s home, visiting someone at the hospital, etc., etc., impact what features you want your ChMS app to have? Drop me an email (steve@ccmag.com) and share your thoughts and dreams. I will pass your great ideas on to our ChMS sponsors and hopefully your ideas, if they are good ones, will be adapted in future apps we see hitting the market as more and more of us move to mobile computing! Special Note Don’t forget we are giving away another tablet on January 31. Simply be a registered user on our website (www.ccmag.com) and you are already entered. Also, if you send out a twitter to your friends about our contest, you will be entered into a second contest where the winner will receive a Kindle Fire. Simply send a tweet stating - CCMag and CVMag are once again giving away a free iPad on Jan 31, 2012. For more info visit http://ccmag.com/contest Together We Serve Him,

Steve Hewitt Follow me on Twitter @stevehewitt email - Steve@ccmag.com

January 2012

cover story

Who’s Where

Online Benefit Eligibility Administration

By Steve Hewitt

ecently I discovered an interesting new service when it comes to managing employee eligibility for retirement plans. I thought it would be of great interest to many of our church and denominational readers! Points North develops innovative data integration solutions that save businesses and organizations time and increase their bottom line. Their value-added products are compatible with leading payroll solutions thus improving efficiencies with that available data. Their Who’s WhereTM product assist users in managing employee eligibility and contributions to organizations retirement plans. I interviewed Tom Jamar, Director of Product Management with Points North and I hope you enjoy learning about all they have to offer!

Q. Who’s WhereTM is an interesting name for software, what does it do? A. Who’s WhereTM simplifies the life of the bookkeepers at all levels of the organization, giving them more time to spend on other diocesan or parish business. It is a challenge today for them to manage employee eligibility and timely contributions to their retirement plan, whether it be a pension plan (current or frozen) a 403(b) plan, 401(k), or other benefit plans. Typically bookkeepers are spending quite a bit of time, sometimes hours, keeping track of payroll hours and contributions on various spreadsheets or by other means that freChristian Computing® Magazine

quently are not consistent from one location to another, and employees that become eligible “fall through the cracks”. By missing employees that have met eligibility to these plans employers have created a few conditions – one, from a social responsibility standpoint they aren’t serving that employee if they are not contributing the dollars in a timely manner, the employee is losing out on potential investment gains. Secondly, they have created an underfunded condition for the retirement or benefit plan as even though that employee wasn’t enrolled, the organization is still going to owe them the funds at their retirement time. January 2012

Organizations usually create quite a process for tracking contributions coming in from the various employers, whether it’s a parish, a school, a foundation, etc. Again, the bookkeeper usually needs to keep track of their payments manually, send them into the main office, where they are tracked again and there is not a simple way to know who is delinquent or what the payment was for. Who’s WhereTM simplifies the process by using the existing payroll information that has already been completed and uploaded into the system, or keyed if payroll is done in-house. Who’s WhereTM uses that payroll information to know what hours have been worked by every employee and automatically applies the organization’s plan rules (perhaps an employee needs to have worked one year, or 1000 hours, or so many hours per week to participate) and lets the user know exactly who needs to be enrolled in the plan. Secondly, Who’s WhereTM creates an online invoice to move the necessary funds from the employer to a designated account via a secure ACH transaction using VANCO ©. The local bookkeeper picks the date for the payment off a calendar and then authorizes the transaction. Through an Executive Dashboard the top level of the organization can view the overall money movement, missed enrollments and plan participation. They can use an automated process to follow up to exceptions. In the last 9 months we’ve securely moved about $1.5 million through the system.

Therefore you only need an internet connection. We have some entities where not every location has internet access and in those cases, they either partner with a neighboring location or forward their information to the main office so everyone gets into the database. By being web-based any enhancements to the software are realized when you log-in so you’re not stuck with a certain version of the software. This also allows us to have all of an organization’s employees in one database which is helpful if an employee works in multiple locations. Those locations no longer have to coordinate contributions as the payments are based on the hours worked at each location. Q. What are the advantages of Who’s WhereTM over other methods? A. Time, accuracy, and compliance. Employers no longer have to keep their own time-intensive methods of tracking this information, which perhaps only one person in their office understands or can administrate. As the system applies the plan rules and notifies the bookkeeper who needs to be enrolled, it also calculates the contributions needing to be sent, reducing the chance of error. Some users also utilize the power of Who’s WhereTM to track and move funds for their health and dental plans

Q. What types of organizations use Who’s WhereTM? A. Although Points North has been in business since 1994, Who’s WhereTM was created in 2005 to manage employee eligibility to the YMCA Retirement Plan and today is used by about 300 of their locations across the country. It is also used by other non-profit organizations including the YWCA and Catholic dioceses across the country. Any non-profit that has a retirement plan or benefit plan looking to improve their processes and potentially lower administrative costs can utilize the functionality of Who’s WhereTM Q. What are the system requirements for the service? A. Who’s WhereTM is a web-based Software as a Service application. Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

as well. And why not as the system does not restrict the number of plans to be managed, all employees are in the system and they can utilize the money movement features. Finally, organizations can be more compliant by using the system to efficiently manage delinquent enrollments and timely contributions. This reduces the liability of a missed employee when they finally retire, and thus ensures a fully funded plan. We’ve found eligible yet not enrolled employees in just about every implementation we’ve done. In fact during a recent implementation when Who’s WhereTM uncovered an eligible employee that hadn’t been enrolled the retroactive contributions required were in the tens of thousands of dollars. The organization did not have to pay the government penalty fees however as they could show they had a system in place to identify what was owed and also to prevent this from happening in the future. Q. What is the process to get started with Who’s WhereTM? A. We first want to discuss what the process is today, this allows us to fully understand the challenges that each organization is facing. It’s not that they are doing it wrong, yet they may not realize there is a better and more effective way. Yes, there are some very common issues

Christian Computing® Magazine

but each organization is different. Once we understand those processes it allows us to see how Who’s WhereTM could help streamline the work effort, or possibly reduce some of the costs they are paying for manual reports that require significant time to review each month. We discuss plan rules and ultimately integrate those into the system for that organizations use. Training and implementation is done in waves, training all users in how to use the system effectively – enrolling employees, creating invoices, and reporting features they can use to forecast eligibility and payments. We have received terrific feedback on the ease-of-use of the system and our support staff. In fact we recently heard a story from a diocese regarding an employee they thought would be very adverse to the technology and changing their process of managing this information. They were nervous when he walked into the office; however he said “The system is great, we should have done this years ago”. Hearing that, we know we’re making people’s jobs easier. A great first step is visiting the product website at www.whoswhere.org. There we have a recorded product overview, as well as some video testimonials from current users.

