I think this is important for CEOs and pastors alike.

(Via Mashable.)

(Via PastorGear.com.)

1. Keep track of people scheduled for service each week, i.e. LEM, Prayers, Lector, etc.
2. How can we make this electronic instead of the monthly calendar we receive via snail mail

If you’ve read this blog, you know I have looked over several packages in the past here and here. However, I just came across another product that offers the same functionality and is distributed by Church Publishing. Their product is called “rite time” and is part of their “rite series”.

While looking over the website, I tried to find screen shots or some other description beside the front page. Unfortunately, they do not offer anything else to give the visitor an indication of the product’s capabilities and relative use. However, they have a series of professional videos that walk you through the product’s high points. You can view it below.

Since I was asked about scheduling people, the video’s main description of buildings and room scheduling is not relevant. However, their listed capabilities does mention it. I have yet to do so, but I think signing up for the thirty (30) day trial is in my future. The pricing is reasonable, and offers churchwide, personal and public calendars. I will post my thoughts once I sign up and take a test drive.

Just this week, I have begun following two (2) companies I had not previously heard about, let alone followed on Twitter. Was is just for a chance at a free iPad? No. I went to their websites and looked them over before choosing to both follow them and send the required tweet to participate in the contest. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it if I did not care enough to read their updates on a regular basis. Also, anyone who is reading my updates is going to read about the contest. They may decide I am becoming too involved in contests and decide to quit following me. On Twitter, this is tantamount to shouting into an empty room. No one is listening, even if they could hear you from the next room.

This new way of advertising products, websites, magazine, vegetables, etc., has implications for ministries. No, I don’t advocate asking the church council for $500 to buy an iPad and getting folks to follow the church twitter feed. That is not good stewardship, even for churches that can afford it. I would, instead, recommend, offering something else. For example, Easter is coming quickly. You can offer a place to join in an Easter egg hunt. Fat Tuesday was a few weeks ago, we had a pancake supper, free to anyone. Summer is almost here. How about free childcare for a week?

These are definitely non-standard prizes. But, the end result is a chance to meet new folks, tell them about Jesus Christ and maybe get them to come to church. I think its worth the effort to try and increase the kingdom and only look a little silly.

As an alternative, I have also received direct communication from parties selling items I mentioned in my online updates. I tweeted about having to look for stock photography for an upcoming church festival. Just a short time later, I got a message from a stock photography company with an accompanying $25 coupon for their website. Free, just like that. All I had to do was create an account with them and enter the coupon. Had I not already logged on the website where I already have an account and credits, I might have used the coupon. It’s pretty easy to see the implication for ministry here. If you are already on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, what does it hurt to send a message out to folks commenting on things related to your church or ministry? You just might end up with a new group of friends, even if they are only online.

So, what made me change my mind about covering the more incendiary of the two? The recent decision by the folks at All Saints Waccamaw, South Carolina to make amends in a Christian manner. I won’t go over this in detail, but in a nutshell, the parish did not agree with the Episcopal Church’s (TEC) implementation of the Dennis Canon which implicitly placed their church property in trust for TEC. The parish pre-dated the founding of TEC and held title to the land and buildings. They won at the South Carolina Supreme Court and ultimately settled with folks in the parish who desired to remain in TEC even as the case was appealed to the US Supreme Court. [For more detail, read this post.]

Why is this a big deal? Well, because in many Episcopal diocese around TEC, that kind of Christian resolution has not won the day.

It matters to me, because, even though I have only been in this tradition since 2004, I have put my entire family into this church. As a youth minister, husband of a Sunday School director, father of children attending said Sunday School, godfather of nieces I ferry to church, uncle of a nephew who once attended and owner of a checking account that sends tithes and building fund offerings, it matters a lot.

As a former Catholic, I can appreciate the Episcopal model of church organization. There is still a top down approach, but the laity are much more involved. I have represented my church at council, voted on resolutions, and even voted in the election of our Suffragan Bishop. I have served on the Bishop’s Committee (church council for small churches), serve on the diocesan IT committee and am the current youth minister. All of these things would not be easy to accomplish in my former life as a Catholic. For this ability to participate in the daily life of the church, I am very pleased with the church.

However, this church is also organized just like a legislative body. We have parishes (like cities), a diocese (like states), House of Deputies (House of Representatives) and a House of Bishop’s (Senate). When anything is changed in TEC, it must be approved by both the Houses of Deputies and Bishop’s. Sound familiar? In keeping with the US political model, TEC also has a Republic lived out in a Democracy. We have the Constitutions and Canons that govern our life together and we get to vote on our Deputies before each triennial TEC convention. (Remember, we also vote for Bishop’s as mentioned above.)

