When you need to schedule a meeting with one or, even worse, multiple people, don't you spend tons of time exchanging emails back and forth just to find one time that fits in everyone's schedule? It often becomes a headache and a big time waster. But just when you thought you would remain relegated to an email only solution, then comes along TimeBridge.

TimeBridge. It's a simple, free service that helps people set up meetings. It acts like a personal scheduling assistant (something I don't have in my church budget to pay for!)

Basically, when you want to set up a meeting with a lot of people, instead of emailing back and forth, you set up a TimeBridge request which only requires a couple of quick and easy steps.

The process is super easy and usually only takes me a minute or two. First you log into your account. Then, just like writing a email, you write a subject line and choose the recipients to email (I've important my gmail contacts into TimeBridge. TimeBridge is nicely integrated with both Google and Outlook). Then you propose a "series" of times when the meeting would work best for you. What is so cool about TimeBridge is that it is linked to my Google Calendar (it works with Outlook Calendar as well). TimeBridge allows me to view my calendar and see my availability. I then simply mark on my calendar the slots that I would like to meet. I then set up a meeting location. And lastly I send it. TimeBridge does the rest of the work. You just set it and forget it!

Immediately my recipients get an email which gives them an opportunity to indicate which of my available options would work for them. What I like is that until the meeting is finalized, all of my selected meeting times remain in my Google Calendar as "Tentative" - this is so I don't accidentally book another appointment. But once everyone has responded, the meeting is set, the meeting is put in my Google Calendar and the other tentative times blocked out are released from my calendar.

One extra bell and whistle that I like is that TimeBridge also sends automatic email reminders to all the meeting participants the day before the upcoming meeting.

I have been using TimeBridge for over a month, and it has proven to be a tremendous time saver and one of the more useful apps that I use. Also, the people who get the TimeBridge requests have told me that when they got the email request to schedule a time - it was easy to use and intuitive - people weren't confused with what they had received.

If you want to communicate more effectively with the people with whom you schedule meetings with, TimeBridge is must.

Have you ever seen this icon while surfing the web? Do you scratch your head and wonder, What does that mean?

It is the icon for an RSS feed. RSS feeds are a wonderful thing. In simple terms you subscribe to a website's RSS feed and in return you receive delivered fresh and instantly new and updated content and information. Instead of going, visiting and checking your favorite websites and blogs for new information and content - THE CONTENT comes DIRECTLY to YOU.

Here is a post from Web Worker Daily and Aliza Sherman on the author's first impressions about the impact reading feeds is having on her life and work. Here are some of her main points:

1. They make me look smarter.

2. They give me interesting fodder for conversation with my husband.

3. I read more blog posts in one week by Seth Godin than I had in the last several years. I don’t mean to neglect Seth. He’s smart. I like him. I learn from him. But I stray from reading blogs in general because I can’t seem to find the time. Reading feeds over eggs and coffee carves out time to learn from the masters.

4. I learned about new paths to productivity.

5. What I read in feeds last week had either a direct connection or impact on what I do every day for work. It remains to be seen if I can keep up with my feed reading over time. In the meanwhile, I’ll absorb as much knowledge as I can to expand my understanding of this ever-changing industry and to improve what I do and how I do it.

Need a gentle introduction to RSS see her other post- Needing a Gentle Intro to RSS Feeds.

Let me springboard off of some of Aliza's thoughts.

Here are the benefits that I have received receiving and reading RSS feeds as a Pastor.

1. I stay more informed - I get through the RSS feeds some of the best and most helpful information for ministry, the church, and even devotionally. What I read provokes my creativity and enhances my ministry.

2. It saves me time - Some people say to me, How do you have the time to READ all those websites!? I say, I don't. But having the information come directly to me and then being able to skim the Headlines, multiplies my time and saves me from wasting it. I get the information that I want, and ignore the information the I don't want.

