We have completed the first stage of our evaluation of the companies and products on our ChMS short list using the high-level criteria I posted a couple of days ago. Based on that evaluation, we have narrowed our choices to Fellowship One and Shelby Arena. Fellowship Technologies will be here Wednesday and Shelby Systems will be here Thursday to demo their products to our Evaluation Team.
Blackbaud took themselves out by not responding to our requests for information in a timely way. We're on a tight schedule and they simply didn't respond fast enough for us to evaluate them.
My visit to ACS was spectacular. They are a great company top to bottom, but their products aren't able to meet our needs right now. Based on a brief conversation with them, I'm pretty sure they would agree with that. If you're looking for a ChMS, you should definitely check them out. You won't find a more capable yet humble and gracious company. I'm grateful to have met Hal, Ben, Pattie, and others at ACS and to be able to call them friends, not to mention uber RoundTable buddy, Dean (you rock!).
I love Microsoft CRM as a platform. As with all Microsoft products, there's always a new version (4.0 in this case) just around the corner which always promises to be even better than what they have now. In all seriousness, it does appear that this is going to become a better and better option for churches in the coming years. The question for us is: what kind of solution can we actually buy and implement now?
The MSCRM platform has two competing church-specific solutions: Proclaim CRM from Ministry Management Solutions and ProVision CRM from The ACTS Group. We didn't have time to look closely at both products, so we started with ProVision. After a refreshingly candid conversation about our requirements and our time line, The ACTS Group withdrew from consideration. Some of the functionality we need is still in development, so they can't yet demonstrate a complete working solution for us. A year from now it would be a completely different situation, but we need to make our decision now based on functionality they can actually deliver now. Keep an eye on this because with Tony involved, you know it's going to be good.
As I said, we haven't taken a close look at Proclaim mainly because there are only so many hours in the day and you have to draw the line somewhere. If perchance we don't fall in love with Arena or Fellowship One, Bill Walker is just a phone call away.
And then there were two.
October 16, 2007
October 13, 2007
ChMS evaluation criteria
We are evaluating candidate ChMS systems on the following criteria:
1. The company. We expect to run the selected system for the next 5-10 years. Accordingly, we are looking for a great ChMS supplier that will meet Resurrection’s needs now and in the future. Has the company attracted and can it retain a great management team? Does it have a great reputation for product quality, timely delivery, and responsive customer support? Is it financially strong? Does it have a compelling product vision? Does it have healthy relationships with other companies and organizations in the ChMS market?
2. The technical platform. We are looking to minimize long-term platform risk by selecting a platform in the mainstream of technology that will adapt over the life of the system to as yet unknown future requirements. Further, we expect to integrate other applications and systems with the ChMS in configurations that may be unique to Resurrection. Accordingly, we are concerned about the technical aspects of integration like APIs and data exchange formats that will allow us to develop our own innovations. We prefer a product at the center of a vigorous marketplace of 3rd-party products, professional services, and so on.
3. Product functionality. We are looking for a rich, full-featured church management system that at minimum has an equivalent way to do everything we do now in Shelby V5 Church. Second, we need to achieve executive management’s project goals – to greatly improve our ability to track interactions with congregants particularly in adult discipleship and congregational care (CRM-type functionality) and to provide better reporting/graphing for decision support and tracking progress on annual church-wide objectives (management dashboard). And finally we’re looking as much as possible to address user desires uncovered during requirements gathering.
4. Product usability. We are looking for a system that is intuitive, elegant, consistent, discoverable, and requires minimum training for web-savvy users. Page layout and choice of controls should follow Microsoft user interface guidelines and other best practices in web user interface usability.
5. Project risk. We are looking to minimize the short-term risks associated with executing the project. Being averse to cost and schedule risks, we need to stay within the available budget and have a successful cutover by June 30, 2008 at the absolute latest. Additionally, we need to convert existing data to the new system with a high degree of confidence in data preservation. Finally, we need to feel very comfortable about the training and cutover plan to minimize user disruption and ensure widespread user adoption.
6. Cost. Our estimate of total cost of ownership over the first 3 years is the final consideration. We will not automatically select the least costly option. Rather, cost is one of the six factors affecting our decision. Naturally, if the cost is beyond our budgetary ability, then it would be decisive.
I'll post again soon about our finalists.
1. The company. We expect to run the selected system for the next 5-10 years. Accordingly, we are looking for a great ChMS supplier that will meet Resurrection’s needs now and in the future. Has the company attracted and can it retain a great management team? Does it have a great reputation for product quality, timely delivery, and responsive customer support? Is it financially strong? Does it have a compelling product vision? Does it have healthy relationships with other companies and organizations in the ChMS market?
2. The technical platform. We are looking to minimize long-term platform risk by selecting a platform in the mainstream of technology that will adapt over the life of the system to as yet unknown future requirements. Further, we expect to integrate other applications and systems with the ChMS in configurations that may be unique to Resurrection. Accordingly, we are concerned about the technical aspects of integration like APIs and data exchange formats that will allow us to develop our own innovations. We prefer a product at the center of a vigorous marketplace of 3rd-party products, professional services, and so on.
3. Product functionality. We are looking for a rich, full-featured church management system that at minimum has an equivalent way to do everything we do now in Shelby V5 Church. Second, we need to achieve executive management’s project goals – to greatly improve our ability to track interactions with congregants particularly in adult discipleship and congregational care (CRM-type functionality) and to provide better reporting/graphing for decision support and tracking progress on annual church-wide objectives (management dashboard). And finally we’re looking as much as possible to address user desires uncovered during requirements gathering.
4. Product usability. We are looking for a system that is intuitive, elegant, consistent, discoverable, and requires minimum training for web-savvy users. Page layout and choice of controls should follow Microsoft user interface guidelines and other best practices in web user interface usability.
5. Project risk. We are looking to minimize the short-term risks associated with executing the project. Being averse to cost and schedule risks, we need to stay within the available budget and have a successful cutover by June 30, 2008 at the absolute latest. Additionally, we need to convert existing data to the new system with a high degree of confidence in data preservation. Finally, we need to feel very comfortable about the training and cutover plan to minimize user disruption and ensure widespread user adoption.
6. Cost. Our estimate of total cost of ownership over the first 3 years is the final consideration. We will not automatically select the least costly option. Rather, cost is one of the six factors affecting our decision. Naturally, if the cost is beyond our budgetary ability, then it would be decisive.
I'll post again soon about our finalists.
More on social networking and the church
Two more things caught my eye in the last few days regarding social networking and the church.
First, Joe Suh of Digital Leadnet offered some thoughtful comments about how APIs for social networking sites will allow people to use many of them simultaneously. I've spoken about his previously, citing the thinking of Dave Winer that Twitter could become the de facto standard for sharing personal identity. (Remember when Microsoft tried to do this with Passport?)
Second, Robert Scoble did a video demo of Zude. The way the demo unfolds requires you to have a lot of patience. If you hang in there, after 10-15 minutes the power of Zude will start to become apparent. Zude is a social network like Facebook, etc. but it has a very powerful way for non-programmers to create, layout, and dress up their pages. More importantly, the demo shows how it allows for an extreme level of interoperability with other social networking systems. Also interesting is the fact that Zude is built on a web application framework and stack called Open5G that seems vaguely competitive with the much-heralded Ruby on Rails.
First, Joe Suh of Digital Leadnet offered some thoughtful comments about how APIs for social networking sites will allow people to use many of them simultaneously. I've spoken about his previously, citing the thinking of Dave Winer that Twitter could become the de facto standard for sharing personal identity. (Remember when Microsoft tried to do this with Passport?)
Second, Robert Scoble did a video demo of Zude. The way the demo unfolds requires you to have a lot of patience. If you hang in there, after 10-15 minutes the power of Zude will start to become apparent. Zude is a social network like Facebook, etc. but it has a very powerful way for non-programmers to create, layout, and dress up their pages. More importantly, the demo shows how it allows for an extreme level of interoperability with other social networking systems. Also interesting is the fact that Zude is built on a web application framework and stack called Open5G that seems vaguely competitive with the much-heralded Ruby on Rails.
October 11, 2007
Church Metrics
One church measurement I thought of while listening in on Brent's session at Leadership Institute was how much square footage of the church building is used by staff and storage, vs. outreach events, members, small groups, food storage, etc. All of Resurrection's building's compromise about 300,000 sq. ft. and we store a lot of operation materials off-site because we "don't have enough space."
I thought through how much "space" we have, and how little of it is used to run the church. I don't know the ratio, but I know it's heavily offset toward ministry, and against staff and storage. I think this is a good thing. ;)
I thought through how much "space" we have, and how little of it is used to run the church. I don't know the ratio, but I know it's heavily offset toward ministry, and against staff and storage. I think this is a good thing. ;)
A great blog on non-profit marketing
In the marketing section of my feed reader, along with Church Marketing Sucks, Kem Meyer, Seth Godin, and others, I have recently added Katya Andresen's blog, "Getting to the Point". Great stuff. For example, check out her recent post on Millennials and their social conscience. More food for thought about the Internet Campus.
Eric Busby's presentation
As promised, here is Eric Busby's presentation from last Thursday morning at the RoundTable. It includes links to all of the sites he mentioned.
We didn't have much time to process or discuss Eric's ideas last week. Perhaps we could do that here in the comments. What is your reaction to Eric's talk? How has it influenced your thinking?
We didn't have much time to process or discuss Eric's ideas last week. Perhaps we could do that here in the comments. What is your reaction to Eric's talk? How has it influenced your thinking?
Digital Leadnet
digital.leadnet.org is a valuable new resource. I find myself bookmarking several things a week. Check out:
Saving a Generation through MySpace
Technology Shaping Culture - the "Thumb Generation"
Reaching the Post-Congregational Christian
Teens Search Faith Online
I have been drawn to each of these posts as food for our thinking about a new Internet Campus at Resurrection.
Saving a Generation through MySpace
Technology Shaping Culture - the "Thumb Generation"
Reaching the Post-Congregational Christian
Teens Search Faith Online
I have been drawn to each of these posts as food for our thinking about a new Internet Campus at Resurrection.
October 09, 2007
The Ministry of Information Technology?
One of the topics that permeated both the Spring and Fall CITRT (Church IT RoundTable) events was whether Information Technology in the church is a ministry. For some, the answer to that was simply yes, while many seemed unsure, and a few others said no.
As I typed this post, I was sitting in a Q&A session with my boss, Clif Guy, and his boss, Brent Messick. Brent is the executive director over operations, one of two executive directors at Resurrection. We were there with a group of interested guests, who were visiting in connection with Leadership Institute, a leadership event Resurrection holds annually. Without my prompting, this topic came up! Brent mentioned that some people have asked if he considers operations a ministry. Brent restated his answer to us, "It is a ministry. Absolutely. I say that unabashedly!" He marked some obvious points of contact such as guest services or finance.
Here's how I've thought about it. If work roles that support ministry are inherently ministry, such as information technology roles, then where does ministry stop? Are the vendors who sell us equipment and supplies performing ministry? Without vendors we couldn't perform ministries the same way right? Banks. Are banks performing ministry when they assist finance to get invoices and salaries paid? Is supporting ministry inherently ministry too? Or is work a ministry only when it directly impacts the lives of people, such as discipleship and service? It seems to come down to the interpretation of ministry and where you draw the line.
October 06, 2007
RoundTable evaluation - please comment
Rather than having a paper evaluation form at the end of the RoundTable, we decided to take a cue from Tony and solicit your feedback right here on the blog for everyone to see.
