ministrytech

New Logos 4 announced today!

2009-11-02T09:54:00.001-07:00

Logos Bible Software has announced the launch of Logos 4 available today! This new version is a complete redesign of their excellent Bible software. Everything has been re-engineered from the ground up.

New Home Page
The new Home Page makes getting started easier. It looks much like an electronic newspaper with snippets of articles from books in your library. This helps you connect to information in your resources that you might not even know is available in your library.

New Passage and Exegetical Guides
The new Passage Guide is more robust and visually appealing. You can connect to information faster and more in depth with the click of the mouse. These guides provide your own electronic "librarian" to let you deeply study a passage like never before. In an instant, dozens of resources are open and ready for you to explore simply by typing in the passage you want to study.

The Exegetical Guide connects you to Greek and Hebrew resources and information without the need to be a Greek scholar. This guide breaks your passage down into its component words and then links you to resources that allow you to study each of those words in depth.

Greek and Hebrew for English Readers
Reverse interlinears are built directly into many English Bibles, allowing you to see the Greek or Hebrew behind your text. Highlight a portion of the text in one interlinear, and Logos 4 will highlight the corresponding text in your other open Bibles.

Better Maps and Graphics
Topographical, interactive maps make the biblical world come alive. Each map includes global coordinates linked to Google Maps. Thousands of other images from your library provide you with additional perspectives on the place you’re exploring.

Connect to more information about Bible people, places and things
One of my favorite features in Logos 3 was Biblical people. Type a name or a passage that contains a persons name, and you are presented with that person's interactive family tree. This is great when exploring the Old Testament to see the connections and relationships between people. Well Logos 4 has raised the bard by improving this feature and adding a similar function for Bible Places, and Biblical Things.

These tools help you visualize 3D maps and diagrams of your information and add depth to your studies like never before.

There are literally dozens of changes that have been made to this software. I have always been a fan of Logos, but Logos 4 certainly raises the bar. Check out this new version. Whether you are upgrading from version 3 or looking for a tool to help you go deeper in your Bible study faster - Logos 4 is a great tool for the job! Check out the intro video on their website for more information.

LaCie Iamakey flash drive is a great solution

2009-10-13T20:06:00.001-06:00

Flash drives are a great solution for backing up or transferring files IF you can find one when you need it. It seems like no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to keep one in my pocket all the time. They aren't particularly bulky or heavy, I just forget to put it in my pocket all the time. That is where LaCie's Iamakey flash drive wins hands down! The Iamakey is not much thicker than a regular key, fits on my keychain and its solid, metal case is durable enough to live in my pocket all the time with my keys. I love this solution. It is a bit more expensive that other drives, but the convenience is worth it to me. It comes in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB models that range from $22 to $55 respectively. Now, if I have my keys in my pocket, which I ALWAYS do, my flash drive is ready to go.

Check out the Iamakey - it will be the only flash drive I buy from now on.

The Blessings of Christianity - Neal Pollard

2009-10-12T16:06:00.001-06:00

The Blessings of Christianity - Neal Pollard

Sunday, October 11, 2009 AM. Neal brought an encouraging lesson reminding us of the "Blessings of Christianity."

Thayer available on Pre-Pub for Logos

2009-09-29T09:51:00.001-06:00

The very popular Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Thayer is available for pre-pub through the Logos website. This work has long been a favorite of many preachers and Bible students and Logos is going to make it available for their Libronix Library System. You can check it out here - Six Years Later, Thayer’s Lexicon Is Back on Pre-Pub - Logos Bible Software Blog

Bible Passages and Twitter - Ref.ly to the rescue

2009-09-10T08:19:00.001-06:00

The social networking tool Twitter (twitter.com) allows users to post short messages to everyone who "follows" them. SInce each "tweet" (that's what twitter users call their posts) can be no longer than 140 characters long, citing Bible passages can be quite a challenge. Usually there is not enough room to type out the Bible passage and say anything about it. Enter Ref.ly by Logos Bible Software (Logos.com). When you go to http://Ref.ly you are able to enter a Bible reference (James 1:2-3 for example) and then click the "transform" button at the bottom of the screen. The Bible reference is converted into a short web address perfectly suited for your "tweet." Here is the compact URL for James 1:2-3 ( http://ref.ly/Jm1.2f ). This short web address can be copied and pasted into your tweet or simply click the Tweet button in Ref.ly and you will be redirected to Twitter.com where you can log in and the URL will be added to a post for you. When a users clicks the link in your Tweet, they are redirected to http://Bible.Logos.com to view your specified verse in context.

Another great feature of Ref.ly is that the user can specify the version they want people to see by simply adding the abbreviation to the end of the compact URL provided. To get people to James 1:2-3 in the New King James version just add ";NKJV" to the end of the URL ( http://ref.ly/Jm1.2f;NKJV ). There are 20 translations you can link to overall.

I recently saw a case where a preacher tweets a link to the main passage for his Sunday morning sermon during the week so that members can read it and study it before his lesson. Sunday Bible class teachers could create links to passages they want their class to study during the week in preparation for Sunday mornings discussion. Children's Bible class teachers could post links to the sections they will be teaching so that parents can review the passages with their kids before Bible class. There are many ways this could be helpful in real ministry situations.

This tool provides us with great opportunities to share Bible passages within our circle of friends. Use it with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any place where a short link to the Bible text is helpful. Give it a try - it is fast, easy and convenient.

Doing Mission Work in the Sixth Most Populus Country in the World - Facebook!

2009-09-05T22:16:00.001-06:00

That's right - If Facebook was a country, it would be the sixth largest country by population on earth! It seems that as time goes by, the Lord provides more and more ways for His people to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel." The question is: what are we doing with these opportunities? Are we using these opportunities to take quizzes like "what color Crayola crayon are you" or "what Harry Potter character are you most like"? Do we show that we are more concerned about politics than righteousness? Jesus said:

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man" (Matthew 15:18).

I would suggest that the things that proceed out of our fingertips do the same thing. We often times reveal where are hearts are by the things we talk about, text about and post online. We have a great opportunity online to share our faith, encourage our brothers and sisters and reach out show what is really important to us. I would like to suggest a few things we can do as individuals to use these online opportunities to their fullest.

Practice the presence of the Lord - Whether we are in a physical situation or a 'cyber" situation, we need to remember that the Lord is there with us. Would he approve of the quizzes we take, the comments we make and the language we use in Facebook?
Become an encourager - The apostles called a man named Joseph, Barnabas, his name meant "Son of Encouragement" (Acts 4:36). We need to have a heart like Barnabas must have. Facebook gives us all a chance to encourage others when things aren't going so well for them. Start a prayer group to encourage someone struggling with health issues or just send some electronic smiles and hugs to someone who needs them. You could really make someone's day and demonstrate the love of Christ in your life.
Share a Scripture - We all have favorite Scriptures that lift us up, make us think, or just touch us in one way or another. Why not pass them along. Type your favorite verse as your status early in the day and meditate on it as the day goes on. You can help others think spiritually by sharing and remind yourself of them blessings of God at the same time.
Post about what you are studying - As you do your personal Bible study, share what you are reading. We often see things in our studies that are new and fresh to us - share those things - maybe they will be new ad fresh to others as well.

If you work at it, I imagine you can add to this list easily. The trick is to think about it - pray about it - practice it! We have an opportunity through tools like Facebook and Twitter to teach people about Jesus, to share our faith in a new and exciting way. Let's use the opportunity well.

Evernote...where have you been all my life?

2009-08-13T15:03:00.001-06:00

I have to admit right from the jump here that I am not a particularly well organized kind of guy. My desk is usually messy (as is the rest of my office). I have tried to get organized - I have read Getting Things Done three times now - but have only had marginal success. But that all changed last week when I found Evernote. I heard about Evernote about 6 months ago, but didn’t give it much attention. I am paying attention now. This product is simply incredible and each day it is reducing the clutter in my office and getting me more and more organized all the time.

What is Evernote?
If you watch some of the videos on the Evernote website or YouTube, the head of the company describes Evernote as an “external brain.” It is a place to store all of the bits and pieces of information you collect throughout the day, knowing that you will always be able to find it again easily. There website say it this way:

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

Whether the information is in text format, PDF or even an image, Evernote can keep track of it for you. The “killer app” functionality of it to me however is how it deals with images. Images added to Evernote are automatically run through a character recognition online and any text that appears in the image becomes searchable! Now I have to admit I was a bit unimpressed by this feature when I first heard about it, but I get it now! Here is an example - someone hands you a business card, you immediately snap a photo of it with Evernote on your phone. It is synchronized online in a couple of minutes and not if you search for any of the information (say the person’s name) that appears on the card, Evernote will find it for you! The system looks at the image and any text it finds becomes searchable information - EVEN HAND WRITTEN TEXT! Now as I said, I didn’t get how great this feature was until I started using it.

Here is a real ministry example from my system. I have a small newspaper article that listed religious struggles that people say they deal with. I thought the list would make good topics for Bible class someday so I wanted to keep track of it. Rather than put it in a file in my desk (that I will never be able to find again or would only have access to when I was in my office) - I hand wrote “Bible Class Idea - Topical” next to the article and took a picture of it with my iPhone in Evernote (I could have scanned it too). Once it was uploaded and processed (a couple of minutes total) when I search my notes for the word “topical”, Evernote shows me the image of this article! That to me is amazing. The best part is that I can get to this note - from my laptop, online, or on my phone - literally anytime, anywhere! Now when I am talking to a Bible class teacher about a possible class I can pull this exact article up on my phone and share the idea with them. I can even email then a copy of the article right from my phone while we are talking!!

How do you get information into Evernote?
One of the great features of the product for me is how easy it is to get information into it. You can enter information into Evernote through a desktop client (MAC or PC). Simply create a new “note” and type or drag and drop text into the note. You can also drag and drop PDF files into the system with ease. Scan a printed document into the system and once it has been uploaded it becomes completely searchable. There are components you can add to your web browser for making capturing information from websites a breeze too. Just click the icon in the menu bar of your favorite broswer and the text is added to Evernote. You can shift-click the icon and Evernote will create a PDF of the webpage as a note too. In addition to text or document based information, you can also add create audio notes from your phone and even video notes from your built-in iSight camera if you own a MAC. Another interesting feature is that you can email information into Evernote. When you sign up for your free online account, Evernote assigns you a unique email address. Use this email address to send PDFs, text, or images into your note library.

Once the note is in your system you can add "tags" which work like keywords to keep track of the note. In addition to your tags, any text in the note or image is searchable. PDF files need to be created as "searchable" PDFs before they are added to Evernote if you want to be able to search the body of the document. You can even create separate and distinct "notebooks" to help you sort your notes if you like.

Perfect for preachers and/or students
The uses for ministry and students are unlimited. Her are a few suggested uses, but I am finding more and more everyday!

Students

1. Never lose you class notes again! At the end of the day, copy all of your class notes into your note library to create a permanent, searchable back-up that becomes accessible from your laptop, phone or any online computer.
2. Take a photo of assignments and notes the instructor writes on the whiteboard and they will become searchable and indexed in your note library for later review.
3. Clip information from a website for research for a paper you are writing. Tag the new note with the subject of your paper and you will be able to find all your notes on that subject in seconds - from anywhere!
4. Type (or take a photo) of the assignment page in your course syllabus so you always have access to your assignments specs and due dates.

Preachers/ministers

Place a PDF or your sermon outline in your note library, add the date and location you last preached it as a text note with it and keep track of where and when each sermon has been preached.
Collect illustration ideas as text, audio or photo images into you library - tag the note with subject ideas and you have a fully searchable illustrations database.
Forward important emails into your library to create a permanent, searchable copy.
Take a quick photo of the list of elders at a church you are visiting to keep a record of who works where.
Copy Bible study notes into your library to make them searchable from your phone.
Scan or photo receipts for expenses
Forward you final travel itinerary email received from your travel agent or airline to have it accessible on your phone or any online computer to check dates, times and flight numbers.
Type memorable quotes in as text notes for easy retrieval when you need them.
Keep lists of possible Bible class topics
Collect bulletin articles with the subject, date, and Scriptures verses to create a searchable index

The list goes on and on and on and on....I have to say that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of how this product can be used. It is certainly flexible enough for you to customize it to your way of doing things.

