PC Workshop - May 10, 2008
Posted on May 9, 2008
Tomorrow is the next PC Workshop and I can’t wait. We did one in March, April and now May. It was supposed to be March and May, but somehow we did one in April too. Then the May one was already on the calendar so here we go.
This one has very little publicity but it did make it in the bulletin last week so we may have some takers. I failed to get it on the radio or anywhere else.
Now that we are coming up on a year of doing these at Fairview, we are progressing toward a new focus. Since I am a teacher and would rather teach someone how to do it rather than do it for them, I want to create more of a teaching environment. I want to open it up to people to bring their computers in and we teach them what they want to know. My team is all for that too, however, the first step is to publicize it correctly and we have yet to do that.
If we are able, we will be video streaming the workshop but so far we have not mastered the audio problem. I don’t think I have used my own camera yet, so I may try that. I’ll give a heads up on Twitter if we do get it going.
Come on by if you’re in the neighborhood, we would love to help you out!
Popularity: 7% [?]
» Filed Under PC Workshop | 1 Comment
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
Fairview Tech Arts Ministry blog
Posted on May 7, 2008
I have been holding off on this, waiting for something, although I’m not sure what. Probably just waiting to get it more established. In the process of building a tech team and figuring out the best way to communicate with the team, I tried several different things. The only thing that stuck has been a blog. It has turned into a way for me to communicate with my team and they can either reply by email or comment. Imagine that, me latching onto a blog as a way to get things done!
Lately, Daniel and I talked and he is stepping up to take on more of a leadership role in many ways and we talked about other ways to use the blog, as well. One thing we will definitely try to do is document processes via the blog and categorize them in some way. That way we can refer back to it when necessary.
I also like to write about what we, as a team, are doing via this blog. Daniel agreed to begin writing on there and he did just that for the first time a few days ago. I was out of town last weekend and asked Daniel to take the lead on everything Sunday morning, basically, he had to be me. I had no worries, he is very willing and very capable and he did a great job.
To top it off, he wrote a great post about Sunday morning and it is here. Check it out! It is very well written and he articulates many details, from his perspective. He got a first hand experience on knowing what it’s like to be the guy calling the shots. It won’t be his last time, for sure. Thanks again, Daniel! I appreciate your willingness and I’m looking forward to how things are shaping up.
To introduce Daniel, I’ll let him do it:
I’m 18 years old, and I’ve been with the tech team for 6 years now, I guess. Yeah, when it was really bad. But that was before Jim! With Jim, you can get your shower twice as clean with half the scrubbing!
What a great quote! Daniel has been the one hanging around more than anyone else has. Yes, he started when he as about 12 years old. He goes on to say:
“Heading up the sound booth for Sunday Morning services” sounds big, but I really don’t think it was. Jim and I work pretty much side-by-side up there, so the title of “in charge” doesn’t have as much impact as it would at, say, a nuclear power plant. Biggest difference was, we were down one man.
He sums it up this way:
It’s kind of weird to have a problem and not have Jim to turn around to to “Buy this this week” or “Quick! Fix that!” As important as the team is to our success, it’s also important to have a degree of self-sufficiency because people are going to be gone from time to time. Never would I say we’re going to give Jim the boot, but I think I can do it when I need to.
I guess I can’t get out of this gig that easily.
The blog is Fairview Tech Arts Ministry. I would encourage you to subscribe via e-mail or RSS, so you will get our updates regularly, especially for when Daniel writes.
There is also a resources site that I created and it is here. It’s primarily resources for the PC Workshop but I want to continue to add to it.
Check us out and learn what we are up to at Fairview, there is a lot of cool stuff happening. We are doing some neat things to help enhance the message of Jesus.
Popularity: 16% [?]
» Filed Under Tech Arts Team | Leave a Comment
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
Schweitzer Visit
Posted on May 1, 2008
I met Matt Kerner at WiredChurches Communications workshop in Kansas City put on by Kem Meyer’s, probably a year and a half ago. He is in Springfield, which is an hour from me and we have threatened to get together for lunch or something ever since then and never have sync’d up.
Lately, Matt and I have been talking and Twittering about a variety of things and last Saturday, I made the trip to Schweitzer United Methodist Church. I love visiting churches, especially when I can get a behind the scenes tour, which I definitely did at Schweitzer.
They have 4 services: 2 modern, 1 traditional and 1 blended. On Saturday night is one of the modern services and I arrived in time to watch the band practice and look over Matt’s shoulder as he cleaned up the songs in ProPresenter.
