MinistryTech.com | February 2016 1

Transcription

MinistryTech.com | February 2016
1
CONTENTS
February 2016
FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Steve Hewitt
COVER STORY
[email protected]
EDITOR
Joey Tindell
[email protected]
ART DIRECTOR
4
Crystina Lindoerfer
Are You Still Not Texting?
Is your church using text messaging? If not,
here’s how to get started and how to do it right.
By Steve Hewitt
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Yvon Prehn
Nick Nicholaou
Russ McGuire
Jonathan Smith
Steven Sundermeier
COPY EDITOR
Rachael Mitchell
OUTREACH INC.
5550 Tech Center Dr.
Colorado Springs, CO
80919
(800) 991-6011
3EDITORIAL
Has Social Media Destroyed REAL Communication?
4
FEATURE: ARE YOU STILL
NOT TEXTING?
Is your church using text messaging? If not, here’s
how to get started and how to do it right.
7STARTUP
What happens when some unsolved problems,
powerful technology solutions, and a little recession
enhanced free time collide? The birth of this
innovative company.
10 MINISTRY COMMUNICATION
5 Tips to Get People to Come Back To Church
After Easter
14 NICK AT CHURCH
MicrosoftOffice 365: What You Need To Know
17 PROTECTED WITH PURPOSE
Keeping The Odds In Your Favor
21 MINISTRY LEADERSHIP
Don’t Go It Alone This Year
Ministry Tech® is a registered trademark of Outreach, Inc. Written materials submitted to Ministry Tech® Magazine become the property of Outreach, Inc. upon receipt
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© Copyright 2016 Outreach, Inc. All Rights Reserved
FROM THE
EDITOR
Has Social Media destroyed
REAL communication?
I seem to live with a constant anxiety deep in my mind about communications and connections.
I am a communicator by nature, and by trade, yet I am living in a time when REAL communication is
being destroyed by the very technology that is supposedly designed to enable better communication.
But, that stated goal is actually a lie!
Social Media isn’t designed to really help connect people and help with communication. It is
actually designed to make money for those that own it! As a result, once one successful method of
communication takes off and has a chance of actually connecting us; six others are created in order
to cash in, and as a result we are divided.
If you want to connect with your friends, how do you do it? They are not all on Facebook.
Only about half of my family is there, so when I communicate with them, post pictures, make an
announcement, half of my family is missing the info and actually can feel left out. Do I need to keep
up with Twitter, Instagram, and a dozen other Social Media forms? And IS this even the best way to
accomplish REAL communication?
What do I mean by “real” communication? Social Media is teaching us to be shallow and
superficial in our communications. Somewhere on LinkedIn, people who know me (actually people
who are connected to me, few actually know me), are being made aware that in January I started
the original Christian Computing Magazine, and they are being asked to congratulate me. So, I have
been receiving hundreds of emails that are doing exactly that. Most, about 99%, say “Congrats on
the anniversary! Hope you’re doing well”. When I go to check email, I can find 5 or 6 back to back,
all with the exact same message. Obviously it is a suggested message from LinkedIn that people can
opt to select. No actual communication or message, just a carbon copy stamp. One in a hundred
actually put the time to include a real message. I supposed it is cool to receive so many emails from
people who take the time to click on a button that sends me the automatic email, but is it “real”
communication?
Do you remember your birthdays before Facebook? You might hear from a few people, or friends
and family would call or visit. Now you can get a hundred “Happy Birthday” wishes from people, but
you know you are really not important enough for them to remember. However, Facebook has
reminded them, and even encouraged them to leave a post on your site.
And, what about those posts either on Facebook or email that tease you with some information
you THINK you might want to actually read, only to discover the information is simply “bait” to
get you to go to a site loaded with links to marketing sites. Sometimes only a paragraph of a short
article is on the page, forcing you to find a hard to distinguish link to continue to read, while you are
overwhelmed with ads, links and marketing!
I long for the day that information was information. Of course there are always commercials on
TV, and ads in magazines. That is what pays for the distribution of the information. But we are living
in a day now when information is being fabricated not with the intent to inform, but with the intent
to market and profit. I long for real communication! How about you?
Together We Serve Him,
Steve Hewitt
Together We Serve Him,
Steve Hewitt
[email protected]
3
4
COVER STORY
I
Are you
STILL
not
texting?
By Steve Hewitt
monitor a church administrator’s listserv and
recently noticed two common questions
asked this time of year. How do I send
text messages to my membership? How
can I communicate closings quickly to my
congregation due to weather? Both of these
are very connected!
As I meet with churches, I ask if they are
texting, and I am still surprised by the number of churches that don’t text. They think
it is not for them. Maybe it wasn’t 10 years
ago, but in my circle of friends and family, it
is almost impossible to find someone that
doesn’t text! I know I will probably hear from
a pastor somewhere that says he has a rural
church, and that his members don’t text.