What does Evernote cost?
The best part of Evernote is the price - it is FREE! You can upload 40MB per month for no charge at all. You can get a Premium membership for $45 per year that allows you up to 500MB per month. This really does make this product a no-brainer from the start. Try it - you will love it I am sure!

I may always be somewhat organizationally challenged, but Evernote has helped me come a very long way in a very short time. The amount of information that was previous locked in my office drawers, or worse hidden in a stack of papers I hadn't process yet, is now all indexed and searchable anywhere I need it - even on my phone! I will be blogging more and more about how I am using Evernote and I ask you to let me know how you are using it too.

If you haven't seen this...you need to

2009-08-12T13:45:00.001-06:00

OK - This isn't about ministry, but it is about technology. The video below demonstrates a new projection technology. The images are being projected live onto the side of these buildings! This is not done post-production. You can check out the website here - Amazing!

Using images in presentations - 11 ways to use them poorly

2009-08-05T12:48:00.001-06:00

The way you use images in your presentations can either make it, by reinforcing those things you want people to remember, or break it by being such a distraction that few people hear what you are saying. Garr Reynolds over at Presentation Zen has an excellent blog post about how NOT to use images in your presentations. I have blogged about Garr's blog before and his book Presentation Zen which I STRONGLY recommend! If you regularly use PowerPoint of Keynote for sermons or Bible class presentations - you need to check this out - PLEASE, if not for yourself, then for your audience =)

Presentation Zen: 11 ways to use images poorly in slides

Check out Audio Boo for short podcasted audio from your iPhone

2009-07-09T09:21:00.001-06:00

I just got back from meeting with Mike Green, an evangelist living outside Tachoma, WA. He and a few other families are involved in planting a new congregation in DuPont, WA (www.dupontchurchofchrist.org). My family and I actually had the pleasure of attending the very first worship service of this newly formed congregation and it was exciting to be there knowing that the Lord's church is active for maybe the first time in that city. Please pray for this new congregation as they reach out to the community with the Gospel.

The next morning Mike and a fellow worker of his met with me to discuss how they might use technology to reach out into the area. We talked about a number of things, but at one point Mike said he liked the idea of recording very short (2 or 3 minute) audio files that he could then use for evangelism issues. Providentially, as I went about looking at new tools and techniques during the week I discovered Audio Boo. Audio Boo does exactly what Mike was asking me about - you can record very short (3 minute maximum) audio clips and post them to the web. The service is very much like Twitter (a little like Facebook) in that you can "follow" certain peoples "boos" and they can follow yours. The downside of this service is that it is for the iPhone only at this point. (I realize that leaves a great many people out of the loop, but it isn't my product.) You simply download the app to your iPhone and set up your free account online and you are ready to Boo! One of the great feature of this service is that you can have AudioBoo automatically "tweet" your posts on your Twitter account and/or post it to your Facebook profile status for others to hear. You will also be able to subscribe to the podcasted Boos through iTunes on any computer. This is certainly a niche product that may not appeal to everyone, but it seems like the potential is there to deliver your message in a new a interesting form.

We'll have to see if this service really takes off or not, but it certainly fits the need that Mike was talking about. I have recorded my first Boo and you can listen to it here. It should also appear in my Twitter posts (@jmhite) and in my Facebook profile. As you can see you can also embed the player into your website or blog.

Listen!
NON-IPHONE USERS - AudioBoo does provide a service for those without an iPhone (it is called PhoneBoo), but the catch is you have to call a phone number in the UK to make your recording. Obviously not very practical for those of us in the U.S. You can use Skype to call the number and save some coin, but that does cause another link in the chain to keep up with. One of the advantages of the iPhone app is being able to create your audio anywhere, anytime.

Five Ideas for Using Twitter for Church Communication

2009-07-07T14:39:00.001-06:00

I ran across this article online today and thought I would pass it along. I agree with the comment regarding the details we should provide regarding prayer requests, but overall I like the content that he suggests we drive with Twitter.

Here are five great Twitter ideas you can use for your church communication efforts:
Celebrations: Every time a person dedicates their life to Jesus, gets married in the church, or does something awesome you can tell the world and you church members about it!
Prayer: While you may want to be careful on what details you provide, you can ask your Twitter followers to pray for a specific need or person — or just offer a short daily prayer people can read and feel energized by.
Events: You can easily keep your congregation or church members informed of planned gatherings (or even spontaneous get together’s) by sending Twitter updates — or why not use it to invite people to church in a non-threatening way?
Sermons or Message: Why not drop a link into your conversation and let people know you have a new sermon or message uploaded so they can listen or watch if they missed it?
Community Dialogue: People in your community will probably be on Twitter and you can begin conversations on pressing needs in your town, schools, or other churches. You can discuss social issues to religion to sports…all great things for building trust and building your church “brand”.

link: 5 Great Twitter Ideas for Church Communications :: Church Communications Pro | Church Marketing | Church Web Design

Better presentations using index cards

2009-07-02T09:56:00.000-06:00

Here is a quick idea to help you create better PowerPoint presentation to support your sermons or Bible classes - start with index cards. Too often people start straight into a blank PowerPoint file without a plan. They go point by point through their sermon outline and type in the bullet points and stop occasionally to search Google images for a small rectangular image they can place on the slide. This approach just doesn't work well. The result is often a static "sermon outline" on screen rather than an attempt to communicate their message visually.

But there is hope. Those 3x5 index cards you can buy at any office supply store are roughly the same shape as the slides you project for your presentation. Armed with your sermon outline and a stack of index cards begin to plan how best to visually present your material BEFORE you ever even open PowerPoint on your computer. As you pour through your outline look for elements you want to emphasize visually and go through the process here:

Take a blank card and draw (yes, you can!) what words and images you want on the slide. You don't have to be a Van Gogh here, even simple stick figures can say a great deal about what you are trying to visualize for your audience. (The book The Back of a Napkin by Dan Roam is a great example of what can be communicated with simple stick figures and diagrams.) You just want to get a sense of what kind of image you need to search for later - two people shaking hands, a image of the cross, an empty tomb, etc...
Be specific. Write the exact words or phrases you want to put on the slide on the index card. If you have to write too small for the words to fit easily they will probably be too small and crowded on your final slide to be effective. If you aren't sure about readability, set the card 8 to 10 feet away and see if you can read it easily. If not, your audience will struggle when it is projected on the walls. Reduce the number of words to as few as possible.
Lay the cards out in order and look at the flow from slide to slide. Does it make sense? Is it connected? Are the major sections well defined? At this point you can rearrange and reorder the cards any way you want. Create a stack and flip through them one card at a time to see how the ideas will play out on screen. Note that any changes in order may need to be reflected in your sermon outline as well.
Once you are satisfied with the flow, open PowerPoint and lay out your slides one at a time based on what you put on each card. Google search (or visit a stock photo site like iStockphoto) for the images you ALREADY determined you wanted to make your point visually. You know what you are looking for - the problem will be finding it. THIS IS THE KEY! Often times people start looking for images before they really know what they want. They have an abstract idea and begin the search and far too quickly settle for what they find. Determine before you ever go to Google exactly what you want. You may not find it exactly, but you will be much closer to your mark.

This approach will help you be more intentional about the flow of your presentation and the images you choose to put on the screen. It will help keep you focused. Try it - you may be surprised at how much it helps.

What about Twitter???

2009-06-23T23:00:00.001-06:00

I have to admit when I first heard about Twitter I didn't get it. Twitter is a micro-blogging, social networking environment where people post short bits of information. These short posts must be no more than 140 keystrokes long and are called Tweets. Tweets are very much like your status message on Facebook (if you don't know what Facebook is check it out), but without the other frills. You can "follow" a particular person or group and stay up to date on their tweets as they are posted. One feature that attracts people is that you can follow and post tweets from your phone.

When I first checked it out a number of months ago I was quickly bored by the posts I read. It was mostly what people were doing at the moment (what TV show they were watching, what store they were shopping in, what they just ate for dinner and so on). It didn't take long for me to move on to other tools and write Twitter off as relatively useless. But I have to say I am changing my mind. No, I have not gained a new interest in what people had for dinner this evening, but I have found some folks to follow that are doing much, much more with this tool.

I fancy myself a shutterbug and so I started "following" the "tweets" from some professional photographers, whose work I admire. I noticed that for the most part their tweets contained links to blog posts, articles and images they had posted on the web. In essence, they were using their tweets to drive traffic to their main websites or blogs. I started learning by their posts. I was more aware of what was going on in the field of photography and I was starting to pay attention. I found out about seminars and events through tweets before they were even posted on the web! I was able to sign up for a seminar here in Denver before it was available to the general public because the photographer posted a link in his tweet. That is when the lightbulb went off for me. You see Twitter is about connecting people with information. Oh sure, there are thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands) of people that are going to tweet that they just brushed their teeth, but that is the background noise we must get past. We can drive people to information and if we connect them to information they want (or need) they will keep "following."

So what does this mean for ministry?
One ministry example to look to is House to House, Heart to Heart. You may know HTH from the direct mail work they do for the church, but they are doing more than that. Their website hosts video lessons, sermon audio, articles, tracts and more. They are also using Twitter very well. Two or three times a day they "tweet" with links to content on their site. Sometimes they link to articles, other times it is a link to a sermon audio, but the point is they are driving traffic. They are "pushing" information out rather than simply posting the content and hoping people find out that it is there. Often times we build it (a building, a website, etc...) and hope people will come. But Jesus told us to GO and teach. The folks at House to House obviously understand that. They are going, and as they go they are teaching. Certainly I suggest that you check out their website, but I also suggest that you follow them on Twitter at @HousetoHouseHTH.

Imagine driving people to your podcast or sermon audio on your website. Think about letting people know that you just posted a great article to your blog on having stronger marriages. Maybe you simply tweet a verse of the day with a link back to your website for more. Tweet about a seminar you are doing with a link to your website with the details. Can you see the possibilities? Check out Twitter, but don't tell people what you had for dinner - give them food for their souls instead. These tools can help us reach thousands, what message are we sending them?

You can follow me on Twitter at @jmhite.

Don't let the technology drive the need...

2009-06-15T21:07:00.002-06:00

Technology today is in some senses more affordable than ever. As prices come down we are often driven to implement technologies just because we can afford them now. So you can record your Sunday morning sermon on a video and post it to your website. That's great! But why do it? Most often the answer is simply, "because we can." We must think through these situations more thoroughly. What does the audience need to hear? Does your web audience need to hear a sermon designed to edify and motivate people who are already Christians? Or would they be better off hearing a lesson designed for them? We must think about the people we may reach...what do they need to hear? Are we giving them what they need or simply what we want to give them because we can? Too often we find a need to use technology rather than identify a need and then use technology to fill it.

Update: 1100 views on Slideshare in 5 months

2009-06-09T16:17:00.003-06:00

About 5 months ago I wrote about Slideshare. This website allows you to post PowerPoint files to be viewed over the internet. As a test I posted the file below from a sermon I did using images from the Hubble Telescope interspersed with Bible verses. Well, without doing much promoting to drive traffic to it, it has been viewed 1100 times. In internet terms 1100 isn't reaching the millions of views that some viral YouTube videos get, but I got a Bible based message on creation to about 220 people each month for the last 5 months(avg). I'll take it. Think of what we could do if we tried to get the word out and promote these presentations. In addition to the online views, it has also been downloaded almost 500 times. Who knows where it has gone from there.

We need to look at new tools like Slideshare as opportunities to reach people. Each day, there are people seeking through these electronic tools. Will they find the Lord's church spreading the message of God?The Beauty of the Universe

Make it big enough to be read easily!

