Founder & Editor-in-Chief Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com Managing Editor Kevin Cross - kevin@ccmag.com
Applying Tomorrow’s Technology to Today’s Ministry Volume 24
November 2012
No. 11
5 cover story Church360
An interview with Bob Lail, lead developer for the new Church360°® Software Suite
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
Why aren’t The Banks Helping Us With Scams? Steve Hewitt – steve@ccmag.com
10 Minstry Leadership
© Copyright 2012 by Christian Computing®, Inc.
Get ready for big holiday events
from ACS Technologies
13 Logos CMS
Trust. But verify
16 One Call Now
from LOGOS Management Software
Spreading the Word - Peace Lutheran Church
17
Church Windows Software
from Church Windows Software from Liturgical Publications
Higher Power With Kevin
Kevin A. Purcell – kevin@kevinpurcell.org
Michael White - mlwhite@parsonplacepress.com
The Cloud
By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com
32
Nick at Church
Outlook Email Mail Merge
35 Ministry Communication
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29 The Power And The Danger
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Windows 8, Nexus Tablets, iPad Mini and Bible Study
26 Digital Evangelism
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Online Giving: A Tool for Growing an Engaged Church Membership
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Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be re-
19 Engaging Your Parishioners Online
from One Call Now
Desktop v. Web Software: Which is right for your church?
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Six Strategies for Successful Christmas Communication Outreach Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com
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Christian Computing® Magazine
November 2012
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editorial
Why Aren’t The Banks Helping Us With Scams? Steve Hewitt - steve@ccmag.com
Someone tried to scam me this last week. I was selling an old fishing boat, motor and trailer on Craig’s List in the Kansas City area. As soon as I posted the item (asking $999), within hours I had an inquiry via email. After their first post expressing interest, I received another email stating they wanted to buy the boat! The third email explained that they were called away to another city (Phoenix) and couldn’t come by to see the boat, BUT they still wanted to buy it and asked for my name and address so they could mail me a check. Things began to look suspicious. Would someone really drop $999 for a fishing boat without taking a look? Maybe, but the real key that this was a scam came when they stated they would be sending me a check for the amount I was asking for the boat AND some extra money to pay the person/company that they had contracted to ship the boat. Craig’s list has all sorts of Christian Computing® Magazine
warnings about this kind of scam. When I received the check, it was for $2,050. I was to keep $1,000 for myself and mail the extra $1,050 to the person they had contracted to come and pick up the boat and ship it. The check they sent looked pretty good. It was from a Citibank in Delaware. However, it was missing the watermark required on such checks and the back didn’t have any subtle pattern or design which now appears on most legit checks. In my research, I discovered that people are falling for this scam every day. They take the check to their banks, which cash them or deposit them. The victims are under the assumption that if the bank cashed the check and handed them the money, everything must be alright. Unfortunately, the facts are that most banks will take these bogus checks and give you the money (which is what the scammers are counting on.) You, with money in hand, feel everything is on the up and up November 2012
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and will send off your money to the shipper as requested by the fake buyer. However, in a week or two you will be notified by your bank that the money didn’t clear and YOU are the one presently in trouble. It does not make a difference to the bank that you were the victim in the scam, nor does it matter that they are in the BUSINESS of checks and banking, they will require you to refund the entire amount of the check OR you will find yourself in trouble with the law! I didn’t try to cash my check, but instead took it to the local police station where I live, a suburb of Kansas City. The scam was nothing new to our police station. Even the opportunity to trace wherever it was that the scammer wanted me to send the check wasn’t working for the police since these guys have contingencies to keep the money trail from being followed. It seems to me that the weak link in the armor here is the bank. This is their business. I did a quick check for the Citibank that was listed in Delaware. The phone number was disconnected and it appears as if that branch is no longer active. Shouldn’t my bank be able to tell that when they scan these checks through their system BEFORE they hand me good money, only to take as long as 2 weeks to properly inform me that everything was bogus. Shouldn’t the banking system be held accountable for the fact that because they are not doing their job correctly, millions of Americans are falling for this sort of scam? And WHY is it that so many victims are finding themselves facing legal charges when they are actually the victim? Don’t worry, I was not a victim. I saw the scam coming and didn’t fall for it. However, in talking to the police and in talking to other people in my community, it seems that this scam is pretty prevalent. Christian Computing® Magazine
And, more disturbing, I have heard that the banks, in conjunction with law enforcement, can come down hard on the victim who was scammed and no longer has the money that was handed to him by the bank and which he mailed to the criminals. Hey, the victim shouldn’t BE the expert in knowing if a check it bogus or forged, the banks should! With all of this new technology, and with rules such as watermarks and such, how is it that the victim is the only one left holding the bag and the banks are not being held accountable? I turned my check and emails over to the police, but I am not really confident that anything is going to be done. However, I am sure that if I had fallen for this scam, they would have been at my door, threatening charges brought by the bank against me for passing a bad check that I neither created nor forged. Someone, somewhere, needs to do something.
Together We Serve Him,
Steve Hewitt Follow me on Twitter @stevehewitt Email me at steve@ccmag.com
November 2012
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cover story
Church360°
An interview with Bob Lail, lead developer for the new Church360°® Software Suite
By Steve Hewitt
O
ver the two decades that I have served as publisher of CCMag, I have seen many great products and services come from Concordia Technology Solutions. They are now releasing their latest software suite, created by a pastor for pastors of all denominations, Church360°. Church360° is a suite of web-based solutions that can be purchased separately, or together, and is an ongoing suite with more services being added down the road. If you would like to know more (and I figured many of our readers would), please continue reading my interview with Bob Lail, lead developer for the new Church360° Software Suite.
What is Church360°? Church360° is a new software suite from Concordia Technology Solutions to help pastors, church staff, and volunteers anticipate and manage their congregational needs. The Church360° suite includes Church360° Members, Church360° Unite, and Church360° Ledger—three products that can be purchased independently or together. Can you explain the three parts a bit more? Church360° Members is church management software that supports the spiritual care of the congregation. Church360° Unite, which is coming early in 2013, is a website builder that helps churches build a unified web presence. Church360° Ledger, which is Christian Computing® Magazine
coming late in 2013, is church finance software that helps churches practice faithful stewardship. Sounds complicated. Is it? Definitely not! The Church360° Suite is all about simplicity. In fact, we are raising the bar on flexibility and intuitiveness. While other programs are perhaps flexible, but not intuitive—or intuitive, but not flexible—Church360° is built to mold itself around a user’s process and needs. What made you decide to create this software? Not only were our customers asking for a solution to their needs, but we also know that this is a different generation. Computer software has changed November 2012
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a lot in the past years, and people need web applications more and more. So, you’re a web developer and a Lutheran pastor; did that play into the creation of Church360°? Absolutely. Because of my pastoral training, I can understand the unique needs that pastors face on a day-to-day basis. While I was working on Church360°, I would often picture certain pastors that I know or certain problems that pastors encounter. Because I can put myself in their shoes, the program is well suited to be intuitive.