Well I AM RURAL now, working on clearing
our 30 acres and making friends with all of
the farmers around me. And the church we
attend is a rural church. Guess what? Everyone I know still sends and receives texts.
Maybe you think it is an age thing and only
young people text. Not true anymore. I am
60, and I have many friends who are much
older, and all of them text.
Why is texting so popular? Many surveys
show that most Americans prefer texts
over phone calls. Wireless providers are
reporting that most of their traffic is from
text messages, not voice phone calls.
Granted, there are times when a phone call
is the right choice, but for many people,
they simply don’t wish to communicate
this way anymore.
For message delivery, especially for organizations like a church, texting is king! It
takes too long to get phone calls out to
everyone, and while voice message delivery systems are a good tool, text delivery
systems are more accepted. Voice message
systems can appear impersonal, where
text messages have the same appeal, if an
announcement is sent to one person, or to
hundreds.
And THAT is one of the great advantages of sending text messages to your
membership. It appears personal.
And the percent of text messages that
are read are at least three times higher than messages sent out via email!
How to Use Text Messaging at your
Church!
Text messages should be limited to announcements. Use them to help promote
events. But even MORE important, use
them to remind people of an event. People today are very busy, and more and
more people seem to be living distracted
lives. Using a texting service to remind
people of an event can greatly increase
the response of those attending. You will
want to send out such a text just two hours
before an event. Let’s say there is a special
choir practice, or a small group is meeting
on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the
month. Sending a text out just two hours
before the event will remind people and
give them enough time to adapt if they had
forgotten, and make the meeting.
Texting should be targeted! Don’t send a
text message to the entire church to re-
mind them of a special choir practice! This
is one way to quickly discourage people
about your texting messages. Be sure to
target. Sometimes you will need to text the
entire congregation, such as to warn them
that snow is causing you to cancel your
services. But, for reminders, be sure to text
only those that care about your message.
Limit your texts to two or three at the most
in a given week. Obviously if you are targeting your text messages and you have
some members who are very active and attend and participate in a lot of events and
groups, it is alright to send them more. But
you want to be sure your text messages are
concise, limited, and spaced out.
Do NOT send out texts to your church
members with a verse from the Bible,
or some clever quip that you might put
on your church sign. Remember, texting
needs to stay personal. It needs to be a
message that relates to them (reminder of
a meeting, for example).
Do NOT try to save some money and use
Group Texting. This is where you use your
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6
phone and your wireless service to select
a group of people and send out a text to
them all. The problem with this is one
we have all probably experienced. You
send out an announcement to your small
group, let’s imagine only seven people, to
remind them about your weekly meeting.
Then someone in that group response to
let you know they will be late. Another
then makes a joke about how the other
person is always late. Then someone will
ask if they are to bring anything. You will
respond, others comment, question, joke,
etc., etc., and eventually people in your
group text (remember, sent to seven people) now have had to respond or check
on about a dozen texts. They will want
out and let you know they HATE texting.
How to Implement Text Messaging
for your Church
It is now easier than ever to provide text
messaging services for your church. In
many cases you will find that your ChMS
(Church Management Software) service
has it as an available feature. This is especially great since you should already have
your membership assigned to specific
groups that you might wish to text.
Another obvious solution is to use a service such as One Call Now. Of course
they pioneered the use of voice message
delivery systems, and their service can
deliver voice messages to large numbers of people in a short amount of time
(which would certainly work as a way
to inform your membership that church
is canceled due to weather), but again,
I am a fan of sending text messages.
Gathering Phone Numbers
You will have one unpopular task, and
that is to gather cell phone numbers, in
order to enter them into your database or
text service. This can be done in a variety
of ways. Distributing new data update
cards to your congregation can be done
both at church, over several different
Sundays, and/or by mailing out something in your church newsletter, informing people why you need to gather new
information. It can also serve as a great
way to simply update your records since
people move or other data information
about them might have changed.
I have also seen the addition of adding a
table with volunteers in the narthex, helping to encourage people to provide their
cell phone numbers.
To make this a success, let your membership know WHY you wish to have this
information, and provide them some assurances on HOW and WHEN you will
be using their number to text them. Most
people would want to know if the church
was going to have to be closed, or if there
was a special event they didn’t want to
miss. If you present the information in a
positive way (hopefully from the senior
leadership), your members will cooperate.
Be sure to find out if your texting service
needs more than their number, such as
the name of their provider (Sprint, AT&T,
Verizon, etc.), but find out what you
need. You don’t want to confuse the issue
by collecting information you might
not actually need.
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7/14/11 10:23 AM
7
Webconnex
I
STARTUP
By Russ McGuire
[email protected]
n this article series, we’ve defined a Christian
entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all
he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new
venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the
success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing
you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some
of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business,
or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire
you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.
