For 24yrs I have willingly, freely served and sacrificed time for my church so that they may better serve the local community and better fulfill their purpose in this world. Regular readers will know I’ve documented my woes here and elsewhere before now about lack of vision and lack of drive to take things forward in terms of media; IT & audio-visual.

Then last weekend my wife came home from the Sunday service (I’d been sleeping due to my shifts) and told me the church “now had a facebook page”.

On the one hand I wanted to whoop and cheer and shout hallelujah.

On the other hand it frustrates me that it has been done off the back of one person ‘hassling the pastor’ until he gave in. I’d even touched common ground with this person and discussed making sure this was all done from a coherent, organised, structured approach to the process. They agreed. Then they ignored that and went ahead anyway.

Two years earlier (maybe more – edit: just found it was 2008) I’d presented a vision document to the pastor that outlined how we should approach the church’s IT needs and expand that to take in social media (and other areas) as another tool in our approach to our overall church vision. This vision document detailed numerous aspects we need to consider. It detailed not going into this blind. It detailed not having a scatter gun approach. It went so far as taking the church’s already stated aims and expanding that to much greater detail on how we would get there from where we are now. It detailed that all of these things and more needed to come under one person that had the ultimate say in policy for these things but that said person still submitted to the will and vision of the church.

It even went as far as saying that whilst I thought I was suitable for the post at the top that I was more than content to play a role that saw me as a cog on the wheel rather than the engine. In other words I didn’t care who did the role just that we as a church needed this.

So last weekend I fired off – admittedly in haste – an email to the pastor terminating my services to the church. I asked for them to let me know who would be taking over and I would happily transfer knowledge / responsibilities / etc to them but after that …. well the email bounced because my hosting company in its great wisdom decided to delete my account the day before – though I was unaware until later on the Sunday evening.

So now we are a week later and I haven’t re-sent the email but I am still frustrated.

I honestly don’t know what to do at this point but could happily walk away from the whole thing.

That’s how I feel.

Any advice?

Frustrated is a post from: Church Techy

What’s the low down?

First off, if you haven’t already, then you need to go and sign yourself up for a Google account.

A little warning note here – G+ went through a phase of closing any account with what they deemed was not a real name. There was a huge outcry about this but I don’t know if they reversed their policy so you may not be able to keep any fancy nickname you come up with.

Once your account is all setup then you end up at your homepage which falls into several distinct sections.

1. Your stream – this will take centre position on the page and should auto refresh as new content is published.
2. Above your stream is the area where you will share your thoughts, videos, pictures, etc.
3. To the left of your stream is your circles.
4. Above your circles are how you access the different areas of G+
5. A search area.
6. The notification are which is top right.

The key area, I think, for getting the most out of G+ is in the organisation of your circles.

At present G+ restricts you to a maximum of 5000 people you can follow directly via your circles – what this means is that if you opt to follow me, then anything I publish (with a caveat – see later) will appear in your stream. Now imagine if all 5000 followed published at or around the same time… chaos and this is why circle management is a key ingredient. That caveat I mentioned is that I can elect not to publish something publicly and thus restrict its circulation to a single person, single circle or groups of circles and if you aren’t in those circles then you won’t see that content.

Most people I know tend to organise people in to one of several circles – naming convention is entirely your choice.

• Subject specific – say photography or martial arts
• Family / Friends (be that IRL or virtual)
• Hobby based
• etc

The point being that when you find someone you want to follow then ensure you categorise them first – trust me it will make your later use of G+ so much easier to bear. Circles are managed via the overlapped circle button in the top left. From there you can drag and drop the order they appear; move folks between circles; add / delete circles; add / delete people, etc.

One thing you’ll see quite a bit is circle sharing. I could share my martial arts circle and you can instantly add that circle to your circles and name it something different in the process but do note that this is a static thing. Once imported if I make additions to my circle then that change will not update your circle unless I re-share and you re-import. If you decide you want to also share a circle then you’ll possibly hit another of Google’s numerical limits and this only applies to sharing. You can only share a circle with 500 or fewer members in it.

After understanding circles then the other thing to do is add people and not surprisingly this can be done form several places. From your homepage you can search a name and click through to their homepage and then add by hovering over ‘add to cirles’ and clicking on the appropriate circle or indeed create a new one at that point.

Secondly from your stream you will see comments on the posts of people you follow. If you then hover over their hyperlinked name it will throw up a box where you can either directly add them to a circle or click through to their homepage. Lastly you can also add people direct from the circles page.

The trouble with newcomers to G+ is that if you don’t know anybody or have any set idea on what you want from it then you cna get presented with certain ‘default G+ers’ to follow. You don’t have to take the advice and in fact I would strongly suggest you don’t. Instead, go to the search box and enter a hobby or a sport you like – say rugby – and then go through the results and read a few about pages and start to follow them.

Beyond that the rest is really there for you to explore. If you use Chrome as your browser then there are some plugins that ‘enhance’ your use or you could use a third party G+ Directory and search out themes, hobbies, sports, companies, etc.

Google+ 101 is a post from: Church Techy

These days we are thoroughly spoilt for where we go to get our social media “fix”.