January 2012

special feature

Is Your Church Growing?

By Dick Webber

his is a time when across the country more than sixty percent of all churches are experiencing budget shortfalls and stagnant membership growth. In parts of the country more than seventy-eight percent of churches have budget problems, and in the strongest area of the U.S. sixty-two percent of churches have the same problem. This also means that if sixty-two percent of churches have budget and membership problems in an area, then thirty-eight percent are growing and are financially solid. What accounts for the difference? There can be many reasons that contribute to these differences. If we think of the problem as though a sports team, we know a wise coaching staff of a team with a shrinking win-loss ratio takes the team back to basics. Each player is taught the basics of their position and the team as a whole learns the elements of play-making tactics. The Church can learn from this. Many churches have responded to shrinking revenues and stagnant membership by cutting staff and ministries. This is almost certain to Christian Computing® Magazine

lead to further losses. What alternative is there? There is another way Invigorate your church with the basics of our Christian faith. Scripture is clear about what the role of the Christian community is about. • “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” – Matthew 28:19-20 • “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” – John 2:16 • “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John January 2012

13:34-35 • “So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. – Romans 14:19 • “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” – Galatians 6:1-2 • “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” - 1 Peter 4:10 These scriptures are a few that help us understand our responsibility to care for the congregation and reach out to those who are un-churched. These verses don’t say, “if you have time,” or “if you think about it.” They are commandments! Two areas of ministry stand out • Minister to and serve members of the congregation • Reach out to bring the Good News to the un-churched

are carried out responsibly and in keeping with our scriptural obligations. We should be cautious about preaching the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, and fail to implement the commandments of the New Testament. See http://www.rdsadvantage.com/Websites/rdsdemo/files/Content/1611960/Outreach.pps for an example of an outreach ministry, and http://www.rdsadvantage.com/Websites/rdsdemo/files/Content/1611960/CongregationalCare.pps for care ministry functions. These examples are applicable for all churches. “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” – Luke 10:2

These are important elements of the responsibility of every congregation. They require no extravagant building or elegant trappings. No expensive outlays are needed. Every church can implement programs to ensure these ministries Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

Ministry Leadership

How to take charge of Engagement and Building Disciples from ACS Technologies

inistries looking to increase engagement are increasingly turning to social media and the online space for guidance – the point that many seem to get the impression that the promise of online connection is simply too good to be true.

“While it’s true that technology, itself, isn’t the answer, churches around the world are leveraging the power of social technologies to better connect, engage, equip and mobilize their congregations for the work of the gospel,” say the writers of the ministry guide Building Disciples Through Engagement: Best Practices for Online Communication and Community. Good communication is relational Regardless of which technology used in the church, the context of the church must be a part of the ultimate plan. “Within the Church, communication isn’t about control, it’s about partnership. But some methods and tools for communication can be very impersonal. Even with the right heart, ineffective communication can make people feel as though they’re unimportant, or even as if they’re just a Christian Computing® Magazine

means to an end,” Building Disciples Through Engagement continues. So what’s the answer? There are a few key considerations, but one is this: Remember that different types of relationships require different communication methods. While a church Website or a Facebook page can be great informational tools for people looking for information before they visit your church, they have limited effectiveness connecting people to the real, dynamic life of your community. That’s why many churches are seeing the necessity of a more private, community oriented social network to enable truly effective, high-value communication. Case Study: 10,000-attendee Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, SC “Creating stronger communications with a January 2012

congregation of our size presents a great opportunity,” said Shawn Wood, former Experiences Pastor at Seacoast Church. In 2009, Seacoast was looking for a tool that was developed specifically for the church context. Something that would leverage what social media does well, but that adapted and innovating to create solutions for the local church. “Our goal was not to have a huge church, because smaller churches are more conducive to communication,” Wood said. They selected a churchspecific social network that allowed them to become a “great big, little church.” Now, as the founding and Lead Pastor of Freedom Church in Moncks Corner, SC, Wood again turned away from the commercially-drivel solution offered by the likes of Facebook, and went with a solution that increased engagement – The City. Churches that use The City have found that 76.4 of active City users engage monthly, and 48% of these users are active in a church small group. The network is used to turn congregants into active participants, rather than passive audience members. Best Practices for Digital Communication According to Building Disciples Through Engagement, “Good communication is good communication, so don’t be intimidated by that little word, digital. The things that make you an effective communicator elsewhere are still in play. There are, however, some unique challenges and opportunities in the digital world.” Here are 2 of Building Disciples Through Engagement’s 5 best practices for digital communication: 1. Focus on the mission. Don’t put the focus on the methods, because methods are disposable. If you’re using one, be sure to explain why your church needs a Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

private social network, and keep the focus on how it will help your church accomplish the mission. 2. Invite people to interact. Interaction is no longer an option, it’s an expectation. The digital tools available today give you an amazing opportunity to invite people to join a conversation.

church communicate more effectively – plus more information on how to build a deeply-connected, mission-focused community, download the free ministry guide Building Disciples Through Engagement: Best Practices for Online Communication and Engagement.

Best Practices for Building a Stronger Community “At first glance, it may seem like a stretch to say that online tools can help you build community in your church … But churches that follow some best practices have seen incredible growth in the depth and effectiveness of community within their church,” say the authors of Building Disciples Through Engagement. Here are the top 2 of the best practices they give for building a stronger community: 1. Lead by example. No mystery here. You can’t expect people to do something you’re unwilling to do yourself. 2. Equip and empower others. Give people ideas for engaging their friends in meaningful ways and you’ll empower them to help you build a culture that values deep relationships— with all their beautiful messiness—over the attractive, yet insubstantial reality of consumerism. To read more best practices and to get a more complete picture of how digital tools can help your

Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

ParishSOFT

ParishSOFT’s Catholic Connection

Building an Attitude of Gratitude in Your Church from ParishSOFT

n last month’s column, we touched on gratitude just briefly as one of the top five ways to prepare our hearts to serve. This month, we’re digging into some specific ways you can say thanks with sincerity, humility, and grace and amp up your church’s attitude of gratitude.