This month I’m pleased to introduce you to Eric Knopf
and John Russell. These two serial entrepreneurs have
had common connections their whole lives, but their
startup journeys took them on separate paths. When
those paths crossed in 2008, the unsolved “problems”
John brought from his previous startup, the technology
“solutions” that Eric brought from his previous startups, and some recession-enhanced free time collided.
Clearly it was time for them to do a startup together.
Looking for a Simple Solution
John had most recently been doing a lot of work
around events and ticketing. All the web-based
tools available were cookie-cutter generic and more
expensive than many small organizations could afford. Both John and Eric had also experienced similar challenges with collecting donations online. As
they talked about it, Eric knew that some of the tools
and techniques he’d been using in some of his recent
startups could totally change the game.
What they set out to deliver was simplicity and control. For users, how could they make it as simple and
painless as possible to register for an event, or buy a
ticket, or make a donation? Don’t make them regis-
ter. Don’t force them to remember yet another password. Just get it done. For the event organizers, how
could they make it easy and affordable to completely
customize the interface so that the technology stays
in the background and the event remains the focus?
Just Go
When I asked them if they had advice for aspiring
entrepreneurs, John said “If you’re thinking about it,
just go. What’s the worst thing that can happen? Get
something out in the hands of your potential customers and see how they respond. Let your customers
tell you what they need that you haven’t delivered yet.”
That’s exactly what John and Eric did. They threw
together a simple solution and gave it to some organizations who they knew needed it. There were many
features missing in that first iteration - such as the
ability for Webconnex to get paid by their customers
- but they immediately started getting feedback. Although the term wasn’t common yet, this effectively
was the Webconnex “MVP” - minimal viable product.
The smallest effort that would deliver the value proposition and start to generate learning towards making a great product.
8
STARTUP
Small Growth. Big Growth.
Over the next several years, Webconnex continued to grow. Customers gave feedback. New events
sparked new requirements. Over
time different types of events and
different types of transactions
led to splitting out the capabilities into multiple different brands
(TicketSpice, RegFox, RedPodium,
GroupRev, GivingFuel). They did
very little advertising but grew rapidly among smaller organizations
and events through word of mouth
recommendations. By 2013, they
had grown to a team of 10 and had
processed $200 million in transactions. They were blessed.
Growing in Grace
As the business started to take off,
John and Eric realized they needed
to strengthen their foundations.
They knew some of the Board members at Praxis Labs and applied
to the Praxis business accelerator
program. They knew it would be a
fantastic experience and they were
not disappointed.
Then one day Focus on the Family called about using Webconnex.
The team believed the platform
The mentors, experts in their business fields, challenged them with
laser-focused questions they’d
could support big organizations,
but it had never been tested. The
Focus on the Family project was a
big success and Eric, John, and the
Webconnex team saw the door
being opened to more and more
large opportunities.
never considered. While helping
them with the business fundamentals, the mentors were even more
focused on the kingdom-impact
potential of the business. They
asked questions about how the
Webconnex value proposition reflects their faith and their Christian worldview. And they asked
how Eric and John’s relationships,
not only with employees and customers but also with family and
friends, reflect the gospel.
Christian Entrepreneurs
I asked them what it meant to them
to be Christian entrepreneurs.
John answered rightly that it gives
you a bigger purpose and impacts
every decision you make and how
you treat everyone.
9
STARTUP
But Eric’s answer was almost chilling. “Entrepreneurship is an endeavor to lose your soul. Entrepreneurs
take huge risks motivated by money, power, and control. They suffer through incredible highs and devastating lows. And at the end of the day, their business
is their identity. But our faith informs us that much
greater things matter and my true identity is as a son
of the Most High.”
Webconnex doesn’t want to be branded as a Christian
company, but they do want to reflect Christ. They referenced 1 Peter 3:15 (“but in your hearts honor Christ
the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope
that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”)
hoping that they give those around them a reason to
ask why they’re different.
Russ McGuire is a trusted advisor with proven
strategic insights. He has been blessed by God in
many ways including serving as a corporate executive, co-founding technology startups, and writing a
technology/business book. More importantly, he’s a
husband and father who cares about people, and he’s
a committed Christian who seeks to honor God in all
that he does. His newest venture is as Entrepreneur
in Residence at Oklahoma Christian University.
Eric said that being a Christian entrepreneur means
choosing to honor God with their business, even when
the world does not view it as “smart.” I asked what
that looked like and John said “It’s easy to cut corners,
and it’s tempting to make decisions that benefit our
company, but might not be the right choice. But, we
have an unwavering commitment to do what is right,
even if it costs us in the short run.”