How can a software help provide pastoral care? Well, the software itself doesn’t provide the care, of course; but it can provide a pastor with insight into where and when a congregation member might be needing counsel. For example, a pastor can easily add reminders about when a member’s spouse died or when a couple had a miscarriage and with that information, a pastor can always recall important dates that may be significant for a member in their congregation. And that is just one example—there are dozens more.
Is the program only suitable for Lutheran pastors? No way. The program actually has modules for eight different denominations, including the different Lutheran synods, Catholics, Baptists, and so on. Within the modules, the program differs in slight ways to accommodate for differences among the denominations. Oh, and we’ll be adding more denominations to the list as we go. Adding to the list? What else will you be adding? We’ll be extending Church360° for many years. Once the entire suite has been released (at the end of 2013), we’ll work on adding and constantly adapting features. And in all actuality, our goal is not to make Church360° “the thing that has all the features,” but instead “the thing that keeps getting better and better at what it does.” Speaking of features, tell us more about Church360° Members? Church360° Members is a web-based church management system that helps pastors and ministry leaders get to know their people better and understand the trends of the congregation. It basically comes alongside pastors and helps them enhance their pastoral care. Christian Computing® Magazine
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What about Church360° Unite? Can you tell us more about that? Of course! Church360° Unite is an integrated church website builder. In other words, it helps churches develop fully functional and professional looking web sites that include blogs, calendars, and user groups. People in the church can even log in, update information, join groups, and interact with each other. As you may know, a church’s website is just as important as their property—it provides digital curbside appeal. So, having an easy way to create and update a website means having a way to easily attract and interact with the congregation. Will churches need to hire a web developer to use Church360° Unite? Absolutely not. I love that Church360° Unite will be very user friendly. Our goal is that within in a relatively short amount of time and with very little guidance, any member of the church could use Church360° Unite to get a really nice website up and running. Essentially the program helps churches build a website right, but not burden them with all the details. And they can take it as far as they want to—it can serve as an easy-to-use template (kind of like Wordpress) or they can dig into the code and change anything and everything. Tell us more about Church360° Ledger. What will that entail? Essentially Church360° Ledger is a church finance software that helps churches practice faithful stewardship. Through the use of fund accounting principles, Church360° Ledger helps leaders manage church finances without needing an accountant’s knowledge. It will be very easy to establish budgets for each account and to record transactions. Plus, ministry leaders can be assigned to specific accounts so they can review available resources without seeing sensitive data. How secure is the Church360° Ledger software? Can a church trust their finances in a web-based resource? They can and should. We use the same security measures and software as a bank would—so information is 100% secure. The software even uses a state of the art algorithm for encrypting passwords. That basically means that we—as the makers of Church360°— can’t even get to a church’s passwords—only they can. Church360° also provides different levels of Christian Computing® Magazine
permission so that users can be given access to certain parts of the software without having access to private information or financial data. Plus, we back up the servers on a daily basis. Sounds like a great feature. Among ALL of the great features in Church360°, which is your favorite? I think my favorite is the “Smart Groups” feature in Church360° Members. Smart Groups work kind of like filters. They let you describe a set of people in your congregation and name and save that group. For example, you could find every male member who has attended worship in the last month and is between 20 and 30 years old. Then you can use this smart group to e-mail everyone in the group and invite them to a young adult men’s group event—or you could graph their attendance—or see how they joined the congregation. The opportunities are endless. As a developer, what was your chief goal in creating Church360°? My chief goal with any product, really, is to delight users. You can’t do that without trying to get into their shoes. If I’ve created software that goes farther than their expectations and that surprises them occasionally with its intuitiveness, elegance, and simplicity—then I’m content. As a whole, what is the vision for Church360°? As a whole, the vision of Church360° is to anticipate the needs of the software user. We want a deeper understanding of our customers’ needs. We want to “mold” our software around them so that ultimately our customers will see past their to-do lists and focus on their ministry goals. We want Church360° to be a growing experience, a seamless journey from beginner to advanced user. Where can people go to learn more about Church360°? Our customer service team is standing by to help churches view a free demo of the software so that they can truly see how excellent it is. For that (or for more information) simply call 1-800-325-2399 or visit Church360.org.
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Christian Computing速 Magazine
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ministry leadership
Get ready for big holiday events
from ACS Technologies
A
s the days grow shorter and the end of the year looms, church calendars fill up. It’s just life when you work in ministry! Events can be small or large, but between thank-you parties for volunteers to outreach events like Toys for Tots, there’s plenty to manage and oversee. And the planning that goes into these occasions can take up a lot of time for many, many church staffers. But there’s no neglecting these events, as they can be essential touch-points for your congregation, the types of traditions that help people feel connected to the church community. And if outreach is one of your primary goals, approaching the event strategically will be absolutely essential to success. Getting started “The first step is to do your homework. It’s important to know who it is you’re reaching out to so that you can cater services, activities, and events to that demographic. A good place to start is by looking at your current attendees: • Who is currently attending your church? • What characteristics do they share? • What appeals to them to make them keep coming back? • If some aren’t coming back, what needs aren’t being met? By taking the time to understand your attendees, you’ll be able to attract similar types of people who would also connect with your church. Not being Christian Computing® Magazine
realistic in your outreach target efforts could result in wasted time and resources,” write the authors of the ministry guide Organized & Effective Outreach. Make sure your members are inviting Another important step for your holiday events is the idea of turning members into inviters. In Simply Strategic Growth, pastors Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan wrote about surveys they had conducted that found that over 74 percent of people who visited a church for the first time attended after being invited by a friend. What are you doing at your church to turn your members into inviters? Here are some tools from Organized & Effective Outreach you can provide your congregation to help turn them into inviters – both when it comes to your big holiday events and year-round: November 2012
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• Invitations – cards or online. Include the name of your church and key words to describe your church, as well as directions and times. • Email templates. Create email templates your congregants can use to follow up with people they’ve spoken to about attending your church or your event. Encourage your members to increase the email’s effectiveness by adding links to your church website and online directions. Keep track of who shows up Another essential component to successful events is attendance tracking. After all, once you get new people in the door for your big events, only half of your work is done. The important part is following up with the new people so you can get them to come back. Assess your current software systems and make sure you’re ready to collect information on new members. If at your church that means contact cards, then make sure you have people lined up to input that information and assign follow-up quickly. But consider more modern ways of gathering that data, as well. Many churches are using kiosks or laptops in their lobbies – often manned by volunteers – to gather contact information and get it into the system right away, whether that means an online contact management/communication system like Access ACS™ or a private church social network like The City. Speaking of social Don’t neglect social media when planning your big events. Signs, ads, and postcards can all be effective, but Facebook or The City Plaza events can reach more people with less cost. “For every form of online communication you use, keep them inteChristian Computing® Magazine
Download the Raising Your Volunteer Numbers Ministry Guide for ideas and practical solutions!
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/volunteer�
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grated and in sync! So for example, on your church website, make sure you have your Facebook, Twitter, and The City links plainly visible – and do the same on your Facebook account. Syncing information and providing people more than one avenue to connect with your church and your ministry efforts is crucial to reaching people and bringing them to the church,” write the authors of Organized & Effective Outreach. Bring it all together These are just a few of the big-picture considerations to keep in mind as you work through the busy upcoming season. With careful planning, your events can be great ways to engage and energize your current attenders and bring new people into the fold of your church. We’ve got more ideas for you! Just download the free ministry guide Organized & Effective Outreach and get more detail, plus ideas and tips on scheduling events, publicity, volunteers and more.