More than a tax statement January is the perfect time to look at the true substance of your thank you messages and evaluate what you’re really saying to your members. Your endof-year statements are a great place (but not the only place) to start. Are your contribution statements for the prior year accurate? If you’re tracking your member contributions throughout the year using a good software program that integrates with your central church database (as our Offering & Pledges program does), you’re in good shape. All you need to do is post the last of your 2011 contributions and get your mailing out to members. If your software doesn’t make it easy to get accurate tax statements to members, it’s time to look at a new program. How you say thanks matters. You need to say more than, “Here’s your statement for 2011. Thanks!” And don’t just use the same standard message time after time. Instead, change it up! Here’s an example of a short way to say “thank you” directly on (or with) the contribution statements you send to your members:

Christian Computing® Magazine

Thank you for your generous support of the ministries of St. Mary Parish. Your gifts for 2011 totaling <$ amount> help ensure that our parish will continue to enrich the lives of our members and serve our community as God has called us. Because of your financial sacrifice, our parish staff and more than 425 volunteers who are working in the many ministries here will be able to continue to affect the lives of other parishioners in meaningful way. Learn more about what we accomplished as a parish this year on our website: <www.myparishwebsite.com>. Thank you for your generosity. May God abundantly reward you for your continued, faithful support of the parish. In Gratitude, Fr. Tim Your pastor should sign each statement, and if you’re using ParishSOFT, you can print his digital January 2012

signature directly on the document and save him the writer’s cramp. Learn from Santa; check your list twice Nothing says, “we don’t really know you at all” quite like a thank you, or any type of communication, addressed to a misspelled name. If you’re sending statements by mail, why not tuck a printout of the family’s information and ask them to fix anything that needs updating? You might add: “You’re very important to us, and we want to make sure we’ve got your information correct.” Many ParishSOFT users do this as part of their ongoing “re-census” initiatives, and it always leads to lots of updates. Addresses need to be accurate, too. Before you run end-of-year statements or do any large mailing, take a few minutes to view your census data alpha-sorted by name, address, and zip code. Your church software should do this or let you sort your data in a program like Excel or Access. If you find any blank fields—they’ll be at the top—you can either fix the data or remove those statements from your mailing and save the postage. Of course, the real judgment day for address quality happens with the United States Postal Service. Running your data through a USPS National Change of Address analyzing tool is the most reliable way to find out which members have moved and do a general cleanup and USPScompliance update of all your family addresses. If you’re a ParishSOFT user, you can accept changes from the USPS directly into your database without having to enter any address changes manually. Whatever your system, good address management and accurate family and member names are the cornerstone not just for great thank you letters but for everything you do in your church. Take the time to do it well. Send written thank you notes Don’t wait until the end of the calendar year to say thanks for gifts given to your church. Tithing, though it’s not required for membership in the Catholic Church, is fundamental to our Christian stewardship. The same applies to gifts of time and talent. Receiving these gratefully acknowledges the giver, the gift, the benefits…and expressing that gratitude cultivates continued stewardship. Sharon Hueckel has spent nearly 20 years helping parishes embrace the spirituality of stewardship. In her Appreciating the 20% workshop at the 2011 ParishSOFT Conference, she shared specific techniques that have been successful in her work with several southern California parishes and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Hueckel has developed a set of thank you letters that work great for various types of donations outside of regular offertory contributions, like cash, in-kind gifts of goods or services, stock, designated gifts, and more—they’re available in copy/paste-friendly PDF on conference.parishsoft.com. Why does she have so many versions? It makes the thank you process efficient, and the templates help her ensure she’s covered all the bases. For example, when a member donated $350 specifically for new Christmas bicycles for the parish adopt-a-family program, her note clearly let the donor know that the money was used as intended and that four children experienced the joy of finding shiny new bicycles under Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

their Christmas tree. Connecting the gift with the Christmas-morning experience captures the emotion of giving and receiving gifts born out of God’s love – heck, my eyes are tearing up as I write this. Is this person likely to make another gift in the future? You bet! Hueckel’s memorial gift letter is equally good, using the same kind of sincere, humble language that characterizes all her notes, like, “most gratefully received.” Her version works well in a system like ParishSOFT, where you can post a commemorative gift on behalf of someone or in memory of a deceased member and generate a thank you right away from the same screen. And she wisely incorporates a statement that the donor received no goods or services as a result of the gift, allowing the thank you letter to double as a tax receipt. Is it ever too late to send a thank you? No, according to Hueckel. While it’s best to acknowledge gifts in writing within a couple of weeks of receipt, if you find it’s been a month or more, go ahead and send a note that includes an apology for the delay. If you’re embarrassed by the delay—just communicate from the heart, knowing that even a late acknowledgement is better than none at all. And it’s part of the church’s obligation in fulfilling its role in stewardship. Make gratitude a characteristic of your church Building an attitude of gratitude requires humility, communication, and presence in all the places members interact with your church. Every gift matters. No gift is too small. In Sharon Hueckel’s workshop, we heard of one offertory counter who referred to processing the children’s envelopes as, “counting the ‘kiddy’ litter.” Sure, it’s a tad funny as far as poor jokes go. But where’s the humility? Where’s the gratitude? And more importantly, how can we expect children to grow into engaged, involved, supportive members of tomorrow’s church if we laugh at their gifts today? As church staff and volunteers, we need to accept the child’s 25-cent contribution as graciously as we accept the adult’s $2,500 pledge to our building fund. And there are a lot of places where you can say thank you for all the gifts your members give: Christian Computing® Magazine

• • • • • •

Mass announcements Newsletter and bulletin Religious education classes Offertory envelopes Online Giving and church websites Every pledge card and event registration form • Pledge statements • Mid-year and year-end contribution state ments • Every letter and email

Acknowledging your volunteers in a public forum gives an enthusiastic, “Hip Hip Hooray!” for stewardship. It shows the rest of the crowd who’s involved in what ministries and gets people thinking . . . geez, if he volunteers in the kids’ preschool classroom on Sundays, I guess I should, too! In my parish, the catechists in our religious education program are called forward during Mass to receive a special blessing and prayer from the congregation. On another weekend, liturgical ministers receive similar recognition. And our pastor often says at the end of Mass, “Thank you for your presence and prayer.” This always gets me thinking, he’s glad I’m here. So am I. I’ll definitely be back for more. Thanks to Sharon Hueckel, for sharing her experience and tools with us! Her book, Stewardship by the Book, is available as a free download from Our Sunday Visitor here. Stacey Anttila ParishSOFT

January 2012

higher power with kevin

Publishers Database Idea

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

have an idea that solves the digital rights problem with Bible software and book publishers requiring us to purchase multiple copies of books for use in multiple Bible software programs and apps. It benefits software buyers and the publishers of both books and software.

