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Tech News

This blog replaces the Center's ongoing email series, “Computer News You Can Use.” Over the past several years the Center has worked with several hundred congregations on computer and technology related issues. Time and again we’ve been asked to provide ongoing information about technology and things we hear about or discover.

So, instead of sending “e-news” as we hear of new technologies, issues, events, or general information we think might be of interest, we'll keep a running conversation on these issues.

Most of the information we get is from you—so don’t hesitate to send me a note about something you’ve discovered or heard about that we might include. Happy computing!

Aaron Spiegel

  • Religious teaching straight to your iPod

    In 2005 we wrote about an article in the New York Times entitled, Missed Church, Download It To Your iPod. Well, in three years 'GodCasting' has become an industry. USA Today recently published, Religious teaching straight to your iPod. The article states, "A survey last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more people used the Internet to look for religious and spiritual information than to download music, participate in online auctions or visit adult websites. And a list updated recently by the podcast directory Podcast Alley shows 2,462 podcasts in the religion and spirituality category, the fourth highest among 21 categories, and more than in sports, news and politics."

    Posted Apr 09 2008, 12:30 PM

  • 10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website

    I love it when someone else confirms something I've said! Tony Morgan of New Spring Church in Anderson, SC wrote this post on his blog. Thanks Tony! 

    1. Avoid telling me what's going to happen at your church this weekend. I found churches that had weather reports but nothing about their upcoming weekend service. I found two churches that had prominent information about upcoming golf scrambles (which I appreciated as a golfer), but nothing about this weekend's service. Why would I come if I don't know what I'm going to experience?
    2. Put a picture of your building on the main page. After all, ministry is all about the buildings.
    3. Use lots of purple and pink and add pictures of flowers. Really. Are you expecting any men to show up? And, for my benefit, please don't put any doves on your website. Doves scare me.
    4. Make me click a "skip intro" or "enter site" link. I don't have time for that and it's very annoying. If I have to wait for something to load or have to click around intro pages to get to the real information, I'm probably going to skip your church service.
    5. Add as many pictures and graphics as you can to the main page. My life is already complicated. I don't have time to figure out what's important at your church. If you dump everything on the main page, I'm assuming you don't know what's important either.
    6. Use amateur photography. And, for the record, it would be helpful to have at least one normal looking person on your site. Do us all a favor and hire a graphic designer, a professional photographer or purchase some stock photography.
    7. List every single ministry you have at your church. Frankly, I don't care what ministries you have. I just want to know whether or not I should visit your church this weekend. My first step isn't the men's Bible study or joining your church's prayer partners ministry.
    8. Make it as difficult as possible for me to get directions, services times, or find information about what will happen with my kids. It's important that my kids have a great experience. If you can't convince me that that will happen, I'm probably not going to risk visiting your service.
    9. Put a picture of your pastor with his wife on the main page. That tells me it's all about a personality, and I see enough of those people on television. I actually found one church that had not one but two pictures of the senior pastor on the main page. He was looking mighty dapper, though, in his fancy suit.
    10. Try to sell your church rather than telling me how I will benefit from the experience. I don't care how great your church is. I just want to know if visiting your church will help me and my unchurched friends take our next steps toward Christ.
    Posted Mar 26 2008, 01:00 PM

  • Tech News

    "Refresh Your Image 2008," ChurchMedia.net's 4th annual conference takes place in Dallas/Fort Worth this year, June 24-27. For more information go to www.refreshyourimage.net.

    Posted Mar 12 2008, 09:57 AM

  • Cyberculture

    This is a word that I throw around casually. But if viewed critically, it's almost an oxymoron. Cyber: of, relating to, or involving computers or computer networks (as the Internet), Culture: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group (both definitions from m-w.com).

     It's not hard to see that all things cyber have become part of our culture. If I take a step back though, this wasn't the case even 5 years ago. What happened to move technology past efficiency tools to becoming integrated into culture? This isn't a rhetorical question - I really want to know the answer! Well, OK - I do have one theory. Web 2.0.

    Wikipedia says (at least as of this writing) "Web 2.0 is a trend in World Wide Web technology, and web design, a second generation of web-based communities and hosted services such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies, which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users." They key is facilitating creativity, collaboration, and sharing. For me, when we stopped using computers as passive 'users' and started using them to create, cyber began influencing our culture.

