Christian Computing Magazine - January 2014 by Now - Ministry Tech Magazine

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 26

January 2014

No. 1

4 cover story

Christian Computing Magazine Turns 25 Years Old!

Copy Editors Gina Hewitt Magen Cross

By Steve Hewitt

3 9

Corporate Home Office

Editorial

Mailing address:

2014 – The Year to Simplify Your Tech Life

Steve Hewitt - steve@CDPublishers.com

Ministry Leadership

To Find a Church, Turn on Faithstreet.com

turned. Christian Computing® Magazine reserves

By: Susan Codone

Higher Power With Kevin

The Power And The Danger

the right to make any changes to materials submitted for publication that are deemed necessary for editorial purposes. The content of this publi-

Kevin A. Purcell – kevin@kevinpurcell.org

Chromebooks for Bible Study

become the property of Christian Computing®, Inc. upon receipt and may not necessarily be re-

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

By: Craig Chadwell

17 The Browser

Christian Computing® is a registered trademark

The End of Windows XP

Beyond the Church Walls - How Blogging can help Pastors and Churches By: Amy Scott-Lundy

15 Church Windows Software

306 Eagle Glen Ct Raymore MO 64083

Phone: (816) 331-5252 FAX: 800-456-1868

Protected with Purpose

Windows XP Unplugged By: Steven Sundermeier

Contributing Editors Yvon Prehn Nick Nicholaou Kevin A. Purcell Russ McGuire Michael L White

cation may not be copied in any way, shape or form without the express permission of Christian

Android Powered Cars By: Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

Computing®, Inc. Views expressed in the articles and reviews printed within are not necessarily

26 Digital Evangelism

the views of the editor, publisher, or employees

Digital Evangelism for Websites - Using Analytics for Your Web Pages By: Michael White

of Christian Computing® Magazine, or Christian

29 Ministry Communication

Computing, Inc.

A Collection of Communication Trends for 2014 - Plus Links for Implementation Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

32 Nick At Church

Why Churches Change ChMS Providers

Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

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

Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

editorial

2014 – The year to simplify your tech life Steve Hewitt - steve@CDPublishers.com

If you are like me technology and the many solutions and opportunities they provide to connect and communicate are overwhelming. Do you use Twitter? Facebook? Google+? Do you send out text messages and do you blog? Has your church tried webinars, Skype, or Google Hangout? Are you providing streaming video of your services, or at least podcasting? If you believe all of the blogs and tweets out there, if you’re not using Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Instagram, have a video or two up on YouTube and haven’t moved to SnapChat to reach your young people, you may be a failure as a pastor or church staff member! In the last 25 years, I have made a lot of predictions. Most of them have come true. I am predicting that this magnitude of communication and connection social media tools will cause many to experience enough frustration in trying to connect to friends and family that many will throw up their hands and withdraw from the whole mess. And, since churches seek to connect, communicate and market, most have been compelled to attempt to use these new communication tools to connect with their memberships as well as prospects. The effort for many has been futile and exasperating. This is the year for churches to step back and evaluate the best technology methods to connect and communicate. Watch for a special article covering my top three tools for your church to use in 2014! This year we are preparing to help churches find the best methods to communicate and connect with Christian Computing® Magazine

their membership. We know that for many of our readers, technology tools are taking too much time from actual ministry. We promise to concentrate on what tools, products and services actually translate into real ministry, and we commit to you that we will help you narrow your technology connection tools down to those that really work! Watch for more articles next month and throughout the year. And, to get things started, we have moved to a new simple to use website. You don’t have to register to read our articles or access much of our other content, nor will you have to join specific communities to access particular content. I don’t know if you made any New Year resolutions, but I have, and this year I am going to stop chasing the latest fads and start using technology tools that work. And this year, we will concentrate on technology tools that translate to real ministry. My promise to you! Together We Serve Him,

Steve Hewitt steve@cdpublihsers.com January 2014

cover story

Christian Computing Magazine Turns 25 Years Old! Where we have been and where we are heading!

By Steve Hewitt

can still remember the first cover of Christian Computing Magazine (CCMAG) that went out to 1,000 readers (a little over 100 were paid subscribers), back in January of 1989. At the time, I had just purchased an IBM 286Z with money from a bank loan. That and the toner printer we used cost over $10,000. And, since we were still on MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) we used a word processor program to produce one column of text at a time and then moved to a drafting table to cut and paste (literally, not like on your computer, but with real scissors and glue) the pages together. A lot has happened with technology in the last 25 years. It was exciting to see four translations on a screen at one time back in 1990 (Biblesoft). Remember, Windows wasn’t around yet and this was a cool feature. I watched as Bible study software grew and evolved. Over the years multiple translations were added, the ability to include your own notes, search features improved as did speed. And, I still remember how cool it was to have the entire Bible in KJV fit on ONE 3/5 floppy disk! When Windows was accepted, Bible study software changed again, Christian Computing® Magazine

as it did when the Internet came along and things began to enter the cloud! It was just as exciting to watch ChMS (we called it CMS back then) evolve. Those first programs did little more than store your member’s mailing list and allow you to print labels and meet the sorting requirements of the Post Office in order to lower your postage. Now they have also evolved to become the center for church communications, membership directories, online giving and some help to facilitate connection between members, and more! January 2014

I remember trying Windows 2.0, but it wasn’t until Windows 3.1, running on a 386SX that we saw a picture of the future. However, I still remember creating a page of the magazine using PageMaker and when it was finished and I was ready to move to the next page, taking a long break. It could take up to 30 minutes for the computer to render the next page and allow me to continue desktop publishing. Since those early days preceded the Internet, we set up a BBC (Bulleting Board Code) so that

people could log in using a 300 baud modem and leave messages for us or a friend. Only one person could be logged in at a time, but it was a start! When Windows really became a standard, there were many changes in the marketplace. Some Bible study programs couldn’t make the transition to Windows. And, if I remember correctly, about half of the ChMS programs couldn’t move to Windows either. They had been started by programmers who knew how to program for MS-DOS but couldn’t make the switch to Windows. However, many did, and new companies sprang up with new Window programs. Now, 20 years later, we see a similar transition by get your free demo most ChMS companies making the move to the cloud. Most are there now, while others are working towards providing a cloud option in the near future. During the last 25 years, Manage your ministry with we have tried to help you have a better understanding of technologies that would work. We Track donations, Email Statements, saw floppies (they really were floppy) go to 3.5 plastic discs, Manage: Small Groups, Classes, Attendance, and we announced the “Year Visitor follow-up, Outreach and MORE! of the CD-ROM” as a cover story, encouraging the many companies producing Christian software to move to that form of distribution for large programs. Keep children safe with And when the Internet became available, few would probably remember using Gopher, Easy check-in, secure check-out, Archie, Veronica and Jughead. Syncs with Servant Keeper, And, when the World Wide Web Name badges w/ allergies, notes, alerts, class info. was born, things really began to Claim tickets for parents/guardians, run background checks change shape! In the beginning of the WWW, the only Christian sites on it were basically listings of other Christian sites. There was Plan worship effortlessly with very little actual content, which is one of the reasons we decided to be the first Christian magaKeeps your song library at your fingertips, zine to put our entire content Quickly plan and schedule services and teams on the Internet for free, even Easily track song usage and do reports though we were still charging

SOFTWARE FOR MINISTRY www.servantpc.com/ccmag 800-773-7570 ou:

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Tracking Members/Donors?