2009-06-07T22:17:00.002-06:00

Often times I am asked, “What is the best size font to use for my PowerPoint?” The answer is simple - one that is readable! That may seem a bit flippant, but it is the correct answer. You presentation should not be a eye test!! Bottom line is no matter how profound your lesson may be if they can’t read it from where they are sitting, it will detract from your message. Different auditoriums are different. What works in a small building may not work in a larger one. The size of the building, the size of the projected image, the colors being used on the slide, the font chosen, and even the brightness of the projectors all factor into how big your font should be. In other words, there is no universal answer to the question. TEST IT! Get into your auditorium, project your presentation, GO TO THE BACK OF THE ROOM and cycle through your slides. Are they readable? If they are - you found the right size font. If they are not, make them bigger. It is not really rocket science, it just takes some extra time.

Follow the “10-20-50” rule (actually it is more like a set of guidelines…)
There are some that suggest the “10-20-30” formula for your presentations. TEN slides, TWENTY minutes, THIRTY point font. While this may work is a small boardroom type presentation I can assure you that it won’t work in many larger auditorium settings. Thirty point font is too small in many situations and so I suggest a change to “10-20-50”. While again this concept should not be seen as a universal antidote to unreadable presentations, it can provide a starting guide from which to work.

10 SLIDES - Your presentation should not have more than a total of TEN slides to present your message. The idea here is that too many screen changes and transitions can become a distraction. Also, limiting yourself to ten total slides forces you to focus and simplify your message to its core elements. There certainly isn’t much room for rabbit chasing here.

20 MINUTES - Keep you presentation to twenty minutes when possible. Some suggest that after twenty minutes most people’s attention spans start to wane and they start tuning out. I have to say however that I have sat through presentation where I was tuning out far sooner than twenty minutes because the speaker didn’t seem interested or excited about his material. I have also sat in presentation that lasted well over and hour where I was riveted to the speaker because he was passionate and enthusiastic. Again, this should be seen as a guide, not a hard and fast rule.

50 POINT FONT - Keep your font size about 50 points at all times. This is where I personally think the “10-20-30” rule falls apart. Thirty point lettering seen from a distance is very hard to read. It also encourages the presenter to put too much text on each slide. Strive to limit the number of words you use on the slide (don’t just read full sentences off your slides) and make them as big as you functionally can. Now I know, I can hear you already - “there is no way I can fit everything I need to say on the slide using 50 point font.” My response is direct and to the point - you probably have too much text on your slide - but that is a topic for another post. In the mean time, simplify, simplify, simplify.

The 66% rule
There is another technique that I think can be very helpful in helping you select a more readable font size without leaving the comfort of your computer screen. (I actually like this better than to “10-20-50” rule.) After you have created your slides (or at least a few of them), switch to Slide Sorter View (in Keynote it is called Light Table). This view defaults to 66%. Scan through the slide in this mode and this size. If anything is difficult to read - it is too small!

Try these tips in your next presentation. Readability is a common problem and one the is curable with a little extra time and though. Remember, just because it looks good on your computer screen doesn’t mean much. You are sitting 24 inches away!! Test your presentation when you can in the environment where it is going to be viewed and make it readable. Remember, if they cannot read it it only serves as a distraction to your message.

Improve your presentations by eliminating rectangles

2009-06-04T07:53:00.002-06:00

One of the most common mistakes I see in creating PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentations deals with how images are presented in the slide. Sadly, the templates and wizards that come with these presentation programs often reinforce bad layouts. Many of these templates ask for a line to text for a title which sits above a rectangular image that has been inserted (see image 1). You’ve seen it before. Probably more times than you can count. So what’s wrong with it? The answer lies in how our eyes move through an image.

The slide area itself presents a rectangle on the screen or wall. The edges of this rectangle “contain” the images and text you use to communicate your message. When you place another image inside this “container” its edges create barriers that our eyes run into. Rather than allowing the eye to move smoothly through the slide area, these hard edged rectangular images actually block eye movement. Hard vertical edges form lines that our eyes just don’t want to cross. We will certainly cross them, but not smoothly and easily.

The second problem this layout creates is that often times images are presented too small to really help communicate. Because they are relegated to a small rectangle in the bottom portion of the slide they often lack punch and emotion. They seem more like afterthoughts than deliberate choices to communicate your message. In addition, in a larger auditorium this smaller image can be much harder to see clearly from the back of the room.

Remove rectangles to allow smoother eye movement
So what do we do about it? The best approach to take in laying out your slides is to remove as many rectangles and hard vertical edges as possible. Often this can be done simply by making your image fill the entire slide. This allows the eye to move through the image itself, not just bump up against its edges. Your eye moves unobstructed through the image to the text you want them to focus on. This allows the image to help reinforce your message. Large images not only aide eye movement, they can convey more emotion and impact. As you can see from these two examples, the slides with the images full screen create more impact and tend to communicate a stronger message.

You cannot always avoid adding rectangular images and boxes into your slides, but the fewer the better. Look for ways to eliminate these barriers and your slides will be more effective and easier on the eyes.

Nobody cares about your website....

2009-05-26T08:40:00.001-06:00

I know this title sounds strange coming from a guy that advocates websites especially for ministry, but the truth is the phrase is not mine. This title was lifted from an interesting article on Media Salt. The article talks about how the movement of information is changing and new tools offer new possibilities. Sometimes I think we still have the "if we build it they will come attitude to reaching out with our message.

Your website should be the best one-stop shop for all of your content, but not the only shop in town. Visitors should be able to easily find the information they’re looking for on your site, but they should also be able to get your information in a way that’s convenient to them.

New tools like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and others joined with powerful mobile devices like iPhones, iPods and laptop computers can and should change the way we approach getting our message out. The guys at Media Salt have written about new approaches to things like Facebook in the past. Evangelism in the church today is often a "if they visit us we will teach them" proposition. If we can see these new technologies as a way to push information out to people and make ourselves accessible - we can teach them even if they don't come to our buildings.

DropBox lets you share and sync files online

2009-05-25T15:19:00.001-06:00

I have just discovered a great little gem called Dropbox. I work with a number of guys that have a machine at their office and a different machine at their home. It never fails that one of them will complain that a file they need is on their machine at home when they are in the office. Dropbox allows you to sync files on two different machines, share files with other users, or even access those files from a web browser when you are away from your machines. It is compatible with MAC, Windows and Linux machines, and the best part is the price - you can have 2GB of online storage FREE. There are paid versions that allow for greater disk space, but 2 GB should be enough for most casual users.

How it works...
Basically once you start an account with Dropbox a folder is placed on your harddrive. As you drag and drop files or folders into the Dropbox folder they are automatically and immediately synced to your account online. If you have a second computer linked to your online account, the Dropbox folder of the second machine is also updated automatically. That is cool!

Say you are working at home on a sermon, Bible class outline, lectureship manuscript or even some photos from a recent mission trip. You save the files into your Dropbox folder on your computer and your done. When you get to your office you realize that you forgot to put the files you needed on a jumpdrive, but never fear - simply open the Dropbox folder on your office machine and your files are there. Make whatever changes you need to the files and your home machine is updated automatically as well. This can really be a lifesaver!

Another feature that is worth noting is that you can share files and folders with other people as well. Collaborate on a project. Share your presentation files with a colleague. Or place files that need to be accessed by a group of people in your Dropbox. When one person makes a change - all files on all the machines sharing that file are updated!!!

Get to your files from a web browser...
Your are also able to access your files from any web browser. Simply sign on to your online account (this is part of the FREE account when you first sign up) and access your files. The online tools allow for full file versioning (you can go back two or three versions) and recovery. If you delete a file from your computer, you can recover it from your online account. Accessing these files from basically anywhere in the world would be a great benefit for traveling missionaries and lectureship speakers. Update your PowerPoint presentation while you are on the road and know that those changes appear on your home computer as well.

There are a number of great uses for this tool. Check it out and let me know what you think.

More and more people turning to MACS

2009-05-16T09:45:00.001-06:00

I recently discovered Media Salt, this website is focused on using technology in ministry. They have some interesting articles about using technologies like Facebook and even Twitter in ministry environments. One article that caught my I was titled, 10 Things to Love About OS X. The writer talks about his switch to the MAC and lists 10 things he loves about the MAC experience. If you are new to the MAC or even considering making the switch this short article is a good read.

Ministry technology in Africa?

2009-05-07T09:27:00.002-06:00

I teach a course at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver on Ministry Technologies. During this course I teach preacher students how to use technologies like PowerPoint® to improve the presentation of their sermons and Bible class lessons. We talk about website development for churches and how to use the Internet and other technologies for evangelism. But we focus the majority of our time in this class teaching them to use the Logos Bible Software. This amazing tool can transform their approach to studying the Scriptures and it excites me every time we get into the classroom with it. The power and advantages of this tool was clearly demonstrated on a recent mission trip to Tanzania, East Africa.

One of the reasons for my trip was to teach the missionaries that work at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching in Arusha, how to use the Logos Bible Software. Logos is such a perfect solution for this environment. One of the struggles missionaries have entering a foreign mission field is taking their research libraries with them. The cost of transporting several hundred volumes into the field is enormous. The weight involved and space needed to store and use these resources can pose insurmountable problems. Another problem these workers face surfaces after they get their paper based books into the field. Bugs, reptiles, dust and dirt quickly begin to erode their precious investments. Hundreds and even thousands of dollars worth of paper based resources can be ruined in this harsh third world environment in a very short period of time. As a result of these challenges, many mission works suffer from a lack of study library materials.

This is really where Logos shines. I boarded the plane in the United States armed with my personal 1700 volume research library all tucked neatly into my laptop carry-on bag that fits neatly "into the overhead bin or under the seat in front of me." Can you tell I have been on a few planes lately? During the flights I was able to do extensive research in the biblical languages, exegetical work on the book of James (which I was also going to be teaching in Arusha), work on a manuscript (even citing my sources with the proper page numbers from their paper-based counterparts) and any other studies I required. All I had to do was power up my laptop, launch Logos and start working. I had access to every book in my library, searchable, hyperlinked and ready to assist me in my studies at 30,000 feet! Try that with paper based resources.

Once on the ground I was able to help teach these men how to use this impressive tool. With the help of the Scholar's Library: Gold edition, these missionaries now have the power of a research library a mouse click away. Each of these missionaries is involved in teaching courses in Bible, hermeneutics, homiletics, exegesis and much more. Now they have access to tools and information that can make them more effective teachers and better Bible students. The in-depth work that Logos allows you to do is really incredible. Two of the men I was teaching are working on advanced academic degrees with Universities here in the U.S. and now they can do the kind of research they need to while they are in the mission field. Best of all, none of their electronic books will erode over time! No reptiles, bugs or other creatures will destroy their investment.

One of the major struggles mission schools have is building good libraries for their students. Again the cost and maintenance for paper-based libraries often pose barriers that cannot be overcome. Once again, Logos can provide a solution to these problems. It is our prayer that we will be able to purchase computers and the Logos Software to equip the school in Arusha, and other such schools around the world, with the tools they need to study God's word more effectively. We currently help with schools like this in Tanzania, Ukraine, Cambodia, India, Uganda, Honduras and Guatemala. Imagine the impact these electronic libraries can have in providing tools for students to prepare themselves to teach God's word throughout the world.

I enjoyed teaching these men how Logos can help them and was reminded once again why Logos has become an indispensable part of my teaching arsenal. This is one technology that can be used anywhere in the world.

Back home....

2009-05-06T12:28:00.001-06:00

I have just returned home from Speaking on a lectureship at the West Visalia church of Christ in California. The lectureship topic was evangelism and I was asked to speak about technology tools for doing evangelism today. You can visit their website to find out how to download the audio (and possibly the video) of these talks. I really appreciated the opportunity to speak about the options and opportunities we have using technology to spread the word. It did however, remind me that have fallen behind in using this tool, my blog, to get this message out as well. I know I have said it before...but I will do better.