The problem I’ve been crowing about for a few years, since the death of STEP, is this – if you want to use more than one Bible software package you often have to pay multiple times for the same books. If you want the HCSB or NICOT in more than one program you buy it more than once, in addition to buying a physical copy of the book. Some of you might ask why anyone, other than a Bible software reviewer like me, would use more than one Bible software program. First, some resources are available in one program but not in another. This seldom happens with Bible translations but often does with commentaries, Bible dictionaries, etc. Second, I sometimes use both a Mac and a PC. My favorite PC software might not have a reliable Mac version. So some people use something like Bibleworks on the PC, but use Accordance on the Mac. Third, one program might have a great feature, but another has another great feature, both of which the user wants to use in his or her Bible study. So, the person runs both programs to get both Christian Computing® Magazine

features. You could just run the various programs and forget about trying to get all of favorite books in all of your software. That’s impractical for Bible translations since you want your favorite open wherever you do your study. Also, if you use a PC at the office and a Mac at home you can’t run both programs in both locations meaning you wont’ get access to the book in both programs. One solution would be a powerful online Bible software package, but I haven’t found one yet that does all that I can do with some of my premium software programs. There are good online software solutions that many use exclusively. However, what about people who don’t have Internet access while they want to study, like missionaries in the bush or people with lousy Internet or expensive network access. Many in the world are still paying per MB and this model gets expensive. What we need is STEP for the 21st century. I’ve said this before, but I think I have found a workable January 2012

solution that would benefit everyone including the software users, the Bible software publishers, and the book publishers. First, some background. STEP was designed to be a universal standard that all Bible software makers could use. You could buy a STEP book from one vendor and it would run in another’s STEP compatible reader. It was a great approach in its day, but was based on software technology that has become obsolete today. There are better technologies and it was never updated to take advantage of advances. So, we’re back to the days when there was no standard. The heart of my solution is to buy your books from the publisher directly, or at least register your purchase of a book with the publisher. Publishers would keep a database of owners. Let me explain, using the following example. I own the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) in numerous formats including a high quality, leather-bound, Bible I purchased from LifeWay Christian Resources in Hickory, NC near my home. I also have a Kindle version, a version that runs on the Nook, and multiple copies that run on the various Bible software programs and apps I use, and some I don’t use anymore. As a writer for CCMag, I didn’t have to buy all of the software versions; they’ve given me review copies. But let’s say I’m a regular guy and just like to buy Bible software. So I own a copy for probably a dozen or more programs and apps. I regularly use three or four of them and on a monthly basis will open half a dozen to a dozen of them on my PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Kindle Fire. The HCSB is my favorite translation. Since I have acquired this book in various formats more than 2 dozen times, Broadman & Holman loves me. I think they’ve funded a Vice President’s salary with my purchases of the HCSB. When B&H created the HCSB they employed a lot of people – translators, editors, people who formatted the physical books, cover designers and warehouse people who store the books in Nashville, TN, just name a few. I bought my leather-bound Christian Computing® Magazine

copy for over $100 and to me it was worth it to have one that I am sure will last my entire life and might even become a valued family treasure after I’m gone. I know my mom’s Bible is treasured by my family since her death last year. B&H also created a digital copy of the book and have sent it over to the folks at Biblesoft, BibleWorks, Logos, etc. The cost of transmitting that digital copy was next to nothing. However, those software publishers then converted the digital copy from B&H to a version that runs in their software. In some cases this conversion is an automated process with little expense. In other cases the software maker spends many hours with workers adding formatting, tags, hyperlinks, etc. to make that book work in their program. It costs them thousands of dollars sometimes to translate the digital copy into a file that works with their app. When you pay Logos for the HCSB you aren’t just paying for the digital rights to the book. You are also paying some person who sits all day at a computer adding the stuff to the file to make it more useful in their program. This can range from simple formatting to more complex things like links to original language tools. However, the cost of creating 1 copy of the January 2012

HCSB might be many thousands of dollars. Creating a thousand physical copies goes up considerably to pay for all the paper, leather, and ink not to mention the guy who hauls those books from the warehouse in Nashville to my Hickory, NC LifeWay store. The cost of creating the Logos copy may also be in the thousands. But the cost of creating copies 2 through 1 Million is not much more. They don’t have a guy to haul the books and they don’t pay for warehouse storage. You only need one digital copy and of course backups both onsite and off-site, if Logos is smart. So here’s my proposal to the publishers and software industry. What If I pay B&H $20 (or whatever they deem a fair price that people would be willing to pay) for the right to access the HCSB digitally on any platform and in any Bible software package I want? This digital right would possibly go along with buying the $100 leather-bound copy which you would register with B&H just as you would your fridge and your TV. Once I pay them once for the digital rights, I would not have to pay for the rights to that file ever again, unless it was updated in a major way – i.e. the New HCSB, which I’m sure will come out in 20 years or so. That would be awesome. Instead of paying $20 twelve times for each application, I could pay one time and it would not cost B&H any more and it would save me a ton. Problem solved between me and the publisher. However, we still have the problem of paying the guy who sits at his computer all day at WORDsearch making the B&H file work in their application. Also, how does the Bible software vendor know I have the right to that book? Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

