Now, for the first time ever, I live within minutes of a LifeChurch.tv campus and our family has begun to get connected there. After over 2 years of not being connected to a church, it’s great to be at a church that is welcoming and open and the leadership has been intentional at helping my entire family plug in and be connected.  The bonus is that it’s LifeChurch, Ft. Worth, TX.

This weekend, I have been presented with the opportunity to help lead a team of people that are going to look at new and better ways to use social media to reach out and also to offer new ways for current attenders to connect. So, these are the questions I have for you:

• How is your church using social media?
• Are you doing anything that you see no one else doing but it’s effective?
• Let me know how you are using Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.
• How is your church using QR codes?
• What other ideas have you had but your church is not doing yet?
• My local LifeChurch uses Facebook to send out messages and that’s cool but I wonder if there is more that we can do.

Our goal is to take social media to the next level and even be on the cutting edge.

Let’s work to help each other do more in this area.

All I need you to do is to contribute to the conversation at the Church Tech Matters Facebook group.  You have questions, opinions and experiences like no one else and I’m pretty sure you have something to contribute. Come by and visit and ask questions and answer questions and simply be part of this conversation.

This is a way to turn this site from a one way conversation to two way and make it more effective for all of us.  If you are a tech volunteer at your church and have questions, then this is the place to find answers. Also, you have opinions and expertise to share with the global church tech community.

So, give it a shot! The most recent post on there is about QR codes and how your church could use them.

I knew at the time that was no way to lead but that was all I had to give back then. I typically lead by example and clearly, I was not setting a good example.  Maybe that’s all about to change, but I’m still a little uncertain about if I will maintain my motivation. 

It seems that many of you have remained faithful through this time and for that, I am grateful.  To be honest, God put such a strong desire in me over 6 years ago to equip the Church to use technology more effectively and I have seen Him use this site and me in so many ways, far beyond what I ever imagined possible.

A combination of things occurred in the last half of 2008 that led to me walking away from this site, nothing significant enough to recount here, but these things all came to a head and I made the decision to move on. I felt like this site had run it’s course and I needed to get away.

It sure felt like that was the right decision.  Now, at this point in my life, once again, a combination of things in my life has led me to come back to this site.  I’m not sure yet what this means and I’m not sure what my purpose is yet.  All I know is that this feels right and it feels like this is where I need to be.

I have spent the last 2 years wandering, in fact, I wandered so much I find myself living 2 states away from where I used to live.  That definitely gives me a new perspective on things.

Whatever the reason, I am back and I have plenty to say. I hope! I would be honored to have you join me here again, along with my faithful team, as we continue to work to equip both the (local) church and the Church as a whole, to effectively use technology to reach people for Christ.

It’s really not secure at all. It doesn’t take much for anyone to learn basic facts about you. Those that fear the internet for security reasons are wise and those who do Facebook, online banking and other random things on the internet are foolish.

The above statement is actually very true and you can pick one extreme or the other as a place to land, if you want. It’s completely your choice.  But what is your choice based on? Fact or fiction?

Fact #1: Facebook and other sites like it expose your personal data for all to see, including bad people who want to steal your identity and stalk you.

Fact #2: People who ignore Fact #1 are foolish.

There is a Fact #3, do you know what fact is?

I read an interesting article at Windows Secrets last week titled Windows Secrets Personal Security Baseline and it addresses security on the internet.

Facebook is one thing but you also need to be careful about online banking and online shopping and other aspects of being online.  Websites will have you store the answer to a secret question for password recovery, such as:

• Your childhood best friend?
• The street you grew up on?
• The name of your first dog?
• Your mother’s maiden name?

If you answer the same question at every site, once I, the social hacker, master that one question, I am in. I potentially have access to your bank account, your Amazon account, eBay, Bass Pro Shops and many others.

One tip would be to mix up the answer to that secret question, just don’t forget your made up answer.  That’s just one idea that I read in the Windows Secrets article.  I could re-iterate the entire thing for you but it would be better for you to go read it yourself, very much worth your time.

Oh yeah, have you figured out what Fact #3 is yet?

Fact #3: Be smart and be aware online, monitor your privacy settings on Facebook and ensure you are not broadcasting personal information such as your phone number and address to complete strangers.  Like many things, don’t land on one extreme or the other, pick somewhere in the middle.

Be careful, be aware and make smart decisions about your online presence.

By the way, I am barely scratching the surface here. What are your thoughts on online safety?

How often do we live this way?  It seems that if we stop looking ahead and stop dreaming, we allow complacency to settle in

To be honest, I have been complacent for quite some time when it comes to church and even tech in church.  In an effort to climb out of this state of mind, I was scouring through my archives looking for inspiration and landed on a post titled Called to Complacency, a post that I wrote in 2006. I had a wake-up call back then, one that I hope to never get again.  Today, I’m highly in need of a wake-up call and I would much rather have a self-inflicted wake-up call, so here we go!

Time to step out of complacency and get back into the game. Not sure of my exact role in this game yet, but I’m ready to open my eyes again and consider my options.

Active Network, a technology and media company, announced today that it has acquired online church management software provider (ChMS) Fellowship Technologies. As a result of the acquisition of this Software as a Service (SaaS) company, Active Network will expand its technology offerings within the faith industry and provide a comprehensive suite of solutions for these community organizations.

