Digital @ Leadership Network

multi-user video conferencing gets easier, part 1

Fresh off the digital presses: a growing trend on "tokbox" in the Twitterverse. All of this happened just a few days ago. On Tuesday evening, December 15th, Tony Steward tweets an invite for people to join him for a live video chat at a tokbox.com virtual conference room. Probably over 60 people joined in during that trial run.

What is Tokbox? It's free video calling from any website with no downloads. I've tried it out, and here's what I found particularly impressive:

• no client software downloads or installation (it uses Adobe Flash Player 10, a web plug-in that most browsers have)
• multiple users, maximum might exceed 50; probably more effective with less than 12
• no registration required
• embeddable into other web pages
• other features too, like video email, instant messaging
• did I mention it's FREE?

So, what do you think the implications are, especially for the church? I've heard that a group of people have had a small group Bible study, staff meetings, and casual conversations (of course).

My tokbox address is tokbox.com/djchuang . I've blogged more about Tokbox at my personal blog with my color commentary of what might happen. More to come as this is a developing story.

-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network

how about internet church by email

Looks like another way to do an "internet campus". This article about a church in the United Kingdom that gives "closed captioning" a whole new spin (pun intended):

Voice-to-text church services delivered via email

It's no longer uncommon for churches to offer services online or via streaming video, but a UK church has now begun using voice-to-text technology to convert its live services into text for near-simultaneous delivery via email.

Using technology by SpinVox, St. Christopher’s Church in Hinchley Wood, Surrey, just gave what SpinVox says was the world's first voice-to-text service this past Sunday. Rev. John Kronenberg led the service celebrating the beginning of Advent, and as he spoke to the congregation seated in the church, his words were automatically converted by SpinVox and sent directly to subscribers’ in-boxes in a matter of moments. Some 100 members of St. Christopher’s church received the sermon by email on Sunday, and the next such service will take place on Dec. 21.

I'm going to apologize in advance, since I'm not hearing-impaired, and don't know the sensitivities of being a part of that community. Would this be helpful to some of your church attenders?

-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network

Church Management Software comparison chart

Churches have to track a lot of people information to better facilitate ministry. And of course, as the church gets larger, there's going to be more data. This implies that sometimes a church would outgrow one ChMS for another over time.

There've been a handful of softwares that have been around for years in the category called "church management software" (ChMS) These track not only addresses and financial donations in some kind of a database (or databases), but some track ministry involvement, correspondence log, and more.

According to this comparison chart compiled by Christian Computing Magazine, there are 27 church management softwares. (implying at least 27 exist.) The chart is very handy in that you can get a side-by-side comparison between various ChMS features. [cache]

Which church management software does your church use, and what works well? Please describe your church context so we can better understand how a specific software works for your church.

(please don't let this comment thread degenerate into a shouting match of one-ups-manship, ok?)

-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network

Q 2009

I’ll be hosting a Church 2.0 Tribe this year at Q. Q was held in New York last year and I couldn’t make it - I really wanted to . This April 27-29 it will be in Austin, TX. I and many other friends will be there. I’d love for you to join us. 

Q is a unique conference for leaders that “get it” and are interested in highly relevant and missional things. Q does cost more than a lot of conferences, but if you register with my coupon code (Church20) - you can register for $525 until 12/31 (a savings of over $150).

More about Q: Q is a gathering where church leaders and cultural influencers from the fields of business, politics, media, education, entertainment and the arts are exposed to the future of culture and the church’s responsibility to advance the common good in society.

Q TALKS are 18 minute presentations given annually at the Q gathering by thought leaders and practitioners on the topics of the future, the church, the culture and the gospel. Be inspired by their big ideas and find ways to discuss and process them with your closest friends and inner circle (the Church 2.0 tribe).

I hope to see you in the wonderful city of Austin!

50 reasons to attend Innovation3 Gathering

In the midst of the holiday season, many count down the days to Christmas. There's another count down that's starting today.

