Tech for the Local Church
Tip
How To Upgrade Google Apps to the FREE Non-Profit Edition
Oct 14th
NO ADS, TOTAL PRIVACY, SHARED CONTACTS & MORE
Three good reasons why you should choose the non-profit edition over the standard FREE (with Ads) Google Apps version you may be using now. Instructions after the break… More >
Make Your Church Website #1 in Google, Please.
Sep 22nd
I just received an email from a new client with one simple request:
We would like our website to be one of the first to show when people google it. Thank you.
I thought many would benefit from my reply: More >
Joining PDF Files in Preview (Mac)
Jun 29th
Macs handle PDF files natively (no extra software required). This is one more reason on my ever-growing list to switch to a Mac. Joining two PDF files could not be easier. More >
Audit Your Facebook Privacy Settings
May 3rd
Facebook Privacy is the quintessential oxymoron. Let it sink in… yeah. Watching Facebook’s schizophrenic privacy policies and whack-a-mole privacy settings is dizzying. Gina Trapani does a great job helping us cover our privacy bases in a recent post for Fast Company.
25 Day of Free Christmas Music
Dec 3rd
Amazon is giving away MP3s for Christmas in what they are calling 25 Days of Free. They are giving away Christmas songs from some of your favorite artists. One per day, so you need to keep checking back periodically and download them for FREE!
Also don’t forget about Worship House Media’s 12 Days of Christmas.
12 Days of Free Video Elements for Christmas!
Dec 1st
If you don’t know I am a huge fan of Worship House Media. Not only do they save me hours of time surfing for the best video for our worship gatherings by offering many different producers works, they give a lot way for FREE!
Your not going to want to miss 12 Days of Christmas.
On the 1st day of Christmas Worship House Media gave to me Fearfully Made
…and a partridge in a pair tree!
It’s Not Crap!
Dec 1st
Daily Freebie Promo – “You Can’t Say That” from Worship House Media on Vimeo.
FYI – Dale’s beard is sweet! It makes me feel like he’s Santa!
Chanukah Move Over
Nov 28th
Chanukah has 7 days of gifts, thanks to Worship House Media we get 20 days.
Starting Dec 1st Worship House Media is giving away a video each week day!
Daily Freebie Promo – “They’ll Never Know” from Worship House Media on Vimeo.
Record for Podcast Interviews!
Aug 28th

Call Recorder for Skype is by far the best little add-on that I’ve seen to use to record interviews via phone call through Skype.

It’s $15 and it’s for Mac only.
PowerGramo does the same thing for Windows users and it’s free.
Churchy Media and MuxTapes
Apr 23rd
The guys at ChurchyMedia are knocking the ball out of the park when it comes to their video podcast called Short Takes.

Below I embedded a Short Take on how worship teams can use MuxTape
Keep up the good work!
Podcast Review: Creative Synergy
Feb 22nd
TAGLINE/PURPOSE: a relevant resource to inspire and influence church leaders
AUDIO/VIDEO: Audio only
CONTENT: Great stuff
FREQUENCY: Approximately once every three months
DURATION: Average 35 minutes per episode
CRAP or QUALITY: Quality
NERD FACTOR: Newbie to Tech-savvy
NICHE: Worship Leader, A/V Director and Lead Pastors
SPONSORED: Easy Worship
Creative Synergy Podcast: FOUR out of FIVE Stars. Great episode on Copyright in the Church. Multi-site campus, worship planning/preparation and church marketing are other topics covered. My only reservation from giving this five stars is having to wait so long between episodes. This is a top notch podcast.
To subscribe to this podcast go to www.creativesynergypodcast.com find recommended podcasts in the right column of C2.0 – the blog site and click on Creative Synergy.
reThink Podcasts [part 3]
Jan 16th
None one likes re-runs:
Don’t just podcast sermons,
create fresh new content
Reasons Why?
- Fresh- unless your nationally known speaker or someone missed the worship service they aren’t going to subscribe to your podcast to hear you talk for an hour. By creating new content you will give them incentive to subscribe.
- Discipleship – make a short podcasts to further the sermon or call them to action. Or use podcast to distribute small group/house church videos for discussion.
- Ministries – make short podcasts highlighting ministries and/or testimonies.
- Events – promo events, concerts, do interviews, etc.
- Free Music – have a musicians [in your church] give their songs away.
Tip: Get some young creative types to help you brainstorm ideas.
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
———————————————————
In what ways are you and your ministry reThinking how to use podcasts?
Online Resources: Media
May 17th
These are a list of my favorites media websites for worship gatherings. Not necessarily the best sites, just my favorite. We, Church2.0, do not recieve kick-backs from these companies although we would gladly take them. Kidding!
Worship House Media is possibly the best site to start looking for videos because WHM offers videos from other media companies such as Floodgate, Igniter, Eleven72, and more.
Sermon Spice has some thought provoking stuff. If you are a fan of baseing your preaching/teachings off of movies that are popular, SS is the place for you. Currently the are giving away Spider Man 3 videos for free.
Highway Video is probably the most famous name in the media for churches scene. Not my favorite, but it has some good stuff.
QUICK TIP: Often videos sites give a video or two away for free. ChurchVideoIdeas.com does a great job of keeping up on who’s giving out videos for free. I use his blog to keep an eye out for free videos.
Why Online Collaboration?
Mar 29th
How often do you have to meet with your staff, elders, or ministry teams to create, edit, or finalize a document, a project, a plan or a schedule? What if you could do it all on your own time? That’s what online collaborating allows you to do. Create a document and share it for editing, setup a proposed schedules online and have volunteers agree or disagree to the dates proposed, share a set list so the worship team can plan and/or practice ahead of time.
One of the most difficult things is trying to work around other peoples schedules. Now you don’t have to. You can bring the meeting to them and on their time.
Vision Article: Less Is More
Mar 12th

