Adventist Church Connect Features

Last month I briefly discussed the Adventist Church Connect content management system that the North American Division is providing free to every Seventh-day Adventist church and school in Bermuda, Canada, and the United States.

I also mentioned that we would continue our look at the ACC system and highlight some of it’s main features.  With such a powerful tool and so many useful features, it was difficult to build a “best features” list, however I did put together my thoughts on some of ACC’s most useful ACC features.

Prayer Request Feature

The Prayer request feature allows site visitors to submit prayer requests that are directed to any number of emails you wish such as prayer teams, elders and/or church pastors.   The prayer feature immediately sends an email response back to the site visitor with Bible promises that relate to their request.  Prayer requests can then be followed up with a personal email.

I remember one particular prayer request I received approximately three years ago from a mother in Alberta.  She stated that she had reached the very lowest time of her life.  She lost her job, her marriage was in ruin, and she was having suicidal thoughts.  She was asking us to pray for her situation and that God would work in a very special way.  After I received the email, I prayerful responded with some encouraging words.  To make a long story short, she ended up attending my church in Kelowna with her two kids and has made some very good friends.

The prayer request feature has been a doorway to many new relationships and a wonderful tool for providing spiritual encouragement and prayer for many people.

Calendar of Events

The Adventist Church Connect calendar tool allows departments to enter and categorize their own events. You can attach documents such as bulletin inserts, agendas, and special messages to each event.   Another calendar feature provided allows you to add events from the local conference, union and North American Division.

This is a great online resource for church members to stay informed of upcoming events and programs even if they are away or misplace their church bulletin.

Photo gallery

The Photo gallery feature is a great tool to display those church events and special programs you want others to get a glimpse about.  It is also a great way to showcase the churches outreach and ministry programs such as a strong youth program, cooking schools, CHIP, Easter or Christmas events, etc…

Audio and Video Feature

The audio and video feature, which is not free, provides the tools for uploading audio and video files such as church sermons.  These files can then be viewed and listened to by the website visitors.  This feature includes an administration section for adding information about each file.

Adding audio and video to a website has proven to attract more site visitors.  At one of my former churches, the online sermons were being viewed by many people from all over the world.

One of these site visitors included a Christian business man from Australia.  One day I received an email from him explaining that his wife was not a Christian and did not want him attending church. “I watched your sermon online and it really touch my life”, he stated. “From now on I am going to make your church website my virtual church”.

Built-in User Levels

With the Adventist Church Connect built-in user levels, there are several preconfigured levels of access such as; member, author, editor and administrator.  Also added to this section is the ability of the administrator to create additional user levels as needed.

In addition to user levels, Adventist Church Connect allows for individual users to be assigned permission to add or modify specific pages or access specific features. For example, your church’s youth leader could be given permission to add articles and photos to the youth department pages on your church’s website and add youth events to the calendar. Given these permissions, this person could not modify any other pages on the site.

For more information about Adventist Church Connect visit http://adventistchurchconnect.com.

Over the past four or five years I’ve heard and read a lot about “Green Power” which refers to environmentally friendly alternatives for producing electricity.  When hearing the term “Green Power” most people automatically think of wind turbines or solar cells, but did you know that “Green Power” can also refer to some of the foods you eat?

Foods like, avocados, broccoli, green peppers, spinach, asparagus, brussels sprouts, green beans, and many more.

I am by no means an expert in the area of nutrition or healthful eating, but I do know these foods are packed with important vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that are energizing and nourishing for your bodies overall health and well being.

Now, that’s what I call, “Green Power.”

Healthy Food and Kids

As a parent, I must say it has always been a frustrating and challenging job to get my kids to eat healthier foods especially green type foods.  We have found it to be much easier getting the kids to eat healthier if it is in a smoothy or processed drink.  My kids love smoothy fruit drinks and so we have begun to experiment with different kids that they enjoy very much.  They even ask to have them.

One recent drink I am very excited about is one put together from a combination of other drinks and experimentation.  I call this drink the “Green Power” drink.  And it is one my kids really enjoy.  I especially love the bright green color.  A friend of my said that it doesn’t taste like a healthy drink because she enjoys it.

“Green Power” Smoothy Drink

This is how I make the “Green Power” drink.

• 2 cups of spinach
• 2 cups of water
• 1/2 of an avocado
• 1 banana
• 1 can of pineapple chunks with juice (or you can use the equivalent amount with fresh pineapple and add about 1 cup of pineapple juice)

For extra nutrition I usually add some ground flax seeds and 1 table spoon of green barley powder.

Add it all into a food processor and blend until smooth.

This receipt makes enough for approximately 2 tall size glasses and 2 medium size glasses.