One thing I love about ProPresenter is the countdown that ran all during practice to let everyone know how much time there was until the pre-service meeting. At 5, all of us, the band, the sound and media guys, the associate pastor and Matt and I went and discussed the details of the upcoming service. (I actually just sat there and listened.) Every element was previously mapped out and the details of who does what and when they do it was nailed down in this meeting.
During the service, I hung out in the media room with Matt’s uber volunteer, Will and watched as he ran ProPresenter. ProPresenter has a sweet interface and it would be fun for us to get to where we can transition over to that. It was a good service.
Afterwards, Matt and I went to Galloway Station and had a great dinner on the patio.
It was fun to compare notes and learn a thing or two. Matt is a busy guy, he is the Media Director at Schweitzer and now transitioning into the role of College Pastor. (not sure of exact title). They have some cool toys there for video and audio editing and mostly a Mac shop, in that regard.
We talked a little bit about our future goals and desires and it will be interesting to see how things shake out. God is moving among things that we are each doing and it’s fun to see how we cross paths and intermingle among each other in the church tech world.
If you are ever in Springfield, stop by and say hi to Matt, he is very accomodating and he’s doing some cool stuff!
Thanks Matt, for your time and just letting me experience Schweitzer! I’ll drop by again someday.
Popularity: 25% [?]
» Filed Under Twitter, media | Leave a Comment
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
Once You Have People, What’s Next?
Posted on April 26, 2008
I’m still thinking a lot about volunteers. The last post, I discussed my approach to getting new volunteers, now let’s look at how to keep them once you have them.
Every one of the volunteers that serves on my team has other responsibilities such as work and school and of course family. So, the time they devote to the church has to fit between everything else. Don’t miss that point!
Something I have learned in the last year or so is that I need to devote most of my time to casting a vision and managing people. Put simply, casting a vision is just pointing the direction to go. Oftentimes, I will share the desired end result, so we know the goal and we know where we are today, all that’s left is to work out the details in between.
But back to the people side of things, the key to keeping people plugged in is to show appreciation and don’t take anyone for granted. There are about 10 people directly involved in the Tech Arts Ministry at my church, plus a number of other people that we interact with, such as the worship pastor and other musicians. My job is to make sure everyone, both within my ministry and otherwise, are happy with what’s going on and has what they need to do what they do.
It’s really all about relationships.
If I take anyone for granted, that definitely hurts the relationship, so to be an effective leader, I need to show appreciation to people constantly. It’s not just empty words either, it’s true appreciation for serving along side me.
Another challenge in the church tech world is that most everything we do is behind the scenes and unnoticed. We are not on stage or at the door, we are keeping things running smooth, whether it’s computer related or website related or in the sound booth on Sunday morning.
For some, they don’t do well not being in the spotlight and in that case, this kind of ministry may not be for them. I need to do a better job of appreciating my team, I know. They are awesome and I definitely could not do the things we do on my own.
If you are in a ministry leadership role, don’t be afraid to sincerely let your people know how much you appreciate them.
What are some tangible ways that you show your people appreciation?
NEXT: Our Tech Arts Ministry blog and other resources
Popularity: 33% [?]
» Filed Under Tech Arts Team | 3 Comments
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
What’s The Secret To Volunteers
Posted on April 23, 2008
Volunteers are vital to any church, they can actually be a blessing or a curse. I know many Director’s of IT or other tech leaders in church have a tough time finding and keeping volunteers, yet the situation God has put me in, I find myself surrounded by willing, capable volunteers, with a heart to serve.
In a former church, I was the lone tech volunteer and I did it all. By the time I left, I was supporting nearly 50 desktops and 3 servers and I knew everything about everything there. I knew the amount of expertise each user had…or didn’t have, I knew what computers had what quirks and things were going well, as far as I knew.
I thought I wanted some volunteers to help me but didn’t really know how to go about getting them. It might have had something to do with the environment in the church or it might had to do with my heart. Did I really need help? Was there anything that anyone could add to what I was already doing? The answers I kept going back to was no.
The short answer to a very long story is that gig went down in flames, my family was affected and many other families were affected and still, to this day, over two years later, are being affected.
Through that, God led us through what Mary and I consider to be our wilderness experience, a period of over a year where we searched for something, anything, and did not find. God grew us during that time and humbled us and showed us that He mattered more than “game” we were trying to play at church. After not being committed to a church during that time, we landed where we are now, at a church that has always been less than a mile from our home.
