Writings from the TechnoPastor
PC Magazine has a great tip for those struggling with graphics in MS-Word 2007: It’s easy enough: Click the Insert ribbon, click the Shape button, and select New Drawing Canvas at the very bottom. Now place your pictures and shapes into the canvas. You’ll be able to move them freely within the canvas, group or […]
I confess that for all of my technological sophistication, I have still not entered into the age of the GPS. However, as I have been thinking about the task of visiting and being on the go (not unlike the old circuit riders, but in a beat-up minivan) I have been mulling over getting a GPS […]
I confess that I am an organizational junkie. I have been looking for years for the right system to keep me on track, to help me overcome my tendency to procrastinate, and to fight against the undiagnosed ADHD that I am sure I have. I have tried all sorts of systems, day planners, task managers, […]
Tomorrow, Tuesday June 17, will be the day that the new release of Mozilla’s Firefox 3 browser is released. The folks at Mozilla are hoping that they will set a record for the most downloads in a day, and I want to encourage all to think seriously about downloading the new edition of Firefox. Some […]
Developing a Communications Plan: 3 Questions Basic communication is an encoding and decoding process. We arrive at a thought or concept and want to share it with another. We have to encode that thought into some form (a medium) that is transmitted to the other. That person then has to decode the information from that […]
Defining Communications During the past thirty years of being involved with communications and technology in the church I have seen a consistent trend. Invariably some new technology will come along — be it video, blogging, or something esoteric — and every leader in the church who thinks that they are half way hip wants to […]
This is probably more geeky than most folks care about, but there may be some of you out there looking for a cheap, electronic whiteboard option, and this is really cool.
Last night I reviewed a few of the blogging services that I have used, offering some observations about these services. However, when it comes down to it, all of the services do pretty much the same thing — they process data (usually the written word) inserting it into a predefined template and stamp it with […]
My cousin Ray is an amazing photographer and maintains a great site with a picture of the day. Check out some of his pix at http://www.raysadler.com. Technorati Tags: photos
Hopefully by now you have pretty well figured out that a blog can be an important arsenal in your tools for ministry. A blog is in fact nothing more than a simple web page that is catalogued by date, and can be an easy way to publish sermons, share random thoughts, or even provide up […]
In the past few weeks, I’ve been appalled with the price that some churches and ministry organizations are paying for their web hosting. It’s not the church’s fault; many of them signed up with web hosting companies years ago, and are still paying the rates from years ago. Churches: Change Your Web Hosting Companies! | […]
I don’t remember when I first heard about Jott, but after playing with it for a while I forgot about it. However, in the past few days I have found myself depending on it more and more, and am seeing this as a great asset for my ministry. I confess that as I’ve gotten older […]
Rich Holton just let me know that he has copies of my posts in his Google Reader account going back to October 18. If you have any copies of posts that I have made on this site, please feel free to send me the text so that I can re-post them.
Tim Bednar is a friend of mine who has been working on project to move church management from a dedicated software option to something web based. The site is name Plaid, and they are scheduled to release a demo version this month and the beta toward the end of the year. I just got an […]
I’m going to hold off on writing about the value and risks of using the existing social network spaces. However, I think it likely that anyone who reads this blog probably uses one of the two major social networks — Facebook and MySpace. Leave a comment and tell us which one you prefer. Technorati Tags: […]
…although if Microsoft wanted to sponsor this site, I would be willing to talk. One of the banes of my existence has been trying to keep organized. I have used all sorts of technological solutions to try and keep up my calendar, including several Palm compatible devices, Franklin Planners, etc. Likewise, I have experienced a […]
There are all sorts of ways to handle setting up e-mail for your users in your church using your church’s domain name. Many of them involve a bit of a cost, with either your domain name registrar or your internet service provider charging for each account needed. I suggest checking out Google Apps instead. Now […]
Church calendars are the bane of my existence. Okay, that’s not exactly true. Certainly there are worse things in life than trying to keep a coordinated church calendar that is accessible to all, but not too accessible. I suppose liver is worse than dealing with the calendar, but the fact remains for me that trying […]
While proper exegesis is crucial for discerning God’s message from a text for a congregation, I don’t know of a preacher who isn’t always searching for metaphors and illustrations to help bring a sermon alive. Three points and a poem is pretty easy to put together, but the form has become dry enough that it’s […]
Back in seminary, I made a pledge to myself. “Self,” I said with great pomposity, “I know that you will never be like one of those preachers who are up late on Saturday nights writing their sermons. You will take time to get the sermon written early in the week, won’t you?” After all, I […]
only wonder understands