“I haven’t cared for much of what I’ve heard or seen – either on radio or television. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the efforts of all the well intentioned people who believe in using the media to share a message of faith and hope with the culture. The problem is most of them just haven’t done it very well. …   I’ve discovered for the most part, these are good people with noble intentions, but held back by outdated and out of touch strategies that need to be ushered into the digital age.”

– Phil Cooke referring to Christian ministries usage of media in The Last TV Evangelist

I had the opportunity to watch the interview below live from ConversantLife.com with Brad Abare and Phil Cooke:

Church Marketing Gurus: Brad Abare & Phil Cooke from ConversantLife; on Vimeo.

Phil generously posted his most recent book, The Last TV Evangelist, online in a PDF format for free for 24 hours after the interview.  I’d read his previous book, Branding Faith, and found it very insightful and helpful with what I do at Southbrook.  I had this new book on my “want to read” list and this free copy came at the perfect time…  I settled in over the Thanksgiving holiday with several days off to read and plowed right through this book.

I’m a techie wanna-be.  I like trying out new software and hardware.  I like being an early adopter of new technology.  I like figuring out how we can “redeem” methods and ideas in our culture and use them to spread the Gospel.  It was almost like Phil was preaching to the choir.  I didn’t need to be convinced.  So, what made this book so great for me?

• Presentation of history of using media, specifically radio and TV, for the purpose of reaching our culture.
• Explanation of what “millenials” are looking for and how to reach this next generation.
• Well-formed reasoning for using new media in the context of the church and non-profits.

Here are some of my favorite and most thought-provoking quotes:

• If you want to reach a new generation, putting all your eggs in the traditional media basket is a mistake.
• The new media world is about connection, community, and conversation. It’s about being networked.
• If we don’t understand how to share our faith in the digital world, the church will continue its slide into irrelevance in the eyes of the culture.
  Back in those days, when radio and television – and even movies – were embraced by Christians, it was usually the preachers like Oral Roberts and Billy Graham that jumped into the deep end first. They didn’t really debate about the technology so much from a theological perspective, they just saw it as another opportunity for sharing the gospel. It was their vision for reaching mass audiences for evangelism that drove them to embrace radio and television with little hesitation.
• Take the time to teach your kids about life. Watch TV with them, see movies together, and help them discover how to navigate their place as a Christian in the culture.
• Remember the concept of common grace and start looking for God in the most unlikely places.
• You should reward innovation, not just success. …  If you manage your people by fear of failure, then failure is exactly what you’ll achieve.
  Every generation communicates in a dif erent way. It is no longer how we want to communicate with donors but rather how they want to communicate with us. And if we’re not ready, they’ll take their money elsewhere.
• Are we happy to sit back and watch other Christians damage our witness to the culture by producing lousy movies, or should we lovingly call them to a higher standard?
• How you present your message, and the medium you present it through has a significant impact on how that message is received.
• Yes, people turn away from the gospel. The rich young ruler walked away from Jesus. But just as with the rich young ruler, it would be better if the disconnect was because he couldn’t handle the message. Too often in religious media, the disconnect comes from well meaning but out of touch people whose inability to communicate creates an obstacle that’s impossible for the audience to overcome. They never even get to the message.  …  It’s not about compromising our message, it’s about respecting the audience enough to speak in a language and style they understand.
• No matter what happens, the content of the gospel should be the filter, not our poor or inept presentation of that content.
• In a media-driven culture, it’s not just who you are that counts, it’s how you are perceived. Further, if you don’t work to shape your perception, you’ll spend the rest of your life at the mercy of other people who will.
• This generation has seen the excess and rarely falls for it – a fact Christian media ministries are discovering right now.  …  It’s ultimately about authenticity, which in my experience is the defining characteristic of this generation.
• Be bold. Be innovative. Stop copying other people and explore the right format to showcase your gifts and talents – not look like someone else.
  But when the same thing is done over and over again, it simply loses its meaning.
• Our job as communicators is to see shifts in the culture and change and adapt accordingly so our message is as relevant now as it was yesterday – and will still be tomorrow.
• At the famous Cannes Advertising Festival in France in 2007, the hottest topic was programming content for mobile phones. Right now, that’s the most aggressively pursued media platform because of the sheer number of mobile devices throughout the world.
• Today, it’s not about how we communicate with the audience, it’s about how they communicate with us.
• Millenials want to discover the new, they want to start the trends – this is their unique difference.  …  This means that a new generation not only wants to respond, but they also want to create.
• Simplicity, clarity and lots of white space remain important elements of good design.
• If you don’t begin to control your perception, you’ll spend the rest of your life at the mercy of others who will.
• <Speaking of personality driven ministries>  But with the passing of that personality, some organizations are confronted with the need to change to a more corporate vision, where everything does not hinge on a single person.
• Today we’re dealing with a generation that tends to give, not to be noticed, but because it is the right thing to do.
• Right now, the digital media world isn’t about income, it’s about influence.
• Relate your message to something that matters to people. Keep it short. Find out the questions people are asking.
• From a communication perspective our world has transformed from a one-way model to a two-way, dynamic conversation.
• As the next generation searches for meaning, are we going to continue trying to control the message, or are we going to be more open – allowing the people a voice in how they communicate, relate, and respond?  …  Are you allowing your audience to influence your message? …  Are you acting on the feedback you’re hearing from your audience?  …  Today – media is about personalization.
• Stop thinking “mass” and start thinking “niche.” Small is the new big.
• It’s important to find the story that surrounds your life and ministry. What do people think of when they think of you? If you can pinpoint your own brand story – why you do what you do, who you really are, what your gifts and talents are, and what makes you different – then you can start to find the potential audience that would connect with your message.
• I’m shocked at the number of people that just keep doing the same thing year after year as if the direction of the ministry, audience numbers, response, income – whatever, will magically change. But getting from point A to point B doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by implementing a well thought out plan.
• Life is more about asking the right questions.
• Be open to change. Too many churches and ministries go through difficult times because they’re unwilling to experiment and try something new.
• Don’t chase trends, but study them to see where the culture is going.

