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

February 2012

No. 2

4 cover story CCMag’s Online Community – The Next Step

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

(Including information about our next tablet giveaway contest!)

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3 Editorial

Our Tablet Giveaways! And there is more to come…

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

8 Minstry Leadership

Easy Steps for Safer Kids: Assess the Safety of Your Children’s Ministry

from ACS Technologies

11 Parishsoft’s Catholic Connection

Jesus is Moving Into Social Media And He’s Counting on You to Carry His Heavy Stuff

14 LOGOS CMS

from ParishSOFT

WORDsearch 10 Released and iPad App Follows Soon After

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

Sharing the Love of Christ on St. Valentine’s Day

27 Nick at Church

Consumerization of IT

30 Ministry Communication

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 publi-

18 Higher Power With Kevin

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

April Mann - amann@logoscms.com

23 The Power And The Danger

Christian Computing® is a registered trademark submitted to Christian Computing® Magazine

Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Church

20 Digital Evangelism

Michael L White - mlwhite@parsonplacepress.com

cation may not be copied in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Christian Computing®, Inc. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees of Christian Computing® Magazine, or Christian Computing, Inc.

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

Customer Service, Technology, and Communicating the Gospel

Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com Articles that are highlighed are provided by our partners www.ccmag.com/2007_03/2007_03editorial.pdf

Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

editorial Our Tablet Giveaways!

And there is more to come…

Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com

On January 31, 2012 we drew a winner of the free tablet computer from those registered members of our online community! Our winner is David Gilbert, Systems Director for Arcade Church, Sacramento, CA. David was able to pick the tablet of his choice, as long it was comparable in price to the iPad2. David has asked us to send him the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Just before I sat down to write this editorial, I spent my lunch with an old friend. He had just purchased this same tablet, and I am very impressed. Congratulations David! We also had a secondary contest. We asked those of our readers who used Twitter to send out a tweet about our tablet giveaway! We were able to use Twitter to search and find all of those that went out with the word “CCMag” in the tweet. Around two hundred of you were kind enough to help us spread the word, and, as we said we would, we drew one of those names and are awarding a Kindle Fire! The Twitter winner was Emily Simmons, Communications Coordinator at Windcrest United Methodist Church in San Antonio, TX. Congrats!

Christian Computing® Magazine

Don’t worry, were not finished yet. We have a brand new contest in the works which we will be announcing soon. Of course, it will involve our new online community, so if you haven’t joined us yet, visit www.ccmag.com and register. Check out our communities, because they will be the key to our next contest. Join some of them, check out the content, and make a friend or two. You never know, you might be our next winner!

And, remember, for posts on new content, contest information, etc., follow me on Twitter @stevehewitt. Together We Serve Him,

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

February 2012

cover story

CCMag’s Online Community The Next Step (Including information about our next tablet giveaway contest!)

By Steve Hewitt

hile most of our readers are still simply clicking on the link to our magazine in our monthly email and reading the magazine in PDF format, over 5,000 of you have now registered and joined our online community (www.ccmag.com). So far, our goal has been to encourage our readers to join the site, and fill out their profile. We are now ready to begin the next step, encouraging our readers to begin joining individual communities on our site!

Why would you join individual communities with our online community? Because there is great value in being able to communicate with others who have the same interests as you! For example, if you would like to receive an email each week (just ONE email each week) with a link to a video highlighting an area of technology we thought you might be interested in, you can join the “CCMag Technology Videos” and enjoy the videos posted by our staff. This community, like “What’s Hot and What’s Not” is a closed community. You will only receive one email Christian Computing® Magazine

a week, since we don’t allow others to reply or leave comments. And, speaking of the “What’s Hot and What’s Not” community, joining this community will mean you will receive one email each week with a news report from me on technology that I believe you should know. Speaking of the “What’s Hot and What’s Not” community. We automatically added our registered users to this community a few weeks ago. We thought people would like to receive this information, since I am asked to speak at conferences across the nation on this subject. However, some took February 2012

offense that we automatically added them to our list. A few were actually hostile about our action. Interestingly, for everyone that took the time to send us an email asking us to unsubscribe them, we received two thanking us for setting them up to receive this weekly email. One said that “If you had told me about the community and asked me to subscribe to it, I would have, but subscribing without my permission means I wish to be unsubscribed”. We are on the fence as to the pros and cons of doing something like this again. Obviously many appreciate it, while others don’t. So, for now, we are going to encourage you to learn how to subscribe to different communities on our site and hope that many will give it a try. One of our most popular communities is Ask CCMag Help Desk (this is a new name, as we combined the Ask CCMag and the Help Community Desk communities). Imagine if you had a question about posting sermons online, monitoring a folder in XP, a recording audio problem, live streaming, web conferences, etc. (all of these subjects and more have been asked in our Ask CCMag Help Desk community). If you were a member of this community, you could ask your question and around 700 other CCMag readers will see your question and offer solutions. What if you don’t want a bunch of emails coming at you each day from this community? First, it isn’t that busy. About 3 questions are asked each week. However, if you don’t want more than one email coming from this community in a single day, when you join the community, you will be given the option to select “daily digest” when you are to be notified. This means that you will receive ONE email each day when someone posts. The email you receive will have any and all emails that were posted to this community during the day. Want to take advantage of this option in other communities where you might already be a member? I will tell you how later in this article. Other communities are centered on different Christian Computing® Magazine

sponsors, or different authors. For example, Brad Miller has hosted a community called “Big Ministry Small Resources” to specifically host discussions to help those who are trying to accomplish technology services on a tight budget! And, some of our communities are designed to allow our readers to help each other. For example, if your church has set up the ability to do online giving, you might want to join the “Online Giving” community. As other churches are beginning online giving, they can ask questions in this community and, readers with experience in this area can provide helpful comments. If you have an idea for a community that hasn’t been set up, email me directly (steve@ccmag.com) and tell me about it. I have ideas for new communities IF our readership would like them. For example, I think it would be cool if there was a community for church secretaries or church administrators, so they could join and ask questions unique to their situations. We also have many members who have been members of the NACBA or CITRT. If there is an interest for these readers to be able to get together and post blogs, articles, and leave comments or ask questions, let me know and we will set it up. Have

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another idea? Let us know! Here are other questions people have asked about our community. I hope by publishing the Q&A here, it will help others.

information such as what communities you are a member of, your company information, your phone number or email address, etc. Our system allows you to have a “friends” type of list by connecting with someone. And, by selecting private info you Why should I invite someone to connect? only wish to share with those you connect with, only You will notice that you have the ability within they will see information such as your phone numour online community to send an invite to another ber of email address. member to connect. What are the advantages? Well, As our communities grow and people begin to that goes back to your privacy settings. On our home share, the potential to have such information could page, in the menu bar, you will see the “My Profile” be very valuable. For example, if you were in a tab. Mouse over this and in the drop down menu, community that was centered on a specific topic, select “My Privacy Settings”. You will see that you and you made friends there, you would have the have complete control of all of your information. opportunity, if you or they sent an invitation to For example, if someone was to check out your connect, and it was received, to be able to see their profile, you can decide if they can see your picture. phone number and give them a call. You can say that 1) Nobody can see your picture 2) This might really become cool if CCMag readMake your picture public which means anyone can ers in specific geographic locations wanted to start see it 3) Only registered Members on the site can see a user group and be able to get together for lunch or your picture, or 4) Only your contacts can see your for formal or informal meetings. Our online commupicture. nity is a great way to center such a group. You could This is where using contacts can become cool. ask us to set up your own community, place meetYou may not want to share your personal informaing times on our event calendar, and by connecting, tion with just everyone. But by going through the would have contact information specific to your privacy list, you can decide if you wish to share group of friends! Think outside the box and a lot is

Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

possible with our community!

