Apr 29

Arena Developers Conference – Spring 2008

Posted in: Shelby Arena

We are in the middle of our second day at the Arena Developers Conference in Memphis. This morning Jon and David from CCV shared their thoughts on new development ideas such as an IT trouble ticket tool, Asterisk integration, and relationship strength. I then shared about our proposed integration with the Unifier tool. This afternoon we will dive into an open discussion and brainstorming session about how to further ministry through the Arena tool.

A few take-aways from Jon’s talk…

“What should we focus on in church IT”

  • Features that ease communication and interaction with the largest amount of members
  • Features that make the large church feel small
  • Dramatic staff productivity enhancers
  • Clearer picture of the state of our members
  • Leaps in innovation
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Apr 21

Apple iPwned

Posted in: Uncategorized

There is something seriously wrong in Dallas.  No, not the traffic or the rampant materialism (but there is also that…)  Lately the problem has been with the AT&T edge data network, or my iPhone, or a combination of both.  I spent part of Friday at the Apple store explaining to the “genius” on call that I can sometimes go a full day without being able to establish a connection on the Edge network, while the Wi-fi connection seems to work fine (they share the same antenna).  We were able to completely replicate the problem, so Apple suggested that I reset my phone.  After doing this at the store, amazingly the data connection worked again.  So even though I had lost all of my information on the phone, at least I had a working mail and internet connection again… And there was great rejoicing…. yea.

Until….

When I go back home, I synced my iPhone back with the trusty Macbook.  I had been warned about restoring from a backup, so instead I just re-synced my data to the phone.  And guess what?  The connection problem is back again.  Now I don’t know what is going on.  Frustrating.  My guess is that AT&T has a problem somewhere, but then again, who knows.

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Apr 12

Facebook apps, the church, and relationships that matter.

Posted in: Web

We just recently launched the “Join the Journey” app on Facebook.  For those of you not familiar, Join the Journey is our daily online devotionals written by church members.  It previously had been available by a daily email or on the web at www.jointhejourney.com.  When I first got into facebook, it amazed me how quickly I was having conversations with people that I hadn’t spoken with in years.  All of a sudden I’m having conversations about my faith, and it hit me that the most important thing that a church can do on facebook is create a ways for believers to share their faith with their nonbelieving friends.  What makes facebook (an other social media sites) so great is not technology being so cool (but it is) or that it is so “hip” (but it is), but rather that people are engaging with one another online.  Mostly they’re planning social lives, or wasting time… they are throwing sheep, playing games.  We ought to be giving people ways to share their faith and start conversations.  If we really want to call people “friends” on facebook and we aren’t sharing the gospel with them, we’re not much of a friend are we?  If you are interested in adding the app to your facebook page, check it out here.

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Apr 09

Twitter as a Church Tool?

Posted in: Uncategorized

Just finally getting back on the twitter bandwagon.  Seemed a bit narcissistic for me at first.  I mean, who really needs to know that I’m down playing with my kids at the creek.  But then again, as a tool for communication, it works really well.  Churches suck at communication.  Period.  Talk to “communication directors” at churches and they’ll tell you the same thing if they are being honest.  The bottom line is that you can’t have enough ways to communicate.  Target your communication, yes.  Tell people multiple times, check.

But communication doesn’t generate buzz unless it is a constant reminder.  That’s where twitter can work.  Will it work for us?  Who knows, but we may give it a shot.

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Apr 09

Wordpress migration…

Posted in: General IT

After languishing in Typepad for a while, I decided to take some action with my blog and try to consolidate the madness into “all things wordpress.”  Since we are using Wordpress MU to drive most of our ministry blogs, it just makes sense.  Maybe if I keep playing in one world instead of trying to work through Drupal, Wordpress, Typepad, and Typo3 installations, I might actually have time to post something… well, that’s wishful thinking.

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