How will you reach them... ĂŌĞƌ the service? SPREAD THE WORD… with One Call Now Voice, Text and Email messaging for churches. Visit us online at onecallnow.com or call 877-698-3262 to learn more. 201208LS259
onecallnow.com
Christian Computing® Magazine
November 2012
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logos cms
LOGOS
Trust. But verify. from Logos Management Software
T
“
rust. But verify.” was a phrase made famous by Ronald Reagan. He used the phrase in negotiations with Mikhail Gorbechav. The phrase resonated among church leaders too, as LOGOS just finished a series of webinars titled, “Trust. But verify.” The aim of the webinars? To teach leaders how to put smart controls in place to prevent “fraud, and create an atmosphere of transparency – not suspicion. With the insight and help from Denise McClure, CPA, CFE and President of Averti Fraud Solutions, we armed church leaders from around the country with practical controls that begin at the point of offering and end with technology that can be used to eliminate loopholes. Interest for this was much higher than we had anticipated with well over 400 registrants ready to learn. Attendees walked away with their expectations exceeded and sent comments like, “I have a group of men who desperately need to view/hear this presentation.” “Thank you for this helpful webinar! Very helpful safeguards to implement.” “I really enjoyed this—quite thorough! Our church has many controls in place, but we need to get our policies and procedures into writing. Thank you for making this available.” Christian Computing® Magazine
“It is always a great idea on at least an annual basis to review internal controls and make sure you haven’t compromised your standards and exposed your institution to potential threats.” With 2013 right around the corner, this may be a good time to review those internal controls and make the appropriate changes part of a larger change process. What happens? The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 1 in 3 people steal to some degree from the workplace. Who are these people? It turns out, they look just like you and me. They work hard and are great at their jobs. They are, according to FBI profiles, trusted, motivated, conscientious, and typically between the ages of 30-60. They tend to have tenure and rank within an organization. Generally, an embezzler has a problem that requires November 2012
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money to solve. They don’t feel they can share their problem with friends or family so they look for their own solution. Sometimes they struggle with an addiction of some sort (gambling, shopping, or drugs); other times, it’s an attempt to pay bills or compensate for feelings of inadequacy and unfairness: the church owes me this for all the extra hours I’ve put in… it’s not fair that my neighbors can vacation in Disneyworld, so I’m just evening the score. Next is justification. It begins with “borrowing” a little. When they get away with it, the issue grows from there and, like any addiction, they can’t stop. This situation is best explained by renowned criminologist and sociologist, Donald Cressey, who developed the fraud triangle in the 1950’s. Cressey proposes that, in the situation of fraud, the person has some type of need, rationalizes that need, and then seeks an opportunity to appease the need through stealing. As a church, you can remove one of the three key components in the fraud triangle: opportunity.
create the perception of detection mentioned above. A few areas where oversight is needed: • Segregate duties as much as possible to ensure no one controls a transaction from beginning to end. For example, the person who opens the mail should not have access to the accounting system. The person who posts offertory gifts should not also reconcile your bank statements and the offertory deposits in your general ledger. • Pay the extra fee to have check images sent with the bank statement for review. If this is not an option, view a sample of checks online. • Change passwords every 3-6 months.
Removing the opportunity 1. Create a Culture of Integrity McClure recommends building integrity into your organization’s culture, starting with the interview and application process and extending through to day-today operations. The ultimate goal: establish a real perception of detection. A perception of detection atmosphere is met when leaders implement controls at every level of the organization. “Leaders set the tone at the top,” said McClure. “If those providing oversight say one thing but do another, their inconsistency can open opportunities for fraud.” In other words, church leaders need to walk the talk. 2. Implement Controls and Oversight Conducting all the oversight you say you’re going to do helps Christian Computing® Magazine
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CSG.173.mEs Digital Ad CCMag_Layout 1 8/1/12 9:25 AM Page 2
• Bank and credit card statements and cancelled checks need to be reviewed by someone who knows what they’re looking for. Casino charges on the church credit card (it’s happened!) should be an immediate red flag. • Cancelled checks made payable to an unrecognized vendor? Investigate by verifying the validity of the control copy of the bill. • Employee living a lavish lifestyle? Check it out. Be sure the people whose work you’ll be reviewing know that each transaction will be evaluated—this is the best deterrent to fraud. • Your accounting software must have a permission structure that lets you give users access to only what they need to do their job and no more. Permission needs change, so review and adjust access rights on a regular basis. ConnectNow Church Accounting’s permission controls support all levels of transaction segregation, so it’s easy to give payroll staff the ability to enter and pay bills, but have someone else add new vendors. Likewise, the person who runs your payroll can be prevented from changing pay rates or adding employees. Your system must also close periods and not permit users to print a check and then enter that same check in the system using a different payee name or period— something that is easy to do in accounting programs designed for small business owners who manage their own books. ConnectNow does not allow this, so corrections done by journal entry leave the proper audit trail. McClure reports that many a fraud scheme has been discovered during surprise audits or while an individual was away on unexpected emergency leave. Require vacations and be sure to have someone else do the person’s work while staff are away. Managers and those who serve on finance councils should receive detection training so they understand what fraudulent schemes are possible and what the warning signs are. There is, of course, a fine line here between educating on fraud detection and teaching how to steal . . . but remember your culture of integrity, oversight, and detection (and constant improvement of all of these) will work full-time to help mitigate your organization’s risk of fraud. For other webinars like “Trust. But verify.” click here to subscribe and we’ll be sure to send future webinar sessions your way.
Christian Computing® Magazine
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one call now
ONE CALL NOW
Spreading the Word
Peace Lutheran Church
T
he mission of Peace Lutheran Church is to share its faith through ongoing spiritual renewal, to serve its community through focused and compassionate outreach, and to grow leaders through ongoing, purposeful actions. THE SITUATION Peace Lutheran Church had a problem. Its monthly newsletter had become too costly and it needed a more flexible way to communicate with congregation members. The monthly newsletter was also failing as an event reminder because church members often would forget about the events by the day they were to take place. Additionally, creating the newsletter was time-consuming and there was no assurance that all church members received the important messages. THE SOLUTION Enter One Call Now. Peace Lutheran Church member, Amanda McQuade, was familiar with One Call Now through an area school system that was already using the service: “our school system uses it so I was able to tell the church more about it than they already knew after purchasing!” After a simple cost comparison, the church made the decision to go with the most beneficial and cost-effective option: One Call Now. Amanda was put in charge of running the One Call Now notifications for the church and she appreciates how simple the process has been: “I think it’s a great system - very easy to get started and very easy to use.”