Our Next Contest So, in conclusion, I hope you will join some Why should I fill out my profile information? communities and delve a little deeper into all we It is our desire for our readers to benefit from have to offer through our online community. We being able to connect with other readers. Connechave plans to give away another tablet and some tions are powerful. By filling out your profile and including a picture, bio, work history, etc., you allow other cool prizes in the near future, only this time you have to do a bit more than just be a registered others to get to know you. If you ask a question in user. We will be having an online community scavany of our communities, or answer a question from enger hunt! We will be sending out a special email another, we can see who you are, where you serve, with a link to a website with questions. The answer etc., and, your profile will help others connect! to the questions will be found in posts, blogs, videos, etc., from within our communities. Much of this info What if I don’t want so many emails? won’t be accessible unless you know how to join No problem. You are in control. Move your a community! As you can see, we want to encourmouse over “Communities” on our menu bar and age you to learn how to join a community as well a drop down menu will appear. Move your mouse as how to control the content that might come from down to “View Community Discussions” and then these communities (setting it up for a single email click on “My Subscriptions”. Here you will see a “daily digest” option for example.) Watch for more list of the communities where you are a member. information within the next few weeks. It should be This is where you select “Daily Digest” as an opa lot of fun! tion, meaning you will only receive ONE email a day that will list the emails in that community that have been posted. In our most active communities, it is rare for 3 or 4 emails to go out in one day, and sometimes days go by without anyone posting. However, if you want to be sure to limit emails, by selecting “Daily Digest” you will only receive the one email listing the emails and discussions in the community you have joined. How can I unsubscribe from a community after I have joined it? Follow the instructions above, and notice that when you click on “My Subscriptions” you will see the option to unsubscribe from any specific community. I find it frustrating having to enter my user name and password each time I visit the site! If you notice, we have added a new feature. When you log in, there is now the option to select “Remember me” saving your user name and password so you won’t need to enter it when you come back to our site! Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

Ministry Leadership

Easy Steps for Safer Kids:

Assess the Safety of Your Children’s Ministry from ACS Technologies

here are a number of big issues to consider when you consider safety at your church. Issues like fire safety, natural disasters, public violence, and more. We can all name the dangers, but it’s sometimes hard to prioritize one area of safety over another. Experts agree that the children’s ministry is the best place to start a top-to-bottom assessment of safety practices in your church. And the time is now. According to a recent Barna Group study of pastors, there are some big holes in today’s churches. “The study shows that many churches struggle with screening children’s and youth workers partly because they do not have the appropriate practices and procedures in place to anticipate and deal with diverse types of risk. For instance, one-third of pastors said their church has no formal risk management process in place,” the study states. This is a sad state for today’s churches. “The church is supposed to be a place of love and security; a place of safety in the time of need,” said the authors of the ministry guide “Is Your Children’s Security at Risk?” They point out that, accordChristian Computing® Magazine

ing to the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children, more than 350,000 family abductions occur on the US each year. The authors of the ministry guide outline the basic steps for assessing your safety needs, and suggest starting with your children’s ministry. “To start the process, gather a team of staff, key volunteers, and perhaps even professionals from the community who can help assess your present policies and procedures for maintaining a safe environment,” the ministry guide reads. “Perform a walk-through of your facilities to determine areas of concern and observe your current process during normal activities scheduled at the church to determine any weaknesses. Compile a list of concerns and possible methods of correction. The task may not be as difficult as you think.” February 2012

Here are a few essential areas to look at, and some key questions: • Emergency evacuation Questions to ask: For your children’s programs, do you have the ability to see a complete, accurate roster for each class with all of the children in attendance at the time of the evacuation? If not, how will you ensure that all are present at the designated evacuation area outside? • Volunteers Questions to ask: Do you have a central database to help keep up with screening certifications? How are you notified when staff and volunteers should be re-certified? How thorough is your screening process? • Lost/missing child Best practices: A secure check-in and check-out system ensures that children are returned to the proper adult. The most effective check-in system will be fast and convenient for families to use and provide locating tools for children and adults. Technology can help you succeed “Using relatively inexpensive technology, churches have the opportunity to provide an added degree of security and safety to their ministries. Ministries can benefit from replacing old, paper-based processes vulnerable to human error with electronic solutions that can drastically minimize judgment calls,” the ministry guide “Is Your Children’s Security At Risk,” continues. The key points to consider include: • Is the system a stand-alone system or can it be integrated into your existing church management software? • How are the check-in stations or kiosks supported—volunteer or selfservice? • Don’t underestimate the importance of the speed of check-in. Families don’t Christian Computing® Magazine

Download the for Setting the Stage ip Good Stewardsh Ministry Guide for ideas and s! practical solution

ACS Technologies is the largest provider of church ministry solutions with more than 50,000 churches relying on our software and services everyday to assist them in reaching their ministry goals. We not only have the products to help you, we have the expertise to help you implement your plans and ideas to take your ministry further!

acstechnologies.com/stewardship�

February 2012

want to wait in long lines to get their children into the classroom. • The method of checking in can determine how secure your system is to unwanted individuals trying to circumvent the system. You should look for systems that allow a variety of methods for checking in – from name or phone number, to individual barcoded security cards, to biometric scanners for the most secure and quick method of check-in.

tions, crime, fire or natural disasters, it’s important to have a plan in place. To get more information, and tips about children’s security, including a valuable infographic that can help you plan the layout of your check-in system, download the free ministry guide “Is Your Children’s Ministry at Risk?”

The layout of your check-in system is essential - “Is Your Children’s Ministry At Risk?” includes a 3-page infographic filled with information on creating the optimum setup.

It’s essential to protect your entire church, but especially the children’s ministry. Whether you’re facing the dangers of non-custodial parent abduc-

Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

ParishSOFT

ParishSOFT’s Catholic Connection

Jesus is Moving Into Social Media And He’s Counting on You to Carry His Heavy Stuff

from ParishSOFT

ast week, a close friend was having a standoff of epic proportions with her 16-year-old daughter. Their challenges, which have been escalating for some time with the typical issues of parent-teen relationships, reached the boiling point not long after they lost their father and husband in a tragic accident eight months ago.

