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
June 2012
No. 6
4 cover story Elexio Created Amp!
Their Integrated Church Software Suite! An interview with Jeff Hostetter
Contributing Editors Lauren Hunter Yvon Prehn Nick Nicholaou Kevin A. Purcell Russ McGuire Bradley Miller Michael L White Copy Editor Gina Hewitt
By Steve Hewitt
Corporate Home Office
3 Editorial
Are you ready to WIN a FREE iPad3?
Steve Hewitt – steve@ccmag.com
© Copyright 2012 by Christian Computing®, Inc.
7 Minstry Leadership
Say Goodbye to Summer Stewardship Slumps with Online Giving from ACS Technologies
10 Logos CMS
Keys to a Great Database
from LOGOS Management Software from One Call Now
Improve Your Preaching with Technology
Kevin A. Purcell – kevin@kevinpurcell.org
19 Digital Evangelism
Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be returned. Christian Computing® Magazine reserves mitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publication may not be copied in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Christian Computing®, Inc. Views expressed in the articles
Michael White - mlwhite@parsonplacepress.com
and reviews printed within are not necessarily the views of the editor, publisher, or employees
24 The Power And The Danger Twitter
submitted to Christian Computing® Magazine
the right to make any changes to materials sub-
14 Higher Power With Kevin
Christian Computing® is a registered trademark
become the property of Christian Computing®,
Communication that Adds True Spirit - First United Methodist Church
Summer Saving Plan
All Rights Reserved
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13 One Call Now
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
of Christian Computing® Magazine, or Christian
By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com
Computing, Inc.
27 Nick at Church The Business Case for Software Charity Licensing Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com
29 Ministry Communication
Why you don’t need to share your personal life on facebook Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com
Articles that are highlighed are provided by our partners www.ccmag.com/2007_03/2007_03editorial.pdf
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June 2012
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editorial Are you ready to WIN a FREE iPad3? Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com We are finally ready to open up our Summer 2012 Scavenger Hunt! All you have to do to have a chance to win the new FREE iPad3 is answer the 15 questions correctly, and you will be entered into the drawing! I know that with a lot of drawings, it might seem the odds of winner are not worth entering. However, there are only 6,000 active members in our CCMag Online Community, and I believe that since THIS contest takes some work (grin), the number of people who actually are entered will greatly increase the odds! So, when you have some down time this Summer, log in and work on our Scavenger Hunt! We are going to give everyone until Friday night, August 31, 2012 (at midnight) to finish up their entry and hit submit. There are only 15 questions, but it will take you some time to search through our site to find the answers! Get started by visiting www.ccmag.com/contest. Once you get to the PDF form with the questions, you CAN print Christian Computing® Magazine
it out. This is so you can work on the answers over time. When you are finished, go back and enter them into the PDF form online, and hit submit! We will grade the forms and those with all of the questions answered correctly will be entered into the drawing! It’s just that simple. The ONLY rule we have is that you can’t post on our site either asking for an answer to a question OR post on our site and give others an answer to one or more of the questions. If you work as a team with friends, on your own, that is certainly fine. I hope you have some fun, learn more about the sponsors we have and the content that is posted, and I look forward to contacting someone with the news that they are a winner!
Together We Serve Him,
Steve Hewitt Follow me on Twitter @stevehewitt email - Steve@ccmag.com June 2012
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cover story
Elexio Created Amp!
Their Integrated Church Software Suite! An interview with Jeff Hostetter
By Steve Hewitt
I
get to meet and know many Christian leaders seeking to serve the church through technology. Each is a little different, but one really stands out from the rest. Jeff Hostetter, CEO of Elexio is different. He is passionate about providing services to help the church, and he is… interesting! If you check out his LinkedIn profile you will see he lists his specialties as: 1) Vision Casting, 2) Strategic plans, 3) Communication and 4) PHD in sarcasm. When I first met Jeff, I was impressed not only with his knowledge of business and marketing, but his desire to truly serve the Lord and the church with the services and products of Elexio. In the past, he has provided services that were unique and different from anyone else, and I like that! Elexio launched Amp over a year ago, and it seems they are always adding features to the suite. So, for this month’s cover story, I asked Jeff if I could interview him and help all of our readers discover what Elexio is doing, and what they are offering. I think you’re going to enjoy this! So bring us up to speed, what’s been going on at Elexio? Well, we’ve been playing video games and eating ice cream. But outside of lunch breaks, Christian Computing® Magazine
we’ve been helping church leaders implement their software, adding staff, improving our help center, and focusing on integration. What have you integrated? A few things for churches…database, website, mobile app, check-in, user interface, software setup, login, communication, support, help, pizza, reporting, and staff. Well maybe not pizza, but we did work on the experience church leaders have with Elexio, our software, our services, and our staff. June 2012
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Why is integration so important? Many churches have separate pieces of software that result in complexities. For example, they might have one system for online giving and another for event registration and another for children’s check in and another for student ministry and another for the church website and yet another for the main church database. When you have several different software systems it results in different user interfaces, different approaches to managing data, different paradigms, different reporting, separate logins and separate databases to update when information changes. Tylenol can be helpful, but not preferable. When using separate pieces of software, church leaders have added challenges when diagnosing issues. What piece of software is the culprit? What company do I contact? What if I call a company and it’s not their issue and then I end up wasting time and paying for it? Church leaders are movers and shakers. They want simplicity with power. And they just want everything to work. So integration is critical. What led to the creation of an integrated software suite? We were watching an episode of Seinfeld one day and…no wait, that was something else. As we talked with church leaders on our staff and those in many growing churches, it quickly became clear. Church leaders manage people, ministries, events, giving, communication, facilities, discipleship, and much more. Getting all these things to work together in one coordinated march is a very tough challenge. Software plays an important role. That’s Christian Computing® Magazine
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why an integrated church software suite makes sense because the backend database and frontend website, mobile app, and check-in all need to function as one, share info, and leverage it all to save time, money, and do ministry. We created Amp, our integrated church software suite, to provide churches with the power they need while keeping things simple. Also, church leaders want software that’s not only functional but also attractive, so our creative team designed the user interface to feel good and be consistent across the suite. Every church needs a website and church management software. Every church should have a mobile app, and when churches grow, they should have check-in. So we put them all together in one happy family to serve the Church. In a nutshell, what makes up Amp? Amp suite goodness is made up like this…
