I finally started reading Mark Batterson’s “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” today.  (You can download the entire first chapter here.)  This book has been on my reading list since coming back from the Catalyst Conference last year.  We heard Mark speak at one of the pre-conference sessions.  WOW!  This man’s heart is amazing.  He’s pastoring National Community Church in Washington DC, a church that meets in theaters that are nearby metro stops.  Check out their Web site.

The reason for this post is that Batterson rocked my world today.  This one idea, emerging from the story of a man killing a lion with his bare hands, shook me up.  Batterson says:

Goodness is not the absence of badness.  You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.  Our calling is much higher than simply running away from what’s wrong.  We’re called to chase lions - look for opportunities in our problems and obstacles, and take risks to reach for God’s best.

The line that shook me up: “You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.”  This past year-and-a-half, I’ve changed.  I’ve settled happily in to “adult life.”  For the first time, I have a real job, a real pay check, and real bills.  It’s changed me.  Since I’ve become a bona fide “adult,” I’ve stopped taking risks, stopped chasing lions.

In college, I was the guy who decided, against all advisors, to follow God to Vermont for two years with barely any sign of a paycheck to work with people who were completely different from me.  That risk payed off hugely for me and hopefully also for the people that I worked with.  I consider it the most influential time in my life. I was a lion-chaser.

Hopefully as I finish the rest of Batterson’s book, I’ll learn how to chase lions where I am, in the course of my 9-to-5 duties and in the world that surrounds me.  I challenge you, as I challenge myself, don’t get so wrapped up with life and security that you miss the lions that are all around you.  Remember that you can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right.

Our largest area of need for enhancements was in the Checkpoint product.  Thankfully, a number of changes are on the way with this product in the July release.  One of the R&D guys told me that I was the reason for a number of these things.  I think they’re just trying to make me feel good, but it’s so encouraging to know that ACS really does listen to their customers.

Now, there are many changes that still need to be made, and those are on the list to be done.  I’m looking forward to seeing this product in 2009 with the 11.0 release.

Some of the changes that are coming this year in 10.0 are:

• “Background” Image - It is now possible to add a custom image to the express check-in screen so that it looks more personal and professional.
• Bigger buttons - The buttons on the express check-in screen are now bigger and have more space between them to make the experience with the touch screen easier.
• Add person from express - Now, the ability will exist to add people to the database from the express screen (unmanned) rather than the manned screen.  (I probably won’t use this)
• Sessions - Major changes have been made to the sessions setup.  Sessions are the “events” that you are checking in at one time.
  • Now, you can use different sessions for the same master group.   You can use Sunday School Children and Sunday School Adults at the same time on the same day in different ways on different machines.
  • Also, the big change that we’ve been pushing for is the number of security badges that can be printed.  With 10.0, this can be changed.
• Badge Design - It will now be possible to change the layout of the visitor badge!  Also, you can include a barcode on the label for use in check-out.
• Visitors - one-time visitors are now included in session statistics.  They’re still not posting to attendance though.
• Offline check-in - It’s now possible to run Checkpoint disconnected from the church database.  You sync the database with an offline machine, run check-in, then sync back with your live data.  Pretty cool stuff.

For my inaugural post on my fancy new church IT blog, I want to talk about the necessity of protecting your church members’ information, your church-owned computers, and each network user. I was reading Nick Nicholaou’s post about Biometrics, and I was inspired to post on network security. He wrote:

Church and ministry networks have information that, if not properly protected, could cost a lot of money in penalties plus a hurt reputation in their community.

That’s absolutely correct. If we don’t look out for our data, no one will. When I arrived at FBC, I quickly learned that the entire network was protected by an overworked $50 firewall. I don’t fault the church - they didn’t know. I’m certain that if my church overlooked this security vulnerability, many others have as well.

I don’t intend to make a case for a good firewall, but I insist that you get one. Instead, I want to give you a few pointers. Namely, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get your hands on some excellent protection. Friends, in my humble opinion, the answer is in Linux.

Last month, I installed a Linux firewall with no out-of-pocket costs. We had a spare computer, running a 300MHz P3 and 512Mb of SDRAM. You don’t need a beast. I downloaded the latest distribution of SmoothWall Express 2.0 and the DansGuardian add-on and burned them to a CD. The SmoothWall CD boots right up and walks you through the installation procedures. The DansGuardian needs a little bit of Linux finesse.

The bottom line is that this box now sits between the Interweb and the church network. There are two network cards, one goes to the cable modem and the other to a switch. It scans everything coming in and everything going out. SmoothWall is a great firewall right “out of the box.” It has an Intrusion Detection System built right in, and it logs everything. When you add DansGuardian, you gain the ability to filter content. That’s right, it makes it nearly impossible for kiddos in the computer lab to land on inappropriate content.

More on this later.