I have added frozen strawberries in the past but the color of the drink turns kind of brown and my kids won’t drink it because they say it looks “disgusting”.

Did you know?

That in 1995 there were approximately 18,000 websites available online and today there are approximately 206,675,000? (statistics from netcraft.com.)

In today’s technically connected society of social networks, blogging sites, video posts, cyber chat, more and more people are relying on the information highway to connect, to find, and to share.

It reminds me of a bible text:

Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

The Internet has become a place to bond and belong.

If that’s where today’s society is at, if that’s where people are going to Ask, Seek and Knock, then we must find ways to connect and provide the information that will Lead them to Jesus.

It’s true that if your church or business is not on the internet, to most people you don’t exist.

That is why, amongst those 200 million websites online today, there is one for your Adventist church and school provided free from the North American Division?

Adventist Church and School Connect

Let me introduce you to the Adventist Church and School Connect content management system.  It is a powerful website management tool that the North American Division is providing free to every Seventh-day Adventist church and school in Bermuda, Canada, and the United States.

The North American Division has contracted AdventSource to provide customer training, support, and marketing for Adventist Church and School Connect for the approximately 3600 church and school websites.

Many people are intimidated by the word “website” because it has gained a reputation from the past as being a complicated and highly technical procedure.  Well, that is not the case anymore.

With ACC’s content management system, you don’t have to know a website programming language like html or php to add content and photos to your website.  You can edit pages as you would in a word processor similar to Microsoft Word.

Denis Prescott, a member of the Merritt Seventh-day Adventist Church, has been maintaining his church’s ACC website for four years.  I recently spoke to Denis about his experience and thoughts regarding the ACC platform and this is what he said, “The ease of adding and or editing information makes for an awesome tool”.

Adventist Church Connect Features

There are many useful features available with ACC websites such as:

• Built-in member, author, editor and administrator user levels.
• Prayer request feature allows site visitors to submit prayer requests.
• Dynamic RSS content such as daily devotionals.
• Calendar allows departments to enter and categorize their own events.
• Adventist Church News from the North American Division, Adventist News Network, and Adventist Review.

Next month, I will go into more detail regarding my opinion of the most useful ACC features and share with you some examples.

With the rapid increase of mobile Internet devices, it is important that these devices can process and display your church website content.  That is why all ACC websites are now mobile device friendly.  When a mobile device accesses an ACC website, a custom mobile template is activated with the content and sent to the mobile display.

Signing up for an Adventist Church Connect Website

To sign your church up for an ACC website, visit http://www.adventistchurchconnect.org/signup.php and for school’s visit http://www.adventistschoolconnect.org/signup.php.

Adventist Church Connect Support

Remember, you are not alone when it comes to maintaining an ACC website. AdventSource provides training and support free of charge.

There are many helpful resources available on the ACC help website such as: live online video training, archived video tutorials, information about local training events, e-mail support, and step-by-step how to guides.   The help website is located at http://help.adventistchurchconnect.com.

More Information

For more information about Adventist Church Connect visit http://adventistchurchconnect.com.

Zoodles allows parents to create a profile for each of their kids that can be monitored and configured on the parent dashboard.

Zoodles has put together a selection of games that are displayed on the child’s profile for fun and educational learning.  These games are age appropriate and are updated as your child gets older.

Zoodles is free with a basic membership but is currently offering a premium one year membership at a discounted price of $29.95 which is normally $60.00.

I have signed up for the one year membership and am going to give it a try.

I’ll keep you posted.

My Observations So Far

Well, after having yesterday and today to get a chance to look around the zoodles platform, I was able to formulate some first impressions.

Simplicity of setting

First thing I noticed was the simplicity of setting up the zoodles platform to work on my mac os x computer and Windows 7 computer.  All I had to do was login to the zoodles website with my created user name and password (created with I registered for the service).  I was then taken to the parent control access area and was able to setup profiles for both of my kids within 2 or 3 minutes.

Loading the Zoodles Program on Windows and Mac OS X

To load the program on each computer, I just logged into the zoodles website, clicked on play games, the system asked me to allow adobe to be installed, I agreed and about 1 minute later the software was loaded and ready to be used.  This step only has to be completed once on each computer since the program can be loaded after the install by clicking on the zoodles program icon.

Parent Controls

Another thing I am impressed with is the parent controls that the system has built in such as:

• the ability to promote specific educational subjects for each child,
• ability to control the type of games shown on each child’s profile,
• ability to set different levels of action/violence limits in the games,
• ability to block specific content,
• ability to add content such as access to a specific websites,
• and what I like most of all is the ability to set time limits.