On this particular night, my friend phoned me from the sanctuary of her bedroom while they took a break “between rounds.” She was concerned for her own safety and wanted to put me on-call, just in case things got really bad. While she had me on the phone, I heard her daughter return for the next round of argument. She was screaming at her mom, shouting insults and threats. We hung up, and I waited about 20 minutes before texting my friend, “Are you ok?” An incredible thing had happened. They agreed to go to their separate bedrooms in opposite corners of the house. And then they started texting each other. Over the next couple of hours, they exchanged messages about everything from the big pink elephant in the room (their grief) to problems at school and requirements for getting driving privileges back. Somewhere in there, my friend’s daughter came to see her mom not as another source of pain in her life but as her ally. They found a truce in texting. They shared their pain and love for each other in a way that wasn’t possible that night in their face-to-face time. Christian Computing® Magazine

Think texting is fine for the kids, but has no place in church? Think again! In today’s age of apps and tweets, it’s really tempting to throw our hands up and say, “That’s IT! I’m not adopting one more new fad! I’ve got real work to do here!” But here’s the kicker: real life is happening on iPhones, Facebook, and all the other places where your members interact with their friends, families, and each other. Your church cannot fulfill its ministry unless you have a good presence in these places. And if you’ve ever driven 50 miles to a soccer game in the driving rain (or even 10 miles to a church meeting) only to find it had been canceled, you know how valuable text messages can be. There’s a lot of ugly out there Is there a “mean-teen mafia” out there, who get together and discuss ways to bully and be cruel? How else could we explain sites like Facebook’s “I Hate Justin Bieber.” And it gets worse. One parish staff member’s daughter was the object of vicious tweets (“Susie is a big fat loser. She’s going down.”) February 2012

prior to a high school basketball game, in which she played against rivals from the next town—a town where she used to live and play sports with these same girls who wrote and then circulated this meanness. Susie’s team won. And after the game, they got an apology from the other

team’s coach. Another parent completely shields his autistic and very trusting seventh-grade son from all social media, since a group of female classmates lured him to the center of an ice rink and convinced him to practice his dance moves. They captured it in pictures, wrote insulting captions, and posted it all on Facebook. Adults are victims, too. After San Francisco 49ers kick returner Kyle Williams fumbled in the final minutes of the January 22 NFC championship game against the New York Giants, one tweet hoped for the death of both Williams and his family. Over a football game. His teammates quickly defended him with supportive counter-tweets. This begs the question: what team is going to come to the defense of the kids in my family (or my church) if this happens to them? Evolution of the bully It used to be bullies would call you names and steal your lunch. Today, they launch a social media campaign to spread rumors in the blink of an eye, destroy reputations, and behave in confoundingly unChristian ways. And if people are mean enough to take on tough NFL players from behind their smart phones, where bravado is easy to find, just think what they might be doing to our children. Hiding from this will not make it go away. Let’s make sure Jesus is out there Don’t let the examples of ugliness discourage you. When I read about the 49ers players tweeting in defense of their brother, Kyle Williams, I felt the way I do when good triumphs over evil in a great movie. It’s the modern-day equivalent of standing up to the school bully. Social media is full of inspiring messages of love, support, and prayer. It has given me a closer relationship with family members I don’t get to see often enough and the opportunity to pray for people I’ve never met in real life. One of those people is a high school teen who was hit by a car while training with his cross-country team last August. A family friend set up the Prayers for Kersch Facebook community, where at one point, some 3,500 followers tracked daily posts on his fight to live and recover. Over 800 people, including teams from neighboring schools, sold out a spaghetti dinner and silent auction fundraiser. They ran out of food. It’s a beautiful example of social media serving as a medium for prayer and good will. Kersch is now at home, continuing his recovery. And for those who follow Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH) Parish in Ellicott City, MD, on Twitter (http://twitter.com/olphparish) Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

or Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/olphchurch), social media is promoting – marketing, if you will – participation in parish life. OLPH is using technology to deliver messages from a single source to multiple places. When an email message goes out to the families in their ParishSOFT database via Constant Contact, Facebook posts and tweets happen simultaneously, and it all feeds into the home page of their website http://www.olphparish.org/. The digital age is putting opportunities to get involved and stay connected directly into the hands of members. As the folks in charge of spreading the Good News, it’s up to us to ensure our churches have a strong presence in all the places where our children and adults are interacting using social media. And church involvement in these spaces goes way beyond just getting folks to Friday’s fish fry. It gets mighty tough to be mean in an environment in which people are being Jesus-like to each other. When God is present on Twitter, bullying and namecalling are going to be increasingly recognized, called out for what they are, and made to feel most unwelcome. We can only make Christian values the norm in social media if we’re putting our messages out there regularly.

seen in the history of parenting – thank you, digital age. Just a few years ago, the shrill ring of a land line used to alert us to outside influences. But today, text messages arrive silently in the night, saying, “Hey, let’s sneak out to Bobby’s party. I’ll pick you up at the end of the street.” Get your parents together to educate them on the current issues in your schools. Invite speakers, including school staff, coaches, and other parents, who can share their trials and successes. And be sure to keep all your groups in the loop with good communication in the places they go to get messages. Your church management software should support your social media initiatives with integrated communication tools, so you’re not maintaining contact information in multiple places. Visit www. parishsoft.com for more information on the NotifyNow instant text and email communication service or integration with email marketing services, like Constant Contact. Stacey Anttila ParishSOFT

You’ll learn things about your people As my friend learned with her daughter, sometimes the pain is so great it’s really hard to verbalize. In times like these, people look to their social support networks, where they can express things in what feels like safer environment and ask for help. Being a trusted member of those social networks means your church is more likely to be inthe-know about what’s really going on in people’s lives. And you’re out there, where they can find you in their greatest time of need. Talk about it with your families, with their children Weekly faith formation classes are a golden opportunity to begin age-appropriate discussions with the children of your church. If they’re already familiar with Twitter, Skype, and Facebook, you might encourage them to think of ways they could be God’s disciples in these places and have them share their stories (e.g., we prayed with Grandma and Grandpa on Skype last night! Mom put my baptism pictures on Facebook for Uncle Mike and Aunt Judy in California, and they prayed for me!). Talk about what’s appropriate to do online or on their phones, and invite them to give you examples of what’s not. Today’s parents face challenges never before Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

LOGOS LOGOS CMS

Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Church by April Mann

ocial Media is certainly NOT the end-all and be-all of your existence as a person or church. If you have the time and resources to engage on social media, then this article is for you. If you don’t, that’s okay! There is, “Now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Many of us, though, are ready to jump in to this readily available and inexpensive tool that cultivates engagement amongst attendees and seekers. Yet our enthusiasm often precludes the daunting “how.” How do we implement it? How do we get started? How do we manage it? Doubt creeps in and we’re not so sure we have what it takes.