Again, to make a long story short, God provided an opportunity to me, more than I expected and I resisted at first. I wanted to do it but I didn’t want to get back into a similar situation. I finally agreed to take on the role of overseeing all things technical in the church.
Right away, I made it clear that I wasn’t going to do it alone and I planned to build a team of volunteers, yet I had no clue how I was going to do that. Plus, I didn’t really know anyone. It took a few months for this transition to occur, so I observed and learned and watched people and got to know people.
As I talked to people, I started telling them about some areas that I felt I needed help in and wondered if they would be interested in serving. Also, right away, I came out with this crazy idea of doing this thing called a PC Workshop and it was sponsored by the Tech Ministry. When that was first publicized, the Tech Ministry consisted of…me! In the announcement, I invited people to come and help if they were technically inclined and they did.
From there, I took this handful of people and started doing other things. Plus, I had a built in team already working the sound booth and I had to begin to lead them, without offending or disrupting things some had been doing the same way for years.
So, I just talked to people. I asked what they did, how they did it and left it alone. There were things, at some point, where I said lets change this and of course I was told no, we’ve always done it that way. I said I understand but let’s try doing it a different way, just once, and if it goes down in flames, I’ll take the hit and we’ll go back to doing it your way. To date, I’ve taken very few, if any, hits. Slowly, things have changed and people have stayed on board and more people have joined.
What’s the secret? God’s blessing! My role in this is to put people first, listen and provide opportunities. My goal in doing what I do is to really not do that much, I want to empower people to serve in ways that they are gifted and interested. I also encourage people to take ownership of their area and to make it their own.
I did quickly learn to set boundaries on what volunteers can do, such as not having free reign on the network and that kind of thing. I still hold network access pretty tight, but the desktop support people know the routine when they do get on someone’s computer and I am always there at the time they are on.
I have been told I have a way of listening to people and showing that I care about them, which is a new thing for me, I think. God has grown me to be that person. I don’t look for skill first, although that’s cool to find skill, but I look at a person’s heart and their willingness to serve. I can teach you anything and more than likely, we’ll be learning things together.
My role in leading this ministry is serve the people that serve under me and provide the way for them to do their thing.
Oh yeah, at this point, I’m a volunteer too, so maybe that’s part of it. I understand working 40-50 hours a week and squeezing church stuff in around that and I truly appreciate all that everyone does. I’m praying for the day when God allows me to do even more in the church, but for now, I’m doing my best to help a growing team of volunteers do more to help Jesus shine.
Technorati Tags: FCCtechTeam, ReachingCarthage
Popularity: 39% [?]
» Filed Under Tech Arts Team | 6 Comments
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
Starfire Gymnastics Fund Going Viral (?)
Posted on April 19, 2008
This is totally not about church or tech but it is about something I’m involved in and passionate about.
I have to start at the end, then I will backfill with details. If you follow me on twitter (@jimwalton), then you may have seen a little bit about this already, but it is hard to tell the whole story in 140 characters or less. So this is the unabbreviated version of the story.
Our 2 daughters, ages 12 and 9, are competitive gymnasts and they both do really well. They have both been doing this for the past 4 years or so and it’s really amazing what they and their teammates can do. This team of pre-teen girls work really hard and it shows at the meets, considering they tend to dominate their competition. Their coach expects them to put out their very best, both in and out of the gym and it shows.
Beyond being extremely proud of my 2 girls and the work they do, there is a greater reason why I tell you this. We currently are part of our local YMCA, yet the facility does not have a dedicated gymnastics area. It is shared with basketball, volleyball, cheer, twirling and probably some other activities. Three times a week, the coach, team parents and the team girls pull all of the equipment out of a closet and set it up. In case you don’t know, this includes all kinds of mats, uneven bars, balance beam and a vault. Practice goes from about 3-8, technically 7 or 7:30 because the gym floor has to be cleared and available by 8.
Our desire and intention is to step out from under the Y and open our own gym and this has been our intention for the last 2-3 years. This is not some crazy idea that we hope works out, this has been well thought out and researched. We have done market research and feel like we know our market and understand the reach that this type of thing will have.
Carthage, MO has a population of about 14,000 and Joplin, which is about 15 miles away is around 50,000. Yet, Joplin has a market area of nearly 500,000 people, meaning that many people from the surrounding area come to Joplin to shop and do business. That’s amazing when you consider it.