We are just 50 days away from the Innovation³ Gathering on January 27-28, 2009 in Dallas!

Every day leading up to the Innovation³ Gathering, Leadership Network will count down 50 reasons for why you must attend, one reason for every day!

Reason #50: No stump speeches. Reason #49: not your father’s conference.

Read more reasons at the Innovation³ blog as the countdown continues.

And, look at the website www.innovation3gathering.com for more details and register online. Bring a team so you can share the experience and get best rates!

Browse the entire list of 50 reasons to attend Innovation³ Gathering as the count down continues...

campus pastors who blog

Blogging is certainly a great way to connect those who attend campuses at different locations of a multi-site church. Noticed last week Jason Curlee tweeted, "I'm looking for blogs to follow of an Multi-Site Campus Pastors shoot me a link if you have some". That prompted me to wonder just how many campus pastors at multi-site churches have a blog.

I'd imagine there's probably hundreds of them out there in the blogosphere; this is my starter list of one's I follow and one's I found quickly (in no particular order):

• Jorge Molina (Homestead Campus of Christ Fellowship Miami)
• Jason Curlee (Bay Area Fellowship)
• Scott Williams (NW OKC campus of LifeChurch.tv)
• Jeff Bell (Elkhart campus of Granger)
• Don Graffam (White Bear Lake campus of Eagle Brook Church)
• Tim Boucher (South Bend campus of Grace Community Church)
• Chad Roberts (Dickson campus of Cross Point Community Church)
• Brian Duncan (Kannapolis campus of High Rock Community Church)
• Ron Loflin (Denton campus of High Rock Community Church)

Of course, Internet campus pastors count too -- let's defer that for a separate list. And then, there are blogs for multi-site campuses, usually used for campus-specific news and announcements; and there are blogs for multi-site directors that oversee all of the campuses of a multi-site church.

Are you a campus pastor who blogs? Or, do you know a campus pastor who blogs? Add a comment and add to the list!

-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadedrship Network

[photo credit: antonymayfield]

Series on Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect will be a beautiful and revolutionary technology.  It will finally make interoperability between social sites a reality.  And it won't just be Facebook monopolizing or pioneering the effort.  Google Friend Connect, OpenID, and Myspace Data Availability will all compete with it, forcing everyone to be open and interoperable. 

I don't think I can properly verbalize the value and features of Facebook Connect.  This NY Times article is probably the best overview.  What I'll do instead is a series of posts over the next few weeks that highlights actual implementations of Facebook Connect that I'm personally developing.

The first will be for a client of mine in the non-profit space (not a ministry).  The next will be the implementation of FB Connect for MyChurch.  And finally I'll try to gather some conclusions for the local church.

A year ago, churches on facebook were starting to figure out how to create apps on the platform.  A year from now, church websites will have Facebook Connect to allow their members to log in, interact as a community, and then spread their church's message through newsfeeds.

Looking forward to sharing ideas and hearing feedback

-- Joe from MyChurch

more tips to empty your inbox

Had a little exercise here at our Leadership Network staff meeting. The question posed, "how do you keep your email inbox empty?" We had a enthralling conversation about the topic, and even a few dissenting voices that don't care to keep an empty inbox. (Well, that's one way to do it.)

Here's the list we came up with; we were looking for 10, we kinda ran out of time at #5:

• sort by sender
• create side folders
• Mike Hyatt's blog tips ->
  "Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email"
• sort of date (ascending)
• after you reply, delete or file
• use junk mail filter

Personally, I've been using the process outlined in Total Workday Control, which is loosely based on Getting Things Done. There's also a great blog series titled Inbox Zero that comes with a 1-hour video describing that process -- especially great for those of you who'd prefer to watch a video instead of reading.

How do you keep your inbox empty?

-- DJ CHUANG, Leadership Community Director at Leadership Network