THE RESULT Peace Lutheran Church members and leadership are thankful for the flexibility of One Call Christian Computing® Magazine
Now notifications. Now they are able to notify members of upcoming events much closer to the event date and even send multiple reminders. Amanda likes how simple the process is: “It’s very easy, I didn’t even need the provided help info.” If asked about One Call Now, she says she would discuss “how much I love it; how it’s so easy to use!” Peace Lutheran Church plans to continue using One Call Now for general member notifications as well as emergency alerts. Now the whole congregation can rest easy knowing that all members are protected, informed and engaged at all times. “I think it’s a great system - very easy to get started and very easy to use.” Amanda McQuade, Member of peace Lutheran Church Contact us to learn more! INDUSTRY - Religious CLIENT - Peace Lutheran Church LOCATION - Beavercreek, OH PROBLEM - No effective communication system to alert congregation of emergencies, events, etc. REPLACES - Costly, monthly newsletter
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church windows Software
CHURCH WINDOWS SOFTWARE
Desktop v. Web Software: Which is right for your church?
A
s you research software companies, one of the issues you need to address is which of these two broad options might be best for you: 1) Locally installed software, accessed both internally and remotely, or 2) Web-based software. A very basic difference between these types of church management software applications is where the software will actually be installed and stored. Software that is installed and run on the customer’s local computer has been the standard, but over the last eight years, however, a new platform has come available, which is Web-based software. Locally installed software and Web-based software each have their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. One type of application is not a blanket solution for every church customer. In making the decision between desktop-based and Web-based software, it would be helpful to be aware of a few of these advantages and concerns.
on another computer across the Internet. This option requires that both the main church computer and the remote computer have a constant and fast Internet connection, as the remote computer is actually using the resources on the church computer. One advantage to desktop-based systems is that everything is stored where the program is installed. You purchased the product – the software – and you Desktop-Based Software own the application and your data. All you need is A common misconception is that the ability to a consistent and reliable procedure for backing up work on the church database remotely is limited to your data to protect against disaster, which is advisWeb-based systems. Most desktop-based programs able for all components of your computer, not just allow installations on as many separate computers the church management data. as you need for use by your church. Therefore, an While desktop-based software typically has most option for working remotely would be to install the of its costs paid up-front, this represents a stable software on the additional computer and work offsite investment, since your monthly costs typically are by systematically backing up and restoring the data lower than Web-based software. Any other ongoing to and from the main church computer. fees might include a support contract, which is usuAnother option for working remotely with ally optional, and possible monthly fees for remote desktop-based software is to use a third-party seraccess using a third-party provider, which is again vice, such as PCAnywhere or GoToMyPC, both of optional and often lower than that of Web-based which allow an off-site computer to log on and work systems. Christian Computing® Magazine
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Disadvantages to desktop-based programs are, again, typically higher up-front fees upon purchasing the software, and since you own the software, you are usually responsible for installing any upgrades or patches on your computer, as well. Since desktop-based software is installed and runs directly from your computer, it is also advisable to purchase larger, faster computers than might be necessary with Web-based systems. Web-Based or “Online� Church Software Systems The ability to access the church database from anywhere at any time is a very popular feature, and it is a large reason for the growing popularity of Web-based systems. This characteristic is appreciated, if not required, by larger church organizations that have many staff members routinely working away from a main church office. Another advantage to Web-based systems is that they can be used at any computer with an Internet connection and a browser regardless of operating system. Whether Windows PC, MAC, iPad, or Android tablet, web-based church software can usually accommodate data access. Data backups and software updates are both typically automatically performed. Security is always a concern when communicating across the Internet. While data encryption, firewalls, and other defensive procedures are a prerequisite for offering Web-based systems, nothing is 100% effective 100% of the time. Though web-software hosts know their business and know that security must be a top prority While the cost for Web-based software is typically a monthly fee, the fee structure can vary widely from one company to another. Some charge based on church size (and be sure to know how your fees may grow as your church grows), some costs are based on the number of users who will be accessing the software, some charge based on the features the church would like to use, and so on. With a Web-based system, since the church does not own a copy of Christian ComputingŽ Magazine
the software itself, it is important that the software company be stable, reliable and not in danger of going out of business, since typically, once the company is gone, your software is gone, as well. Factors to Consider There are major considerations that pertain to all types of church management software, as well. With both platforms, you, as the customer, are still required to own and maintain your own computers, ensuring that operating system updates are installed, security updates are installed, and firewalls are maintained and updated with latest virus definitions. Also, regardless of the type of church management software you use, the church customer needs to ensure that all staff members are trained in the use of the software and know how to contact the software company for support. Marla Becker is a vice president at Computer Helper Publishing, home of Church Windows church management software, www.churchwindows.com.
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engaging your parishioners online
ENGAGING YOUR PARISHIONERS ONLINE
Online Giving:
A Tool for Growing an Engaged Church Membership from Liturgical Publications
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n 1904 Ivan Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work on conditioning and involuntary reflex actions. The story goes that every time he fed his dog he would ring a bell. The dog was conditioned that when the bell rang, he ate. Eventually, when the bell rang but no food was presented the dog would still salivate. Pavlov’s research on conditional reflexes has influenced not only science, but also popular culture. The phrase “Pavlov’s dog” is used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation rather than using critical thinking. Why is the reaction of your average parishioners when they hear the term stewardship to suddenly grab their wallets? Like Pavlov’s dog, the average parishioner has been conditioned that when the church talks of stewardship it is really a euphemism for “we need your money.” Like the teacher in the old Charlie Brown cartoons, we speak in stewardship terms of “time, talent, and treasure.” Parishioners, however, hear only “we need your money.” As Catholics, we need to break this involuntary reflex action, but how? Christian Computing® Magazine
Good Stewardship Is the Culture We Need to Create How did we get here? Money and donations should not be the focus of stewardship, rather money and donations should be one of the results of a good stewardship program. It is our job to build an engaged church, an active and vibrant church, a church that attracts and retains members, and a church that affects a person’s soul. Do members just show up for an hour on Sunday or are they engaged and dedicated to the various ministries the church provides? As November 2012
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your parishioners become more engaged, they become more emotionally committed to the success of church and its mission. As people are emotionally committed to the success of the church, they willingly choose to contribute and feel good about their donation. That personal decision to contribute to the church becomes a positive experience for them. They willingly donate to the church when they understand and then see what their donation will accomplish.
of online banking, it’s not something they do that often anymore―except for the one check they write to church. They have a general understanding that they “should” contribute to the church, but how often do they think about why they should contribute. Is there a better way? Is online giving the answer?