    I've been thinking about this for a long time, but was led to write about it today because of a Facebook group I just discovered. It's called "I love cutting edge Judaism" and rather than being a religion, culture, or society group it's listed under "Type: Internet & Technology - Cyberculture." As one who works with congregations and technology, I'm somewhat sheepish to admit I missed this transition. I've been focused (and writing about) technology as a tool for congregations with little to say about how technology is redefining congregational culture. It is obviously redefining religious culture.

    The group has a YouTube video listed that I think may be the best explanation of Web 2.0 I've seen (heard, read, listened to, etc.). Kudos to Michael Wesch at Kansas State University!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

    Aaron Spiegel

    Posted Feb 25 2008, 09:30 AM

  • Tech News

    Want to hang out with the gurus of the church IT and AV world? MinistryTECH is a new national conference dedicated to church information technology, audio-visual, and production professionals. Join some of the leading church IT professionals to learn how they are using technology in their ministries.

    April 3-4, 2008, Oklahoma City.

    For information go to www.ministrytech.org

    Posted Feb 08 2008, 11:19 AM

  • 95 Melheimian Theses of Church Technology

    The January 2008 edition of Clergy Journal includes a great article by Rich Melheim. Melheim starts the article, "Chew on this: The average mainline preacher today was taught to preach by a professor who was taught to  preach before television was widely available." Hopefully, that will encourage you to read the rest of the article!

    Melheim completes this treatise with his "95 Melheimian Theses of Church Technology." Read them all! Those of you who have worked with the Center on technology issues will hear our voices echoed in Melheim's. Our thanks to Rich Melheim, founder of Faith Inkubators (http://www.faithink.com/), for allowing us to reprint this.

    95 Melheimian Theses of Church Technology © 

    Basic TECHlosophy

    1. We are living in a tech world.
    2. Good tech is better than no tech
    3. No tech is better than bad tech
    4. If it appears you don't know what you are doing with your tech, everyone under 30 will naturally assume you don't know what you are talking about.
    5. Tech is not the message.
    6. Tech is the servant of the message.
    7. Good tech enhances effective communication.
    8. Bad tech detracts from effective communication.
    9. Tech without design is bad tech.
    10. Tech for the sake of tech is bad tech.
    11. Tech without consideration of the audience is bad tech.
    12. Tech that draws attention to itself is bad tech.
    13. Invisible tech is the best tech of all.
    14. The only exception to #12 and # 13 comes when tech is part of the art.
    15. The person up front teaching, speaking, or preaching should never be the person running the tech during the presentation.
    16. Tech run by anyone who isn’t by nature a "techie" will never be as good as tech run by a techie.
    17. "Anyone over 30 is an immigrant in the land of technology." (Leonard Sweet)
    18. The average pastor in a mainline church is 55 years old - an immigrant in the land of technology.
    19. An immigrant will never speak the language like a native.
    20. An immigrant's children absorb the language of the culture naturally.
    21. An immigrant must ask her or his children how to communicate.
    22. Any tech committee at a church run by a pastor, six adults, and one token youth should immediately be dissolved and replaced by a tech committee run by six young people and one token adult who is not the pastor.
    23. The main delivery systems for information in a culture are the most effective languages of that culture.
    24. If a missionary does not know and effectively use the most effective languages of a culture, it doesn't matter how good her or his message is - that person will not communicate effectively.
    25. Full-color, full-motion multimedia are the main delivery systems for information in our culture.
    26. A Master of Divinity degree does not automatically qualify a person to create and design effective full-color, full- motion multimedia.
    27. Tech without a complete dress rehearsal is bad tech.
    28. Tech without constant, live monitoring, tweaking, and evaluation during the presentation is bad tech.
    29. Tech without decent equipment is bad tech.
    30. Tech without a decent ongoing replacement budget line qualifies as bad stewardship.

