On January 28, 2009, my Blackberry was finally in my hands.  It was supposed to arrive a day earlier but the icy weather delayed it.

I have had my Treo about 6 months and it is a great device, I am extremely happy with it.  In that time, I have gotten used to it and am pretty familiar with it’s features.  The Blackberry, on the otherhand, is completely new to me so I have a lot of learning to do.

After a few days, I have had a chance to get some apps set up and begin playing around.  Some things I like are the trackball, the easy navigation, BES and the many apps available for it. 

Some things that haven’t struck me quite right are the trackball, the slowness of the response time, especially on the internet, and BIS.

The Treo, on the Sprint data network is definitely faster than the Blackberry on the U.S. Cellular data network.  I haven’t looked at the processor speed for each device so I don’t know how they compare.

The main reason I have the Blackberry is for work e-mail and in that regard, it rocks!  The push e-mail is great and I’ll be able to be notified if a server loses connection or a system goes down.

I did set up BIS for my own personal e-mail and it is disappointing, seems to be a POP3 kind of protocol, as opposed to IMAP.  On the Treo, I get my e-mail and it is constantly sync’d up, so once I read an e-mail anywhere, it’s read everywhere. 

So, BIS is getting ready to come off.  Maybe I need to dig into it deeper and tweak some settings.

Overall, the Blackberry is a nice device and it’s really all that I expected it to be.  It’s allowing me to be much more connected to work by having e-mail, tasks, appointment reminders and my calendar always with me.

The Blackberry’s keyboard is slightly larger but I think it steals some space from the screen.  One irritation that I’ll have to put up with until I truly get down to a single device is the keyboard is enough different and I’m having to learn a second set of alt keys.

I have a 4gb micro SD card that I’m getting ready to install, then I’ll probably reinstall all the apps I have installed on the device.

I’m not desperately in love with it at first glance but I’m sure it will grow on me.  It’s a huge asset for my job and I’m thankful for that.  It’s far from perfect, but it does add a lot of value.

This serves as my initial review and comparison of the Blackberry Curve vs. the Treo 800w, which is biased due to my strong affection and attachment to my Treo.  Stay tuned for more.

Disclaimer: These pics were taken by me, not my pro photographer wife, although I think I’ve still got it!

Five to six years ago, I had this idea, a concept of outreach within the church.  Honestly, I think God gets the credit on this one, He has better ideas than I do and should get the credit.

If you are an IT guy/girl in your church, or even a media person, you are probably viewed as the go to guy/girl for 3/4 of the church to come to when their computers are not working right.  At some point, it made sense to have a workshop where a bunch of us geeky type folks get together and offer our services to fix, clean up or install new hardware.

A great ministry to your church members but also a great opportunity for members to bring in their unchurched friends and let them see us serving them in a way where we expect nothing in return.  Essentially, they could see Jesus through us.  I believe there are many people who will not step foot in church on Sunday morning but if you tell them your church will fix their computer for no charge, they will be there.  This gives the opportunity to build relationships with these unchurched people and that is how you win people to Christ, through relationship.

As a result, the PC Workshop was born.

It took a few years for this to become reality, but it finally did.  First, at a pastor friend’s church, then at my own.  In fact, that was the first project I did at my last church and that is honestly how the Tech Ministrycame about.  Being new to the church, I didn’t really know anyone but I wanted to pull this off, so I wrote up the announcement and in it I said the PC Workshop is being brought to you by the Tech Ministry.  At the moment I wrote that, the Tech Ministry consisted of me and……..me!

I believed there were people around me with an interest in helping and maybe even a little skill, so I started getting the word out.  Believe it or not, people came forward and it was a great time.  People wanted to be part of this Tech Ministry and they wondered what exactly a Tech Ministry was all about.  Over time, we defined what it was for our church.

We did 5 or 6 PC Workshops over a year and a half and as people asked any of us to fix their computer, we were able to say on this date is the next PC Workshop, come on by.  I viewed this time not only as a time to fix but a time to educate because I would rather teach you how to maintain your computer instead of  just repeatedly fix it for you all the time.