3. It gets me out of my ghetto - I get to learn from so many talented and gifted pastors, ministry leaders and people throughout the world. I learn from people outside of my denominational traditions and with different theological persuasions. Reading my RSS feeds expands my thinking and imagination.

4. I am building a "forever" library of resources - Because I use Google Reader to receive and read my RSS feeds, I can search for information easily if I need it at a later time. Searching my feeds for relevant information is much easier and effective than doing a general Web search. I am more likely with a RSS search to get the information relevant to my interests and needs.

How to get Started:

Sign up for Feed Reader - I would recommend Google Reader

Start signing up and subscribing to feeds - start with this site - Ministry Best Practices and my other site Provocative Church, then go to HELPFUL BLOGS on my side menu and visit those sites add their feeds (that is a good place to start)

And then sit back and enjoy having relevant, helpful and interesting information delivered right to you.

(ht: WebWorker)

Protestant churches across the nation are using various forms of emerging technology to influence people’s lives and enliven their church experience. But the pace of technology adoption seems to have slowed in the past two years as some churches focus upon making the most of what they already have, and other churches attempt to get by without incorporating such tools into their ministry mix.

The new study by Barna research explored the presence of eight technologies and applications in Protestant churches. Here are some of the trends concerning those eight technologies that Barna discovered in their research.

• Two-thirds of Protestant churches (65%) now have a large screen projection system in their church that they use for services and other events.
• Sending email blasts to large groups of people or to the entire church body is common to a majority of Protestant churches (56%).
• The ways in which churches are reaching out to people over the Internet are expanding. Back in 2000, just one-third of Protestant churches (34%) had a church website. That exploded to 57% in 2005, and has inched upward since then to 62%. (personal comment: I can't imagine why EVERY church can't put up some kind of website - this should be minimal in this day and age.)
  
• One out of every four Protestant churches (26%) now has some presence on one or more social networking sites (such as MySpace).
• Podcasting has been adopted by one out of every six churches (16%).
• Blogging is also invading the ministry world. One-eighth of Protestant churches (13%) now have blog sites or pages through which people can interact with the thoughts posted by church leaders.
• One technology that has not shown any discernible expansion in the past several years is that of satellite broadcasting. In 2000, some 7% of Protestant churches had a satellite dish for receiving programming and training. That number has remained virtually unchanged since then, registering 8% in 2005 and the same 8% in 2007.

How does your church stack up? Are you in the 21st. century? If not, what keeps you from embracing new technologies?


(ht: www.barna.org.)

How do you capture ideas when you get them? What are the buckets that you are using?

If you are anything like me, you have a mind like a steel sieve and therefore I need quick and easy ways to capture a to-do, an appointment, file an important resource or make a reminder.

I am not asserting that these tools are the "best", but I have tried and used many tools over the years, and I have settled on these few that are working for me.

The king of my tools right now is Jott.com

At its most basic level, Jott is a voice to text transcription service. All you need to do is call Jott, leave a message, and Jott transcribes it and emails you or your contacts the text.

I Jott myself notes or reminders right over the phone. This is great because if I have an idea or remember to needing to do something while in the car, I can capture it instantly in Jott and not worry about trying to remember it until I get home or to the office. Also I can Jott an email to anyone in my contact list or group of contacts that I have set up before hand.

If you have Google Calendar hooked up as your own preferred calendar application you can just add Google Calendar to your choice of Jott Links and simply by calling Jott you can add an appointment. There are times in the car after a phone call my next action is that I need to put in my schedule an appointment. With Jott links, I now just call in my appointment and it shows up in my Google Calendar. It couldn't be more simple.

(By the way, here is a great post from Lifehacker that gives you a good run down of the Jott features.)

The next tool I use a ton is Google Notebook.