• Database (Amp Fusion) – comprehen sive church management software and powerful reporting • Website (Amp Vibe) – cutting edge con tent management tools and beauti ful website design • Mobile App (Amp Wave) – quick access to info and interaction with all your people • Check-in (Amp Touch) – cutting edge secure check-in that church leaders can brand
Church leaders can start with the database or website and expand into more over time, but the integration magic happens when church leaders have the whole suite. Imagine having your management tools, website, mobile app, small group software, mass communication, donations, event registrations, check-in system and more all working together seamlessly as one. Wouldn’t that be cool? Our partner churches tell us it is very cool. How will church leaders benefit from your integrated software suite? Our software integration is part of it, but there’s so much more to the benefits for church leaders because it affects their entire experience with Elexio: from setting up the software, to getting support, to accessing help, to collaborating Christian Computing® Magazine
with us on projects, to a relaxing familiarity with all interaction around their church software and Elexio. For Example… • One username and password to access all your software (one login) • Common look and feel (user interface) for all your software • Consistent approach to managing your data • Centralized reporting (one database) • Website, database, mobile app, and check-in share the people’s demographic records (and more) so when info is updated one place it is updated everywhere (names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, givng, event registrations, plus tons of other info) • Centralized security is shared across the suite. Set up permissions in one place and everyone in the church can get the appropriate level of access they need. • Consistent online giving experience across the suite plus giving and pledge records are all in one database with centralized reporting • Consistent approach to setting up and configuring your software • One team to support you (highly trained and very experienced at helping church staff) • One online help center • One online account center that tracks all your communication with Elexio, all your projects, all your help sessions, etc. With Elexio, what can church leaders look forward to? The church is the hope of the world and God’s plan A for the gospel and discipleship. The Elexio team is focused on helping churches be successful with their mission by providing a unified experience with us and our integrated software. We launched Amp in April 2011 and we’ve been expanding it ever since. Amp is a proven integration platform with so many more cool additions coming, but the important thing is that church leaders can have integration, style, and innovation today. June 2012
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Ministry Leadership
Say Goodbye to Summer Stewardship Slumps with Online Giving from ACS Technologies
I
f you work in ministry you know one item on the summer vacation to-do list often gets forgotten: sending off the church offering. Even families that are usually faithful givers regularly forget to mail a check before they leave town. That is why most churches see a significant dip in giving over the summer months. Fortunately, many churches are discovering one major way to battle the summer giving slump: Offering your congregants online giving.
“One huge positive (of online giving) is how it flattens out giving from month to month,” said Scott Moore of Village Baptist Church in Beaverton, Ore. “We used to go up and down from month to month … but the more people we have giving online on a regular basis, the more that has started to level out,” Scott said in the ministry guide Five Sundays: The Power of Online Giving. Many churches are ready to make the leap, but they’re not sure what it will take to get there. The ministry guide Five Sundays: The Power of Online Giving gives information about online giving, Christian Computing® Magazine
but it also outlines a model online giving implementation timeline. The sample timeline below can help your organization plan for implementing online giving in your church – which would mean you could kiss your summer giving slump goodbye! ONLINE GIVING IMPLEMENTATION SAMPLE TIMELINE 6 Months Before Launch • Form your online giving launch team • Set a target date for online giving June 2012
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3 Months Before Launch • Schedule key campaign dates • Choose accepted payment methods 1 Month Before Launch • Begin promoting the online giving ministry o Send out emails o Begin worship announce- ments • Train staff members on posting contributions • Order the list of published fund codes • Test launch the system with a technology-savvy group • Link online giving web page across the church website • Continue educating mem- bers on online giving • Provide “getting started with online giving” instructions • Create FAQs based on feed back from your test launch team Launch Date • Encourage members to start consistently using online giving • Supplement with a strong financial stewardship mes- sage Follow Up • Continue encouraging con- gregants to give online • Update and keep emails and funds current • Inform people about what their donations have helped accomplish o Have they helped a missionary to stay longer in the field? 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�
June 2012
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o Have you assisted fami lies after a natural disaster? • Publish online giving testimo- nies on your church website The above is a sample timeline – the individual needs of your church will dictate the best approach. Regardless of the timeline, implementing online giving is increasingly becoming a “must” for ministry. “For many people, including myself for a long time, the only check they write is for the church,” said Chris Gunnare, Operations Director of Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, Iowa. Chris went on to note that many young people don’t even own checks! “I think most people have started to move to online banking, online everything. Online giving’s just a great tool.” A few other facts to keep in mind, excerpted from Five Sundays: The Power of Online Giving: • 80% of donors have made a gift online • A little over half preferred to use the Inter net for donations • 46% expect to complete a greater share of their charitable gifts via online giving in the future • 92% of givers wanted year-end receipts electronically • 74% found emails explaining how dona tions are being spent helpful The concept of having five Sundays worth of giving every month is a compelling one for many reasons. By recognizing that the giving landscape is changing at a rapid pace and offering solutions to your congregation that take those needs into consideration, you will be able to help each person strengthen their spiritual walk. They will appreciate the freedom of being able to give in their own way and in their own time. To learn more about the potential of online giving to improve your ministry’s stewardship efforts and help eradicate your annual summer giving slump, download the free ministry guide Five Sundays: The Power of Online giving today.
Christian Computing® Magazine
June 2012
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LOGOS LOGOS CMS
Keys to a Great Database from Logos Management Software
S
ix of us sat in a meeting discussing strategies for an upcoming fundraising campaign. The children’s facilities were bursting at the seams, and while there was plenty of space to expand on the church property, it still required money to build out the warehouse space.
