Tech for the Local Church
Free
Facebook for Pastors
Apr 23rd
Ran across this e-book today, “Facebook for Pastors” by Chris Forbes. It’s essentially about using the power of web 2.0 to reach people, he even uses the reference of “church 2.0″. I found that very fitting.
We could debate whether or not Jesus would have a Facebook account, but what’s not in question is that Facebook is where people are at. With 70 million active users, and the 6th most trafficked site on the net. Facebook has made huge leaps to catch myspace in the last year, and is predicted to pass myspace in international traffic sometime in mid April 2008.
So go check it out, it’s only 31 pages so it won’t consume your whole life, and it’s FREE!
QuickLink: ONE Prayer
Mar 31st
LifeChurch.tv just announced an opportunity that I think every church should look into.
WordPress Driven Church Website
Mar 5th
My friend Luke has been on a journey to create a Church Website using a BLOG. He is using WordPress to create the site.
Although we have written on this subject before – I’m very excited about this because it’s someone story, experience and journey as he works through making a fully functional Website for a Church using WordPress.
If you don’t have a church website or are thinking about re:vamping your current one, you really should check out his blog posts [listed below]. Follow his progress and discovery.
Bonus Posts: Useful Plugins, Banner Ads
Q&A: Internet Filter
Jan 17th
At C2.0 – the blog we love to answer the questions that you have. In the future we will make new posts out of questions we receive. Here is the first…
Question:
Kevin,
I remember you mentioning something about an Internet Filter…. Do you remember what service it was? We’ll be talking about pornography during our next series and want to offer resources.
Thanks!
Tim B.
Answer:
Tim,The only ‘free filters’ that I know of are OpenDNS and ScrubIT. OpenDNS is installed at a router/switch level. ScrubIT is installed at the server level. Both are slightly detailed when installing, but work great when installed.
Free accountability software is available from xXxchurch.com.
Integrity Online is probably the best internet filtering company out there at a reasonable price for home or business use. It just depends on what you’re looking for.
The Porn Talk is a site that guides parents through the awkward topic of talking to kids about porn.
Those are the products and resources that I recommend.
What would you add to the list?
Wii Remote Enables Interactive Whiteboard
Dec 15th
For those of you out there who are super-geeks you will want to check this out.
[This post is a little out of the ordinary for a C2.0, but I had to share it.]
Have you ever wanted an Interactive whiteboard for your staff meetings or maybe for a pre-school that your church runs [i.e. Smart Board, Interwrite, etc.] but never had $1.5K laying around to purchase one? Now you can build one out of a Wii remote for approximately $100.
Johnny Chung Lee is the guy that figured out how to do it. He also created free software and a video [below] on “how to” make and use one.
If you have no idea what an interactive board is you are going to want to check this out.
Let us know if you try to make one. I will be making my own.
FeedBlendr: One Feed Is All I Need
Oct 14th
If your website is built on RSS technology you should be using it to it’s full potential.
One of the best ways to utilize RSS feeds as a church is to make a blog page for each one of your ministries. One for Youth, one for Adult, one for Children’s, one for missions, etc. Then take the individual feed of each ministry blog (four in my example) and put them into FeedBlendr to make one RSS Feed for all your ministries. This link should then be placed on your churches main page so it’s easy to find.
By doing this a church member could subscribe via RSS Reader to just one feed and be sent all on events and information that your site has to offer, instead of having to subscribe to many.
Getting started is incredibly easy. Your first stop on the FeedBlendr site clearly asks you for each piece of information it needs and the process is set in motion.
Freebie Fridays!
Oct 12th
Below are some free offers or downloads that I’ve stumbled upon the last month or so.
- SpiceRack – a presentation software produced built for Churches by SermonSpice. Software is still in testing. [poor reviews so far]
- Video Illustration – called “A Winding Road” provided by SermonSpice.
- Small Group Promo Video – a free small group video produced by Grace Point Fellowship. They even offer the Final Cut/After Effects file.