Servant Keeper®! : u o y e Ar

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Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

Christian Computing速 Magazine

January 2014

for our subscriptions. And, Gospel Communications (formally Gospel Films) was a great partner with us in helping us develop creative use of our website as they sought to help hundreds of other ministries take advantage of the web. And I remember visiting with many of the Christian software companies, encouraging them to establish a website. Probably one of the most important times in CCMag’s history would be 1998 and 1999. In 1998, four or five of the leading televangelists and national Christian radio hosts came out with a series of videos on the upcoming damage and destruction of Y2K, a glitch in programming many suspected might shut down our civilization. The problem dealt with the fact that many computer programs simply allowed for two digits to denote the year. So, for the date of January 1, 1999, a computer would record it as 01/01/99. The potential problem centered on the fact that computer chips would record January 1, 2000 as 01/01/00, and many projected the vast amount of computers would simply freeze up and stop working. They predicted cars and trucks would

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stop running, train switches wouldn’t work, it would cause the electric grid to shut down, cripple all shipping and manufacturing and even close hospitals. Sadly, many Christian leaders saw it as I time to use fear for evangelism purposes, while others saw it as a sign of the times and speculated that the Y2K glitch would launch the tribulation. We at CCMag knew that the science wasn’t sound and dedicated over a year of our efforts to get the word out that Y2K would be a small bump in the road (which it was). Month after month we published articles providing reports that supported our position. This meant that in part we almost completely stopped reviewing and reporting on Christian software, which was vital to our mission and to our business model! However, most of our advertisers stood with us and supported our efforts to calm Christians during this time. Over the years we diverted our efforts into several different ways to accomplish our purpose of providing information about technology and ministry. We experimented with doing a live radio show, allowing people to call in with questions. We did this using actual radio as well as broadcasting out via the Internet in the late 90’s. We also held several conferences over the years. At first they were designed to simply provide people the opportunity to see what Christian programs could do. Our largest gathering was 2,700 in Kansas City. The conferences evolved to a three day event with classes and training as well as product demonstrations and exhibitors. Although it has been a long time since we have held such an event, it is something we might return to in the future. Speaking of the future: So, after 25 years, where are we heading? We are committed to doing our best to keep up with today’s technology evolution. We will continue to help our readers sort through all of the many new ways people are communicating and connecting. And, our specific emphasis for 2014 is to center on how technology specifically impacts, expands, and enhances ministry. We are asking our sponsors to clarify how their products and services accomplish ministry, and we will be giving our many readers the opportunity to provide testimonies on what products and services are working for them, and why! January 2014

Help us celebrate 25 years! There are two things you can do as a reader of CCMag to help us celebrate. First, let your friends and peers know about CCMag and that subscriptions are FREE! You can simply have them visit www. ccmag.com/subscription and by simply providing their email address, they will receive an email each month with the attached magazine and articles! Second, we want to hear from you this year. We want you to tell others WHAT software/services you are using and why! How are they helping you in your ministry? How do they help you connect or communicate with others? What do you like about the technology solutions you have employed? Simply visit ccmag.com/usertestimony and fill in our short form. Your comments may appear in upcoming articles as well as in a special section on our home page at www.ccmag.com! It has been a great 25 years. Frankly, this article doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even begin to scratch the surface of all that we have seen and experienced these last years. We have had the privilege of working with some dedicated people and some great companies. I have had the pleasure of having some great employees, and would especially be lost without the contribution that Kevin Cross has provided CCMag over the many, many years he has been with our magazine. I am looking forward to the future, to new technologies, new companies, and new products and services that will come forth as the church continues to use these valuable tools to enhance and expand their ministry!

Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

January 2014

protected with purpose

Windows XP Unplugged

By: Steven Sundermeier

illions around the World enjoy their daily cup of coffee. My wife is one of them. Her morning Bible reading and her cup (or two or three) of coffee is something she can’t go without. And while she REALLY enjoys her coffee, I noticed this morning that we have outdated coffee makers both in our home at our Thirtyseven4 office. Both machines are a number of years old; neither carries a brand name like Gevalia, and neither can pass for anything close to one of those fancy Keurig machines. Being the husband I am, I asked her if she’d like to go shopping sometime and upgrade her brewing vessel for a newer one that promises to brew faster, has more features, and sports a style from this decade. She quickly said “no”, reassuring me that our coffee maker works fine.

As I was preparing to write this month’s column on Microsoft’s decision to discontinue support for the Windows XP Operating System (and Office 2003), I got to thinking about my wife, our coffee maker and the discussion we had over it. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why a new kitchen appliance didn’t immediately appeal to her (I am not being sexist: my wife loves to cook). But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she was right about the coffee maker: that while old, it was working fine, and there was really no need to spend additional money when she is content with our Christian Computing® Magazine

current one, or to get involved with learning new features when the current one isn’t broken and was working fine for her needs. But what if her coffeemaker would cease to perk on April 8, 2014? I feel like this situation may be mirrored for many of us (especially churches and K-12 school districts) all too quickly as we approach Microsoft’s selfimposed April 8th deadline. In fact, a recent study conducted by an independent security research lab showed that nearly one in four computers globally still utilize Windows XP. According to news reports generated by MicroJanuary 2014

soft, on April 8th they will immediately discontinue all new security updates, non-security hotfixes, technical support options, and they will cease posts of any further online technical content updates for Windows XP or Office 2003. Microsoft’s reasoning behind the decision is that the Windows XP and Office 2003 products have completed their ‘Support Lifecycle’. According to a policy introduced in 2002, Microsoft Business and Developer products, including Windows and Office products, receive a minimum of 10 years of support, at the supported service pack level. As the business owner of the security software company Thirtyseven4 Antivirus, I can see the logic behind Microsoft’s thinking. (The operating system is outdated and in the world of technology, it is acceptable to decide Windows XP and Office 2003 should be replaced by a more current version.) However, as a business owner whose company takes great pride in serving and protecting the educational and church community markets primarily, I can also see complications that this decision will bring: 1. While not all U.S. churches and school district’s are in a financial crunch, many (and I dare say “most” when talking about K-12 schools) are drawn very tight, and replacing their older computers simply isn’t financially feasible. From my experience, let me be more blunt: It is not an option. And while Microsoft may be statistically correct in reporting that the average current price of a computer is considerably less expensive than the cost of an average PC purchased 10 years ago, this fact is nullified in many school-district cases because their machines were donated (and never purchased at all). I say this because over the years I have dealt with and talked with hundreds of IT directors and volunteers of small to mid-sized churches and schools, and a common thread that runs among them is that most if not all of their functioning computer systems were donated by bigger businesses. In the corporate environment, many look to upgrade their systems every three to five years. Because (many times) there was never an initial expenditure of funds for the hardware, the “cost” of computers (and replacing every single one of Christian Computing® Magazine

them in April!) is not built into the budget, and could be an insurmountable task. I fear that many churches and schools may be left in the (Windows 8.0) dust. 2. Upgrading the operating system of tens or hundreds or possibly thousands of systems is a huge job in itself: requiring large amounts of resources and possibly outside IT work. But getting staff and students trained, upgraded and running on the latest Windows 8 operating system seems a daunting task for even the most optimistic of us. 3. Not to be a party-pooper, but ditching older XP systems in favor of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 will likely also cause compatibility issues with other installed and managed software. For example, if your church management software or your security software, etc. are not compatible with Windows 8 because they were purchased prior to the release of Windows 8, a school or church may find themselves needing to purchase more than just the operating system or Office upgrade. January 2014