While trouble-shooting possibilities, the conversation inevitably shifted to how we communicate with people. Fundraising always means communicating the need to your constituents in such a way that they want to give. Since together the church needed to bring the resources to the table; we had to find a way to make people aware of the problem, and how it affects the congregation, while painting a picture of what the church could be, if provided with the necessary funds. We discussed many vehicles of communication, and email was clearly the most efficient way to make our case to the congregation. However, the integrity of the church’s email database was less than desirable. And yet, the success of our endeavor was largely tied to our ability to address each person with the urgency of our need. You may not have been in this exact situation, but you no doubt know the importance of being able
Christian Computing® Magazine
to communicate a vital message to a large group of people and the inherent difficulties of making that happen. This is where the importance of database management comes in. In addition to helping at my local church, I work for a company who develops church databases. With those converging experiences behind me, I offer you a system for maintaining your database. Database management may not be the most exciting element of technology, but it is crucial. Create a point person for the database. This is the most important rule of all. One person should “own” the database - even though multiple people should have access and enter information, it’s imperative to have a primary user who has the necessary skills to manage the database. The perfect person for this job is someone who is detail oriented and a June 2012
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team player. Database management is all about details, so you need someone who loves details. And, since others will interact with the database, this person must be able to tolerate the mistakes of others and work with them patiently to correct errors. Scope out those who are already working on the database. Has anyone naturally taking ownership of it? Is anyone showing a particular interest in maintaining it because of their deep concern for timely and meaningful communication with all constituents? If so, this person is likely a good candidate. It is also a great idea to have a secondary point person as well. If point-person-number-one is out of pocket for any reason or moves on to other jobs, your organization’s communications will suffer if you’re left high and dry. Make sure the secondary point person works with the primary point person and owns at least one job as it pertains to the database. Consistent use and collaboration on the database by both parties will help ease a transition if it becomes necessary.
• • • • • • • •
Communication notes How did the person learn about your church? (If known) Volunteer information Family information Any group(s) the member is involved in Events attended Contribution information Talents and skills (If known or as they become known.)
Suggestions to consider for data entry: • Do not enter data in all caps. • Do not use punctuation marks (e.g. the period
Write down standards for data entry. If you enlist volunteers to help with data entry, make sure every person is on the same page in terms of how to enter information. Write down the rules and make them easily accessible. Make sure all volunteers receive a copy of the rules and fully understand the need for accuracy in data entry. Teaching the process and monitoring the consistency of accurate data entry can be the responsibility of your primary database manager. To get you on the road to developing your own standards, here are some considerations: What information should be put in the database? • Names, nicknames, titles • Contact information Christian Computing® Magazine
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• • • •
after abbreviations) Use the suffix field only for agreed upon suf fixes (Jr, Sr, II, III, etc.) Use the following compass direction abbrevia tions for a street address: N, E, S, W, NE, NW, SE, SW (Notice no periods.) Do not use abbreviations for city names. Use the following title abbreviations: Dr, Miss, Mrs, Ms, Mr, Rev, Sr, Fr (Notice no periods.)
The up-front extra planning for this will minimize duplications in the database and make searching easier in the long run. Make the rules fun. Find ways to make the written rules fun so volunteers and staff will actually read them. For example, in order to get our staff to take an internal survey, one of my coworkers created an image including a message from our company’s President. Funny, and it got the message across.
Make your requests engaging. Create opportunities to update information. Have plans in place to leverage the opportunities around you, or better yet, create opportunities, to update data. You must be very intentional about this. • Have an upcoming event or class? Collect up dated information during the registration process. Christian Computing® Magazine
• Does your church have small groups or community groups? Make it the responsibility of the leaders to turn in updated information at designated points during the year. • Do you send out quarterly con tribution state ments via email or postal mail? Request updated information at those points. If it’s through postal mail, maybe provide a small card that can be easily dropped in the mail. • Make it easy for members/attendees to update their own information. If you use Ministry Connection (an Online Giving software), mem bers can manage their profile information and it syncs with the database. Think out of the box here and utilize the technology available where you can to expedite processes. Sometimes having the whole congregation fill out update cards on a Sunday isn’t the best plan – especially when you sit down for data entry Monday and realize many of the cards are illegible. In lieu of this, you could have a station with a tablet computer at the ready for updating information, and consider handing out some free coffee cards to those who participate. Make it worth their while and people will be happy to comply. Back-up your database. If you are using desktop software, set a weekly, or even daily time for someone to back-up data. We’ve all heard the horror stories of crashing hard drives and vanishing files, so hopefully this one goes without saying. Talk to the provider of your database software. They may have a back-up option for you or can recommend a resource. If you use a hosted or web-based database, the company hosting your information generally backs up records for you. Either way, make sure you know exactly how and if your data is securely backed-up. Go forth and communicate well. Implementing some or all of these tips will make all the difference and launch you on your way to a fantastic database. In the right hands, a well updated database is a powerful communication tool. Wield it well.
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ONE CALL NOW
ONE CALL NOW
Communication that Adds True Spirit
First United Methodist Church
F
irst United Methodist Church (FUMC) in Newark, Ohio, was founded in 1806, making it one of the oldest churches in the state. Renowned for its traditional choir, robust community outreach programs and unique location at a five-point intersection in the center of town, FUMC strives to serve both its congregation and the community.
THE SITUATION With a congregation of more than 500 members, Pastor Mark Chow is familiar with the challenge of communicating with hundreds of people in a timely manner. “We’ve had a lot of our own challenges in coordinating communication,” Chow recalled. Before teaming up with One Call Now, Chow and the church’s leadership team were responsible for communicating with specific groups. Depending on the nature of the message, postcards, emails or phone calls were used. If a message was urgent, leaders made individual phone calls. If a message wasn’t urgent, leaders sent postcards or emails, but they couldn’t tell who got the message, when or by which method. THE SOLUTION First United Methodist Church partnered with One Call Now in 2010, turning the church’s unorganized communication effort into an easy-to-implement and simple-to-analyze action that can be made from any phone, anytime, anywhere. “We are really seeing the fruits of our coordinated communication effort. One Call Now is giving us more than just a tool to communicate information. People are feeling like they are part of the church more so now than ever before,” Chow explained. In addition to the enhanced sense of unity, FUMC has experienced increased attendance and participation in church activities. Previously, church picnics averaged 70 attendees. With One Call Now reminder
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notifications and a new venue, the latest picnic had 150 people—an increase of more than 114%! For First United Methodist and other churches, One Call Now enhances fellowship and ensures reliable communication for entire congregations.