This trip to California came just 5 days after I returned from a two week trip to Arusha, Tanzania. I was there to teach in the Andrew Connally School of Preaching. This is a work of the Kensington Woods church of Christ in Hattisburg, MS. We have been associated with this work for a number of years and it was my pleasure to go back again to teach. I taught the book of James to the preacher students and even found some time to share some technology with the local missionaries who live there. I was able to conduct a class on how to use the Logos Bible Software for the missionaries. I enjoyed the trip very much and will write soon about my experiences there.

For now though, after thousands of miles and what seemed like endless rides on airplanes, I am back home with my family and back to work. I will write again very soon.

Blogo and Skitch for adding material to your blog from the desktop

2009-03-06T15:44:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know...it has been awhile between posts again. The main reason for this has been my schedule. I am teaching much ore now and also trying to get ready for another trip to Tanzania! I am very excited about that and look forward to sharing information (and photos) from the trip when I get back.

A second reason that my posts have not been flowing freely lately is that I find the Blogger editor lacking. It does everything fine, but it just isn't convenient (can you say spoiled user here). For this post I am using a new desktop blog editor, Blogo. I am just using this tool for the first time, but I must say it is very easy to get up and running. I have been using MarsEdit, which I like overall, but I have a very hard time with graphics uploading to my posts with it. There seems to be a problem with Blogger and MarsEdit concerning graphics that I cannot seem to fix. Blogo seems to have no such issues. One feature that I really like about Blogo is the preview of my post. When you select preview it shows you how the post will look within your blog. It grabs a template from your blog and shows you EXACTLY how your post will look once posted. Other packages may do that, but MarEdit didn't.

The graphic of the Blogo logo was captured with Skitch. I have to say that I love this tool. Skitch is a screen grab tool, but I must say it is the easiest one I have used. One of the features in Skitch that I am really drawn to is the ability to scale you screen grab before you save it. After you capture the section of the screen that you want to capture you simple drag the size of the window to get the graphic to the desired size. The dimensions of the graphic are listed in the bottom corner of the window and are updated dynamically while you drag the window size. This makes it very easy to get the graphic the size you want right from the get go. Skitch also comes with a web account to store your captures online for easy retrieval. I LOVE THIS APP! It is in beta right now and so the price is right....FREE! I must say however, I have tried to use a number of screen grab programs and Skitch beats them all for ease of use and working the way I need it to.

Sadly, both Blogo and Skitch are for MAC only, so PC users are out of luck. Both of these programs are excellent additions for anyone blogging from a MAC. I am a much happier blogger using them!

Create better slides using "The Rule of Thirds"

2009-01-29T20:29:00.003-07:00

One of the biggest issues I see with PowerPoint presentations is that many of the slides are crowded and out of balance. Often times images are even distorted to try to make enough room for the title and the five, full sentence bullet points that need to be squeezed onto the screen. The first improvement to be made is to reduce the amount of material on each slide. The second improvement to make is to learn to use "The Rule of Thirds" to balance the visuals (text and graphics) an the slide.

"The Rule of Thirds" and how to use it.

Graphic designers and photographers use "the rule of thirds" to create balance and focus attention. Basically, you divide the space (in this case your slide) into equal thirds horizontally and vertically. It's really like drawing a tic-tac-toe board on your slide. Then place the main elements of your image along the lines of the grid.

Obviously you don't leave the grid on your slide it is just a visual reference, but the viewer's eye will naturally go to the area of the image where the lines intersect. These "hotspots" become the perfect place to place text or focus attention. Note the example of the family walking on the beach. Placing the main elements (the family) along the line on the right give the image a

natural balance and creates interest.

You have to be careful not to clutter up the open space with text, but you can strategically place text at a "hotspot" to give it attention but maintain balance in the slide. Note the placement of the text in the lightbulb image and well as where the lit bulb falls. The slide is balanced, easy to read and tells a story. That's what we are after.

Balancing text and images

There are times when you need enough space for more text. By the way...you never need enough space for five, full sentence bullets, but you may have a passage of Scripture that you want to include on the slide for clarity sake. You can still use the rule of thirds to help. Note the slide with the image of Christ and the quote from Romans 5. It stays balanced because the image and the text are placed evenly on the grid set up by the rule of thirds.

Final thoughts

Using the rule of thirds can make an immediate improvement on your slides. If you strive to create balance and remove clutter and your slides will have more impact and communicate more clearly. Give the rule of thirds a try...once you do there is no going back.

The Power of Facebook in ministry

2009-01-19T11:30:00.002-07:00

Facebook has been around for quite awhile now, but has recently surged in popularity. For those not aware of it, Facebook is a "social networking" website. Once you start an account (it's free by the way), you can connect with other "friends" on Facebook and stay in touch. I must say that I tried it just as an experiment at first. I knew that my teenage daughter would approach me at some point about it and I wanted to be aware of how it worked and what is was about. I figured that as an "old guy" I would not connect with many "friends" (20-03 or so was my guess, tops) but I thought it would be worth playing with. Well I just broke 200 friends and I am finding more people all the time.

So what does this have to do with ministry?

First, connecting with people is what ministry is really all about. Some of my Christian friends have posted very encouraging notes on my "wall." (NOTE - once you accept someone as your friend, they can write on your "wall" - this is a place in your profile to leave you notes and stay in touch). Others have written short articles to teach and encourage others about their Christian walk. All of this is ministry!

Secondly, you can connect people together and inform them about a specific need. We have a good friend, Hannah Duke, who is seriously ill. This young 14-year-old woman needs our prayers - that is where Facebook came in. Facebook allows users to create interest "groups" and then invite your friends to join the group. Once you join the group you can write on the group "wall" and the Administrators of the group can post updates and information as needed. One of Hannah's teen Facebook friends started a Facebook Group called "Prayers for Hannah" and invited all of her Facebook friends to join the group and offer prayers on Hannah's behalf. Hannah herself was invited, as was her family. To date, over 470 people have joined this group! Both Hannah and her family have been very encouraged by the notes left on the group wall and the number of people who are praying for them. That is ministry!

Thirdly, you can let people know about events and causes that need their attention. We have posted a group to help let people know about our annual lectureship. This year's theme is "More Than Conquerors: A Study in Joshua." To date more than 250 people have joined the group. Now I realize that doesn't mean that 250 are planning to attend the lectures, but a great many people now know about it! As more details about the lectureship are finalized we can update the group by simply posting this information on Facebook!

Here is another example - I have a good friend that is working on a church plant in the Tacoma, Washington area. He is looking for supporters and people interested in this work. He could create a Facebook group about the church plant. Show people pictures of the area, talk about why the church is so desperately needed in that part of the country. Give people a way to contact him or maybe even donate online using PayPal. Think of the connections that could be made. He may even be able to connect with people in the Tacoma area that want to be a part of this new congregation. That is ministry!

If we will just learn to look at some of these new technologies with spiritual eyes - we may see a world of new ways to teach, preach and edify. Brothers and sisters, THAT is ministry!

Ministry Tech class - midterm help

2009-01-12T07:12:00.002-07:00

For those of you wise enough to be checking this blog on a regular basis, I have a holiday gift for you. The following are some tips, tricks and subjects that you will find on the mid-term exam to be given on Wednesday, Jan. 14 as a take home test. It will be due back to me by Monday, January 19. While I have not given you the answers here, I have given you a great head start in your studying for the test. I have provided links to training videos from Logos on some topics that might be helpful. Most of these training videos are only 2-5 minutes long and should provide excellent review. You might even learn something that I didn't cover.

Review creating (or opening already created) Vocabulary lists and how to sort them by word frequency.
Review how to create a Bible Reading Plan for a specific period of time (like a 13 week Bible class quarter for example).
Understand the difference between Visual Filters and Visual Markup Styles (found in the View menu).
Be sure to review how to run a Passage Guide and what is found in it.
Be sure to review how to run an Exegetical Guide and what is found in it, especially in the word by word section. Remember that you can click on the small bar chart for each word to see more charts (you will need this).
Be sure to review how to run a Bible Word Study for BOTH English words and Greek words. Pay special attention to the Translation section of the report for Greek words and what it tells you. Also, note that you can run a Greek Bible Word Study from an English Bible Word Study from within the Greek Root section of the report (hint: click and/or double click on Greek words that show up in this section of the report and see what they do.)
Review the Basic Search (under the Search menu) and practice searching the Early Church Fathers collection we created for words or phrases.
Review the Bible Search. Practice searching for individual words, multiple word phrases, and any combination of the two. Also be sure to limit your searches to specific sections, books or groups of books.

Check back...I will add more soon.

So why am I so excited about Slideshare...

2008-12-23T18:24:00.003-07:00

If you look at the last few entries I have made here, they all revolve around an online service called Slideshare. This online community allows you to upload and share slide presentation with people in a variety of ways. People can see the presentation on the Slideshare website itself (www.slideshare.net), you can embed the presentation in your Facebook profile, on your blog or website and even email links to anyone you would like. You can get to my Slideshare account and see some of the presentations I have posted by clicking here.

While this may be cool for some, (especially ministry tech geeks like me), it begs the question SO WHAT? I mean, what is the big deal about being able to put your sermon presentations online? Does that really matter?

Well, it might. Obviously leveraging the power of your visuals with your audio will help you communicate more effectively. If not, why did you build the PowerPoint presentation to begin with? But it goes beyond that...or at least it should.

Think of some of these possibilities...

1. Build short, 3-4 minute presentations to teach people about the inspiration of the Bible, Christian evidences, the importance of the church, New Testament Christianity and more and then embed them in your Facebook profile, blog or congregation's website.

2. Build a short 3-4 minute presentation that describes your congregation, its purpose and mission to attract visitors.

3. Build a presentation to introduce new members to the elders, deacons and ministry staff.

4. Build short presentations to answer common Bible questions that people ask most often.

Getting the idea? There are hundreds of ways that you might leverage this tool in ministry. Share your ideas with me...I would love to hear what ideas you all come up with...let me know!

Here is an example to get you started...

The Beauty of the Universe

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: hubble galaxies)

The Worthy Walk

2008-12-23T14:56:00.001-07:00

I must say that I am impressed with SlideShare. I have always wanted a way to connect the sermon audio files back to the PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentation and I must say...this is it! The interface is easy to use and once you get the hang of it, matching the audio with the slides is pretty straightforward. Obviously, any fancy transitions and effects are lost in the transfer and I even had some font problems with this newest test file, but that is not a real problem.

I Have posted another test file. Just so you know it is a 25 minute sermon. I wanted to try something a little bigger as a test.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Worthy Walk

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: colossians walk)

Slideshare: Passion for Growth

2008-12-22T23:49:00.002-07:00

I have recently discovered a website called SlideShare (www.slideshare.net). It allows you to post presentations created in PowerPoint (or Keynote) online for a larger community to see. The potential here seems great to me. You can even link recorded audio from a podcast to the presentation and edit it so that it matches your slide changes. I have posted this test here and also on my Facebook profile as a test.

This test was a lesson I presented in Chapel back in November.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Passion for Growth

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: hard-work passion)

Promote your blog on Facebook

2008-12-08T08:25:00.001-07:00

My students often ask me how they can get people to find their ministry blogs. While there are a number of options to getting your blog out there, one of my current students simply posted his blog as part of his Facebook profile and instantly began to get readers. I must admit that I have only been using Facebook for a few months, but this is a great way to promote your blog and get readers. I am an "old guy" and though it is not much I have over 140 Facebook friends. Many younger people have two or three times that number. Post your blog on your Facebook and people will start reading. Offer them something worth sharing with others and they just might tell others to read as well.

Logos for MAC is now shipping!

2008-12-08T08:11:00.001-07:00

The day is finally here and Logos for MAC is now shipping! I have to say that Logos was one of the major reasons that I purchased a Windows based laptop six years ago. I have been a MAC user for over 15 years, but Logos tempted me to switch. Eighteen months ago I finally repented of that mistake and came back home to a machine that works. I purchased a 15" Macbook Pro and have been happy ever since. I have been running my Logos through Fusion on my MAC and truthfully it works very well. I have only had a few pesky problems with this set-up. I even teach Logos in the classroom in Windows running on my MAC and for the most part my students don't notice a difference.

