Lauren Hunter

As a parent, you are concerned for your child's safety on the Internet. Teens and even young children as young as one are using mobile technology on a regular basis. Because technology changes so fast, it's helpful to have a sense of some of the concerns we all face. By being aware, and taking appropriate steps to safeguard our children, we can be aware of the dangers and teach our families how to move about the web safely.

Children's check-in software is an invaluable resource for the church. Whether you have ten kids or 1,000 kids coming Sunday, having a system in place that serves the needs of children and parents well, while allowing ministry leaders to do their jobs well, is the goal. We've taken some time to round up some of the most popular kids check-in software options available today.

Over the past year, we've tried to ramp up our worship software reviews here at ChurchTechToday. While other kinds of software like church management software seem to get lots of press in the church tech space, we thought it important to put some time and energy into helping worship leaders with their software selection.

Capterra is a very useful software review site that has beefed up their church management software (ChMS) review listings, articles, and helps for churches over the past few years. Companies do pay to be listed on this site, like many other review sites, however, users are free to post reviews and comments. Some church software companies have over a hundred user reviews, making it very helpful for churches to take a peek into how the software is valued by its customers.

If you're overwhelmed by the number of social media services and tools to manage said social media services, you're not alone. It seems like new solutions crop up almost daily. It's a changing landscape for sure. While we've blogged about many social media tools for church communicators, it's great to share this infographic published originally by Kenny Jahng and team to give you a sense of what social media tools communications within the church are using.

Millennials are making up an increasing number of church attendees, and this generation doesn't carry cash or check. Even older folks are choosing debit cards and online payments over paper payments. Churches, however, struggle to find ways to process online donations, gifts, and offerings that do not eat into their bottom line.

Churches are more and more looking for ways to increase productivity. Email can be problematic, and fancy project management software can be expensive. Enter Slack. Limited features are free to groups of any size, which is hard to believe, yet true. Officially launched in February 2014, this messaging platform integrates group chats with dozens of other software services to create a well-rounded communication system.

Whether you're a parent or you work in youth ministry, keeping kids safe while they use technology has become an increasingly large task to accomplish. From Xbox Live, to iPhones, to Animal Jam, to Facebook and Snapchat--the possibilities for a child under 18 to get themselves in trouble is relatively easy. That's why when I hear of software to help us parents and youth workers keep kids safe, I listen. KidGuard reached out to me to share their software options for monitoring kids on their devices and beyond. They also have a grant available for qualifying nonprofits through the end of 2016.