Jason Powell - Church IT and Other Musings

2011 National Spring Church IT Roundtable Feb 24-25 - Near Orlando, FL - Be there!

If you haven't already seen the news on the CITRT twitter or facebook page >>> 

Spring 2011 National Church IT Roundtable - w00t! Spread the news! We're Florida bound for spring 2011!

Dates: Feb 24-25, 2011. There will also be pre and post event activities...most notably Wednesday. Calvary Chapel Melbourne is also not far from the Kennedy Space Center so add that to your possible extra things to do before/after the roundtable. More details and registration to follow shortly.  Huge thanks to Chris Kehayias for being our site host.  
Location: Calvary Chapel Melbourne 

Calvary Chapel of Melbourne
2955 Minton Road
West Melbourne, Florida 32904

Follow announcements at http://twitter.com/citrt and http://facebook.com/citrt

Our roundtables are for staff, volunteers and vendors who support the Church in the area of Information Technology without discrimination to the maturity of the technology they use or the size of the congregation they support.  Often we find ourselves with the skills and aptitudes to be successful but lacking in a critical piece of knowledge that may be found in a colleague within the Church IT community.  This is certainly true for those who are part-time staff or volunteers working in church IT.  We need information.  We need inspiration.  Above all, we need a community of like-minded peers.

I strongly encourage anyone and everyone involved in Church IT to make this a priority in 2011.  I've been to every roundtable since 2006 and I've found them to be absolutely invaluable.

Hope to see many of you in Florida this Feb!!

Fall Church IT Roundtables ... be there!

If you’re not following the #citrt hashtag on twitter shame on you! :-)  Why? because you’re missing out on some great IT content and building community with other IT peeps…

…AND you’ve probably missed some of the recent info about the upcoming Fall Church IT Roundtables being hosted all across the country.  So quit your stalling and follow #citrt hashtag … heck, here’s a simple webpage that will do it for you even if you’re not twitter.  Bookmark it now!

OK, rant over … back to the point of this blog post …

Fall Church IT Roundtable prelim info is now posted on http://citrt.org

Target dates are Oct 25th or 26th, but ultimately up to each host site.

Cost is only $35

Locations all across the country.

Even our CITRT friends in Australia are doing it :-)

So hit the citrt.org site and find the nearest host site to you.  No sites very close?  Consider hosting your own fall event…see the host site FAQ.

And finally … please pass this info along to everyone you know involved in Church IT whether staff or volunteer.

Recommended Church IT Vendor/Partner List Ideas?

There are more and more churches looking for reputable IT service and product vendors that are ministry focused or at least very friendly towards churches/ministries.  There are also great ministry focused vendors looking to provide a great service/solution to churches/ministries at a great price.  The challenge is how to get the 2 sides together for a win-win?

I know from my own experience that I give a LOT of weight to vendors/products that I know other Church IT peers are using successfully.  Case in point: we’re looking very closely at Ruckus Wireless from Mirazon because of strong recommendations from Daryl Hunter.  I’m not alone, when I asked other’s in the CITRT IRC channel they all had a similar reply:

“I would be more likely to investigate those products and vendors ... especially if i hadn't heard of them or thought of them” – ccnash-scott

So … what’s the best way to create a list of Church/Ministry friendly IT partners/vendors … how/who would submit the vendor/partner … how could others then comment pro/con on their experience with said vendor/partner … maybe give it a star rating? … maybe something similar to Amazon and eBay comments/ratings?  How and how much do you moderate?  Allow anonymous feedback?  etc etc etc!

Does something like this already exist we might want to leverage?  May we can somehow create something inside our upcoming CITRT getshadetree release?  Someone in IRC mentioned this Wordpress plugin http://www.wpreviewsite.com/ Certainly looks interesting.

Already got some good feedback/ideas from a few IRC peeps like “allow anyone to submit a vendor/solution to the list, but require 2 or 3 people to vote “yes” before it gets approved”

Now it’s your turn.  What would be helpful to you from an IT role or vendor role?  Dream big and let’s see what we end up with :-)

Video of Rick Warren Addressing the Church IT Roundtable Crowd

If you missed the recent Church IT Roundtable at Saddleback Church … well, you missed an AMAZING event! 