- Innovation 2007 Conference – online video of the whole creative communication conference for churches provided by Granger Community Church at WiredChurches.com
- Communications Bundle – everything from publishing to Sunday morning programming is avalibe by Kem Myers (also) of Granger.
- Worship Backgrounds – six moving backgrounds used at the Catalyst Conference this year provided by WorshipHouse Media.
- Video Loop – “Western” themed video background provided by Ignite Media Group.
Church History on Church Websites
Oct 11th
On church websites I often find somewhere that explains the history of the church. But it’s SO BORING!
Imagine going to a church website and instead of being bored by the History of the Church you are genuinely interested and engaged.Imagine you’re a long time church member and on this portion of the website you can add important events, dates and information in the life of the church.
Imagine that during this collaborative effort all the church staff has to do is approve and edit stories that are being submitted. Then embed a few lines of codes to your churches website and an interactive time line will show up. [Shown below - the history of Church2.0 - the blog]
Imagine that after a year you think, “I wish I could make a Book or a DVD that I could give out to my congregation or those who don’t have internet.” And you find out you can!
OurStory.com makes it all possible. OurStory is actually made for families to collaboratively record there story and genealogy. But isn’t that what a church is essentially.
Start your own timeline at OurStory.com
How Important Are Your Children?
Oct 9th
INFINITELY! I’ve only been a parent two weeks and I already have an overwhelming responsibility to protect my child.
I believe that Children/Youth workers should have a background check run on them whenever possible. I believe in forgiveness, but that doesn’t mean that a once sexual predator should be working with the children in your church. When doing a background check you then have the knowledge, even if the worker is being redeemed in Jesus, that being around children is a temptation for this person. Also you are protecting your children in the process.
I wish we lived in a time and a culture where you could trust everyone, but we just don’t. We have to be watchful for a wolf to be dressed in sheep clothing. Sexual predators are a reality and although their are mailings by law that sexual predators are in your area, sometimes these may get discarded.
Luckily Vision 20/20 is a site that allows you to check for Sexual predators. Check it out, you can also sign up for mailings when new sexual predators move into your area. Childrens/Youth Pastors, PROTECT YOUR FLOCK!
Need a Great Church Website?
Sep 17th
GET IT FOR FREE!
HOTPRESS WEB is giving away a free website for a non-profit organization. Here are the details…
Website Donation
The selected applicant will receive a new website from HotPress Web that normally costs $5,000 for FREE. This donated website comes with the following:
- 25 pages
- Site architecture planning
- Custom website design
- Full content entry assistance
- Email only project communication
- Features including calendars, blogs, photo galleries, forms, and more
- Easy to use content management system
- One year of FREE website hosting
Better Slideshows: Photo Story
Sep 6th
I haven’t seen much from Microsoft for a long time that excites me. Microsoft’s ability to “skate where the puck is going to be” is somehow just perpetually stunted. However, two items that have been a little bit of a surprise are their free OfficeLive webtools (yes, free!, though poorly named) and this article’s focus, Photo Story (also free).
Photo Story 3 allows you to present photos in a way that draws attention to the elements you want, adding interest to ordinary slide shows. Additionally, you can add music (from a create-your-own library or your own collection) and narration to your show.
There are several basic photo effects in addition to zooming and scrolling across photos. This is certainly not a high-end video editing piece, but it competently serves it’s intended purpose. Did I also mention that it’s free?
The last time I used Photo Story for a public setting, it was to show photos during a memorial service for a family member. The software allowed a little creative liberty to highlight some of the more important photo memories and draw parallels between images without interfering with the flow.
I could envision asking your missions team or youth leaders to use Photo Story to create a presentation on their last trip, complete with the narration built in. This could help keep those presentations focused and kept to a reasonable length. This is particularly nice if you have multiple services where a presentation needs to be repeated.
I put the video below together using a couple photos I took a few years ago as a simple example. The file quality has been reduced to be a little more web-friendly.
The output format is a video file, which will do a better job keeping your content in sync with your audio than PowerPoint.
The program is for Windows only (but, hey, if you’re running a Mac, do you really need this program?).
