With the rise of Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare), Churches naturally want to establish a presence. But how do you avoid running into ethical and legal issues when you use social media? You can (and probably should) write a Social Media Policy, but you should also train your staff on how to avoid these issues. Here are some tips to consider:

• Always use good etiquette online, which will avoid a lot of issues
• Do not use the Church´s logo on your personal website, unless you get permission
• When you write your own opinion, but you´re a member of the staff, include a disclaimer
• Avoid legal entanglements – i.e. libel – by always speaking the truth

A disclaimer can be a simple postscript like “the views expressed are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Church.” This validates your free speech, while noting the fact that you are not speaking for the Church in this context. Free speech issues in social networking settings are starting to appear before the courts.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

Electronic mail has many advantages for a Church. You can publish a monthly newsletter via eMail without spending a lot on postage. You can also target emails to specific groups – e.g. just the people interested in missions. And you can get the information out quickly – within an hour. These advantages make eMail communication a great communications tool when you want to get the Word out to people.

So why not blast away with every eMail message you can think of? In short, because of SPAM. SPAM is unsolicited bulk messaging sent to people indiscriminately. Everyone with an eMail account has had to deal with this deluge of useless information. This year, projections show that there will be at least 7 trillion SPAM messages generated. Unfortunately, that means 80% of the eMails that land in your inbox are likely to be SPAM. How does the Church’s important message about the change in the meeting time get through all of that chaff? And to make matters worse, people use eMail filters that can mislabel an eMail message as SPAM and throw it away. Here are some tips for getting your eMail Blasts past the filters:

• Ensure that your eMails have original, useful content
• Avoid trigger words in your subject line, e.g. free, trial, money, quote
• Avoid using ALL CAPS – i.e. SHOUTING FOR ATTENTION
• Do use a subject line that matches the eMail – e.g. March Monthly Newsletter
• Avoid the excessive use of punctuation – i.e. “! ! !”

SPAM is a tough problem to deal with. And some people have given up and don’t use eMail as a result. Or they may use Social Network Messaging instead. You should encourage people to let you know if they aren’t getting your eMails. Perhaps you should still print a few paper newsletters and send them through snail mail (USPS). That way, you cover the spectrum and ensure that the Word gets through.

How do you do ministry through your website? Is that even possible? Yes, your Church’s website can and should be doing ministry. There are many approaches to this, but the first step should be an assessment:

• What is the purpose of your website?
• Who are you trying to minister to?
• What are the resources that you need?
• What resources do you have available?

When you first put together a web site, you may have just been getting on the bandwagon. After all, other Churches in your area were developing websites, so why shouldn’t yours do the same. That may have been enough of a purpose to convince the board to fund the site. (Sometimes the costs can be quite a hurdle.) But you should ask yourself now, what is our purpose going forward? Is it to invite newcomers to Church? Is it to keep the congregation informed? Or is it to provide a way for shut-ins to stay connected with their Church? Or maybe you really want to share the great teachings of your staff with as many Christians as you can reach. The web opens the door to a community of faith that exceeds your local boundaries. People that would never be able to visit your Church can find inspiration and growth through your website. The Gospel can and does reach the whole world – via cyberspace. Who are you trying to minister to?

Resources include not just the finances but all of the information sources that you depend upon for content. This will certainly include staff members, who may be intent on promoting an upcoming event or small group. It will include Church members who lead committees and want to share information about what the committee is doing or when the next meeting is. It may even include community leaders – e.g. scouting, civic groups, etc – who need a way to promote events. But it can also include denominational leaders – e.g. a Bishop’s message about a state wide event. Your web ministry will certainly include sermons and teachings by your preaching staff. Do you provide the sermon as a video, audio, and/or text file? How about a followup discussion in an online forum about this week’s sermon. And you probably have a Church calendar of events and meetings, so people can look up the time and place. But how about announcements of inclement weather and/or natural disaster responses. The possibilities are incredible. Just be sure to tap into as many information resources as you can, and organize the website so that people can find it easily.