I asked if they’ve had to turn down any business because of their faith and they emphasized
that they enjoy the opportunity to serve people coming from many different places and to reflect Christ’s love. Although their terms of service
document has a surprisingly long list of prohibited
uses, ranging from the obvious (adult content, drugs,
alcohol, gambling, tobacco, physician assisted suicide, abortion, hate, racial intolerance, and weapons,
among others) to the subtle (computer repair services, cruise lines, credit repair,
debt collection, digital currency,
medical equipment, timeshares,
and weight loss programs, among
others), they haven’t had to invoke
it except in a very few cases.
Proverbs 3:21-22 counsels us “My
son, do not lose sight of these—keep
sound wisdom and discretion, and
they will be life for your soul and
adornment for your neck.” John and
Eric are demonstrating sound wisdom and discretion. May God continue to bless their business.
For the scholar, the
seeker, the servant.
OC is home.
·
Recognized as one of the best universities in the west by
U.S. News and World Report and The Princeton Review.
·
·
·
More than 80 areas of study.
More than 40 current National Merit Finalists.
Named to the President’s Higher Education
Community Service Honor Roll.
www.oc.edu/tech
10
Ministry Communication
By Yvon Prehn
www.effectivechurchcom.com
5 Tips to Get People to Come Back To Church After Easter
F
11
or the months before Easter, the primary focus of churches is
on how to get the most people possible to the Easter service.
With a tremendous amount of work and effort Easter is a
fantastic success in terms of numbers of people attending. Also,
however, for most churches the following Sunday is often a big
disappointment, with few of the new people at Easter coming
back the following week. Following are 5 tips that will help you
make sure this doesn’t happen at your church.
#1: Use a connection card at the Easter service
If you don’t use a connection card, where visitors are asked
to give you their name and contact information, you don’t
have any way to follow-up with them. Tangible follow-up is
extremely important, because few visitors will come back
without it. Our services are rarely as inspiring to completely
unchurched visitors as they are to regular church members.
Sadly, our people are often too excited greeting each other to be as friendly as we wish they would be to visitors.
We need to reach out to visitors after the service to let
them know we care that they spent time with us. We
12
can’t do that if we don’t know they were there.
that they do for Easter and while on one level guests know
that, many churches forget to share basic information such
as the time the church regularly meets. If you assume “everybody knows” when the church regularly meets, a visitor may
come back next week at 9 am to an empty church because
the church regularly has services at 10:30 only, but didn’t
mention the time difference at the 9 am Easter service.
You must have a tangible way to get that information and a
connection card is the best way to do it. A connection card
for a special event Sunday can be very simple. Only ask for
name and contact information: email and address, perhaps
not even a phone number. In addition, you must clearly and
specifically ask that people fill it out during the service. One
upbeat, positive way to do this, is for you to say something
Forgetting to tell people what you do can have even biglike, “We are delighted you are with us today and we’d consider it an honor to pray for you. Please let us know how we ger consequences, as the following true story illustrates.
After a huge amount of pre-Easter marketing and PR a
can pray for you on your connection card.”
small church plant that was meeting in a local grade school
On the card itself, have a line that says: “How can we managed to get over 1500 people to the Easter service at
the local high school gym they rented for Easter. They felt
pray for you?”
the service was a huge success and that people respondBy adding the offer to pray (and sincerely following up and ed positively. The following week they were back at their
doing that) you are offering a gift to the guest beyond sim- regular location, several miles away and set up lots of extra
ply asking for information.
chairs for the expected influx of new people.
#2 Tell people what you regularly do
However, no new people came.
Most churches don’t do the same things on a regular basis
It wasn’t until then they realized that in all the work and focus leading up to Easter, they hadn’t given people anything
at the Easter service itself that told them where they met
regularly. Recounting it, the church leader told me, “I imagEasy for your members to contribute to your church.
ine if we’d driven over the to high school gym that Sunday
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there were probably dozens of people milling around, wonintegrated with your RDS accounting system.
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Also, because they also didn’t think they had the time to
create connection cards they didn’t have a way to reach the
people who visited.
#3: Tell them what your church can do for them
Of course visitors realize you don’t have a petting zoo and
Easter Egg Hunt every week for their children, but be sure
to tell them in your bulletin, on your website, or with an
additional, upbeat publication, what you have for their
children every week. Far too many churches assume that if
children had a fun time at the Easter Egg Hunt, they will automatically get their parents up early the following Sunday
and come back to Sunday School classes at 9 am.