Why EFT Isn’t Working Many churches already offer a distant cousin to online giving by allowing members to auto“Turn Off the TV and Get Ready for Church” matically transfer money from their account to For many years the church has used a system the church via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Many of those churches are disappointed that of envelopes to collect donations. Parishioners more people are not using this service. Despite are given a box of envelopes that include their being told that it will save the church money on name, their envelope number, and a small box the printing and distribution of the envelopes, in which they are to write the amount of their still a very small percentage of parishioners take donation. Inside the envelope they are to insert advantage of EFT. their cash or check and at the time of the collection during Mass, they drop their envelope There are two primary reasons why EFT iniin the basket. Let’s examine the psyche of the average parishioner as they insert their contribu- tiatives tend to fail: 1. After announcing this service is available, tion in the envelope. parishioners rarely hear about it again. It’s Sunday morning and the family wakes. 2. If they take advantage of this service, they After the fourth time of yelling to the kids to “turn off the TV and get ready for church” Mom and Dad walk into the kitchen twenty minutes before Mass to see cereal bowls in the sink, milk spilled on the counter, and the kids still not ready to go. While Mom cleans up the mess in the kitchen, Dad turns off the TV and yells one last time to get dressed, brush your teeth, “we’re leaving in five minutes!” Making sure the kids have their coats on, they corral the kids in the car and speed away to get to church on time. As the car races to church to try to get there before the first reading begins, Mom is writing the check on the way to church; hopefully she remembered the envelope. Sound familiar? The problem is that for most people, the process of writing the check is something they don’t give much thought too. In fact, in this era Christian Computing® Magazine
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lose control of their donation process. How do they make a change to their donation if necessary? Generally they have to call the rectory and have a potentially embarrassing conversation with someone to explain they no longer can donate at the level they committed. Most people will avoid that conversation if at all possible. Consequently, while it is less convenient to write a check each week, it is perceived as being the less painful choice. Very few people are willing to abdicate control of their finances.
about outcomes. We thirst for an understanding of the good things that will occur as a result of our donation. Americans are a compassionate people. A study conducted by Center on Wealth and Philanthropy said in 2007, Americans gave over $217 billion to charity. Your online giving tool needs to support your effort and drive engagement. It should help you create an emotional connection with the person considering a contribution to the church. The more effective you are
There are many online giving solutions that allow a member to control their donations. Many are sold to churches with the expectation of increasing donations. But if all they do is replicate the function of the envelope, is it realistic for a church to expect an increase in its donations? Unless the church changes its approach, the answer is, sadly, no. The problem with most of the online giving tools available today is that they replicate the function of the envelope really well. They allow for the transaction of donating to the church similarly to the approach of the envelope. A potential donor arrives at a website and sees a collection called “Sunday Offertory” with a box (similar to the envelope) where they are expected to enter in the amount of their donation, along with their banking information. There is no emotional connection to the church, no understanding of what their donation will accomplish and no connection to stewardship. Again, they act like Pavlov’s dog. Creating the Emotional Connection There is a better way to stress the positive concepts of stewardship that will drive an increase in donations. As humans we’re all Christian Computing® Magazine
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in helping members understand the good things that will occur as a result of their donation, the more the potential donor will internalize these good things and want them to occur. This will make them more likely to donate, and when they donate they donate more money. Your online giving tool needs to provide this understanding. If you don’t communicate well, then just like the family writing the check on the way to church, they don’t think about why they are donating or the things that will occur as a result of their donation. WeShare, the tool for online giving offered by Liturgical Publications Inc (LPi), helps you paint a vivid picture of what their contributions to the church will accomplish.
shelby Church Software
“I use Shelby to assign & manage workflows to different church staff members.”
For More Information To hear more on how Online Donations can increase giving, choosing an online giving provider and creating an emotional connection with your parishioners online, download the complete whitepaper, here. Mike Stone is the Internet Product Manager for Liturgical Publications Inc (LPi), www.4LPi.com, an organization that provides print publications, communication solutions, and online donation services to Catholic parishes. Mike can be reached at mstone@4LPi.com.
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November 2012
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higher power with kevin
Windows 8, Nexus Tablets, iPad Mini and Bible Study Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org
Windows 8 and Bible Study Should people run out and get a Windows 8 computer or tablet to do Digital Bible Study using their favorite applications? The answer is a simple yes and no. Kidding aside, it’s a complicated question thanks to the confusing naming schemes Microsoft chose for their new operating systems. That’s right - systems as in plural meaning more than one. Microsoft actually released three new operating systems last month - Windows RT for tablets, Windows 8 for computers and Windows Phone 8 for smartphones. I say their naming scheme confuses buyers because the only version of Windows that really works like the Windows you run on your desktop or laptop is Windows 8. Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 look like the new Windows 8 but won’t run the Bible software you installed on your laptop or desktop. Microsoft now makes operating systems for computers, mobile phones, tablets and their XBox 360 gaming system. The last one doesn’t really matter. Believe it or not people can get a Bible for their XBox 360 (see Bible Navigator X at http://bit.ly/ TQAy9B I bring up XBox, because I always thought Christian Computing® Magazine
Microsoft should save the Windows name for their operating systems that run on a computer - laptops or desktops. They could then uses the XBox brand for these new tablets and their phones. Who wouldn’t want an XTablet or an XPhone. They really should hire me, because I’d do a much better job at marketing their software and I run mostly Macs these days. For our purposes, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT matter for doing Bible study. Let’s take them in order. Windows 8 serves as the successor to the Windows operating system for desktops and laptops. The new operating system brings a brand new face focused on tiles instead of icons. The tiles not only launch the applications, but they often show information. For example, a Twitter app tile might show a live twitter feed and tweets that mention the user or respond to the user’s tweets. A weather app tile might show the current conditions and temperature. Right now, there’s only a few Bible apps that run in the Windows 8 tile interface. All of the advanced applications we’re used to discussing will launch in what Microsoft calls the Windows 8 Desktop, an interface that looks exactly like the old Windows user interface. It closes up the tile look and looks exactly November 2012
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like the old Windows we know and either love or hate. A few minor Bible apps work in the tile user in-
terface, but they’re not serious. One displays a Bible verse a day with nice images. I really like it for what it does. The rest offer simple Bible reading options and little more. I know that at least a few major Bible software makers are actively working on a versions of their apps that work in this new style. This leads us to Windows RT. This version of Windows looks exactly like the new Windows 8 user interface but runs on tablets instead of Intel or AMD based laptop or desktop computers. It’s simpler and users can’t load their old Windows software on the tablets. Only apps from the Microsoft app store will work on the devices, much like we get with the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. If you buy a tablet like the Microsoft Surface, don’t plan on running serious Bible software for at least a few months or longer. Search our archives for my post on online Bible sites because that’s the only way you’ll do serious study till the app makers get their Windows RT apps out the door. As for Windows Phone 8, it suffers the same dirth of apps as Windows RT since developers use the same tools to make both kinds of apps. I won’t buy a Windows RT tablet or a Windows Phone 8 device until my favorite mobile apps get ported. It’s in progress and may come sooner than I expect. But until then stay away from any Windows RT or Windows Phone 8 devices.
Google Nexus 7 tablet hit this past summer running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. It uses a fast processor and runs on a beautiful seven inch screen. The Nexus 7 is a great device with only one serious flaw. Buyers can get one with a wireless mobile data service from Verizon, AT&T or any other device. I’m running a number of awesome Android Bible apps on my Nexus 7. It’s the perfect size for reading in bed or on the road. I use it often, mostly at home due to the Wi-Fi only features. Google announced that in the middle of November they will release a version of the Nexus 7 tablet with more storage and HDSPA+ wireless data. If you’re not familiar with this wireless specification, it runs faster than traditional 3G but slower than the LTE you keep hearing about. If you own an iPhone 3G, 4 or 4S phone you’re running HSDPA+ wireless. Google will also release a new Nexus 10, which has a ten inch screen but only Wi-Fi. It’s a higher resolution than the iPad’s retina display. iPad Mini and Bible Study This was the most underwhelming iPad announcement ever. I really like the smaller size (see my comments about the Nexus 7 above) but this new iPad offers old technology and its too expensive. Google’s new Nexus comes at a lower cost and has a better screen with higher resolution. That means your text will look more crisp and easier to read. Surprisingly, Apple also announced a new fourth generation iPad with a ten inch screen and the beautiful high resolution screen. It gives users a faster processor and now runs on Sprint’s mobile data network to go along with Verizon and AT&T previously available. Which Tablet Should I Buy?