For more information, check out these online resources:

Top 10 Best Practices for Web Ministry
Website Ministry

How does your A/V system work? Who knows the exact configuration? Is it just the TD? That may be well and good, since he is the expert; but what happens if he quits? How will you fix things if you don’t have a clue about the wiring!

Every A/V setup should have a configuration manual. This can be hand drawings, but using a computer will make it a little clearer. It should document the essential connections between major components in audio, lighting, and video. That way, there is something written down that explains it all. Doing this will capture the institutional memory of how things are wired together, so that anyone on the tech team can figure out a problem – even when the TD is away.

Sure, it takes time to document things. But you can do it at a high level – i.e. component by component. You don’t have to label every single wire and document the wiring harness. But you do need to revise the configuration manual periodically as new equipment comes in, so that it stays up to date.

Let’s face it, the Church setting is not known for having a lot of Geeks. And in my experience, most pastoral staff were trained in religion and the arts – i.e. not the sciences and technology. So how do you support a non-technical staff person? First, you can’t expect them to understand technical jargon. Always remember that they simply weren’t trained for it, so the words will be going over (or under) their heads. Restate the technical details in terms that a layman or laywoman can understand. And you can’t expect them to be as enthusiastic about the technology as you are – you won’t hear any gee-wiz statements out of them. Remember that they are more concerned with the message – i.e. the Good News. And that is wholly appropriate. So point out how the technology will help get across the message in new ways.

A favorite analogy of mine is crossing a lake. There are many ways to get to the other side. You can fly the lake over in a helicopter – i.e. provide a quick overview. Or you can take a boat across – i.e. make a presentation. If you have the faith of Peter, then you can walk across – i.e. walk them through a tutorial. Or you can swim across – really getting your feet wet by explaining it all. Finally, you can put on scuba gear and go across along the bottom of the lake – i.e. sharing all of the nitty-gritty details. With each way, your staff member will encounter an increasing amount of technical detail. Some will like the details; others will abhor it. Obviously, you’ll want to pick the way across that is appropriate for the person you are talking to. If they only want to fly across, let them soar. If they really want to get their feet wet, go swimming with them. (Be sure to save the scuba diving for those times when you go to conferences on technology in the Church, or add your comments here.) Non-Technical users will always appreciate it when you don’t overwhelm them with the technology!

Supporting your users involves making the appropriate choice in how you communicate about the technology. You can’t expect everyone in the Church to have the same level of understanding that you do, so adapt to your audience and let the Word go forth!

How do people who drive by perceive your Church? Is the Church Sign something that catches their eye? Or is it just another sign along the side of the road. Making a Church Sign both eye-catching and informative is a challenge. What do you really want to say in a glance – which is about all the time a passing motorist has available?

Your Church Sign identifies you to the motoring public. It should thus have at least your name and address. In addition, you probably want to put the times for your worship services, since that will attract visitors. Adding a slogan or some saying may add to the appeal, and let you tell the public something more about your Church. But you have to keep it short and sweet – no long statements of faith or Church doctrines here. Some Churches have added a comment on the latest news. Keeping the Church Sign fresh and inviting is probably the key. What does yours say?

Disaster Recovery involves a whole lot of effort in a short period of time. Planning ahead helps by bringing order to the chaos and helping the recovery go smoothly. You can’t always prevent a disaster from striking. You can support the community of faith by helping them recover. The Church needs to recover, too.

Planning for the recovery of the administration of the Church involves many aspects. The Church can learn from IT Disaster Recovery, but it has some unique needs. People come first; administrative systems come after that. Planning for the recovery of the administration involves all of the following steps:

1. Get church/leadership support
2. Select a disaster recovery team
3. Conduct a Business/Ministry Impact Analysis
4. Build a Technology Recovery Plan
5. Testing and Monitoring
6. Document the plan

For more information, see the following references:
Protecting church data from the unthinkable : information technology (IT) disaster recovery planning by Brian J Shoup.

Given that most megachurches have extensive IT installations, would it make sense to give remote access to volunteers? If you trust these volunteers to come in on Sundays and work with expensive equipment, then why not trust them during the week? Some of these volunteers no doubt work with commercial implementations costing in the millions, so they are used to the equipment. And with the ubiquity of the Internet, they should be able to access any computer equipment from anywhere. What would really be the harm in giving the access? Nothing, since they already have it on Sundays.