The second problem is easy to solve. The pubcess. lisher would have a database of rights holders that Here are the benefits … Logos, WORDsearch, Glo Bible and others could • I save money not having to pay the full price be able to check based on my registration email each time I want that book in the various Bible address. When I want the HCSB in PC Study Bible programs format, they could access the database and find that • The publisher has a closer relationship with my name and email address are registered. It would users of their books allowing them to spam me be up to me to make sure that my registration is with ads for future books if I’m willing to accurrent. If I fail to do that I fail to maintain accept them cess. When the Bible software vendor sees I have a • Software vendors will likely get access to right they can give me access to their version of the more content since the publisher wants the HCSB. second benefit with more people At this point my friends in the Bible software • Users will see competition for their dollars industry are reading this saying the same thing. from software vendors so there might be a What about my cut for all the work I put into makprice war for the HCSB ing the HCSB work in my software? • Software vendors who struggle to get access I used to naively think that B&H just sent the to premium content will likely no longer have digits over to companies like Laridian or Olive Tree this problem, if they are willing to go through and they just ran them through some kind of conthe database verter app to make them work in their program. I • I could potentially get digital copies of have no doubt that some lower quality software crebooks directly from the publishers willing to ated by some companies do that, but the premium give them away and I could use them if I don’t vendors do more than that as we described above. care about formatting and markup Remember the guy who sits at his computer at Lo• No industry standard is needed so we don’t gos? He adds stuff to the file to make it run well in have to get the Christian publishers to agree their program. You have a choice between a simple on anything which seems harder than getting app that just displays the raw text, like a PDF Israel and Palestine to agree reader, or a premium app that not only displays the I invite book publishers and software vendors to text but formats it to easily read, adds tags for doing respond by sending me a note. What’s wrong with powerful searches and links to other books in their my approach besides, “It’s too hard to get everyone library of available references. When a footnote on the same page like this.”? That’s a lazy reproof in the HCSB refers to another passage, this person that is unbefitting of the Christian church. Give me adds that link. He likes to eat and needs to be paid some real technical or financial hurdles that make for his efforts, like I do. this approach impossible. It may need some tweak Here’s the solution. If I want the HCSB in Loing, but let’s get together to do this! gos format, then I don’t have to pay the full price for the digital rights and for the Logos version of the file. If B&H wants $20 for the digital rights and Logos want’s $10 for making it more useful in their application and apps, then I would “How to have more time for ministry!” only pay them the $10. If I don’t own the digital rights yet, I’d pay Do you want to save time, get more done and have fewer headaches? Then Donarius Church them $30 and they’d send $20 Management Software will make it easy for you back to B&H and register me in to track your members, contributions, pledges Starting at $63.97 their database. I’d now be eligible and more. Imagine what you can do with the for the base version with to use the file in Logos. Now, if 25% off for small churches extra time! Donarius will also: I want to also use it in the ManDownload a free demo at: • Print your tax receipts tisBible app on my iPad, I would www.donarius.com • Show the giving pattern of your members • Print your church directories only have to pay MantisBible the 1-888-479-4636 • Send personalized letters, emails and text fee they charge for access, not the Nuverb Systems Inc. messages to keep your members informed “Software tailored for you” full digital rights fee plus the acChristian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

digital evangelism

A New Year’s Resolution that Honors Christ

Michael L White - mlwhite@parsonplacepress.com

t’s traditional for many folks to make resolutions to start off each New Year. These usually include such things as weight loss, better money management, joining a gym or spa, etc. The running joke for everyone is how quickly these resolutions fall by the wayside. In fact, that is the reason I stopped making resolutions myself several years ago. However, this year I’m making a resolution to be more faithful in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world, both in face-to-face encounters and via digital means. This is a resolution I am inclined to keep. I urge you to do the same. Whether the year 2012 will be a year of cataclysm for the earth (I can offer you the assurance that the Bible makes it clear that the earth won’t end as the secular doomsday prognosticators are saying), or whether this could be the year that the Rapture of the Church takes place, we should continue faithfully sharing the Hope of the Gospel with all who will listen and by whatever methods are available to us. Since methods for digital evangelism are more plentiful than ever, let’s pledge ourselves (and resolve) to use as many of these methods to evangelize the biblically and spiritually uninformed of the world as we can. In my book Digital Evangelism: Christian Computing® Magazine

You Can Do It, Too! (Second Edition), I cover a variety of ways to use digital platforms for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Visit www.digitalevangelism.com to browse the book’s contents and more. Perhaps the easiest way of doing digital evangelism that I write about in the book is via the method of email. Since you don’t need to know a lot about computers, and because practically everyone who has a computer knows how to use email, all you need is a computer with an email client, an email account, and Internet access to use this method of digital evangelism. In my book, I explain how to set up both an email January 2012

prayer list and an email announcements list, along with how to compose a periodic e-Newsletter. Something I failed to emphasize in the book, however, is that you can create an email list for practically any topic, or you can have a list with no topic at all. All you need is some enthusiasm for sharing about our Lord and Savior, and you can send out messages on as frequent a basis as you desire to folks who join your list. You can keep your list relatively small with members of your family and friends (and let’s face it, not all of our family and friends are committed believers in Jesus Christ), or you can expand it as much as you like to include whoever wishes to join. We all receive forwarded messages from others in our relationship circles, and many of those messages already contain points about living out our Christian faith, so all we have to do is create a special group list for our digital evangelism efforts and pass along these touching messages of faith to them. Just in case creating email groups is a new concept to you, let me take a few minutes to explain how to do this. A lot depends upon the operating system and email client you use, of course, but let’s assume you’re a beginner who just bought your first computer (or received it as a Christmas gift) and you are ready to embark on this grand new adventure of digital evangelism. Let’s further assume that you’re in the majority who has an IBMcompatible machine using the Microsoft Windows 7 (or Win 7) operating system and Windows Live Mail (or Live Mail) as your default email client, since that comes standard with your Win 7 computer. If you’re an old hand at using email, and if your old Windows XP machine finally bit the dust, and if you were accustomed to using Outlook Express 6 (OE6), hold onto your seat and keep your arms in the car, as you are about to take a wild ride into the great beyond! Win 7 is quite different from XP, and Live Mail is vastly different from OE6. Therefore, when you upgrade to Win 7 and Live Mail, you’ll have to go through some retraining. The process of creating groups (or lists) in Live Mail requires a whole new set of steps than the same process in OE6. The first time you use Live Mail, you will need to set up your default email account and add your personal Christian Computing® Magazine

contacts. Since explaining how to set up a new email account is pretty involved and will require more space than I have available in this article, I refer you to a short tutorial I wrote for this purpose on my personal Web site located at www.parsonplace.com/computrs.html to help you with that. Furthermore, Live Mail offers the option of importing both your messages and your contacts (a.k.a. address book) from OE6, so you won’t lose a thing. This, too, is rather involved, so I refer you to Live Mail’s Help files for step-by-step instructions. Just press the F1 key in Live Mail to view the Help files in the Windows Live Essentials Help Center on the Web, and read all about how to do this. Once you import your contacts from OE6, you should be able to edit any groups and contacts you already created there. To create a new group in Live Mail, however, first start the program by choosing it from the Start Menu. Once Live Mail loads, it will default to the “Home” tab with the “Mail” option selected in the bottom left area of the screen. Next, click on the “Contacts” option, just two items beneath the “Mail” option, and then click on the “Category” icon near the top left corner of your Live Mail screen. A “Create a new category” dialog will pop up prompting you to name the new group and select contacts to add to it. Give it a descriptive name related to January 2012

