church technology

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.

Recently, a friend of mine began to plant a church in a city 700 miles away from his current church where he knew no one. He is either really brave or incredibly oblivious. He has read most of the books, investigated many planting models, and planted a successful church before.

Facebook is still one of the primary social networks that churches should utilize to reach people for Christ. Whether connecting with current attenders, sharing events, or reaching out to the community, Facebook offers some unique advantages:

Most of the Nothern Hemisphere is settled into the warmer weather and longer days that the summer will bring and a constant companion during these days will be one's mobile devices. From smartphones to tablets, we will find a way to be entertained, informed, and connected to what matters. This month, we take a look at a few mobile communication tools which should help you stay connected to who and what matters.

When researching technology partners for your ministry there are many different variables. What I'm going to talk about today are the five most important things you should consider when evaluating potential technology partners. If the technology partner you are considering values these five things, you can rest assured that everything else will fall into place. It's also important that the design looks nice and the user experience isn’t clunky. But if these five things are executed well, you can be confident the design and user experience will be of quality too. What I want to stress is that it's more important to understand why the company does what it does and how it does it, rather than whether or not they have a nice website with good sales.

In the past several years, the church technology industry has undergone many changes that have encouraged some, while discouraging others. As technology advancements continue, new companies start up and newcomers to the church tech industry enter and acquire firms to consolidate and rebuild. More recently, private equity firms have entered the space getting involved in acquisitions and shifting resources to various technology firms in order to position for growth and financial gain. All these moves cause disruption - to tech companies as well as the churches they serve; change is never easy.

Have you ever had a conversation where you thought you were being totally clear? Only to realize later, that the person you were talking to understood the conversation differently. You both were talking about the same thing, but what was communicated was very different. Unfortunately, church communications can be this way too.

Many years ago, I recall when people would ask me how it was that I could easily remember specific scriptures. For many people, reading the Bible is enjoyable, but trying to get to that point where you can remember specific verses which talk about specific subjects is not something that happens quickly. Because it was a little easier for me, it took a long time before I realized that there were certain learning methods, or just ways that I was reading and studying the scripture that made it possible for me to have such an active recall. Now that we are firmly into the mobile wage, scripture recall has become another subject where people are looking for ways of improving on old methods. Here are some mobile – friendly methods for scripture memorization that I have come across.