Some of you have already given feedback on your own blogs. That's cool. It would be good to comment here too so Terrell (and Terry?) can read everything in one place.
If you were here in any capacity or for any portion of the event, please share your thoughts: good, bad, or indifferent. I have a thick skin, so don't spare my feelings. Better yet, make a specific, actionable suggestion to our next hosts.
If you don't feel comfortable posting here for everyone to see, e-mail me at clif.guy at cor.org.
I definitely benefited from all of the comments after the Sugar Creek RoundTable. Amy and I did everything possible in our planning to take that feedback into account. Let's give the same benefit to our next hosts.
Some of you have already given feedback on your own blogs. That's cool. It would be good to comment here too so Terrell (and Terry?) can read everything in one place.
If you were here in any capacity or for any portion of the event, please share your thoughts: good, bad, or indifferent. I have a thick skin, so don't spare my feelings. Better yet, make a specific, actionable suggestion to our next hosts.
If you don't feel comfortable posting here for everyone to see, e-mail me at clif.guy at cor.org.
I definitely benefited from all of the comments after the Sugar Creek RoundTable. Amy and I did everything possible in our planning to take that feedback into account. Let's give the same benefit to our next hosts.
What's next for CITRT?
Tony did a very nice job moderating our closing discussion on "CITRT: Where do we go from here?" Some conclusions:
1. When we get together in future, vendors will be invited and allowed to speak during the roundtable sessions. However, we strongly encourage vendors to send IT, engineering, product development, or consulting people - not sales people. We want to relate as peers with the upper managers who run the data centers, lead the software development, and manage the engineers. Regardless of title, we will start throwing things at vendors if they start getting "sales-y" and they won't be invited back. We know when we're being pitched, and it will make us very cranky! Also, when we're talking about a vendor or competitor, that's the time for them to just shut up, listen, and take a ton of notes. That seems fair enough. We absolutely require the ability to speak openly in our sessions without worrying if we're saying the wrong thing or hurting someone's feelings. As far as I'm concerned, people like Dean Lisenby, Curtis Simmons, and Nick Nicholaou (and others) have demonstrated that they understand our community and know how to be a vital and healthy part of it. Any vendor who patterns their behavior after those guys will be on very safe ground.
2. Our next CITRT will be in connection with MinistryTECH in April 2008. Can't wait!
3. We will plan on two national CITRT events per year - spring and fall. Budget accordingly. Plan to come to at least one of these events each year. If you have multiple staff, you can send some to one and some to the other in order to keep things running back at your home church while others are away at the RoundTable.
4. The CITRT events might be hooked on to other conferences (such as MinistryTECH), but they will be in churches, not convention centers or hotels. A big part of the experience for us is seeing and being in the host church. Let's not lose that.
5. Rather than starting yet more groups, associations, websites, etc., let's look for technical ways to aggregate and leverage existing structures (tagging, blogrolling, feed aggregating, etc.). Eric Busby's talk on Thursday morning spoke directly to that idea. I couldn't agree more. See also the thoughtful post from Jason Reynolds on this topic.
To those of you who honored us by coming to Church of the Resurrection, thank you. It meant more than you can know. God is in this my friends. Let's keep it going.
October 05, 2007
Truly a Blessing
Much like my friends at Resurrection, Clif, Ian, I was filled to overflowing by the opportunity and honor of serving, shepherding, and worshiping with our CITRT ministry partners. It was a blessing to me! There was no one thing during our time together that made the event; it was the event in whole. Being able to host all who attended brought me back to my core of being the servant, being the shepherd, doing everything I could to bless everyone's time and let God work through me. I think everyone on our team experienced scripture lived out. Isaiah 40:31 ;)
I just wanted to say a heartfelt thanks to all, and I'm eager to build new relationships, and continue to renew the existing.
I just wanted to say a heartfelt thanks to all, and I'm eager to build new relationships, and continue to renew the existing.
RoundTable posts
Here are all the Fall 2007 RoundTable-related posts I've found so far.
Tony Dye:
http://tonydye.typepad.com/main/2007/10/cor-citrt-pre-e.html
Andrew Mitry:
http://www.anchorite.org/blog/2007/10/03/pre-roundtable-at-cor/
http://www.anchorite.org/blog/2007/10/03/unity-in-the-body-of-christ/
http://www.anchorite.org/blog/2007/10/05/roundtable-roundup/
Jason Powell:
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/cor-senior-past.html
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/eric-busby-via-.html
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/cor-roundtable-.html
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/is-tony-live-or.html
Bryson Medlock:
http://www.bamed.org/2007/10/03/packing/
http://www.bamed.org/2007/10/03/not-your-usual-helpdesk-call/
http://www.bamed.org/2007/10/05/im-home/
Ian Beyer:
http://netplumber.blogspot.com/2007/10/recovering-from-citrt.html
Nick Nicholaou:
http://ministry-it.blogspot.com/2007/10/fall-church-it-roundtable.html
Jim Walton:
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/02/church-it-roundtable-starts-today/
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/02/citrt-day-1-pre-event/
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/03/opening-morning-session-citrt/
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/03/goodbye-citrt-hello-kci-and-beyond/
Justin Moore:
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/09/28/church-it-roundtable-kansas-city/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/03/pre-cit-rt/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/03/church-it-round-table-day-1/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/03/day-one-round-table-wrap-up/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/04/church-it-roundtable-id-system/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/05/roundtable-asterisk/
Jim Edwards:
http://itchurch.com/?p=112
Jason Reynolds:
http://churchcio.com/hello-to-everyone-at-the-church-it-roundtable
http://churchcio.com/two-church-it-roundtable-goodies
David Szpunar:
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/03/whew-im-not-jason/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/03/room-b-morning-discussion-notes/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/04/church-it-roundtable-pre-dinner-wednesday-recap-and-more/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/04/planet-citrt-aggregated-roundtable-feeds/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/05/on-my-way-back-and-thanks/
John Ventry:
http://johnventry.blogspot.com/2007/10/church-it-roundtable.html
http://johnventry.blogspot.com/2007/10/great-round-table.html
Andrew Conard:
http://thoughtsofresurrection.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/that-must-be-an-it-guy/
Mobile Ministry Magazine:
http://mobileministrymagazine.com/2007/10/church-it-roundtable-currently-underway.html
Me:
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/10/day-one-whew.html
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/10/thursday-opening-session.html
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/10/all-i-can-say-is-wow.html
Tony Dye:
http://tonydye.typepad.com/main/2007/10/cor-citrt-pre-e.html
Andrew Mitry:
http://www.anchorite.org/blog/2007/10/03/pre-roundtable-at-cor/
http://www.anchorite.org/blog/2007/10/03/unity-in-the-body-of-christ/
http://www.anchorite.org/blog/2007/10/05/roundtable-roundup/
Jason Powell:
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/cor-senior-past.html
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/eric-busby-via-.html
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/cor-roundtable-.html
http://www.jasonpowell.net/jason_powell_church_it/2007/10/is-tony-live-or.html
Bryson Medlock:
http://www.bamed.org/2007/10/03/packing/
http://www.bamed.org/2007/10/03/not-your-usual-helpdesk-call/
http://www.bamed.org/2007/10/05/im-home/
Ian Beyer:
http://netplumber.blogspot.com/2007/10/recovering-from-citrt.html
Nick Nicholaou:
http://ministry-it.blogspot.com/2007/10/fall-church-it-roundtable.html
Jim Walton:
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/02/church-it-roundtable-starts-today/
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/02/citrt-day-1-pre-event/
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/03/opening-morning-session-citrt/
http://churchtechmatters.com/2007/10/03/goodbye-citrt-hello-kci-and-beyond/
Justin Moore:
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/09/28/church-it-roundtable-kansas-city/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/03/pre-cit-rt/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/03/church-it-round-table-day-1/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/03/day-one-round-table-wrap-up/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/04/church-it-roundtable-id-system/
http://www.wantmoore.com/blog/archives/2007/10/05/roundtable-asterisk/
Jim Edwards:
http://itchurch.com/?p=112
Jason Reynolds:
http://churchcio.com/hello-to-everyone-at-the-church-it-roundtable
http://churchcio.com/two-church-it-roundtable-goodies
David Szpunar:
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/03/whew-im-not-jason/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/03/room-b-morning-discussion-notes/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/04/church-it-roundtable-pre-dinner-wednesday-recap-and-more/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/04/planet-citrt-aggregated-roundtable-feeds/
http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2007/10/05/on-my-way-back-and-thanks/
John Ventry:
http://johnventry.blogspot.com/2007/10/church-it-roundtable.html
http://johnventry.blogspot.com/2007/10/great-round-table.html
Andrew Conard:
http://thoughtsofresurrection.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/that-must-be-an-it-guy/
Mobile Ministry Magazine:
http://mobileministrymagazine.com/2007/10/church-it-roundtable-currently-underway.html
Me:
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/10/day-one-whew.html
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/10/thursday-opening-session.html
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/10/all-i-can-say-is-wow.html
October 04, 2007
All I can say is, "wow!"
An open letter to all Fall 2007 Church IT RoundTable attendees:
When people started responding to my RoundTable invitation, it wasn't long before I realized it was going to be "off the hook!" Little did I know.
My friends, the last three days go down as the #1 highlight of my ministry at Resurrection so far. And YOU did it. All it took was for you to gather at our place. That's it. I honestly believe the planning doesn't matter much because the Holy Spirit shows up, is evident in your lives and on your faces, and gets everyone else fired up. It's a positive feedback loop. The more pumped you are, the more pumped everyone else is. Wow!
Remember when I said one of our three main purposes for this RoundTable was inspiration? In the planning for this event, I was very conscious that we needed to create opportunities for inspiration to happen. I hoped, planned, and prayed that YOU would be inspired, but oddly, I didn't expect ME to be the one inspired. Our great God had other ideas in mind. I ended up being inspired - not by any particular content, session, or moment - just by being with all of you.
Only upon reflection this evening did I fully confront the fact that I've been considering quitting. I don't know how long God will continue to call me to serve in my current capacity, but I'll tell you right now that I'm not quitting. Tonight I have rededicated myself to the work God has set before me. Why? Because the Holy Spirit, working through you in some kind of mysterious way that none of us can understand or articulate, has reignited my passion for this work. Thank you. You have been an immeasurable blessing to me.
MinistryTECH won't come soon enough ...
When people started responding to my RoundTable invitation, it wasn't long before I realized it was going to be "off the hook!" Little did I know.
My friends, the last three days go down as the #1 highlight of my ministry at Resurrection so far. And YOU did it. All it took was for you to gather at our place. That's it. I honestly believe the planning doesn't matter much because the Holy Spirit shows up, is evident in your lives and on your faces, and gets everyone else fired up. It's a positive feedback loop. The more pumped you are, the more pumped everyone else is. Wow!
Remember when I said one of our three main purposes for this RoundTable was inspiration? In the planning for this event, I was very conscious that we needed to create opportunities for inspiration to happen. I hoped, planned, and prayed that YOU would be inspired, but oddly, I didn't expect ME to be the one inspired. Our great God had other ideas in mind. I ended up being inspired - not by any particular content, session, or moment - just by being with all of you.
Only upon reflection this evening did I fully confront the fact that I've been considering quitting. I don't know how long God will continue to call me to serve in my current capacity, but I'll tell you right now that I'm not quitting. Tonight I have rededicated myself to the work God has set before me. Why? Because the Holy Spirit, working through you in some kind of mysterious way that none of us can understand or articulate, has reignited my passion for this work. Thank you. You have been an immeasurable blessing to me.