Contact us to learn more! INDUSTRY Religious – Large Church PROBLEM Uncoordinated communication, lack of certainty that messages were received PAYBACK 114% increase at events, greater sense of unity within congregation TOOLS UTILIZED Phone Calls, Text-to-Speech, Subgroups, Email, Canned Call GEOGRAPHY Newark, Ohio REPLACED Manually dialed members, email, postcards “One Call Now is giving us more than just a tool to communicate information. People are feeling like they are part of the church more so now than ever before.” Pastor Mark Chow, First United Methodist Church
June 2012
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higher power with kevin
Improve Your Preaching with Technology
Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org
T
he Internet and software can really help you improve your sermon preparation. From the free online video resources available to Bible study software, from presentation tools or resources to low tech object lessons, we could all do a better job than we’re doing. A little refresher course in sermon prep or the addition of some great presentation tools can help us both educate, inspire and exhort our congregations. This Spring I taught a class in Preaching for our local association of churches and it really pushed me to look at my own sermon preparation. I’ve become a little lazy and needed the kick in the pants to improve. How can I teach these skills without applying them in my own preparation. It made me think. What other ways could I work to better myself as a preacher. I’ve got three things you can do. Hopefully this will inspire you to look into more ways of improving and maybe share them with us. After reading this, you might have some other ideas and I’d love Christian Computing® Magazine
to hear them. If I get enough response, I’ll publish them in next month’s article. To inspire you to contribute, I’ll give away some cool tech toys. You could win an iPad or laptop case, a set of bluetooth speakers, or some other nice gadgets that I’ve reviewed over the past year. More Than Cake and Other YouTube Stars My friend Dr. Joe Miller, who teaches at Biola University and serves as a church planter, put together an awesome series called 5 Day Sermon Planner in which he outlines a great expository June 2012
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sermon preparation plan that helps you study and prepare sermons over a five day period. You can find them at www.morethancake.com. In the series he begins by overviewing the plan (Part 1: http://bit.ly/MPiQ7S and Part 2: http://bit. ly/MPj273) and then discusses the first day in a second video. The two videos combined show you the basics of Inductive sermon study. You begin with observations made about the text and then think about the meaning of the terms. He covers the meaning in the second video. On day two he looks at scriptural exposition (http://bit.ly/MPjeDy). Dr. Miller uses Logos Bible Software in his videos, but you can apply the principles learned to any Bible software package that allows you to study the Bible using Greek and Hebrew language tools and offer things like Bible background information. Dr. Miller’s third day (http://bit.ly/MPjBxV) includes looking at the Application of the passage to everyday life. In other words, he looks at the “So what?” question and helps you figure out how it applies to our day. Illustrating the passage to make it understandable, believable and applicable helps us become relevant and interesting. Dr. Miller covers than in day four (http://bit.ly/MPjDG1) of the series. On the last day Dr. Miller goes over the concepts of Confrontation and Conversation. You want to guide your hearer in the process of responding to the message. He hits on this idea in this last video (http://bit.ly/LlaqRp).
Premiere, among others. Learning how to use them will overwhelm you if you don’t find some help. I’m going through a series of videos from a site called Lynda.com. The Lynda Learning series helps you master these complicated applications with informative and interesting videos. It costs $25/ month to use the content, but you can work hard and get enough in a month or two to use the tools to create some great illustrations. I use Photoshop to create all of my slides in my sermons. Each major idea I present (sermon points) is supplemented by a slide. On that slide, I will include a picture that illustrates the idea and a short phrase representing the idea. If you want to illustrate the idea ‘God Cares for Us Like a Parent Protecting Her Child,’ then you could include a picture of a mother holding a child and put the phrase “God protects us” on the slide. If I’m telling a story about to illustrate an idea, then I show a picture. Stories about soldiers can include pictures of troops. Using Photoshop you can superimpose the words over the slide. It lets you make the words look interesting with drop shadows and other creative styles. Photographers in your church or family can help you. Give a volunteer photographer in your church a shot list and let them use their creativity to supplement your sermon. You can also buy images from one of the online libraries like Pond 5 (pond5. com). Using animation software like Flash can make simple things come to life and create impact for your sermon points. Don’t use PowerPoint! I say this because so many of your church members see ugly PowerPoint Visually Create Interest and Long Term Memopresentations all week. When they come to church ry and see it again, then they will go to sleep and turn You already know about using Bible software to off. Also, don’t just put your outline on the screen. prepare your sermons. I won’t cover that again. Go If that’s the only presentation you show, then quit back to my past articles to learn about all the great doing it. Use pictures and video with a few words tools available from free and simple programs and if you want people to remember and pay attention. websites, to expensive and powerful tools designed Just use words and put your full outline up there, if for serious students. you want them to tune you out. Another category of software can help you Finally, use volunteers. I’m willing to bet your bring your sermons to life, but it will require an congregation has a few computer geeks. You’d be investment in both time to master them and money surprised! You might find them in the youth group, to buy them. I’m talking about the creative applica- an adult who works with these tools all week, or a tions you can use to make interesting visual illusretired person who enjoys technology. Plan your trations and the software to present those images. sermons out early enough that you know what you Recently Adobe began offering their Creative need. You can use one main sermon illustration to Suite in the form of a subscription service. For $25/ tie it all together and get the volunteer to create a month you will recieve access to their full suite of slide background that you can then put the words tools including Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and on to create your sermon point slides. Then all you
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need to find are the pictures to back up your sermon illustrations. Presentation Software I already warned about the foibles of using PowerPoint. It’s cheap and ubiquitous, which is to say most of you already own it. Still, don’t use it if you can avoid it. Until you can afford Photoshop or spend time learning it, then use PowerPoint wisely. If you’re a Mac user, then Keynote offers a better alternative. People don’t see Keynote’s built-in animations and themes as often so they won’t turn off as quickly. Still, you can use it wrong. Avoid too many transitions. The cute animations may seem cool, but they get annoying to the audience. I use a few sparingly when I’m forced to use PowerPoint or Keynote. I make slides appear or dissolve onto the screen. I sometimes let them fly in if it somehow supports the idea. If you’re talking about a blessing from God then let the words fly in from the top. If you’re preaching about temptation from Satan, let it fly in from the bottom. You get the idea. When I really want to grab attention I use a transition in Keynote that makes the term fall from the top and slam down as if it were a heavy object falling on a dusty floor. I don’t use any other transitions because they get annoying. Did I say they get annoying? They get annoying. Also, if you must use PowerPoint don’t use the built-in themes. Make your own theme with a background that supports the sermon’s Big Idea. You can change the background image of PowerPoint and Keynote and make it automatically add that image to successive slides you add. Finally, use fonts wisely. Keep them consistent. Use the same Christian Computing® Magazine
WHEN MANAGING YOUR
“This solution helped us meet our employee eligibility tracking and compliance initiative, with a one-year return on investment. I highly recommend it!” Joe Braddock CFO - Diocese of Jefferson City, MO
June 2012
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size and font face for all of your sermon points. If you present scripture use the same font for all of the text throughout the sermon. And don’t use too many words. One Bible verse per slide and one sentence per slide for sermon ideas. If you’re fortunate enough to throw away PowerPoint, consider one of the great Worship Presentation programs available. I use MediaShout at my church (www.mediashout.com). With it you can show pictures, Bible verses from the built-in Bible text, song lyrics either from the database of songs you can buy from the company or from a service like Song Select (www.songselect.com). You can also show DVDs, video files, and YouTube videos. Play songs or audio files and play Flash animations. Programs like these work best when you use a computer with two displays, either a laptop and a video projector or a desktop with a monitor and a video projector connected. Object Lessons: Jesus’ Multimedia Presentation Maybe you don’t have the time or money to learn how to use a photo editing or animation software. Use objects to illustrate a sermon idea powerfully. People will remember it long after you preach.