In reality, most unchurched parents don’t even know Sunday School classes exist, and even less why they should get
up early to bring their children to them. For them to respond you must tell them in an upbeat, clear bulletin insert
13
what you have for kids, or use a QR code or website link and
take them to a site that shows videos of your Sunday morning programs, or of parents sharing how the church helped
them raise their children.
shop. They would send visitors (not just for the holidays,
but through the year) a follow-up with two free coupons for
lattes along with a note that said they could be used at any
time, but at the same time invited people to join the Pastor
at the local coffee shop any Thursday from 3-5 and invited
Other specialized ministries in your church, such as ones to them to come and ask “any question they wanted to about
Single Adults, teens, Seniors, Women, Mothers of Preschool- the Christian faith.” The response was tremendous.
ers, 12-Step Programs, Divorce Recovery, whatever else you A follow-up like this, again through any media your church
might have, need to be mentioned in the communications uses, with or without the free latte coupon, tells a visitor
you give out during the Easter service. Even one sheet, ti- you care about their spiritual well being more than simply
tled “What We’ve Got for You” with ministries listed, URLs wanting bodies in the next church service.
or QR codes, Twitter, Facebook or other social media links,
and a contact name and info is often saved after the service. The tips here do take work, but they make certain that the
When a need arises, if the visitor had a positive experience tremendous amount of work you do to prepare for Easter
at your church, they may return for help in a specific area.
results not only in a fantastic Easter service, but in continuing contact with your guests and a much greater possibility
#4 Follow-up immediately
of them coming to know Jesus.
There are many ways to follow-up today: email, phone
calls, postcards, plus every form of social media. What- For lots more material on how to create and use all of the
ever your church is comfortable using and is used by communication materials mentioned about, please go to:
your visitors—use it to follow-up. Use several methods, www.effectivechurchcom.com.
repeat and use again.
The more personal you can make your follow-up, the better. This is where a prayer request on a connection card
works well because it gives you a specific, personal message
to share with a visitor. Consider recruiting a prayer team
ahead of time to pray and to do the follow-up work. Nothing is worse than an ignored prayer request and few things
more positive than a genuine response that showed a real
person saw the request and honestly prayed.
A follow-up email, postcard, or social media connection
within the week after Easter makes a powerful connection.
Don’t even think about sending out a generic “we prayed for
you” card without a personal note attached.
#5 Invite visitors to interact outside of church
It may be some time before a person who came to church
only to please a parent or significant other returns to
your Sunday church service, but that doesn’t mean they
wouldn’t welcome an opportunity to interact with someone who is willing to answer questions, perhaps away
from the church proper.
One of my favorite suggestions for this came from a church
that hosted “latte with the Pastor” times at a local coffee
14
By Nick Nicholaou
What You Need to Know
NICK AT CHURCH
L
ast year I reported a charity license issue breakthrough that now has
many considering migrating to Microsoft Office 365 (O365). There
are some limitations you need to know about, and there are ways to
save considerable dollars. Here’s what you need to know.
The Charity Licensing Issue
Until last Fall Microsoft had this restriction in its
O365 charity licensing program:
“Organizations that engage in discrimination in
[employment practices] based on… gender identity
or expression… [or] sexual orientation… other than
as allowed by law are not eligible to participate in
this program.”
This was an issue for many Christian churches and
ministries. Thankfully we were connected with the
right people in Microsoft (no small feat—and possibly
even miraculous!) to address the concerns of those
who had issues with that language. The result was
that Microsoft made some changes in October that
eased those concerns!
•Microsoft added a statement to their website
that says, “The only exception to this [antidiscrimination] policy is for religious organizations
that are exempt from laws that prohibit such
discrimination.” (see www.microsoft.com/about/
corporatecitizenship/en-us/nonprofits/whoseligible/ under “Anti-Discrimination Policy”)
•Microsoft also added some FAQ points that
explained its intention. The FAQ clarifies why
Microsoft is excluding religious organizations from
the anti-discrimination policy. It also answers two
important questions about how to determine if an
organization may be exempt from discrimination
laws and whether Microsoft will be policing
compliance. The FAQ can be found at www.
microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/
nonprofits/faq/ under “Program Eligibility”.
15
NICK AT CHURCH
Organizations interested in O365 charity licensing
discounts must still be 501(c)(3) tax exempt,
or under the umbrella of a larger organization
(like an association or denomination). But the
non-discrimination language issue has been
solved for most.
What About Google Apps?
Google still has LGTB employment nondiscrimination restrictions in place for charity
licensing, which can be found at www.google.com/
nonprofits/account/signup/us. Churches that want
to use Google’s business tools under their charity
licensing program should note these restrictions.
O365 Limitations
O365 is a great option, but it is not for everyone. Here
are some limitations we’re aware of that, if important
to your organization, may mean avoiding or limiting
the benefits you choose to implement:
•Passwords must be complex and at least 8
characters, but cannot exceed 16 characters
(unless integrated with your local network’s Active
Directory – AD).
• If you have a local area network managed by AD:
• Integration between local network AD and O365’s
AD is problematic unless the local AD has been
appropriately cleaned up; you may be best off not
trying to integrate the two. Ideally, though, they
should be integrated.
• Changes to AD, when integrated, can take awhile
to replicate across both ADs, though password
changes and disabling accounts are supposed to
happen instantly.