the purpose for which you will be using it (such as Prayer List, Announcements List, etc.), choose the contacts you wish to include in this group from the list of contacts displayed below the name box, and click the Save button to save your group and close the dialog. Of course, you will have to create new contacts (or import them) before you create your new group in order for them to show up in your “Create a new category” dialog, or you can edit your group name later and select the newly entered contacts after you’ve added them to your contacts list. You can add new contacts singly by clicking on the drop-down menu in the upper left corner of your Live Mail screen, next to the “Home” tab (it has a menu icon with a downward-pointing arrow). Point to “New,” and another menu will slide to the right. Choose “Contact” from that list, and complete the form on the “Add a contact” dialog. Click on the “Add contact” button to save the contact and close the dialog. Repeat the process for each additional contact you wish to add. If you have already received or imported messages into Live Mail, a quicker way to add contacts that will lessen the tedious toil of inputting all your contacts’ data by hand is to right click your mouse (or left-click if you set it for a south paw) on an email from someone you wish to include in your contacts and choose “Add sender to contacts” from the pop-up menu. Repeat this process for each email address you wish to add. Once you finish setting up your group, you can begin sending messages to it by opening a new message and typing the group name into the blind courtesy copy (Bcc) box of your new email message. You want to use the Bcc box to conceal your recipients’ email addresses from each other and from any other prying eyes where they may be forwarded by members of your group list, not to mention helping your recipients avoid a lengthy scroll down Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

the page to get past all the email addresses in order to read your actual message. If the Bcc box is not visible, look for a hyperlink at the right side of the Subject box labeled “Show Cc & Bcc” and click on it to display the courtesy copy (Cc) and blind courtesy copy (Bcc) boxes. The hyperlinked text toggles to “Hide Cc & Bcc” after you click on it. When you begin typing the group name, Live Mail will likely offer to complete it for you with one or more items that begin with the same letter. You can choose the group name from the suggestion (if it appears) by using your Up or Down arrow keys until the one you wish is highlighted and then pressing Enter, or by clicking on it with your mouse pointer, to select the one you desire. Live Mail will automatically insert it into the Bcc box for you with a plus sign (+) in front of it, indicating this is a group with multiple addresses. If you click on the plus sign, it will expand and display all the contact email addresses contained in the group, which is helpful for determining if the group contains all of the addresses you wish to include. You can always type in one that is missing, but be sure to add it to the very end, and separate each one with a semicolon if you’re adding multiple addresses. If you wish to restore these addresses to the compacted group name only, however, you will have to use the Ctrl + Z (Undo) keyboard combination feature, and you’ll need to press this keyboard combination successively (but slowly!) until your address box is empty, and then one final time for your original group name to appear in the address box again. That may be an undocumented hack, but it works! Now that you have created your group list, you can save yourself loads of time by typing the group name into your Bcc box, instead of having to type or select each individual email address into it every time you want to send a message to everyone in your group. All you have left to do now is to compose or forward your mesChristian Computing® Magazine

sages of evangelism and you’ll be all set. Well, what are you waiting for? There’s only eleven months left in 2012, so you’d better get started now! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Michael L. White is a full-time pastor, part-time military chaplain, and part-time independent Christian publisher and author living in Mobile, Alabama. His book Digital Evangelism: You Can Do It, Too! (Parson Place Press, April 2011) has been revised and expanded for a second edition and may be obtained from bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.

January 2012

the power and the danger

Visitor Tracking

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

owards the end of December, I read an article in USA Today about the growing trend of consumers taking online privacy into their own hands. I resonated with the article; like many, it bothers me that websites like Facebook track virtually everywhere I go, and that ads pop up wherever I am that reflect my interests from other sites I’ve visited. Sure, to some extent, this is good – the ads I see are more relevant to my interests. But it’s spooky too. It feels like I’m constantly being spied on. So, I checked out some of the latest tools in blocking the spying that “evil corporations” are doing on the web. I installed Do Not Track Plus as a Firefox extension. It’s pretty cool. In the top right of my Firefox window is a little green bubble telling me how many spying sites Do Not Track Plus is blocking on the current page. Clicking on the bubble tells me the details. For example, on the page for that USA Today article the circle says Do Not Track Plus is blocking 9 sites: Facebook, three ad networks, and five other tracking companies (Comscore Beacon, Omniture, AddThis, Gigya, and Quantcast). Wow! I felt really good about myself. I’m protecting my privacy! Christian Computing® Magazine

Then I went to my site, knowing that the green bubble would say zero. I was shocked that it didn’t. It had a 2 staring out at me. What? That can’t be! I’m not an “evil corporation;” I’m a ministry with pure motives. Clicking on the bubble told me that I was using two tracking companies: StatCounter and Google Analytics. Well, I guess I knew that, but I hadn’t thought of those as “evil spying tools” – they simply help me in understanding who is visiting and how they’re using the site. In Matthew 10:16, Jesus told his apostles “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (ESV) That verse certainly seems January 2012

to apply to our ministry websites. As online ministries, it often feels that we are the sheep amongst the wolves, and while visitor tracking tools help us be as wise as serpents, they can also make us appear to be anything but innocent doves. What is Visitor Tracking and how can Christian Ministries benefit from it? I’m guessing the readers of Christian Computing are well aware of visitor tracking and the benefits. Visitor tracking tools tell me whether my site is attracting local visitors or those from around the world. They tell me how visitors found me (search engines or links on other sites). Using this information, I can determine whether I need to work on “promoting” my site differently or better – maybe focusing more on search engine optimization or getting added to online church directories. Visitor tracking tools tell me how long visitors stay on my site. They tell me which pages visitors come in through and the last page they visit before leaving. They tell me which pages are most popular and which aren’t getting any visits at all. I can even see how visitors move through my site. Using this information, I can work on the content on my site – making it more compelling. I can also work on site navigation so visitors can find the information that’s most important given the mission of my site. Visitor tracking tools also tell me how visiChristian Computing® Magazine

tors are visiting my site. What browsers are they using? What types of devices? What resolution is their display? Using this information, I can work on site design. If almost all of my visitors are on high resolution displays I can better use screen real estate. If a growing number are on mobile devices, maybe it’s time to figure out how to provide a mobile version of my site. January 2012

