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Church
Media & Technology Resources
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information and live events are just two ways that people learn
and get information. A pastor has the attention of
his congregation for one to three hours each week
while the average person consumes three to six
hours of various types of content every day outside
of work. Capturing the attention of couch potatoes and hard-core gamers is becoming an increasing challenge.
What
is a pastor to do to cut through the noise?
Churches are now using new forms of technology to
communicate with their leaders, members and community.
New gadgets and gizmos come out every day, but what
do you actually need to help your church?
How do you lower costs, save time, and become
more strategic with your church technology?
Pastors: We know
you are very busy so here is some advice for you.
Start a Media-Tech Ministry and
have them go through this outline and develop a plan
that best fits your churches needs.
Categories for
using technology to help build your local
church:
What type
of communications solutions can help me run my
church?
- Word-of-mouth (Getting “the
word” out about your church
and your events)
- In-person
verbal communication from the
pulpit works, but most people
only retain about 20% of what
they hear. Often the message
gets changed as the information
is passed from one person to
another.
- Paper materials (Creating
your church bulletin and other paper materials)
- Paper is a good way
to keep the message clear and can
help remind people if they read it
and don't misplace it.
- Phones (Phone
tree and verbal communication via
phone)
- Phone chains
can work well and are a good
way to quickly get a hold of
a person. However, if a large
number of people need to be called,
phone chains are very time consuming.
Don't be afraid to turn your
cell phone off!
- Faxes (Sending
and receiving faxes)
- This is time consuming but also
helpful if a person needs detailed
information and doesn't have access
to a computer.
- Emails (Communicating
within the church and outside of the
church)
- Communicating with your leaders,
your members,
your visitors and seekers, as well
as your local
community
- This is becoming one of the
best ways
to get the word out to your congregation.
A combination
of email and phone calls is always
going to be needed since
10-20% of your congregation
will never
use email or the Internet.
- Assign a person to
keep your congregations contact
information up-to-date and accurate.
People should also be placed
into groups such as the
choir, leadership or youth.
That way you can quickly
contact specific groups
for specific reasons.
- Church web site (As
a church brochure, church bulletins,
the church information center and as
an outreach tool.)
- Begin with an outline of what you
want the web site to accomplish.
Is it to bring new people into the
church? Then address the felt needs
of seekers. Answer the questions
you think they may be asking such
as:
- Is this church friendly,
active and interesting?
- What services to they offer
for me and my family?
- What is the Sunday service
like?
- Where are they located and
when are the services? (17%
of Americans have looked
for local religious services
in their area using the Internet. Source:
PEW Report 2004)
- Once you have a basic web site that
looks good continue to build out
the site for specific purposes.
- Make sure you have some nice pictures
and images on the site.
- Testimonials can be helpful with
a photo.
- Have the person(s) who build and
maintain your church web site place a
Title META tag and a META description
tag into the HTML at the top of the
page under the <HEAD> tag. This will
help search engines find you.
- Make sure you spend the time to get
your church web site listed in directories
and search engines such as Google,
Yahoo, LookSmart:
- There are web sites in your area
that people use to find local services
and events. Search for your town
in Google and Yahoo! and see what
kind of directories are listed.
Companies that help
you build out your church
web site:
What type of scheduling
solutions are available for your church?
- Secretaries
and assistants
- Managing
the events and schedules
of church
functions with a
person can work well
but your
assistant may want
to use a better solution.
- Day
timer and other
paper
- (Paper
schedules
work well for
most but
hard to share.
- Outlook & PDA’s
- Schedule
kept in electronic
format that
can be moved
from one
device to
another or
between people.
- Online Scheduling
Solution
- An online solution
such as the calendar
in Yahoo!
Groups can work
well if all people
involved are online. You can
share schedules, messages within
the group and many of valuable
features. It can even cut down
on the number of meetings you
have ;)
How can technology help me with
my training and events?
- Paper books, workbooks and
manuals
- Videos and cassettes
- DVD's
- Live CCN broadcasts
- Church digital library
- In a computer with enough
hard drive
space, church sermons, PDF's and
other materials can be maintained
and copied
upon request.
- A password protected area
of the churches
web site can be used to store and
distribute
pastoral teachings in audio, video
and print form.
- Scheduling and planning of events
- By using a service such as Yahoo!
Groups communication
and planning can be made much easier.
- Promoting, announcing and
motivating to get people
to an event can be facilitated. Use print, email,
the web site, video and your
pulpit.
- Having a live event
What are current technology
trends?
Faith Online: 64% of wired
Americans have used the Internet for
spiritual or religious purposes SOURCE: PEW Report
- Email
- More emails are
sent each day then postal mail
- Word-of-mouth
is now done through email as well
- Wireless communications
- Voice
(Most Americans now have a cell phone)
Data (A growing number of homes and businesses have wireless
networks)
- People use the Internet in
four areas:
- Content (All
types of info in text, graphics,
audio and video)
- Community (discussion
groups, web logs, instant messaging)
- Commerce (Direct
purchase, auctions and B2B commerce)
- Communications (email,
email newsletters & instant messaging)
-
Almost 70% of Americans and one billion people worldwide are using the Internet.
- 55%
of US Adult Internet Users Have
Broadband at Home or Work
Source:
Pew Report
- Millions of audio
and video files are being viewed
and downloaded every day.
