Great Tech Tools For Church Planters & Pastors (Part 2)

Evernote
Evernote allows you to keep docs, websites, files, notes, etc. all in sync with your mac, phone, iPad, or any other device you use.  No need to connect cables, it all syncs automatically.  It use it a lot for to-do lists, sermon prep, meeting notes, etc.  I start on my mac, continue it on my iPad, and maybe do edits on the go on my phone.  It's fantastic.

Crash Plan Pro
For those of you who don't have the patience to connect your computers or devices to external hard drives to back up, Crashplanpro is a great tool.  Just download it on all your devices and it automatically backs them up anytime you're online.   No worries no hassle.

Mediafire
Our entire staff is addicted to Mediafire.   Mediafire works great to share large and small files, pictures, docs, videos, etc.  It creates hyperlinks you can attach to emails, websites, or whatever else you use to share files.  We also use it to store and share all our church pictures, graphic design, videos, MP3s of messages, staff resources, etc. 

Trumpia
This is a text message service that allows you to send special SMS messages to groups of people.  We are testing it with our Leadership Team right now.  You can send them reminders of meetings, important updates and prayer requests, or links to a resource you want them to have.

YouVersion LIVE
We haven't started using this yet, but I've heard great things about the LIVE feature of YouVersion.  It allows people to easily interact with church services and any other live experiences in your church.  Many churches use it during their worship services, so that people can take notes on their phone, download resources, respond to polls, etc.

Square
If you need to receive credit cards from people for any reason, Square is just about the best new invention out there.  The creator of Twitter created Square.  It allows you to receive donations and purchases without having a merchant account, which is awesome. You literally just download the Square app and they'll send you a Square "box" to plug into your iPhone or iPad and you can start receiving donations/money.  We use it at our Resource Center, to collect fees for seminars we host, and much more.

Eventbrite

Eventbrite empowers you with simple but powerful tools to manage, promote, and sell out your event. It's free and easy to use.   You can use it to register people for conferences, retreats, events, etc. 

QR codes 
QR codes are a type of bar-code you can easily create that people can scan with their phones and it instantly directs them to a website.  We use it on our Tithe/Offering envelopes to take them straight to our giving webpage. We use it on our Sunday programs to take them straight to our webpage.  We also use them on mailers, doorhangers, and invite cards.  I recommend using http://qrcode.good-survey.com/ so that you can track the effectiveness of your links.

Google Adwords / Yelp Reviews /  Facebook Ads
Church planters are constantly asking us what are the most effective ways to use social media and online marketing tools to spread the word about our church.  Obviously the #1 reason people visit our church (and yours) is through personal invitation, but in terms of web tools, here is how most people have found our church: (1) Google Adswords, (2) Yelp Reviews, (3) Facebook Ads.   If you don't have those set up for your church, you're missing a great opportunity.   In terms of Yelp and Google reviews, start by asking your core leadership team and volunteers to write 5 star reviews on your profile.

ElevationResources / LifeChurch.tv resources
In terms of free quality resources for churches, you can't beat Elevation Church and LifeChurch.tv's resources.  They have awesome graphic designs, videos, and many other great resources that can save you a lot of time and money. 

Great Tech Tools for Church Planters & Pastors (Part 1)

As South Bay Church grows, so do the amount of questions that pastors and church planters ask us.  What do you use to schedule volunteers? How do you track stats? How do you use social media?  Which are the same questions we struggled with for a while.  Well, I figured I would right down some of the tools that have been most effective and useful for us so far.  Some of these are obvious and widely used, but others might be a new idea for you, so just take what you whatever you think would be helpful to you:

Fellowship One

Fellowship One is the online database system that we have found to be the best one out there for churches like ours.  Here are some of the features I love most about it: (1) It is completely web-based, so anyone can access it from anywhere; (2) the inFellowship system for Small Group ministry is great, allowing your people to sign up online and your leaders to manage groups themselves; (3) the iPhone app is a great tool that puts the whole church database in your hands anytime; (4) it groups profiles by families, allowing you to communicate with families or individuals; (5) it allows you to query people by just about any category, for example, "all males, with kids, who attend a small group, and smoke cigars".

Planning Center Online
One of the only weaknesses of FellowshipOne is the volunteer scheduling feature, which is why we use Planning Center to communicate with and schedule volunteers.  I guess F1 recognized that weakness, which is why this year they are 'merging' with Planning Center, which is incredible news to churches that already use both these database systems!  PC allows you to create profiles for each of your volunteers, schedule them to serve, send emails with the request (in which they reply "accept" or "decline", and much more.

GOOGLE: Docs, Calendar, Apps for Business
One of the benefits of living in Silicon Valley is that we get to learn from great companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. headquartered in our back yard.  We have dozens of people in our church that work at all those companies, so we get to visit, tour, and learn from them often.  Our Google buddies are constantly teaching us new tools and ways to use Google for our church, which I must say, has saved us lots and lots of time and maximized communication within our staff.