There are specialist platforms such as Busuu where you can learn languages to those still trying to hang on to their former glory such as MySpace and FriendsReunited.

I have been challenged a number of times about the social media platforms I use and because I set about doing ‘social media’ with a set end purpose in mind it is quite an easy one to answer. That said, one has to constantly re-visit these thoughts as platforms grow and change due to market pressure or backroom changes.

So what platforms do I use and why?

1. FriendsReunited – my initial usage for this site was to enable me to get back in touch with school friends that I mostly hadn’t seen or even contacted for >25yrs. My use was for a very specific purpose which has now bypassed us. I still get the occasional new contact email from the site but by and large rarely if ever visit.

2. Facebook – there can’t be many socially connected people these days that don’t use or have used FB. For me I use it purely for keeping in touch with my family and friends that are now spread around the world. I can count on less than the fingers of one hand how many of my contacts I have never met. And they were only added after much thought.

3. Twitter – this place became my place to hide in its early days. I was unknown, I was a voyeur really and I enjoyed that aspect of peeking in to other peoples goings on. I’ve made some ‘friends’ through Twitter and I’ve also got to keep in touch with some prior work colleagues. However my main use was to promote this blog. These days I rarely log on for various reasons but mostly because I’ve found that the people on there don’t seem to want to interact.

4. Google+ – without a doubt the newest platform out there with any serious clout. On here I have found a huge support base of fellow amateur and professional photographers with most of them willing to not only share but also pay it forward by helping the rank amateurs like me. World class photographer such as Colby Brown will willingly stop by and have a chat and this aspect is key for me. Not the draw of the ‘big name’ but the interaction.

If you search me out on G+ then a recent post by me had me raise the issue of interaction. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what platform you are on or what age you are or what you reasons for being there are, we really all crave the same thing.

INTERACTION

Without this key we all end up feeling neglected.

It’s the same for this blog. I’ve neglected to build it as well as it could have been and consequently the interaction on it is poor. And that’s my fault.

At day’s end we get out of these platforms what we put in. With this blog I keep trying to come up with a co-ordinated approach but my life generally defeats me. That said, if I want it to improve then I know I have to do so.

• so what social media platforms do you use?
• have you though through your reasons why?
• if not, let me challenge you to do so.

Social Platform Choice is a post from: Church Techy

There’s the ‘old school’ way of meetings, letters, telephone calls, faxes, magazines, newsletters, bulletins, etc.

Then there’s the ‘modern way’ (not so modern really) of mobile calls, eMails, SMS (aka Text), eMails, eNewsletters, social media, IM and so on.

You can call it what you want and in reality you can use what you: want – can afford – suits you

Ultimately being or getting connected boils down to a few factors.

1. Who do you need to be in touch with
2. What do they use
3. Can I ‘leverage’ that to further my goals / aims

It seems to me that the modern church has a duty to be in touch with its congregants (old fashioned word for members) and to do that it needs to understand all of the above.

Take my church. We probably cover the fairly typical church age range from Generation X through to The Silent Generation and from varying world locations. Somehow we have to meet the varied and diverse needs of all. We have to pander to the younger generations without alienating the older ones. And when your church isn’t large enough to be able to afford specialised services for different groupings of people then this is a tough call.

What then happens if the person at the top refuses to use social media?

Do we just opt to ignore a whole swathe of society or do we continue to interact with them but via old fashioned methods? Having had one child go through the youth and a second just starting the process then I can claim to have some insight. Most of our youth stay loyal because their parents attend. Some stay loyal because they are involved in the band or drama or …. Others stay involved because the person at the top has singled them out for whatever reason. Trouble with that is that as soon as the attention wanes then so will the attention of the youth because we aren’t “suiting them”.

Does this mean we have to bow to every fad that breezes along?

Absolutely not.

But equally ignoring what are now well established means of communication is tantamount to suicide. OK, so the boss doesn’t like Facebook – I get that on a personal level but when you manage a church you can’t afford to neglect this. The key point being that the boss doesn’t need to manage this on their own. All churches have to move from the old management methods of “I’m at the top therefore what I say goes” and “I don’t trust anyone so have to micro manage”. I’m not saying that we are at the dictator level of church leadership but we are fairly high up the ranking table.

I’m doing my bit. I keep pushing bits and pieces. I’ve managed to get a semi-decent web presence in place but that has taken >10yrs to do. I’m but one cog on the wheel though and we need everyone to stand up and take up their modern ministry. I could just leave. I could take my knowledge and skills elsewhere. Family and friends have asked me as much. My answer remains the same. My God hasn’t told me to move so her I stay and here I serve.

This is our battle.

What’s yours?

Some extra questions to answer / challenge.

• Do you have a unified communications plan?
• So how then, does your church manage this?
• Or is it a diverse one to cater for age ranges?
• Finally, why does your church use (or not) social media?

A Connected Church is a post from: Church Techy

You’re always on the lookout for fonts – whether it be for your CV or to ‘tart up’ the latest flyer for whatever event.