    HomileTECHS

    1. We are living in a visual world.
    2. Good tech enhances visuals.
    3. We are living in a full-color, full-motion, multimedia world.
    4. Good tech enhances the message in a full-color, full motion, multimedia world.
    5. Bad tech will be noticed and will detract from the visuals.
    6. If a sermon is important enough to be preached, it is important enough to be remembered.
    7. If a sermon doesn't have a visual memory hook for the visual genera­tion, don't expect it to be remem­bered.
    8. A sermon made up of 99 percent spoken words with 1 percent visual enhancements (photos, props, icons, pictures drawn by kids) will be 99 percent forgotten by the time the Sunday football game is over. The 1 percent remembered will be the point tied to the visual
    9. At maximum bandwidth, the human ear can process 10,000 bits of information per second.
    10. At maximum bandwidth, the human eye can process 7 billion bps.
    11. Therefore, a picture is not worth 1000 words - it is worth 700,000 words.
    12. A pastor who is not using visuals in worship and preaching is a lousy steward.
    13. If a sermon is important enough to be preached, it is important enough to be heard.
    14. If the listeners can't see the speaker's lips, 33 percent of them won't be able to hear what the speaker is saying.
    15. If you have to choose between top-of-the-line microphones and a decent speaker system in your worship space, don't.
    16. If a sermon is important enough to be preached, it is important enough to be seen.
    17. 70 percent-80 percent of communication is nonverbal
    18. Therefore, if the audience cannot see the speaker, the speaker is losing three-fourths of the communication potential and power from the start.
    19. If a sermon is to be seen, then staging, lighting, movement, and theatrics must be considered.
    20. A Master of Divinity degree does not automatically qualify a person to be an expert in staging, lighting, and movement.
    21. A worship space with decent staging, lighting, movement, and theatrics is most likely designed by someone who knows about staging, lighting, movement, and theatrics.
    22. Lighting must be designed for the speaking space and evenly bright - but not glaring - across the entire staging area where the speaker will stand or walk.
    23. When dimming lights for effects and using spotlights mark the floor where the speaker must stand.
    24. A sermon good enough to preach is a sermon good enough to record on videotape.
    25. A sermon good enough to videotape is a sermon good enough to post online for iPod downloads in both audio and video files for the college students and young adults per slide who didn't come on Sunday morning.
    26. A sermon good enough to put online for iPod downloads is good enough to advertise to those college students and young adults.
    27. If you want young adults to download an iSermon, consider asking two young adults each week to record a two-minute commentary on it - one to introduce it and the other to comment on it afterward.
    28. A sermon good enough to preach and put on an iPod download is good enough to be lit well for video.
    29. A sermon that is lit well for video probably has a person who knows both theater and television to teach the video committee how to do so.
    30. A Master of Divinity degree does not automatically qualify a person to advise the video committee on how to light a set for video.
    31. A sermon good enough to preach is a sermon good enough to be heard by everyone in the sanctuary, as well as in the sound booth.
    32. A sermon that is heard by everyone in the sanctuary probably has a person who knows sound design to teach the committee how to do it well.
    33. A Master of Divinity degree does not automatically qualify a person to advise a sound committee on how to design a set for sound.
    34. A microphone that hisses, pops, or clicks should be destroyed.
    35. A video camera that jiggles, jostles, and jerks should be shot. (It already is!)
    36. A video-camera operator who jiggles, jostles, and jerks should be asked to serve in some other way.

    PracTECHology

    1. People remember sermons better when visuals accompany the preaching.
    2. PowerPoint presentations are an easy and effective vehicle for adding memorable visuals to preaching.
    3. When creating PowerPoint presentations, choose a simple style; then stick with it.
    4. 946 slide transitions, 73 type styles, and 666 background colors cannot be called a style.
    5. When choosing a simple style, choose a simple color scheme and stick with it.
    6. Consider white or light type on a black or dark background. (It is 30 percent easier to read than black or dark type on a white background.)
    7. Choose two type fonts for your slides - one serif and one sans serif- then stick with them.
    8. Choose no more than three type sizes for those two type fonts.
    9. Choose a simple, smooth fade, dissolve, or cut for slide transitions.
    10. Allow no more than four or five bullet points per slide.
    11. Allow no more than one sentence (or group of words) per bullet point.
    12. Choose a type size no smaller than half the age of the oldest person in the audience. (If you've got 80-year-olds, that means 40-point type).
    13. The best visuals in a PowerPoint presentation are photo and videos of the youth and children in your church, created by them to enhance your sermon, announcements, and worship experience.
    14. The second-best visuals in a PowerPoint presentation are works of art created by kids in your church.
    15. The third-best visuals in a PowerPoint presentation are photos and videos of the adults in your church engaged in the work of ministry.
    16. The fourth-best visuals in a PowerPoint presentation are professionally produced photographs of beautiful nature scenes, news photos, and pieces of art.
    17. The worst visuals in a PowerPoint presentation are “canned" clip-art pieces.
    18. Anyone caught putting more than two canned clip- art pieces in any one worship presentation should be removed from the worship committee.
    19. The only exception to #83 is clip art that has a decent joke attached - if not overused.
    20. Key words in large type on a screen enhance a sermon.
    21. Whole sentences on screen should be used only for printed Scriptures, prayers, song lyrics, important quotations, or resignation speeches by the senior pastor.
    22. If you are going to the work of preparing such presentations, why wouldn't these precious images appear on the church website every week?
    23. If a website was designed by anyone over 40, no one under 40 will spend time there.
    24. A Master of Divinity degree does not automatically qualify a person to design a website.
    25. Young people will go to your church website on a regular basis if their photos, video clips, and art are displayed there.
    26. Tech that is more than three years old will cost you more in the long run than new tech.
    27. Good tech is a gift of God to reach the inhabitants of our high-tech world.
    28. Good tech costs money.
    29. In the long run, bad tech and no tech will cost you even more.
    Posted Feb 06 2008, 02:41 PM