Firefox Add-on: Cell Phone Minutes Used
Aug 15th
Ever go over on your cell phone minutes? I know I have! I remember one time when my wife and I had to pay double my already outrageous cell phone bill. Most pastors are accountable for keeping an eye on even the smallest budget item, whether for home or work. And a cell phone can do huge damage to your finances, if you go over your allowed minutes.
Luckily there is a way to keep an eye on it, as long as your cell phone provider is Verizon Wireless or T-Moble and you use Firefox as your web browser.
First go to http://verizon-minutes-used.blogspot.com and download the newest version of the TMobile Minutes Used Firefox Extensio – OR – Verizon Minutes Used Firefox Extension.
Follow the directions to install the add-on to Firefox then restart Firefox. When you restart you will notice the picture to the right at the bottom of your Firefox window. Under options, make sure you enter your Username and password (that you registered at VZW or T-Mobile) and wallah! All your Cell phone info including cell mins, txts, pix/flix and it even does family plans up to date in the bottom of your browser! No logging on to check my mins ever again.
It’s pretty sweet and it has kept me from going over my mins many times.
OpenOffice
Mar 26th
Tired of paying $150-$300 every time Microsoft Office comes out with a new edition, try OpenOffice. OpenOffice is open source, which means it’s completely free, version of MS-Office. It has a word process, spread sheet, presentation, database, and publishing software included. Now, I must go on record saying this rarely does open-source give you all the options that major 
software developers give you, but I’ve seen it close. Here is how I compare MS-Office and OpenOffice.
|
Microsoft |
OpenOffice |
Disadvantages of Switching to OpenOffice |
Advantages of Switching to OpenOffice |
|
Word |
Not much, you loose some of the html function (but who makes WebPages with Word) and Clip Art. Besides that it does 90% of what Word can do. |
It’s free, and has gotten rid of many of the functions that the common user doesn’t need. You can save in all the major formats such as .doc files |
|
|
Excel |
Nearly the same functionality |
It’s free and you can save in all the major formats such as .xls and csv |
|
|
PowerPoint |
You loose man of the cool transitions and you may have some issues when you try to open a .PPT in PowerPoint. Does 70% of PowerPoint can. |
It’s free and you can save an open .PPT files. |
|
|
Publisher |
Not near as good as Publisher and you can’t save the files as .pub files. |
Gets the job done and it’s free. |
|
|
Access |
Haven’t evaluated it yet |
It’s free. |
Also you can get OpenOffice for Mac, Linux or Windows. If you are having issues downloading it from the internet contact us.
PDF with CutePDF
Mar 19th
CutePDF Writer is software that installs an imaginary printer that actually allows you to convert any document into a PDF (Adobe Reader/Acrobat) file. A PDF file is extremely valuable because it cannot be altered only viewed/printer. Another great attribute is that you can post files that are already formated to printer (ex- bulletins, by-laws, etc.) to the web with little effort. The best part is that this program is free! Instead of having to play hundreds of dollars for Adobe Acrobat Professional. They are not equal in ability, but CutePDF gets the job done for me and for most ministry/churches.
Here is a short tutorial on how CutePDF Writer works?
Video is provided by Church2.0-the Blog.
XXXChurch and ScrubIT
Mar 14th
Porn is plaguing young and old men, Christians and non-Christians, women and yes even pastors. XXXChurch is prided as the #1 Christian Porn site. I know it’s a little controversial, however they are doing some great things. One of them being the provision of a free accountability software called X3Watch. What is X3Watch accountability software? It is software that you install on your PC or MAC that records any questionable website that you visit. After a couple weeks it sends an email of the questionable sites to an accountability partner. Say a good friend, a pastor, even your wife or husband. I beg you to install this and find an accountabilty partner if you are struggling with poor. Porn effects you in so many evil ways that go unseen for years.
ScrubIT is a program sets up your computer to go through a DNS server that blocks porn from your computers. This is a little more complicated, so I’ll let you check out there website for more details if your interest.
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