I’ve already had conversations with four or five colleagues this week that had me quoting Cynthia’s post, so I wanted you to benefit from the wealth of ideas that Cynthia provides.  Below are some of the most important pieces from Cynthia.  You can read the whole article here.

Since Christian leaders, especially pastors, are often “wired” for serving others, it’s not really a surprise that online communication technologies can sometimes trick us, tempting us to serve them rather than serving us.

Mastering your email is absolutely essential for freeing your time for other things.  Furthermore, several fundamental principles provide a simple way to get ahead of your inbox and stay “in control” of your email.

She then points us to Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson Publishers’ President & CEO.  Hyatt has some simple tips to stay on top of your e-mail. (Again, I’m quoting Cynthia, quoting Michael, who works for Thomas)

1. Empty your inbox everyday.
2. Don’t get bogged down, keep moving.
   • Do—take action on the task now. I follow David Allen’s two-minute rule. If I can do what is being requested in less than two minutes, I do it immediately. This gets stuff off your to-do list before it ever gets on it. This has the added advantage of making you look responsive.
   • Delegate—pass the task along to someone else. I’m not talking about “passing the buck.” But oftentimes someone else is better equipped to fulfill the sender’s request. Dawson Trotman once said, “I purposed never to do anything others could or would do when there was so much of importance to be done that others could or would not do.” In other words, try to focus on where you add value and offload everything else.
   • Defer—consciously decide you will do the task later. This only applies to asks you cannot complete in two minutes or less or can’t delegate to someone else. You can either add the task to your to-do list or schedule an appointment with yourself to complete it. Fortunately, in Entourage, I convert an email message to a task or an event (i.e., appointment) with a single keystroke. [Two keys in Outlook, by the way]
   • Delete—determine if you might need the information later. If not, delete it. My own assumption is that if it’s really important, someone, somewhere else in the world, has a copy of it.
   • File—if you think you might need the information, file it. But do not create an elaborate set of file folders. This is the single most important piece of advice I can give you. Just file everything in one folder called “Processed Mail.” If it is more complicated than this, it will lead to procrastination. Trust me on this. You will have to decide, Should I file this under Tami because it is from her or under Max because it is about him? And then what happens if the email covers more than one subject? Do you make copies of the email and put one copy under each folder? Things can get complicated fast.Forget all of that. File your email in one folder and let your email or system software (e.g., “Spotlight”) find it when you need it. The search capabilities of almost every modern email program will enable you to put your hands on any message whenever it is necessary. It may take you a few minutes longer to find the message using this method, but this is offset by the hours you waste trying to figure out how to file your messages.
3. Use keyboard shortcuts and avoid the mouse.
4. Let email rules filter the low-priority stuff.

I’ve been keeping pretty well on top of my inbox lately. I’m down to 18 messages waiting for action today, compared to the thousands that used to hang around in my inbox. Life is much better this way - much better.

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1. William (AccessACS program manager) e-mailed me today about the ability to pass people to specific URLs within AccessACS.
   

   We are also reviewing the ability to pass in URLs. We have ran into some security snags and that is my biggest concern, but we are looking at ways to allow you to pass in urls to certain areas that members would have high traffic to such as Serving, Small Groups, My Dashboard, and Personal Preferences.  As we make more progress I’ll keep you up to date. No promises on if it will be a part of the upcoming release, but I did want to share were we are at.

2. Darci (Facility Scheduler program manager) and I have e-mailed back and forth several times and spoke on the phone for about 20 minutes yesterday.  She and I are looking at some of the log-in issues with AccessACS and Facility Scheduler.  Since they’re on a unified log-in now, she’s the one in the know on all things related to log-in.  Some of the problems we talked about are:
   1. Making the temporary passwords easier (not containing special characters) so that the golden generation doesn’t have to call me for assistance
   2. Making the password reset process easier (currently five steps to reset password, 2 more to change it to something else)
   3. Making it easier to retrieve a lost user name (either with a link or with a note on screen)
   4. Changing the screen for initial password reset to not look like an error (with red words showing up)
   5. Working out a system to notify an administrator when a scheduled upload fails

As always, I have been very impressed by ACS’ willingness to listen and make changes.  My main goal is to reduce the number of support calls that I have to handle.  The value of the program (AccessACS) diminishes greatly when it takes such a large portion of my time to provide support for it.  It’s a great product.  Don’t misunderstand.

My only goal is to use my vision as an end-user to provide meaningful feedback to ACS about how the product can be improved.  If they make some simple changes, they serve me better… both by reducing the number of support calls that I handle and by increasing the usage of the product in our church.  Increasing the use of the product directly results in saving time for all of our staff members.