MinistryTECH won't come soon enough ...
Thursday opening session
Did I hear correctly that this man might be presenting to the opening session Thursday morning? Cool!
October 03, 2007
Day One - Whew!
OK, so the Adobe Connect webcam thing at the RoundTable didn't work, but at least not because we weren't prepared. In this case, the cause was something we couldn't have known in advance. Turns out that 60 users simultaneously in Adobe Connect sessions by themselves chew approx. 1.5 Mb/s. When you try to add 4 webcams to that over a pair of T1s, it's all over, baby. (See Justin Moore's good-natured ribbing about our bandwidth quality!) So now we know. By the way, it totally slammed Internet access for our staff as well, and they were a bit cranky about it. ;-)
Second issue, even if the technology had worked, my "touch point" idea might very well not have worked anyway. Turns out getting everyone to stop at the same time and interact with the other rooms is a cat-herding exercise.
On the plus-side, the rooms are small enough to have really great conversation. My group in Room A has been outstanding. I'm thinking this breaking-up-into-groups idea is generally on the right track. Also, I think it was good to collect topics in advance and have all rooms generally discussing the same themes and topics at the same time. Even though we can't see/hear the specifics in the other room, there is something cool about knowing they're all having similar discussions. That simple fact has created a shared experience in an unexpected way.
Tomorrow we're going to try to get everyone in one big Connect meeting, spanning across all the rooms. Not sure if UMCOM has a room big enough to hold all of us simultaneously, but we'll see. Thanks for your flexibility.
The banquet and worship tonight were, for me, exactly what I needed at that moment. I hope most of the attendees had the same reaction.
Our own Matt Bradshaw built a cool web application that generates a web page from a list of feeds and auto-refreshes. We have dropped in feeds from people at the conference we know are blogging. Check it out at http://bitshepherd.com/planet/citrt/.
Overall, I've had a great day and I'm thankful to all of you who have come to be a part of it. Day 2 is tomorrow. Geeks for Jesus!
Second issue, even if the technology had worked, my "touch point" idea might very well not have worked anyway. Turns out getting everyone to stop at the same time and interact with the other rooms is a cat-herding exercise.
On the plus-side, the rooms are small enough to have really great conversation. My group in Room A has been outstanding. I'm thinking this breaking-up-into-groups idea is generally on the right track. Also, I think it was good to collect topics in advance and have all rooms generally discussing the same themes and topics at the same time. Even though we can't see/hear the specifics in the other room, there is something cool about knowing they're all having similar discussions. That simple fact has created a shared experience in an unexpected way.
Tomorrow we're going to try to get everyone in one big Connect meeting, spanning across all the rooms. Not sure if UMCOM has a room big enough to hold all of us simultaneously, but we'll see. Thanks for your flexibility.
The banquet and worship tonight were, for me, exactly what I needed at that moment. I hope most of the attendees had the same reaction.
Our own Matt Bradshaw built a cool web application that generates a web page from a list of feeds and auto-refreshes. We have dropped in feeds from people at the conference we know are blogging. Check it out at http://bitshepherd.com/planet/citrt/.
Overall, I've had a great day and I'm thankful to all of you who have come to be a part of it. Day 2 is tomorrow. Geeks for Jesus!
Andrew is the Asterisk man!
If you want to know about the Asterisk open-source phone system, ask Andrew Mitry. Amazing stuff.
October 02, 2007
Jason's survey is still down
If you've been trying to comply with my request to fill out Jason's survey but have been unable, it's because Zoho is down. This is outside of Jason's control. (He's sorry.) Please keep trying. Maybe they'll be back up soon???
Who is coming to the RoundTable?
Churches:
Asbury United Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, MN
Christ Fellowship Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, KS
Churches in Covenant, Carrollton, TX
College Heights Christian Church, Joplin, MO
Crestview Baptist Church
First Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA
First Baptist Raytown, Raytown, MO
First Presbyterian Church, Bellevue, WA
First United Methodist Church, Wichita, KS
Grace Covenant Church, Cornelius, NC
Granger Community Church, Granger, IN
Indian Creek Community Church, Olathe, KS
Kansas City Baptist Temple, Raytown, MO
Lakeview Church, Indianapolis, IN
Lincoln Berean Church, Lincoln, NE
Living Word Lutheran Church, Grapevine, TX
Northwoods Community Church, Peoria, IL
Perimeter Church, Duluth, GA
Pinelake Church, Brandon, MS
Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, Liberty, MO
Rhema Bible Church, Tulsa, OK
Seacoast Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC
Sheffield Family Life Center, Kansas City, MO
St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Fairfax, VA
St. Michael the Archangel, Leawood, KS
West Side Christian Church, Springfield, IL
Westbrooke Church, Shawnee Mission, KS
Other:
Christian Computing Magazine, Belton, MO
The IT Roundtable, Dallas, TX
MinistryTECH.org, Edmond, OK
Trinity Technology for Ministry, Kansas City, MO
Vendors:
ACS Technologies, Florence, SC
C&M Support Services & Consulting, Elkhart, IN
Circle Builder, Santa Monica, CA
Fellowship Technologies, Irving, TX
iBiz Initiatives, Lenexa, KS
MBS, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA
Ministry Management Solutions, Orange Park, FL
Shelby Systems, Cordova, TN
The ACTS Group, Houston, TX
United Methodist Communications, Nashville, TN
Asbury United Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, MN
Christ Fellowship Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, KS
Churches in Covenant, Carrollton, TX
College Heights Christian Church, Joplin, MO
Crestview Baptist Church
First Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA
First Baptist Raytown, Raytown, MO
First Presbyterian Church, Bellevue, WA
First United Methodist Church, Wichita, KS
Grace Covenant Church, Cornelius, NC
Granger Community Church, Granger, IN
Indian Creek Community Church, Olathe, KS
Kansas City Baptist Temple, Raytown, MO
Lakeview Church, Indianapolis, IN
Lincoln Berean Church, Lincoln, NE
Living Word Lutheran Church, Grapevine, TX
Northwoods Community Church, Peoria, IL
Perimeter Church, Duluth, GA
Pinelake Church, Brandon, MS
Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, Liberty, MO
Rhema Bible Church, Tulsa, OK
Seacoast Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC
Sheffield Family Life Center, Kansas City, MO
St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Fairfax, VA
St. Michael the Archangel, Leawood, KS
West Side Christian Church, Springfield, IL
Westbrooke Church, Shawnee Mission, KS
Other:
Christian Computing Magazine, Belton, MO
The IT Roundtable, Dallas, TX
MinistryTECH.org, Edmond, OK
Trinity Technology for Ministry, Kansas City, MO
Vendors:
ACS Technologies, Florence, SC
C&M Support Services & Consulting, Elkhart, IN
Circle Builder, Santa Monica, CA
Fellowship Technologies, Irving, TX
iBiz Initiatives, Lenexa, KS
MBS, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA
Ministry Management Solutions, Orange Park, FL
Shelby Systems, Cordova, TN
The ACTS Group, Houston, TX
United Methodist Communications, Nashville, TN
October 01, 2007
Instructions for using Connect at the RoundTable
If you don't want the background, jump to the bullet points below. If you do want the background, here goes ...
You may recall that after the last RoundTable in Houston there was general agreement that our growing group needs to include more people, but at the same time keep it small so that we can continue to enjoy full participation of every attendee around a table. This presents a paradox. Perhaps even a conundrum!
How we’re going to include more people and keep it small
For this RoundTable we’re going to beta test my idea to address the aforementioned conundrum. We’re going to break the 60+ attendees into four separate rooms of approximately 15 people each. In order to allow interaction between the rooms, we will have “touch points” during the sessions where we will be able to pose questions to attendees in other rooms and see/hear them responding.
The technology we’re using for this is Adobe Connect, generously provided by UMCOM Tech Shop. This will be a brave experiment that could fail spectacularly, or possibly be cool. If it works, Woo Hoo! If it proves to be cumbersome or we have technical or facilitation problems, we can always punt. With everyone's input, we hope to devise a way for future meetings to keep it small for the best possible info exchange, to continue to include more people, and to allow at least the possibility of having a national meeting by linking multiple regional sites (an idea inspired by the Willow Creek Leadership Summit).
Since we’re using Connect to provide the A/V link among the four rooms, we figured it would be cool to use it to enhance the experience within each room too. Each participant will join an Adobe Connect meeting that includes the other people in the same room. That Connect session will be displayed on the projector in that room. Any participant can become a presenter in Connect, allowing them to demo, explain, or illustrate something by showing web sites, applications, etc. on the projector. Is that clear as mud? Even if you don't understand the explanation, hopefully it will make sense once you see it.
Adobe Connect is an online meeting tool that will help us:
* more effectively exchange information in each room
* simulate a distributed RoundTable with meeting rooms in different cities
Connect requirements:
* Mac (any OS; Safari 2.x)
* Windows (XP/SP2 or Vista; IE6 or later, or Netscape/Firefox)
* Adobe Flash Player
* a broadband connection
* cookies enabled
To use Connect:
1. Set your screen resolution to 1024x768 (so if you present, your screen will match the projector's resolution).
2. Download and install the presenter client:
* Windows: https://admin.acrobat.com/common/addin/setup.exe
* Mac: https://admin.acrobat.com/common/addin/AcrobatConnectAddin.z
* Alternate: http://www.cor.org/Information_Technology.41.0.html
3. Test Connect by going to the Chat Lobby at this URL:
* http://umc.acrobat.com/chatlobby
* Login convention: (1stname).(Lastname) - (church initials) (for example: Clif.Guy-COR)
4. After a successful test, you’re ready to go to your assigned room and join the meeting for that room:
* Room A - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtablea
* Room B - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtableb
* Room C - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtablec
* Room D - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtabled
5. Once you log in, Connect will set a cookie. It's a good idea to add a bookmark so you can quickly re-enter your meeting room the next day.
You may recall that after the last RoundTable in Houston there was general agreement that our growing group needs to include more people, but at the same time keep it small so that we can continue to enjoy full participation of every attendee around a table. This presents a paradox. Perhaps even a conundrum!
How we’re going to include more people and keep it small
For this RoundTable we’re going to beta test my idea to address the aforementioned conundrum. We’re going to break the 60+ attendees into four separate rooms of approximately 15 people each. In order to allow interaction between the rooms, we will have “touch points” during the sessions where we will be able to pose questions to attendees in other rooms and see/hear them responding.
The technology we’re using for this is Adobe Connect, generously provided by UMCOM Tech Shop. This will be a brave experiment that could fail spectacularly, or possibly be cool. If it works, Woo Hoo! If it proves to be cumbersome or we have technical or facilitation problems, we can always punt. With everyone's input, we hope to devise a way for future meetings to keep it small for the best possible info exchange, to continue to include more people, and to allow at least the possibility of having a national meeting by linking multiple regional sites (an idea inspired by the Willow Creek Leadership Summit).
Since we’re using Connect to provide the A/V link among the four rooms, we figured it would be cool to use it to enhance the experience within each room too. Each participant will join an Adobe Connect meeting that includes the other people in the same room. That Connect session will be displayed on the projector in that room. Any participant can become a presenter in Connect, allowing them to demo, explain, or illustrate something by showing web sites, applications, etc. on the projector. Is that clear as mud? Even if you don't understand the explanation, hopefully it will make sense once you see it.