  • Worship Facilities and Conference Expo in Indianapolis

    Worship Facilities and Conference Expo in Indianapolis

    Indianapolis will host the Midwest version of WFX, April 29 to May 1 at the Indiana Convention Center. In addition to the trade show exhibitors, there are four educational tracks. These include Worship Facilities: Planning, Design & Construction, Church Production: Audio, Video & Lighting, The Digital Church, and Worship Facilities: Operations & Maintenance. "WFX addresses the need for church facilities, technology and executive teams to explore their options and learn more about designing, constructing, remodeling, operating and maintaining facilities, and incorporating audio/visual and information technologies into their services and other methods of communication."

    Additional information and registration is available at http://www.wfxweb.com/spring08.

    Posted Jan 18 2008, 09:15 AM

  • RSS Feeds Available

    RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds are now available on several of our pages. Just click on the orange and white RSS Feed logo at the left for the selection of feeds. Click on those that interest you.

    RSS documents, called "feeds" contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually. So, imagine being able to track all your favorite news sites, sports, religion news and entertainment news in one place.

    To assemble the feeds, you need an RSS reader. Internet Explorer 7.0 has this built in as does Outlook 2007. There are many free RSS readers available. My favorite is the website Netvibes (www.netvibes.com).

    Posted Nov 30 2007, 02:51 PM

  • Church IT Roundtable

    Church IT Roundtable 

    OK congregational techno geeks, there’s a place for you to meet others just like you! IT professionals Tony Dye, Information Technology Director at Perimiter Church in Duluth, Georgia and Jason Powell, Information Technology Director at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana have teamed up to network church IT staff and volunteers, giving them a place to talk about tools, tips, best practices, etc. as it relates to technology in the church.

    The home base for this community is the website Church IT Roundtable (CITRT), http://citrt.org. From here users can participate in twice monthly phone in and online conversations (http://citpodcast.wiki.zoho.com), a discussion forum (http://itdiscuss.org), and community WIKI (http://itdiscuss.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/ChurchITRoundTable).

    CITRT’s Vision is:

    • To encourage and have fellowship with one another (because feeling isolated and discouraged can be a real de-motivator and just the opposite happens when we come together at the Church IT RoundTable: spirits are lifted, people are encouraged, and that gives your emotional and spiritual capital to put back to work in your Church IT job)
    • To create people networks of Church IT professionals (Church staff, consultants, companies, even volunteers) to assist and support Church IT 
    • To seek out and publish Best of Class Solutions for Church IT 
    • To provide regular Church IT RoundTable discussions, live, or via technology, to network in person and to encourage each other. 
    • To provide an online forum to express ideas, ask questions, work out solutions to current challenges, and document best of class solutions to Church IT.
    Posted Sep 21 2007, 12:39 PM

  • MinistryCom

    MinistryCom: A Conference for Church Communications Professionals

    Several years ago, church communications guru Terrell Sanders started MinistryCom.com, a conference dedicated to the unique challenges of congregational communications professionals. This year's conference is in Nashville, September 13-14 and over 400 people are expected to attend. Besides the conference, www.ministrycom.com is a great resource of information about congregational communications.