Obviously, this information is incredibly valuable as we seek to serve God and our neighbors through our online ministries. So, what’s the problem? In both 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, Paul tells us that church leaders must be “above reproach.” Commentator Matthew Henry says of this phrase “he must give as little occasion for blame as can be, because this would be a prejudice to his ministry and would reflect reproach upon his office.” That number 2 in the green bubble doesn’t strike me as being “above reproach.” We need to consider whether using visitor tracking tools will reflect poorly on our ministry. On a more practical level, Do Not Track Plus claims to be blocking my visitor tracking tools from registering my visit to my own site. If tools like this continue to grow in popularity, Google Analytics and other similar visitor tracking tools may start to lose their usefulness to our ministries. What am I going to do? Of course, I’ll continue to seek the Lord’s will for my ministry in all things, including visitor tracking. For now, I’m considering implementing software on my server to track the basic visitor stats. A quick Google search shows some open source alternatives that I’ll investigate. My hope is that, since the data will be on my server and not sent to a third party, it won’t be marked as “spying” and my green bubble will go to zero. The one open source alternative that looks most promising at this point is Piwick. The Piwick website describes the software this way: “Piwik aims to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics, and is already used on more than 200,000 websites. Piwik is a PHP MySQL software program that you download and install on your own webserver. At the end of the five minute installation process you will be given a Christian Computing® Magazine

JavaScript code. Simply copy and paste this tag on websites you wish to track (or use an existing plug-in to do it automatically for you) and access your analytics reports in real time. …because Piwik is installed on your server, the data is stored in your own database and you can get all the statistics using the powerful Piwik Analytics API.” If anyone has experience with Piwick or would recommend a different approach, I would welcome hearing from you at russ.mcguire@gmail. com . It is my hope and prayer that these articles on the power and danger of technology will encourJanuary 2012

age you in your daily walk with Christ. Whether it is the printing press, radio, television, personal computers, the Internet, mobility, Wi-Fi, social networks, smartphones, streaming video services, or visitor tracking tools, new technologies continue to advance our ability to know God and to serve Him, 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 six homeschooled students under Russâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; direction.

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

January 2012

nick at church

Handling Online Activities with Care

Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

very year more organizations and people fall victim to cybercrime. Last year more than 300,000 reported cybercrimes to the FBI with losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Whether it’s simple theft, fraud, or identity theft, this is a significant area of opportunity for criminals. Let’s shed some light on how to protect your church office and those you know from cybercrime. Where There’s Opportunity… A new level of crime became possible with the popularity of the Internet on a scale never before imagined! Criminals saw the opportunity to repackage old scams into electronic format and reach the masses in a way that could yield astounding results. That criminal vision has become a painful reality to many naïve victims. The FBI co-publishes an annual Internet Crime Report, detailing the painful statistics. In the 2010 Report: • Among people ages 20 and older, fraud complaints are evenly distributed. This means those who are younger and more tech savvy still are just as likely to fall victim. • Cybercrimes are evenly split among male and female victims, though men report an average of 25% more in financial losses. • The largest complaint category was no payment Christian Computing® Magazine

or no delivery of merchandise through an online transaction (14%), followed by scams (13%) and identity theft (10%). • The top five places where criminals resided was USA (66%), UK (10%), Nigeria (6%), China (3%), and Canada (2%). This means we’re all vulnerable, especially in the United States where it appears most of the crimes occur. It is important to note that people are vulnerable, but so are organizations! If your church or ministry conducts business over the Internet (email, purchasing, etc), it is probably more vulnerable than an individual because of the number of staff online! Most Common Scams While non-delivery of merchandise or payments January 2012

was the largest category of complaints, the second was scams. The three most common 2010 scams, according to the Report, are: 1. Mystery/ Secret Shopper. Victims are contacted via email to help retailers evaluate the quality of their stores, personnel, and processes. Sometimes the employing company sends a check and asks the person to cash the funds, spend them, and return the unused portion. The problem is that the check is counterfeit. Sometimes the employing company uses an extensive application and screening process to gain the shopper’s personal account and identity information. 2. Claims of Being Stranded. Law firms are getting email from out-of-country citizens needing help. Also, people receive emails telling them their friend or family member is stranded and needs money immediately wired to them (in some cases the email arrives from a person they know whose email account was hacked). The please are designed to trick people into sending money. 3. Natural Disaster Relief. Natural disasters bring out the best in Americans; they also bring out criminals. What Does the FBI Recommend? The FBI provides five quick recommendations that individuals and church offices should note and share: 1. Do not respond to unsolicited email, also known as spam. 2. Avoid filling out forms in emails. 3. Don’t click links 4. Don’t open attachments in unsolicited email. 5. Be skeptical of those representing themselves as surviving victims or stranded friends.

2. Any email offers that sound fantastic (another way of saying too good to be true) are probably scams. Immediately delete them. 3. When you or your office want to respond disasterrelief fundraisers, give only to organizations you know. Research unfamiliar ones through Charity Navigator or Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (www. ecfa.org). Shopping Online Shopping online is a convenient and effective way to secure needed resources, often while saving money. For anyone using a church computer to make purchases, the following basic best practices before entering personal information, credit card, or banking information can help ensure the transactions remain safe: Windows Explorer

When browsing in Internet Explorer (the picture above is from version 8), first look for the closed lock. This tells you whether or not you’re on a secure encrypted web page. If you’re still uncertain, click on the lock; doing so will tell you who owns the security certificate, who the issuing authority is, and when it expires.

Extra Precautions The FBI’s recommendations are good, but I suggest going further with these additional precautions: 1. Besides avoiding responses to unsolicited email, get your email scanned for spam and malware before it gets to your computers. This will eliminate almost all undesirable email and improve your defenses, but continue to be cautious! Cybercriminals are constantly working on ways to get through those protections, so still be wary of anything that looks questionable. Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

On a Mac

In Firefox (the picture above is from version 7) the security certificate is available via the color-shaded section to the left of the website address (also called the URL). Clicking on that shaded area shows the dark box shown above with summary information about the certificate; clicking on More Information shows the following:

into unsecured websites. That means you could visit a legitimate website, but if the webhost hasn’t kept their security up-to-date, it could have had malware added to it that will instantly download to your computer! From the Cybercrime Intelligence Report, Issue #3, 2009 published by the Finjan Malicious Code Research Center: As we reported in our previous reports, it doesn’t take much for today’s cybercriminals to infect website visitors with a Trojan. Using commercial software (crimeware toolkit) available for $100-$300 on hacking forums, the cybercriminal can easily launch a massive attack. It allows him to insert exploiting code to vulnerable websites (legitimate or fake ones). Once a visitor visits one of the infected websites, an exploit code, served by the crimeware toolkit, installs a Trojan on the PC in use. The best protection strategy is to run anti-malware software on all of your computers and servers. I recommend Sophos (www.sophos.com).