However, access has to always be for a purpose. You could well insist that any access granted to a volunteer should have a well defined purpose. And that purpose should determine the level of access granted remotely. For example, suppose you had a volunteer who put together the slides for the song lyrics on Sundays. There is little reason to insist that they come in two hours before the service on Sunday mornings to type this in. That just doesn’t leave much room for proofreading, and you should always proofread anything that you display to the entire congregation – preferably by more than one pair of eyes! It would be better to have them type up the lyrics on Thursday mornings, following Wednesday night choir rehearsal. You could easily grant them access to the computer running the lyrics remotely, and they could type them up. Have someone else check the lyrics on Friday, just to be sure. And then you’re all set for Sunday morning! The volunteer is happier, not having to come in so early. And the staff has more confidence that they did it right; they could be the ones checking it on Fridays. And the service will go more smoothly, with less chance of a glitch.

Remote access for volunteers does make sense. It should have a purpose, and be tightly controlled. It can also be logged by the IT department, to monitor for abuse. However, it will make for a smoother service and happier volunteers serving the Kingdom!

Strategic planning for a technical ministry involves looking ahead at needs for carrying out the mission. It should be driven by a thorough understanding of the ministry and where it is headed in the future. Then you should match that understanding up with a grasp of the technology, and where it is heading too. Here are some steps to take in the process:

• Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
• Assess the spiritual needs of the Community
• Identify opportunities for ministry
• Explore ways to use the technology to meet those needs
• What else do you need in terms of technology?
• Lay out a plan of action

Don’t get caught up in overcoming your weaknesses – i.e. that is wasted effort. Focus on your strengths, and then be ready to utilize them in new ways. And always identify the spiritual needs of your community. Things have probably changed since you last looked here, and new opportunities will exist. You need to identify them, and then explore ways to use technology in meeting those needs. Once you have these goals in mind, then you’re ready to ask what technology you need to obtain or expand – not before! That way, you are aligning the development of the technology with the development of the ministry.

For example, you could have an interest in Social Networking – a hot topic in technology. The popular thing to do would be to get that technology and then figure out a way to reach your congregation with it. But that’s the wrong approach. First, you identify the needs, then the technology. You may decide that a facebook page will help you meet those needs, but you need a plan. That way, you can tell when you’ve succeeded.

Churches need to be well managed. Many Churches these days have a Church Administrator, a staff member dedicated to management tasks. This used to be the prerogative of the Senior Pastor; but larger Churches have discovered that they really want the Senior Pastor to be a visionary, not an administrator. And having an administrator means they can enjoy longer service, and consequently really know the ins and outs of the job.

Large Churches also need an information system, a Church Management System if you will. This is used by the Church Administrator to manage the day to day business of the Church. It needs to have at least the following functions:

• Membership Records
• Donor Database Management
• Web Site Management
• Administrative Reporting

The Church is blessed by many good software packages designed for this task. Here are just a few to check out:

This list represents a variety of features and prices, with something for every Church from a small to megachurch congregation.

The Power of the Web is no where more felt than on social networking websites. These sites allow you to express yourself, sharing photos, videos, opinions and ideas. At their best, they are a wonderful way to build communities. At their worst, they are openings for those who prey on others. How can the Church harness this web power?

The Church is the original community. Originally formed from that small band of Disciples turned Apostles who fled persecution and took the Gospel everywhere, home Churches flourished despite intense persecution. These home communities met to worship, learn about Jesus, and fellowship together. Governments tried to stamp the Church out, but failed. The Church grew because it met the needs of the people. In most places around the world, persecution has waned, but the needs are just as important now. People need to feel like they belong, they need a solid foundation built upon the rock of faith. The Church excels at that. The key is interaction, which can happen in the Church building or around the corner. It can even happen across the Web. Group discussions can focus on specific Bible passages – a sort of perpetual Bible study online. People can share their burdens through online Prayer requests. Families in need can be identified, with people then able to respond in tangible ways. Visits to the sick can be coordinated among the entire Church, not just a few staff members. The possibilities are endless.