So, if you’re on the fence about adding AccessACS to your suite of ACS products, let this post be an encouragement to you.  When there are issues, ACS listens and responds.  They have a living product in active development, and they care about your ministry.  We are happy with AccessACS, and we’re glad it’s part of our church software.

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I called into AT&T today to upgrade one of our church cell phones.  I have called them dozens of times about our various lines and services, and every call is complete with some new frustration.  I guess I’ve never called about this line before.  To my surprise, the representative said that I was not authorized to make changes to the account, nor is the guy who uses the phone every day.

I asked who the authorized representative is within our church, and he said that he could not release that information.  I asked if he could contact the authorized representative to let them know that they are indeed authorized, and he said he had to ask for authorization to do so.  I thought he was joking with me when he said that.  After a brief musical interlude, he returned to the line and informed me that he was unable to obtain authorization.  Are you seeing the humor here?  We have a problem - none of us know who is authorized to make changes to the account, and we have no way of fixing the problem.

So, as a smart comment, I asked if I was to have each of our 50+ staff members call in and ask if they are the authorized representative for the account.  I was blown away by the frank reply, “I believe that’s the only thing you can do, sir.”

AT&T gets a HUGE chunk of my annual budget, and our vendor-customer relationship is full of frustration.

ACS also gets a huge chunk of my annual budget, but our vendor-customer relationship is happy.  See, they noted my post a couple days ago, and I received personal responses from three upper-level corporate representatives including the product lead of the product I was having difficulties with, the executive director of research and development, and my account representative.

They are always quick to respond, listen intently to the needs of their client, and make changes when appropriate.

I understand full well that not every enhancement request I enter will end up in the product, but I have already seen dozens of my requests come to fruition - and we’ve only been customers of ACS for a year.

So, if I had a choice I would ditch AT&T, but I’m keeping ACS.  They’ve got rock-solid products, a proven track record, and a genuine concern for our ministry to the world.

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I’m still not ready to talk about publishing platforms.  Most pastors that I talk to want me to jump past all the other stuff and head right to “what do I need to buy.”  The problem is that you can’t buy a successful Web presence - it’s an ongoing investment.  It’s a strategy.  For most, if not all, growing churches, the Web site is the central hub of information.

So, how do you de-stinkify your current church Web site.  By the way, if you scored under 10 on WebsiteGrader.com, take heart - so do most other church Web sites.  Now, do something about it.  Here are some action items for your consideration.

1. Determine your target audience.  You need to know who you’re marketing to before you throw stuff onto the Web.  Lifechurch.tv’s Tony Steward details this way better than I can in this post.
2. Plan out your site’s core content and navigation before you enlist any techie geeks.  Don’t just post every piece of information imaginable.  Bobby Gruenewald suggests that we design our mobile site first, before we do anything else.  This forces us to cut the fluff and stay on target.
3. Realize that while techie geeks are necessary for the technical aspects of a Web site, you cannot expect them to own the site and run solo with it.  The geek is not a skilled writer or marketer, he is a skilled designer or developer.  Here are some tips from Jason Reynolds.
4. View the Web as a central communication tool for your congregation and community.  It shouldn’t be a one-man-show or a place that’s neglected.  The Web is not your business card.  Allow it to be the hub that other sources pull from.  For instance, in the weekly bulletin, direct people to the Web for more information rather than giving a phone number.  This saves time for the person responsible for the event by not having to respond to so many calls about an event.  That time can be re-invested in their ministry.  The shift to the Web being the central hub of information will not happen overnight, but you must work to patiently make this ever-important shift.
5. Encourage the entire staff to have ownership.  Everyone should be a contributor.  Jason Reynold’s  post (above) encourages all ministerial staff to write three articles per week for the Web site.  Kevin McCord’s also weighs in here with his post on Web presence.
6. KISS - Don’t have a Web site developed that takes a rocket scientist to update.  Make Web maintenance easy enough for Betty Sue and Reverend Mike.  MeanDean’s got a list similar to mine concocted here.

That’s enough tips for now.  More to follow.  Bottom line, if your church Web site stinks, you need to fix it.  It’s time.

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ACS

I don’t like to be the guy giving ultimatims.  Nobody likes that guy, and I like being liked.  But, I did it.  I did it for my church, for your church, and honestly for the Kingdom.  If interested, you can read the full email history.