Start Simply but Simply Start. There is incredible pressure to be everything to everyone. As soon as you start a church blog, mini-lobbyists are angry that you aren’t on Twitter. Or you find yourself on Twitter then you hear that you’re now supposed to be on Google+. A feeling of defeat can happen when we haven’t sat down to create a plan thereby setting direction and making the word, “no,” much easier. The world of social media can be overwhelming. With Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, blogs, Pinterest, Vimeo, YouTube, and third party apps to manage the various channels, schedule tweets, etc. Where does one start?

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What to talk about? How to provide value? Maybe your initial aim is to find one channel to use to tell people what’s happening in your congregation so they can be involved - and that’s it. That’s okay. These things take time. Start with God’s Word as the Cornerstone of Your Plan Social media embraces authenticity. The church is in luck because authenticity is a part of God’s plan for our lives. As the church, we should be excelling in this area. We should be the early adopters, the front runners, February 2012

the sprinters toward being real and modeling it for the world. Besides, authenticity is likeable. Admittedly, it’s easier said than done. Regardless, authenticity is winning in social media; ergo, the church can win in social media. Be an active listener James 1:19 tells us to “Be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry.” If you are completely new to social media- spend some time listening to others first before you start talking. No need to be the “teacher” right away. And there will be pressure for you to just say something… anything. Reject pressure from the critics. In offline relationships, trust and credibility takes time to build. So go online relationships. In addition to all this, listening within the social media platform allows you to better know the state of your “flocks.” What are your people talking about? What ails them? What gives them joy? This can help you in shepherding and dealing head-on with issues. Be human “Think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” (Romans 12:3) Yes, I believe this means be human or - a humble human, rather. No one is interested in hearing from the person (or church) who thinks they are better than others. I believe the church has an increased ability to look at ourselves with sober judgment than others because our measure is not each other, our measure is a perfect Savior. If this doesn’t cultivate humility, I’m not sure what does. Bring value to others first This may mean a number of things for your church. Perhaps it’s not arguing about unimportant things publicly. Or perhaps, it’s showing deference to others in matters of liberty. Whatever those details look like for you, it always means dying to self. It always means, “…. considering others better than yourselves. Looking Christian Computing® Magazine

not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3b-4) It’s fascinating that the very things that are enviable on social media also happen to be the age-old commands from God given to us through His Word. Be cultivators of unity. Jesus thought it was important enough to pray for unity in John 17. We better take heed. And also take comfort that His prayers are on our side, to empower us to do this with excellence. This includes social media. Social media, like most everything else, can be used to wield both the good, and the bad. We can encourage and build one another up, or we can tear each other February 2012

down. What will your church stand for? Now go write that down.

ner. Their timeliness will help curb any frustration that could arise from creating a “middle man.”

Write your objective. Make it measurable. I used to think there was something unholy about measuring results when it came to church activities. I no longer think this way. No, there is nothing unholy about using the brain the good Lord entrusted to us. Nor using it to make sure we’re strategically doing our best for the people under our care. True, we can’t ever know the bigness of God’s plan, nor the vastness of his thoughts. And it’s true, He lovingly shields us at times from knowing how many people we’ve impacted to keep us from pride. But planning is clearly biblical. We can absolutely set goals for ourselves, define what those goals are, and track to see if we hit them. When we fall short, we can look honestly at why. Is there a character defect on our end that is an obstacle? Or were there external factors that were beyond our control? Do we not understand how to meet the needs of people? A clearly defined objective makes measuring easy. For example, instead of the objective: “Use Facebook to Engage with our Church Members” how about, “Have 25% of our church members connected to us on Facebook.” That’s manageable. And measurable. Feel free to have more than one objective and be flexible when it’s needed.

How are you going to let people know where you are online? Discuss how you’re going to get the word out about this new avenue. Post links to your social media outlets on everything that will “touch” your attendees. For example, post links on the homepage of your website, in your email blasts, have all your staff members include social media links within their closing email signatures, post them in the church bulletin, in first time visitor thank you notes, etc. Communicate why connecting to you in these avenues will be valuable to them. Will this be an opportunity for them to stay in-the-know of church happenings? Will there be notes from the Pastor here? Do you offer live streaming of your service? Will you be providing other valuable God-centered content that will help your people lead better, more fulfilling lives?

Now that you have your objective, what’s your strategy? Next, you must write out the steps that will help you fulfill your goal. Check out the following points to help fuel your creative thinking for the plan: Designate an editor No, I don’t mean create senseless hoops to jump through. Just apply a thoughtful measure of order and attention to words. And think ahead about practical ways to tame the tongue. While many people may be contributors to your content, having it all filtered through one person will save you grief in the long run. The last thing you want is a 17-year-old who lacks sound theology to make broad sweeping statements that represent your church and cripple your credibility. Ideally the “editor” is a bit type-A in personality. The editor would be a competent person whom you trust, has shown discernment, and excels at staying on top of email and other forms of communication. While this person may not necessarily be good at creating new content, they have the ability to consistently read through/post content in a timely manChristian Computing® Magazine

How often will you be posting content? I defer back to the Romans 12:3 scripture quoted previously regarding sober judgment. What can you realistically do in your church with the time and talent God has entrusted to you? For some, posting blogs daily is do-able. For others, once a month is more realistic. Once you have determined how often you will be posting the content, create an editorial calendar for the staff and leaders involved. This doesn’t need to be complicated. Outlook, Gmail, or Mac’s iCal will allow you to share calendars within the team. Allow for some flexibility as there may be times you need to react swiftly via social media in response to say, a church or global emergency. What types of content will you post to support your objectives? You already know what you want people to walk away with. Now sit down and have a brainstorming session with one or two others. Take inspiration from church, community, and newsworthy events. Set a goal for yourselves to come up with 50 topics of content you could share. Write down anything and everything that comes to mind. There are no right or wrong answers here. The truth is, most of those ideas will never come to fruition, but you will end up with some solid starts. You’ll also find this helpful down the road when you can’t think of anything to write and you need some inspiration. You can also take this time to write out some of the February 2012

more creative ideas you’ve had. For example, if the youth have an upcoming event, you might want to use your church database software to develop a targeted email list to the youth and send them an email inviting them to the event and letting them know the Twitter hash-tag that will be used. And you could have a running feed of the tweets projected onto a screen during the event. (If you don’t know what a twitter hash-tag is, not to worry! You’ll get there!) Wrap it all up in love “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.” Oh how desperately I want to hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant” at the end of this life. If social media is the next step for you, look at it as a blessing and not a curse of “one more thing we have to do.” What if it’s one more way to love others? And to love them openly? What if it’s one more way to learn about the needs of those around us and then embrace solutions? And what if... the Church now has a platform like never before to be the hands and feet of Christ… About LOGOS Management Software, Inc. LOGOS began in 1980 and has proven its commitment to meet the changing needs of churches with great service, reliable and easy-to-use products, and regular enhancements that empower ministries with current technology. LOGOS serves churches with products that track membership, attendance, volunteers, scheduling, pledges, online giving, small groups, child check-in, a fund accounting suite, and more. See http://logoscms.com for more information. Or email info@logoscms.com

Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

higher power with kevin

WORDsearch 10 Released and iPad App Follows Soon After Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

ORDsearch has been busy. After being acquired by LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, they partnered with BibleWorks to publish books that work with BibleWorks. Now, WORDsearch 10 showed up recently and a new iPad app followed First, the new WORDsearch 10! With this update, the biggest things you get are the new Morph Explorer, a Verse Explorer and a tool for storing sermons and illustrations. The first two work similarly to the Exegetical and Program Guides in Logos. The Verse Explorer will show you content from a chosen passage of scripture. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re preaching on John 3:16, then it will show you commentaries with entries for the passage along with other books. You also get a table with cross references to other passages related to the topics in that passage. It also shows you the entries of the words in the passage for your dictionaries.