This area has a great need for a gym for gymnastics, cheer practice and twirling and it is something that even some of the schools could benefit from.
As I mentioned, we have been contemplating opening a gym for at least the last 3 years and the hurdle has always been money. We have coaches, an active team and even some equipment that we as a team own, not the Y, and the team is a member of the AAU, the Amateur Athletic Union, so we are lacking the facility and some additional equipment.
The bottomline
We would like to raise money to help us reach this goal. Our first goal is to raise approximately $700 to obtain 501c3 non-profit status. From there, all money donated will go to the cost of a building and it will be tax deductible.
We have considered the Twitter community and it seems that something like this could go viral, which would be ideal. If everyone gave a small amount, it would quickly add up, plus once the first $600 is raised, then it’s all tax deductible.
The business will be managed by my wife and I, plus the coach will play a role in the leadership of the company as well. There are others willing to be a part of this at some level, but the management and decision making will be done by ourselves and the coach. We quickly determined that too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth, so to speak, so we intend to alleviate that. Of course, an investor could definitely have input in the direction this organization takes, but at the moment, I can’t speak to that since we don’t have that situation yet. We are looking into venture capital or other type of outside investors, but we thought a good place to start would be Twitter and this blog.
If you see the value in what we are doing and you are able, we ask for a donation of any amount. Plus, if you are on Twitter, we ask you to help us spread the word. We set up the user @tweetathon as a way to get the word out on Twitter. Mary, aka @thetechnodiva, is sharing information there about the importance this kind of thing is to the kids, plus we have a site set up here with other specific details.
A Twofold Request
Let’s take this viral, what do you say?
Here is what I’m asking of you:
- Spread the word about this effort, on your blog and on Twitter, with links to:
- Give to the cause, any amount is greatly appreciated. (We are open to talking with any investor who sees our vision for this and wants to be a part of this effort.)
Check out the website to see pictures and video of our girls and read more about our plan. It’s in God’s hands and I know He will make it what it needs to be, in His own way.
There will be video up on the site soon showing our tear-down process and other aspects of our program.
By the way, there is no financial gain for any individual in this fundraising, every dollar donated goes to setting up the 501c3 and the building, with the exception of the PayPal fee. If you would like to send a check, leave a comment and I will send you the address to mail it to.
Also, pray with us as we seek to do God’s will in this.
Thank you, I’ll report back how things go.
Money Needed to achieve 501c3 status under the Amateur Athletic Union
Popularity: 44% [?]
» Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
Initial MinistryTECH Thoughts
Posted on April 15, 2008
I started writing a post last night about my thoughts on MinistryTECH/CITRT and it’s unfinished and saved on my other computer. I want to get something up now, so here’s a little bit to help you out. Charles commented recently asking about my impressions of the mega church tour that we went on the day before MinistryTECH started.
In a word, Wow! Those are some big churches and they have a lot of cool tech stuff. If you go here, you can click the icon for my mega church tour pics. We toured:
- Crossings Community Church
- Church of the Servant United Methodist Church
- Henderson Hills Baptist Church
- LifeChurch.tv
From a tech perspective, they all share similar aspects, yet they each do things in their own way, and are each so unique in their style and atmosphere.
It’s inspiring to see how the big dogs do it because at my church, we have so far to go. At the same time, it’s encouraging because we are starting to do more and laying a foundation for where we are headed.
We saw many server rooms that day and I know Mike was pretty much done seeing server rooms by the time the day was over. It blows me away to consider how much these churches spend on technology to enhance the message they are delivering.
Is it too much? I don’t know, consider the impact they have on their community. I would like to dig into that and compare their tech budget vs. the actual number of people in their community they reach. Maybe even go farther and look at the percentage of their community that they reach.
For our church, our weekly attendance is about 5% of our community and that percentage is about the same that these churches reach of their community in Edmond, OK. Percentage-wise, our 650 weekly attendance is the same as an Edmond church of 4,000. Interesting! (to me at least)
For details of what was blogged about from MinistryTECH, check here.
For details of what was blogged about from CITRT, check here.
I have more to share, but this is all for now.
Popularity: 52% [?]
» Filed Under citrt, ministrytech | 3 Comments
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
More PC Workshop Info
Posted on April 7, 2008
On Saturday, at CITRT, I shared with everyone some details of how we do the PC Workshops and just now, I have added some new info. I have realized it would be good to have a single resource page of the free utilities we use, so I have created that here. I will continue adding things to this page that seem necessary and/or helpful for the PC Workshop. We will download from this page during the PC workshop and also refer people to it for after they leave.
