The Final Final Post
Posted on January 1, 2009
I think I was a little too subtle in the last post and some of you got the impression that I was just walking away from CTM and fading away from the blogosphere. That is so not true, in fact, I’m probably going to be more active than I have been in quite some time.
It’s true that there will be no more posts at this blog. I invite you to continue reading and interacting with me and others at my new site, http://blog.jimwalton.org. The original last post here at CTM ties directly to the first post at the new site.
Let me re-enact what I intended to have happen. The end of the last post went like this:
I hope you’ll join me in whatever is next.
Click here for Whatever Is Next
That final line was in much smaller print and little bit below where you would expect it and it also didn’t look like a link on the site. If you will click the link above for whatever is next, it takes you to a post at my new site titled “Whatever is Next”. I was trying to be subtle and make you work to get you to my new site but I really just want you to come on over!
If the content of this site interested you or if you are part of my family or a friend and feel obligated, please click the link above and subscribe either via e-mail or RSS.
Trust me, I have plenty more to say.
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Time To Face The Change
Posted on December 31, 2008
Over the last 4 years, I have written 698 posts at Church Tech Matters and honestly, I started this blog simply as an experiment. I was a volunteer network administrator and overseer of all things IT related in my church and I really wanted to know more about what I could and should be doing. I also felt that I wasn’t alone in my quest and wanted to share what I knew and what I was learning with others.
The people of the church IT community are extremely generous and knowledgeable beyond belief and I have learned so much. I think we all have something to offer and I hope that I have added value to the church IT community (CITRT)as well.
Over the last 6 months or so, I have struggled with many things personally and honestly became burned out and tired. The frequency of my writing has become almost non-existent and that is a far cry from the sometimes daily posts I have written in the past.
For 3 of the last 4 years, I have led the tech ministry at 2 different churches as a volunteer and it has been a great ride. A more accurate way to say it is I have been greatly honored and blessed to be allowed to serve in the ways that I have. I am also honored to have been accepted into the church IT community as I have been.
As a result of Church Tech Matters, I have been given tremendous opportunities to meet church IT people from across the country and around the world at many different levels. I have also had the opportunity to do consulting work and work through various situations with many different churches. I am amazed at the number of people I know who serve their churches in many different technical ways and many of these people are close friends now.
Church Tech Matters has given me a voice to share this passion that God has put in my heart and it has given me a place to focus my attention and energy. I consider many of you who read this blog to be my friends and I look to you often for advice or guidance or, lately, I have used several of you as a sounding board to help me determine what’s next for me.
After much prayer and discussion and thought, I have made the decision that this will be the last post written at Church Tech Matters.
It has been an amazing ride and I am such a better person because of you, my readers and friends. God has blessed me so much through this experience and I am honored that some of what I have said seems to hold value.
I understand that this site has become a reference for many, myself included. I also know that there are certain topics, when Google’d, that return posts from this site as #1 or at least in the top few. Because of that, I have no plans to take this site down, it will remain here in it’s entirety.
Thank you for everything!
I hope you’ll join me in whatever is next.
Click here for Whatever Is Next
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Social Media 101 - Be Honest and Authentic
Posted on November 20, 2008
This world we live in is fascinating, it truly is.
I am interconnected with so many different people on so many different levels online that it boggles my mind, I really cannot even comprehend. Over the years, I have gone from being anonymous to being more transparent than I ever imagined I would be and more transparent on here than I am in real life at times. I interact with people all the time online via various venues, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even e-mail on occasion. Some of these people I know and others I don’t but thanks to this social media world we live in, I know them to some degree.
In the past, I have tried to encourage people to start a blog or try Twitter or something but it is not a commitment that can be taken lightly. People often resist. So, I stopped that tactic, but sometimes someone will come to me and say they want to start a blog, so I will coach and guide them based on what I do, what I have done, what I have learned and where I see things going.
If you are someone who reads this blog or other blogs and you are feeling drawn to want to do this kind of thing, here are some tips to get you started on the right foot.