Images have power. They can convey the equivalent of a thousand words. They can convey emotion, as in a picture of a young child looking lost. Then can convey love, as in the mother who has just found that lost child. They have this power because they evoke a response within us. That is perhaps why a great movie can bring us to tears. It can leave us with a powerful image of just about anything, if well crafted. How do we use this power of the image? In the Greek Orthodox tradition, images have 3 dimensions. They aren’t just paintings, but sculptures. They look like real life, and they thus have power. We may be limited to two dimensions – i.e. for the present – but we can still leverage the power of images to convey the Gospel in new ways. That means seeking out new images to show. It means trying different approaches. Some will be effective; others will not. But the Gospel message has always been known for breaking out. Remember the words of Jesus, “even the stones will cry out.”

Ours is a world filled with Technological Power. We see it everywhere, use it in our daily lives, and applaud the latest developments of Tech. However, we need to remember that the source of that power lies not within ourselves; all knowledge comes from God. So we don’t need to worship technology; we worship the living God who has given us all good things – including technology.

When we recognize that technology is another gift that God has given us, we put it in the right perspective. The technology presents us with new challenges, not an absence of God. The Church has encountered those challenges, sometimes with obstinance, sometimes with wisdom. At our best, we should be making use of the technology to spread the Gospel further, to reach more people, and to enhance the message so that more people listen. When we do that, we are using Technological Power to enhance ministry. And that is perhaps the best way to use it after all.

Sometimes you get just a little bit of audio feedback in a large sanctuary with a complex audio system. What do you do when this happens during a worship service? You can’t stop the service and fix the problem; you have to do something on the fly. The best recourse is to make adjustments that will control the feedback without sacrificing performance quality. For example, you might tweak the “send to monitor” pots down a bit. Sometimes, this shotgun approach resolves the feedback without affecting the quality of the sound that the congregation hears. However, you’ll want to go back later and track down the problem more completely. The instrumentalists that depend on that monitor will appreciate it.

How reliable are your technical systems in the Church? Before you laugh, consider the embarrassment your senior pastor would feel if everything went off during the middle of a sermon. (I’ve seen this happen, and at the early service, too!) Perhaps we need to think a bit about reliability after all.

In the commercial realm, reliability is measured by the number of Nines. That is, there will be a contract, say with a web hosting firm, that specifies the Service Level Availability in terms of percentage of guaranteed uptime. Here’s a table to help you better appreciate this:

So, if I am guaranteed that my system is up 99% of the time, that means it will be down at most 4 days over the course of a year. If I am guaranteed 99.999% of the time (5 Nines), that means that it will be down at most 5 minutes in a year. If I managed to get to 7 Nines – i.e. 99.99999% of the time – I am guaranteed that the system will at most be down 3 seconds in a year! Believe it or not, the technology is capable of that, but it gets very expensive!

Fortunately, the Church doesn’t need 7 Nines reliability, but your preacher probably expects 6 Nines, and your congregation will start getting anxious at anything less. So what do you do? Start by making an assessment of which systems are required for worship to proceed. For example, if the electricity totally fails, do you go on with no systems working, or jump to the closing prayer. If you had a UPS on everything in the tech closet, then you could continue without main power. Now think through scenarios where each of those systems goes down. What would you do? Is there an alternative that you could quickly deploy? How would you expect the staff to respond? Thinking ahead can go a long ways towards avoiding panic and dealing with the event effectively. And that ultimately will allow worship to go on. You may be wishing that the “rocks will sing out” in the closing song. Maybe they will!