Bobby Gruenewald, pastor, innovation leader at LifeChurch.tv has this to say about FellowshipTech joining ActiveNetwork:

Fellowship Technologies has been a valued partner in ministry with LifeChurch.tv for over 3 years. Their passion for leveraging technology for churches to connect with people and communities matches well with the mission of our church, we are excited about what the combination of Fellowship Technologies and Active Network holds for our church and others.

Anthony Coppedge, Director of Communications, FellowshipTechnologies, adds this perspective:

Like many churches, we were facing the dilemma of fulfilling a God-sized vision with limited resources. By partnering with Active Network, we believe we can accelerate the vision and add infrastructure faster so that all of the churches in the Fellowship Technologies community are better served. It will be easier than ever for churches to leverage technology to connect the message and hope of the local church to the people who need it most.

Jeff Hook, president and CEO of FellowshipTechnologies:

“We still have the same God-sized vision and we still have the same management team and staff. With this acquisition, however, we believe churches across the globe will be better served, and we can improve the scale and quality of the solutions available. The one thing we all refuse to do is harm the authenticity of the organization and our mission to help churches with their mission of serving the Church. Joining with Active Network will accelerate our efforts to raise the bar… again.”

These are exciting times in the ChMS world!

I have proven over the years that I can do this, I can pick a topic to write about and communicate my thoughts in a way that people can relate to and understand. As a matter of fact, do you know that the year when I was between churches and between being actively involved in tech ministry, I wrote more and CTM grew more than at any other time.  I wasn’t writing about anything I was actually doing, I was writing about ideas that I thought made sense, in the church IT world and I wrote about what I saw others doing.

With that being said, I have a track record of writing about whatever has my attention at the moment, so I have no worries that I can pull this off.  I have no objection to writing about things going on in the church IT arena and in fact, I am currently working on some things in that regard and as we move forward, I’ll be sharing more about that.  I also intend to write about general tech topics and also some thoughts on leadership, writing, current social media trends and more.

In a general sense, I want to write about things that interest you and encourage discussion, in every way including commenting on this site, on Facebook, on Twitter and any other way.  In all honesty, I want this site to become even bigger than CTM. 

That burden is me. I have to write. As I do that, I expect you to do your part.

I’m up for the challenge. Are you?

• Can I afford the new boat that I want?
• How much is the iPad?
• How much is it going to cost to fix my car enough so that it passes inspection?

Something we tend to overlook, however, is what something costs in non-financial ways.  Primarily I’m thinking of time cost and energy cost.  In my life, everything is new and fresh.

• New house
• New city
• New church
• New year
• New activities
• New commitments

It’s so easy to fill every moment with some activity and generally, that requires a time commitment and some amount of energy.  I am trying to be very aware of the cost of things I commit to because once I’m over-committed, it’s hard to say no and even harder to pull back. This is a great opportunity to have a fresh start and calculate the cost in every way before I get in over my head.

In all that you do, how often do you overlook the key question, what is the cost?

So the point of this blog is to offer insight and information about how the church can effectively use technology to bring church members into a closer relationship with Christ and reach the local community and the world, literally, for Christ.

That was a portion of the very first post at Church Tech Matters. To me, it was a big deal because I felt I had finally found something that fit, something that clicked in my mind and in my heart.  It was a passion so unique that even I struggled to explain it in the years leading up to this first post.  However, my ambition in life was not to maintain a website for the next 1530 days. I figured it would be fun for a few weeks, then I would move on.

Little did I know the life that this site would take on. I did not have a goal to create a brand, so to speak, that attached itself to me and followed me where ever I went. Don’t get me wrong, the result of Church Tech Matters becoming known by so many opened many doors for me in so many different ways and I truly appreciate that.  But, in a way that I can’t explain, the idea of continuing to be the “Church Tech Matters” guy lost it’s appeal to me.

During the last half of 2008, I changed jobs and stepped down from my leadership role at my church, and at the same time, God was stirring in my heart to make a change with Church Tech Matters.  Due to my stubbornness, I held on as long as I could but in the end, I knew what I had to do.

I finally realized it was Time To Face The Change.  That final post that I wrote at Church Tech Matters does a good job articulating my thoughts at the time.

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.

I went on to say:

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.

That was a difficult decision but in my heart of hearts, I wanted to drop the label and write simply as myself.

I have been doing exactly that at this site for the past 2 years, but in a crazy turn of events, those writings are gone. I have been fretting over this but in many ways, this seems appropriate.  I have moved 2 states away, due to my job, and so many things in my life are new and fresh, so it’s time to have a fresh start at this site as well.

Without any big fanfare or established following, let’s get on with this and find whatever is next!

By the way, recently, I was asked “What happened to the church tech guy?” Maybe I’ll answer that question in my next post.

• Outlook
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• Thunderbird

Then drop over to ChurchTechy.com where there is a giveaway of 5 x 1 year pro license for SPAMfighter.

Two have gone already and the likelihood is that if you get in and make a comment on the blog then you too could end up with one. Absolutely free – the only requirement is that you comment intelligently on the giveaway post or on any other older post.

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