• OneDrive (in place of an on-site file server)
• Many churches and ministries rely on a large file
folder structure for shared files that may have
departmental security.
• OneDrive currently doesn’t handle that. There
is a beta client showing promise, however.
16
NICK AT CHURCH
• Another possible solution is O365 Sharepoint.
• OneDrive does not work well for Mac users. In its
current version, the beta client does not resolve
this issue.
•Not nearly as simple to use as Dropbox or
Owncloud.
•Exchange (email, contacts, calendars, etc): For
churches that send large group emails, unless using
a 3rd party communication service, relay, or mailing
list product, O365’s Exchange Server limits when
sending emails:
• 30 messages per minute, and
• 10,000 recipients per day.
Can You Still Just Buy Office 2016?
Many prefer to just buy their Office app, paying a onetime fee with no further subscription fees. You can still
do that, and the charity licensing cost is still about the
same; just contact your preferred vendor.
So whether you only want the installable version of
Office, or want to add to that an Exchange server and
more, Microsoft O365 now makes a lot of sense for
many more Christian churches and ministries.
Nick Nicholaou is president of MBS, an IT consulting
firm specializing in church and ministry computer
Best O365 Practices that Save
Even with the limitations mentioned above, it is likely networks, VoIP, and private cloud hosted services. You
your church or ministry would benefit from O365 at can reach Nick at [email protected], and may want to
some level! Here are some best practices approaches. check out his firm’s website (www.mbsinc.com) and his
• For non-academic charities, there are basically blog at www.ministry-it.blogspot.com.
two licensing options (see https://products.office.
com/en-us/nonprofit/office-365-nonprofit-plansand-pricing):
• E1 – FREE!
• 300 user maximum.
•Does not include the fully installable version
of Office, but does provide online browserbased versions.
• File storage in OneDrive, up to 1tb per user.
• Exchange Server.
• IM, teleconferencing, video conferencing.
• E3 – $4.50/month per user – Everything included
in E1 plus:
• No user limit.
•The fully installable version of Office and
mobile apps.
• AD management.
• There’s another option that may make the most
sense for many.
•Combine the free E1 with O365 ProPlus for
Nonprofits (only $2.00/month per user), listed at
the bottom of the web page!
• The O365 ProPlus for Nonprofits option includes the
fully installable version of O365 and mobile apps.
17
Protected With
PURPOSE
By Steven Sundermeier
Keeping the Odds
in Your Favor
A
s I sat down to focus on this month’s ‘Protected with Purpose’
column, an unprecedented $1.6 Billion powerball Lottery
drawing was only a few hours away. News sites, social media and
I assume many workplace water-coolers were all abuzz in anticipation
of the record setting event. If you have had your head buried in the sand
and escaped all the excitement over the last few weeks as the grand
prize reached hundreds of millions and eventually 1.6 billion dollars…
the Powerball Lottery is similar to other lotteries, except that selecting
the winning combination is more difficult.
For the Powerball, participants have to pick five
numbers ranging from one through sixty-nine. In
addition, there is a sixth, separate ball ranging from
one to twenty-six that also has to be picked correctly.
When you take into account all the possible
combinations, the odds of choosing all six balls
correctly is roughly 1 in 292,000,000. Try to envision
the following picture, in order to grasp the likelihood
of winning the jackpot: According to the United
States Census Bureau, the current population of the
United States is a little more 321 million. I have read
that if we were to line up every person in the U.S. in
a single file line, that line would stretch around the
Earth seven times. (Whether that is 100% factual I am
not sure, but it provides a nice visual.) Your chances of
winning the Powerball would have been only slightly
better than having someone randomly select you from
everyone else lined up in that single file line encircling
18
Protected With
PURPOSE
the Earth seven times. And just in case that is still too
hard to comprehend, your chances of getting hit by
lightening in the United States in any one year is over
400% greater than winning the Powerball!
so many other vulnerabilities. Get a solid antivirus
product on your devices!
I mention everything above not to scare you, but to
remind you that today’s threats are real and with the
Optimist or not, I hope we can all agree that the odds unfortunate profitability of cybercrime and millions
of becoming the lucky (or unlucky) winner were not of computers and smartphones connecting online
great. However, the lottery hysteria got my wheels all over the world, the odds are increasingly stacked
turning about the increasing probability of users against you.
falling victim to a computer security attack (i.e.
malware, hacking, etc.) in 2016, and the steps that a To further that point, let’s have a detailed look at
user can take to decrease those odds.