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I call this Jesus’ form of multimedia because his parables were often object lessons, much like the ones many preachers use to teach simple truths to kids during the children’s sermon. For example, Jesus used a fig tree to illustrate bearing fruit. He used seeds to illustrate the spreading of the Gospel. God used the tree in the Garden of Eden to illustrate boundaries to Adam and Even. Jesus created the two most powerful illustrations of His grace when he commanded us to baptize and told his disciples to take the bread and cup as his body and blood. Be careful not to overdo this. I never do object lessons in my sermon more than once every ten sermons. That keeps the tool fresh and impacting. More than that, people will get used to it and it loses its power.
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digital evangelism
Summer Saving Plan
Michael L White - mlwhite@parsonplacepress.com
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ith the month of June comes the official onset of summer, though, as hot as the spring has been, it seems like we’ve already skipped ahead to summer! Here in the deep south of the United States (in fact, all over the U. S.), we’ve been experiencing record high temperatures since March and April, at least! Before you head off for your summer vacation(s), I’m sure you’ve already made all your plans and checked your list twice to insure you don’t forget anything, but I’ll venture a guess that you have forgotten at least one very important item. Have you given any thought to your summer saving plan? I’m not talking about your Christmas gift savings plan at your local bank. I’m talking about your summertime plan for evangelism, digital and otherwise. Naturally, we need to do face-to-face evangelism as the opportunities arise, but since this column is about digital evangelism, let’s consider that for now.
Christian Computing® Magazine
Normally, summertime is when most everyone begins spending more of their time outdoors and enjoying the many recreational and vacation opportunities that this time of year affords. That means fewer people may be spending as much time online as during the late-autumn, winter, and early-spring times, despite the “online everywhere” availability of a crowd of portable handheld devices. After all, it’s pretty hard to surf the waves at the beach while simultaneously surfing the Web with your tablet or phone in hand! Even after folks come ashore for a breather, they will likely be more intent on soaking up some rays June 2012
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than serving up some Web pages. The one digital technology that appears to maintain its continuity, however, is the practice of texting. Whether on the beach, by the lake or pool, at the amusement park or zoo, or wherever they are relaxing, texting is a mainstay of daily life for many people. Nevertheless, only those who are truly addicted to texting will attempt to surf the waves while continuing to text with their buds! In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I am not a texting enthusiast. In fact, I dislike texting altogether. I much prefer email for my written electronic communications. However, it is all the rage of the culture nowadays and it is certainly worth considering as a part of our ongoing digital evangelism efforts. Perhaps one of the most important points to remember about texting is that it is usually done with people we already know. Therefore, while engaging in texting with our family, friends, and maybe even a few acquaintances along the way, how often do we broach the subject of having a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ as the personal Lord of our life and Savior of our soul? If the thought of doing that makes one uncomfortable, such a one ought to seriously re-evaluate how much he/she cares about these people he/she communicates with on a daily (or even minute-by-minute) basis. To illustrate this point, consider the following. Several years ago, during a push to get people to wear their seatbelts while driving or riding as a passenger in a car, there was an effective TV public service announcement (PSA) that identified one of the silly excuses people use for refusing to wear a seatbelt while driving. In the PSA, a young woman didn’t want to wear her seatbelt because it would wrinkle her pretty dress. After barely surviving a car crash, the end of the TV spot showed the now-mindless young woman staring blankly while a nurse at her long-term care facility rearranged the safety belt on her Christian Computing® Magazine
wheelchair and said, “There now. I’ve fixed the belt so it won’t wrinkle your pretty dress.” The spot ended with the question, “Which belt would you rather wear?” When we make excuses for not sharing the blessed hope of salvation with our family and friends, we might as well say, “I’d rather let you be uncomfortable in Hell forever than make myself uncomfortable by offering you God’s salvation from Hell right now.” To rephrase the question from the aforementioned PSA spot to fit this spiritual context, we might ask ourselves, “Which uncomfortable situation would I rather experience?” Offering people God’s salvation isn’t as frightening and uncomfortable as most Christians fear. This is merely a tactic of the enemy to keep them from sharing the hope of Christ with others. If only they would try, they’d be amazed at how easy it is to initiate and carry on a conversation with someone about their personal faith in Christ and about their family and friends’ need for a personal relationship with Him, too. Like any other conversation, once we break the ice, it tends to go more smoothly thereafter. June 2012
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If people reject God’s salvation once we’ve offered it, we are absolved from all responsibility related to their soul and its eternal destiny, but if we do not warn them, then God will hold us accountable for it. Where does that idea come from? Read Ezekiel 3:16-21 and 33:1-20. How does Ezekiel’s situation apply to us? We can extrapolate from those two passages that we, too, as ministers of Christ and His salvation, are called to be watchmen on the walls for those we know, and even for those we may not know, as the opportunity to warn them presents itself. In fact, just having the opportunity to share the Gospel with someone is how we will know if we will be held accountable to God for whether or not we warn them. Just how God will discipline us for failing to warn folks is a question I can’t answer right now, however. Moreover, not only are we to warn the wicked, but we are to warn the righteous, too, about God’s impending judgment (or discipline; compare with Hebrews 12:5-8) when they stray from the narrow path. As both the Apostles Paul and James tell us in their letters, we are to challenge believers to return to godly living when they go astray as much as we are to warn the wicked to repent (see Galatians 6:1 and James 5:19-20). Nowadays, there are about as many opportunities to warn churchgoers to repent as there are to warn non-churchgoers, I’m sad to say. In fact, I’ve just recently learned of a discovery coming out of the 2010 census that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of households with opposite gender cohabitation without the benefit of marriage, a 13 percent increase between 2009 Christian Computing® Magazine