I set the time limit of half an hour for both my kids and when that limit was reached the system displayed a message telling them that their time had expired for the day to come back tomorrow.

Progress Reports

The parent section also displays information about each child’s usage and progress reports.

My kids are really happy to be using the system and have said, “Thanks Dad” a few times now.

Overall

I like what I see so far from the Zoodles platform and content managment system.

Another thing that really hit me this year and last was the commitment and dedication many people have for God.  One Philippine missionary made a statement I will never forget.  He said, “I would die for these people (meaning the mountain people called Munyan’s).  Jesus is coming back soon and they need to know.”

We were a group of 12 mostly from Kelowna and Kamloops area who split up into 5 different sites on the island of Mindoro.   With me was Dr. Larry Shipowick and Pastor Mike Lowe, we spent 8 days at the Munyan village called Balangabang.

Each evening we shared stories, experiences, and bible truths about Jesus while our interpreter tried to keep up.  One evening Larry handed out 5 Frisbees that had a Canada flag on them.  The next day one of the missionaries asked me what it was that we handed out the night before.  I said, “You have never seen that before?”  She said, “No, the people think it is a plate.”  We got a good chuckle out of that.  So the next night we demonstrated how the Frisbees’ worked and everyone was amazed.  They learned that it was a flying plate.

During the day, Larry ran a dental clinic while Mike and I did some visits locally and to other villages.  Larry pulled out over 100 teeth during our stay.  People came from many different mountain villages some 2 and 3 hours hike and all bare foot of course.

This time of the year, summer for the Philippines, water is a big problem for this village.  There was nothing flowing from the water source pipe until night time when the usage further up the mountain was less.  This became a big problem for cooking, washing, toilet and drinking water, etc…  Some money was donated from several people in our Kelowna church and these funds will help to provide a better solution for water supply and the churches sanitation.

From all 5 sites, there was a total of 503 individuals who gave their lives to Jesus and were baptized.

There is much more that could be said but I don’t want to bore you with any more details.  I know that it is very hard to relate to these experiences unless you were there.

4.1 Billion.

That is the number of active cell phone users worldwide published in a March 2009 UN Report.  Approximately 60% of the world’s population have access to mobile phones and the number is rapidly rising each month.

The first commercial text message was sent in December of 1992.  Today, the number of text messages sent and received everyday exceeds the total population of the planet.

We are currently experiencing another technological shift that is directly related to mobile communication.

Steve Jobs, CEO for Apple Inc., announced in January 2010 that Apple sold 250,000,000 mobile devices called ipods.  It is estimated that they will sell approximately 45 million iphones in 2010 alone.

Smartphones, ipods, iphones, and the recently announced ipad, blackberry, laptops, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, wifi, GPS, Social Networks, Twitter.  These are just a few of the terms you will hear mentioned in almost any conversation about current and future technology trends.

There are approximately 140,000 applications for the iphone and ipod touch available for download on the itunes app store.  Apple just announced that they recently reached 3 billion downloads.

With the rapid growth of better smartphones, cooler applications and faster mobile networks, how can we as Adventist’s take advantage of the digital mobile wave?

Hye Multimedia Ministries

Well, Eisen Montalvo, owner of Hye Multimedia Ministries (http://hyem3.com) located in Tucson Arizona, has thought long and hard about this same question and decided to do something about it.

Beliefs App

Eisen, is a computer engineer who created an iphone/ipod touch application that has been getting a lot of attention amongst the Adventist community and for good reason.  The application is called, Beliefs and it showcases all the biblical beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists.

In a recent interview I had with Eisen, I asked him why he developed this application.  He said, “Because I wanted to share our beliefs as Seventh-day Adventists with people that don’t know anything about us or have heard myths about the Seventh-day Adventist Church and would like to know the truth.”

A Beliefs app user from Australia, gave it 5 out of 5 stars and had this to say, “Best portable study guide out there! The supporting bible verses are awesome, well done to those who put this together.”

The Beliefs application is also a great tool to help Adventists refresh their beliefs and to provide a quick resource for answering questions from friends or co-workers.

The application is very easy to use and has a simple layout.  The start page shows a list of Adventist beliefs and allows for each one to be selected.  Once a topic is selected, the iphone/ipod touch user can read the information on their device screen along with any associated bible texts.

Bible Gateway supports 101 Translations

The bible texts are sourced through the well known online bible resource called, Bible Gateway (http://www.biblegateway.com).  Eisen says that using Bible Gateway is “the main feature of the application because it is a well known online verifier of bible verses that support Adventist beliefs in any version of the Bible available.” Bible Gateway currently supports 101 translations featuring 54 languages.