Adobe Connect is an online meeting tool that will help us:
* more effectively exchange information in each room
* simulate a distributed RoundTable with meeting rooms in different cities
Connect requirements:
* Mac (any OS; Safari 2.x)
* Windows (XP/SP2 or Vista; IE6 or later, or Netscape/Firefox)
* Adobe Flash Player
* a broadband connection
* cookies enabled
To use Connect:
1. Set your screen resolution to 1024x768 (so if you present, your screen will match the projector's resolution).
2. Download and install the presenter client:
* Windows: https://admin.acrobat.com/common/addin/setup.exe
* Mac: https://admin.acrobat.com/common/addin/AcrobatConnectAddin.z
* Alternate: http://www.cor.org/Information_Technology.41.0.html
3. Test Connect by going to the Chat Lobby at this URL:
* http://umc.acrobat.com/chatlobby
* Login convention: (1stname).(Lastname) - (church initials) (for example: Clif.Guy-COR)
4. After a successful test, you’re ready to go to your assigned room and join the meeting for that room:
* Room A - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtablea
* Room B - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtableb
* Room C - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtablec
* Room D - http://umc.acrobat.com/itroundtabled
5. Once you log in, Connect will set a cookie. It's a good idea to add a bookmark so you can quickly re-enter your meeting room the next day.
September 30, 2007
Planter in residence
Speaking of renewal strategies, I think Mark Batterson's idea about a "church planter in residence" program is right on the money. We need a good way to use our resources to support church planters and make them more effective.
Mainline renewal
One of Church of the Resurrection's three primary visions is renewing the mainline church. For those of you who have never heard the term "mainline" it generally refers to long-established denominations with moderate theology. It includes the following seven denominations and others like them: Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and American Baptist.
These denominations, including Methodist, have been declining since the 1960s. When you take a hard look at the numbers, it's depressing. Of the mainline denominations, the largest is Methodist. And Resurrection is among the largest Methodist congregations. So we have a special heart for these denominations and their congregations. We long to see them remember their calling, reverse their decline, and return to missional effectiveness.
My wife is a Disciples of Christ (DOC) church planter. Because of that, I'm privileged to see the DOC's 6 year-old church planting initiative from the inside. This initiative has been very effective, to the point that it's starting to have a real, positive impact denomination-wide. A few years ago I was personally involved in efforts to revitalize a 60 year-old DOC church. Let me tell you, that was difficult work and it produced only minimal fruit. While church planting is very, very challenging, the DOC experience suggests it is a better strategy for denominational renewal than any program I've seen for revitalizing existing congregations.
Up to now, Resurrection's primary mainline renewal effort has been our conferencing ministry. We hold one main conference each year, Leadership Institute, and host a number of other conferences for the Methodist denomination and other mainline groups such as the Beeson Institute of Asbury Seminary. This is a great ministry and I'm certain it has produced some excellent fruit, yet it seems to me that church planting will be even more important in fulfilling our mainline renewal vision.
Last year, we began by starting our first satellite campus, Resurrection West. Just a few weeks ago, our senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, asked me to start working on plans for an Internet Campus for Resurrection, as one of several other satellite campus locations we are planning. I'm very excited about this, but I also recognize a number of huge challenges. I'll continue to post and, no doubt, ask questions as we work through the issues. Any of you with experience doing an Internet campus, let me know. I'm very interested to hear your strategy and how it's going.
These denominations, including Methodist, have been declining since the 1960s. When you take a hard look at the numbers, it's depressing. Of the mainline denominations, the largest is Methodist. And Resurrection is among the largest Methodist congregations. So we have a special heart for these denominations and their congregations. We long to see them remember their calling, reverse their decline, and return to missional effectiveness.
My wife is a Disciples of Christ (DOC) church planter. Because of that, I'm privileged to see the DOC's 6 year-old church planting initiative from the inside. This initiative has been very effective, to the point that it's starting to have a real, positive impact denomination-wide. A few years ago I was personally involved in efforts to revitalize a 60 year-old DOC church. Let me tell you, that was difficult work and it produced only minimal fruit. While church planting is very, very challenging, the DOC experience suggests it is a better strategy for denominational renewal than any program I've seen for revitalizing existing congregations.
Up to now, Resurrection's primary mainline renewal effort has been our conferencing ministry. We hold one main conference each year, Leadership Institute, and host a number of other conferences for the Methodist denomination and other mainline groups such as the Beeson Institute of Asbury Seminary. This is a great ministry and I'm certain it has produced some excellent fruit, yet it seems to me that church planting will be even more important in fulfilling our mainline renewal vision.
Last year, we began by starting our first satellite campus, Resurrection West. Just a few weeks ago, our senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, asked me to start working on plans for an Internet Campus for Resurrection, as one of several other satellite campus locations we are planning. I'm very excited about this, but I also recognize a number of huge challenges. I'll continue to post and, no doubt, ask questions as we work through the issues. Any of you with experience doing an Internet campus, let me know. I'm very interested to hear your strategy and how it's going.
September 29, 2007
Tuesday plans
Many of you coming to the RoundTable from outside the Kansas City area will be arriving through the day on Tuesday. If you're making plans for what to do when you arrive, here are some things to consider ...
Check in time for both conference hotels is 3:00 pm. If your arriving early afternoon, you can go to your hotel, check-in and then come to the church. Our official welcome starts at 3:30, followed by a campus tour around 4:30.
If you are arriving earlier in the day, you're welcome to come hang out at the church. Be aware though that in addition to the RoundTable, we're hosting our biggest conference of the year next week. So if you come early, expect us to put you to work!
If you are arriving too late to make the tour, we're having dinner at a restaurant close to the church at 7:00 pm. You can go straight there and join us.
Sunset Grill
14577 Metcalf Ave
Overland Park, KS 66223
Google map is here
Call my cell at 913-642-1875 if you get lost!
Check in time for both conference hotels is 3:00 pm. If your arriving early afternoon, you can go to your hotel, check-in and then come to the church. Our official welcome starts at 3:30, followed by a campus tour around 4:30.
If you are arriving earlier in the day, you're welcome to come hang out at the church. Be aware though that in addition to the RoundTable, we're hosting our biggest conference of the year next week. So if you come early, expect us to put you to work!
If you are arriving too late to make the tour, we're having dinner at a restaurant close to the church at 7:00 pm. You can go straight there and join us.
Sunset Grill
14577 Metcalf Ave
Overland Park, KS 66223
Google map is here
Call my cell at 913-642-1875 if you get lost!
Transportation needs
If any of you coming to the RoundTable could help with the following transportation needs, please post a comment and we'll hook you up. Thanks!
Andrew Lang needs a ride back to the airport. His flight leaves Thursday night at 7:40 pm (will need to leave the church around 5:45 pm to make it in time).
David Szpunar needs a ride to the church from the airport. His flight arrives Tuesday morning at 8:20 am.
David Szpunar needs a ride back to the airport. His flight leaves Friday morning at 9:00 am (will need to leave the hotel around 7:00 am to make it in time).
Andrew Lang needs a ride back to the airport. His flight leaves Thursday night at 7:40 pm (will need to leave the church around 5:45 pm to make it in time).
David Szpunar needs a ride to the church from the airport. His flight arrives Tuesday morning at 8:20 am.
David Szpunar needs a ride back to the airport. His flight leaves Friday morning at 9:00 am (will need to leave the hotel around 7:00 am to make it in time).
September 27, 2007
RoundTable sponsors
We would like to gratefully acknowledge our Fall 2007 RoundTable sponsors: ACS Technologies, The ACTS Group, Fellowship Technologies, and Shelby Systems. Their generous support has allowed us to cover all conference expenses including all meals while keeping the registration fee to only $34. When you see them, please express your appreciation. We couldn't do this event without them.
Help Jason with his presentation!
Can you hep a brotha out? Jason Powell will be presenting at the RoundTable on the survey data he has gathered from church IT departments around the country. This will be a very informative session that will allow you to benchmark your church's IT operation against those of many churches of different sizes, locations, ages, denominations, and budgets. But to do that, he needs all of you to fill out the survey (especially those of you coming to the RoundTable).
So please, right now, go to http://creator.zoho.com/gccjason/page/1/ and follow the directions from there. This data is going to be very helpful for all of us and will definitely help Jason with his presentation!
So please, right now, go to http://creator.zoho.com/gccjason/page/1/ and follow the directions from there. This data is going to be very helpful for all of us and will definitely help Jason with his presentation!
RoundTable schedule
Here is the schedule for the RoundTable next week.
Tuesday, Oct. 2 - Pre-RoundTable
3:30 PM Registration open - welcome and refreshments
4:15 PM Resurrection IT overview
4:30 PM Facility/IT tour
7:00 PM Sponsored restaurant dinner (optional)
Wednesday, Oct. 3 - RoundTable Day 1
8:30 AM Registration open - welcome and coffee
9:00 AM Large group opening session - explanation and instructions
9:45 AM Break
10:00 AM Roundtable session 1
12:15 PM Lunch (sponsored)
1:30 PM Roundtable session 2
3:45 PM Break
4:15 PM Large group session 2 - Q&A with Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor
5:00 PM Video - Leadership: An Art of Possibility
5:30 PM Break
6:00 PM Sponsored banquet
7:00 PM Worship
8:00 PM Hang out time until 11:00 pm
Thursday, Oct. 4 - RoundTable Day 2
8:30 AM Gathering and coffee
9:00 AM Large group session 3 - Jason Powell
9:45 AM Break
10:00 AM Roundtable session 3
11:45 AM Lunch (sponsored)
1:00 PM Topic Bazaar
3:30 PM Break
4:00 PM Large group closing session - Tony Dye
5:30 PM Sponsored restaurant dinner (optional)
7:00 PM Worship concert (optional)
Friday, Oct. 5 - Leadership Institute Day 1
Saturday, Oct. 6 - Leadership Institute Day 2
Tuesday, Oct. 2 - Pre-RoundTable
3:30 PM Registration open - welcome and refreshments
4:15 PM Resurrection IT overview
4:30 PM Facility/IT tour
7:00 PM Sponsored restaurant dinner (optional)
Wednesday, Oct. 3 - RoundTable Day 1
8:30 AM Registration open - welcome and coffee
9:00 AM Large group opening session - explanation and instructions
9:45 AM Break
10:00 AM Roundtable session 1
12:15 PM Lunch (sponsored)
1:30 PM Roundtable session 2
3:45 PM Break
4:15 PM Large group session 2 - Q&A with Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor
5:00 PM Video - Leadership: An Art of Possibility
5:30 PM Break
6:00 PM Sponsored banquet
7:00 PM Worship
8:00 PM Hang out time until 11:00 pm
Thursday, Oct. 4 - RoundTable Day 2
8:30 AM Gathering and coffee
9:00 AM Large group session 3 - Jason Powell
9:45 AM Break
10:00 AM Roundtable session 3
11:45 AM Lunch (sponsored)
1:00 PM Topic Bazaar
3:30 PM Break
4:00 PM Large group closing session - Tony Dye
5:30 PM Sponsored restaurant dinner (optional)
7:00 PM Worship concert (optional)
Friday, Oct. 5 - Leadership Institute Day 1
Saturday, Oct. 6 - Leadership Institute Day 2
Wednesday night at the RoundTable
We have planned a very special experience for Wednesday evening at the RoundTable. It will be an oasis of quiet meditation and prayer in the middle of an otherwise brain-overloaded event. Personally, of everything we've planned, I'm looking forward to Wednesday evening the most.