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and 2010 alone (http://www.census.gov/populawant someone to correct us if the situation was tion/www/socdemo/Inc-Opp-sex-2009-to-2010. reversed. pdf). Just how many of those households claim Well, there you have it: your summer saving to be Christian or attend church was not stated, plan. Give it a try and watch it work! but with 75 percent of the U. S. claiming to be Michael L. White is the founding pastor of WellChristian (according to the CIA’s World Factspring Ministries in Mobile, Alabama, as well as book), there are bound to be a large number of an author and part-time independent Christian professing Christians in that tally, not to mention publisher. His books, including Digital Evangethose who were already cohabiting unmarried lism: You Can Do It, Too! (Parson Place Press, prior to 2009. Though I haven’t kept any sort of April 2011), may be viewed at his Web site books. statistical records, I have personally known of parsonplace.com and purchased wherever books multiple occasions when supposed Christians are sold. have opted to cohabit unmarried rather than get married. As Paul wrote to both the Corinthian and Ephesian churches, fornication (sexual intimacy outside the sanctity of marriage) ought not to even be mentioned among Christian saints (1 Corinthians Plant the 5:1 and Ephesians 5:3). I write about these same matters in the first chapter of my latest book, Seven Keys to Effective Prayer, in which I relate six hindrances ĂƟŽŶ ŝĐ Ŷ Ƶ which can block our prayers to ŵ ŵ Ž Đ Ě Ž ŽĨ ŐŽ God and one key that can draNow! matically deepen our relationwith One Call ship with Him. The most important point for us to remember when confronting a brother or sister in Christ about the need for repentance is found in Paul’s words to the Galatians (6:1), which I referSign up before June 30 for a FREE copy of enced above. We must maintain a spirit of meekness (gentle “ humility), remembering that we, too, are subject to commit sin. A condescending, judgmental tone or attitude is born out of self” righteous pride (whether shown toward a brother in Christ or a sinner in need of Christ), and it Be sure to ask about our referral program! will draw the discipline of God just as surely as any other sin. Therefore, whether evangelizing the ungodly, or formerly godly believers who have strayed, let us do so in a spirit of humil877.698.3262 ity, kindness, gentleness, and onecallnow.com compassion, just as we would
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the power and the danger
Twitter By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com
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long with Facebook, Twitter has been a buzzword that has infiltrated our everyday speech and has experienced incredible growth. The service launched just over five years ago. It took just over 3 years for Twitter users to send the first billion Tweets. Today, a billion Tweets are sent every week! Nearly half a million people join Twitter for the first time every day. These are massive numbers. Obviously, there’s something there.
Churches are also using Twitter. A quick Google search for “church twitter” brings up a bunch of links to church Twitter feeds, along with a link to an eBook titled “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter.” (There’s also a counter-point blog post titled “The Reason Your Church Must NOT Twitter.”) So, why have I never written about Twitter? For a simple reason – I’ve never really used it. I know that’s a stunning confession from a selfprofessed technology geek (especially one focused on mobility), but it’s true. Sure, I have a Twitter account and Twitter tells me that I’ve Tweeted a couple of times (both of those were responses to other’s Tweets). I even have 29 followers (3 of whom I’d consider friends, and maybe a handful Christian Computing® Magazine
of others that are work acquaintances. The rest I don’t know.) What is Twitter? Although Twitter is self-described as a “realtime information network,” it is most often referred to as a “micro-blogging” site, and I think that’s a more helpful description. Twitter is a “blogging” site in that it provides a way for individuals (and companies and churches) to express themselves in a public way. Like blogs, Twitter can be used to report on news, to share opinions, and to engage in dialog. Like blogs, Twitter feeds can have loyal readers (this is facilitated by what Twitter calls “followers” who receive automatic updates), but can also have casual June 2012
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readers (anyone can go to anyone else’s Twitter feed page). Twitter is a “micro-blogging” site because all Twitter posts (called “Tweets”) are limited to 140 characters. (Maybe that’s why I don’t Tweet – brevity has never been a strength of mine.) Tweets, by their very nature, are very simple – although additional tools (like TwitPic and link shortening tools) have enabled Tweets to be enhanced beyond the 140 character simplicity. Tweets tend to be quick thoughts rather than deep ruminations. Since Twitter’s 140 character limit matches up well with the length limits for cellphone text messages, many active Twitter users receive updates via their cellphones, and use Twitter apps to Tweet wherever they go. Twitter calls their service a “real-time information network” because not everyone who Tweets is a human, and because Twitter provides easy ways for software to read Tweets. For example, Siemens has written a program so that a tree can send Tweets about what it’s sensing around it. Twitter envisions their service becoming a way that information can flow freely between machines, as well as humans. How would a church use Twitter? A few years ago, a youth pastor asked me if there was an easy way to send a text message to a bunch of people at the same time. He had found that the youth in his church rarely checked their e-mail, but were very responsive to text messages. I pointed him to a couple of different for-fee text distribution services and then said “or you could just use Twitter.” Once Christian Computing® Magazine
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he understood Twitter, that was the route he chose. He set up a Twitter account, told all the youth and their parents to subscribe to it, and then whenever he needed to get information out about ministry events, even at the last minute, he could Tweet it and have confidence that the youth would see it. Sounds great, so, where’s the danger? One of my initial concerns with Twitter was that it was a wide open service. As indicated by my underused account, anyone can choose to follow you. And anything you Tweet can be found in a Twitter or Google search. What you Tweet can be Re-Tweeted by any of your followers to their followers – to folks you don’t even know their Twitter IDs. All of that is true for the default Twitter account setting, but the company has actually done a good job of addressing privacy concerns. Fairly early on they introduce “protected” Twitter feeds. If you set your feed as “protected,” then you get to approve any followers. Only those approved followers can see your Tweets and they can’t Re-Tweet them. Your Tweets also won’t show up in search results. That means that you need to be intentional in deciding whether your feed will be protected or open. The best answer may be to use both. You might have one open Twitter account for broadcasting information about your church, and (imagine that) sharing the good news of the gospel. You might have one or more protected accounts for privately communicating with smaller groups in the church (as Christian Computing® Magazine
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my youth pastor friend has done). Recently Twitter also became the first major social web service to support the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Track initiative, further indicating their respect for user privacy. However, the biggest issue with Twitter is with its lack of broad adoption. Even with hundreds of millions of active Twitter accounts, not everyone is using the service. Our son’s basketball coach recently set up a Twitter feed to update families about team-related issues (game time changes, what color of jersey to wear, etc.) Unfortunately, most team parents didn’t yet have a Twitter account and had to establish one solely to be able to follow the team’s feed (and receive updates via text). That can be intimidating for many. Twitter may be a great tool for a group (like youth) who are already active on the service, but may not be a good choice for other communities within your church. Bottom line, Twitter may be a great technology to add to your toolbox, but don’t throw out the rest of your tools. Paul once wrote “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23 ESV) Let us likewise use the right tools to serve each group we are called to serve and in so doing honor God. Christian Computing® Magazine
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 Russ’ direction.