The Morph Explorer will help original language students discover study material for the Greek text. You will need the Greek Morphology Bundle for this to work (a $69.95 add-on found here: http://bit.ly/w1BGca).

The Sermon & Illustration Organizer will help pastors and teachers. You can add illustrations to the database for future use. Tag them with scripture references and/or topics for easy discovery. This will be more useful with the databases of illustrations in WORDsearch. Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

February 2012

also had another crash after opening a number of resources at once. There’s already been one update and I haven’t experienced any stability issues since the update.

Other interesting new features include: • Program Options Assistant – helps you setup the program’s settings • Desktop Templates – organizes your work space letting you save them for future use • Audible Pronunciation – reads hard words to show you how to pronounce them • Facebook and Twitter Sharing – post scripture online from within WS10 The interface of WORDsearch 10 looks nearly the same as version 9, aside from the new Web button and Morph button. The Web finds content online. It isn’t a new feature but they moved the button down the toolbar. The Morph button opens the above Morph Explorer.

The $29.95 price fits the update. It’s not a huge change, but has enough to make it worth your time and money. While entering some information into the Sermons and Illustrations database, the program crashed. I Christian Computing® Magazine

Now for the iPad App! The new program could use some interface changes. I highlight my detailed opinion of the app in a post at my personal website you can find here: http://www.kp.ly/?p=1643. To summarize, if you only want a book-reading app, the WS app works well. If you want a more advanced Digital Bible Study tool, you may be a little disappointed. It has a split window interface so you can see your Bible and a commentary or other study resources at the same time. You also get to control the look of the interface with font size customization. The background can be changed for easier reading. The interface is simple and attractive. I hope they fix a few things, which you can read about in my review linked above. Despite its weaknesses, I like the app and will use it to read my WS books. I still have to contact WS to get them to unlock some books I have on my computer but aren’t in my account for some reason and therefore aren’t showing up in the app. Get the app for free in the iTunes app store (http://bit.ly/ArK2pn).

February 2012

digital evangelism

Sharing the Love of Christ on St. Valentine’s Day

Michael L White - mlwhite@parsonplacepress.com

he month of February is usually associated with the concepts of love and romance, since St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14th every year. Oddly enough, the story of Valentine has little, if anything at all, to do with romance, though we can make a strong case that Valentine’s life (and death) was very much about love – his love for his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He loved Jesus so much, in fact, that when he was arrested for his faith in Christ, he chose to die rather than recant his faith. Now that’s True Love! According to the Catholic.org Web site (http:// www.catholic.org/saints/ saint.php?saint_id=159), St. Valentine’s death occurred by execution (beheading) on February 14th, circa 269 or 270 A.D. Over the years, I have read several accounts of how the modern observance of St. Valentine’s Day evolved into the practice of exchanging Valentine’s Day cards and other niceties with those we love or secretly admire. Two such explanations for why we celebrate romantic love on the anniversary date of a Christian martyr’s execution is that, first, birds begin to pair on that date, and

Christian Computing® Magazine

second, that Valentine wrote a note to his jailer’s daughter on the eve of his execution in which he signed it, “Your Valentine.” Since so little evidence exists to confirm whether or not Valentine was a celibate priest, if indeed he wrote such a letter, it is unclear whether he actually wrote it from a romantic perspective. According to Wikipedia, “The earliest textual evidence of the forbidding of marriage to clerics” was in the Council of Elvira, circa 305 A.D., and the Council of Carthage in 390 A.D. (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Clerical_ celibacy_(Catholic_Church)#Historical_origins). February 2012

For all we know, Valentine’s letter to his jailer’s daughter may have been evangelistic in nature, urging her to hold true to the faith he had shared with her. However the observance of the anniversary of Valentine’s martyrdom evolved into the practice of giving flowers, sweets, and sweet nothings is irrelevant to our discussion here. I suspect it happened pretty much the same way the celebrations of Christmas and Easter devolved into the secularized commercialization that they are today. It’s all about clever marketing to make money. Nevertheless, these practices have been traditions for a very long time, and it’s highly unlikely they’ll cease any time soon, unless God directly interjects Himself into the equation. On numerous (but not all) Sundays nearest St. Valentine’s Day throughout my ministry, I have elected to preach on a biblical text which emphasizes the love of Christ for us and our love for Him as a more authentic way to observe this occasion in our society. There are several passages in John’s Gospel, chapters 14 and 15, and throughout the letter of 1 John, which fit this topic very well. I think it is equally fitting to choose this occasion to share the love of Christ as a way of showing both our love for Christ and our love for our neighbors in this world. Since one aspect of celebrating Valentine’s Day is giving Valentine’s cards, and since this column is all about digital evangelism, there are a few Christian e-card Web sites that allow you to select and send free cards by email, both for Valentine’s Day and for numerous other occasions. One such site is Cross Cards (http://www. crosscards.com/ cards/holidays/valentines-day2-4/). This service is entirely free (paid for by ads, evidently), though you are invited to register an account in order to take advantage of other features, such as address book and contact importing, personal reminders, tracking of sent/received e-cards, and more. Another popular Christian e-card site is Dayspring (http://ecards.dayspring.com/ ecards/). You Christian Computing® Magazine

may be familiar with their line of regular printed greeting cards which you can hand out or mail out “the old fashioned way,” but they also offer e-cards. There are limitations to using this service for free, but signing up for a premium subscription will alleviate most of these. If you think you’ll use this service a lot, perhaps a premium service would benefit you, but if you don’t mind dealing with the limitations, why pay? There are likely many other Christian e-card sites to choose from, but these two were in the top ten search results on Google when I checked. If you dig deeper, you’ll probably find some others that you may like just as well, or even better. In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I have rarely sent e-cards myself, but I have certainly received a number of them over the years. However, I have decided to give it another try for this Valentine’s Day, especially since I haven’t, until now, considered the evangelistic opportunity associated with doing so. I can send a lot of Christian Valentine’s Day e-cards with a Christian message to folks I know who either need an introduction to the love of Christ or who need a little reminder of His love for them. Furthermore, February 2012