The biggest problem is when the Republic’s laws are not followed by the Presiding Bishop (not quite like a President, but will work here). The Presiding Bishop (PB), currently Katherine Jefferts Schori, is charged with keeping things running for the time being between each three year cycle of conventions. As someone still acclimating myself to the church and its traditions, this has been a part of my experience since being “accepted” from the Catholic tradition.

What the PB has had to contend with are diocesan bishop’s leaving TEC and joining other provinces while taking their church property, priests and huge numbers of laity with them. This is entirely in response to the election and consecration of a homosexual bishop and TEC’s insistence on expanding the role of homosexuals throughout the church.

<history>TEC is the US presence of Anglicanism. These other provinces are essentially the Anglican communion’s presence in that country. By design, our basic unit of organization is the diocese consisting of a bishop and churches. By tradition, a bishop’s geographical area of responsibility can not be “visited” by another bishop without permission. This has implications for all the liturgical churches that recognize bishops having overlapping geography, but is, in reality, ignored. According to Christian tradition, bishops stay in their part of the world and don’t traipse all over one another. If we had only “Christian” bishops, there would only be one bishop per region. However, we have Christian denominations/traditions and that causes there to be many bishops in the same area. Here in San Antonio, we have at least one of the following bishops: Catholic, Episcopal and Methodist. But, not more than one of the same denomination.</history>

Unfortunately, there are not only diocese leaving TEC, but a clear plan of response from the PB on how to deal with these departures. The PB is essentially defrocking these diocesan bishops as they leave or seek to leave (this only has some effect in TEC as other provinces continue to recognize the bishops). Exacerbating this situation further, she is also seeking to replace the bishops with those loyal to her. The last part of the plan is to then sue the former diocesan bishop (who, in almost all cases, has not physically left their diocese but rather transferred association to another province) and diocesan officers in order to acquire all former “TEC property” that has now been transferred to another province.

It is because of this policy and the negative will it has created around TEC that I was pleased to read about the resolution of the South Carolina case. Does it bode well for current and future cases? I don’t know. I hope it does, but it appears as though the current policy will remain in place. The South Carolina bishop has a convention to lead this weekend and his comments on this issue will interest me. I also fervently hope and pray Christian love and Paul’s teaching about communal living will be at the heart of any discussion prior to another diocese leaving. I can’t in good conscience make someone stay in TEC, but I also don’t have to be mean when they decide to leave. Especially when they are only responding to the issue of homosexuality in the same manner as many provinces outside of TEC.

Wish us peace and luck as we endeavor to continue serving him and anyone who wants to worship alongside us.

Why is this relevant to me at this time?

We are getting a new vicar later this Spring. I would like to approach him about the opportunity to use our website for more than a virtual church sign. I believe we can also use it to build a following of prospective visitors and perhaps even church members. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube. There are a few names most people who are online will recognize. Even if you aren’t, the name will sound familiar. Are we looking for the technology have’s at the expense of the have not’s? No. We simply reaching all prospective visitors by different means. We have events on our campus that invite the surrounding neighborhood. Those events, along with the online effort are in addition to the tried and true method of simply talking with people and inviting them to church.

No one has all the answers. I am just looking for more ways to fulfill the Great Commission.

• Youth asking others to come and volunteer unload pumpkins at our pumpkin patch
• Someone else at the pumpkin unloading saw my post with a photo of the front lawn before the pallets went down
• Former church member commenting on the pumpkin patch from New York after seeing the next photo I uploaded after the front lawn was covered in pumpkins
• Fellow church member comment about life after the priesthood
• My sister disparage Coke for pretending sugary drinks play no part in childhood obesity

Individually, all of these things may never be connected. But, in my life, it has kept me close to several different people who may/may not know one another. This has got to be a good way to communicate and evangelize to folks. It just has to be.

Recently, however, one of my clients sent me a link to Artisteer and asked me to take a look at it. On its surface it offers something that I have not seen others will – create one template and export it to Joomla, Drupal or WordPress.

• Volunteerspot
• Stafftool
• Famundo
• Churchdirector
• Planningcenteronline.com

At this point, our coordinator has decided she wants to try Churchdirector. I will be creating an account and testing it out over the next few days.