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nick at church
The Business Case for Software Charity Licensing Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com
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here are more than 985,000 charities in the U.S. , with more than 13 million employees. Charities make up a large percentage of the U.S. economy . Some software companies, knowing only that, have a difficult time justifying charity licensing discounts. But there’s more to the story, and knowing it proves that offering charity licensing discounts is smart business. Our firm has been consulting with charities in the U.S. for twenty-six years. We help them with CPA and IT services, and continue to be impressed with the complexities of managing their operations. In addition to typical for-profit management challenges, charities have the additional complexity of managing volunteers— 61 million of them! Volunteers aren’t there because it’s their job and because of their need for a paycheck, and this adds a layer of management that is challenging and rewarding. For software solution providers, knowing who those volunteers are and why they’re there offers great insight to the opportunity available to those willing to take the extra steps necessary to reach this important sector. Add that to the foundation of helping those who help others, and it’s a win-win! Christian Computing® Magazine
Who Are These Volunteers? It’s the volunteer component that is the strongest business reason for offering charity licensing discounts. Many volunteers, whether in a tactical role (usher or other kind of helper) or in a management role (serving on the board) are in decision-making and decisioninfluencing positions in their regular paid jobs. Couple that with the fact that charities are voluntarily funded, and you have a set of watching eyes that are sensitive to how technology helps their charity’s efficiency and productivity. What volunteers see work for their charity does get noticed, and does get talked about in their regular workplace. For instance, a charity board member is part of the discussion on whether or not to implement a certain IT solution. (Boards in charities tend to get involved in June 2012
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more tactical matters than do boards of large corporations.) Board members are usually chosen based on their kinship with the charity and on their ability to lead an organization; often seen by their role in their regular job. That means influence that is tied to passion for efficiency and productivity. When a board member agrees that it would be wise to invest in a certain technology in their beloved charity, they watch the results closely. After all, it is likely their contributions helped fund the initiative. If the solution does well and improves operational and tactical efficiency and productivity, you can bet it will get talked about in the board member’s workplace.
thinking of new ways to try to get people to test drive their cars. But then he realized the public was actually willing to pay to test drive them through the car rental industry! By partnering more closely with that industry the manufacturers were able to increase the number of “test drives” dramatically! Getting software into a charity has the same effect. If it does well in making the team more efficient and effective, board members and other volunteers will notice and will likely influence their organizations to follow suit! Some software and hardware companies get this. Those that do, benefit from the soft marketing accomplished by achieving success stories in charities watched by their many volunteers. They also benefit by contributing to the process of helping many. It is a winwin!
Low Cost Marketing How much does charity licensing really cost a technology company? Not much; certainly a lot less than advertising and marketing campaigns. Because charity budgets are donation driven, they Nick Nicholaou is president of MBS, a consulting firm are reluctant to spend money unless necessary. And specializing in church and ministry IT and CPA servicbecause they are mission-focused they try to put as es. You can reach Nick via email (nick@mbsinc.com) much funding as possible towards programs that further and may want to check out his firm’s website (www. their purpose. Thus they tend to have efficient spending mbsinc.com) and his blog at http://ministry-it.blogspot. models, though some of their decisions can be unwise. com. I’ve seen many charities look for free or cheap solutions just because they didn’t think they could afford better, often more appropriate solutions. That means this large sector of the economy will often not use a product that might be a best fit to save a few budget With Cloud technology, dollars. Charity licensing is a great way to help those organizations, your servers can be located and often is the only reason why off-site. MBS has extensive charities decide to purchase good church and ministry IT software rather than piece together expertise – let us host your cheap or free applications. From Why put your servers in our private cloud? servers in our datacenter! a software company’s perspec• Eliminate the distraction & hassle tive charity licensing can be a very Serving you and your team of hosting your own servers effective marketing strategy. And would be an honor! Call or • Reduce IT staff costs because charities would have tended email us today to learn more! towards free or cheap solutions, the • Gain 100% up-time 714.840.5900 discounts don’t mean money lost; • We’re in the most advanced datacenter cloud@mbsinc.com Nick Nicholaou, they mean sales gained. President on the planet – located in the USA A Leader Who Agrees In his best selling autobiography, Lee Iacocca said the auto industry has grown to love the rental car industry. The reason? He said as an auto executive he was always Christian Computing® Magazine
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ministry communication
Why you don’t need to share your personal life on facebook Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com
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e try new media tools because of the Biblical mandate to “be all things to all people to win some.” But just because we try different tools to communicate our ministry, doesn’t mean these tools can or should be used in the same way by everyone. If you are in a ministry that requires 24/7 social media interaction, and you love it—what follows is not for you. It’s for people who may be very tech savvy, yet feel vaguely guilty and inadequate, for not sharing their personal lives to the digital world. Here are 5 reasons why you don’t have to feel guilty if you want to use Facebook and social media primarily for professional ministry news and updates and not for personal sharing: #1: Your calling doesn’t require it When Paul first became a believer, he says, “I did not consult with any man” (Gal1:16). He goes on to say that he spent three years in Arabia and then went to Jerusalem, where he saw only Peter and James. He didn’t return there for 14 years. During those 17 years I’m sure a lot of networking, interaction, and the formation of the Christian faith was taking place in Jerusalem. Peter was busy preaching to multitudes and interacting with both Jews and Gentiles. That was God’s calling for Peter—but it was not what Paul was called to do. One wonders if Paul had interacted with the disciples in Jerusalem instead of spending time in Arabia if he would have been able to rework the understanding of the Old Testament and reconcile it with God’s inclusion of the Gentiles in Christian Computing® Magazine