Clicking on View Certificate shows the following:

With these methods you can check to be certain the website is owned by the organization you expect to own it, has a security certificate from an appropriate issuing authority, and is protected by a certificate that is still in effect.

Spread the Word! I also recommend holding workshops for your staff and for your congregation. Your staff needs to know how to to protect themselves and your church, but your congregation is vulnerable too— especially during the holiday shopping season! A wise strategy includes hosting a workshop every October or early November to protect your church, your staff, and your congregation from potentially damaging threats they may not be aware of. 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.

Be Careful Where You Browse! Another threat is the ease of inserting malware Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012

ministry communication Don’t just Master Church Communication Technology – Measure Results

Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

ow did your church do this last year in church technology? Did you finally get a church Facebook page and Twitter account? Did you make your website smartphone and tablet-friendly? Did you create an app for your church or put QR codes in your bulletin? Did you move back-up files to the cloud? Though all of these accomplishments might count for bragging rights at church geek gatherings, there is a more critical question for Christian geeks, techs and communicators. . . . . How did your church communication technology help your church fully fulfill the Great Commission? Though we all love technology (let’s face it, some of us have been involved in Christian Computing for a very long time), the foundation for all we do in tech, communications and life is found in Jesus’ command to us: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you alChristian Computing® Magazine

ways, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:18-20. Our Great Commission is the command to share the good news of salvation in Jesus alone with others and to help them become mature disciples. This is not only the North Star and measure of success in our Christian lives; it should be our measure for success in everything we do in our church technology and communication ministry. Just because you love Jesus and want to serve Him, don’t automatically assume that your hard work in technology, especially in the church communications area, which is vital to the spiritual success of any church, is contributing to fully fulfilling the Great Commission. January 2012

Humans are notorious in our ability to deceive ourselves We do this all the time. “Donuts aren’t really fattening on Sunday—this is the only time I eat them and besides, they are in pieces and everyone knows that the calories drain out in cut-up donuts.” is one of my favorite self-deceptions. This is closely followed by, “A big meal after church and/or on Sunday night is OK because I’m doing it for fellowship in ministry.” Another one that is easy in church communications and technology is: “I love creating ministry videos that show people what our church is about.” A close one to this is: “Facebook and Twitter and oh my, my Google Circles really keep our church connected.” Honest measurements help keep us honest I may love my Sunday donuts and overeating in the name of ministry, but I am also attempting to lose weight and when Monday comes around, there is one infallible way to test my Sunday food assumptions: I step on the scale. If we want to be honest in how well our technology preferences result in real ministry, and affect the lives of church members and the people outside the church, we need a scale to determine whether our assumptions are true or not. One scale that is useful is to take a Technology and Communication Survey of your congregation. Following is one you could use. At the end of this article is a link to a ready-to-print PDF of it and other resources on Church Communications Planning. Two other guidelines are very important: 1. The ONLY way you will get enough answers for it to matter is for you to hand it out on Sunday morning (yes, gasp), have people immediately fill it out (it will take no more than 5 minutes) and immediately turn it in. 2. It has to be totally anonymous. If you don’t perform BOTH of these steps, don’t bother—you won’t have a true representation of your church and/or it won’t be an honest response.

Christian Computing® Magazine

Church Technology and Communication Survey What technology do you have to receive messages from the church? Check all you have; put a star by the ones you use frequently.  Computer at home  Computer at work  Computer at school  Laptop  Mobile phone  Smart phone  Tablet computer Which of these channels do you regularly access for church information or teaching? Check the box. Please place a star by the channel or channels YOU PREFER to receive your information.  Church Email newsletter  Church Website  Sermons online/podcasts  Church or pastor’s blog  Facebook  Twitter  Google Circles January 2012

 Printed Church Bulletin  Printed Church Newsletter  Others (please put in any other communication channels you use here) Three additional questions, please be honest in your answers: How well informed are you about church events? How can we do better? Do the church communications encourage you in your Christian life, help you grow as a Christian, and teach you to share your faith? How can we do better? Anything you’d like to ask or tell us about the technology or communication ministry of the church? Overall, how can we serve you better in technology or communications? What this will help you learn A survey like this will put your excitement about what you are sharing on the scales of reality and will help you answer and analyze some of these questions: How many people in your congregation have the technology to receive what you create? It is easy to forget that not everyone has the same tech tools you have. For example, creating videos for mobile phone access and QR codes might not be timejustified if very few people have phones that can access them. In my own experience in a church that has been hard hit by the recession, I know several pastors and leaders with iPhones and Blackberries, but the congregation members who are out of work or underemployed and who are concerned with their ability to pay for one phone line of any kind greatly out-number them. But that’s my church—yours might be completely different. You won’t know unless you survey them.

with the additional comments people make because your responses may be a little circular in results. What this means is that if you frequently update your website and social media, people will probably access them frequently. If people don’t access them or if they are not starred as something they access frequently it may say more about either the quality of your information or how often you update them. What is your congregation’s preferred method of receiving information from you? It’s great if the way they want to hear from you is what you are doing. If not, it may be they don’t know how to use the channel or they don’t understand why it is valuable to them. If that is the situation, you may want to do a demonstration on “How to use our Facebook page,” or “How to receive Twitter updates from the church,” or “What our church website has for you.” You may need to adjust your methods of communication to serve the needs of your people. Don’t lose track of your North Star Technology has its challenges and it can be great fun to learn new technologies and to create new communications. But we must never lose sight of the people we are creating the communications for. We must always make sure that we are serving them and in doing that fully fulfilling the Great Commission given to us by our Lord. _____________________________________ For a PDF of the form above and additional resources for Planning, Measuring and Evaluating Church Communications, go to: http://www.effectivechurchcom.com and click on the “Planning, Measuring, Evaluating” box in the right margin and you’ll be taken to a resource links page.

How often do people in your congregation access the church information in the channels you send out? This is important for you to know how often you need to update your material—but this also needs to be paired Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2012