Copyright is always an issue when a Church reuses media not created in house. The Copyright laws exist to protect the legal and financial rights of the creators of the work. Fair Use is often cited as a reason, but it was originally intended so that schools could do research. The best practice is to get permission from the copyright owner, but that can be difficult and time consuming. Here are some web sites that can help:

Christian Copyright Licensing Inc. www.ccli.com

Christian Video Licensing Inc. www.cvli.org

BMI www.bmi.com/licensing/webcaster

ASCAP www.ascap.com/weblicense

How many screens do you use in your worship space? Can you have too many? Remember the reason for the screens or IMAG is to enable people to worship more effectively. For the person on the last row of the balcony, this may be the only way that they can get a clear view of the preacher. For the congregation, this may be the best way to present lyrics for the praise songs. One idea is to reflect the seating layout. You want everyone, no matter where they are sitting, to be able to see clearly. If this is not the case, then you need to add a screen so that it is. Some sanctuaries have a single big screen. Others have 3 or more screens placed strategically around the sanctuary worship space. Take a brief walk around the sanctuary. Can you see from every seat? You might be surprised at what you find! Your comments are welcome.

Remember that the tomb where they laid Jesus’ body was a borrowed one. Specifically, it was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, who had obviously come to believe in Jesus. He provided his own tomb, which was available. Have you ever wondered about this tomb? What was the technology involved; we might call it primitive. First, the tomb was cut out of solid rock. And a large stone was rolled into place against the tomb – no doubt to keep the animals out. It thus took a lot of wealth to prepare a tomb like this. Evidently, Joseph was a wealthy man.

To make the tomb even more secure, Pilate in Mat 27:65 orders that the tomb be sealed with his seal, and a squad of soldiers went along to stand watch. This seal would indicate that the tomb was not to be tampered with, under penalty of Roman law.

To my thinking, this makes the Resurrection all the more spectacular. The disciples, fragmented and afraid for their lives, could never attack a Roman guard. And the women knew that they could never roll the stone away to get to the body of Jesus. Only God’s power could freeze the guard, roll away the stone, and resurrect the physical body of Jesus! That is the miracle of Easter. And I marvel at how God must have accomplished that!

Some might ask, “Why do we need IT in the Church?” Isn’t the Church about people, not information technology? Yes, the focus of the Church is on the salvation of people’s souls. But in order to believe, they have to first hear the Gospel message (ROM 10:14). In the Apostle Paul’s day, the Pax Romana sped the Gospel message around the world. In the 21st Century, it is the Internet that is speeding the Gospel message around the world. The Church needs to take advantage of every resource that it has available, especially technology, in communicating the Gospel.

Some might respond that IT is all well and good, but it is just too expensive. You can quickly spend a lot on IT equipment – money that could be better spent feeding the poor. By the same reasoning, you could argue that instead of a building program, the Church should spend the capitol campaign funds on helping the homeless. Jesus noted that “the poor you will always have with you” MAT 26:11. It is the Church building that enables ministry in a community. So it is with the technology; it enables the Church to communicate the Gospel message clearly in a world of lost souls. And the challenge has never been greater. The Church has to find ways to communicate that rise above the background noise of the culture, so that the Gospel is heard and disseminated. And just as a large Church needs a budget for taking care of its buildings, so it needs a budget for spending money on IT. As John Brandon of Christianity Today put it:

For most churches, Information Technology (IT) is a critical part of ministry. Computers that function correctly, a website that looks professional, and a backup process for sermon notes all help the staff do ministry more effectively, communicate with the congregation, and focus on building relationships.

Giving Tech Its Due posted 3/3/2010.

So the leaders of the Church need to provide funds for IT development, just as they would for keeping the lights on. There needs to be clearly established goals for this, and an appropriate level of priority. In so doing the wise Church will run its ministry to the fullest measure in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. And in the end, that will save money while getting the message out to more people.

Most of the larger Churches have come to recognize that they need IT (i.e. Information Technology.) Indeed, I would assert that there is a correlation between the size of a Church and this need. Megachurches are thus the most needy, but they also reach thousands of people. But is there a higher purpose for IT? Let’s consider it.

The Church originated information sharing – i.e. sharing the Gospel message. In the first century, this was often done in private homes by people witnessing to one another. (After Nero, it was difficult to speak publicly about The Way.) A hundred years ago, street preachers would stand on a corner and just preach the Word. Fifty years ago in the US, the Church was holding great revivals in tents and outdoor stadiums. Now the Church can reach out to a million people with the Word. The difference is the technology involved. From a whisper to the street corner to the stadium to the Internet, the Gospel has been proclaimed.

