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.

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?

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,

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.

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.

Mary and I had been talking about it and she listened as I shared about what I was feeling.  I have prayed a lot lately about this decision and it has slowly become apparent that the time was near.

As I have been preparing for Catalyst next week, many things are put off until after Catalyst, including this decision.  I thought. On one hand, it had been a long time coming, but man there was a moment last week when I knew I had to do it and I had to do it now!

What was that moment that pushed this decision into gear? It wasn’t my anger, it wasn’t a conversation I had or anything else like that.  It was God.  I think He just got tired of my lack of movement on it and my growing restlessness and He gave me a swift kick.

Everything that I have done lately, everything I have thought and everything that has happened around me seems to point to one thing: it’s time to go.

One thing that validated this thought was watching LifeChurch.tv with my family last Tuesday night.  The main scripture was Genesis 12 where God commands Abram to leave and go to the place where God would show him.  Of course we know that he left and God blessed him tremendously.  That sermon that night seemed to fit right into where I am at lately and filled in all the blanks.

I met with my pastor early Saturday morning to share my decision with him and honestly, I’m glad to have that behind me.  Good or bad, that’s a tough conversation to have.

Anything that I am leading, whether at work or church or anywhere, my goal is to make things better than they were when I started, and also to finish strong.  I think I have succeeded in both of those areas in this case and I hope the church leadership feels the same.

Sometimes we tend to question God and this is a time like that for me.  I have been in the process of rejuvinating the network, the new firewall, switch and APs are in and scheduled to be installed in a couple of weeks.  That upgrade is going to help in so many ways to make the network more stable and secure.  That’s one of those projects that gives a great deal of satisfaction once it’s done and you can see the results.  Now, for me, this is going to be like mowing the lawn and finishing after dark, then moving away.  There is no satisfaction in looking across the lawn and seeing the results of your effort and knowing that it’s making a difference.  This kind of project would be a milestone, marking a turn in the way technology is used.  It’s going to allow the church to have an open, secure wifi network which will allow anyone to come in when the church is open and surf the internet.  That is one of many benefits.

The irony of last week was after turning in my budget for 2009, the main financial person in the church emailed me, questioning why the budget was so large and a couple of specifics on it.  In my mind and heart, I knew I was done there and it would have been easy to blow that off and just agree to let those things be dropped.  But at the same time, I hadn’t made my decision known yet, so for all anyone knew, that was my role.  So, I responded and explained in detail my thought process going into my submission.  We ended up going back and forth via email and I agreed to a slight modification in concept, although inconsequential to the larger picture, and in the end, he said he agreed with all that I have told him and he would move forward with the budget as submitted.

Major victory for the tech ministry and for all the lives that will potentially be touched by the added use of technology over the next year.  One of the things in question was a new server.  Essentially, all that needs to be said is that it is 8+ years old and that should be sufficient, to a techie at least.  We discussed this at great length and I shared how a year in the life of a server is like 12.3 human years, so do the math.  Not really, but I shared many details of the risks of relying on a server that old.

So, I pushed to the very end, then abruptly brought my role in all of this to a halt.  I agreed to finish out the firewall install in a couple of weeks but that’s probably more selfishness on my part.  I want to see the end result of this baby that I worked hard to make the sale to the church leadership and get it approved.  So, that’s my last hurrah, then I’m out.

Now what?

No clue.  I have been enjoying worshipping in some different places with my family but beyond that, only God knows where this is leading.  I have to believe that God has a plan for my life and this is just another step in that direction.

At this point, it’s better for my family and I to worship someplace else and we’ll see where that leads.  We haven’t officially left our church but we are enjoying some new scenery.

As things unfold and become less fresh, I’ll share more.  I expect to have more time to write because I have less responsibility.  I’ll probably share more about where my passions lie and what kind of role I see myself playing in all of that in my future.

I do have an opinion of a tech volunteer role vs. a tech non-volunteer role and I’ll be sharing about that in the near future as well.

For now, I am free of some responsibilities and pumped about getting to Atlanta for Catalyst.  Anyone else going to be there? Let me know. Let’s connect somehow while we’re there.  Mary and I are meeting up with about 10 other church leaders from around the country and all of us are staying with some very generous friends.

It should be an incredible week.  I know I need that right about now.  Maybe God’s timing is good after all.

For me, I rely on these 2 things so much that I want my tools to be the very best that they can be, not just settle for something that might become buggy or not function properly.  Therefore, my standards are pretty high in this area.  Some have accused me of being a snob in these kinds of things, which I used to deny.  At some point along the way, I embraced the label and life is so much better now.

Hi, my name is Jim and I’m a Tech Snob.

There, I said it.  This whole fiasco started back when I was wanting to get some sort of MP3 player.  Back then there were many choices and today there are even more choices.  After quickly glancing away, I came back to the iPod, price was less of a factor, I just wanted iPod because of the name.

Later, I went and bought a decent laptop but it wasn’t the one that I knew I wanted, it was a lesser brand name.  Therefore, I wasn’t content with it but used it because it was what I had.  When I was able, I went and bought a Dell laptop because that is the brand I wanted.

By the way, that second rate laptop that I bought has been a rock and as stable as can be. Now my daughter uses it for school and it’s a trusty backup when necessary.

Recently, I decided to upgrade my phone to a smartphone and I went in to get a Crackb…errrrr Blackberry but walked out with a Treo.  Both devices are at the top of their class and I’m actually very happy.

Unfortunately, I’m not rich enough to be able to buy the best of everything, my Dell laptop is refurbished and smartphone prices have dropped quite a bit and certain carriers can be motivated to keep customers that are at the end of their contract.

The whole point of this is to say that I bought a domain a while back and honestly forgot about it.  It is TechSnob.  At the moment, I’m not using it for anything and it is parked at JimWalton.org, which is essentially my online resume showing my heart for tech ministry and my church resume.

I probably need to update the site because things have changed a little and they are getting ready to change some more. 

What should I use TechSnob for?

This seems to be what God is telling me, I need to rest.  So, today, that’s what I plan to do for a change.

But nowadays, things have changed, my life has changed and I am struggling at times to find the time or energy to write.  Things are not bad at all, I just need to get better at managing my time and learn to write a little when I can instead of waiting until I have a larger block of time.  So, I’m less concerned with some of the blogging strategy and I’m just writing when I can.

At church, things are as busy as ever and I’m in the process of evaluating my role and how God wants me to fit in there.  Sometimes God pushes us to do more and to give more to Him, whether it’s money, time or whatever.  Sometimes God reminds us to slow down, even though all we are doing is for Him and it’s all good.  

There’s not much to share about any of this yet but I think when it’s all said and done, I’ll have plenty to share.  For now, I have a busy Saturday ahead and I’m enjoying some peace and quiet before everyone wakes up.