We will begin with a candlelit banquet of the best barbecue in Kansas City. Then the band from my wife's church, Fusion 112, will lead us in a time of intense, unplugged worship. We have chosen songs that many of you will know and are easy to learn if you don't know them. My wife, Laura, will then bring a message based on 1 Sam 17:38-39 about David not being comfortable in Saul's armor. It will be powerful and inspiring. After that we will share communion and have an opportunity to pray with each other and linger as long as we like. Nothing will be hurried or rushed.
It will be a time to pause, to remember who we are and whose we are, to forge deeper bonds with our church IT brothers and sisters, and to make sure the main thing is the main thing. I can't wait!
We will begin with a candlelit banquet of the best barbecue in Kansas City. Then the band from my wife's church, Fusion 112, will lead us in a time of intense, unplugged worship. We have chosen songs that many of you will know and are easy to learn if you don't know them. My wife, Laura, will then bring a message based on 1 Sam 17:38-39 about David not being comfortable in Saul's armor. It will be powerful and inspiring. After that we will share communion and have an opportunity to pray with each other and linger as long as we like. Nothing will be hurried or rushed.
It will be a time to pause, to remember who we are and whose we are, to forge deeper bonds with our church IT brothers and sisters, and to make sure the main thing is the main thing. I can't wait!
September 22, 2007
ChMS selection goals
As we go through our NextGen ChMS project, I find myself torn by the competing demands of multiple important goals:
- Speak openly and candidly about my thoughts on ChMS (church management systems) in an effort to help my fellow church IT leaders and the ChMS suppliers.
- Build up the competing suppliers, treat all of them with respect, and ultimately bless them whether or not they sell us anything.
- Thoroughly examine and give careful consideration to each of the suppliers on our short list.
- Avoid wasting anyone’s time, insofar as that is possible.
- Ensure that our user community doesn’t lose any important functionality they now rely upon in Shelby V5 Church.
- Achieve executive management’s desired result – to greatly improve our ability to track interactions with congregants (CRM-type functionality) and to provide better reporting/graphing for decision support (management dashboard).
- Obtain as much “wish list” functionality as possible.
- Stay within my established budget and time line.
- Select a great company with great technology, products, and support that we can stick with for the next 5-10 years.
September 21, 2007
Thanks Hal, Ben, Robin, Dean, Pattie, Steve, and ... everyone!
I'm back in the Charlotte airport on my way home after spending last night and today with the senior management team of ACS Technologies. I mentioned that I was having dinner with Robin and Ben last night. I didn't know that Hal Campbell, President of ACS would also be joining us. Hal is a humble man who has built an outstanding company. The restaurant was a bit loud but the food was good and the conversation was excellent. It was a fun way to begin a relationship with them.
Robin is VERY well organized. She took care of all of the details of our meeting today, which included the same people from last night as well as RoundTable buddy Dean Lisenby, Pattie White, Steve Cumbia, Cindy Street and several others.
I'm glad I corrected my previous error and put ACS on our short list. We talked for more than 7 hours and never once did a product demo - my kind of meeting! I was very favorably impressed by the company. Like my meetings with Shelby and Fellowship Technologies last year, I quite appreciated the openness of the exchange. They graciously allowed me to challenge them as though we had been friends for years. Better yet, they challenged me back with some clear-headed responses. That's cool!
Pattie did wonder aloud if I might be high maintenance. My wife might affirm that speculation, I fear. ;-) Patti's concern was whether I would allow my dissatisfaction with the structure of the ChMS marketplace to stand in the way of making progress on Resurrection's real needs right now. I assured her that Resurrection's here-and-now concerns were very much on my mind, otherwise I would not have made the trip. That said, when I have the attention of the top management of the top company in the market, I won't be shy to cast a vision of a future different from present reality. And I might choose to go another direction if I think it is more likely to get Resurrection to my preferred future more quickly. Did I mention this would be a tough decision?
I'm grateful to say I now have a bunch of smart friends in Florence, South Carolina, whether or not Resurrection becomes their customer. I have Florence on my mind ...
Robin is VERY well organized. She took care of all of the details of our meeting today, which included the same people from last night as well as RoundTable buddy Dean Lisenby, Pattie White, Steve Cumbia, Cindy Street and several others.
I'm glad I corrected my previous error and put ACS on our short list. We talked for more than 7 hours and never once did a product demo - my kind of meeting! I was very favorably impressed by the company. Like my meetings with Shelby and Fellowship Technologies last year, I quite appreciated the openness of the exchange. They graciously allowed me to challenge them as though we had been friends for years. Better yet, they challenged me back with some clear-headed responses. That's cool!
Pattie did wonder aloud if I might be high maintenance. My wife might affirm that speculation, I fear. ;-) Patti's concern was whether I would allow my dissatisfaction with the structure of the ChMS marketplace to stand in the way of making progress on Resurrection's real needs right now. I assured her that Resurrection's here-and-now concerns were very much on my mind, otherwise I would not have made the trip. That said, when I have the attention of the top management of the top company in the market, I won't be shy to cast a vision of a future different from present reality. And I might choose to go another direction if I think it is more likely to get Resurrection to my preferred future more quickly. Did I mention this would be a tough decision?
I'm grateful to say I now have a bunch of smart friends in Florence, South Carolina, whether or not Resurrection becomes their customer. I have Florence on my mind ...
September 20, 2007
Who is coming?
So far we have a total of 60 people from the following organizations registered for the RoundTable.
Churches:
Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, KS
Asbury United Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, MN
Christ Fellowship Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Churches in Covenant, Carrollton, TX
College Heights Christian Church, Joplin, MO
First Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA
First Baptist Raytown, Raytown, MO
First Presbyterian Church, Bellevue, WA
First United Methodist Church, Wichita, KS
Grace Covenant Church, Cornelius, NC
Granger Community Church, Granger, IN
Indian Creek Community Church, Olathe, KS
Lakeview Church, Indianapolis, IN
Lincoln Berean Church, Lincoln, NE
Living Word Lutheran Church, Grapevine, TX
Northwoods Community Church, Peoria, IL
Perimeter Church, Duluth, GA
Pinelake Church, Brandon, MS
Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, Liberty, MO
Seacoast Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC
Sheffield Family Life Center, Kansas City, MO
St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Fairfax, VA
St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, Leawood, KS
West Side Christian Church, Springfield, IL
Westbrooke Church, Shawnee Mission, KS
Vendors:
ACS Technologies, Florence, SC
Circle Builder, Santa Monica, CA
Fellowship Technologies, Irving, TX
iBiz Initiatives, Lenexa, KS
MBS, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA
Ministry Management Solutions, Orange Park, FL
Shelby Systems, Cordova, TN
The ACTS Group, Houston, TX
United Methodist Communications Tech Shop, Nashville, TN
Other (not a church, not a vendor):
Trinity Technology for Ministry, Kansas City, MO
Christian Computing Magazine, Belton, MO
MinistryTECH.org, Edmond, OK
Churches:
Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, KS
Asbury United Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, MN
Christ Fellowship Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Churches in Covenant, Carrollton, TX
College Heights Christian Church, Joplin, MO
First Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA
First Baptist Raytown, Raytown, MO
First Presbyterian Church, Bellevue, WA
First United Methodist Church, Wichita, KS
Grace Covenant Church, Cornelius, NC
Granger Community Church, Granger, IN
Indian Creek Community Church, Olathe, KS
Lakeview Church, Indianapolis, IN
Lincoln Berean Church, Lincoln, NE
Living Word Lutheran Church, Grapevine, TX
Northwoods Community Church, Peoria, IL
Perimeter Church, Duluth, GA
Pinelake Church, Brandon, MS
Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, Liberty, MO
Seacoast Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC
Sheffield Family Life Center, Kansas City, MO
St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Fairfax, VA
St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, Leawood, KS
West Side Christian Church, Springfield, IL
Westbrooke Church, Shawnee Mission, KS
Vendors:
ACS Technologies, Florence, SC
Circle Builder, Santa Monica, CA
Fellowship Technologies, Irving, TX
iBiz Initiatives, Lenexa, KS
MBS, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA
Ministry Management Solutions, Orange Park, FL
Shelby Systems, Cordova, TN
The ACTS Group, Houston, TX
United Methodist Communications Tech Shop, Nashville, TN
Other (not a church, not a vendor):
Trinity Technology for Ministry, Kansas City, MO
Christian Computing Magazine, Belton, MO
MinistryTECH.org, Edmond, OK
Dinner with Alfred; Dinner with Robin and Ben
Last night I had dinner with Alfred Johnson, head of sales and marketing for Shelby Systems. He flew in to Kansas City just to spend a few hours with me. I took him to the quintessential barbecue place of Kansas City - Arthur Bryant's. Alfred could eat only half his sandwich. Yes, the beef sandwiches at Arthur Bryant's really are that big! It's ridiculous.
Sounds like Arena is coming along nicely. I'm not sure how much of our conversation I'm at liberty to discuss but I can say that Alfred has Web 2.0 and social networking on his mind.
I'm wondering if Dave Winer is right (see this and this). Will Twitter become a de facto standard for identity on the web? If so, could that eventually allow ChMS providers to integrate seamlessly with things like Facebook and Circle Builder? Hmmm ...
I'm writing this post from the Charlotte airport. Tonight I'm having dinner with Robin Clayton and Ben Jordan of ACS Technologies. Then I'm visiting ACS all day tomorrow to talk strategy. Standby for a report on that trip.
Sounds like Arena is coming along nicely. I'm not sure how much of our conversation I'm at liberty to discuss but I can say that Alfred has Web 2.0 and social networking on his mind.
I'm wondering if Dave Winer is right (see this and this). Will Twitter become a de facto standard for identity on the web? If so, could that eventually allow ChMS providers to integrate seamlessly with things like Facebook and Circle Builder? Hmmm ...
I'm writing this post from the Charlotte airport. Tonight I'm having dinner with Robin Clayton and Ben Jordan of ACS Technologies. Then I'm visiting ACS all day tomorrow to talk strategy. Standby for a report on that trip.
September 19, 2007
GodTube update
Brent Cohen e-mailed me a link to this story on CNN saying that GodTube was the "#1 Fastest Growing Website in U.S. in 1st month of Launch." I commented about GodTube back in March. Do you suppose my less-than-favorable comments were a bit too hasty?
I know most of you out there reading this blog must also be wrestling with the question of how to leverage all of these new developments in Web 2.0 stuff. In particular, right now we're implementing blip.tv for streaming sermons. Instead of going where the Christians are, we're using a secular site. What are your thoughts about that? Should we also use GodTube?
I know most of you out there reading this blog must also be wrestling with the question of how to leverage all of these new developments in Web 2.0 stuff. In particular, right now we're implementing blip.tv for streaming sermons. Instead of going where the Christians are, we're using a secular site. What are your thoughts about that? Should we also use GodTube?
Hotel deadline
The deadline for hotel registration to get the RoundTable rate is tomorrow for the Wyndham. The deadline has already passed for the Holiday Inn.
September 18, 2007
How about a ride in a church van!
RoundTable attendee, Kansas City-area church nerd, and all around nice guy Jason Wilson has obtained his church van to help transport people to/from hotels and Resurrection. We also have other local church IT people who have volunteered to make a few runs back and forth to the airport. So if you need transportation while you're here, please leave a comment on this post and we'll see what we can do to arrange it.
Registration closes in 6 days
If you're coming to the RoundTable, you best be gettin' your registration in. Registration closes at the end of the day Monday, September 24.