Nexus Tablets and Bible Study A new kid on the block moved in with lots of fanfare. The Christian Computing® Magazine
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While a tablet gets used for many other purposes, for Bible study alone I’d recommend the following tablets in order from best to worst choice. 1. The tablet you own now - none of these new tablets warrants replacing a perfectly good tablet that’s working for you. If your not happy with your current tablet then get the … 2. Apple iPad - if you can afford it, get a 4th generation iPad with 4G LTE. To save a few bucks look for a refurbished 3rd generation at Apple’s online store. Apple still sells the iPad 2 as a budget option. All three run the best Bible apps and even when one app is available on both an iPad and Android they iPad version almost invariably offers more features. 3. Google Nexus 7 Tablet - Wait till November 13 or soon after to get the one with wireless HSDPA+ if you can afford to pay for a wireless data package. Otherwise get the Wi-Fi only version. For those who prefer a larger ten-inch screen grab the Wi-Fi only Nexus 10. 4. Windows 8 Pro Tablets or Convertible Notebooks - Don’t buy a Windows 8 machine right now unless you want a laptop or desktop system. Then be sure to get one with a touchscreen
Christian Computing® Magazine
or a really great touchpad. I saw a really nice machine from Lenovo called the Lenovo Twist. The screen twists around and folds back down to cover the keyboard so it looks like a big tablet. The design isn’t new. I bought one years ago and my wife uses it now primarily as a laptop. It has a stylus and runs all of the Bible software I’ve written about here that is designed for Windows PCs. To read more about this, please see a great mobile tech blog called GottaBeMobile.com. I write software, app and gadget reviews as well as cover news and share my opinions along with a team of really knowledgable and connected people. If it has to do with mobile technology, you can read about there. For news and information about Notebook technology, see Notebooks.com, where I review computers, software and gadgets for notebook computers. As always you can see my personal blog, KevinPurcell. org for news and information about Digital Bible Study among other things of interest to me. Follow me on Twitter @kapurcell.
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digital evangelism
Thank God!
Michael L White - mlwhite@parsonplace.com
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e use the statement, “Thank God!” all too loosely in our daily conversations and other communications, but do we really mean it? I mean, is it truly a statement of gratitude to God or is it simply an expression of relief? What do we mean by it if we don’t mean to thank God for whatever we’re exclaiming? Good question! Since the month of November brings with it the annual observance of Thanksgiving Day in the United States on the fourth Thursday of the month, this is a time when we should genuinely thank God, if we don’t do so any other time. We decorate our homes, schools, offices, churches, and towns with cut-outs of pilgrims, American Indians, turkeys, cornucopia and such to commemorate the historic first Day of Thanksgiving which the first American colonists celebrated in 1621. We prepare enormous feasts with which to gorge ourselves and invite as many family and friends as are willing and able to dine with us. Finally, we pause for one to two minutes to say a perfunctory prayer of thanks to assuage our conscience that we have given due diligence to offering thanks before we dig into all the deliChristian Computing® Magazine
cious delicacies, which is our primary reason for gathering, and then we promptly forget about how all these things came to pass. We choose to focus instead on “Black Friday” and whatever the latest trends are in toys, fashion, etc. so we can be first in line at the department stores to fight over quasi bargains. Just contemplating that shopping scenario is enough to make me lose my appetite! No, it isn’t the first American pilgrims and the welcoming American Indians who provided saving assistance to those pilgrims that we should thank for originating this historic feast. Nor should we turn our eyes upon the government with gratitude for supposedly giving us the wherewithal to prosper and setting aside the holiday and putting it on the calendar. Even though we think we have already thanked God when we November 2012
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offered that two minute prayer before feasting, it is the ongoing attitude of gratitude in our hearts that proves whether we have truly given thanks to God on this special Thanksgiving Day and every day thereafter. What will it take for us to be truly thankful to God for all He has done for us and given to us throughout our lives? Do we have to lose what is precious to us before we can genuinely appreciate God’s goodness to us? Even then, do we become angry with God for allowing the loss of that which is precious to us, even though we took it for granted until we lost it, or do we humble ourselves and pray the prayer of praise and thanksgiving anyway? Can we say with Job, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD…. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 1:21 & 13:15 NKJV)? Can we still thank God, as Job did, after losing our home and possessions and loved ones in a storm or a flood or a fire or an earthquake or even an economic downturn? Do we have to experience the demise of our nation and its amazing Constitution guaranteeing basic freedoms before we realize not only the sacred duty but the holy obligation we have to elect godly men and women (those who believe in and adhere to biblical principles and commandments) to lead our government? Perhaps the truest test of devotion to God comes in terrible times of disappointment, suffering and loss in our lives. Can we still say, “Thank God!” when disaster strikes us? If you haven’t experienced one of these aforementioned occasions in your life yet, brace yourself, because you will eventually, if you live long enough. Christian Computing® Magazine
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What does any of this have to do with digital evangelism? Well, if the use of blogging, email, Web sites, e-newsletters, etc. (and even the writing of articles for magazines such as this one) for the cause of Christ constitutes digital evangelism, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that using either or all of these means to emphasize the need for genuine thankfulness to God qualifies as digital evangelism as well? If we can blog about our take on politics, sports, or whatever other topics may arouse our passions, can we not also blog about the importance of developing and maintaining a
deeply personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords? I think we can, and I intend to do so in the various forums where I write, which happen to include some of these same venues I’ve just mentioned. Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful time to show our thanks to God, but let’s not wait for this one day a year to thank God for His goodness to us. Let’s demonstrate our gratitude by giving back to God with everything we have, including our praise and worship, worldly goods, time, and even our family. After all, everything that we have, including our very souls (if we’ve accepted Him as our Lord and Savior), belong to Him anyway (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). That means God can allocate and reallocate these resources any way and any… reach out where He chooses, including removing them altogether and … minister to people giving them to another who … create fellowship will be a better steward (Matthew 25:28-39). … contribute to Let’s not wait for calamyour community ity to take away that which is precious to us before we show PowerChurch Plus was God our deep gratitude and apcreated for just that! preciation for it. Next time you say, “Thank God!”, mean it. I pray this Thanksgiving Day observance will be the best We provide you with the tools to ever, no matter what we’ve lost increase administrative efficiency leading up to it.
