MinistryTECH Saturday Adventure

Our last full day in Colorado Springs was our day "set” day for sight seeing… even though every day in the Rockies is a day for sight seeing.

We started with a trip to the Air Force Academy, the size of the campus (10K acres) as well as the Chapel were quite amazing.  The Chapel is actually multiple chapels and the Protestant chapel is the largest and first one we visited.

The Buddhist chapel was the smallest but also the newest addition

The Jewish Chapel was in the lower level with an 200 year old original torah hidden before WWI and found and donated to the AFA in 1989.  The paintings on the wall are oil painted over gold leaf and are valued at $1million each.

We had more than a couple awesome views as we took the scenic route to Denver (normal drive time 1.5 hrs, our drive time 5.5 hours)

Crossing the The Continental Divide

view all photos from the trip here

MinistryTECH Keynote 4 – Sociology-Integrity-Justice

Mike God

CIO Willow Creek Community Church

The wrong information in the wrong hands can hurt people, the right information in the right hands can hurt people.
Information has power, technology is an accelerant to Technology
– If you are going to sin, Technology can help you sin a lot faster

Sociology
Technology was limited to just the select few / Hardware big bulky
Now Technology is available to the masses / Hardware is much smaller / Most are reliant upon technology

• With all the potential that Technology gives us are we ready for the responsibility?
• Are IT Leaders ready to train and embrace what is available to  us to move forward?
• IT Must move beyond platforms and preferences but embrace the solutions to solve the problems.

Information Sociology Model

• Leadership – Purpose                                                                                         -> Movement
• Good Leadership doesn’t have to be from the top down
• Clarity of vision  – Clearly Communicating but also compelling
• Community
• Formation
• Organization – Causes a community to have impact
• Information – Like the three primary colors, Information can be combined
• Corporate – Risk Procedures, boundaries, controls
• Promotional – Align, Promote, Market, Promise to the world
• Community – Social Connection, Interaction
• Technology – Has matured to the point it can support the various ‘colors’ of Information
• Creatively Grow and adapt all while exploring and keeping what needs to be secure

Integrity
– Technology has given the world one language to solve social economic problems
– Technology has “power” but can’t replace or reduce the separation between man and God
– As believers we have to remain constant that God is the problem solver not Technology.
– I Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

– Technology is a Gift that can be used for helping people.

Justice
-  John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

– How are people suffering suppose to believe in God’s goodness without their experiencing his love thru God’s people?
– Only God has the power to heal the human heart
– People can try to fix the symptoms, but God can heal the problems
– What would the world look like if we were able to equip people to harness the technology around the world?  How could we use technology to help people see the Love of God?

RoundTable Session 3 – General Discussion

Content Filtering
> Remote Content Filtering
   >> Covenant Eyes or XXX Church
> Is Logging for Filtering effective?
> “Use it, just don’t Abuse it” – DeanLisenby

Networking Monitoring
> Cati EZ
> Zenoss
> Orion
> Servers Alive
> OpManager
> OpenMNS
> Hyperic
> Groundworks
> Veem
> VQ Manager
> Spotlight Light on Windows

CIT RoundTable Session 2 – Management Track

Project Management
PMI.com

> Are the Expectations that IT won’t manage and plan projects?
> How do you plan?

  >> Basecamp
  >> WhiteBoard
  >> MS Project
  >> Active Colab
  >> PMBOK

> How often is enough to “meet” with your staff
>> Weekly, Bi-weekly
>> Involve the whole team and one on ones

> Helpdesk software – Do you track ticket times what do you do with that data
>> Justify job
>> Give clarity those high maintenance users

>>myhours.com

> How do you fund IT Staff Training
>> Outside Grants – IWT (Incumbant Worker Training)
>> Operation Budget Funding

CIT Roundtable 1

Cool Tools

BombBomb.com “affordable” but cool

RoyalTS – Remote Desktop Console Tool FREE
> http://www.code4ward.net/main/RoyalTS/Overview.aspx

RDTabs FREE

MRemote FREE

LovelyCharts.com “affordable paid account”
>http://www.lovelycharts.com

SpiceWorks – Scans Macs, PCs, Servers give alerts on changes updates, problems.
>http://www.spiceworks.com

Kiwi Solarwinds toolset

>http://www.darylhunter.me/churchit/2009/03/solarwinds-engineers-toolset-v10-part-3-workspace-studio-examples.html

Likewise

>Likewise.com

Mobiscope Desktop

 Volunteers in IT

> How to recruit Volunteers:

– Volunteer Fair
– Make the needs Known and make the descriptions detailed and clear
– Define the scope for the volunteers

– Let your volunteers see the blinkly lights on a tour

Backups and Offsite Backups

- Backups are for the weak in faith –Bryson

- What is Offsite?  Off campus, other building, other property owner

- Who is the stake holders in the backup decision

- Leadership team has to make a choice what the order for coming back online is.

– Have leadership commit to the decisions of how you come back online after a disaster

– Disaster doesn’t just mean data issues..  power, data, hv/ac

Storage

Not all storage is created equal…

> Media Production have tiers of storage – Online, Near Online, Not Really Online (wait time)

MinistryTECH Keynote 3 – Attaining Relevance

David Drinnon

Pastor of Technology and Websites – Second Baptist Church

Relevance – positioning all things in a way that our message is readily received by our audience.
As technologists we are the stake holders of the technology that enters our Ministries.

How do we make the message of the Gospel Relevant?
- Is relevancy the right question to ask?
> Does the message of the Gospel become watered down when we attempt to make it relevant?
> Does the message of the Gospel need us to “make” it relevant?

“Just believe is like saying Drink the Punch, Take the Pill” – David Drinnon

Commitment to Relevancy and not the Gospel can lead to dangerous place.