Topics for the RoundTable
The RoundTable is in two weeks! We need to start collecting topics now so we can get organized a bit in advance. Give me your ideas by commenting on this post. To jump-start your thinking, here are some posts by Tony Dye about what was discussed the last time:
http://tonydye.typepad.com/citrt/2007/04/hot_roundtable_.html
http://tonydye.typepad.com/main/2007/04/cit_roundtable_.html
http://tonydye.typepad.com/main/2007/04/more_roundtable.html
What burning questions do you have for your fellow church IT people?
http://tonydye.typepad.com/citrt/2007/04/hot_roundtable_.html
http://tonydye.typepad.com/main/2007/04/cit_roundtable_.html
http://tonydye.typepad.com/main/2007/04/more_roundtable.html
What burning questions do you have for your fellow church IT people?
September 15, 2007
Nearly impossible to reach by phone
Travis, Brian, and I are now in the thick of preparing our RFP to upgrade our Church Management System. We are in back-to-back meetings all day long, conducting requirements gathering interviews and getting demos from the short list vendors, not to mention planning a little event and trying to keep up with routine duties.
If you have tried to reach me by phone in the last couple of weeks, you have my sympathies. I strongly suggest e-mail to clif.guy at cor.org as a better way to get a response. Even then, it might be a few days before you hear back. Sorry to be such a pain.
To discuss anything about the RoundTable, contact Amy Facemire at 913-544-0743 or amy.facemire at cor.org.
To discuss anything about our Next Generation ChMS project, contact Travis Morgan at 913-314-6464 or travis.morgan at cor.org.
If you have tried to reach me by phone in the last couple of weeks, you have my sympathies. I strongly suggest e-mail to clif.guy at cor.org as a better way to get a response. Even then, it might be a few days before you hear back. Sorry to be such a pain.
To discuss anything about the RoundTable, contact Amy Facemire at 913-544-0743 or amy.facemire at cor.org.
To discuss anything about our Next Generation ChMS project, contact Travis Morgan at 913-314-6464 or travis.morgan at cor.org.
One interesting dude
To learn how a Jew from Kansas City worked with an archbishop from Baltimore to build a web site for the pope, you need to attend the RoundTable where you'll meet Brent Cohen.
Although that sounds like the setup for a joke, it's the true story of Brent receiving a phone call in 1995 from Cardinal Keeler, then Archbishop of Baltimore, leading to an ecumenical collaboration and culminating not only in a web site being built but also an opportunity for Brent to meet John Paul II in person.
If that story doesn't interest you, ask Brent about how Haley Barbour (now governor of Mississippi but then chairman of the Republican National Committee) at first didn't see a need for the RNC to have a web site. No doubt Joe Trippi would be highly amused. Brent did end up building the first site for the RNC after Haley saw the light a couple of years later and called Brent.
I was entertained by these stories over lunch with Brent on Wednesday. He now lives in the Los Angeles area, but was born and raised in Kansas City. He was back in town for a family reunion during Rosh Hashanah. He is a strategic thinker and friend of Rick Warren and Eric Busby and is beginning to explore church IT, ChMS, and how they relate to his new company, Circle Builder. You will enjoy meeting Brent and likewise he wants to learn as much as he can from all of you.
If you haven't registered for the RoundTable, do it now. Registration closes at the end of the day Monday, September 24.
Although that sounds like the setup for a joke, it's the true story of Brent receiving a phone call in 1995 from Cardinal Keeler, then Archbishop of Baltimore, leading to an ecumenical collaboration and culminating not only in a web site being built but also an opportunity for Brent to meet John Paul II in person.
If that story doesn't interest you, ask Brent about how Haley Barbour (now governor of Mississippi but then chairman of the Republican National Committee) at first didn't see a need for the RNC to have a web site. No doubt Joe Trippi would be highly amused. Brent did end up building the first site for the RNC after Haley saw the light a couple of years later and called Brent.
I was entertained by these stories over lunch with Brent on Wednesday. He now lives in the Los Angeles area, but was born and raised in Kansas City. He was back in town for a family reunion during Rosh Hashanah. He is a strategic thinker and friend of Rick Warren and Eric Busby and is beginning to explore church IT, ChMS, and how they relate to his new company, Circle Builder. You will enjoy meeting Brent and likewise he wants to learn as much as he can from all of you.
If you haven't registered for the RoundTable, do it now. Registration closes at the end of the day Monday, September 24.
September 12, 2007
Vendors coming to the RoundTable
Appian Way reader and RoundTable attendee Justin Kramp asks:
Vendors that have registered so far are:
United Methodist Communications Tech Shop
ACS Technologies
Circle Builder
Fellowship Technologies
MBS, Inc.
Ministry Management Solutions
Shelby Systems
The ACTS Group
Clif -- Thanks for putting so much effort into this. I'm really excited for the event. Any chance you'd post a list of vendors participating in advance?Great question, Justin!
Vendors that have registered so far are:
United Methodist Communications Tech Shop
ACS Technologies
Circle Builder
Fellowship Technologies
MBS, Inc.
Ministry Management Solutions
Shelby Systems
The ACTS Group
September 07, 2007
RoundTable registrations
I heard through the grapevine that some of you tried to register for the RoundTable but the registration site was down. Sorry about that. When we came in to the office on Tuesday after the holiday weekend we saw the site was down. We don't know when over the long weekend it went down. It took our vendor a couple of hours on Tuesday morning to resolve the issues and get things working again. If you tried to register but were denied, please try again. You don't want to miss the RoundTable because of a server outage. Computer geeks, of all people, should understand that!
So far 32 awesome church IT people and 10 amazing vendor people from around the country have registered. Wee hoo! We have heard from another 28 who said they are coming but haven't registered yet. Come on and register, please! It's difficult to complete our preparations when the event is only 3 weeks away and we don't know if we will have 50 people or 80 people. ;-)
So that we can get final counts to our caterers, etc., registration will close at the end of the day on Monday, September 24. Register now!
So far 32 awesome church IT people and 10 amazing vendor people from around the country have registered. Wee hoo! We have heard from another 28 who said they are coming but haven't registered yet. Come on and register, please! It's difficult to complete our preparations when the event is only 3 weeks away and we don't know if we will have 50 people or 80 people. ;-)
So that we can get final counts to our caterers, etc., registration will close at the end of the day on Monday, September 24. Register now!
September 05, 2007
RoundTable walkers?
Tony is organizing an early morning walk before the start of each day's RoundTable. If you're a morning person, let Tony know of your interest by posting a comment on his blog.
Local Organizing Committee
Calling all my Kansas City area church IT homies. You are my "Local Organizing Committee" for the RoundTable. We need to meet next week to finalize plans. How about Thursday, Sept. 13 at 12:30 pm? How about Chili's in Merriam again? Leave a comment here or e-mail me: clif.guy at cor.org.
Transportation between airport and hotels
Some people have asked about getting from KCI Airport to the hotel and/or church and then back to the airport at the end of the RoundTable.
The hotels we have arranged don't have shuttle service. However, there is a KCI Shuttle that operates between the airport and many hotels here in the southern part of the metro area (Johnson County). To use this service, simply stop by KCI Shuttle’s ticket counter, which is in close proximity to all baggage claim areas in the airport, to purchase a ride to your hotel. Advance reservations are not required but are recommended if arrival time is after 9pm. Cost is $49 per person (each way); each additional person within the same party is then $7 to $10 ea. (each way). When buying your ticket you can schedule your pickup, too. KCI Shuttle’s phone number is 816-243-5000.
The hotels are 4-5 miles from the church. We want to bless you, serve you, and ensure that you have a great time when you're here. In that spirit, I'm happy to help you get back and forth between the hotel and the church, but with 60 people coming in, I can't fit you all in my van in one trip! Hopefully, only a few of you will need a ride. ;-)
The hotels we have arranged don't have shuttle service. However, there is a KCI Shuttle that operates between the airport and many hotels here in the southern part of the metro area (Johnson County). To use this service, simply stop by KCI Shuttle’s ticket counter, which is in close proximity to all baggage claim areas in the airport, to purchase a ride to your hotel. Advance reservations are not required but are recommended if arrival time is after 9pm. Cost is $49 per person (each way); each additional person within the same party is then $7 to $10 ea. (each way). When buying your ticket you can schedule your pickup, too. KCI Shuttle’s phone number is 816-243-5000.
The hotels are 4-5 miles from the church. We want to bless you, serve you, and ensure that you have a great time when you're here. In that spirit, I'm happy to help you get back and forth between the hotel and the church, but with 60 people coming in, I can't fit you all in my van in one trip! Hopefully, only a few of you will need a ride. ;-)
September 03, 2007
Directions to Church of the Resurrection
Most of you coming to the RoundTable will be flying in. The nearest airport is Kansas City International (code=MCI). The airport is on the far northwest side of town and we're on the south side, so it's a 45 minute drive with moderate traffic.
Directions from the airport:
South on I29
South on I635 (right exit)
South on I35 (right exit)
South on US69 (right exit after 75th street)
East on 135th street (right exit, then turn left on 135th) approx. 2.5 miles
South on Roe 2 blocks, church is on the right
Google map with directions is here.
Park in Lot B or Lot D. Campus map here, or print this post.
Enter the East Building near the SE corner. You'll find the receptionists at the crossroads between the main east-west hallway and the main north-south hallway, next to the Memorial Garden. They will direct you from there. East Building floor plan is here (on the floor plan drawing ground floor is on the left, lower level is on the right). Conference check-in will be in the hallway outside Rehearsal Hall A on the lower level. It's a big, confusing building. We'll have signs up to help you as much as we can.
Directions from the airport:
South on I29
South on I635 (right exit)
South on I35 (right exit)
South on US69 (right exit after 75th street)
East on 135th street (right exit, then turn left on 135th) approx. 2.5 miles
South on Roe 2 blocks, church is on the right
Google map with directions is here.
Park in Lot B or Lot D. Campus map here, or print this post.
Enter the East Building near the SE corner. You'll find the receptionists at the crossroads between the main east-west hallway and the main north-south hallway, next to the Memorial Garden. They will direct you from there. East Building floor plan is here (on the floor plan drawing ground floor is on the left, lower level is on the right). Conference check-in will be in the hallway outside Rehearsal Hall A on the lower level. It's a big, confusing building. We'll have signs up to help you as much as we can.
Hotel info for the RoundTable
The hotel info is provided in the confirmation e-mail after registering, but some people have requested the info prior to registering. So here goes ...
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites – Convention Center
10920 Nall Ave.
Overland Park, KS 66211
913-312-0900 phone
913-312-5992 fax
Check-in time is 3:00 p.m. Check-out time is 12:00 p.m.
Rate = $90.00
Reservations must be made by 9/7/07 in order to receive the $90.00 rate. Ask for the “I.T. Roundtable Conference - Church of the Resurrection” block of rooms.
Wyndham Garden Hotel – Overland Park
7000 W. 108th St.
Overland Park, KS 66211
913-383-2550 phone
913-383-2099 fax
Check-in time is 3:00 p.m. Check-out time is 12:00 p.m.
Rate = $74.00, no breakfast (or $84.00 with breakfast)
Reservations must be made by 9/20/07 in order to receive the $74.00 rate. Ask for the “I.T. Roundtable Conference - Church of the Resurrection” block of rooms.
Or you could always go the Priceline route, like Mark.
Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites – Convention Center
10920 Nall Ave.
Overland Park, KS 66211
913-312-0900 phone
913-312-5992 fax
Check-in time is 3:00 p.m. Check-out time is 12:00 p.m.
Rate = $90.00
Reservations must be made by 9/7/07 in order to receive the $90.00 rate. Ask for the “I.T. Roundtable Conference - Church of the Resurrection” block of rooms.