the family of God. It was Paul’s calling to do this alone. He needed to listen to only one voice while he did it. Sometimes, God calls people into constant, open interaction with others and today that requires social media sharing and interaction. Sometimes God calls people into silence and solitude. Only you can determine God’s calling for your life. Obedience to His call will influence the following considerations. #2: You don’t have or don’t want to use the time required We all know we are immortal, we all know we will live forever. We spin out dreams and desires in ways a dozen lifetimes can’t contain and we can’t help but do that. We always plan, want, envision more than we can fit into a day or a life and are always surprised when we run out of time. Though we dream eternally, we forget we are living in a time-limited world. There never is enough time to do what we need to do, let alone time for all our wants. Facebook and all other forms of social media can take a tremendous amount of time. How do we know how much is too much? June 2012
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From your calling you should have a sense of how God wants you to use your time. The time priorities of an evangelist will most likely be quite different from a person God calls to be a writer or teacher. An evangelist will spend the majority of his or her time interacting, building up relationships, using every possible means to answer questions, explore ways to share the gospel message. For an internet evangelist (see http://www.internetevangelismday.com for a huge collection of useful material on this topic), every new social media tool, idea, resource is important to test, try, and use to the fullest. For a teacher, perhaps one who is called to scholarly, theological teaching, the priority for this person may be solitude to study, research, meditate, and correlate ideas. The internet may be a useful tool for research, but social media may be an unnecessary distraction. Determine your calling first, then allocate the time you spend on Facebook and other social media based on what is required to fulfill your calling. #3: Your personal sharing can be a distraction and sin to others Did you ever wonder why the Apostle Paul never talked about what it was like to meet a wife of a man he had helped kill before he traveled on the road to Damascus? Or what it meant to go to a church and meet the children he left without Christian Computing® Magazine
parents? He doesn’t tell us, instead, he said: “Brothers and sisters…one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).
Paul focused on his calling in Jesus and what he needed to do, in the present, to fulfill it. Pain, hurt, the people killed, the families broken—this is not what defined him, it was not what he wrote about. We do well to follow his example. Not only for our own focus and peace do we need to keep some things private, but for others, because no matter how much you might want to share something, people may not want or need to know about it. Sharing in private with a counselor, confessing sins to a priest, pastor, or sponsor, may be necessary for healing. Pouring out your heart to the Lord is essential and encouraged. Doing the same thing continuously in a public forum is not.
#4: You don’t have to look at and comment on what causes you emotional pain For some, feeling that you must read the perpetual Christmas-letter cheerfulness of facebook and other social media is not only not necessary, but painful. For example, to read about June 2012
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and see the pictures of cute grandchildren for a woman who has had a series of miscarriages and no children of her own; or to look at the vacation photos of food and shared adventures for a couple working at low-paying jobs, who can’t image two days off together and who can’t remember their last vacation—being told you must watch this stream of perfect pictures of seemingly perfect lives (or at least photo-enhanced perfect ones) can be agony for those with gaping holes in their hearts. What’s even worse is the unspoken social-media pressure that not only must you read about and look at all this, you must comment about how cute the kids are and how wonderful the vacation pictures. You must compound pain with phoniness. You don’t have to. You don’t even have to look. You don’t have to comment. And you don’t have to share about how upsetting they are to you. You can spend your time reading the Bible or Christian books, blogs, and websites that will build you up in your faith and ministry. You can learn how to defend the faith, find answers to difficult questions about the Bible, learn church history. Instead of intensifying pain over what you don’t have and may never have. Focus on becoming all you can be in your service to your Lord. Remember, your time is limited and you have a calling to fulfill.
God we worship—the rest of us are all simply fellow servants. Keep the focus on Him. In addition you don’t have to participate in social media personal sharing for your ministry to fulfill God’s calling or for ministry success. When Zechariah was rebuilding the Temple, he was reminded: “ ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit’, says the Lord of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6) As Zechariah was reminded, God is the one who determines what is built, what stands, what falls. If you are faithful in your calling, He will determine your success, if, when, and where He may or may not choose to give it. Any ministry result of lasting value is because of Him, not because you made use of every media, every minute. Be faithful to your Lord, listen to His voice, and let Him decide and guide you on your involvement in social media. Maybe you will spend significant amounts of time interacting and using it, maybe not, but whatever you do, be sure it is on the basis of your calling and obedience to Him. More on this topic and the uses of social media and all multimedia channels is on http://www.effectivechurchcom.com.
#5: Your ministry isn’t about you, and the success of your ministry isn’t ultimately your responsibility I don’t read C.S. Lewis, C.H. Spurgeon, or Augustine or any other writer, past or present, to find out about their hobbies, irritations, or what they like to eat. I read them for what they can tell me about God and how I can know and serve Him better. For current Christian leaders, does it really make the content of an author’s writing more convicting because many of his tweets share his love of ice cream or the obvious frustration of air travel? If you are in ministry, people will get to know all they need to know about you through your ministry and what is pertinent to it. You don’t have to put in extraneous personal details in text or tweets unless you honestly feel God’s calling you to do that. In addition, too many inconsequential, personal details can not only be an irritation, but a distraction from the purpose of our ministry. Our ministry focus should never be on us, we are channels only. Christian ministry isn’t, or it shouldn’t be, about celebrities. We have one Christian Computing® Magazine
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