One of the goals a leader should have is that the work that was started will continue after he is gone.  This is true for me and I worked hard to build up the leadership under me to be able to carry on with or without me.

With that being said, I am happy to announce a PC Workshop tonight at Fairview Christian Church in Carthage and it has been put together by my successor, Daniel (@dmeyer302).  I told him awhile back if he did it, I would be there to help and I’m very excited about it because I have no responsibility tonight.  I’m simply a helper and it will be fun to be back with some old friends.  Daniel has recruited some new people to help out as well.

So, come on by and hang out with us! Come in the south doors and the conference room is on the left, just down the hall, it will be obvious once you get in the door, I’m sure.

I have done quite a bit in the realm of using technology in church, both in my own church and others.  God has really given me a heart for this and even though I have walked away from my blog that focused on that, I still have a heart and a passion for it.

In all that I have done, the one thing that I keep coming back to is writing.  God has really given me a voice in writing and sharing what I know, what I have done and what I see others doing.  For a long time, I didn’t see myself as a writer and never had ambitions of writing, yet writing is my foundation and it’s really what got my foot in the door of the church IT community.

For some reason, it has taken me a long time to accept this role but it seems that a significant portion of my role in this church IT world is to write, and in doing so, teach and encourage others and push all of us to do more where we are with the resources we have available, all for God’s glory.

This past week has been interesting and exciting.  Within a 24 hour period, I was invited by 2 different websites to write for them, which is very cool.  So, over the last few days, I have been getting organized so I can begin this new phase in my writing on the right foot.

At this point, my intention is to have original writing on every site I write for and will definitely link to the posts from here.  As soon as the first post is up at each site, I will share details.

This is an interesting time, it seems.  Many people I know have blogs and for whatever reason, have stopped writing.  Sounds similar to what I did.  Over the years, I have had spells where I didn’t write anything for a week or 2 or 3 but I always bounced back.  This last time for me was more like months of no writing.

I averaged about 1 post per month and that one post was pretty weak, in my opinion.  In my case, I walked from my well established, well read blog and started this one.  My wife told me before I did this that I would lose most or all of my readers but I really didn’t know what would happen.

At it’s peak, last spring, CTM was averaging 650+ subscribers and by year-end, I was down to around 550 which is still decent.  This blog has around 85 subscribers and that’s pretty good for being less than a month old. 

So, in a similar way to what I have done, shifted gears, changed focus or whatever you want to call it, I see many others itching to do the same thing.  I’m happy with the initial results I have seen with my transition but there is certainly no formula for success as each situation is different.

I think CTM definitely went stale, I can say that.  I would also say I became bored with it and for a long time, couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t write, I couldn’t think about writing, it was all a heavy weight.  As I started coming out of that funk, I felt that I needed to do more and that led me to starting fresh at this new site.  The main cost was maybe losing 80% of the subscriber base that I had but honestly, half of those people probably didn’t read my blog anyway.

If you are considering changing your focus or walking away from the blog you have to start something new, I would encourage you to consider what you want to focus on.  CTM was a focused blog and it did better than I ever imagined it would.  Now I’m here and my focus is leadership, volunteers and even a little church tech.

So, figure out your focus, and ever go as far as defining your niche.  Who do you want to reach?  Spend time praying about this and thinking it through.  What is this voice that God has given you?  How does He want you to use it?

There is hope for a stale, stagnant blog but you first have to find your voice and get serious about what you want to say.

Regardless of how high tech your church is and how big of a budget your church has, your church needs to be using Twitter as one of it’s main communication channels.  What is Twitter?

Twitter’s tag line is “What are you doing?” This question is answered, literally, by millions of users throughout the day, every day.  From the benign to the intriguing, people will, it seems, share endlessly about their lives.  You’ll hear some deeply personal thoughts, strong political opinions and just about every other topic if you start to follow a bunch of folks.