The internet is not anonymous - Everything you do online can be traced back to you even if you don’t think it can be. Don’t comment on blogs anonymously. If you have something to say to somebody on their blog, use your name and e-mail address and put your website on there if you have one. Your e-mail is never published but the writer can use that to reply back to you if they want to.
On the flipside, if you start a blog, you can share as much personal info as you choose. I started out being anonymous and had no ambition of my name becoming known in this online world but over time, I started interacting with people and now, I make it as easy as possible to contact me if you want to. Check out my About page and there you can learn some things about me. Plus at the bottom is a link to my contact page, which includes my email address and cell phone number. There are things I will not publish on here, such as my address, but you get a glimpse of who I am from my About page and also through my writing.
If you’re just starting out, share as much as you are comfortable with and over time, that may change as you get settled in and find your stride. You don’t have to go so far as sharing your phone number or anything else but that’s just what I chose to do, for now.
Your readers crave honesty and authenticity - It’s easy to write and it’s easy to write about ideas and things that you have seen done and things that you dream about doing but be absolutely sure that you share your thoughts in the right context. People tend to take you at your word and if you say something about yourself or even imply something that isn’t exactly true, people can smell inconsistency a mile away and will walk away from your site as easily as they stumbled across it.
There are various ways that what you say will be tested and you will be a more successful writer and have more readers on your blog if you present yourself and your thoughts, ideas and experiences with honesty and authenticity.
Information drives our lives - We crave information, we have to have it 24/7, there’s no question. On my phone, I always have internet and e-mail and texting and chat and Twitter and my office can contact me by phone or by e-mail where ever I am and I can work remotely just like I was in the office. I have multiple contact points and so do you. I can Google anything I want, where ever I am, anytime, plus I can check the map, get directions, find restaurants, you name it, I can do it, all on my phone.
You can too, right? Many of you can, some of you may not be that connected but still, you have multiple contact points and connections to others all around you and you can check the news anytime. No longer do you have to wait for the newspaper or wait for the 10:00 news to come on.
With that being said, make sure that the information you are providing is relevant and accurate and adds value, at least to your niche.
Speaking of niches, It seems like many people have a niche that they are interested in and even passionate about, whether it’s technology in church, using cactus farming to overcome belonephobia or even hospice nursing. If you are feeling drawn to this online world and want to begin contributing to it, one of the best ways to do this is to identify your niche and begin writing about what you know.
Being an authority on a subject does not require you being an absolute expert or know it all but you can become an authority by being a consistent, authentic, honest voice in your niche. It’s ok to admit that you don’t know it all about cactus farming, your readers will appreciate that. Plus, shouldn’t you always be learning? I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know it all and that I need help with things sometimes.
In this social media world, we are all in this together and we all draw on each other’s experiences and knowledge and learn and grow together. Honestly, I’ve had my ups and downs in my experiences on here but I wouldn’t change a thing. You will become a better, more knowledgeable person for being a part of the fun.
These are some very basic thoughts and there is probably much more to be said in this arena but this gives you something to think on if you are feeling the tug into this social media world.
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Something To Say
Posted on November 19, 2008
Last month, this blog’s 4th anniversary came and went and I nearly missed it. The thought crossed my mind about a day or two after, but it didn’t trigger a celebration or even an acknowledgement on here. I wonder why? Seriously, I wonder that a lot lately. It has been months since I have written consistently and I struggle lately with what do I have to say and why does it really matter?
I started this blog for selfish reasons. I had been blogging for awhile at a different blog and realized that more and more my focus was on church tech and I wanted my blog to focus solely on that. I didn’t think I had much to say about it, in fact, really the opposite, I knew very little about what I was doing in the church and I wanted to learn. At that time, there were no blogs completely focused on church tech, so for me, I felt I could use this blog to pose questions and maybe even help others along the way. Never have I felt that I was a so-called expert or the go-to guy in this arena, I’m just a guy that puts it all out here, sometimes in it’s rawest form, and waits to see what happens.
Sometimes there is a lot of great feedback and dialogue and sometimes it’s like yelling out into the darkness of night. On occasion, I get hung out to dry, sometimes justified and other times I just step back and shake my head and wonder what just happened. It’s all good.