Wyndham Garden Hotel – Overland Park
7000 W. 108th St.
Overland Park, KS 66211
913-383-2550 phone
913-383-2099 fax
Check-in time is 3:00 p.m. Check-out time is 12:00 p.m.
Rate = $74.00, no breakfast (or $84.00 with breakfast)
Reservations must be made by 9/20/07 in order to receive the $74.00 rate. Ask for the “I.T. Roundtable Conference - Church of the Resurrection” block of rooms.
Or you could always go the Priceline route, like Mark.
September 02, 2007
Ian eats noodles with Jason Powell
... after worshiping at Granger this morning. He reports that the experience was "phenomenal" and "WOW". Thanks, Jason for your hospitality!
And what vacation trip to the Chicago/Northern Indiana area would be complete without a tour of Willow Creek? Thanks Mark and Brett.
Get the details in his full trip report here.
And what vacation trip to the Chicago/Northern Indiana area would be complete without a tour of Willow Creek? Thanks Mark and Brett.
Get the details in his full trip report here.
August 24, 2007
A tragedy in our department
The two year-old grandson of Linda Ronsick, our Data Quality Administrator, died on Wednesday from an accidental drowning in a pool just a mile from the church. Linda's daughter, the little guy's mom, was distracted with putting sunscreen on another of her children when Benjamin fell in. Despite there being approximately 40 people in the pool area at the time, no one noticed until it was too late. The only blessing in this is that his organs have been donated to help several other children in desperate need. The memorial service is tomorrow morning here at Resurrection.
Please stop and pray for Linda, her husband Gene, their daughter Laura, her husband Matt, and Benjamin's two brothers Luke (4) and Caleb (10 months). They have a difficult road ahead.
Please stop and pray for Linda, her husband Gene, their daughter Laura, her husband Matt, and Benjamin's two brothers Luke (4) and Caleb (10 months). They have a difficult road ahead.
Ian quoted in the WSJ
A few weeks ago when "Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You" was published in the Wall Street Journal and made a big stink in the IT community, Ian e-mailed the author. Imagine his surprise when one of his comments was quoted in a follow-up story last week (see #4 in the article) by the same author. Way to go Ian!
August 23, 2007
Short list getting longer
Sure enough, our short list of ChMS candidates is getting longer before it gets shorter. We're adding ACS. And then there were five.
August 15, 2007
Thanks Tony and Chris
Tony Dye and Chris McGuffin spent an hour on the phone with me today going over detailed plans for the RoundTable. I know our event in October will benefit from the insights they gained from planning and hosting the RoundTable back in April. Thanks Tony and Chris!
If you haven't signed up to come to Kansas City in October, do it now. It's going to be awesome!
If you haven't signed up to come to Kansas City in October, do it now. It's going to be awesome!
August 12, 2007
New ChMS, here we come!
The time has finally arrived for us to begin our Next Generation Church Management System project ("NextGen" for short). We're blessed to have Travis Morgan joining our team half-time this week to serve as project manager. Travis is already on staff at Resurrection as the Director of Operations for Resurrection West. He has brought in a person to cover half his duties at Resurrection West so he can work with us half-time for the next 9 months, or so. He joined the Resurrection West staff a year ago from Cerner, a major player in the hospital software market based here in Kansas City. At Cerner he managed projects to implement their health care information system in hospitals, so he brings a wealth of experience with the issues he will face on this project.
We have our NextGen project kick-off meeting next week and will start with requirements gathering from all ministry departments. Our short list is (in no particular order):
Shelby Arena
Proclaim CRM
Fellowship One
Blackbaud
Our plan is to make the system selection by early November with implementation in the first quarter of 2008. Game on!
One of the first issues we are facing is the whole question of Software-as-a-Service vs. traditional buy-software-and-run-it-in-house. As I'm thinking about that, this article caught my eye.
We have our NextGen project kick-off meeting next week and will start with requirements gathering from all ministry departments. Our short list is (in no particular order):
Shelby Arena
Proclaim CRM
Fellowship One
Blackbaud
Our plan is to make the system selection by early November with implementation in the first quarter of 2008. Game on!
One of the first issues we are facing is the whole question of Software-as-a-Service vs. traditional buy-software-and-run-it-in-house. As I'm thinking about that, this article caught my eye.
August 11, 2007
Willow Creek Summit, Day 3
Personal highlights from today ...
President Jimmy Carter:
Carter was an entrepreneur from as early as 5 years old. Didn't know that. This was more about Carter's life than a lesson in leadership, but he has earned our respect for his humility and his genuine life of Christian discipleship. I'm inspired. ;-)
Favorite quotes:
Bill Hybels - The power of inspiration:
President Jimmy Carter:
Carter was an entrepreneur from as early as 5 years old. Didn't know that. This was more about Carter's life than a lesson in leadership, but he has earned our respect for his humility and his genuine life of Christian discipleship. I'm inspired. ;-)
Favorite quotes:
- It's not an anomaly that the Bible says we're all equal in God's sight. We actually are equal.
- War doesn't beget peace. War begets war. (Not sure if that's right, but I respect his viewpoint.)
Bill Hybels - The power of inspiration:
- Performance difference between motivated and unmotivated employees - 40%
- Get inspired and inspiring people around you.
- Do you know what events you need attend to get inspired?
- Your workspace can add to your motivation. What do you have in your office?
- Identify and reduce every demotivating dynamic in the organization.
- Celebrate every sign of progress.
Willow Creek Summit, Day 2
Personal highlights from today ...
Colin Powell:
John Ortberg:
Richard Curtis:
Colin Powell:
- Promote a clash of ideas - a noisy system.
- Only people get things done.
- Any subordinate can come in at any time with any issue, scheduled or not.
- Optimism is a force multiplier. Things will always look better in the morning.
- War is a failure of diplomacy and a failure of politics.
- Even the greatest of all strategies must occasionally take into account the presence of an enemy.
- Prepare to be lonely.
- The church shouldn't be hijacked by politics.
- All of us have a debt of service that we may never be able to repay.
John Ortberg:
- When was the last time you and your team paused for an extended period of prayer (and maybe even fasting)?
- My shadow mission is my authentic mission hijacked by ego.
Richard Curtis:
- I'll ruthlessly do the thing that I do to try to rectify this general injustice (HIV/AIDS).
August 10, 2007
Pictures of the Willow Creek Summit
Ian posted pictures here this morning. Give a shout out if your church is also hosting the Summit and have pictures or stories to share.
August 09, 2007
Willow Creek Summit, Day 1
My personal favorite quotes from today ...
Bill Hybels: "Are you an owner or hired hand?" (referring to John 10:11-15)
Carly Fiorina: "There is a gift in everything that happens to you."
Marcus Buckingham: "A strength is indicated when you do something that makes you feel strong, and you are the greatest authority on what makes you feel strong (not just something you're good at)."
Bill Hybels: "Are you an owner or hired hand?" (referring to John 10:11-15)
Carly Fiorina: "There is a gift in everything that happens to you."
Marcus Buckingham: "A strength is indicated when you do something that makes you feel strong, and you are the greatest authority on what makes you feel strong (not just something you're good at)."
August 07, 2007
Info for vendors coming to the RoundTable
Will vendors be allowed to come to the Fall 2007 RoundTable?
Yes! Vendors are our partners in ministry. They supply most of the technology we use for ministry. We hope to honor them and show our appreciation for their service. Accordingly, we encourage them to attend, participate fully in all the social times, participate fully in the large group sessions, and observe the roundtable sessions. By “observe,” we mean that vendors will not have a seat at table and will not be permitted to speak, but will be able to attend, listen, and learn. We are doing this because we don’t want the RoundTable to become a captive audience for a sales pitch or a forum for vendor debate.
Yes! Vendors are our partners in ministry. They supply most of the technology we use for ministry. We hope to honor them and show our appreciation for their service. Accordingly, we encourage them to attend, participate fully in all the social times, participate fully in the large group sessions, and observe the roundtable sessions. By “observe,” we mean that vendors will not have a seat at table and will not be permitted to speak, but will be able to attend, listen, and learn. We are doing this because we don’t want the RoundTable to become a captive audience for a sales pitch or a forum for vendor debate.
Unlike the Spring 2007 RoundTable, we will not have vendor presentations. Instead, vendors are especially encouraged to participate fully in the Topic Bazaar, planned for 2.5 hours on the last day of the event. Vendors can host discussions, informally demo their products (using laptops and WiFi – no projectors or display tables), and join in discussions hosted by others. We don’t intend for this to morph into a mini trade show, just an opportunity to delve more deeply into topics that have come up during the roundtable sessions.
We're expecting 50-80 church IT people and 10-20 vendors to attend. The only cost to vendors is the normal registration fee of $34 per person.
Vendors that would like to sponsor a meal or support the event in any other way should e-mail me: clif.guy at cor dot org. Vendors shouldn’t feel obligated on this at all. It's just a way to help if they’re so inclined. All sponsorship will be anonymous because we don’t want them to feel any pressure of one-upping each other (like that could happen?!).
And yes, a vendor is a vendor for the purposes of determining who can talk at the roundtable sessions. If you are a consultant or have any kind of product or service to sell to churches, then you’re a vendor. :-)
The Topic Bazaar
The Fall 2007 RoundTable will feature a (bizarre?) innovation - the "Topic Bazaar."
In Houston, Brian noticed that the roundtable sessions went something like this:
1. Topic introduced
2. People around the table began commenting on the topic
3. Very quickly and naturally an informal "expert board" formed - those around the table with experience in the topic
4. If Brian wanted to discuss matters specific to our church, or more extensively than the rest of the group, he would make a mental note of the experts so he could talk with them on a break
We wanted to create a way to facilitate step #4 - the more in-depth conversations on individual topics after the roundtable sessions. So we're introducing an innovation to the upcoming RoundTable: the Topic Bazaar! On Thursday afternoon, after the roundtable sessions are complete, we will have a large open room where multiple topics will be discussed simultaneously. Attendees interested in a particular topic will gather in small clusters scattered throughout the room. The topics and locations will be indicated by signs on tall poles. Possible topics would be things like: "Church Management Systems", "Virtualization", "Security", "Budgeting", etc. Attendees will be able to join a conversation around a topic as long as they like and then move on to another topic. A moderator/expert (could be a vendor) will stay with each topic sign to keep the conversation going.
August 06, 2007
Register for the Fall 2007 RoundTable now!
I'm excited to announce that registration is now open for the Fall 2007 Church IT RoundTable at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas October 2-4. The society of church IT is small. Many of us are lonely techies in our congregations where we feel that no one around us really understands what we do or why we do it. We need to hear stories of the awesome work God is doing in all kinds of highly effective churches all over the country. We need a forum for peer learning, mutual support, and inspiration. The Church IT RoundTable (CITRT) is that forum.
The roundtable format was inspired by Mark Stephenson, re-ignited by Jason Powell in September 2006, and taken to the next level by Tony Dye and Chris McGuffin in April 2007. Ask anyone who has attended any of these events and they'll tell you that they were energized by the infusion of knowledge, community, and encouragement. It's difficult to describe the feeling of having dozens of church nerds together in one room. The best metaphor I know for it is "critical mass" - it's a church IT explosion!
Format
For the Fall 2007 RoundTable we’re planning an "unconference" that will retain the strengths of peer sharing but will be scalable to involve many more people than you can fit around one table. This event will feature four separate roundtable rooms with up to 20 participants and a few observers in each room. (I've been told this is similar to the approach taken by Leadership Network, but I've never been to their events so I have to take the word of others on that.)