I was on Vision magazine’s website and found an article by Greg Atkinson called “Less Is More“. Here is some of key thoughts/ideas that you should take from the article:
“Although their presentation software has the ability to put text over moving/looping backgrounds, they used mostly still backgrounds. Often when a church moves from PowerPoint to a presentation software designed for worship they forget about still backgrounds.”
Use More Still Images:
I remember using a moving background at a small gathering behind the song text and noticed that people were developing vertigo halfway through the song. So, be cautious of using moving backgrounds too often. I even suggest using white text over black-background often. It allows the congregation to slow down their busy mind and focus on the words you are using to praise God.
“Let’s assume you hear 2 sermons: One that is supplemented with 30 messages slides and one that has 3 message slides. Which one do you think you are most likely to remember? You guessed it: The one with 3 slides. Less IS more, especially if it is done creatively. I’d rather you give me 3 images than 3 bullet points.”
The Few the PowerPoint Slides for Sermons the Better:
A good rule of thumb is the 10/20/30 PowerPoint Rule for a sermon/teaching. No more then ten slides, approximately twenty minutes, and no smaller than a thirty size font. This is helps you keep the teaching concise and focused. Also use images for the visual learner and words to help the text driven learners.
“My thought is to apply the “less is more” principle to how we present our weekly announcements, whether it’s an actual staff member mentioning the top announcement(s) of the week, or a video that highlights the top 2 to 3 things that need attention. It’s simple logic that people are more likely to remember 1 or 2 announcements than they are to remember 5 or 6. If retention is our goal, why do so many of our churches make numerous announcements?”
Keep Announcements To A Minimum:
Announcements can take up way to much of your gathering/meeting time. Keep them to the church wide announcements and/or for highlights/corrections only. If you have a bulletin make the most of it. Make the bulletin easy to read and easy to find information that the church is looking for. Keep the descriptions simple and to the point. That way you only have to make announcements for the major events.
The WayBack Machine: A Place Where Everything Old is New Again
Mar 9th
There are, of course, far greater tragedies possible in life, but there is a certain special sadness– at least a kind of virtual sense of loss– felt when a favorite, happily-discovered bookmark link is clicked and turns out to be broken, empty, or over-written/replaced.
Now, thanks to the archive.org, we have recourse to a remarkable resource which might help us fight off a creeping sense of existential displacement or nostalgia-stained despair. What is this welcome source of cyber-comfort? What else could it be but the “Wayback Machine?” It’s like a time warp for the interent. By simply pasting or typing in the URL in question, WayBack does its work and searches back months, even years, to find the missing information. No warranty is offered to guarantee that every data point on every page has been preserved, but it’s worth a try. Even if the links aren’t recovered, it’s fun seeing what Google, USA Today, and other sites of interest looked like years ago.
As with any other recommendation we make, we invite comments and questions, and we are happy to offer help as much as we are able in response to reader requests.
updated 24.09.10, tms







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