I can do the same with other widely observed/celebrated holidays, too, such as St. Patrick’s Day, Mothers Day and Fathers Day (you don’t have to limit yourself to wishes of happiness for your own parents only, you know), Labor Day, and so forth. In fact, here’s the one I’m planning to send out to everyone I know who needs to hear the message of Christ’s love for us all, both believers and unbelievers: http:// ecards.dayspring.com/ecards/subcat.asp?CategoryID=1&SubCategor yID=28&CardID=401878&Widescr een=False&CurPage=1. It’s entitled “The first Valentine message.” If you have difficulty locating it by typing in the URL directly, just go to the Dayspring site and, in the “Find It Quick” gray box at the upper left of the page, choose “Holidays” from the “Select A Category” menu, and then choose “Valentine’s Day” from the “Get More Specific” menu. Let this also serve as my Valentine’s card to you now. There is a plethora of ways to do digital evangelism, and sending e-cards is probably one of the most creative ways to share the love of Jesus Christ, especially on a special holiday like St. Valentine’s Day. I wish for you a very Happy St. Valentine’s Day filled with the love of our Lord Jesus Christ! Michael L. White is a pastor, retired 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 wherever books are sold.

Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

the power and the danger

Free E-mail

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

few years ago I set up Gmail accounts for everyone in my family. I find the service to be reliable. Although we use e-mail clients on our PCs for our primary e-mail management, it’s also very convenient to be able to check messages from any computer through the Gmail web interface. Best of all – it’s free! Bottom line, I’m a happy customer. But, a couple of weeks ago my wife woke me up because she heard on the news that Google is reading our e-mails. She was genuinely concerned. So, what’s going on? First of all, what are free e-mail services? E-mail was one of the first applications developed for the Internet. To send and receive e-mail, you need to have an e-mail account. The most basic straightforward technical implementation involves setting up a user account on a server that’s connected to the Internet that is running e-mail software (e.g. sendmail) and that has been designated in DNS as the mail server for an Internet domain (e.g. ccmag.com). Christian Computing® Magazine

However, most people don’t want to bother with managing an Internet server, server software (especially sendmail), or DNS settings. They just want to browse the web and send e-mails. Thankfully, ever since the early days of America Online, Internet access accounts came with a “free” e-mail account. The service provider managed the technical details and we enjoyed the blessings. That is, until we moved or otherwise decided to change Internet service providers. When that happened, we lost “our” e-mail address and had to notify all of our contacts of our “change of address.” Launched on July 4, 1996, HoTMaiL was February 2012

one of the first services to address this problem. HoTMaiL provided a free account that could hold 2MB of mail and was accessed via the web. The service could make money by displaying ads around the e-mail interface. By December of 1997 more than 8.5 million users had established HoTMaiL accounts and the founders sold the business to Microsoft. Similarly, in 1997 Yahoo acquired another early webmail startup called Rocketmail and rebranded it Yahoo Mail. Even today, many people have Hotmail and Yahoo Mail accounts. Other services have followed the model, most notably Gmail which launched in 2004. So, what’s the problem? These “free” services cover their costs by making money on advertising. For the most part, these ads are only visible when you’re using the web interface to read and send emails. At some point in time, these services began selecting ads that they think will be most relevant to you. How do they know what is relevant to you? Well, for one thing, they read your e-mail. No, they don’t hire buildings full of e-mail readers in India – they simply program their computers to mechanically evaluate the content of your messages and correlate that data to ads that you will be most likely to click on. Recently Google streamlined their privacy policies and Microsoft took advantage of the change to poke fun at Gmail’s practices (including a somewhat humorous video: http:// youtu.be/TDbrX5U75dk ), even though Hotmail similarly “reads” its users’ messages. I imagine it was this renewed attention that sparked my wife’s concern. Personally, this form of “reading my email” doesn’t worry me. However, a couple of years ago I noticed that LinkedIn was suddenly recommending to me a bunch of contacts that only had one thing in common – I had recently exchanged e-mails with them via my Gmail account. One was a hotel manager who had answered a question I’d submitted via their website. Another was an old college friend with whom I share no business contacts. E-mail messages traverse many nodes on the Internet on their journey from source to destination, and the from and to addresses could’ve been Christian Computing® Magazine

intercepted anywhere and then sold to LinkedIn, but the easiest place to get that information would be directly from Gmail. This type of use of information contained in my e-mail messages is much more concerning to me than simply displaying ads to me when I log into my Gmail account, and has raised my sensitivity to Google’s privacy practices. I recommend setting aside some time to exercise some privacy control at http://www.google.com/privacy/tools. html . A different type of concern with free e-mail services stems from ads tacked onto the bottom of e-mails you send to your contacts. I haven’t had this problem with my Gmail accounts, but I have noticed e-mails arriving from friends with ads on the bottom that do not reflect what I perceive to be their character or associations. When using any “free” service on the Internet, it is always worth considering whether the service is costing you something more precious than money, namely your reputation or even honor to God’s glory. Are their alternatives? Changing e-mail addresses is always painful. At this point, I don’t feel that the risks are great enough to move away from using Gmail, but I will continue to monitor their practices. Part of my reluctance to change is that I’m not aware of any Christian alternatives that give me as much confidence in their features and reliability as Gmail. JesusAnswers.com offers an e-mail service, but the free option doesn’t support my PC client – I would need to spend at least $36 a year for the premium service. Christian Fun Mail from Christian Web Host seems to use the exact same service (and pricing) as JesusAnswers, but with a variety of fun domain names. Worthy E-mail is another alternative that offers a small (100MB) inbox for $12.95 a year. The free service at ChristSaves.us looks promising, but doesn’t appear to support PC clients. Please e-mail me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com if I’ve missed any that you believe are compelling. Hopefully, these alternatives (and others) will continue to develop into competitive options for those concerned about the practices of secular e-mail services. It is my hope and prayer that these articles February 2012

on the power and danger of technology will encourage 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 e-mail, 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

February 2012

Christian Computing速 Magazine

February 2012

nick at church

Consumerization of IT

Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

omputer use is going through a significant change… one that is challenging the status quo of most church and ministry networks. The IT world refers to it as the Consumerization of IT, and it is growing. What is it, and what does it mean for your church system? What It Means There was a day when the big IT discussion among church and ministry leaders was centered on the questions of Why would a church want a computer? and Why would we want to connect our computers? Those discussions are long gone now that most have computers and all of them are connected! Computers come in all sizes today: • Servers • Desktops • Laptops and Notebooks • Netbooks • Tablets • Smartphones Christian Computing® Magazine