I have been using the final beta version for a couple of months now and I must say that it certainly runs very fast on my Macbook Pro. There were still some features missing in the beta that I am hopeful they have added to the final version, but we will see. While I am sure, as a 1.0 product, that there will be some growing pains and some features that we may have to wait for, I am excited at the possibility of being free from the Windows environment.

As always with Logos, they have been faithful to their promise to make a cross grade as painless financially as possible. Those of us with heavy investments in very large libraries on the Windows side can purchase a cross-grade MAC engine for $59 and all of our electronic books will work with it. Unlike many companies (Adobe, Microsoft, and others) that force you to purchase full versions when you switch platforms, Logos has made this simple, easy, and affordable.

I will try to give a full review once my copy arrives and I have time to work with it thoroughly.

Check it out here http://www.logos.com/mac

UBS4 vs. the NA27 Greek texts

2008-12-05T15:24:00.002-07:00

The question was asked in class yesterday about the differences between the UBS4 and the Nestle-Aland 27th Greek texts. Here is a link to an article on the Logos website about the differences.

For the sake of class - I would prefer you use the UBS4 so that we can all stay on the same page.

You must read this book.....

2008-08-28T07:19:00.002-06:00

I know, I know, it has been awhile since I posted anything, but I have been crazy busy this summer.

I have just received a book entitled, Slide:ology, The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, by Nancy Duarte. This book is a MUST READ for anyone who uses PowerPoint! It is an easy read and the book itself is very well organized. There is a companion website that allows you to download a number of the sample presentations in the book so you can see first hand how the files were set up.

This book is NOT a PowerPoint instruction manual! It teaches you VISUAL COMMUNICATION! How do you use presentations to communicate? Most preachers have been trained in verbal communication and not visual communication. When they jump into PowerPoint they stumble with how to give power and impact to their message using such a visual medium. This book will help from the moment you read the first few pages.

Give your audience a break...read this book!

The importance of "uniquely occurring words" and how to find them

2008-06-11T11:15:00.002-06:00

I have been having some conversations lately with some colleagues regarding "uniquely occurring words" in the New Testament. It seems significant that out of the whole of the Greek language, there are places where the Holy Spirit inspired the New Testament writers to use a word that appears no where else in Scripture. That one word is exactly what the Holy Spirit intended to be used and is was not adequate to describe anything else in the New Testament. An example appears in James 3:17 when two such words appear in the list of characteristics of the "wisdom from above."

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
Jamess 3:17 (NASB).

In this verse the words for "reasonable" and the word for "unwavering" are uniquely occurring words. They appear no where else in the New Testament. Studying these words can bring a great deal of additional meaning to the section being studied. The Holy Spirit chose these words specifically because of their unique ability to say what needed to be said. We should take the time to look more closely at these words to discover why they are so appropriate for the section being studied.

So how do you find these words?

Englishman's Concordance
Obviously you can find these "uniquely occurring words" using a hardback paper concordance, but that can be very time consuming. In Logos Bible Software you can run an Englishman's Concordance report on a suspected word and it will show you every verse that uses the word. To run and Englishman's Concordance report you must use the New American Standard (NASB), the King James Version (KJV), or one of the two new reverse interlinear versions, the English Standard Reverse Interlinear (ESV) or the New Revised Standard Reverse Interlinear (NRSV). Simply right mouse click on a word in the text and select Englishman's Concordance from the pulldown menu that appears.

The drawback to this approach is that you may miss some uniquely occurring words because you did not look them up in Englishman's. Which words do you check and which words do you skip?

Exegetical Guide
The Exegetical Guide provides a way to find ALL of the uniquely occurring words in a pericope at once. For example, when I ran this report (with setting that I will explain next) I found 11 more uniquely occurring words in James 3 in addition to the two I had already identified in James 3:17.

To set up the Exegetical Guide to find these words:

Open the Exegetical Guide and click Properties in the upper right corner of the window.
Deselect everything in the list (This report will take a long time to run and you need to strip any information that you don't need out of the report to make it manageable)
Look at the Word by Word section of this report properties.
Be sure to deselect Show Verse Text (If you don't turn this off it will list every word in the pericope. If your pericope in and entire book, it will really slow things down.)
Set "Filter Out Words Whose Lemmas Occur More Than..." to 1
Choose which parts of speech you are interested in searching for
Select any Root Word Analysis options that you would like. I leave all of these selected.
Run the report

PLEASE NOTE: This report may take some time depending on the speed or your computer and the size of the pericope you have chosen. You will also have to choose "MORE" at the bottom of the report to see all of the entries. You may have to click "MORE" a number of times to see them all.

This approach will help you identify these words and you may be surprised at the depth they can bring to your studies. Look at these words closely to discover why the Holy Spirit chose that exact word for that exact purpose. It can be very exciting.

Happy word hunting....

Controlling Logos when pasting verses into your notes....

2008-06-06T11:28:00.001-06:00

Many times my students and friends ask me how to stop Logos from pasting in footnotes when they copy and paste Bible verses into their documents. Often times they will tell me that they have deselected "Include footnotes when copying" from the TOOLS / OPTIONS / GENERAL / INTERFACE menu, but it doesn't solve the problem. The answer lies in the terminology. You need to understand the difference between footnotes and bibliographic references.

FOOTNOTES - refers to the inline footnotes contained in a Bible verse text (or any other text for that matter). When you deselect "Include footnotes when copying" it simply does not copy any cross references or footnotes contained in the pericope you are using.

Here is an example of footnotes:

1 Peter 1:23 (NASB95)

23 for you have been a born again b not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring c word of God.

[1]
a John 3:3; 1 Pet 1:3

b John 1:13

c Heb 4:12

[1] New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.

This text from 1 Peter was pasted in fully formatted. The footnotes are included.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE - refers to the reference giving the source of the actual quote. This is really the problem. Most people are asking me how to stop Logos from adding the bibliographic reference to what they are pasting. The confusion lies in the fact that Logos uses a literal footnote to add the bibliographic reference! In the example of 1 Peter 1:23 given above you will notice that the bibliographic reference is listed after the [1] at the end of the text that was pasted. To keep Logos from doing this, you need to MODIFY THE COPY AND PASTE STYLE Logos uses.

1. Select the COPY BIBLE VERSES icon in your system tray (this is the small black book icon).
2. Select the STYLE from the pull down menu that you want to change and click the CUSTOMIZE button to the right
3. Click the MODIFY button on the right side menu to see the options available to you
4. Make sure that "Include bibliographic reference" is NOT selected and then save the style.

Now, whenever you use this new copy and paste style, the bibliographic reference will be omitted from your entry.

Happy pasting....

RefTagger lets you link the Bible to your website

2008-06-06T10:35:00.003-06:00

The folks at Logos Bible Software have done it again. They have created a new tool called RefTagger. This tool allows you to link Bible references on your website to Biblegateway.com so visitors can see the text for themselves. RefTagger goes through your page and links Bible references automatically. When a visitor hovers their mouse over the reference, a small pop-up window opens showing them the verse. You can choose between the KJV, ESV and NLT translations for your pop-up and it is very easy to add to your website. There is also an icon option that lets any visitor using Logos Bible Software open the verse in Logos right from your website. This new free tool is available here.

Here is an example of how this works:

1 Peter 1:5

James 1:2-4

You can included a verse anywhere John 3:16 in your text and RefTagger will track it down for you.

I didn't have to do anything but include the Bible reference in my article. RefTagger did the rest. It will also go back through any of my previous articles and do the same thing.

Pretty nifty stuff.

Adding some power to your Vocabulary Lists in Logos...

2008-03-07T09:22:00.001-07:00

Many of you are familiar with the power of Vocabulary Lists in the Logos Bible Software. This feature allows you to map all of the Greek words in a pericope, a book or an entire section of Scripture and then list those words either alphabetically or by frequency. This can become an indispensable tool for helping determine "key words" within a book. I have posted about how to use this tool in the past and have a video tutorial available to show you the basics here.

Marking Key Words in the Vocabulary List

When you display these Vocabulary Lists by word frequency in descending order you can then scan the list for possible keywords. But once you find them, what do you do with them? Well, the first thing I do once I find a possible key word in the list is MARK IT.

1. Double click any word in the list to edit it

2. Move your cursor in front of the Greek word and insert an asterisk (*) in front of the word

3. Now resort the list (right-click on the book name at the top of the list) alphabetically.

Now that there is an asterisk in front of these words, they will come to the top of the list when you sort it alphabetically. The cool part is that this doesn't affect the frequency listing at all! If you resort by frequency, the words are still in there original position in the list.

The beauty of all of this is that now when you sort these lists, you can see all of the keywords together at the top rather than having to scan down through the list to find them. Once they are all together, you can use them to search the text, do word studies and all kinds of cool stuff!

Try this out - you will love it! Happy (word) hunting.

NEXT: How to do searches from your Vocabulary Lists

No user serviceable parts inside...

2008-02-21T09:22:00.001-07:00

Marketing expert, Seth Godin posted this very short article on his blog today and I wanted to share it with you:

No user servicable parts inside

That's what it says on countless electronic and mechanical devices. "Don't touch this," it says, "you're way too dumb to open it... you'll get hurt"

The problem, of course, is that pretty soon you start looking at the entire world that way. Whether it's web design or Google analytics or backing up your hard drive or just talking to the guys in the plant about your new ideas, it's really easy to see the world as a black box.

Here's a simple secret of success: ignore the sticker.

Figure out how to use the tools that the most successful people in your field understand innately.

The same should be said for using technology in ministry. Yes, it takes some work, and yes, schedules are tight and time is in high demand. But, we have to see the longer road, the bigger picture - learning these technologies will change your ministry and reach people that you never dreamed you could reach.
So ignore the sticker - dive in and start to explore.

Logos ringtone for your phone...

2008-02-19T13:26:00.002-07:00

Ok, this is cool! You can get the Logos Bible Software startup sound as a ringtone for your cellphone for free. Just download the ringtone to your phone and you are ready to go. I always hear the startup sound for Logos in my Ministry Technologies class as students are trying to get their laptops up and running, so I am used to it.

To get the free Libronix ringtone, text the number 349388 to 69937 (MYXER) or visit Myxer and follow the simple instructions. It will work on most phones, but there are a handful of phones whose carriers have disabled this service.

If you build it they will come...but how many and from where?

2008-02-12T09:13:00.001-07:00

Let's talk about traffic. No I don't mean how long it took you to get to work today or that logjam of cars on the Interstate trying to get across town. I am talking about who is coming to your website or blog. Traffic is obviously important in this sense of the word. If no one is coming to your website or reading the posts that you labored over and posted to your blog, then why do it? If, on the other hand, you have people visiting your site from Korea or Ukraine or India, and you are in Denver, Colorado are what time your services are held and cool Mapquest directions to your building really all that important? We need to understand that the web is an international tool. That visitor from Korea, quite honestly, couldn't care less about what time services start. You need to provide him (or her) with more. Teach him some biblical truth that he didn't know before. Share something that will plant a seed in his life that may bear fruit for the Lord.

So who is coming to your site and where do they come from? I am often asked if there is a way to tell when people visit your website or blog. The answer is a resounding YES with the help our our friends at Google. Google Analytics is a free statistics package that you can easily add to your website or blog. Once installed on the pages or your website or blog you can get detailed stats about the number of people visiting your site and even where they come from. The amount of detail that can be gained from this tool is really impressive. You can learn the number of new visitors vs. returning visitors and dozens of other stats to help you understand who is looking at your site. One of the more interesting reports shows you a map of the world and when you hover you mouse over a color coded country (the color coding indicates traffic volume) you can see how many visitors have come to your site from that country. A simple click on the country shows a close up map of that country with dots from the various cities containing visitors. As an example, I know that within the last 30 days our school website (www.bvbid.org) has received:
- 2090 visits
- 55.89% of those visitors are first-time visitors to our site
- 50 countries had visitors
- within the U.S. we had visits from 49 states - North Dakota was a no show

Certainly this information can be very useful to a ministry website or blog. Knowing that a vast majority of your traffic come from a particular region or area of the globe may help you realize that you have an opportunity to reach out to people in places and lands you never dreamed were possible.