Just one part of what made it so incredible was having Rick Warren sit down (mostly unannounced) and spend 1.5hrs speaking to us, doing Q&A, and taking pictures if people wanted (and of course most everyone did!).

Rick’s talk was awesome…so much so that we’ve gotten TONS of people requesting copies of the live video we were streaming.  And thankfully the captured stream audio/video turned out great!  So hit the image above to hear Rick’s heart for the church and technology. 

Rick even tweeted about our CITRT event :-)
@RickWarren: We hosted 2 day #citrt nat'l roundtable for U.S. IT/Tech Pastors. Brilliant men & women! I love these guys! Pr.27:23

Pic of my wife and I hangin’ with Rick.

Did you know Rick’s a HUGE hot sauce fan? I did, so during the Q&A I asked him what his favorite was :-) ... I then followed up by asking how he kept/keeps his marriage strong.  He took several minutes to answer and did it in 3 parts: Divert Daily, Withdraw Weekly, Abandon Annually...I think many of us geeks really needed to hear that.  I sure did!

We also got to experience what a funny guy Rick is … he’s hilarious!! 
Thanks Rick for taking the time out of your busy schedule to pour into 80+ Church IT leaders.  You marked us all in a very positive way.  Geeks for Jesus!!!

50 Days Until the Spring National Church IT Roundtable March 11-12!

That’s right! Only 50 days until Church/Ministry IT staff and volunteers from across the country will descend upon Saddleback Church in warm sunny Lake Forest California to partake in 2 days of invaluable peer learning, networking and inspiration March 11-12.

If you can only attend one IT conf this year, this is the one I recommend without hesitation! Regardless of your church/org size, I guarantee you’ll leave with new knowledge, new friendships and loads of inspiration.  I’ve been to every National Church IT Roundtable since 2006 and I leave each one totally amazed at what I’ve gained.  Not to mention the incredible friendships I’ve built over the past few years are invaluable on both a person and professional level.  So in other words – make every effort possible to get to this event.  If you need me to write a note to your boss to help your plight let me know ;-)

We’re still firming up final costs, but it will be under $100…and that will include lunch and snacks both days…and if we get enough sponsors hopefully even dinner both nights.  Registration is open and cost is only $75 for both days including meals!

Sponsors?  Yes, we’re asking vendors to help offset the costs.  Please encourage your favorite vendors to contribute.  Even a small amount will be helpful.  See the sponsor page for more info.

Spouses?  Yes, a number of us have been informed by our spouses that they TOO will be coming to California :-)  Spouses are encouraged to join us during the evening gathering times.  Perhaps during the day they can form their own IT spouse support group and hang out together at the beach ;-)

Final details are still being nailed down, but here’s the schedule gist …
March 10 – optional pre-event informal gathering in the evening (possible dinner)
March 11 – Day 1 - 9am until late … Saddleback “behind the scenes” tour in late afternoon, group dinner, then a special worship service
March 12 – Day 2 – 9am until 5pm … then optional dinner for those flying out Sat/Sun

More details can be found at http://citrt.org … hope to see you there!  Questions? Leave a comment or email [email protected]

For the latest up to the minute Church IT Roundtable news follow CITRT on twitter and/or facebook

Fall Church IT Roundtable Locations and Info

http://citrt.org site has just been updated with the 7 confirmed locations for this fall's Church IT Roundtable.  If you haven't already heard, this fall instead of 1 location we're having many locations across the country.  Why? To save people travel $$ and hopefully build stronger regional groups in the process.  It's going to be awesome!

3 locations are still pending, but these are the confirmed sites (and dates if known).

Church of the Resurrection in Leewood, KS

McLean Bible Church in Vienna, VA

North Point Community Church in Atlanta on 10/27

Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA

Second Baptist Church in Houston, TX on 11/2

Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY on 10/29

Woodland Baptist Church in Bradenton, FL on 10/27

To keep up to date with the latest Church IT Roundtable info check twitter.com/citrt or facebook.com/citrt

I'm excited to see what God does this fall with so many sites engaged ... more info coming ... Geeks for Jesus! :-)