Yes, I included tablets and smartphones! They are capable of doing all that many of our users need to do, and that is affecting the way we design systems! In fact, it is part of the foundation of this move towards IT consumerization. Simply said, this term means that people want to use computers with which they are familiar and comfortable— even bringing theirs in to work!— rather than necessarily those historically provided by employers. This is a shift as large as the microcomputer in the 1980s and the Internet in the 1990s, and will impact every organization. Why It Is Growing Computer platforms like Windows and Mac have become more similar in their abilities, yet February 2012

they are still fairly different in style and methodology. The keystrokes are similar, but different enough to warrant the preference to stay on their familiar platform to maximize their productivity. In addition, the abilities and applications available to run on tablets and smartphones is increasing rapidly, making those mobile devices capable alternatives for many IT functions like email, calendaring, task management, word processing, and even spreadsheets! The argument that is gaining traction is that if someone already has a capable device they can work on, and they are familiar enough with it to be productive, why make them switch to a different platform or device that will slow them down due to lack of familiarity? And from a profit, or productivity perspective, it makes sense. It also makes sense if companies won’t have the expense of buying and maintaining these devices, though that is debatable. Why Are IT Managers Pushing Back? For years IT managers have been working to

• We can host your servers! • Exchange Server • Database Server • File Server • VoIP PBX Server • We only host Christian

churches & ministries • In the most advanced datacenter on the planet! • Guaranteed 100% up & available!

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secure their networks in part to improve their reliability and uptime. One of the standards in IT is to never let an unauthorized computer access the network for many reasons, including: • The computer could be infected with malware that could impact the entire network. • The person using the computer could copy sensitive files, like the contributions database for unauthorized use. I agree with that strategy— or at least I did. The state of IT, which is constantly changing, is moving in a direction that nullifies nearly all of the reasons to push back against IT consumerization— but only if done strategically. I say that because the new direction is toward cloud-based services and data storage, but many don’t understand the strategic issues behind how to do cloud services well and thus expose their ministries to many potential perils. How to Prepare For It As you consider cloud services and data storage, there are two critical points that need a lot of

Eliminate the distraction of maintaining servers, hardware, and software! Let MBS host your servers in our datacenter – the most advanced datacenter on the planet! We only host Christian churches and ministries, and we can save you money! • Our ministry focus means we want to save you money so you can focus Nick Nicholaou, President on your true calling! • Because we only host ministries, our prices reflect true charity licensing! • Our engineering model delivers solid up-time, and our datacenter never has downtime! Call us today to talk about your needs and about moving your servers into our private cloud!

“. . . freeing those in ministry from business distractions.” Phone: 714/840-5900 • www.mbsinc.com • info@mbsinc.com

February 2012

focus in the decision-making process: 1. The Cloud has two sides: Public and Private. As leaders of our churches and ministries we have the responsibility of making decisions that are in our organization’s best interest. It’s like when a parent makes a decision for their toddler. The toddler doesn’t have the decision-making capacity to make good decisions, so it is incumbent on the parents to make good decisions on the toddler’s behalf. The same is true for church and ministry leaders. Understanding the difference between the cloud’s public and private sides is important when deciding which datasets to put there. • The public cloud refers to servers and services anyone can access. It includes Facebook, websites, etc. Photos and videos are appropriate to be located, or hosted in the public cloud. That means it is okay to use services like Facebook, YouTube, etc for them. They are files we want the public at large to find and see because they are often part of what might be called the marketing campaign that helps us reach previously unreached audiences. They also help us keep relationships and communications up-to-date with those already connected to our ministries. • The private cloud refers to servers and services you cannot access unless you have been preauthorized— just like the servers in your building. To take advantage of their services and datastore requires knowing how to find them (a specific URL or IP address) and a login ID and password. • Email, databases, instant messaging, and file storage should be kept private within the organization, and thus should not be hosted in the public cloud. Rather, these should be hosted by providers and services that are on the private side of the cloud. 2. Not all datacenters are created equal. Datacenters are typically very large facilities where there are many racks of servers, multiple Internet provider connections, and multiple legs of electrical power. The better your datacenter, the more likely your servers and services will have a high degree of uptime. Conversely, the poorer Christian Computing® Magazine

your datacenter, the more likely your servers and services will not always be up and available when you need them to be. Thus choosing a quality datacenter is very important. • The Uptime Institute has established a four tier rating system for datacenters. The lowest tier is I, and the highest is IV. • Tier 1 datacenters have no or little redundancy and experience up to 28.8 hours of downtime annually. • Tier II datacenters have partial redundancy in power and cooling, and experience up to 22 hours of downtime annually. • Tier III datacenters have what is referred to as N+1 fault tolerance with no more than 1.6 hours of downtime annually. That means that whatever is needed to run the hosted systems (N legs of power, internet connections, etc), there is at least one additional of everything to provide better uptime. • Tier IV datacenters have at least two times the necessary components that a Tier III datacenter has, and is referred to as 2N+1 fully redundant. Tier IV datacenters have less than 2.4 minutes of downtime annually. • Churches and ministries should only consider Tier III and Tier IV datacenters, and preferably will set their minimal limit for critical services such as email and their database as being in Tier IV datacenters. Working through those issues will help raise protection levels dramatically, and will make the move towards consumerization of IT much more comfortable. And, as in all we do in church and ministry management, it will help bring those words we long to hear from our Master: “Well done.” 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.

February 2012

ministry communication

Customer Service, Technology, and Communicating the Gospel

Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

just finished a customer service interaction after several days of frustration, emails, phone calls, incomplete information and finally a satisfying answer. At the end of this process, I realized that my interactions with the customer service representatives had some valuable lessons for church communicators as we share the gospel. We may not like to think of ourselves as customer service reps for Jesus, but consider how we interact with the tools of technology when people have questions about the Christian faith. . . . What happened and how it applies to us The typical customer service interaction goes something like this: 1. We call or email “customer service” because we don’t understand something. 2. The person we call or reach via email totally understands the issue—they were trained in all aspects of it —they probably had to pass a test on their knowledge of the product before they were allowed to answer the phone. 3. When we ask our question, it isn’t new to them. It Christian Computing® Magazine

is issue #3 on the list, or however they categorize it, and they know the answer, even before we are finished asking. 4. The customer service person rattles off the answer via voice or email. 5. We have no idea what they are talking about—we haven’t been involved with the product for years and it makes no sense to us—that’s why we are asking our question. At this point, one of two things can happen: 1. We ask or reply via email for clarification and the February 2012

