i am an offering

Well, many of you reading this probably already have a pretty good grasp of the things I want to highlight, but perhaps you’re just stumbling onto a ‘blog’ for the first time and realizing that the internet is a whole lot more complex than it used to be.  Ironically, it’s a whole lot more simple than it used to be as well.  Trust me, it really does make sense.  (As a side note, I’m going to try to get back to my originally posted blogging schedule.)

So, I wanted to devote a Tuesday Training article to technology and how it can be used within the church. Actually, technology is something that can be best used outside the church and makes it even easier to get the church outside the walls.

First of all, why should we care?  Are these just some latest trends and fads that will be here today and gone tomorrow?  Perhaps.  But these fads are the ones that your kids are immersed in.  And if you don’t have a grasp on what your kids are involved in, that’s not good.  We need to be aware of what is available and either find ways to rid it or redeem it.

We should also care because the internet has become a place of instant communication.  As soon as I hit my ‘publish’ button, this post will be sent to anyone who subscribes to this blog, as well as being sent to Technorati for the world to find instantly in an endless connection of discussions that are happening.  Since we are called to communicate the Gospel and tell the nations of Jesus, it has never been easier to get discussion going.

For ministries, a church’s website can (and should) be configured to be a meeting place for everyone.  Leaders and team members can have forums, blogs, calendars and everything they need right on their own website.  Talk about a great way to manage a team!  I just recently found the Geeks and God podcast and began to work on a project using Drupal, which is very, very cool stuff that I think that every church should be aware of.

 Now, the other side of this is that there is a serious danger to the instant communication on the internet.  Sites like youtube.com are fun, but people can post pretty much whatever they want on there as long as it’s within the “boundaries” which really aren’t that great.  Myspace.com is catastrophe waiting to happen for teens who don’t realize everything they put on their page is available to the whole world and parents who don’t even have a clue what Myspace is.

So, how can we redeem all of this?  Instead of using Myspace as a hangout for your youth, create your own youth page using Wordpress or Drupal.  Be a light in the darkness on Youtube and post uplifting, Jesus-centered videos.  Use the Church Marketing Lab on Flickr to have other people help critique your designs so that they are the best they can be.

I know I’m throwing out a ton of terms that some of you might be bored with and some might have no clue what I’m talking about, but my hope with this post was to be able to just tease you into seeing what’s available to be utilized.  If ever there was a time where the church’s voice could be heard loudly and clearly; literally universally, it’s now.

Well…here we go!

Now Microsoft has made it easier for all of the people who are non-geeks to subscribe to blogs just like this one.

If you’ve just downloaded IE 7 and are freaking out that it looks weird, I want to point you to a very nifty little button on the right hand side under the google search bar. It is the RSS feed button.

If it’s orange, like it is right now, that means you can use it to subscribe to this page. You don’t even need any extra software! Then, all you have to do is click on the ‘favorites’ star on the left side of the page and then go to feeds, and you’ll see that this pages feed is right there. I’m guessing that it will more than likely show you if you have an updated feed.

Now, all you have to do is open your internet explorer, and these posts will come directly to you. Enjoy!

This is mainly a review that will be beneficial for worship planners and worship leaders, but if you are interested in part of the process of how I plan and keep track of administrative items with Lord of Life’s worship services, then read on.

A couple of years ago I happened upon an ad for Church Assist’s Worship Assistant software, and I must say, for an organizationally challenged guy like myself, it helps me immensely! (and no, I have not been paid to recommend the software)

The website describes the software as being “designed to help church worship leaders plan services and present song lyrics using a video projector.” I think this sentence doesn’t do the software justice. It really should read that the software is “designed to help church worship leaders plan services, track and store song usage and information, track and store worship team involvement and information, and track and store lists of every service. And that’s just the half of it!”

This software does it all. You can store all of your song information including author, copyright, CCLI#, theme, Scripture, key, tempo, last used, first used, chords used, how many times it’s been used, plus user-defined categories as well.

You can store all of your worship team member information, and email a member right from the program.

You can store service information including which songs are in the set, notes for the songs, copyright reporting information, worship team information and more.

On top of all of this, you can do endless reports, print out master lists of your songs, search songs for a particular word or phrase; you can even specify a location of sheet music or mp3’s for a certain song within that’s songs information window. So if you want to remind yourself of how the song sounds on the recording, you just hit the little play button and it’s automatically there.

The one drawback to this software is the projection side. I am a huge fan of software specfically made for projection, and I wish that Worship Assistant was specifically tailored just for database and administration purposes. That said, however, it is a great option for people who don’t have the budget for separate pieces of software for projection and for record storage.

I really have only recently begun to fully utilize this great piece of software, but I plan to continue to use it daily to help me become more organized, which is an area of my life that definitely needs more help. I highly recommend this software!