Ten questions about presenting with PowerPoint

2008-02-05T14:26:00.001-07:00

I just read a post on Guy Kawasaki's blog where he interviewed Garr Reynolds (see my previous post about Garr and his work) about what makes good and bad PowerPoint presentations. While both of these men are geared for making presentations in the business world, there is no doubt that many of the suggestions made translate to preaching and teaching with PowerPoint as well. Garr answers thirteen questions about what makes good presentations and his answers are concise and right on target. If you really want to use this tool well, you need to read this interview

I have ordered Garr's book, Presentation Zen, but it hasn't arrived yet. I will post a review as soon as I have read it. From what I have read about it, it is very good. I can't wait to dig in....

Presentation site has some excellent information...

2008-02-01T09:05:00.001-07:00

I have just run across a website by Garr Reynolds that you really must visit. Garr has a website and blog (Presentation Zen) that deals with issues related to creating and giving presentations using PowerPoint (and Keynote if you are a MAC person). His information goes far beyond the basics of how to set up a good slide (although that is included). His information is about visual communication using these tool. He has posted an article on his website entitled, "Top Ten Slide Tips" that should be a MUST READ for everyone using these tools. If you will simply follow his suggestions your PowerPoint presentations will improve and be far more effective.

Garr makes a very strong point on his website that should be a reminder to everyone making these types of presentations:

"Your presentation is for the benefit of the audience. But boring an audience with bullet point after bullet point is of little benefit to them. Which brings us to the issue of text. The best slides may have no text at all. This may sound insane given the dependency of text slides today, but the best PowerPoint slides will be virtually meaningless with out the narration (that is you). Remember, the slides are meant to support the narration of the speaker, not make the speaker superfluous." - Garr Reynolds

Let that sink in for a minute - he slides are there to SUPPORT what you are saying! Without the benefit of what your narration and speaking, the information on the slide will probably not make sense to anyone.

Visit his website and blog....take his suggestions seriously and your sermon and class presentations will definitely improve, your audience will learn more, and maybe, just maybe they may stay awake more!

Ministry Tech class complete!!!! Yeah!

2008-01-30T10:14:00.001-07:00

I just finished teaching Ministry Technology class here at Bear Valley and it went very well. More and more students are hooking in to what these technological tools can do for them and I am very excited about that.

New Ministry starting in the Northwest

One student, Mike Green is heading for the Northwest U.S. after he graduates this week to do church planting work. He has started a blog at nwevangelist.blogspot.com and plans to make it a regular part of his ministry. He has already started posting some good material that I think everyone will find interesting. Check it out.

The power of subscribing...
Blogging as a tools for preachers and evangelists provides some really unique opportunities to teach. One of the greatest advantages of using blogs is the ability that readers have to "subscribe" (don't worry - it is FREE) to your blog and stay up to date on what you post very easily. Check out online tools like Bloglines. This tool allows you to subscribe to to blogs you want to read regularly. Once you subscribe, Bloglines goes and looks for new posts on these sites every time you launch it. That means you can have the information come to you rather than you trying to remember to visit umpteen blog sites to see what is new. I currently have 55 blogs on various topics (Logos, ministry, photography, missions) that I check everyday with one simple click of my mouse. Check this out...it will change the way you think about blogging.

Technology reaches out even from Africa....

2008-01-14T11:39:00.001-07:00

A good friend of mine, Jimmy Gee, is currently serving as Academic Dean at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching in Arusha, Tanzania. I have had the pleasure of teaching in that school and have spent a good deal of time with Jimmy and his large family there. The Gees are a great example of the mission work being done in the church today. Jimmy and his wife Trina and there numerous children are doing a great work and we all need to be praying for them. So what does this have to do with technology? Well, Jimmy has started his own blog to help us all stay up to date with the happenings in that part of the world. You can check it out at jandtgee.wordpress.com. Stop by his new blog and send him a note of encouragement.

Making typing in Greek and Hebrew easier

2008-01-10T18:00:00.001-07:00

Trying to learn to type in Greek and Hebrew can be difficult. Remembering strange keyboard layouts like where they hid the rough breathing mark and what happened to the terminal sigma when you don't do it all the time is a strain on my brain. Quite honestly, I try to avoid it as often as possible. Well, once again our friends at Logos Bible Software have come to the rescue. They have developed a FREE tool that makes the task of typing in these languages much, much easier! Check out this post from the Logos blog on Shibboleth - it will really help while you are learning.

You can visit www.logos.com/shibboleth to download and install this free tool. I am running it under XP on my MacBook Pro using Fusion and it is running great!

Making posting blog entries easier....

2008-01-09T09:23:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned before I do most of my work from a MAC these days. I am very happy to be back on the MAC platform and find myself more productive here. One tool (available for the MAC only) that is making my life easier is MarsEdit 2. MarsEdit 2 is a blog publishing tool that allows you to create, edit, and post blog entries from your desktop. I have always felt that the online blog editors for Blogger and other platforms was a bit clunky. MarsEdit is easy to use and is very flexible. I can create posts even when I am not online and post them when I get to a connection. It really makes things easy. I know that there are similar products available for the Windows world, but if you are on a MAC you really need to give this a try. You will love it.

New blog about our work...

2008-01-09T09:10:00.001-07:00

Pat McIntosh, Assistant Director of our Extension Program here at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver, has started a new blog about the Extension work. You can find it at mcintoshmissionreport.blogspot.com Check it out and learn more about what we are doing all over the world.

Everyone needs a hobby...

2008-01-07T21:47:00.001-07:00

Everyone needs a hobby and mine happens to be photography. With a background as a Graphic Designer, photography keeps me into something creative. Living in Colorado certainly gives me plenty of subject matter. Just for fun I post some photos from time to time just because...I hope you enjoy them.

Elephant shot at Lake Manyara, Tanzania. He is actually standing on two feet! Looks like he is dancing.

Class website and video access

2008-01-07T20:39:00.001-07:00

As many of you may know I teach a class at the Bear Valley Bible Institute entitled Ministry Technologies. This year I have posted the class syllabus and assignments on a website for the students to access (http://web.mac.com/ministrytech). Why is that important to you you may be asking? There is a link on the site to view streaming video of this class! Now you can watch over 20 hours of Logos software training on your computer and learn hands-on. Just follow the link and enjoy the class. Be sure to let me know what you think.

I know, I know...it has been a long time.

2007-12-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

One of my students just pointed out that it has been awhile since I posted anything here. There is no doubt that he was right, but is has not been for lack of desire. Things have gotten a bit busy this year and it seems that the projects just keep piling up. It is my hope to start posting on a more regular basis.

New machine...

One of my biggest changes lately has been in my equipment. My Toshiba laptop was starting to show signs that it may not be much longer for this world and the thought of moving to Vista was not pleasant. I have a number of friends using Vista and my limited experience with it told me that I wanted nothing to do with it. So I went back to what I know best and now enjoy a new Macbook. I must say that I love it! I have been a Mac user since the early 90's and moved to Windows only to run Logos Bible Software and a networked accounting package that I am responsible for. Well, now with Intel-based Macs I am doing both better and faster than I was with my Windows XP based PC. I plan to blog here about my change back to Mac and some of the differences that I am finding in the new OSX.

New Class...

I am currently teaching Ministry Technologies this quarter and I am enjoying sharing the benefits of Logos with a new group of students. They seem to be catching on and I hope they will learn how to leverage all of that power in their Bible studies. More on that soon...

Wow...It's amazing how fast time gets away

2007-05-22T16:23:00.000-06:00

I cannot believe that I have not posted anything since January. I am going to commit to getting back in the groove right away. Preparing for my mission trip to Africa at the end of March kept me pretty busy as well as teaching classes...I hope to do better as there are so many things to talk about.

The Africa trip was awesome and was a quick reminder that technology is not everywhere yet. I visited an Internet Cafe (shown here) in Arusha, Tanzania only to find that their computers were running Windows 98 on dial-up connections. Not quite what we expect here in the States. Regardless of the technology hassles - the trip was a great blessing and I cannot wait to go back again.

Significant percentage of online teens use social networks....

2007-01-08T10:28:00.001-07:00

An interesting statistic was just released regarding teen use of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, etc...

More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet American Life Project.

The report goes on to say:

...older teens, particularly girls, are more
likely to use these sites. For girls, social networking sites are
primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; for boys, the
networks also provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends.

Tens of millions of these teenagers are using these sites and a significant number of parents don't even know what these sites are or why they have such an attraction to our nation's young people. As parents we need to educate ourselves to what is going on on the Internet.

You can read more of this report here.

Podcast users on the rise...number of podcasts available increases too

2006-11-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

A recent Pew Internet Life survey reports that the number of people who have downloaded podcasts for later listening has risen to 12%. That figure is up from 7% earlier this year. While the report also shows that only 1% download podcasts on a daily basis that shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Many podcasts don't even produce episodes daily. While 12% may not seem like much, with 600 million current U.S. Internet users, that amounts to approximately 72 million users. That is certainly nothing to sneeze at!

The report also states that the number of podcasts available to Internet users has exploded in the last two years. In 2004, Podcast Alley, a popular podcast directory website listed fewer than 1000 podcasts available for download. That same directory now lists over 26,000 different podcasts, representing over 1 million episodes in November of 2006.

Churches need to consider how they can use this tool to tap into a wider audience for delivering audio files online. The Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver currently podcasts chapel sermons and presentations through the BVBID Chapelcast. You can subscribe free to this podcast through Apple's iTunes (also free) or get more information from the Institute's website. The Bear Valley church of Christ Sermoncast is just beginning to podcasts their sermons and some Bible classes and the Parker church of Christ in Parker, CO. has a good selection of episodes available as well. You can find others through the iTunes Store within the iTunes software. Remember that subscribing to these podcasts is absolutely FREE!

Some interesting stats to ponder...

2006-11-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

I found some interesting statistics recently in an article by Walt Wilson in Christian Computer Magazine. The article is entitled, "Web 2.0 - The Second Generation Revolution is Underway" and talks mostly about the new revival of web start-ups and technologies. The interesting part to me, is the stats at the end of the article. The stats were acquired from Facts and Faith Newsletter.
- 27% of ALL U.S. churches make no use of the Internet
- 12% of Protestant pastors never use the Internet
- 94% of church websites are inwardly focused
- Only 46% of churches provide staff e-mail
- Only 23% of churches make use of e-mail prayer chains
- Only 18% have an e-mail newsletter
- Only 2% of U.S. churches offer a way to donate online
- 0% report using social networking software

While some of these numbers shouldn't completely surprise anyone - they should open our eyes to the opportunity to make use of these tools. We need to understand the generation that is coming behind us and reach out with the technology available.

I thought the most interesting stat was that "94% of church websites are inward focused" - that needs to change. The church is about reaching out - we need to be thinking about getting the gospel to others as must as posting a notice on when the next potluck is.

Area preachers exposed to new tools...

2006-11-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of Denver area preachers about technologies that can be used in ministry. They wanted to know about what we are doing at the Bear Valley Bible Institute with our Chapelcast podcast. That gave me the opportunity to talk about a number of things. I introduced them to the idea of setting up blogs and how blogging could be used by minisers and preachers. We discussed RSS feed readers (like bloglines and newsgator) and how these can be used to subscribe to content and more efficiently gather information from websites and blogs.