customer service person is kind and takes the time to explain what we don’t understand and makes sure our question is answered in a way that makes sense to us. 2. The customer service person lets us know subtly or blatantly that if we don’t understand, that’s our problem. Sometimes, they act insulted that we don’t understand. For my recent customer service interaction, fortunately my call ended with option #1--the person realized I had no idea why they couldn’t do what I needed their company to do. She courteously explained what was going on, the options, and finally, though I wasn’t happy with the answer, she explained why what I wanted was not possible and I now knew what I had to do next. Why this is like communicating the gospel For people coming to our churches, or church websites, who have grown up in our postChristian society, we are a Customer Service rep for the gospel. We know the message well. Some of us have even been trained in well-reasoned answers if someone has a particular question—we call it apologetics. All of that is well and good, but what happens when we are engaged in conversation in person or online with a real person who is considering Jesus? They may call or email, but no matter how we get their input, how do we respond? • Do we rattle off stock answers? • Do we make them feel like if they don’t “get it” or agree immediately, that it is their problem? Do we write them off as sinful or having moral issues that prevent them from immediately responding? or • Do we listen? Not for what quick answer we can plug in, but really listen to their question? • Do we ask additional questions to make certain we understand what they are really asking? • And one of the most important questions: Are we honest with our answers? Once we listen and understand the question, an honest answer is all important When we are sharing the gospel, we first of all need to carefully listen to what people are really asking. One of the key underlying questions today that can Christian Computing® Magazine

be asked in all kinds of ways is: “Is Jesus the only way to God?” This may be asked in many ways including: • Don’t you think all religions teach the same thing? • Aren’t all churches really alike at their core? • What does it matter what religion a person has if they are a good person? • If someone is sincere in their belief, isn’t that enough? After we identify the question, we need to answer it honestly. In my frustrating customer interaction I needed to know if the company I was using for credit card processing would process PayPal. The answer was “no.” If I’d gotten an honest answer from the first person that I interacted with, it would have saved me a lot of time and frustration. I have other ways to bill with PayPal and now I’ll work on that. But I had to understand the “no” before I could explore the solution. In the same way when we understand what people are asking us about the the gospel, we can put them off, we can say kind things, we can walk all around the issue, but the kindest response (after we make sure we really understand the person asking the question) might be to say: I know this can be frustrating and confusing; it might even seem narrow and bigoted, but the kindest, most loving, most truthful person that ever lived, Jesus, said he was the only way to God. In John 14:6, he said, “I am the way, the truth the life. No one comes to God except through me.” This is the Bible’s view. This is February 2012

the view of the Christian church. I’d love to share with you more about Jesus so you’ll understand why this is true. Will you join me in that exploration? Once I knew I had to learn a different system if I wanted to use PayPal, I knew what I had to do. In the same way, we need to let people know that the exclusive claims of Jesus are non-negotiable. If they want eternal life and forgiveness of sins, they need to learn about Jesus. Real life and true salvation won’t work any other way. If we don’t feel adequate to answer the questions in detail, there are many sites that can help us—sort of a customer service backup. Some of my favorites are: http://www.equip.org http://www.carm.org http://www.gotquestions.org

ever available to church communicators, let’s use them well. _________________________________________ For more ways to use technology to effectively communicate the gospel message, go to Yvon Prehn’s church communication training site: http://www.effectivechurchcom.com Currently the site is featuring ways to make your church bulletins more effective as well as communication preparation for Easter.

Good communication of the gospel means thinking like a good customer service representative Even though I wasn’t happy with the answer, after two days of frustration, I was ultimately happy with the company because someone listened, explained and was honest with me. In many ways I realized, she was doing what we are all commanded to do as we communicate the words of eternal life: But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15 People have many questions when they come to us, when they visit our churches or websites. To communicate effectively, take time to listen, understand, honor them as a person and carefully, honestly answer their questions. Technology gives us the tools to refer people to places for answers in depth. Email gives us a way to interact in ongoing conversations. It takes time and research to be prepared to do this well, but we need to remember that it isn’t a product sale or satisfaction that’s at stake but the destiny of an eternal soul. We’ve got the most extraordinary tools Christian Computing® Magazine

February 2012

Press Releases Mobile App Developer Enables Every Church and Nonprofit to Have Their Own Affordable Mobile App When mobile apps became a “must have” just a few years ago, only the largest churches and nonprofits could afford the $30,000 plus price tag to hire a firm to build a custom mobile app. Because the majority of nonprofits can’t afford that kind of price tag, ROAR is now releasing their own app-building CMS to help nonprofits and churches afford their own iPhone and Android apps for a fraction of the cost. “Our goal is to enable each nonprofit and church we work with to reach into the community and into the pocket of every person to encourage, connect, and retain them as a customer and participant,” comments Matt McKee, president of ROAR. “With our new software, building a custom-looking mobile app for any organization is an affordable reality.” ROAR’s CMS is built on WordPress. “We customized the Admin, Plugins, and WordPress sections to meet our needs, so now, every customer we work with gets their own custom WordPress build that powers their own app.” Through ROAR, customers have full control over the app building process through five simple steps: 1. Sign up at ROARapp.com (choose iOS for iPad/iPhone or Android). 2. Access your own CMS (ROAR builds customer WordPress site). 3. Fill in the portions of the CMS that you’d like to see in your app (social media, web feeds, podcasts, etc.). 4. Hit submit. 5. ROAR builds app and delivers. “A nonprofit mobile app can help organizations of all kinds communicate with their volunteers and increase donations. A church mobile app can connect members to their churches through sermon podcasts, event updates, and social media all in one place—their phones,” adds McKee. “We encourage churches and nonprofits to give away their apps for free as a way to establish loyalty and goodwill.” As organizations update content, graphics, and audio files in their custom ROAR CMS, the app is automatically updated in real time. This ensures that the app always contains the most relevant information and media. Additionally, ROAR will soon be releasing their own app that will allow customers to view the app Christian Computing® Magazine

building process live on their device throughout the creation process. This will help make sure the app meets their expectations. January Promotion Through January 31, ROAR is offering half off the set up fee of $250 for the iOS app (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch) or $500 for both iOS and Android apps. This means that for just $125, churches and nonprofits can begin development of their own mobile app. Monthly hosting for one app is $30 or $50 for both apps. Visit RoarApp.com to get started.

Ministry IT Professionals to Convene in Dallas for Networking and Education Information Technology Directors, Business and Network Administrators, Help Desk personal and Web developers will gather this spring to discuss topics and trendsrelevent to the uses of technology in ministry settingat the Spring 2012 Church IT Roundtable on April 18-21, 2012 at WatermarkCommunity Church in Dallas, TX. Through The annual event, hosted by the Church IT Network, is designed for anyone – staff or volunteer – with responsibility for Information Technology in a ministry setting. The three-day event kicks off with a full day of training workshops covering a broad array of topics, including network infrastructure, exchange servers and unified communications. This is followed by two days of keynote speakers and roundtable breakout sessions designed to help IT professionals connect, share and learn from one another. Last year’s event included over 150 participants from all over the country. The Church IT Network (formerly called Church IT RoundTable) grew out of a need for a peer-learning community for church and ministry IT professionals worldwide. Today, the Church IT Network consists of over 800 church staff and volunteers and includes both online and face-to-face forums around the globe. For more information about the Church IT Network, including information and registration details for the Spring 2012 Church IT Roundtable Event, visit the organization’s website at www.churchitnetwork.com or www.citrt.org.

February 2012