In the past 6 months, I have made some adjustments in my life. After 6 years with the same company, I realized it was time to go. I have felt God leading me to full time ministry in some fashion for almost that many years and I really considered if now was the time. I was seriously burned out in my job and really didn’t want another job, so we prayed about it and I began getting intentional about pursuing this dream of being in fulltime ministry.
As a result of this blog, I have a large network of church tech people and other church leaders and I started having some intentional conversations with some key people. I even had an interview or two with some very impressive churches. Impressive from an IT organization perspective, plus they were solid churches. I was honored to be considered but in the end, I felt like now wasn’t the time yet.
During all of this, I stumbled upon a job that seemed like a good fit. It was one of those things where I read the job description and thought that is SO me. I could so do that job. So, I talked to the company and as of next week, I have been with this company 4 months. Honestly, I am where I need to be for right now, it’s a job that is stretching me and God is still preparing me for what lies ahead. Of course, I don’t know what the future holds but I feel like God is preparing me for something that I can’t even comprehend yet.
So, needless to say, over the summer, my energy and attention was on dream chasing, job hunting and just keeping everything afloat. I am finally at a point where it feels like my life is settling down and I’m trying to understand how to get back into writing.
The question on my mind is this: Do I really have something to say?
At times, I think I do not. At other times, I feel like my head will explode if I don’t write something. I think I’m coming out of a period of burnout and exhaustion from many things and I’m starting to feel again. Writing has become a part of who I am and this blog would not have lasted this long if writing wasn’t important to me.
Over these past several months, I have realized that God has given me a voice in writing, it is a way to share who I am and also I think God has given me a message to share through my writing. That message seems to be changing and I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but I will be sharing my thoughts on that in the near future, I’m sure, as it becomes clear to me.
I’ve got something to say……..DO YOU?
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Church Tech Conference Ideas
Posted on October 27, 2008
I received the following email a few days ago, which I responded to with some ideas, such as MinistryTech, but I thought I would throw it out here and see what you all might suggest. Please leave a comment with any suggestions for him, whether it’s a conference or two or something else.
Jim,
This is budget creation season for us and I’ve got support from pastoral staff to think about making sure we have a grasp of what our technology alternatives are as move forward on an existing church building project and a contemporary worship space in the next 5 years.
I recall that there is a conference in May that might meet the need, but I wouldn’t suppose that there aren’t other things that would be more useful - but I don’t know what they might be. You as part of the CITRT community have a much better grasp of what these events might be and so I’d appreciate you taking a minute to identify what they are.
Thanks in advance,
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Something Brewing, Just Under The Surface
Posted on October 18, 2008
As I have been thinking about what I have been up to lately, it’s pretty amazing what all is going on, but most of it, or all of it, I either can’t talk about or I’m not ready to talk about.
There’s that project I’m working on with a couple of guys that I was with at Catalyst, but I don’t want to talk about it yet, mainly because we don’t have anything concrete. We are in the early planning stages. Soon, I hope we will be kicking something off that will be pretty cool and somewhat open to anyone who wants to be a part of it and it will hopefully contribute to the wider Church community.
There’s some stuff in our community that I became a part of this last week, indirectly church related, and I am definitely not talking about yet. It’s not good or bad, it just is, but I think it’s pretty sensitive and fresh. I hope someday to talk about it because there are some lessons that the church could learn from it.
There’s a couple of writing projects that I have on the table, one has been there for awhile just being ignored and the other one came up as the result of our road trip. Again, I’m not ready to share anything about that yet but it’s cool and I hope it will benefit many church leaders. I would ask for your prayers, that I would stay focused on it until it’s completed. I’ll probably ask for some of your experiences in the near future.
There’s also a video project that I’m going to be working on with a couple of friends here locally. Again, I’m not ready to share much about it yet but I will soon. It was inspired by some events at Catalyst and has stirred up a video idea that I have wanted to do for quite some time. We will be working on it soon and I definitely can’t wait to share it.