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Michael L. White is the founder and Managing Editor of Parson Place Press, an independent Christian publishing house in Mobile, Alabama. His book Digital Evangelism: You Can Do It, Too! (Parson Place Press, April 2011) is available wherever books are sold. For a list of his other books and articles, visit his Web site at books.parsonplace.com.
www.PowerChurch.com • 800.486.1800 3&6 &KXUFK([HFXWLYHB [ LQGG
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the power and the danger
The Cloud
By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com
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y the time you read this, for many of you, Superstorm Sandy will be a distant memory. But, I know some of you will still be dealing with the impact of this devastating hurricane. Nearly 8 million people lost power. Thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed. At least 124 people were killed across the region. Telecom services, both wireless and wireline, were knocked out across broad geographic areas. Although we, as Christians, have some solace in knowing that our God is sovereign and that he works all things to our good and His glory, disasters of this scope and scale are simply overwhelming tragedies for those at the center of them, even for those with the strongest faith. It is my hope and prayer that this column honors our brothers and sisters in the region and does not minimize what they have been through and continue to endure. That being said, I believe one way that God uses events like Sandy to our good is to serve as a wakeup call to our frailty and our dependence on Him. As technologists, we must have a healthy fear of the Lord. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10). The wisdom that we have from God, and our fear of the power of God displayed in natural disasters should lead us to consider how prepared we are for disasters that might impact our homes, our churches, our ministries, or our businesses. If you Christian Computing® Magazine
lost power, could you keep operating? If you lost your computers, could you recover? Although it was massive clouds that rained down destruction on the northeastern U.S., I propose that “the cloud” may be a valuable ally in preparing for the next calamity. What is the Cloud? Exactly a year and a half ago I wrote about the cloud in the very first “power and danger” column. In that column, I described the cloud in this way: “Cloud computing gets its name from the concept of moving computing activities (processing, storage, database management, content streaming, etc.) off of dedicated resources in an environment controlled by the owner of those activities and into ‘the cloud’ – the amorphous and ever-changing collection of resources connected to the Internet.” At the time, there had been a number of highprofile failures by cloud service providers, but even so I described the benefits: “new types of services are providing flexibility, agility, and November 2012
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theoretically reliability that has previously been hard for organizations and individuals to achieve.” I concluded the column on a favorable note: “Do these three failures mean that we should give up on cloud services? For most of us, the answer is a resounding no. These providers invest $billions to implement reliability well beyond what our small budgets could match. Yes, there will be outages, but in all of these cases, customers didn’t lose data, and the systems were back up relatively quickly. If you’ve ever suffered a major system outage, I’m guessing there’s a good chance you can’t make the same claim.” How could the Cloud help prepare for disasters? There are many cloud services, but I’d like to focus on three types for your consideration to provide you and your organization flexibility in adapting to difficult circumstances. The first is simple e-mail services. Very few organizations actually manage their own mail servers these days, but cloud-based e-mail services, like Google Apps, provide great flexibility in configuring and managing your e-mail accounts. A cloud-based e-mail solution also eliminates the risk that a single lost server can take down your ability to communicate and wipe out years worth of back messages. Google offers free accounts for non-profits with fewer than 3,000 users. Google Apps includes more than just e-mail, with personal and shared calendars, shared file storage, and Google Docs. Which leads to the second type of cloud service worth considering – cloud based documents. There are a number of Christian Computing® Magazine
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services out there that replace your PC-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software with web-based equivalents. In addition to Google Docs, alternatives include Zoho, Peepel, OpenGoo, Microsoft Office Live, and Buzzword. Web-based document editors makes it easy to share documents with others in your organization and to collaborate. More importantly, from a disaster recovery perspective, cloud-based documents are independent of any single PC or location, making it easy to pick up where you left off, even if you’re starting from scratch with a new computer. Of course, there will always be files that we need to store on our local machine. That doesn’t mean we can’t protect against loss of that system. There are a number of cloud backup solutions that automatically keep updated copies of your critical files stored in the cloud, ready to be restored to your original or new system. Some of the leading options include SugarSync, CrashPlan, Carbonite, Mozy, and ElephantDrive. Does the Cloud represent danger to our churches? There are two concerns we should have with Cloud-based solutions. The first is with the security and privacy of our information. The second is with the reliability of the service. For security and privacy, a couple of the articles I read in researching this column recommended using encryption software (such as TrueCrypt) in conjunction with cloud-based backup solutions. Since Cloud-based solutions are designed to make it easy to share information with other users or to restore data to different computers, there will always be a risk that the wrong people will gain access to the data. You must weigh this against the benefits of a cloudbased solution. When it comes to reliability, we must consider two scenarios – what if the service is down when I need it, or worse yet, what if the provider goes out of business or otherwise shuts down the service? Can you extract your data from the service and migrate to a competing service? These concerns are particularly valid for cloud-based document solutions, which may Christian Computing® Magazine
drive you to the solutions from more well-established providers, such as Microsoft, Google, or Adobe. Similarly, the reliability of the service itself is probably relatively well correlated to the size and maturity of the provider. Outages will happen with any solution – the whole point of this column is to make sure you can recover as quickly and smoothly as possible. It is my hope and prayer that these articles 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, the Cloud, mobility, Wi-Fi, or map apps, 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 seven young men under Russ’ direction.
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nick at church
Outlook Email Mail Merge Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com
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ombining the power of Outlook and Mail Merge can help you communicate better! Windows and Mac Outlook versions are different, so let’s look at how to do mail merges in both!