This is a must read for anyone who leads a ministry, is involved in teaching in a ministry, or is involved in tech/communications in a ministry.  Well, what are you waiting for?  Go read this book!

Shawn’s videos are a great overview of the process, so start there. Getting Things Done gets into the nitty-gritty details.  The book has been out for several years so it does not cover current technologies that can help in implementing a GTD process, but it is the basic process is what matters most.

Here’s a few of the keys to a GTD system and how I’m organizing my life.

• Create a trusted capture system.  I capture things in the following places: physical inboxes at work and home, email inbox for work and personal, Evernote inbox, and Remember the Milk inbox.  Some people need a small notepad to carry around to make notes.  I generally use whatever paper I have and make sure that it gets to my physical inbox.  Otherwise, I use my iPhone and send myself an email, send a note to my Evernote inbox, or send a to-do by email to Remember the Milk.
• Process things in your inboxes regularly.  Delete things that are not needed.  File things that are for reference.  I keep very few paper files any more.  Almost everything gets scanned to PDF.  Then, I file and tag everything in Evernote on my Mac.  If it can be done in less than two minutes, do it and be done with it.  Anything else needs to be delegated or deferred.  If I’m giving something to my husband or one of my team members to do, I keep the item marked as “waiting” in my email, Evernote “waiting” notebook, or tagged with “waiting” as a task in RTM.  For anything else, I create a task in RTM, tag as a project or something that I need to process in Evernote or my email.  I create to-do items for everything that I think of regarding a project.  David Allen suggests just the next action step, but I find if I don’t record everything that I think of that needs to be done, I keep too much of that project in my head and it weighs on me too much.  Even if it seems silly or trivial, I’ll spend the time to make a note of it rather than carrying it in my head.
• Do your work.  Tagging things on my to-do list in RTM always me to better choose what to work on based upon amount of time available, current energy level or mindset, resources available (like phone or internet), time item is due, etc.  It makes determining the best thing to do at a given time so easy.
• Review your inboxes, to-do items, project files, calendar, etc in depth once a week to determine any next steps on projects, trigger your memory of anything that you may have forgotten, need to follow up on or reschedule.  I’ve been doing this on Fridays.  It is the best day for me because it is usually my quietest day of the week with the fewest interruptions.

Here are some additional things that I’ve been doing and technologies notes…

• One of the goals is inbox zero; don’t store things in your email inbox.  One of the ways that I can stay on top of this is to move things to my project folder or to-do folder when I glance at my email on my iPhone.  In addition, if I can take care of it with a quick, simple response, I do that from my iPhone.  Because we use Google Apps for our email and my phone is set up using Exchange protocol, everything I do on my phone is mirrored on my computer / webmail.  This makes getting through my email so much faster.
• When I see links to things that I want to look at later, I send an email with the link to my Evernote inbox.  When I process my Evernote inbox, I can look at those links I saw in Twitter from my iPhone or put them in my read/review folder to look at later.  For longer term links and blog posts (I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds), I tag items using Delicious.  This makes it easy to point someone else to something that I found or get to it from any computer.
• Josh was eager to learn this system, so I’ve been helping him set up his processes in Outlook, Evernote and RTM.  We added each other as contacts in RTM so we can send to-do items to each other.  We also promised to process our physical inboxes at home; I can trust that if I put something in Josh’s inbox, he will look at it within a day or two.  This has kept our kitchen island free of clutter because I can put mail and catalogs and such in his inbox.
• We also make it a practice to “invite” each other to important things on our calendar even if it doesn’t directly involve the other person so we’re aware of where the other one is.  We also have our calendars shared with each other so that we can see the other’s full calendar to see where they are and what they are doing.  That way, if Josh is scheduled to be in a meeting, then I don’t continually call his cell phone looking for him unless of course, it is an emergency.
• I have Evernote and RTM connected to my Twitter account.  I can send a DM to either and whatever I send is in my inbox for the next time I process my inboxes.

If you’re looking for a way to handle the demands of your job, juggling to-do items at home, and decluttering your mind, this book is a great place to start.  But, don’t it half way.  You really have to set up your system and commit to it, including regular review.