Us ordinary folks – as in, we haven’t trained in design – somehow think that we can’t re-use the same font as previously. It worked then so I need to change it for this event. The simple truth is this isn’t so. In fact the old adage of KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid, applies.

Anyway, if you desperately need fonts and can’t afford to pay then here are three (3) places I use that provide good quality and free to use fonts:

1. dafont
   Dafont has over 8000 free fonts for Windows and Macs. One of my favourite aspects with this site is being able to see a sample of your text in the various fonts. Simple and straightforward browsing of the categories is a bonus even though the overall layout is a little old fashioned.
2. abstract fonts
   Abstract fonts has well in excess of 10,000 fonts with new being added all the time. Simple menu system on the top left allows access to all sections with a nice touch of being able to see a sample of every font already installed on your system. Also has a text preview system.
3. urban fonts
   Unlike the other two there is no preview option but a nice clean modern site makes finding a font easy. The site has a similar number of fonts as dafont but unlike my first two options they do have some that aren’t entirely free are linkware or shareware.

There are many more sites out there but between these three I’d suggest you’ll find all your fonty desires fully met from just these few.

3 Sites for Free Fonts is a post from: Church Techy

Threats come in all shapes and sizes, but all of them can, ultimately, cause damage to an organization <sic>

And earlier tonight I’ve been involved in another Facebook chat about security with a friend that I thought would know better. If anything though, his initial re-post of a bit of Facebook spam has at least done something. It’s caused me to jump in on the thread and put over my point of view.

Am I right?

I think so.

But what say you? Should security be a one off concern or an ongoing one? And let me be clear here … I’m talking essentially about cyber or online security but equally this applies to the real world as well. Would you go on holiday and leave your house unlocked? No, so why then allow the world to see your high jinks on places like Facebook?

And I’m not picking on Facebook here.

Far from it. Any social network or publicly accessible forum needs to be treated with the appropriate caution. If you want a place to unburden or unload your frustrations then either make sure it’s private or you are anonymous – or as anonymous as being on the internet allows you to be.

I have ways I do that if needed but have never yet felt the need.

So proactive or reactive – which are you?

Ongoing Security is a post from: Church Techy

Anwyay, I had a need to take a screenshot of an app I use and had no idea how to do this. As ever in these situations, Google was my friend.

I discovered that for HTC Android based phones you need to:

“hold the power button & then click on your home button”.

A short camera noise will alert you to the success of this and the image itself is on your film roll.

That’s it.

HTC Screen Grab is a post from: Church Techy

I’ve just had a metaphorical kick up the backside.

Some of you may know – most probably don’t – that I’ve harboured a desire to gather techs be they hardware or software fans or even both. Whether they be sound or video or AV, or IT or media or film or ….! Basically there is no limit and minimal restriction – if you are a tech or know a tech then please read on or get the tech to read on.

I don’t want to gather them to build a community.

I don’t want to boost my reputation.

I want to build a worldwide database of techs and their abilities.

I want that database to be restrictive in only two ways.

1. You must be a christian walking the walk.
2. And you must be a tech head who’s willing to serve.

With that out of the way you’ll be wanting the why – well let me outline the vision a little bit:

A desire to serve the smaller Church, charity, non-profit, small business and others whom don’t have access to dedicated and / or regular support – be that via volunteer or paid basis. To see this be a vehicle to serve the Church and community so that God’s love may be seen by our actions. To see this be a vehicle that will draw together those from different backgrounds; denominations; race; creed; upbringing; etc. To see this work so that the local Church may better fulfill its own destiny.

I have let this vision slip but I have never stopped believing in it.

I want us to be an army of techs able, willing and ready to meet the tech needs of our local churches – wherever that may be.

But I’m not asking you to do this for nothing – though that is of course your right and your blessing to do so – in fact all this was born out of my desire to see the local churches to me be better served by local techs. I personally know 3 or 4 local techs with varying skillsets and if I thought harder could probably think of and find a few more. I wanted my home town to have the best tech served set of churches in the world. I wanted us, on meagre budgets to help our local and smaller churches be able to walk alongside (not compete) with the bigger churches.

I don’t want an us & them situation.

I want us all to pull together.

I want us all to use our talents and abilities to help further God’s kingdom. After all, as a tech not serving in a large church I often wonder whether I’m in the right place or not. I wonder why others get to play with new ideas & kit and I struggle to keep 6 to 10yr old PCs going with no budget and wonder why I’m placed where I am.

I want techs to have a purpose.

I want techs to know they are valued – even if that value has a monetary gain for them.

If you want to read the full vision then have look here.

So what say you?

Do you want to use your talents and abilities for more than just your day job?

If you do work for the church then consider:

• the potential to earn more
• or to serve others less fortunate

If the answer is yes then all I need at this stage is for you to contact me and give me some very basic information:

• Name & Contact details
• Location – doesn’t have to be precise, just an area, county & country at this stage
• The capabilities you’d be willing to serve others with – whether free or paid

If you aren’t happy to divulge this info yet then please do get in touch so we can begin to build a relationship.

Without God and your willingness then this won’t happen.

So one final thing …

Please pass this along to any techs you know

Tech Call to Arms is a post from: Church Techy