The above quote is from an e-book written by my friend, Anthony Coppedge (@anthonycoppedge) titled  The Reason Your Church Must Twitter.  This e-book is a step by step guide of how your church could and should use Twitter to effectively communicate within specific ministries as well as broadcast messages church-wide.

It doesn’t matter if you are a highly technical geek or if you barely know how to turn your computer on, this e-book is for you.  It breaks all aspects of Twitter down to a manageable and understandable level and walks you through how to set your account up and get yourself situated to effectively use Twitter.  Even if you use Twitter every day already, this book shares concepts that you likely have not considered.

Every church is different and so there is no cut and dry right or wrong way for your church to use Twitter but you certainly have many options.  The Reason Your Church Must Twitter gives you all of those options.  There is application for youth ministry, children’s ministry, young adult and more seasoned adult ministry as well.

The beauty is that you can reach your people on their computer and/or on their cell phones, via SMS text messaging, which is a huge thing.  Phone calls are tedious, email is often not read and fairly labor intensive for a church and in the end, ultimately, communication is key.

The information in this e-book is great and very necessary but when it comes right down to it, how will you implement a Twitter strategy in your church?  Does it take more than information and knowledge? You better believe it does and Anthony covers how to decide on a Twitter strategy in the final chapter of the book.

More than once, I have seen a church be convinced to try something technology related without having a real strategy and in the end, it flops and the technology is blamed.  In reality, technology, whether it’s web related or a piece of equipment, is a tool and it’s only effective if it’s used correctly.  Anthony offers great insight into ways to practically begin using Twitter in your church and make Twitter a valuable resource.

The e-book is only $5, and honestly, it’s worth so much more.

If you have been reading my blog(s) for any amount of time, you understand my heart for volunteers in the church.  Anthony shares this heart for volunteers and it shows through his offer, check this out:

We’ve kept the price very low ($5 – five bucks) to make it affordable for everyone. All we’re asking is that if you’re using this E-Book for your ministry, please make sure you’ve bought it.

We fully license churches to buy a copy for a staff member and share it with their volunteers for free. For example, if your church has three staff that could benefit from the book, then please pay the ridiculously affordable $15 and give out copies like free candy to your volunteers!

Pretty simple. Pay for this e-book for each staff member that you want to have it, then just go nuts on your volunteers and let them have the benefit of this e-book for no charge.

If you have read this far and you still feel lost, that’s ok.  The e-book The Reason Your Church Must Twitter will clear everything up and more.  It will be released on January 16, 2 days from now.  I’ll post a link to the website in the near future, it’s still being fine-tuned for this big launch.

I work with a ministry called Life of Hope, a ministry to street children in Guatemala.  We recently discussed plans for redesigning the website and there is a lot of potential here.  The big idea here is to simplify, big time.  I’ll be removing some links to data that is older and reduce the menu down to a handful of items.

One thing that I mentioned is the possibility of using video, both on the website and within the ministry.  It might be good to have a greeting from the director on the main page embedded in the site, then also embed some video to show activities from the streets of Guatemala and the work that the ministry is doing.  In today’s world, it’s easy to shoot video and stick it on the web and that gives a direct look into the life of the ministry.

Plus there are ministry partners in Guatemala and these people could be equipped and trained to use a webcam and connect via TokBox or Mogulus or some other site like that.  This ministry is adding another staff person in the near future and he will be located probably 20 miles away and we discussed how they could use streaming technology to talk and see each other on a regular basis.

It’s all exciting stuff!  I’m looking forward to finding new ways to use video streaming.

I was asked a question the other day by a close friend, how often is too often to blog?

There is no cut and dry answer.  There was a time when I was writing posts everyday and that worked for me.  Other times, I have written once a month and that’s ok too.  In general, the right frequency is somewhere between once a day and once a month but the reality is that it’s your blog and it’s what you make it.

Find your rhythm and do the very best job you can do at reaching your niche through your writing.  Keep this in mind, every time you write a post, it draws people to read.  In the realm of blogging, posts drive traffic and in a way, that’s what you want.