    Posted Aug 23 2007, 02:14 PM

  • Camp Logos

    Camp Logos Indianapolis
    October 17-18

    Do you own Logos Bible Software? If so, you might want to take advantage of this local training opportunity. Camp Logos, offered by MP Seminars, will be in Indianapolis, October 17-18, at     Second Baptist Church 3705 Kessler Blvd.North Dr. Indianapolis, IN 46222.

    Morris Procter of mp|seminars is an authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Some of the covered topics include:

    • Scrolling through all of your commentaries with one keystroke
    • Looking up word meanings with a double mouse click
    • Archiving your personal research for future use
    • Organizing your books for effective study
    • Doing Hebrew and Greek study without being a language scholar

    The cost is $199
    To register and/or receive more information please contact mp|seminars,     www.mpseminars.com, (877) 237-3168 or info@mpseminars.com.

    Posted Aug 20 2007, 12:44 PM

  • LDI Conference

    Technology in Houses of Worship conference

    LDI is the largest U.S. tradeshow and conference focused on technologies for the live entertainment industry. Professionals in the interrelated ares of lighting, audio, special effects, projection and staging technologies attend to see the latest products, interface with vendors and attend educational conference sessions.

    As in years past, LDI has teamed with Technologies for Worship Magazine to address the specific needs of congregations seeking to use presentation technology for worship. The conference is November 12-18 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. For more information check out www.ldiworship.com.

    Posted Jul 18 2007, 03:06 PM

  • Refresh Your Image, The Third Annual ChurchMedia.net Convention

    Refresh Your Image

    ChurchMedia.net's 2007 Annual Convention, Refresh Your Image, is July 17-19, 2007 in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. Metro area at Covenant Baptist Church, Ellicott City, Maryland. Additionally, you can attend "virtually" via live and recorded online video feeds.

    The CMN Convention is 3 days of media training for your church with some of the pioneers of Media Ministry. The Convention is $100 for non CMN pro members and $50 for Pro Members.

    For more information check out www.refreshyourimage.net.

     

    Posted Jun 12 2007, 10:09 AM

  • the blogging church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs

    by Brian Bailey with Terry Storch, foreward by Ed Young

    If you don’t immediately recognize the authors of this book don’t fret. If you’re not familiar with Dallas’ megachurch Fellowship Church and its ministries you won’t be familiar with the authors or some of the contributors of the book. But don’t let that keep you from reading this book. Not only is it well written and accessible, its message is one of the most important statements in congregational communications and development.

    Bailey is the web director at Fellowship Church and Storch is its campus pastor. However, don’t assume that the book is focused on technological web-eze or Gen X/Y speak. It’s not! As Bailey writes in Chapter 1, “Most people agree it’s (blogging) something odd that’s of interest only to the MTV crowd, like hip-hop, IM, or ring tones. They couldn’t be more wrong.” He then goes on to give the history of blogging and then more importantly, why would congregations use this emerging technology.

    The book is filled with first-hand accounts of pastors who discovered, either coincidentally or intentionally, the power of blogs as a communication tool for their churches. The stories make the book accessible, timely, and personal. Bailey does a nice job of interspersing these stories between chapters of technical “how to“ information.

    I think what I appreciate most about the blogging church is that it does a great job of explaining how this technology is a ministry tool. Bailey often relates back to mission, vision, and purpose, furthering the Center’s position that technology for technology’s sake is often a waste of resources. To be sure, I am convinced that blogging is not the “wave” of the future but a necessary ministry tool to connect congregations to their communities. And, it doesn’t hurt that the book is a Leadership Network Publication, published by Jossey-Bass which gives it credibility and some authority. I highly recommend this book to all congregational leaders – clergy, lay, or just those who care about congregations!

    Check out this resource at http://www.leadnet.org/Resources_Books.asp?IsSubmit=True#422.

    Aaron Spiegel

    Posted Jun 04 2007, 09:28 AM

  • Ready for Daylight Saving Time?

    Daylight Savings Time (DST) comes earlier than in previous years. This isn't an issue for anything except - computers! If you use Microsoft desktop or server products, check out this resource to see if you're ready for Sunday's change, http://support.microsoft.com/dst2007.
    Posted Mar 08 2007, 07:49 PM
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