So, what happens if users don’t upgrade? Vulnerabilities and exploits can exist in most software but this is especially true for Microsoft’s Windows Operating Systems. Because Windows is highly popular it is also the most targeted OS by cybercriminals who look to punch a hole through these vulnerabilities in order to gain access, etc. to your system(s). There is a term I am sure you have heard of called “Patch Tuesday” and this term was coined in reference to the second Tuesday of every month when Microsoft releases its patches and security updates automatically through its Windows Update service. The patches and updates are necessary to fix disclosed or undisclosed vulnerabilities in their products. There is another term called “Exploit Wednesday”, and this term refers to hackers and cyber attackers who analyze and reverse engineer the newly released patches to determine the corrected exploits so that they can in return create malicious code to exploit users who have not yet downloaded and installed the latest security fixes. Come April 8th, 2014, Microsoft will continue to release patches and fixes for their other operating systems but as I mentioned above there will cease to be updates for Windows XP users,

which means that upon successful reverse engineering of the released patches, cyber attackers can turn around and create malware and other threats that will now affect all Windows XP users. So as predicted in last month’s column covering security predictions for 2014: without security updates, vulnerabilities are wide open on XP for attackers and malware writers to target these loop holes, posing a serious threat. In reference to Thirtyseven4, our multi layered security features will protect user systems for known and unknown types of malware using our advance Behavior Detection System, but an open door to the operating system would always remain a serious point of concern in remaining fully protected. Additionally, given the nature of exploits, etc., it is very hard to predict all the future dangers. A “zero day” exploit or vulnerability is a vulnerability that exists within a product but there is no patch released at the time to correct the problem. The newer term going around to describe Windows XP systems after April 8th, is “zero day forever” since fixes will no longer be made available to the public. Okay, I admit, it’s a bit scary. The “what-if’s” can pack a punch as you consider your network and the vulnerability it will have come April 8. What Make the move… is the answer? It’s easy but diffrom Church Management Software… ficult. We have to move forward, and that is what we do best in the to Church Ministry Software area of Technology. Whether we are ready or not, there is always Built by the Church, for the Church something new on the technological horizon. ▪ Open Source (the code is free) The Microsoft Powers-That▪ Web-based Be have made a decision, and it ▪ Church Sponsored “BTW, each day I am more will affect us sooner than later, thankful that we are using ▪ Ministry Focused specifically on April 8, 2014. As BVCMS. The rate you are a security professional, I encouradding features and improving age you to err on the side of the database blows my mind and safety and caution and upgrade. I really appreciate all you do.” It will take time, it will involve - Jared Coe re-education, but in the long run, you will have a more efficient Operating System and daily services. Grab a cup of joe, it’s time to migrate over to a Keurig, World Class Hosting and Support ▪ 220+ Churches ▪ Active Development I mean Windows 8.0 or 8.1. www.bvcms.com for more information and pricing

Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

ministry leadership

Beyond the Church Walls

How Blogging can help Pastors and Churches By: Amy Scott-Lundy

s a pastor, your days are filled with staff meetings, hospital visits, counseling sessions, and fitting in your own quiet time with God, all while expecting the unexpected. With your growing todo list, you strive to maintain relationships with long-time parishioners, welcome those new to your church, and be present in the community. Blogging is a great way for you to connect with those both outside and inside your churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s walls. Carving time to blog into your schedule may be tough at times but provides numerous benefits for your church, your community, and even yourself. Here are some great reasons to start a pastoral blog along with some ideas for blog posts and promotion. Promote Interaction Blogging lets you connect with others. Since readers can comment on your blog posts, blogs naturally promote interaction, as you can reply Christian ComputingÂŽ Magazine

to comments and have conversations with your readers. You never know - some of these interactions may spark ideas for teachings or for other blog posts. A blog helps out-of-town church members and friends stay connected with you and your church. If your church is large, reading your blog may help those inside your church connect with you as well, especially if they are newer or more comfortable with electronic interaction. Asking questions is a great way to promote interactions on your blog, providing a forum for faith discussions even after services are over. January 2014

Remember that blogging isn’t a replacement for face-to-face interaction. Rather it is just one of many tools you can use to keep in touch with people. Establish your church’s reputation online Like a website or Facebook page, a blog is a great medium for establishing your church’s online reputation. If you link your blog to the church’s website, potential guests may visit the blog before visiting your church to learn more about you and your ministry style. Unlike social media, blog readers don’t have to be registered members of a site to read, comment, and enjoy your blog; it’s open to anyone with a web connection. Congregants and readers don’t have to worry about signing up for a service just to read your blog, even though most providers do allow blog readers to subscribe via e-mail or RSS feeds. You can also use social media to share and promote your blog posts, providing easy updates for those on Facebook and Twitter™. Best of all, blogging is affordable. You can pay for an optional domain or web hosting, but if you don’t need all the bells and whistles, providers such as WordPress and Blogger™ let you create a basic blog for free. Who can complain with free outreach? Share your Personality Too often, church members and visitors know little about the pastor besides what they see on Sunday morning. Blogging lets pastors show their congregants and friends that they are real people with real joys and struggles. It gives readers a small glimpse into a pastor’s life and mind outside the pulpit. You may not have time to share Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

a story on Sunday morning, but you can share it on your blog. Recommending books you’ve enjoyed may not fit into this week’s sermon topic, but you can recommend them on your blog. You can also use blog posts to expand upon your sermons if you think of something applicable after Sunday morning. When blogging, write in your own voice - just like how you’d tell a story in person. You can even write with the same tone as if you were having coffee with your readers. Just be yourself. Along with sharing your personality, you can also share your gratitude on your blog. Dedicate a post to personally recognizing administrative assistants, other ministers, lay leaders, and Sunday school teachers for their contributions toward your ministry. Devotionals, excerpts from sermons, and quotes (along with your thoughts) can also make great blog posts. Once you start posting, you’ll find lots of blog ideas around you, and writing becomes easier. It takes some time to get started and write blog posts, but the benefits for you and your parishioners are worth it. Follow the ACS Technologies Ministry Impact blog at http://www.acstechnologies.com/ blog/ for more information on how your church can make a greater ministry impact. Amy Scott-Lundy is a technical writer for the support and training departments at ACS Technologies. Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