So the use of the technology within the Church has a Higher Purpose – i.e. communicating the Gospel. Whether by weekly emails from the pastor, or Blog postings on the Church web page, the purpose is the same. The methods and tools have changed with the times, but the Gospel message remains the same. And the more effective we are at using the technology, the better that message is proclaimed. May God use our IT skills to this great cause – that the Gospel will be proclaimed to the ends of the earth!

Christians are blessed with knowledge about the Bible. In a sense, we have never known more about the Bible. We live in an unprecedented era of access to great Biblical research. Millions of books have been written about the Bible – which was the first major book printed on the Gutenberg press in 1455. There is more information available about the Bible than any other ancient book. In a sense, Biblical research has peeled back the darkness of the Middle Ages to take us to the earliest sources. We are blessed by this knowledge.

Also, we have remarkable Bible study tools available. Gone are the days when you had to depend on Crudens Concordance for study – useful though it was! Now you can have the Bible on your smart phone – i.e. in your favorite translation. (It works great for a sword drill!) And you can search the Biblical text for any word combination in any set of books that you can think of. It really makes the Bible a “lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105 NIV).

With all of this great Biblical research available to us, you would think that our knowledge of the Bible as individual Christians would be awesome. Yet there are studies that suggest that Biblical literacy is on the decline. Stephen Prothero even has a test for it, and finds most Americans sorely lacking in this day and age. I suspect that this reflects the shift away from talking about religion in the public arena. The Church needs to do a better job of teaching the Bible. How is your Church increasing Bible literacy in your community? Are you using all of the tools, both in print and software? Or are you just sticking with an emphasis on good preaching?

Which is better for the video projection of lyrics, a moving background or a beautiful color? There is a technical challenge with producing an image of the lyrics that has movement on the screen. While many video switchers have the capability to key an image over a specific color – e.g. dark blue – it can be difficult to put a moving image up. Some presentation software (see our review entitled “Presentation Software Review”) makes this a bit easier to generate. However, does movement add to the worship experience, or detract from it?

Some people find movement distracting – especially if the words blend into a background of the same color. Others find it easier to pay attention to the slides if there is movement behind the words. Feel free to share your comments on this question. It seems likely that larger Churches have an easier time generating moving images, and perhaps they also have more of a demand for this feature.

Want to know how you can improve your Church’s web site? Obviously, you can start surveying members and visitors alike to identify ways to improve. And you should always be listening to what people in the congregation are saying about the site. Do they find it helpful in finding a particular event? Can they identify the staff person responsible for that event? And do they get lost in the menus? These are all good questions to address, but what if you want to look harder? There is a web site the supports a formal review process. You run the review page and it generates a report that helps you focus on areas that need improvement. The link is:

www.internetevangelismday.com/church-site-design.php

And while you’re there, check out the web evangelism event, held the last Sunday in April of every year. It is a time to focus on evangelism through your Church’s web presence.

When you make a New Year’s Resolution, you should ask yourself whether you really are resolved to change. It is all too easy to intend to change, but not really commit to the process of change. And change is a process that takes hard work.

Can technology help us change? Yes, if we’re serious about it. But it takes a willingness to be held accountable for the hard work of changing, whether it be a bad habit or a new discipline. One idea would be to set up a page where people could enter their new year resolves and an eMail. The web site would then track those for 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. At the end of that time, it could send out an email reminder to help reinforce the change. That way, people could hold themselves accountable to really change.

How do you celebrate the Advent season? It is always a special time in the life of any Church. Advent reminds us to prepare for the coming of the Christ child. And every Church has a rich tradition of Christmas programs and events. But how do you truly prepare for the Christ? The technology can offer some new ways to tell the “Good News” that Christ is born this day! Whether it be a special video, or a full blown Christmas Cantata, the emphasis needs to be on Jesus – the reason for the season. May your Christmas events draw people to the manger in a fresh, new way. Feel free to comment on your innovations in this area.