Also, if you want a behind the scenes peek into the Fairview Tech Arts Ministry, check out our blog, I use it to communicate with my team. (Imagine that, me using a blog to communicate with people.) I use this as a way to share what’s coming up and we can communicate both through this blog or e-mail. I think they all signed up for e-mail, so they can respond directly to me from the post.
Please feel free to subscribe via e-mail or RSS if you are interested in following what we are up to.
I really don’t always have a handle on things and don’t always know the best way to do things, I just do what I do and keep improving on it. Plus, I happen to be putting it out here for my team and anyone else to see what we are doing.
If you have any feedback or suggestions for me or my team, please let me know here or there.
Popularity: 67% [?]
» Filed Under PC Workshop, Tech Arts Team | 4 Comments
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
PC Workshop Info
Posted on April 5, 2008
I have put info out on my Tech Arts team resources site for the PC Workshop. I will be adding to it over time and making the info more complete but this is a good start.
We run
- AVG
- Spy-Bot
- ZoneAlarm
- CCleaner
- PC Security doc
We put a folder on their desktop called PC Security and in the folder is a shortcut to all the above apps and the PC Security doc.
I think I have taken this concept as far as I think I can based on ideas that I have had, yet i think there is more potential to make it better. I asked my team for ideas to take it to the next level. Here are some:
- Have a check-in table set up in the hallway and they fill the form out with name, address, phone, email and problem and that is attached to the computer. That form stays with the computer all throughout the event. The problem I run into is I have waited until they are leaving to fill the form out and by then, they are out, computer in hand, not a convenient time.
- Have coffee and maybe donuts.
The real idea of this workshop is to encourage members to bring in their friends and neighbors that have a troubled computer. This person may not attend church and would not enter a church on Sunday morning, but they might come to get their computer repaired for free. While doing so, we might learn something about them, such as their grandma in the hospital or a job search or whatever.
We can then followup in a few weeks to ask about how their computer is doing and also ask about their grandma or job search or whatever. Then, every once in awhile, give them a call to check in and at some point, you might let them know there’s a new sermon series coming up called "ABC series". If they want to come, you would love to sit with them. Now this person has their initial friend in the church and you or someone on your team. They are gradually brought into the church through relationships and ultimately enter into a personal relationship with Christ.
It has taken a few times to get people to understand what we are doing and the value to them.
I have not seen this play out yet but there is potential. Regardless, people in the church are being blessed. For me the key is to keep it simple, I provide 4 monitors, 4 keyboards, 4 mice, 8 power cables, power strips and that’s about it.
Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions. Also, let me know if you do this and how it goes. Feel free to change any of the documents however you want to, I am not satisfied that these are thorough enough, so I’m open to suggestions, especially on things that work for you.
I’m going to try to have a live video feed next Saturday during our next event, so tune in.
Popularity: 69% [?]
» Filed Under PC Workshop, citrt | 1 Comment
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
Users or Customers?
Posted on April 4, 2008
Even though I am not a good live blogger, I am trying to capture this moment. Here are several quotes from Clif.
Our problem is not a lack of resources, it’s a lack of imagination. We, as IT people, are usually pretty concrete and we need to be more creative.
We are focusing on the problem and not on a creative solution to get it done.
If the only resource is the church’s budget, then your imagination is too small.
Someone suggested that we don’t always include God in our process, Clif says we need to agree to pray and expect God to show up.
John 13:14-15
This is a neat concept, be creative and don’t focus on the problem, just figure out how to do it but that sure is hard. The easy solution is to throw money at the problem but most of us don’t have the budget or the resources to adequately take on every request that comes our way.
The challenge is to think creatively to address requests from our customers, which includes church staff, other volunteers, other ministries and even outside groups.
Great reminder, Clif! Great insight too. It’s going to help all of us raise the standards of our service.
He warned me that I was part of his talk but I didn’t know how exactly he was going to do this. He referred to a series of posts I wrote last summer that started here, then went here and here. This series actually began with Clif and it is a constant theme of Clif’s life and ministry and leadership style.
Thanks Clif, for continuing to encourage me in what you say, in how you lead and how you live your life.
Popularity: 67% [?]
» Filed Under citrt | 2 Comments
Church Website Builder
Powerful, Simple CMS Starting at $199/yr.
Fully Featured, 45 Day Free Trial!
www.WebMedley.com