church windows software

CHURCH WINDOWS SOFTWARE

The End of Windows XP By: Craig Chadwell

t is said that all good things must come to an end. Since 2001 when it was first released, Windows XP has been a workhorse of an operating system for both home and business PCs. But alas, Microsoft will cease supporting the Windows XP Operating System as of April 8, 2014. So what does this mean? In a nutshell, Windows XP has become antiquated in the eyes of Microsoft and they’re putting it out to pasture. Remember Windows 95? 98? Millennium Edition? They all have succumbed to replacement by newer operating systems. Security updates and Windows updates will no longer be produced for Windows XP. Though your anti-virus program could still protect the computer from viruses and other bad things, the defunct operating system will become increasingly vulnerable to malware and virus issues. So for home computing, here are the options: • Windows Vista Service Pack 2 • Windows 7 • Windows 8.1

Christian Computing® Magazine

The options to move forward from Windows XP are fairly simple: upgrade your computer or replace your computer. Computers manufactured more than a year or two ago will likely not run newer versions of Windows. It is possible-but-notprobable to beef up existing computers by increasing the RAM, the processor, or the hard drive. The Microsoft website offers a Windows Upgrade Assistant that will tell you if your current PC can handle Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows 8.1. Windows 8 was released and was quickly updated by version Windows 8.1 in 2013. These versions have been met with mixed public reaction as they are a stark departure from Microsoft’s January 2014

traditional “Start button” menu setup. From personal experience, I can attest that Windows 8.1 is definitely learnable. But there will likely be some “What did it just do?” and “How do I get back there?” moments. Here at Computer Helper Publishing, we have been advising the customers of our Church Windows Church Management Software to make the transition away from Windows XP whenever feasible. As is likely with other software program upgrades, there will be a point in time when certain programs will no longer run properly on Windows XP. I’ve gathered some opinions from two of the main “computer guru” techs here at Church Windows concerning which newer operating system a person should consider. There’s well more than a half-century of experience in the computer field between these three. Here’s what they had to say:

with Windows 8 and 8.1.” – Jim VanSickle, Church Windows Support Technician So, much like automobiles, computers reach the end of their utility and must be replaced. As Church Windows Tech Manager, David Trimmer, put it, “Computers are not refrigerators; they don’t last 15 years. The expected life of a computer is only 3 to 4 years.”

The Church is people!

“I strongly suggest that users currently on Windows XP upgrade to Windows 7 to lessen the learning curve found in Windows 8-8.1. (Windows) XP and Windows 7 are both Menu-driven where Windows 8 is more touch/ visual driven and can confuse many users used to XP.” - John Faught, Church Windows Support Technician “With the upcoming ‘endof-life’ for Windows XP, users need to decide on a replacement operating system soon. I personally prefer to upgrade to Windows 7 as the interface is similar to Windows XP. The start menu and desktop screens are very similar. Windows 8 looks to be designed more for tablet or touch-screen laptops and is difficult to navigate with keyboard and mouse. I have spoken with several of my users who have expressed their frustration Christian Computing® Magazine

You’ve been called to minister to the people of your church. Let Church Windows manage the information so you can minister to your people.

CHURCH WINDOWS DESKTOP & WEB contain integrated: .FNCFSTIJQ t 4DIFEVMFS t %POBUJPOT "DDPVOUJOH t "DDPVOUT 3FDFJWBCMF t 1BZSPMM

January 2014

the browser

To Find a Church, Turn on Faithstreet.com

By: Susan Codone

hen my family moved twelve years ago, before Internet browsing was an everyday part of life, I conducted an online search for churches. Finding listings for churches was not as easy as I’d hoped, and I ended up making phone calls and asking friends.

Today, thankfully, finding a church is much easier. Faithstreet.com, a website launched in 2011, rocketed off the startup pad and already lists almost 13,000 Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic churches across the United States. Faithstreet’s goal is to help users find churches near where they live. Churches can create a profile page for free and are included in Faithstreet’s database. When I searched my city, 28 churches popped up. I was surprised since I live in the Bible Belt and there are far more churches in my hometown, but Faithstreet is still fairly new and busily dedicated to signing up churches. Christian Computing® Magazine

Profiled in the September 2013 issue of Christianity Today, Faithstreet is growing quickly. Using a unique revenue model, they encourage churches to first create a free profile and then consider setting up online giving for their membership through the Faithstreet site. Churches can also pay for more premium services. Faithstreet takes a cut of online gifts and earns money from the services provided above the free account level. Either way, churches win; they get an easily-searchable listing and a method to accept online giving. Users win by having a desktop and mobile method for browsing church profiles and finding a church near them. January 2014

And both users and churches can sign up manually or with a Facebook account. And bonus – Faithstreet has acquired the religious blog of the Washington Post, OnFaith. In the announcement of the partnership between Faithstreet and OnFaith, the editor, Patton Dodd, states that OnFaith is particularly interested in communities and the religious stories that happen in them. The new OnFaith site is scheduled to debut in late January, and Dodd is seeking new voices to add to the professional writers already attached to OnFaith. You can sign up as a potential contributor on the Faithstreet site, under the OnFaith link. Faithstreet isn’t necessarily offering a new service – online directories for churches like churchfinder.com and usachurches. org have been around for a few years now, but Faithstreet is the first to combine free publicity with a service churches need. And by pairing their site with a respected religion blog, they will become a substantial content provider as well. In the end, the real winners are the families and individuals moving to a new place who want to find a church. Faithstreet has made that process a pleasure. Happy browsing! Susan is an associate professor at Mercer University. In Mercer’s Technical Communication undergraduate degree, students can specialize in Ministry Media & Technology. Contact Susan anytime for more information at codone_s@mercer.edu.

Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

higher power with kevin

Chromebooks for Bible Study

Kevin A. Purcell - kevin@kevinpurcell.org

he Chromebook took the top spot on the December 2013 list of Amazon’s best selling notebook computers. The number of websites discussing the Chromebook exploded in the last few months. For about six months I’ve owned a Chromebook and love it. All of this points to a new trend that Bible study software publishers need to consider as they look to the future of mobile computing.