While a number of these concepts and technologies were very new to them, I was very excited about their reaction. A number of people asked if I was going to podcast the presentation and as much as I hate to admit it....we didn't tape it!! I know, dumb move. I may try to go back and screencast it to make it available later though. I had a number of preachers ask if I could come talk to their elderships or members about this stuff. I definitely saw a spark. Please pray that this word can be spread and that more and more preachers will see the value of using these technologies to help their congregations spread God word and grow themselves.

Logos Tip: Finding Frequently Used Words in the Text

2006-11-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

As part of a new class I am going to be teaching, I am experimenting with screencasting. The enclosed movie is a screencast tutorial of how to use the Vocabulary List feature within Logos Bible Software 3.0 to find frequently used words within a book. Let me know what you think. I would like to do alot more of these in the future.

You may need to hit F11 in your browser to view the full screen.
Finding frequently used words... (Flash video)

Have fun.

New class offers new skills...

2006-11-06T17:59:00.000-07:00

New class offers new skills

I am very excited about a new class that I am going to be teaching at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver starting in mid-November. We are going to begin a class that we are calling “Ministry Technologies” to our seniors this year. This class will deal with various digital tools and technologies to deepen Bible Study, preaching and teaching, and improve outreach and communication.
Students will be taught to go deeper in their Bible study and research using the Libronix Digital Library System. This software has amazing new tools for examining the text and digging into the original languages in ways never before possible. These new electronic libraries contain hundreds of books, are completely portable (actually they are stored right in the student’s laptop computers) and can be searched in seconds. Research and textual studies that used to take hours or even days with paper books can now be done in minutes. This time savings can be put into making sermons and Bible classes more applicable and powerful.
In addition to Bible study and research skills, the students will be learning how to preach and teach using PowerPoint. This tool has been gaining ground over the last few years, with more and more preachers using it. But making the change from verbal communication skills to visual communication skills can be a challenge. We will help the students use imagery and presentations to reinforce the message rather than distract from the message. This skill can help members connect with the lessons by involving more senses and promotes active rather than passive listening.
New technologies to improve outreach will be examined in detail as students are exposed to website strategies as well as potential ministry uses for blogging and podcasting. These new tools are easier than ever to use and we are excited to be able to provide the students with hands-on experience with these powerful technologies.
I will be posting more about this class and these technologies in the near future. Stay tuned.

Technology in Ministry

2006-10-26T15:11:00.000-06:00

Technology in Ministry

Technology touches our lives in more and more impacting ways everyday. Our lives are filled with gizmos and gadgets that were only figments of our imaginations 20 years ago. It seems as if everything has a computer in it these days. Our cars, our refrigerators and even our toasters have all become “smart” with the use of microchips and circuit boards. Dick Tracy’s futuristic two way video wrist radio seems almost like a child’s toy compared to today’s cell phones that do everything but brush your teeth for you. (If you don’t know who Dick Tracy is just ask the nearest person over 50, they can fill you in!) Just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, we seem to have awakened in a whole new landscape. For some, this new world is frightening and intimidating, to others it is challenging and exciting, to still others (especially those under 30) it just seems perfectly normal. One thing is certain however, things have changed forever. Technology is here and it is not going away. Simply look around and it is easy to see that just like Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore.

And yet while this flood of technology sweeps through our lives there is one segment in which technology seems noticeably absent – the church. I mean let’s face it; the terms “technology” and the “church” are not exactly synonymous. We are not what you would call “early adopters” when it comes to integrating technology into the Lord’s work. Oh sure, more and more preachers are starting to use PowerPoint to assist with sermon delivery, but even that has been adopted slowly in most places. Now, before I get email about this let me state, very emphatically, that just because we have technology does not require us to use technology in the church. There is no command from the Lord to use PowerPoint or websites or any other technology for that matter. But while there is no requirement to use technology, we should ask ourselves if there is a way to leverage these tools to the glory of God. It seems to me that there is a stewardship issue involved here. Jesus said to whom much is given, much is required (Matthew 13:12). Clearly we have been given much…what are we going to do with it?
Ephesians 4:11-12 tells us “And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.” While it is true that the church no longer has apostles and prophets in living form, we do have evangelists, pastors (shepherds), and teachers (and preachers). Throughout this series of articles I would like to present ways in which each of these groups can and should use technology in their ministry for the Lord. We will explore ways in which technology can assist us in “equipping the saints for the work of service” as well as for the “building up of the body of Christ.” We will discuss tools and techniques that can help us evangelize, shepherd, teach and preach in ways that were not possible just a few years ago.
While technology certainly has its benefits in some areas, there are certain myths that need to be “busted” before we can proceed effectively:

Myth #1 – There are not enough people using technology to make it worth the effort and expense.
Admittedly, I hear this argument most often from people that are over 65 that don’t have email (or even a computer) themselves. While it is true that not every person on the planet has Internet access and e-mail, the number of people that do is staggering. Recent surveys show that by the end of 2004 the world-wide Internet community reached over 938 million users and is projected to reach 1.21 billion users by the end of 2006 (Population Explosion). A Neilson/NetRatings report in 2004 reported that 75% of US households now have Internet access. An April 2006 study showed Internet use increasing in all age groups; 32% of 65 and older, 71% of 50-64 year-olds, 84% of 30-49 year-olds, and 88% of 18-29 year-olds now go online. But one of the most interesting items in this report showed that 87% of 12-17 year-olds go online regularly.
Surprisingly, access for women (81.7%) and men (80.2%) in the 35 to 54 age group is almost a dead heat and this age group tops all other age brackets. The Web has become the “new normal” in the American way of life; those who don’t go online constitute an ever-shrinking minority. Even in under developed countries, Internet cafes and public Internet access is becoming more and more available.
Not only do millions of people have access to the Internet, they are using it to seek God. A Pew Internet report, from April of 2004, showed that 64% of Americans with Internet access have used it for spiritual or religious purposes. According to a June 2003 report from the same organization, 3.8 million people search the Internet for information on God and religion EVERY DAY! People are using technology to look for answers about God and we, as the Lord’s church, should be there to help them. The fields are indeed white for the harvest – we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send reapers out into the fields.

Myth #2 - Technology is too expensive for a small church like ours
While this myth was somewhat true a number of years ago, times have changed dramatically. Most congregations can build and maintain a website on the Internet for less than $300 a year and reach tens of thousands. David Sargent, preacher at the Creekwood church of Christ in Mobile, Alabama (www.creekwoodcc.org) has developed an evangelistic email tool called Living Water. This email relates a common story with the importance of the gospel message and ALWAYS includes the plan of salvation in the conclusion. This program was started about 4 years ago and Living Water is now being emailed to over 30,000 people each week in 115 countries. With traditional paper mailing, the postage alone for this project would cost over $5000 every week (not to mention printing costs), but by delivering this through email the cost is almost nothing - literally. Think about this – Living Water reaches 1,560,000 people each year with the plan of salvation with a total annual cost of less than $300. Technology makes outreach like this affordable.

Myth #3 – A website is a great way to let people know where we are and what time we worship – it is good advertising.
When you really consider the reach and scope of the Internet audience, this type of thinking can kill you before you even get started. Clearly, people in your local community will look to your website for this type of information, but they will no doubt make up the minority of people that actually visit your site. Think about it. Does a person from New York City, or London, or Shanghai really care where your building is located or what time services start? Your website needs to give them something more. Jesus gave us the charge to “go and teach.” That is our commission. You have an opportunity to share the gospel through teaching the truth. Make sure that your website contains the information people need to come to knowledge of the truth! Where you are and when you worship will become secondary. In future articles I will discuss at length how to address both the local and the global audience effectively, but in the mean time ask yourself why anyone would make a second trip to your website. If the answer is that they probably wouldn’t then you have some changes to make.

Myth #4 – Technology will revitalize our struggling congregation
While it is true that new projects can create new activity within a congregation, we must be realistic. Even those of us that advocate using technology in the church must realize that technology is not some magic bullet to turn around a lagging church. Technology will not save a struggling or dying church. Strong, spiritual leaders with committed, growing Christians is what is needed for the church to thrive. Technology can be a wonderful tool and a powerful ally in the effort to build the kingdom, but it cannot make people with little spirituality, spiritual.

Technology certainly isn’t the end all and be all of doing ministry work, but we have these tools available to us – we should look at how best to use them. Certainly, the all knowing God of heaven foresaw this age that we live in. We have tools today to truly fulfill the great commission and go into all the world. Even small churches can have a tremendous influence by using these tools effectively. But as with anything else, new skills need to be developed and new thinking needs to be encouraged. Stay tuned as we discuss some of these new and exciting opportunities to expand and strengthen the kingdom of our Lord.

Summer is finally here...

2006-06-28T15:54:00.000-06:00

Well, we have finally finished our school year at the Bear Valley Bible Institute. Things have been very hectic over the last few weeks working up to graduation, but we made. I realize that I have posted much lately, but I hope to catch up over the summer. Here are some tidbits to get started:

Permission Evangelism Seminar
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of conducting a seminar on "Permission Evangelism" at the Lakeside church of Christ in Colorado Springs, CO. This is a topic that I will talking much more about in the coming weeks. I am very excited about this concept and look forward to discussing it more. This concept helps churches develop relationships with people over time - rather than simply trying a "one shot" attempt to get people into the Bible. This process can even make door knocking more productive! Look for more posts on this topic very soon.

The New Logos Bible Software
I have been using the new version of the Logos Bible Software (I guess it would be more correct to call it Libronix) and I must say that I am stunned! Often times new software versions are a disappointment, but let be tell you this is one that will blow you away. There are so many new features and reports that getting deeper into the text is a breeze. The new Reverse Interlinears (ESV and NRSV only at this point) are very helpful and the new Bible Word Study report is astounding in the depth it provides. I wish I had time to talk about all the cool new features, but I don't. I will say however that if you are currently not using software to help you study the Bible, now is the time to consider it. If you are a preacher or Bible teacher, Logos can save you dozens of hours in sermon prep time and digging into research for classes. I really cannot say enough good things about this software...check it out.

New podcasting planned for the fall
I am in the process of planning new podcasting for the Bear Valley Bible Insitute by the fall. It is my hope that we will be able to make more content available from an archive of old tapes we have stored. In addition to the current podcasts we offer, we will be doing some "blast from the past" podcasts that may include sermons from past instructors and staff (i.e., Roy Lanier, Sr., Roy Lanier, Jr., Roy Baker, Monroe Tharp, etc...). If you are not currently listening to our podcasts you can find them through Apple's iTunes (it is free and avaiable for both Macs and PCs) or visit our blog. For instructions on how to get our podcasts click here.

I am also planning to begin podcasting sermons and selected classes from the Bear Valley church of Christ once our new preacher arrives. We are very excited that Neal Pollard has accepted the position as our new preacher. He and his wife Kathy and their children should be joining us soon. Neal has served as the pulpit preacher for the Cold Harbor Road church of Christ, in Mechanicsville, VA for the past 12 years. We look forward to providing these podcasts very soon.

Check back soon for more...

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part 3

2006-05-30T15:51:00.001-06:00

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part 3

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part 2 (audio)

2006-05-30T15:51:00.000-06:00

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part 2

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part One

2006-05-30T14:30:00.000-06:00

PowerPoint continues to become a more important tool in preaching. The Barna Group reports that 6 out of 10 Protestant congregations today use projection. While it still may not be quite that prevelent in the Lord's church, it is an up and coming tool no doubt. The greatest problem facing preachers in using this new tool is that they have never been trained in visual presentation. They may be great speakers and know God's word hands down, but when they step into the area of presenting those ideas visually they falter. Let's admit it....there is some really BAD PowerPoint going on out there! Bad presentations disctract the audience and sometimes even the preacher.

Last year, at the Bear Valley Bible Institute Homecoming Lectures I presented a 3-part series on "Using PowerPoint Effectively." These files are available through podcast from the Bear Valley site, but I am re-podcasting them here for convenience.

I would appreciate any feedback that you would like to give on this subject. While this can be a powerful tool for presenting the Gospel, we need to learn new skills to do it well. I hope that you find these presentations helpful.