Each room will have two projectors: one showing content from the conversation in that room, and the other showing content from all of the other rooms. Each participant will use their own laptop to join an Adobe Connect meeting with everyone else in their room. Through Connect, anyone in the room will be able to show content (web sites, pictures, diagrams, PowerPoints, etc.) on the primary projector. All participants will be able to annotate/live blog the discussion and have side conversations. Everyone will be able to interact not only with those in their own room but also with the other rooms through room and conference facilitators who will coordinate the posting of questions and content on the secondary projector. Sean McAtee from UMCOM Tech Shop will be here to provide his deep expertise in the use of Connect with the assistance of Leo Johns from our staff.
Capsule Schedule
Tuesday, Oct. 2: Tour of Resurrection IT - Registration opens at 3:30, tour begins at 4:30 pm, followed by dinner out at a local restaurant
Wednesday, Oct. 3: RoundTable Day 1 - Registration opens at 8:30, event from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, evening banquet and worship starting at 6:30 pm at the church
Thursday, Oct. 4: RoundTable Day 2 –Event from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, for those who don't need to rush home we'll have dinner at a local restaurant followed by a worship concert at the church starting at 7:00 pm
After the RoundTable is Resurrection's annual Leadership Institute, October 5-6. Leadership Institute is our biggest conference of the year. If you are able to stay, I know it will be a blessing to you as well.
Cost and Registration
The registration site has complete information about hotels, transportation, and everything else you need to know. Due to generous sponsorship from vendors, the cost is only $34 per person and will qualify you for a great discount on Leadership Institute too. What a deal! For any vendors that would like to attend, additional sponsorship opportunities are available. Please e-mail me for info (clif.guy at cor dot org).
I'm looking forward to seeing you in Kansas City this Fall. Sign up now!
The roundtable format was inspired by Mark Stephenson, re-ignited by Jason Powell in September 2006, and taken to the next level by Tony Dye and Chris McGuffin in April 2007. Ask anyone who has attended any of these events and they'll tell you that they were energized by the infusion of knowledge, community, and encouragement. It's difficult to describe the feeling of having dozens of church nerds together in one room. The best metaphor I know for it is "critical mass" - it's a church IT explosion!
Format
For the Fall 2007 RoundTable we’re planning an "unconference" that will retain the strengths of peer sharing but will be scalable to involve many more people than you can fit around one table. This event will feature four separate roundtable rooms with up to 20 participants and a few observers in each room. (I've been told this is similar to the approach taken by Leadership Network, but I've never been to their events so I have to take the word of others on that.)
Each room will have two projectors: one showing content from the conversation in that room, and the other showing content from all of the other rooms. Each participant will use their own laptop to join an Adobe Connect meeting with everyone else in their room. Through Connect, anyone in the room will be able to show content (web sites, pictures, diagrams, PowerPoints, etc.) on the primary projector. All participants will be able to annotate/live blog the discussion and have side conversations. Everyone will be able to interact not only with those in their own room but also with the other rooms through room and conference facilitators who will coordinate the posting of questions and content on the secondary projector. Sean McAtee from UMCOM Tech Shop will be here to provide his deep expertise in the use of Connect with the assistance of Leo Johns from our staff.
Capsule Schedule
Tuesday, Oct. 2: Tour of Resurrection IT - Registration opens at 3:30, tour begins at 4:30 pm, followed by dinner out at a local restaurant
Wednesday, Oct. 3: RoundTable Day 1 - Registration opens at 8:30, event from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, evening banquet and worship starting at 6:30 pm at the church
Thursday, Oct. 4: RoundTable Day 2 –Event from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, for those who don't need to rush home we'll have dinner at a local restaurant followed by a worship concert at the church starting at 7:00 pm
After the RoundTable is Resurrection's annual Leadership Institute, October 5-6. Leadership Institute is our biggest conference of the year. If you are able to stay, I know it will be a blessing to you as well.
Cost and Registration
The registration site has complete information about hotels, transportation, and everything else you need to know. Due to generous sponsorship from vendors, the cost is only $34 per person and will qualify you for a great discount on Leadership Institute too. What a deal! For any vendors that would like to attend, additional sponsorship opportunities are available. Please e-mail me for info (clif.guy at cor dot org).
I'm looking forward to seeing you in Kansas City this Fall. Sign up now!
August 05, 2007
A roundup of General Assembly blog posts
Although I might have already lost many of you by talking about General Assembly so much (sorry), I wanted to post a roundup of posts by other bloggers talking about General Assembly. So here goes.
Multiple posts on the following blogs:
http://ccidean-ga07.blogspot.com/
http://bigroundwindow.blogspot.com/
http://pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com/
http://unrulymob.blogspot.com/
http://audreythoughts.blogspot.com/
http://revrochelle.blogspot.com/
http://www.notnothing.net/sue/
Single posts:
http://disciplesx.com/2007/07/23/from-general-assembly-in-ft-worth/
http://parsonbob.blogspot.com/2007/07/10000-disciples-praying.html
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=53096275&blogID=292989128
http://kewp.blogspot.com/2007/07/pga-post-general-assembly.html
http://anewwind.blogspot.com/2007/07/church-people-suck.html
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=204842689&blogID=290911256
http://nwareacc.blogspot.com/2007/07/evangelism-and-missional-church.html
http://www.bethanyarapahoe.org/2007/07/bob-kennel-to-speak-to-disciples.html
August 04, 2007
I went with the Mogul
Thanks for all the advice. I picked up the Mogul (aka PPC 6800) when I was in Fort Worth and have been using it for a little over two weeks. Having not had a smartphone before, it's a whole new experience for me. Many things about it are cool. Naturally I've encountered a few annoyances too.
Things that are cool:
Things that are cool:
- WiFi
- EVDO with easy Internet connection sharing (phone-as-modem)
- Ability to run Skype
- Ease of text messaging
- Ability to run Bejeweled (my favorite game!)
- Ability to get on the web anywhere, anytime
- Integration of Outlook contacts with phone, e-mail, and text messaging functions
- Ability to recharge through USB
- Ability to multi-task (sync, talk on the phone, browse the web, etc.)
- Small and lightweight
- No way to exit an application without going to a control panel (am I missing something?)
- ActiveSync has had some issues that caused it to force a complete re-sync and lose my voice dial tags. This has happened twice in two weeks. Grrr!
- ActiveSync doesn't work when connected via USB on my laptop's port replicator
- The camera application is clunky
- The folder structure is confusing - Microsoft still isn't consistent in folder naming
Last vacation post!
I know the vacations of other people are not particularly interesting, but please indulge me just one more post before I return to the usual church IT theme of this blog.
After Big Bend, we proceeded to San Antonio. My son took this picture of Laura and me eating dinner at Casa Rio on the famous San Antonio River Walk. Note the shirt I'm wearing!
From San Antonio, we continued to Galveston, the Gulf of Mexico island community south of Houston at the mouth of Galveston Bay. I took this picture of the beachfront just a block from our motel.
On the way home we stopped at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Laura took this picture of a statue outside the Catholic church immediately across the street from the site of the destroyed Murrah building. The statue is of a crying Jesus with his back to the site.
So that was our Texas sampler vacation: 3700 miles from Kansas City, via Little Rock to Fort Worth, Big Bend, San Antonio, Galveston, and back home via Oklahoma City. Texas is a HUGE state with an AMAZING variety of cultures and vistas. It's a great vacation destination because it has something for everyone: major cities, remote mountains, the ocean, and Tex-Mex food everywhere!
I will be back in the office on Monday after three weeks away. I must admit, I'm not looking forward to it. Vacation is more fun than work!
After Big Bend, we proceeded to San Antonio. My son took this picture of Laura and me eating dinner at Casa Rio on the famous San Antonio River Walk. Note the shirt I'm wearing!
From San Antonio, we continued to Galveston, the Gulf of Mexico island community south of Houston at the mouth of Galveston Bay. I took this picture of the beachfront just a block from our motel.
On the way home we stopped at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Laura took this picture of a statue outside the Catholic church immediately across the street from the site of the destroyed Murrah building. The statue is of a crying Jesus with his back to the site.
So that was our Texas sampler vacation: 3700 miles from Kansas City, via Little Rock to Fort Worth, Big Bend, San Antonio, Galveston, and back home via Oklahoma City. Texas is a HUGE state with an AMAZING variety of cultures and vistas. It's a great vacation destination because it has something for everyone: major cities, remote mountains, the ocean, and Tex-Mex food everywhere!
I will be back in the office on Monday after three weeks away. I must admit, I'm not looking forward to it. Vacation is more fun than work!
August 02, 2007
Off the grid
When General Assembly was over, we proceeded to the next destination on our 2007 driving tour of Texas Texas and Mexico
Rio Grande with Mexican cliffs in the background and Texas to the right of the river
Moon over the Chisos Mountains, taken from our motel in Terlingua
We stayed in Terlingua, gateway to the park and famous for the International Chili Championship, held there in November each year. Terlingua, home to fewer than 300 people, is the most remote town I've ever visited. It's not on the way from anywhere to anywhere so everyone there either lives in the area or went there, like us, very much on purpose.
Our accommodations were at the Chisos Mining Co. Motel. I wish I could say I recommend it. We had no phone, no TV, and no Internet service. Terlingua has no digital cell service. And then, to make our "off-the-grid" experience complete, there was a total power outage throughout the entire Lajitas/Terlingua/Study Butte area from 4:00 pm the last evening we were there until 8:00 am the next day just before we checked out. According to the locals, the power there is unreliable. Heh. They claimed power was out everywhere south of
We had to scrounge for dinner since no restaurants could serve and then do our best to sleep with all the windows open since the air conditioning was out. As you can imagine, though dry, Terlingua is a very hot place in late July. It wasn't a pleasant way to end our stay in Terlingua, though I'm sure we'll remember it for a long time.
Did I mention Big Bend is spectacular? Here are a couple of pictures I took:
Rio Grande with Mexican cliffs in the background and Texas to the right of the river
Moon over the Chisos Mountains, taken from our motel in TerlinguaNew RoundTable friends
At General Assembly I attended some technology workshops and met three new church IT people.
Christopher Higgins is the Manager of Internet and New Media for our denominational headquarters. He's responsible for www.disciples.org.
Nathan Hill is a student at Wesley Theological Seminary and works with youth and young adults for the Christian Church Capital Area Region. He blogs at disciplesX.com.
Jeff Champeau is an uber-volunteer for First Christian Church of Norman Oklahoma. He makes his living as a LAN/WAN technician for the headquarters of Sonic Drive-in restaurants in Oklahoma City.
I told all of these guys about the Church IT RoundTable. Jeff said he would try to get away from work and come to the Fall RoundTable. Cool! We'd love to have Christopher and Nathan too. The more the merrier!
Christopher Higgins is the Manager of Internet and New Media for our denominational headquarters. He's responsible for www.disciples.org.
Nathan Hill is a student at Wesley Theological Seminary and works with youth and young adults for the Christian Church Capital Area Region. He blogs at disciplesX.com.
Jeff Champeau is an uber-volunteer for First Christian Church of Norman Oklahoma. He makes his living as a LAN/WAN technician for the headquarters of Sonic Drive-in restaurants in Oklahoma City.
I told all of these guys about the Church IT RoundTable. Jeff said he would try to get away from work and come to the Fall RoundTable. Cool! We'd love to have Christopher and Nathan too. The more the merrier!
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