What’s a Chromebook? These machines usually come really cheap. We’re talking $200-$350 cheap at retail and on the used market people can find them for around $100-$200. There’s one exception called the Chromebook Pixel which retails for around $1200 and I don’t recommend even looking at it. Aside from price, the Chromebook sets itself apart in simplicity. It runs the Chrome browser as it’s interface. It looks similar to an OS X interface, but the screen you look at when you boot up is a browser without the window around it. There’s a launcher bar at the bottom that includes icons for web apps, which are applications designed to run inside the Chrome browser. You’d be surprised by the kinds of apps one can use. We get office suites that do word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. There’s also a couple of photo editing apps, programing apps, and even games. Christian Computing® Magazine

As of yet I don’t know of a church presentation software program for ChromeOS. However a number of online Bible study sites work great on the Chrome-

January 2014

book, like the Logos website for Faithlife Study Bible (http://bible. faithlife.com) and Bible Gateway (http://www.biblegateway.com). Other sites work similarly, but those two serve my needs well. The Best Chromebooks A bunch of the big name manufacturers make Chromebooks. HP, Acer, Samsung and Dell sell them. The average Chromebook comes with a lower powered Intel Celeron processor or an Atom processor for older Chromebooks. They offer either 2 or 4 gigabytes of RAM. They usually only hold 8, 16 or 32 gigabytes of files on fast solid state drives or SSDs. They boot in seconds and restart in less than 20 seconds. Screen sizes usually start at 11-inches with 1366x768 resolution. That’s awfully small for most people, which is why we are seeing bigger screens. I’m typing on an HP Chromebook 14 (see my review at http://bit.ly/hpchromebook14review and my video review at http:// youtu.be/vl0MTdUcQtM). The 14 stands for the screen size. It has an ample and comfortable keyboard and 32GB of storage. It also comes with 4GB of RAM. Toshiba just announced that they will sell a 13-inch Chromebook and it will become available in February. Others promise new models later this year. Battery life on a Chromebook ranges from a few hours to the older models to over eight hours on the machines using the newest Intel Celeron processor, like the HP Chromebook 11 and 14 and the Acer C720 or C720P. The four best options include the HP Chromebook 14 or the HP Chromebook 11 if you don’t mind the smaller display. For those who want a touchscreen laptop, look at the Acer C720P. It’s a fast, elegant Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

machine with a touchscreen. Acer also offers one without the touchscreen called the C720. If you can wait, don’t buy one until Toshiba makes their new Chromebook available. It will likely really satisfy Chromebook users since it comes with a really great looking chassis and excellent components, except for the RAM. It only offers 2GB of RAM which is enough for people who don’t run a lot of apps at once or open lots of browser tabs at once. However, I’d much prefer 4GB on a Chromebook. My HP Chromebook 14 is the best available right now. It looks great, feels nice to type on and comes with 200MB of T-Mobile data per month for the life of the machine. You can also swap out an AT&T SIM card if you use their network for mobile data. One final word before we move on. The average Chromebook comes with a 16GB SSD for storage. That’s because web apps and the ChromeOS don’t take up much space. Most of that 16GB is for personal files. Google designed the ChromeOS with the cloud in mind. When someone buys a Chromebook they will get 100 GB of free Google Drive storage. This holds a lot of documents, pictures or other files.

Who Should Buy a Chromebook? Don’t plan to use the Chromebook as your main system unless you meet a few criteria. It’s easier to say who shouldn’t buy one as their primary computer. In other words, people who only want one computer shouldn’t buy a Chromebook if they fit the following list of users types. • Video editors - There isn’t a good solution for even simple video editing on a Chromebook unless you just plan to upload uncut video files to YouTube or you like to edit video on YouTube • Serious Photographers - Even though I like Picasa and Pixltr, two great video editing tools online, serious photographers who use Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom or something like one of those, should not bother with a Chromebook as their primary computer. • Church Presenters Needing More than Simple PowerPoint Style Presentations - There’s no such thing as Proclaim or Mediashout for the Chromebook. If I’m wrong, please let me know. • Offline Bible Software - If you can’t live without the power of Logos, WORDsearch, PC Study Bible or Bibleworks, then don’t bother with a Chromebook. The best online sites still feel limiting compared to these powerful and mature Bible study software applications. • Offline Most of the Time - I’m seldom out of reach of an Internet connection. If you’re seldom in reach of one, then don’t get a Chromebook. The only exception comes for people who wouldn’t mind using T-Mobile or AT&T for data connection. Then get the HP Chromebook 14 with the data feature built-in. There might be other Chromebooks that work on other carriers. Remember that this adds at minimum $10 to your monthly wireless bill and may add $30 or more. The best candidate for a Chromebook is a person who wants a simple, fast, second computer to do online tasks like web surfing, email, social networking and some of the cool web apps available. Spending $300 on a computer that is easy to carry, works all the time and is simple to use makes a Chromebook a great option even for Bible students.

Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

the power and the danger

Android Powered Cars

By Russ McGuire - russ.mcguire@gmail.com

ast month I wrote about robots, and one of the trends I pointed out was the advances that the automotive industry is making towards autonomous vehicles - cars that drive themselves. Well, this month, at the massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, this future came closer to reality. One of the major stories was Google’s creation of the Open Automotive Alliance - which is focused on integrating Android into cars. Founding members of the alliance include General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, and Audi, so this has major industry support and isn’t just Google’s wishful thinking. General Motors, Audi, Toyota, and others had major announcements of their own. This is cool technology - but as the tech experts at our churches, how should we be thinking about these “advances?” Christian Computing® Magazine

What are autonomous vehicles, and do they really exist? An autonomous vehicle is one that drives itself without any assistance from humans. Think of it as true “auto-pilot” - you tell the car where you want it to go, and it takes you there. Research efforts have existed for decades, but picked up pace when the U.S. Congress authorized the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to offer prize money to advance the development of autonomous vehicles. January 2014

The first DARPA Grand Challenge was held in 2004, but the best entrant only completed 7 miles of the 150 mile desert course. The next year, 5 cars finished the course with the winner finishing in just under 7 hours, 10 minutes ahead of the second place finisher. In 2007, the winning car completed a 60 mile urban course in just over 4 hours. Google hired Sebastian Thrun, the Stanford professor who led the 2005 Grand Challenge winning team and the team that finished second in 2007. Thrun’s first project, while on a sabbatical from Stanford, was development of Google Street View.

Thrun’s next project for Google was the Google driverless car. This project adds Google Chauffeur software and $150,000 worth of equipment to a standard vehicle to create a car that really does drive itself. In August 2012, the team announced that Google Chauffeur had driven over 300,000 accident free miles and that there are typically 12 Google driverless cars on the road at any given time. In 2012, Nevada, Florida, and California all passed laws allowing driverless cars to legally operate in their states. Key technology elements required for autonomous vehicles have slowly been making their way into commercially available cars. My most recent car purchase is a vehicle with a number of cameras and sensors to enable … reach out aspects of self driving including braking assistance, lane … minister to people drift alerts, and adaptive cruise … create fellowship control. Of these, adaptive cruise control (ACC) provides … contribute to a good example of how our cars your community are starting to drive themselves. With ACC, I set the speed I want PowerChurch Plus was to drive and how much space I created for just that! want to the car in front of me. The car then controls the engine and brakes to maintain that safe distance while trying to drive my Membership We provide you with the tools to desired speed. If the car in front increase administrative efficiency of me is going too slow, my car and streamline accounting tasks, Accounting slows down to maintain safe folfreeing you up to perform the work lowing distance. When that car that matters. is no longer slowing me down, Contributions my car accelerates again to my desired speed. ACC will even Install on your PC or network, or access online. bring my car to a complete stop Events Choose which fits your needs. if the car in front of me stops, Calendar and brings my car back up to the desired speed when traffic starts Check In moving again. One informative aspect of ACC is that the maximum folCompletely lowing distance I can set is 2.5 We provide software tools, Integrated seconds. In driver’s ed, my freeing you up to fulfill your mission. son was recently taught that 3 seconds is the safe distance you www.PowerChurch.com • 800.486.1800 should maintain. Why doesn’t