statistics collected from my (Thirtyseven4) Virus
Research Team last quarter (Q4, 2015). The average
According to a recent Data Breach Investigation Report per-day number of Android-based and Windows
published by Verizon, hackers are blasting businesses malware files received into our lab that targeted
with malware-based cyber attacks five times a second users totaled (on average) more than 450,000 samples
or 18,000 times every hour. (Does that make anyone a day. (I hope noone is paranoid, because that is a
else uneasy?) The statistic was correlated from data lot of nasties pointed in your direction.) Of that
collected from over 10,000 businesses across a broad total, over 225 new families of Android malware
range of industries Nationwide. The financial impact were discovered. Android malware-writers are notof hacks on the American economy is reported as only targeting your smartphones, tablets, etc., but
exceeding $100 billion a year, that’s over 60 times they are becoming increasingly more savvy at doing
greater than the record Powerball jackpot! And so. Towards the end of last year Android.Mero.A
while major banking institutions, large retailers (i.e. was found live in the Google Play Store for the first
Home Depot, Target), etc. remain high-profile targets, time, as it had the capability to bypass CAPTCHA
statistically many of the noted financial losses are authentications systems. So not only are “the bad
from cyber attacks on small businesses and you, guys” producing expediently more malware, the
the typical home computer or mobile device user. malware is increasingly sophisticated. (Can’t these
For example, the FBI reported over $18 million in malware writers use their gifts for good?)
user-reported losses due to CryptoWall infections And before the iPhone users get too proud, targeted
alone over the past year. That’s a staggering number attacks on the iOS have already arrived. Late last year,
considering that we’re (Thirtyseven4) updating for the XcodeGhost malware was found on the Apple
nearly 500 new ransomware variations every month! App Store. Here’s another mind boggling number:
CryptoWall is a form of ransomware that encrypts the number of Windows malware doubled from the
files on a system until a desired ransom is paid. If levels seen in Quarter 3, 2015. While the top category
you or anyone you know has been infected with any of Windows malware received remained under the
of the Crypto-variants, then you know that there is Trojan (31%) classification, ransomware and adware
not much “recovery” from it—even when you pay we’re the most costly and huge nuisances in 2015.
the “ransom”. Thirtyseven4 serves thousands of
school districts and hundreds of churches across the Exploit kits also played a role in delivering malicious
Nation (not one has been touched by Crypto since payloads. Exploit kits use known or unknown
the addition of our DNA Scanner over 2 Years ago) vulnerabilities of software programs, web browsers
and in the these first few weeks of 2016 we have been and operating systems. The most commonly exploited
flooded with inquiries and pleas from non-customers program was Adobe Flash due to its compatibility
seeking help because they have been hit by Crypto. with multiple platforms and because of how widely
Prevention is the only cure for Crypto-variants and it is installed. Overall the Adobe Flash exploits grew
Protected With
PURPOSE
276% over the last Quarter. Java is
highly exploited software for the
same reasons. The exploit ‘CVE2015-2590’ was a zero-day exploit
used in ‘Operation Pawn Storm’,
a targeted attack campaign that
allowed attackers to control your
system and lead to information
stealing malware.
News-media and family-members
alike often-times ask me if things
will get better, and unfortunately I
have to answer “No”. As millions of
additional users connect online and
as we enter the age of the “Internet
of Things” (IoT) ( fitness wristbands,
smart watches, home appliances,
vehicles, T.V.’s etc.) this further
dependence and reliance on the
latest technologies will undoubtedly
open a whole new realm of security
holes. As we rush and society
pushes us into the technological
“next-best-thing”, the lid is further
lifted off of Pandora’s Box.
But unlike the Powerball drawing,
staying secure with your device
doesn’t have to be a gamble. Here
are a few suggestions that can betteryour-odds against a cyber-attack.
1) Use complex and lengthy
passwords, and change them
periodically. Never reveal your
personal details/passwords to
anyone.
This includes family,
relatives, coworkers and even a
best friend.
2)
Be
cautious
while
participating on social networking
sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
3) Don’t blindly follow links
without knowing what they link to
19
20
Protected With
PURPOSE
(i.e. shortened URL’s). This goes for emails, texts and
social media posted links.
4) When entering personal information to a
website, always look for the padlock that’s located on
the left of the location bar of the web address (https://).
By clicking on the padlock, you can view the security
certificate details for the site. A fraudulent site will
not have these details.
5) Apply the latest security updates whenever
required by an application - such as Operating System
updates (Windows, Mac, etc) or other programs like
Java, Adobe, etc.
6) Install STRONG antivirus software, making
sure it remains up-to-date and scanned at regular
intervals. May I recommend Thirtyseven4 Endpoint
Security?
7) Use common sense! Many risks are
identifiable, and must be approached with caution.
The numbers were high in relation to the Powerball
drawing. High volumes of people bought tickets. The
Jackpot was a high-dollar amount. Hopes were high.
But three people won. Only three lucky ducks out of
millions got a piece of the pie. Malware, viruses and
ransomware have different odds.