What is Mail-Merge? Okay, the basics first. Mail merge is the tool that allows you to create one document, like a letter or an email, and send it to many people with their personalized information inserted throughout so that it feels as though it was written just to them. We normally think of doing that in a letter in Word. But it can be done in Outlook, sending personalized emails to many people all at once! Mail Merge Data Source You can have more than one kind of data source— where the recipients’ name, email address, etc are located. The two easiest to work with are: • Outlook Contacts. If all the information you want to use in your mail merged email is in your contacts, that’s the quickest and easiest data source. • Excel Spreadsheet. You can also build a spreadsheet if you need to include more information Christian Computing® Magazine
than what is available in your Outlook Contacts. This is a great option if you want to export the recipients’ data from a database, too, since many databases will export in a spreadsheet format. If you will be using an Excel spreadsheet, I recommend using a header row (the first row in the spreadsheet) to label the data that will be in each column. Here’s an example:
Those column labels will come in handy when creating your mail merge file. Making the first column the email address can make the process easier, but isn’t actually necessary. Whether you use Windows or a Mac, the process of mail merging emails actually happens in Word, so that’s where we’ll start. November 2012
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In Word 2013 for Windows In Windows, click on the Mailings tab (this process is the same in Office 2007, 2010, and 2013), then click on Start Mail Merge and choose Email Messages. Then click on Select Recipients, where you’ll have the opportunity to type a new list, use an existing list (this option opens a dialogue box in which you can navigate to an existing file), or select from Outlook contacts (the first time you choose this option it may ask you to select a profile; most likely only one exists). The next step is to click Greeting Line on the Mailings tab. Here you’ll format how you’d like the greeting to appear in the email. Here’s a tip: you can overwrite the options, changing Dear to Howdy and following it with an exclamation mark rather than a comma even though those options don’t appear in the pull-down list by simply clicking on that field and typing what you’d like. Use words and formatting that reflect how you normally communicate. Now you can type your email and insert data from your file or Outlook contacts. For instance, you might type, “Thank you, ” and then want to insert the recipients’ first names. When you get to the point where you’d like the first names to be inserted, click Insert Merge Field on the Mailings tab and select that field. Using the Excel spreadsheet above, and continuing the sentence after inserting the merge field, my sentence looks like this:
«First_Name», please feel free to email or call me with any question you may have. Once you’ve written your email form letter, I recommend testing it to make certain it says what you want, and says it well, before sending. This is an important step that can make the difference between a warm and personal email vs an obvious form letter. To do so, simply click the Preview Results option on the Mailing tab. There are arrows next to that option that will scroll you through the recipient data so you can see/ read how the final email will be constructed. You can unclick that option and continue editing your email form letter and then preview it again as often as necessary to get it just right. When you’re pleased with what the results will be, click the Finish & Merge option on the Mailings tab, and then select the Send E-mail Messages option. That will send the emails— each individually addressed and constructed to just one person. In Word 2011 for Mac
Thank you, «First_Name», for joining us Sunday morning here at First Church. “«First_Name»” is the wild card field name that will pull each recipient’s name and insert it there when the process is completed. You can continue writing the email, being as personal as you’d like by inserting the merge fields you need to accomplish your communication goal— even re-using fields to help make it a warm letter! For instance, towards the end of the email you may want to say something like: Christian Computing® Magazine
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On a Mac click the Outlook Tools menu option, and then click on Mail Merge Manager, and click on Create New. The option to begin creating your email mail merge is Form Letters. Then click on Get List and choose Open Data Source to open an Excel spreadsheet, for example, or Office Address Book to use your Outlook contacts. If you’re using your Outlook contacts you’ll use the Filter Recipients Options to choose which contacts to include. In that window you can choose among Categories or Complete Records— Complete Records lets you select specific individuals. The rest of the process is exactly like what I described in the Windows section, beginning with the third paragraph of that section. Using this powerful tool will help you communicate better when emailing to groups of people. It eliminates the need for putting a lot of email addresses in the To, CC, or BCC fields and has the potential of making each email warm and personal. 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.
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Nick Nicholaou, President
“. . . freeing those in ministry from business distractions.” Phone: 714.840.5900 • www.mbsinc.com • info@mbsinc.com
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ministry communication
Six Strategies for Successful Christmas Communication Outreach Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com
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hristmas outreach is not only a time for your to bring in new people to your church, but it can also be a time to remind your congregation about the importance of sharing their faith and an opportunity to give them the tools to do it. Following are six communication strategies that will help:
1. Spend time in prayer asking God to impress on your heart the seriousness and the privilege of your communication opportunities at Christmas. People who don’t come to church any other time of the year will come to Christmas events to be with family. This might be your one opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus with them. Far beyond giving people a pleasant Christmas experience in music, drama, traditional services, or watching the cute things children do, their eternal destiny can be altered. In addition to your personal convictions, pray for fire in your soul as you motivate your people to be part of your church Christmas communication outreach. Remind them that Jesus is the reason for the season, not because we needed a reason to buy stuff, but because we needed salvation from our sins. What prophets and people anticipated for millennia, as they looked forward to the Messiah, we must be careful not to trivialize. 2. Based on your time with the Lord, as a ministry team, decide what you want your Christmas communication message to be. Come up with one overall theme and a slogan that summarizes it. This is key because you want all of your Christian Computing® Magazine
advertising, publications, and preaching to reflect that one theme. You will change the medium that you use, but your core message must stay the same for maximum retention and response. Where to get a theme? One of the best places for inspiration is from the lyrics of Christmas Carols. Here is an article that lists the carols in the Public Domain along with some ideas on how to use them: http://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2012/11/christmas-carols-asinspiration-for-christmas-outreach-sermons-websitecontent/ 3. Select graphics, colors, images to portray that theme and use them consistently throughout all your advertisements. Along with the theme, select a primary graphic image and colors that you will use in all your holiday outreach. I emphasize the word “all” because churches often want to change colors or images they use to promote events. They do this because a common misconception is: “If I keep saying things the same way, my audience will get bored.” Wrong. Audiences don’t get bored, audiences get confused. Great advertising campaigns always keep a core message the same for a lengthy period of time for it to have November 2012
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every person in the congregation has to be convinced that THEY need to be the ones inviting their friends, praying for them and working hard to get them to Christmas events at church. Remember the primary responsibility of church leaders and communication creators is not to bring in new people to the church; your job is to equip the saints so they can do the work of the ministry. You decide the theme; you create the communications; then you equip your congregation to do the inviting. Not only is this the best way to get a large group of people to your events this way, but even more important, your people will grow in their outreach skills if they participate in it. If the church buys the entire process of outreach advertising and inviting, outreach becomes something the church purchases, not a personal responsibility. Instead, if you have preached about the eternal importance of Christmas, reminded your people of Christ’s commands to share their faith, created tools such as, postcards, door-hangers, invitation cards, and digital invitations for church members, and then challenged them to pray for and invite their friends, Christmas outreach becomes the responsibility of the entire church.
impact. Think about the “Got Milk?” or “Just do it!” or any other marketing campaign that is successful for illustrations of this. The most successful companies in the world have an image that never changes--think Target or Apple--you immediately know what their logo looks like. On a much smaller scale, if you continuously change the image that goes with your Christmas theme, people will see the image first and assume it’s for a different event. You may get bored using the same image again and again, but it’s much better that you get bored than your audience becomes confused. 4. Decide on a variety of ways to communicate your message; use and repeat as many as you can. We live in a time of multi-channel communication where we need to use different communication channels to reach different age and interest groups. Communicate your message through postcards, bulletin announcements and inserts, invitations, web page entries, email blasts, verbal reminders, phone calls, social media, Facebook, Twitter, whatever you can as many times as you can. 5. Once you have the overall approach and the communication pieces, equip your congregation For any church holiday outreach to be successful, Christian Computing® Magazine
6. Share your personal convictions and outreach plans. Share from the pulpit, blogs, Facebook and tweets, messages like this: • “As I look ahead to Christmas, I remember what it was like before I knew the Lord— my brother’s invitation for me to come on Christmas Eve changed my life.” • “I’m praying for Peter, the barista at my local Starbucks and an opportunity to invite him to church.” • “My kids are sharing invitations to our Christmas Eve service to their friends along with cookies they made.” • “My relatives back home don’t know Jesus—so I’m sending some links to our blogs about why Jesus really is the reason for the season.” Share with your congregation who you are praying for, how you give out or send out invitations, how you follow up to be sure people attend. Never, ever expect your congregation to do more than what you are doing. There will always be more you can do, but if you try these six strategies, you’ll be sure to increase the committed involved members in your congregation who will not only bring friends to your Christmas outreach events, but who will learn how to do personal evangelism in the process. For many more ideas on how to effectively communicate at Christmas, for ready-to-print templates, and PDFs, of Christmas outreach materials, go to: http://www. effectivechurchcom.com/category/seasonal/christmasseasonal-communications/ November 2012
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