You want the freedom to

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Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

ACC maintain at least 3 seconds spacing? Simply stated, the electronics in my car will detect and respond faster than I could. Do I feel safe driving with ACC? Yes. Do passengers in my car feel safe? Not always. There are two areas that require my constant attention while driving. The most common is when I’m approach a stoplight intersection at a high speed (for example, on a major road with a 45 MPH speed limit). If cars are stopped at the light, I don’t trust that there will be enough time between when those cars are close enough for the sensors to detect and when I need to stop, so in these cases, I manually apply the brakes and begin slowing the car well in advance of the intersection. The second area that I need to constantly pay attention to is cars moving in front of me from the side - either cutting in front of me, or entering from a side street. ACC likely would respond to these situations, but probably not in a way that would be comfortable for me and my passengers. At CES, Audi and BMW both demonstrated advances in driverless car technology. Audi has reduced the computer systems required to operate their driverless demonstration vehicles from trunk to glovebox size. Audi refers to the near-future as “piloted driving” where the car does much of the second to second decision making, but a driver is still behind the wheel. Already, cars on the market can help you stay in your lane as you drive down the road, and will respond to other cars around them, but in the near future, cars will recognize stop signs and traffic lights, and will determine when to change lanes. Experts

Christian Computing® Magazine

January 2014

predict that we’re still 7 to 10 years away from a commercially available self-driving car, but those days are coming fast. How can autonomous vehicles help in ministry? One of the videos Google has made to promote their driverless car initiative shows Steve Mahan, a legally blind man, driving around town - going through the fast food drive through, and parking at the dry cleaners. A friend of ours is a legally blind music ethnologist for a major Bible translation ministry. In our auto-centric society, he is limited in where he can go and when by the availability

of someone to drive him. Autonomous vehicles could help him and many others to be more active in church ministries and in applying their gifts to advancing the kingdom. What is dangerous about autonomous vehicles? Obviously, it’s scary to think of self-controlled machines hurtling down our highways at 70 miles per hour. Especially for those of us who have personal experience with software bugs, it’s easy to imagine worst-case scenarios. As we’ve seen with problems that have already crept into the electronics already in our cars - perhaps most famously Toyota’s problems with out of control acceleration - machines are programmed by fallen man who can’t create perfect software. However, I think the greatest danger is our over-reliance on man-made technology instead of trusting in God. As Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” 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, smartphones, or even autonomous vehicles, new technologies continue to advance our ability to know God and to serve Him, wherever we go.

Is Facebook safe for your family?

http://cxfriends.com 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 CXfriends (https://cxfriends.com), a social network for Christian families which is being built and run by four homeschooled students under Russ’ direction. January 2014

digital evangelism

Digital Evangelism for Websites

Using Analytics for Your Web Pages

Michael L White - mlwhite@parsonplace.com

s a follow-up to last month’s article on doing effective SEO for your Website, I’d like to discuss now how to analyze the results of your SEO efforts. After all, how will you know which pages are performing well according to your expectations and where to focus your SEO efforts if your expectations aren’t being met? Well, perhaps the most effective tool you can use to help you target your SEO is a careful analysis of your site’s statistical data each month. In fact, you can even peruse this data throughout the month to track how various pages are performing with regard to keyword search usage, number of times a page is viewed, and more. I must confess that I don’t usually spend a lot of time monitoring these stats myself, but I do check them periodically just to see how different pages on my site stack up against one another and which search key phrases folks are using to find my site. That aspect alone is quite enlightening, as I pointed out in my December 2013 article. There are multiple options to use in logging your site’s statistical data. Generally speaking, your Web host will usually offer you one of two options: Webalizer and AWStats. However, there is at least Christian Computing® Magazine

a third option called Google Analytics, although I’ve never tried it. For that matter, neither have I ever tried Webalizer. I’ve always used AWStats, so I am most familiar with how to use that service. I can only presume that these other two major players offer essentially the same data but with a different interface. It’s up to you which stats tool you choose, but if you decide later to switch to a different stats tool, you will lose all of your previous stats logs. I suppose it may be possible to copy all of your stats log files to a different directory on your site or on your local computer in order to preserve them, but without the AWStats software to view them, they wouldn’t be much use to you. Since I’ve never tried switching from one stats tool to another, I am uncertain about this aspect. Furthermore, since I’ve never used Google Analytics either, this loss of data may not be the case with them. You can learn more about January 2014

what they have to offer at http://www.google.com/ analytics/. At any rate, one of the first things you should do after establishing a new Web hosting account is to set up the analytics for the site. Doing so will enable your analytics tool to begin accurately monitoring visits to your new site right away. Failing to do so will cause you to miss logging any visits that occur prior to setting it up for your site. If you’re unfamiliar with how to do this, you should contact your Web host’s technical support for assistance. Once you have the stats tool of your choice set up on your site, you should wait at least a few days to a week before you check your stats, especially for a completely new domain name, since it will take a little while for the search engines to index your site and for the public to begin discovering it through their organic searches. In fact, it may even take a couple of months or more before your site’s traffic increases significantly from search engine traffic, mostly because of the newness of your domain name. As you begin your stats review, one of the most helpful logs to review is the list of search engines which have directed visitors to your site. Because Christian Computing® Magazine

Google is the search giant in the industry with more 60% of the search market, the majority of your search engine traffic will likely come from there, with everything else falling into place after them. In fact, I usually begin at the bottom of the AWStats page and work my way back up to the top. Starting from the bottom, I occasionally check the 404 and other error codes in the “HTTP Status Codes” section to see what problems folks may be encountering on my site. If I find something that needs fixing, I take care of it. I next like to pore over the list in the “Search Keyphrases” section to see what search phrases people are using to find my site. This may well be the most important stat to monitor insofar as SEO is concerned, since this is where you learn how folks are finding your site via the search engines. Some SEO writers I’ve read have stated that as much as 80% of all traffic to a site comes collectively from the search engines. That makes doing effective SEO very important if you want to increase your overall site traffic. Because AWStats does not specify which keywords or phrases were used to search in which search engines, the only way I know to test the rankings of my various most-viewed pages is to go to the most frequently used search engine in my stats log and input the same key phrase there that I find on the “Search Keyphrases” list. If my site does not show up on at least the first two search engine results pages (SERP), I assume that was not the search engine used to discover my site using that particular search key phrase and I proceed to check it in the next search engine on the list. I find it very intriguing to review the search key phrases that searchers have used to discover my site, as it provides a sort of window into the soul (so to speak) of what sort of things people are interested in which caused them to discover my site. It’s also quite rewarding when I see that at least one of my pages (the “Crowns of Reward” page I mentioned in my December 2013 article) shares an important January 2014

