Digital Church

(via ChurchCrunch.com)

Steve Jobs presenting

When Steve Jobs takes the stage for a keynote presentaiton you can expect a highly polished and engaging experience. But what is it that makes it so?

Long time readers may remember that this topic has been on my mind since one of the earliest posts here on Digital Church. So it will come as no surprise that I am excited about the release ofa new book which may be of great assistance to church tech teams as well as pastors and speakers.

Carmine Gallo is a communications skills coach and has written a new book “The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be insanely great in front of any audience“.

This stuff is important for Pastors and tech team as we ‘compete’ with the modern day culture. In not many environments are people expected to sit and be focussed through a 30+ minute monologue and absorb it all.  Perhaps there are some lessons here? You can let us know in the comments!

You can read a summary of the book on Business week.

But here are the main points:

• Have a concise headline
• Have a villain
• Have a simple slide
• Have a demo
• Have a ‘holy smokes’ moment
• Sell dreams

Here’s a video of the author speakling about this new book:

via Business Week

LifeChurch.tv announces ChurchMetrics.com

Introducing ChurchMetrics from ChurchMetrics on Vimeo.

Practical hands on social networking that your church could use to get into the community!

check out the video for background.

I can see churches getting involved to promote family friendly films over the summer months for the community. is anybody doing this already?

http://mobmov.org/

Today was one of those seemingly rare Sunday mornings when I was not on duty ,  My wife was part of the worship team, so I got to sit with my little girl and be a part of Church as most people are. Funnily enough I was easily distracted by all the usual goings on and not having to concentrate on my job found my mind wandering quite a lot! More about my mind wanderings later…But if as a regular person sitting in the seat, found my mind a wandering, then how often must everyone elses,

I suppose an innocent enough observation, but in this age of multiple distractions (I’m sitting in the lounge writing this on my laptop, whilst watching tele and watching my daughter play) is the single (but infinitely important) focus enough to engage the modern worshipper? Am I in the minority?

Rodney was able to update his blog so I thought that I would cross-post so that you can continue to pray informed.

We’ve had an amazing time today here in the Dominican Republic. We visited two Compasssion projects and visted a couple of homes of sponsored children.

I have some amazing stories to tell but I am so tired night now that those stories will have to wait. I may not even get another chance to blog until I make it home on Tuesday afternoon but I’ll see what I can do. If I wake up early enough tomorrow I might tell you some of the exciting stories we encounteres today.

In the mean time you might like to hear a little bit more about our departure from Haiti. I spoke to Tim Long at Sonshine FM yesterday morning. You can hear our chat by clicking play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

By the way, I haven’t had the change to reply to those who have left comments over the past couple of days. I’ll thank you personally when I can but uintil then, thanks for your kind words and wishes

Check out his audio here

Just recieved an update from Rodney Olsen in Haiti

It got very serious today on the way to the airport. The flight to Dominican Republic was cancelled due to security issues of flying into Haiti so we’re now back in Miami. We’re likely to fly to Dominican Republic tomorrow after some time to rest and recharge.

Keep praying not only for the Compassion team, but for Haiti in particular at the moment

Recently I went on holidays and had the opportunity to return to my old church where my wife and I had attended for six years and (we felt) really helped it grow. I must mention that this was a small (20 odd people) church in rural Western Australia.

As I sat there amongst old friends and meeting new people it was a time to reflect, compare and contrast our move to a large (200-300 people) city (Perth) church, where we have been for the last few years.

Now rather than being in a community centre, we are in a large auditorium,, with Mediashout, Shure wireless systems and  lighting rigs etc. But does all this tech (while it is great fun for a geek) does it improve worship and people connecting with God?

My simple answer is a qualified yes. For me as I reflected on all the hardware and infrstructure that makes up a modern worship service it came down to minimising distractions. Really all the tech helped the worshippers to not be distracted, it helped them hear without straining, it helped them to know the words or to read the bible reading without the distractions that may be associated if they wern’t there.

Overall our efforts are worth it and yes we have improved church, by taking away distractions. I often tell the team that if no one knows we are there we have done our job right.

What do you think, is the tech really about reducing the distractions so people can focus on what really matters?

As you may know Rodney Olsen, a fellow West Australian, is visiting Haiti with Comapssion Australia.

He sent me this email tonight:

Just a quick note to ask for you to pray over the coming days for the people of Hait.

I’m here with Compassion Australia to observe their work here. Unfortunatly, due to riots and looting in streets here, we’re heading out early. We’ll travel to Dominican Republic to see Compassion’s work there.

Please pray for peace to return to the streets. As always in these situations those who suffer most are the poor who get caught up in the situation.

I’ve written a little about the situation on my bloog and have linked to a radio interview that I did with Sonshine FM back home. http://rodneyolsen.net/2008/04/dont-panic.html

Can I ask Digital Church readers to pray?

I have been very slack lately with my writing and while my mind has been full of plenty to write about…time has been the killer. What with work projects coming to completion for the end of the year, Christmas, my daughters first birthday, my wife’s birthday…life has been very full.

However as the treadmill accelerates to top speed before slowing to a gentle jog, I will be attempting to write more and share what I can…more soon.