We just installed a SonicWall firewall, HP ProCurve switch and AccessPoint at church and that is very exciting. The previous network was very unstable and very much in need of being rebuilt. This is a huge deal to finally have it up and running, on so many levels. There are still some bumps to work through but it will be resolved very soon. Some of the issues are to move the AP’s above the ceiling so there is less interference and also to fine tune the content filtering.
As of a couple of weeks ago, I stepped down from my leadership role in my church and promptly left town. That was a coincidence but I think it’s all in God’s timing. It was good to pull back and actually get away, it gave me some space to consider the decision I had made. Honestly, getting away gave me a new perspective and I was able to feel at peace with the decision God led me to. It’s still bittersweet but it’s time. I hope I have built up some solid leadership within the tech team and I expect they can carry on. I didn’t build the team to be based on me, even though I never saw myself not being there, I wanted to have a team that can operate without me. There is more that I could say and probably at some point, I will, but it’s not time for that yet. I’m hoping to meet with a couple of the core team members early next week to share with them where I’m at and help ensure they have all that they need to carry on. It has been such a blessing to be a part of what God has been doing at Fairview and I have had the privilege of serving with some very talented and diverse people. Our friendship will continue, even as I step away, but I will miss serving side by side with them.
Ministry is a tough racket and it’s not for the meek. Regardless of where I am right now and what brought me to this point, I still feel called to ministry, probably now more than ever. I’ve felt for quite some time that my involvement at this church was not long term but I was honestly surprised that it ended so soon. By the way, this was all my doing, in no way did anyone suggest I step down. I think others were as surprised as I was, and I am doing my best to be clear about my motivation and reasoning, AKA God’s leading. I definitely have more to say about this and I will soon, once I completely sever all ties concerning my volunteer leadership role there.
Does my decision mean that my family and I have to leave this church? No, absolutely not. However, in unrelated news, we are laying low and seeking what God wants us to do as a family and where He wants us to worship and build relationships and serve and participate in small groups etc.
Over the last few weeks, we have visited another church in town and really enjoyed it. Not just because they let us take snacks and drinks into the service with us but because it was just what we needed lately. God is there, just as He is at “our” church and it’s ok to be somewhat anonymous sometimes. Mary and I need some down time in a big way and I guess we need some space as we figure out where God is leading us.
There’s something brewing just under the surface and I don’t know what it is. It’s almost like God needs me to let go of what’s important so He can prepare me for what’s next. As I see what that is, I’m sure I’ll share that here.
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Post Catalyst
Posted on October 12, 2008
I am still recovering and processing everything I took in from Catalyst. There were so many good speakers and too much to fully process all at once. I have wanted to write about it for the last couple of days and just haven’t been able to. Plus, I have been exhausted, last night was the first full night of sleep since we arrived.
It was great connecting with some other church leaders that I haven’t seen in awhile and some that I have known online but never met IRL. I had lunch with Ernie Stephenson and that was a lot of fun to compare notes and hear about the things that he is doing.
I also met Steve Harrison, who is involved with LifeChurch.tv Tulsa and we first met about 2 weeks ago in the LifeChurch.tv internet campus chatroom after the Tuesday evening service. We quickly found many common interests and before too long realized we would both be at Catalyst. Through Steve, I met Patrick Moore, the worship leader and founder of LifeChurchFranklin.com, a member of the LifeChurch.tv network. It was interesting and encouraging to talk with Patrick because he has recently done some things that we are interested in doing. I’ll definitely be in touch with him.
I also finally met David Russell, from National Community Church in Washington D.C. I have known David for many years online, through emails, chats and comments and we talked on the phone one night right as he was in the process of moving to D.C., so it was cool to meet him finally.
I also talked again with Van Metschke, the Tech Arts Director of South Hills Church. We met about a month ago when I visited Saddleback Church, so it was great to reconnect with Van for a few minutes.
We had a big group of us staying at Wayne and Elaine’s house. Last year, it was only Mary and I staying there, this year, other church tech types staying with us included Kirk Longhofer and Greg Simmons.
In other news, this has been a good week to ponder what to do now that I have relieved myself of my church responsibilities. Of course, no clear cut answers yet, that will come in God’s timing. I wonder if God is expanding my focus or maybe even changing it a little bit. I’ll share more on that soon.
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