Thousands of new variations in malware a day. That
means cyber-criminals are working to penetrate your
data now…and now…and now. I am not trying to
make you paranoid, but I am trying to inform you,
to educate you. Online security threats are not like
Powerball, where there are lots of numbers and a few
are picked. Online security vulnerabilities number
in the millions and they affect people, businesses,
schools and churches by the millions. Being prepared
and informed (and well-protected!) is the best defense
and the only way to be a “winner” in this lotto. Stay
informed, be smart and be proactive with a trusted
antivirus product and odds are--you will have good
luck in staying protected.
21
Don’t Go It Alone
this Year
By Jonathan Smith
C
an I ask you a question? How many of your new year’s resolutions
have you already broken? Some of them are probably career
oriented—things like network more, learn more, be more
efficient, be less busy and more effective, etc. If you work in ministry
technology as a career, or if you volunteer, let me encourage you to
actually do something about networking this year and not to attempt
going it alone.
The cliché is silos vs. synergy. I started in ministry
technology as a volunteer in the mid-1990’s. That
turned into a full time career in 2001. When I
started there weren’t many technology resources
for ministries and I felt like a silo trying to solve the
worlds technology problems on my own. Google
didn’t show up until 1998 and wasn’t very helpful
during those early formative years.
They don’t even charge membership dues. It was
simply a group of church geeks trying to help advance
the cause of the Kingdom.
I was also impressed that theological differences
didn’t get in the way. They weren’t out to solve the
questions of the ages but rather to simply help each
other apply technology to ministry. Technology in
churches and non-profits is different from technology
In 2007 I was introduced to a group of folks who in the corporate world and this group got that.
worked in church IT that existed to provide synergy. Everyone was willing to share and help everyone else
I attended my first meeting in Chicago and realized I out. No one was trying to protect any trademark
wasn’t alone, my problems weren’t unique, and there secrets. There was no competition.
were lots of people with more experience than I had
who were willing to share and help me get better. It was also encouraging to see IT folks socializing. As
What amazed me is that this wasn’t an organization a group we can be rather introverted and awkward.
trying to sell something or with some other agenda. Put a bunch of those type of folks together in the
22
same room who are all struggling
to solve the same technological
problems and all of a sudden
relationships start to form.
Then when we leave that room
those relationships continue
thanks to our understanding of
social media and communication
through technology.
all busy, we are all being asked
to do more with less, and we all
have more to do than we could
possibly get done in one lifetime.
Instead of using busyness as an
excuse let me encourage you to
use it as a motivation. There is
a big difference between being
busy and being effective. Often it
is best to stop and make time to
If you work full time in ministry make sure you and those you lead
technology, volunteer in ministry are being effective.
technology, or manage ministry
technology staff and/or volunteers Being a part of a group like The
then consider joining this group Church IT Network doesn’t take
or encouraging those you lead much time. They are there if you
to join this group. Did I mention need them but don’t require that
it’s a free group of peers all learning you participate in membership
from each other for greater meetings. Did I mention it’s free?
ministry effectiveness?
There are no annual dues. It is
simply a group of IT professionals
What is this group you ask? all working towards the same
I’m speaking of The Church IT common goal.
Network. Their website says, “If you
are passionate about serving the I have found that being a part of
body of Christ through technology, the various online communities
the Chruch IT Network is for you.” and discussion has actually saved
Whether you work or volunteer in me money. I’ve posted questions
help desk, IT management, audio/ online and received answers
visual, web development, ChMS, within minutes that have saved
DBA, or others you will find a place the ministry I support thousands
in the Church IT Network.
of dollars.
are all welcome to join and learn
more about church IT ministry.
Volunteers are also welcome and
encouraged to participate. Church
tech uses volunteers more than
any other technology organization
in the world and we should want
our volunteers to be well equipped.
There are 2 meeting options each
year that are available to those
who want to gather together. A
regional event in the spring and a
national event in the fall. While
there are travel costs associated
with these events and some minor
event registration fees (the last
national event was $75 for 3 days,
including meals) they are both
well worth it. We learn together,
worship together, and enjoy great
food and fellowship.
Proverbs 11:25 says, “A generous
person will prosper; whoever
refreshes others will be refreshed.”
(NIV). My involvement in The
Church IT Network has made
me a better IT pro, a better
employee, and a better servant of
the King. Take this opportunity
at the beginning of the new
year to consider growing in
The biggest hurdle most church The Church IT Network is also your generosity and taking the
tech folks have in being a part of a great place to learn about IT opportunity to refresh others and
a group like this is time. We are in ministry. Pastors, CFO’s, etc. be refreshed.
Jonathan Smith is the Director of
Technology at Faith Ministries in
Lafayette, IN. You can reach Jonathan at
[email protected] and also follow
him on Twitter @JonathanESmith.
For more information on The
Church IT Network please
visit
churchitnetwork.com,
follow on Twitter @CITRT and
join the conversation using
the hashtag #CITRT.

MinistryTech.com | February 2016 1

Transcription

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