Distractions and Prayer

For the past few days, I’ve been trying to write a post but there has been a lot going on so I haven’t been able to concentrate on it.

For those reading, if you could keep me in prayers for wisdom on some situations it would be much appreciated.

On another note, check out Jason Powel’s post on FREE Sharepoint training from a Microsoft MVP!

I have to say that the Church IT Roundtable guys are absolutely amazing on their willingness to help each other out. I think there is a lot to learn from this group!

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Our school, Rhema Bible Training Center, has three years, two being the normal length and an optional third year. I have the privelege of talking to the third year Pastor and Missions groups. The third year is more hands-on then the previous two years. They get to work with other churches and participate in weddings etc.

I am going to be talking about technology in ministry, specifically for new church plants and new ministries. I’m coming with the mindset that they don’t have resources for a tech staff and aren’t extremely proficient in technology anyway, beyond normal surfing and word usage.

I want to provide them with a good overall view of some areas of technology that could help them in productivity and accessibility. Some ideas are hosted applications (Google Apps, 37signals), the use of blogs, hitting the idea of ChMS, free hosting (dreamhost.com)..

I don’t want to overload, but I don’t want to let them go away without some great resources.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Side note: Cat chases bear up a tree! Thanks to Jeremy Marx for the link… go encourage my fellow Database Admin to start blogging!

Goooooooddddd evening blogging land… (in best Robin Williams impersonation)

Well today I started the dwindling down of the Help Desk Software. I had installed OTRS and Spiceworks, but wasn’t completely satisfied.

Step in Church IT Roundtable and Jim Edwards’ recap of Help Desk mentions during the conference.

I have started demos for both ServiceDesk and Kayako. I have to say I like both! The ServiceDesk was easy to install and setup and configure(granted very limited configuration for now). They both seem to handle tickets and email capturing very well. There are a few things I wish were combined from the two..

ServiceDesk Plus Pro

• Easy Active Directory Integration
• Asset Management + User Attachment of Assets
• Purchase Ordering Managment

Kayako

• Web Portal - Don’t have to authenticate to view KB or Troubleshooting
• Predefined Templates for replies
• Live Chat ability

My thoughts are that Kayako would be great for external facing sites and users while ServiceDesk would be good for internal use, though I wish it had the predefined replies and easy-linkable KB articles.

More testing tomorrow.

It’s late and I don’t have much energy to go into anything real deep or major tonight.

One thing that I am very grateful for is my family. We are by no means perfect, but I wouldn’t have it any other way sometimes. I couldn’t have asked for better parents, nor have I ever wished for “better” parents.

My full point is that family and relationships are extremely important in our day to day lives. We, by design, need intimate (not physical) relationships with people. I believe this is where family comes in as well as a few good friends. A need to connect and share what our deepest heartbeat is. To express our joys and sorrows, our triumphs and defeats. In the same manner, I believe this need was setup to reflect our need for God and vice-versa. God wants to share his heartbeat, his interests, with us. He wants us so intimately knowledgeable of him that we can be his ambassador on earth.

As amabassadors, we speak for someone, as if they were speaking themselves. Example, an U.S. Ambassador would speak on behalf of the U.S. with their best interest and policies in mind; not for their own personal gain or agenda. The ambassador must spend time learning and hearing what the policies are and what the vision of the administration is. In like manner, we must become intimate with God. He gave us means to do this through His Word and prayer. He gave us the Holy Spirit as a helper in this too!

I’ve heard a lot of talk about the unity of the church. I truly believe that once we come to a point of knowing the interests of the Father and all come rallying around them, is when we will start to see full unity.

I have to say that I am blessed with a need of an intimate relationship with God, just as I am with my family.

This past week, I had the privelege of attending the Church IT Roundtable in Kansas City at Church of the Resurrection. Clif Guy, Amy Facemire, and crew all did an amazing job of preperation and hosting. I took away a lot just from how everything was handled. Thank you all very much!

Some of the highlights include being able to meet many of the people whose blogs I’ve been reading, Jason Powell, Tony Dye, and of course Clif and the crew; the topic bizzare provided a great area to find exactly the topic/vendor I wanted to talk with and ask questions; and just the fellowship was worth the entire trip. One of the amazing things to me is that we all, from all the different backgrounds, can come together in unity for the Lord. I do thank the Lord for that! I look forward to the next RoundTable

I wasn’t up to par on Thursday, so I talked far less than I normally would. Getting up at 4am to drive to KC on 3 hours of sleep really took my energy away. I got home about midnight, which included a nice visit from Kansas Highway Patrol around Iola.

I was very sad that I couldn’t make Wed’s sessions. From what I can tell off of David Szpunar’s blog there were many great topics brought up. I think I will go through a few this week and make my own comment additions to them.

On a whole other note, I watched the first two episodes of Chuck.. It was alright.. I’ll probably watch more, but I don’t know how good it will do.

Over the past year, I have been involved in many new projects at work. I love doing new things, though they can take a lot of time and energy. One thing that I wish I had earlier was a group of like-minded tech people to bounce ideas off of and hear what they are going through as well. After searching for information on ministries using Fellowship 1, I ran across a few blogs; one of them being Jason Powell of Granger Community Church.

Finding that blog and then the Church IT Roundtable set off a series of discovering a whole world I never thought to look for. I have since found and added to my RSS reader numerous blogs from IT and communications staff members, leaders, and pastors. Many of which can be found on the blog roll on the right..

Well to list some of the projects I am immediately engrossed in, here we go.
PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM
ChMS Selection
SAN Storage and Consolidated Backup Selection
Complete website redesign and backend creation
Collarboration Software Selection

Again, going through some of these now, knowing there are others who have gone before us and have graciously offered insight into their experiences is going to be a very valuable and helpful asset.