faith message and continues to rank in the top ten most-viewed and most-searched-for pages on my site month after month. However, the number one most frequently viewed page on my site, after my domain’s start page, is a short tutorial I wrote to help folks fix that annoying “missing msvbvm50.dll” error you get in Windows Vista and later for any 32bit software you have installed. While this page has nothing to do with digital evangelism for Christ, I can only hope that somehow a few of these searchers will also decide to check out the rest of my site and perhaps eventually choose to accept Christ as a result. Of course, I could add something to this page which highlights this prospect as well. In fact, I think I will do that shortly. Next, just above the “Search Keyphrases” section, is the “Connect to site from” section, which contains the following subcategories: “Links from an Internet Search Engine” and “Links from an external page” to my site. Interestingly, I have noted that the “Links from an external page” frequently contains sites which evidently help webmasters check out their competition’s status on the Web. While I don’t care so much about trying to “out-do” my so-called competition on the Web and I rarely ever try to compare any other site’s keyword ranking with mine, I sometimes will go to these domain comparison sites to check out my own site’s metadata there just to see what these other prospectors for data actually found out about my site. Why so many people are checking out my site on these metadata sites is amazing to me, since I don’t really see my site as being any sort of major competitor with any other site. Perhaps they’re just curious about how my site managed to rank so highly on the particular key phrase that led them to my site in the first place. There are several other sections which I personally monitor in AWStats, but for the sake of time and space the final section I will discuss for now is the “Pages-URL (Top 10)” section. This is probably the second-most important stat for you to monitor (after search key phrases), since it lists the file names of the top ten pages viewed on your site and the ranked order in which they fall according to the number of times they were viewed. The “Full List” link next to it will give you a complete list of every Web page on your site that was viewed for that month and the number of times each was viewed. Naturally, the more views a page has, the more popular it is. This statistical data will therefore help Christian Computing® Magazine

you discover which pages on your site are most likely getting your message out and which ones need either revising or deleting. Of course, this article only skims the surface of the value of using site analytics to monitor your Website’s SEO effectiveness, but, hopefully, it helps you see the importance of doing so and will encourage you to spend more time mining and monitoring this data in the future. I will continue this discussion of using your Website for digital evangelism in my next article. Until next time, I pray you will continue to do digital evangelism even more effectively for our Lord’s sake. 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, 2011) is available wherever books are sold. Visit his Website at books.parsonplace.com for a list of his other books and articles.

January 2014

ministry communication

A Collection of Communication Trends for 2014 Plus Links for Implementation Yvon Prehn - yvon@effectivechurchcom.com

ollowing are excerpts of articles about communication trends for 2014 that are representative of what many had to say. Lists like these are interesting to read, but without application they can be frustrating. The goal is to help you implement the most useful trends for your church. Along with the excerpts are comments and links to resources on the Effective Church Communication website that will help you put these useful trends into practice. Here is how the following material is organized: • • • •

Title of the original article Excerpt from the article My comments and links on implementation Link to the original article

Web Design Trends for 2014 By Gavin Richardson Excerpt: Mobile responsive From 25 to 35 percent of many websites’ total traffic will come through mobile devices. The number of mobile device users is growing. Having a website designed to adapt to each device is critical. Before this trend began to emerge, you had to build a second website for mobile devices, which Christian Computing® Magazine

created extra work to maintain a second site. Most likely, you just let your site be as it is on a mobile device, which does not provide an optimal user experience. YP Comments Mobile responsiveness for websites is extraordinarily important and will continue to grow—actually, it recently has with the thousands of people who got smart phones and tablets for Christmas. For a site to be mobile responsive means that it will resize automatically to fit whatever device is used to view it—laptop, smart phone, tablet, desktop computer. The following article and video illustrate and explain what is meant by a responsive site. Unlike many technological innovations, this one is easy to implement because if your church website is based on WordPress (and most January 2014

are), the newer templates will do this for you automatically. Having said that, it seems like many of the church websites I look at, that use a template or form from national companies are not responsive. If the company you are paying a monthly fee to does not offer a responsive version of your website, you might want to check around for a new one—or learn to create the website yourself with WordPress. In addition to your website—if you send out a church newsletter via email—make sure it is mobile responsive. Though my ECC website is responsive, my email newsletter is not and I’m going to be working on changing that. Resources for implementation: A primer on responsive websites, what they are and why they are important. Excerpt: Minimalism The following two trends go together: Perhaps the biggest change for many church websites is a move toward minimalism. The past practice has been to put as much information as possible in front of your site visitors. This makes for a busy, cluttered and often confusing frontpage. Because of the growing use of mobiles for viewing webpages and emerging app culture, this show-everything trend is passé. With a minimalist design, you remove content and decide what content is most important for users to focus on. YP comments: For years I’ve ranted against excessively complex, graphics heavy web pages (or print and newsletter ones also). One reason is because the content of the Christian faith is what is of primary importance, not simply how we feel about it. Designers tend to love images, but images are not consistent in what they communicate. The following article explains this in more detail: Why it is incorrect to think that graphic images mean the same thing to everyone who sees them. Link to the original article: http://www.umcom.org/ site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=mrLZJ9PFKmG&b= 6084849&ct=13416827 5 Top Social Marketing Predictions by Marija Hamed Excerpt: these are actually 4 of her 5 points from a short, but helpful video. The other one was Mobile --already covered. #1 Photo Sharing—bigger than ever Christian Computing® Magazine

#3 Google+ #4 Customer Service—even more will be handled via social media and customers will expect it. #5 Stats—check them out more to know what is working and what isn’t. YP Comments: On Photo Sharing: Something to think about: in the past, churches were very careful about who shared what photos, particularly of children and single women on staff. Today every image of everyone is splashed all over Facebook, Instagram, and other sites. It is a little bit shocking to see your image, as has happened to me a number of times, totally without my permission, on church websites or members Facebook pages. I’m not sure what to do about it other than to talk about it—we can’t control it. I do think that it would be wise to pray for protection, particularly for our children. Customer Service: to translate customer service into the church setting, at the most basic minimum churches MUST answer emails and other social media requests, comments, questions! I continue to be astounded at the churches that publish email addresses, Facebook, and Twitter contact information and then do not respond or interact with people who try to reach them. Please, don’t January 2014