Are you so involved in the pursuit of the medium you loose the message?

> Don’t put the medium before the message

Ephesians 2:1
You were dead to your transgressions and sins.
> What is it to be dead?  The dead don’t bear any fruit, No Value, Morally bankrupt before God.
> The trust of the dead is miss-placed.
> The Dead have no sorrow for sin, Worldly sorry brings Death.
> Death is the absence of everything.

God isn’t giving us a resuscitation, he is giving us a RESURECTION… he is brining us back to Life not just riving us.

There are a ton to technologies but they have no meaning unless you have THE message.

Matt. 28:18-20 Everyone is called to ministry… Don’t get suck behind the gear find out what are the needs of people beyond the technology.

It doesn’t matter the amount of gear, the amount of knowledge, the size of your church…. God has called you to a mission of ministry.

“In matters of style swim with the current, in matters of principle stand like a rock”

The Gospel itself alone is RELEVANT, it alone changes lives.  Our Relevance isn’t in the medium but in the MESSAGE.

MinistryTECH Morning Devo

Paul Zigan

Galatians 6:2-5

^1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

^4-5Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

Burdens vs. the Load

the Load is small personal

the burden is large and bigger than you can handle on your own.

- An Obstacle for “burden bearing” is thinking to highly of yourself… when your “too good” its “too hard” to help carry the burden v.3 

What is the result of the Burden Bearing?

- v.2 “Fuflill the Law of Christ”

-John 13.:34 the law of Love

MinistryTECH Keynote 2

Social Networking in Ministry
Jeff Wilson
Henderson Hills Baptist Church

1. Why Should you be involved in social networking?

- Relationships with other like minded people

- Working in the Church can be lonely

- Get me out of the building without having to leave

2. Open the flow… allow for the the ability to have connections

- Be open to take a risk to have community formed online.

- Be willing to move away from the business and move towards the ministry aspects.

3. Empower the Church

- Our role is to empower the church

- There is value in appearing to be current with technology for those outside the church.

4. Maximize the Technology

- Move from “Old” to “New”

5. Become the Church “Geek Squad”

- Train

- Use your Skilz

- Share the Info

- Produce/Share

- Help Student Ministry provide training for “Do’s and Don’ts” for social networking for Children and parents

6. Become the Catalyst

- Help others on your ministry team maximize social networks

- You are more than a repairman

- Partnering with vendors to incorporate social networking with ministry

- Don’t stay in your office

- Be an influencer

MinistryTECH – Keynote Session 1

Brad Sheriff – VP of Brand Technology Sonic Drive In

Driving Innovation and Relevance

How to solve altitude sickness: Cherry Lime-Aid and Ice-Cream Sunday

Sonic Drive In is in 44 of 50 states

What does Innovation look like?  Who is the most innovative person?  Jerry Seinfeld – because he sees what the rest of us overlook and ignore  WWJD (What Would Jerry Do)

How Does Innovation lead to technology:

- Innovation breads directed activity and action

- Innovation creates positive energy

- Innovation leads to improvement

- Fail your way to success

How Sonic Tech Works

>Customers 

>    Project Management (Idea Gathering, Prioritization) >

              >    Retail|
               >   System Dev  – Developers
               >   Infrastructure – Data Center, Business Continuity, LAN/WAN

>  Implementation and Training

   – You can build anything you want, but you have to train people how to use it or the technology is useless

> Customer Service – Taking the time from learn from the experience that  you ‘customer’ has.Technology is not a perfect science, you have to be focused on the users.

You have to be deliberate about structure and process.

- Results Oriented departments get the $$ –

- If everyone understands how IT works they will include you in the decisions

- Perception Rules with the lack of hard facts

- Manage the expectations of your “customers”, there is always more good ideas than there is time.

Who’s First?

- Who defines where your organization is going technically? 

- Can your senior leadership tell you what your technical strategy in 30 words or less?

  – Can your staff?

Results – How/When do we Win?

- what is success?

Take away:

Balanced Initiatives

Know your customers

Get out More

Create a culture of Reinvestment/Return

Change the way you see the world

WWSD (What would Seinfeld Do?)

MinistryTECH Day One

We arrived yesterday in Colorado Springs and have been enjoying catching up with some old friends and enjoying meeting new friends.

Early Tuesday Jeremie and I left Galesburg and took the train to Chicago then the L to Midway, flew Southwest to Denver and drove to Colorado Springs.  We were on the same flight as the guys from Granger so we have had too much fun for one day of travel. (Greetings from Midway says it all!).

Wednesday started with Ministry Tours at Compassion International and New Life Church.

Compassion International’s DataCenter

Second on our Tours was New Life Church

After the Tours at Compassion and New Life we hit Sonic for a little lunch

Ian and Clif had to respond to a crisis at the office, so Ian set up his monster Sonic WiFi rig

After lunch we decided to see some Colorado Spring Sights… Our first stop was the Manitou Springs Cave Dwellings.  These dwellings were built between 1100 and 1300 AD

Jeremie taking in the Manitou Cave Dwellings

The Granger Guys inside a tower at the cave dwelling

Justin deep in thought…. Jeremie just keeps appearing all over the place.

After the Manitou Cave Dwellings we headed to the Garden of the Gods an awesome park with several huge rock formations.

“Umm that is a big rock”

After the Garden of the gods we decided to take a dirt road with a bunch of switch backs up a mountain, this was a good adventure and provided a ton of great views.  This is a panorama from my phone.

We had a great day taking in some sites, the altitude does make you a little more winded when you are climbing rock formations and hills… so now its time to get to bed.  The ‘work’ begins tomorrow… MinistryTech starts at 9 am.  If you weren’t able to make the trip… join us on the stream.

Tons more photos are uploaded to flickr, go here to see the photos from All MinistryTECH 09