So there is no right or wrong answer, just do what’s right for you.

I am going through an interesting time in my life.  A few months ago, I stepped down from leading the tech ministry at my church.  On the surface, it may not make sense why I did this because the team I led has done some phenomenal things over the past year and a half and we were on track to continue doing even more.

But something grew in me that just made it so clear to me that I needed to step away and it’s the kind of thing from the outside, it might not make any sense.  But it was the right thing to do because God is leading me beyond my comfort zone to places that are probably way beyond me.

I had several months to see this coming, in a way, and I also had the luxury of a built-in, capable leader on my team.  Daniel (@dmeyer302) has been part of tech at this church for probably 6 years, long before I came along, and likely, he will continue for awhile longer. (If you don’t follow him on Twitter, you might want to, you might learn a thing or two.)

Last summer, during a time I was intentionally interviewing with churches, my pastor and I talked about Daniel being my obvious successor if I were to leave.   I talked seriously with a couple of churches back then but didn’t accept any offers.  Now that I was leaving, Daniel is still that guy.

Leading up to the point of me leaving, before anyone knew and before I really knew, I became intentional about teaching Daniel a lot of the ins and outs of the IT side of things in this church, because some things I just did without even thinking about.  Daniel is quick to pick things up and he will do well in a leadership role like this.

Shortly after I stepped down, Mary and I felt like God was leading us to something different in regard to church, so I literally stepped down and was gone from the scene almost simultaneously.  That was probably for the best, for many reasons.  However, I felt like I needed to work with Daniel more on just some of the concepts of his role, yet November and December are tough times to get together and it never really happened.

Last weekend, things lined up and we were able to sit down and discuss some things and I was able to pass on some knowledge to him.  In a way, Daniel and I are complete opposites but really, we always made a good team.  I am the guy the sees the big picture, points the way and has a vision for what can be done.  I can find people to serve and pretty easily fit them into roles where they are gifted.  Daniel is the nuts and bolts guy, he can figure it out and make it better.  He mentioned that it’s like he’s the fix it man, they call him when things are broken but that’s about it.  There is so much more to his role than that, if the leadership will let him.

I would say we stretch each other, he pushes me to pay attention to the details and nowadays, I’m pushing him to see the big picture of what he is a part of and mentoring him on how to get there effectively.  Essentially, I am mentoring him on how to “be that guy” in his role in the church that God has called him to be.

We had a great time the other night and I’m excited for what is ahead of him.  My role now is to just be here for him in whatever way he needs me and I will pass on my knowledge and experience to him.  I think he is being pushed beyond his comfort zone and I know he has a challenge ahead of him but he will do fine.

Something I have learned in this is that the momentum and progress I made with the staff and leadership may be lost, as it appears that Daniel needs to earn the respect on his own terms, and is not fully benefiting from what I created.  It might have been smart if we would have started this intentional mentoring earlier and if I would have been more intentional with the staff about Daniel’s capabilities in this role.

It’s not a lost cause though, he can lead this ministry in the way God has equipped him and earn the respect he deserves, based on his knowledge and skill.  He’s ultimately at the mercy of the staff and leadership of the church and we talked a lot about how to reach out to them, partly by broadcasting a consistent message.

Daniel is a couple years younger than I am, he’s college age and he basically grew up in the church and now he is in a key leadership role in this church, trying to earn respect as an adult, as opposed to the youngster that he is likely viewed as by some.

What advice would you give a young, capable leader that is trying to make a difference and be respected?

Now that you are over at this site, you may notice that it has been up for a couple of weeks.  I intentionally brought in a core group of close friends and they have been my alpha testers.

Over the last 2-3 weeks, they have checked out this site and advised me on things that worked and things that didn’t.  I also tweaked a few things and fine-tuned the design.  Along the way I wrote some posts and the alpha people commented and we really got the momentum started.  

I didn’t want to announce a new site and have the masses come over to a single post and really have no idea what the flavor of this site would be.  So, I started without you but now I’m glad you’re here.