publish social media contacts that you don’t respond to. If a senior pastor or other staff member will not answer his or her own social media (my husband doesn’t, he just isn’t into that, but is honest about it) designate someone to do it for them. Google+: I’m not recommending Google+ for churches presently, not because it isn’t a great tool (probably is, I don’t know, haven’t gotten into it yet myself), but because so many churches still don’t update their basic website or the social media they have. Remember it isn’t how many social media icons you have on your site that make it meaningful—it’s how quickly, compassionately, and biblically you respond and interact through the channels you have. Stats: This recommendation is incredibly important. It doesn’t matter what a staff member’s favorite way to communicate is or what is most popular in blogs—what matters is if your people are responding or not to the tools you use. If you don’t track it, you won’t know. Resource: The book Church Communications Planning, Measuring, Evaluating done a new way—big is busted, try tiny! is essential reading in both customer service and stats to help your church with these challenges. Link to the original article: www.happymarketingclub.com

us always to turn the other tweet.……. 8.) I will look for news and articles and photos that help people see the workings of grace and that spotlight those in need, and will bring them to people’s attention. 9.) I will remember that my goal is not followers or likes but to help people like and follow God. 10.) I will post less and pray more. YP comments: All wonderful, especially the last three which I pray will be goals for all of us in the coming year and always. I appreciate his gentle tone in all his writings. Resource Please read the following blog post for a related approach to church communications. Do not confuse irreverence for relevancy in church communications Link to the original article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-martin-sj/turn-theother-tweet-social-media_b_4523963.html?utm_ source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_ campaign=Email%2BNotifications

ONE staff, many needs.

Turn the Other Tweet: Social Media Resolutions for 2014 by Rev. James Martin, S.J. Excerpts from a wonderful blog: 1.) I will treat everyone with charity and give everyone the benefit of the doubt. No matter how rude they are. And no matter how many times they post annoying comments that make me want to stop typing, put on my coat, drive to their town, knock on their door and sock them. Because Jesus never did that when he posted stuff online. Jesus told Christian Computing® Magazine

logoscms.com/tour January 2014

nick at church

Why Churches Change ChMS Providers Nick Nicholaou - nick@mbsinc.com

hurches change solutions of various kinds often, and those changes cost money and time. Sometimes the changes are needed, but sometimes not! So how can you tell? We all want to be good stewards of the resources given us to accomplish our ministries, so let’s explore this further. A Brief Story to Get Us Going We felt called to serve The Church in the mid1980s to help them with their administrative and operational needs. One of our first decisions was to write a database and accounting solution because there “must not be anything good available.” I’m glad we crossed the path of a ChMS provider who challenged us to research what is available before pursuing that task. As I’ve written in my annual ChMS article, we discovered there were already more than 200 providers! And some of them are very thorough and good. So, instead of creating yet another ChMS, we did our first ChMS article research to identify the leaders of the pack and find solutions we could recommend. Christian Computing® Magazine

It’s Human Nature When we inherit a solution of any kind we tend to look at it as suspect. Maybe it’s an American cultural thing in that we don’t like being told we have to use something we didn’t personally choose to use, or that we don’t want to do something we didn’t personally choose to do. We often think that because something wasn’t our choice, it should probably be replaced. This is probably the second most common reason why churches change ChMSes. (I wrote an article a couple of months ago on the most common reason— I’ll tell you what it was again a few paragraphs further on in this article.) It can be at an individual or a departmental level. It can be January 2014

caused by previous workplace experience, or by hearing that another respected church uses a different solution. Regardless, it’s a bias that can have a large price tag. Horizontal Comparisons We often hear from our pulpits that when we focus on The Lord, we are better off than when we focus on our surroundings or on what others have. This is true in the area of churches comparing solutions too! Bear with me, and you’ll see what I mean. Many churches change their software solutions because they learn that another church is using something different. This is probably the third most common reason why churches change ChMSes. There can be two problems with this line of thinking: 1. Having worked with so many hundreds of churches over the years, I’ve observed that most churches do most of the same kinds of operational tasks, but do them differently. These differences in accomplishing similar tasks are due to differences in staff and personalities, budgets and capacities, and/

or chosen business practices. These aren’t necessarily right vs wrong issues (though they sometimes can be legal issues!), these are style differences. Different software solutions can tend to work better in some organizations because of those intangible style differences. So changing to a solution because another church is using it can sometimes fail because of those style differences. 2. A mistake churches often make when looking at what solutions other churches have implemented is they assume those other churches did their own due diligence in approaching their decision to select a solution, and that they did it well. But it’s more often true that those other churches allowed their decisions to be heavily influenced by what other churches were using and never did very deep research and analysis in their decision-making process! That means your church, when basing a decision on what another church decided, may be making a decision that has been passed down from church to church and that was never originally researched at all!

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January 2014

What Should You Do? All of us in ministry want to be as productive as possible and are glad when we can save time on projects like choosing a ChMS. I get that, and agree with it! Believing things can improve and getting recommendations from other churches are good things! So, how do you avoid the bad decisions and their resulting expense – both monetary and in lost production (unavoidable during a software transition) – when considering changing ChMSes? 1. Don’t assume that what you’ve got is bad just because you don’t understand it or feel like it’s too complex. Check with the ChMS provider and do your research! • Make certain you’re using their most recent version, and that you have all of the optional modules necessary to meet your church’s needs. That means helping the ChMS provider understand what you want to accomplish and where you feel the pain when using their solution. • Determine if training (the neglect of which is the most common reason churches change ChMS providers) would help you and your team. • Ask for a list of other churches that are similar to yours in ministry style and size so you can call them and see if they’re happy or unhappy with the solution. If they’re unhappy with it, ask them what they’re doing to overcome that and decide if you think they’re doing their due diligence. 2. If you’re going to pursue a new ChMS, do your research! • Decide to make your search for a solution larger than just your department’s needs. The best solutions are those that help your church benefit from the synergy of being a church-wide solution. With appropriate church leadership approval to spend time researching, meet with people in each department and ask them what features they like and depend on in your current ChMS, what they don’t like about the current ChMS, and what additional features they’d like in a new ChMS. Christian Computing® Magazine

• Create a needs list of features based on your time with your church team members and run it by appropriate church leadership to ensure that it’s accurate. Then put it in a format you can send to prospective ChMS providers so they can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on each of the needs you have listed. • Look at published ChMS lists and send the needs list to each ChMS provider— including your current ChMS provider. • Invite the three highest-scoring ChMS providers to come to your church and do a demonstration of their software to your entire team. Make certain the providers know the length of time they and the other two will each have (I recommend three hours, and anticipate that each will say they’d like more than that) and what items you’d like them to talk about and demonstrate. This will help your staff compare them more objectively. • Debrief your team after each demo, asking the same questions. At the end of the debrief ask each to score the provider from one to five. • After the third debrief take a short break. Then come back and let the team talk through which ChMS they believe will best meet the needs of your church. Make certain each person contributes to the discussion, and then conclude with a vote. That process may seem like a lot of work, and it is! That’s the due diligence that most are not willing to do! But we’ve done that for many Christian churches and ministries, and the results are surprisingly good in many respects: • Higher team buy-in, • Greater momentum into and through the change process, and • Choosing a solution that is a best fit and will stay in place longer.

January 2014