See, the problem is simple.  There’s not a way for me to highlight the available serving opportunities to our Web site visitors and enable them to sign up for one.  I can show them the opportunities but leave them guessing as to how to actually get involved.  I can give three-step instructions of how to sign up.  But I can’t make a link directly to the page that has all the opportunities listed out.

So, I dropped a bomb on William, the product lead for AccessACS.  I like him.  I got to spend some time with him at the convention this year, and he’s a really good guy and a top-notch developer.  ACS is fortunate to have him on staff.  So, I don’t like giving William an ultimatim, but I felt like it was just that important.  Check the full email history if you use AccessACS or are considering it.

In all of this, ACS could dig in their heels and refuse to do anything, but I’ve been working with them for long enough to know that they won’t do that.  They listen and respond to their customers, and that’s why I call them our trusted partner in ministry.

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It got me thinking - why do so many churches have cruddy Web sites?  Do we really not understand the Kingdom potential?  Do we really believe there aren’t people in our churches who can help us with this?  Are we overwhelmed by the number of advertisements that come in from people trying to pawn the latest, greatest Web product?

I assume it’s a combination of all of those things.

This post is intended for churches who don’t have the luxury of having a person on staff who knows the intricacies of Web design and SEO.  To you, here are some practical steps for evaluating and correcting your church Web site.

1. First, and I’m not joking, pray about your church Web site.  I believe God wants to work through it.  Pray for guidance.
2. Second, you need to subscribe to Heal Your Church Website.  Here and here are some good posts to get you started.  I’ve been following Dean for many years - he’s got some good, solid advice.
3. Third, run your site through WebsiteGrader.com.  It’s free, and it’s fast.  One warning… your site will get a grade from 0-100.  That number is merely a guide, a starting point.  They are trying to show you some of the glaring SEO issues with your site.  A high number doesn’t necessarily mean your site is any good.  However, a low number is a pretty good indication that your site is stinking up the Web… just sayin.
4. Finally, make some changes.  I’ll unpack this one a little more, but for now, get crackin on the first three steps.

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Are you ready for the switch to 100% pure digital television?  This video will help you.  [HT to Blake for the great find.]

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Anyway, I wrote earlier this week about launching fbcbelton.me and our serving opportunities. We’re now starting to hear from members and regular attenders, and we’ve started receiving database updates and requests to volunteer for opportunities. Pretty good for a week!

Yesterday I launched commenting on sermons.  I’m using Disqus to do it.  It’s a little awkward to have two commenting systems on the same Web site, but I don’t really know an easy way around that - other than using Disqus for the whole site (not really interested in that).  My boss thought it’d be good to give people the opportunity to interact with each other in response to the sermon.  I totally agree, and I think some weeks it’ll be much more active than others.  It’d be interesting if the pastor started asking people to head to the Web site and comment.  I was surprised how much coding I had to do to make this process automated, but now that it’s automated, we’re good to go.

We have begun beta testing our online room reservation and calendaring form.  I don’t really want to send the URL for that and have a whole bunch of people innundate it.  This is a way for us to archive all our room set-up forms for the future, send out e-mail notifications to appropriate parties, and create a work flow.  Instead of having binders loaded with these things, we can make MySQL do the work for us.  Instead of asking the newsletter lady and the Web guy to type illegible handwritten blurbs, we can make the people type them in themselves.  Instead of having incomplete forms dropped in our mailboxes, we can run validation and make sure all the required fields are filled in.

Finally, I made the mobile version of our church Web site much more functional and pretty this week.  I added shortcuts for those not using a touch screen, added some color, added our logo, removed some fluff, and added some very important pages that I had omitted at first.

That’s pretty good for a week!  Tomorrow I have to go back to my network admin stuff.  It’s much less glamorous. :)

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She said it better than I ever could, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”  This woman was simply amazing with a heart as big as Texas and a dedication to the poor that would put any of us to shame.

While we’ll never have the same global impact as Mother Teresa, we can totally change the world for one child. You see, a simple sacrifice of $32 per month really does save a child’s life.  It releases that child from hopelessness, and it gives him a future.

So, realizing that it’s pretty cheap to save a life, why don’t we take heed to Mother Teresa’s warning.  I think it’s because we’re selfish.  Instead of caring for someone who has nothing, we decide that it’s more important for us to have:

• The iPhone data plan ($30/month)
• Satellite television with HD and DVR ($75/month)
• A $3 coffee every morning ($90/month)

See, I could make that list go on forever.  We just have to have the DVR and data plan.  Yet, somehow our conviction to answer God’s call to minister to the needs of the poor and oppressed are not quite as important.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. (Proverbs 31:8)

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