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part 1 (originally podcast in Sept 2005)

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part 2

Using PowerPoint Effectively - Part 3

Logos Bible software tip: Creating hyperlinks to Logos in MS Word

2006-05-09T15:54:00.000-06:00

Imagine being able to link any word in your MS Word document to any resource in your electronic library. You can! For example, you are writing notes or a research paper of the Greek word for love (agape) and you find the article in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) particularly useful in your study. You could just copy and paste parts of the article into your notes but why not include access to the entire article using a hyperlink? This functionality is available through an often overlooked addin for Logos called Power Tools.

The Power Tools addin is freely available to Logos users. This addin adds some very cool functionality and features such as; Fuzzy Search, Quick Navigation (Now a standard part of version 3), Stacked Tabbed Windows (very useful ), Copy Location to Clipboard and others.

How to Get the Addin
Power Tools Addin is available free for download at any time. To install it, connect to the Internet, open Libronix and click Tools Libronix Update. When Libronix Update opens, click the arrow next to Optional and select Power Tools Addin and Power Tools Addin Help. Click Update.

Creating the Hyperlinks in Word
To create hyperlinks in MS Word documents you need to focus on the Copy Location to Clipboard feature of the Power Tools addin. Based on our example, navigate your resource to the TDNT article on "agape" and select Copy Location to Clipboard from the Bookmarks menu (it appears in the Favorites menu in version 3). Now select the text in the MS Word document for the hyperlink. Select Insert Hyperlink from the Insert menu and paste (Ctl-V) into the Address box. This places the location in the hyperlink. Don’t be alarmed at the strange looking entry. You text will now appear with the blue underline to show the hyperlink. Now when you click on the hyperlink in your Word document, Logos will start and open TDNT to the exact page you want. Try it.

Logos Bible software tip: Smart Tags for MS Word

2006-05-09T14:54:00.000-06:00

If you are a Logos Bible software user and you use MS Word there is a tool that you should know about. MS Word 2002 or higher utilizes “Smart Tags” as a way of identifying types of text such as phone numbers, zip codes, dates, etc… and then allows a user to perform various actions on it. Logos has an add-in that makes use of these tags to link your Word documents with your electronic Bibles. Logos Smart Tags identify Bible verses when they are typed and allow you to perform various actions on the verse entered. For example, if you type: Gen 1:1 you can then choose to open your Logos Bible to that reference or even replace the text you typed with the actual verse text from your Logos software. This can be a very powerful combination of tools while doing any writing that includes Bible texts and references. You can download the Logos Smart Tags from the Logos site at http://www.logos.com/support/article/530. This tool has saved me hours of time and is worth the download – by the way….did I mention it was FREE! Check it out.

Studying God's Word in the Beauty of His Creation...

2006-05-01T14:48:00.000-06:00

I just came back from 3 days in Durango, CO where I attended the annual Workshop in the Word. This workshop is put on by Guy Orbison, Jr. and Denny Petrillo and is held in the mountains about 30 miles north of Durango. I couldn’t think of a more beautiful place to study God’s word! Brother Orbison is the preacher at the Durango church of Christ and runs an Intern Program there that focuses on exegesis. Denny Petrillo is the President of the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver. Both of these men are outstanding exegetes and preachers. This year’s study was 1 Timothy and it was outstanding! This year ninety-seven men from eleven states attended the workshop (a new record). If you want to dig deeper into the text, this is a workshop that you really need to consider attending.

DVD Evangelism

2006-04-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

World Video Bible School (www.wvbs.org) has begun distributing a new DVD developed for evangelism. “Searching for Truth” contains six lessons, each less than one hour long. The topics presented include; The Truth, About The Creator, About Authority, About The Church, About The House of God, and About Baptism. Each of these videos is professionally shot and edited and each presents a powerful message about Christianity.

In a day where getting into someone’s home to teach them the gospel is getting (in many ways) harder and harder, this tool could be a tremendous help. First, DVDs and CD-ROMs create a natural curiosity. With the exception of the dozens of AOL free trial CDs people receive each year, people want to know what is on them. Curiosity can be a powerful ally in this situation. Second, it allows people to explore these issues on their own terms, when they want to. When they are all alone with no outside pressure, they may be much more open to the ideas being presented. Third, these new disks create an easy way for members to share the message - just hand out a DVD. In a time when many members of the church feel unprepared to try to teach the gospel, now they have a tool that can help them get the job done.

The disks are $15.00 each when bought individuallly, but will be sold to churches in bulk for $1 each. According to WVBS, they have sent more than 30,000 of these DVDs out since the first of the year. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information about these disks on their website, but got a fast response to an e-mail inquiry that I sent to them. Give them a call or shoot them an e-mail for more information on this new tool.

New book presents some interesting ideas for teaching with technology.

2006-04-23T22:51:00.000-06:00

I am in the middle of reading a new book by Will Richardson, entitled “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Web Tools for Educators.” Now that title is a mouthful! While this book is written primarily for educators, I think it can have great application for the church as well. After all – isn’t the church supposed to be about teaching (Matthew 28:18-20)? The book explains in detail how weblogs, wikis and other technologies can be employed to make learning more dynamic and effective. Some of these terms may well sound strange and unfamiliar, but these tools are changing the way people communicate and learn. Imagine making Bible class curriculum available online for parents to use during the week with their children and even provide feedback to the teachers. Or maybe an adult class can post information about a book that is being discussed and various members of the class can contribute to the conversation. Imagine a ministry team using the internet to hold meetings and continue feedback even though the team members live all over town. There are dozens of possibilities. I will post more as I finish my reading.

BVBID Chapel now being podcast!

2006-04-23T22:40:00.000-06:00

Now you can listen to BVBID chapel sermons, presentations and seminars through Apple’s iTunes music software.

The Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver is now “podcasting” its Chapel services through Apple’s iTunes (or any other “podcatching” software (such as iPodder, etc.). Simply download the free software (for both PC and Mac computers) from Apple’s website (www.apple.com) and search under PODCASTS for BVBID. Once located, you can subscribe to the audio program free of charge. Then, each time you start iTunes, the software will automatically check for the latest program and download it for you. Once downloaded, you can listen to it on your computer anytime, or sync it with your portable MP3 player and listen on the go. You don’t have to keep checking to see if you have the newest files, the software does it for you.

What is podcasting?
Podcasting is a word that has been coined by combining “iPod,” Apple’s brand name of portable MP3 audio player, with “broadcasting.” Unfortunately, this term suggests that you need an iPod to subscribe and listen to podcasts which you don’t! Any computer with the right software can subscribe to and play podcasts! Many people are equating podcasting with TiVO, only for radio rather than television. This technology puts you in control of what you listen to, when and where.

What will we be podcasting?
BVBID plans to podcast most sermons, special events and presentations held in chapel. Occasionally we plan to podcast Bible classes taught by our faculty and staff. As time goes on we may plan to do more and more with this technology. If you have any questions about this technology please fell free to contact me at mhite@bvbid.org.

New magazine will make you THINK!

2006-04-23T22:38:00.000-06:00

THINK is a new magazine published by Focus Press (www.focuspress.org). I have just read the March and April issues and let me tell you that the publication lives up to its name. The articles are very well written and the magazine is attractively designed and easy to read. This new work is edited by Jim Palmer and Brad Harrub, Ph.D. Brother Harrub holds his Ph.D. in Neurobiology and does a considerable amount of speaking and writing on Christian Evidences.

This magazine is full of insightful articles that are both thought provoking and relevant. The writing covered a variety of topics and dealt with issues for men, women, and college age Christians as well. This magazine will help strengthen your spiritual life and give you plenty of food for thought. This new pub is the work of the Woodson Chapel church of Christ, in Nashville, TN. (http://www.woodsonchapel.com/). Check it out.

Looking for a congregation?

2006-04-16T08:20:00.000-06:00

Ever head out on vacation and wonder if there is a congregation of the Lord’s church near where you will be staying? Are you considering moving to a new city and need to find a congregation there for your family to attend? ChuchZip may be the place to start. Simply type a zip code into the ChurchZip website, select a radius (from 10 miles to 1000 miles) and the site will give you a list of congregations within that radius. It is that simple. The listings will give you the location, the size and even a link to their website (if they have one). While ChurchZip cannot tell you about the soundness of each congregation, it can give you a place to start the next time you need to find the church in an unfamiliar place. ChurchZip is not new, but many people may not be familiar with it. You can find ChurchZip at www.churchzip.com. Check it out.

New Logos version coming soon…

2006-03-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

While I haven’t had a chance yet to talk much about Bible study software on this blog, I am very excited about the upcoming release of the new version of the Logos Bible Software. I have been a Logos user for over 4 years now and I must say that this product is outstanding. The integration of resources and the depth of resources available for Logos, in my opinion, really sets it apart from other products. Bible software overall is a tremendous tool for study. Imagine, being able to open every book in your paper library to the page that discusses the topic or verse that you are studying! That is the power of electronic libraries. With the simple click of the mouse, every resource available to you opens to the page you need. All you have to do is right-click on a word in your New Testament to see the Greek, link to your favorite lexicon and read a detailed explanation, or look up the word in your favorite Bible dictionary or commentary. For Greek work, standard resources such as The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), BDAG and others make digging into the Greek text a breeze. The best part of all of these resources is their fidelity to the original books. For example, when you look up an article in TDNT it matches the printed version exactly – even giving you the proper volume and page numbers. This means that you can use these resources in your writing and cite sources accurately – not just some electronic source, but the printed version as well.

The new version…
I have been using the latest Beta version for about a week now and the number of changes and improvements in this new product is very impressive. They have completely reworked the interface to make it easier to navigate and they have added some awesome to tools. One of my favorites is called Biblical People. This tool allows you to instantly see the family tree of any Bible character. It includes a list of verses referring to the character and if you click on another name is the tree, the tool shows you the new tree for that person. There are dozens of other improvements and tools. The Bible Word Study tool allows you to see a detail list of references, listings and texts dealing with any word you click on, with links to all your major resources. This is a huge time saver!

While addmittedly, these packages can be very expensive, when you compare the price of the useful books included (not just the total number of books as some really aren't that useful), these libraries can be very affordable. There are a numkber of different packages available and you can start small and add new bnooks over time if you wish. When you add the time savings of doing research and study to the mix, the cost may be more than worth it.

I would like to tell you about all of the new features, but that will have to wait for a future review. Just suffice it to say…this new version is going to change the way you study the Scriptures!!! Check it out.

A handy tool for looking up Scripture verses...

2006-03-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

If you visit websites that include Scripture references, or include Bible references in your MS Word documents there is a great little tool I have found that makes looking up those references a snap. EZword is a small program that runs on your PC and allows you to look up Scripture references by simply hovering your mouse over the reference. Just point your mouse at the reference and a small window automatically pops open to show you the complete text (in context). When you move your mouse away, the window automatically closes. It is that simple. The program also allows to to paste verses into MS Word documents without the need to open other Bible software programs. This handy feature can really help ensure that you are quoting the verse correctly.
The program is only $9.95 and comes with the King James Version (KJV) and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). There are a number of other versions available at additional costs. I use the New American Standard for most of my studies and purchased it for an additional $19.95. This bundle included the NAS 1977 edition, as well as the 1995 Update. All of these Bibles have footnotes and additional helps available. This is a cool tool that makes looking up Scripture while working on the Internet a breeze. At $9.95, it is a great bargain as well.

Welcome to ministrytech!

2006-03-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

I have begun ministrytech as a place to discuss current technologies as they can be used in ministry. There are so many possibilities available to us today to help with the task of spreading the Gospel. Ministrytech is designed to help weed through the mire and help to keep ministers, preachers, Bible teachers and evangelists informed about what technologies are available, how they can be implemented and what is working.

I hope that you find this information helpful in your ministries. I would also ask you to communicate with me about new technologies that you are using in ministry. Together we can help get the word out.