If you don't yet know the power of Google docs, you really need to try it.  It allows you to share/edit live spreadsheets, presentations, etc.  We use it for our stats, our new believer follow up, our events planning teams, prayer chain sign ups, etc.

The Google Calendar is also an incredible tool that allows your whole team to have easy access to each other's calendars.  You can also create specific shared calendars for "printing schedule", "sermon series", capital campaign dates", "church leaders calendars", etc.

If you want to take your Google experience to the next level, you should also try Google Apps for Business - which is what we're transitioning to this month.  It maximizes the way you do emails, calendars, website hosting, and much more.

Doodle

Doogle is a new tool we're just now starting to use, thanks to one of our Google friends.  "Doodle eliminates the chaos that comes from scheduling and saves you a lot of time and energy when you’re trying to find a time to bring a number of people together. Instead of using just one option, you can propose several dates and times and the participants can indicate their availability online. With one look, you’ll be able to see what the best time is for the meeting, and this works with any calendar system that is being used."  Another great feature is that it can be linked to your Google calendar.

IN PART TWO: Crash Plan Pro, Media Fire, Square, Eventbrite, etc.

God's Favor

"What if the Lord had not been on our side?" Let all Israel repeat.  What if the Lord had not been on our side..."  Psalm 124

That is a question we should all ask at times.  What would have happened if God hadn't stepped in?  Who would we be if God hadn't intervened in our lives?  In this Psalm, David takes the time to think about what would would have happened to the Israelites if God hadn't given them favor.   Here's a summary of what David said would have happened:

• "Our enemies would have conquered us"
• "The pressure would have overwhelmed us"

That reality actually happened to the Israelites.  God told them to go into the promised land and conquer the land, but the people sinned by not having faith to believe God would give them the strength to conquer these "giant" people.  So God told them they would no longer be able to occupy that land and that He would give it to their children instead. 

In Numbers 14:39-45, after the people heard that news, they felt "sorry" for what they had done and decided to try to go into the land anyways.  But Moses said, "Why are you now disobeying the Lord's orders.... It won't work.  Do not go up into the land now.  You will only be crushed by your enemies because the Lord is not with you."  Long story short: they went anyways and got crushed.

What if the Lord in not on our side? 

Who would we be if God hadn't intervened in our lives? 

• I would have never gotten out of a life of drugs and unfulfilling addictions.
• I would have probably not married a godly women and would be divorced by now.
• I would be living a selfish life in pursuit of worldly wealth, a life with no impact.

As I think of the process of starting a church, if God hadn't been on our side...

• Our fund-raising attempt would have failed
• Our attempts to build a launch team would have failed
• Our attempts to partner with our city would have failed
• Our marketing and church growth strategies would have failed
• Our efforts in reaching people far from God would have been empty

Wow, how we need God's favor.  If God is not on our side, all this is meaningless.   If the good things we do are not initiated and guided by His Hands, they will be empty deeds.  This principle is why our core value #11 as a church is this:

"We depend on the favor of God – We believe God-sized movements happen when we act in audacious faith in the power of the Holy Spirit."

Without God on our side, we will fail.

What Does God Want?

You ever wander what God really wants from us? So much of our energy is spent trying to figure out that question. What should I do next... what is my purpose in life... how should I live my life... what does God want from me?

Well, I love texts like this one I came across this week where God just plainly tells us what He is really looking for from us:

"What does the Lord your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases Him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you mus always obey the Lord's commands... for your own good." Deuteronomy 10:12-13  (NLT)

When you don't know what to do, just ask yourself these questions that I'm asking myself this week:

1. Am I living in a way that pleases Him? Do I have a healthy fear of God?
2. Am I loving God with all my heart and soul or is my heart cold?
3. Am I serving God with all my heart and soul or is my life lived for myself?
4. Am I obeying the things I already know He wants me to do?
5. Do I believe that obeying Him is really for my own good?

Maybe things would be much better for us if instead of trying to figure out our specific purpose in life, we would focus on pleasing Him, loving Him, serving Him, and obeying Him. Maybe that's how our purpose unfolds and we find fulfillment in life.

Our trip to Ethiopia

This is a summary of our trip to Ethiopia this month.  The purpose was to meet the staff our partner church, Nazret Emmanuel United Church, and develop a strategy with them of how our new partnership be mutually beneficial. 

We also got to meet our sponsored children through Compassion International, which is one of the best organizations on Earth.  Some of our staff that couldn't come in person to meet their kids made videos that we showed the children through the iPad.  We had an incredible time getting to know the beautiful people of Ethiopia, going into their homes, praying for the sick, and participating in their coffee ceremonies.  Enjoy: