Recently, I had the opportunity and privilege to write an article for the Church Technical Leaders website
I’m reposting that article here.
Technical Arts
You Can Judge a Book by its Cover
I was spending some time in the library as I do every now and then, and after checking out my normal sections, I wandered the aisles looking for something that might catch my eye.
You see, I believe you can judge a book by its cover. To a degree. While you may not be able to tell how good a book is just by looking at it, you can tell, just by the cover, if a book is marketed for you (or towards you). This is one of the ways I discover new-to-me authors.
Should Your Church Be on Twitter?
Church staff attention and focus is a precious commodity. Every church staff person wishes they had more time. In the communication areas, although a huge investment of time is required for social media, it often gets relegated to the time that’s left after everything else is done. Large churches may have a person (or teams) devoted to social media campaigns, but for most of us it is a line item on an already over-crowded job description. And it’s a lot of work!
Time is precious. Where we spend that time is critical. In my role as Media Director, I oversee Technical Production, Information Technology, and our Communications Department (which I have recently been framing as both Creative Arts and Public Relations).
Social media —how the church engages in it, where we put our energy, and what we bring to the conversation — are not small considerations.
Better Than Excellence
Excellence is taking a hit. In my opinion, it’s a cruel task master and more and more people are noticing. The correction is a necessary one. Anytime we are using people to build church, we’re upside down. In the Kingdom of God, we don’t tap into people like batteries and discard them after using them up. Many techs I know have been burned by churches who seemed to have had that attitude.
Your Vision is the Problem
I am bombarded with talk about vision. Both on a macro level and filtering down to the level of individual technical directors and tech teams, we can’t seem to get enough vision — What’s your vision for your team? Where’s your vision statement?
This is a problem. Here’s my case.
Technically Thinking 