Top reasons I like and use Evernote:

1. It’s easy and convenient. Everything in one place.  Separated into notebooks, notes, tagged…  However I want to organize my info.
2. For those things that I choose to sync from my Mac to my web account, info is web accessible through a browser or my iPhone.
3. It is multi-platform: Mac, Windows, web browser, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.
4. It’s free.
5. While, I only use the free version right now because it meets my needs as of right now, but there is a paid version that allows more web storage space and some additional features.
6. I use Evernote for: work documents and note-taking, personal notes and ideas, storing copies of personal scanned personal paperwork, clippings from the web and my Google reader, and much more.
7. The list goes on…

I was inspired to share this tool when I read Guy Kawasaki’s 14 Practical Ways to use Evernote this morning.  Take a look at his tips.  (Note that some of the text scanning features that he mentions are paid, premium features.)  I’ve recommended it to several Southbrook staff members since I started using it about 6 months ago.

We had some great conversations with ACS about who we are at Southbrook, how we do things, and what can ACS improve to better serve us:

See the blog post from ACS regarding our visit.

*Photos taken by ACS.

Wow.  How can we ignore this movement and not use these tools?

At Southbrook, we’re using Facebook and Twitter for all church stuff.  We’re preparing to roll out campus specific Twitter accounts.  Our worship ministry uses Twitter.  Many of our staff are on Facebook and Twitter.

In VMWare Fusion, go to “Virtual Machine”.  Hold down “option” button and the shut down option will turn into power down.

Voila!  Problem solved and the virtual drive shut down.

A few background pieces and foundation for what I was working with…

• We are ACS OnDemand clients, which means that ACS houses our data on their servers and we access our data over the internet.  This set up that I was working on is for the Southbrook Monroe Campus.  That campus does not currently have internet access, though we hope to be able to install service there soon.
• Although Monroe does not have internet, there is a basic wireless network set up so we can transfer files and such.
• They have been using one desktop running ACS People in disconnected mode for children’s checkin.  If you know anything about ACS, don’t confuse this with Checkpoint Kiosk, which I didn’t even know existed until yesterday.  Checkpoint Kiosk only runs express checkin.  People in disconnected mode runs People with many fewer active options and allow us to run either express or regular checkin.
• At the end of the week, we create an export file from without ACS Checkpoint that is imported on the desktop at Monroe.  After service on Sunday, the file is exported from the desktop in Monroe and brought back to Weddington to sync with in OnDemand.

Here’s what I needed to accomplish…

• Add two computers for checkin.  Main purpose was for VBS next week, but the campus is growing quickly and it won’t be long before they could really use additional computers for checkin.
• All tree computers needed to be using the same data file to statistics were accurate in real-time and attendance reports could be printed for the classrooms.
• Set up a new Dymo label printer and if possible, allow two computers to use the same Dymo printer.

Obstacles

• Two of the three computers were set up for our domain at the Weddington campus, but without internet and access to the domain controller in Weddington, I couldn’t put the third on the domain.
• My beginner to intermediate knowledge of networking.

So, how did I make it all work?

• Connect all three to the wireless network.
• Create a Windows workgroup.  Take the two computers off the domain that had been previously set up on the domain.  Connect all three computers to the workgroup so they could easily share files and printers.
• Re-Install ACS People on the desktop.  This may not have been necessary but I wanted to make sure that everything was up to date and files were where they needed to be.
• Map drive x: on the two laptops to the ACSNET folder on the desktop.
• Install ACS People from the new drive x:.  This allows the program to be installed on the local machine, but all three computers are using the one data file on the desktop that is imported from the file that we bring over from OnDemand.
• Because all the computers are set up to share the printers, the two laptops that are next to each other are able to share a Dymo printer for printing name tags and parent security tags.  Any computer can print the attendance reports to the little Dell laser printer connected to the desktop, again, because all of the computers are set up to share printers.
• We will continue to do the export from OnDemand, import at Monroe, export from Monroe, sync to OnDemand until we have internet access.

There are probably some things that I could have done better or more professionally but …  Keep in mind that this is a temporary set up and I’m not an expert.  Take a look at my about me page – I’m not a formally trained IT person!  This all took me a good bit of planning (including a call to Megachuch Support at ACS) to make sure that I had all the files that I needed before leaving Weddington and about 4 hours on-site in Monroe to set-up.  I ran into a couple issues early on like the domain vs workgroup issue that added a good bit of time to the process.

What’s next?  When we add internet to the Monroe Campus, we’ll switch to using OnDemand and run Checkpoint with our live data like we do at the Southbrook Weddington Campus.

DC09: Kem Meyer Keynote from Fellowship Technologies on Vimeo.

Pastor Rob, I vary much injoyed finaly meeting you face to face this morrning at the men’s meeting. As I told you this morrning, I have been watching the vidio’s your church has put on line. That was how I frist came to know you. Its a great ministory keep it up and thank for your blog.

That’s confirmation from God that we’re making a difference.  We don’t regularly get signs like that, especially in the ministries that I work with, but I thank God for those rares times when we do and the encouragement that gives to take the next step forward when the vision seems crazy and way too big.