Here’s an idea that I might try and I’d like to know what you think. With several options to have some video interaction, I’m thinking about having a show sometime where several of us could connect via video and maybe others could watch and/or join in via chat.

There would be a pre-determined topic that would loosely guide us. Would this interest you? Should there be a time limit or just leave it open?

For a long time, I have had a heart for volunteers in the church, specifically tech volunteers and also leaders of volunteer tech teams.  There’s a good chance the leader is a volunteer as well.

How do you build a team? How do you keep a team?  How do you motivate volunteers?  How do you engage them and make them feel like what they are doing is worthwhile?

These are the kind of things I would like to do a video chat about.  I have a lot of thoughts and opinions on these things and I would love to hear from you too.

Would you participate on cam? Would you watch? Would you chat?

If you are known as the local geek in your church, chances are, you are the go to guy to fix the PC’s and keep things running.  It’s not a big thing if there are 2 or 3 computers and it doesn’t really matter that 1 or 2 are home built and 1 or 2 are eMachines.  However, be prepared for the eMachine to take a dive soon, because, trust me, it will.

In some churches, it’s kind of a free for all when it comes to buying new computers, the pastor or staff member has to figure out what to do and sometimes, this is a dangerous proposition.  Most of us can shop around and find a deal on a laptop without even realizing the complications that might occur because of this.

One of the bigger issues is an operating system that is not XP Pro or Vista Business or Ultimate cannot connect to an Active Directory domain.  There are work arounds in some cases to make XP Home  or Vista Home work with Active Directory but ultimately, you may be the one left supporting that and maybe taking a hit because that user is always having to jump through hoops.

In 2 different churches, I was the go-to guy for most or all things technical and I was a volunteer both times.  In the first church, we went from 20 PC’s of all different kinds to nearly 50 Dell’s in 2 years, so it can be done.  Of course, we had the luxury of having the budget to do this and in many churches, that is not the case.  In the second church, we had about 15-20 PC’s of all different kinds and I was in the process of standardizing.

The question is how do you do this?  If you are the pastor over technology, simply by default, or the IT Director or if you are the volunteer charged with handling IT matters, how do you change the mindset of the staff and leadership to have a more centralized IT organization?

The bottom line is you simply need to communicate this idea.  Think of yourself as a salesman and you have to close the sale.  This is done by delivering a consistent message and I even got in the habit of doing it in writing.  That way, your message is clear and consistent.   Write up a document that can be e-mailed and printed and handed around and the document should state this idea of standardizing, why it’s important and what’s the practical approach we need to take to get there.  Whenever the topic comes up,  just be clear and consistent, always making the same point.  When it’s time to buy, you have to justify why you’re not running down the street to pick that laptop up that was in Sunday’s paper for $499 with a mail in rebate.

On occasion, cheapest is best but generally, if you are responsible to build a quality IT organization, you need to buy quality hardware that is well supported.  I set up a 3-5 year plan to make the transition to being an all Dell organization, which translated into replacing about 3 PC’s a year and budgeted for that last year and this year.

It took some time to earn the respect of the church leaders so that they trusted what I recommended and they believed in the direction I was leading us in our PC purchases.  One of the last things I did before stepping down was to go head to head with the Finance Director who questioned my somewhat large budget proposal for this year.  I communicated my plan, we negotiated a little, I gave a little, he stepped up some and in the end, he agreed with my budget proposal and said he would submit it as proposed.  It was all friendly and at the time, I knew I was stepping down and did so a couple of days later, but I still believed in what I had started and I wanted the ministry to maintain the momentum we had started over the previous year.

The sad thing is, once I left, I think things quickly reverted back to the way they were even though there was a smooth transition to a new leader.  I don’t think it’s anything personal, he just needs to prove himself as being trustworthy and capable with these decisions, just as I did.  This is done through conversations and a consistent message.

In the end, the effort is worth it, especially if you are responsible to grow your church’s IT infrastructure