- DVD Players and DVD’s
are the fastest
growing consumer electronic platform in history.
Almost half of US homes have a DVD player.
- Phones are getting smarter
and doing more things including taking pictures.
- Most new computers have DVD & CD ”burners” as
well as media software on them.
PC’s will continue to get smarter, more powerful
and be able to manage larger music and video files.
- Devices are now
being sold that allow people to record,
save and copy audio and video files
off of their TV, radio, PC, CD,
or DVD.
- 64% of
wired Americans have used the
Internet for spiritual or religious purposes. Source: Pew
Report
- Hundreds of millions of people play video games. This is a larger industry then movie box office sales. The effects of extremely intense gaming on the brain and soul are just now beginning to be understood.
- There
are over one billion global
Internet users.
Click
here to see the break down
by country.
- Sources of technology trends:
ClickZ
Pew
Internet & American Life
Complete Guide to Internet
Statistics and Research
What are your
church hardware and software needs?
(What
to buy and when to buy it. Spending
enough but not to much.)
- Hardware: Reviews
at: CNET & PCWorld
- Computers
- Printers
- Projectors
- Here
is a good glossary
of terms when
picking out a
projector.
- There are companies that
sell to churches at wholesale
- The quality continues to
go up as the price goes down
- Network equipment
- Wireless Network
- CNET has
some good resources
on the How To's of wireless
networking.
- Digital Video Recorders and a SlingBox
- DVD players and other devices
- Digital cameras
- Digital cameras are great
for capturing church events
- The history and people of
your church should be captured
with pictures
- PDA's
- Software:
- Communication
tools (Email, Chat, Instant
Messaging, VoIP solutions)
- Scheduling software
(Outlook...)
- Budgeting software
(Quickbooks, Peachtree, Blackbaud)
- Word processing
software (Word...)
- Presentation/Worship
Software (Powerpoint, Sunday
+Plus, MediaShout, EasyWorship...)
- Database software
- Image and graphic
design software (PhotoShop, PaintShop
Pro, Flash...)
- Audio and video
editing software (ProTools, After
Effects, Premier...)
How can you use technology
to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
your church?
- Use
a simple
but effective accounting software.
(e.g. Quickbooks…)
- Keep
a good
church database. (Name,
address, gifting's, interests,
email address)
- Use
email to communicate with your leaders and congregation.
- A
projector
in the sanctuary can be used
to show images, song text and video to improve
the services.
- Create a media-tech
ministry
- Evaluates
your churches computers,
software, printers, the church computer
network and other electronic devices.
- Runs
you’re A/V equipment, computer
systems, web site and networking
equipment.
- Helps with
events and programs that can reach
the lost and strengthen the church
members.
- Upgrade as you can. (new
computers now start at $400,
a wireless network costs $80 plus $60 per
computer to set up, photo quality printers
start at $150…)
You can start small and as
needed.
- As
one example: In
March of 2004 my church went
from a few old Mac's to a
new high-definition projector
throwing a 20 foot wall of
video in the sanctuary that
is connected to a new computer
that can burn CD's and DVD's
all connected to a broadband
wireless network.
All of this, for under $6,000.
- Another example:
- Update your current computers.
- Upgrade to broadband.
- Install a $120 wireless router.
- Purchase a Digital Video Recorder to save CCN programming.
- Subscribe to CCN DVD's.
What is a church media-tech
ministry and how will it help your church?
- A media-tech ministry within
the local church
- Plans out and
maintains all of
the hardware and software
issues of your church.
- Runs the web site.
- Continues to help find ways
to improve your churches
use of technology.
- Interesting audio, video
and technology based programs
- Reaches the lost with after
school technology based
programs.
- Supports your
local church
congregation with classes and tech help.
Helpful Resources:
The Digital Church
- Use multimedia in your Sunday service and other
events
- A one or two minute video clip illustrating a sermon point can speak volumes.
- Still photos of church events helps build community
- Building a digital church library
- Purchase a newer computer with a large hard drive and a DVD burner on it. This can be less then $1,500.
- Place it next to your sound board and connect the two using a good audio card or box. Under $200. This will allow you to save your sermons and teachings as MP3 files which can be posted on the web or burned onto a CD.
- Keep a digital library of sermons, photos, video clips, outlines, teaching materials for re-use. Archive them based on felt needs.
- If a person comes to you struggling with a specific issue have your computer person make a CD of all the materials you have dealing with that issue.
- 10-12 sermons in audio can fit on one ten cent CD copied from a computer
- Your church wireless network. Once you have broadband it is very inexpensive to install a wireless network in your church.
- Your church communications network
- You can save money using VoIP
- Using email to save time
- Developing an Extranet for your leaders
and congregation
CCN for
your church training
- Set a satellite system up
at your church
- Hold live
seminars using top speakers to train
your leaders and congregation as well as
have seeker events around CCN broadcasts
that are geared towards seekers.
- If your church is not a CCN subscriber click
here to get more information
about CCN.
We will be using many case studies from
those of you who wish to share your experiences.
We would like to hear about your successes and failures in how you have used
technology in your church.
CLICK
HERE to tell us about your experiences
at your church in these areas, or ask us questions
or suggest specific topics you would like us
to address.
We look forward to assisting you as you
build your church,
Ken Lubeck
CCN Technology
Copyright 2007 Church Communication
Network Inc. All Rights Reserved |