This is one of the least known of the Google apps, and not until recently has Google been adding some very nice features. I use Google Notebook to capture information on the internet. Although I use it some for note taking (I use Google Docs more for that purpose), the main feature is the ability to clip information. The beauty of this application is the Browser extension that allows you to take any highlighted piece of information and "Note this" sending it right into the Notebook. I am always collecting interesting articles, quotes and resources that I know will come in handy during my sermon preparation or have some use in my ministry. Google Notebook is my online file cabinet for all my sermon illustrations, ministry articles, and the like. Because of the great ability to search the notebook or even tag items, information never gets lost or misplaced, it is always at my fingertips.

And lastly, I use Backpack reminders.

I haven't been using Backpack as much as I used to, but I love the Backpack Firefox extension which allows me to instantly add reminders that will go directly to my email. I use this app a lot while I am in meetings. A deadline comes up, a new event is going into the church schedule, I need to send an important email out to my volunteers or I need to add something to my to-do list and I don't have the time to stop my work flow to add it fully to my calendar, write the email or add it to my to-do list. This is why I like this little extension within Firefox, because within seconds I can capture that important piece of information knowing that I will get an email sent to me reminding me to take some action. Then later, after the meeting, I can spend the time populating my calendar, writing the email, adding it to my to-do list or doing whatever action is required.

What are some of your favorite collection tools?

Seacoast Church Internet Campus

Seacoast has just started an internet campus. It is a cool site that has a lot of neat features. Here is a brief explanation from their website:

First of all, welcome! We are glad you're here. Worship on the Internet is a new way of doing church, so we'll try and make it a great experience for you.

We currently have three worship experiences online; 9:30 am, 11:15 am and 2:00 pm EST each Sunday. Join the experience by going to the internet campus home page. When the service starts, it will automatically show on the page. Please note that the experience runs through Flash player. You can get the latest version here.

Additional features:
Live Chat: to fellowship with others before, after and during services, simply click the "Join Live Chat" button on the menu to the left of the video.

Message Notes: Follow along with the message notes below the video and fill in the blanks online. When finished, you can have them sent straight to your e-mail.

Connect Card: In order for us to get to know you better, fill out our online connect card, also located on the menu to the left of the video!

Technology can do so many cool things. Trust me when I say that I am often the first in line for the latest electronic toy and cool gadget. But technology must be examined critically. Therefore, I think that this kind of church experience has a couple of benefits as well as a couple of pitfalls. Here are just some of my thoughts:

The benefits....

It allow a perspective guest to experience a worship service from the comfort of their home. Some guests may need an opportunity to kick the tires before even stepping through the doors. This internet campus can provide a "first" first impression.

Sick or traveling out of town, this internet campus provides a great way to experience the service, particularly when you can't be there.

Some pitfalls.....

No one should make it a complete replacement to their worship experience. The virtual experience leaves out an important component of worship, our connection with others. Worship is an incarnational experience. I would agree with you that this idea is a bit of a mystery. God has hard wired us to experience our faith together. And by "together" I don't mean a shared virtual experience or a download of information through a computer portal. God has designed us to experience Him through the flesh on flesh contact with each other. The problem is that is often the hardest kind of community to build. But that is why we should endeavor even harder to cultivate and maintain that kind of connection. (see Dallas Willard's quote here for some further thoughts on the subject)

Also, new technology isn't neutral, it has implications. From a post in Provocative Church, Mike Metzger comments on the implications of technology.

"It was the late Daniel Joseph Boorstin, prizewinning author and the historian who had served as librarian of Congress and director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of History and Technology, who argued that new technologies often turn Americans into tourists rather travelers. They keep us seemingly "in touch" while actually making us more "out of touch." The ease of surfing between Darfur and Dunkin' Donuts (or Paris France and Paris Hilton) is closer to voyeurism than voyaging. In times past, we wouldn't know about Darfur without being present and covering our noses to keep the stench of death out of our nostrils. Now we can simply watch through a window in air-conditioned comfort."

Technology changes the way we experience and encounter the world around us. How will an internet church campus change the way we experience God and our faith?

I don't presume to suggest I have the complete answers to these questions, but we must be willing to at least ask them and wrestle with the answers.