Another potential use for the Beliefs app could provide evangelist’s a great tool to reinforce the biblical teachings as new bible students are able to do further study on a topic from their iphone or ipod touch device.

With the iphone being available and used world wide, Eisen says he has seen approximately 2000 downloads since November 2009 when the application was first put on the itunes store.

He said these downloads of his Beliefs app have come from approximately 44 countries. The top 5 countries being United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

The Beliefs app is currently available in English and Spanish. Eisen tells me that there are future plans to develop a French version as well.

More Information

For more information about the Beliefs application you can contact Eisen through the Hye Multimedia Ministries website (http://hyem3.com).  To down the application to your iphone/ipod touch, search for it through the itunes store.

The internet is changing the way many people do their banking, shopping, pay bills, and yes even tithing and church donations.

We are going through another “church giving” transition

I recently read that back 75 years ago approximately 95% of church offerings were given in cash and only 5% were given by check.  Today, however, we are going through another “church giving” transition as more people use the Internet for their finances.

“AdventistGiving”

In 2007, the North American Division (NAD) introduced a system called, “AdventistGiving” that would allow church members to return their tithe and offerings online by using their debit or credit cards.

A quote from the Adventist Giving website says, “AdventistGiving allows you to return your tithe and give your offerings online while you do your online banking, are on a long business trip, on vacation, or even if you are unable to attend church due to an illness.”

Until recently, this system was only available for churches in the United States where I am told currently has 643 churches registered.  However, the Canadian version of the NAD online giving system is now available and ready to be used for 2010.

Aldergrove Adventist Church

During the months of November and December 2009, the Aldergrove Adventist Church in the BC Conference was setup with the AdventistGiving platform as a test location for Canada.

I recently spoke to Eileen McGill, the Aldergrove Adventist Church treasurer, and asked her what she thought about this new online giving system.  She said, “From a treasurers point of view, it is the best way to go.  It can save you some time because you don’t have to do a bank deposit or collect tithe envelopes.  It’s just easy.”

Eileen told me that during the month of December, there were 44 people who used the online giving system totaling just over $124,000.00 received.

Connie Heitsman, a church member at the Aldergrove Adventist church had this to say, “Paying on line is fast and easy and by far my favorite way to take care of returning my tithes and offerings.  I am so glad we now have this option.”

I recently went onto Aldergrove’s website, registered with the online giving platform and made a donation to their church.  The entire process was very quick and easy to follow.

After I completed the donation transaction with my credit card, I was shown a thank-you page and given the option to print my own confirmation showing the donation.  Also, an email was sent to my address with an attached copy of the confirmation.

For those who would like to use the online giving option but still want to put something into the offering bag on Saturday morning, you can print off the confirmation and put it in.  For clarification, this is only confirmation of your donation, you will still receive your official tax receipt at the end of the year.

“We are not trying to get everyone to use this system but we recognize that many people don’t use checks.  It is just one more way of giving.”

I contacted John Ramsay, the treasurer for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada, and asked him what is the process for churches to be able to offer this online giving as an option to their members.

John said, “The local church treasurer can put their church name on a list (done online at the Adventistgiving.ca website) to register.  The NAD requires that the Conference treasurer give their approval before the church will be allowed to be registered.”

He continued to say, “We are not trying to get everyone to use this system but we recognize that many people don’t use checks.  It is just one more way of giving.”

Currently, the service is only available in English but a French version may soon be in the works for the future.

Also, only credit cards are being accepted for now.  The electronic debit from bank accounts may happen in the future but is not available at this time in Canada.

In Summary, electronic giving, provides church members with an easy and flexible option to return their tithes and offerings.

If you would like more information about the AdventistGiving service you can visit the website, https://www.adventistgiving.ca or call your local conference/church treasurer.

In November 2007, Amazon introduced their e-book reader called The Kindle.  It is a mobile device that uses 3G wireless technology or a Wi-Fi connection to download digital books, magazines and newspapers.

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don’t read anymore,”

At the Macworld Expo in January 2008, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers Inc., had this to say toward the book industry that received a lot of attention: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” (cited in The New York Times)

Well, since you’re reading this article I would have to say that his statement is not entirely true.

And, if no one reads, one can only wonder why an estimated 410 million books were purchased in the US alone last year?

Well, Steve Jobs was referring to a growing trend in the print industry.  We all know it’s not that people don’t read anymore, it’s that today’s generation are going to more online sources rather than offline media such as paper books, magazines or newspapers.

iPad

It is very interesting to note that in January 2010 at the Macworld Expo, Apple Computers announced they would be selling a mobile device called the ipad.  Similar to The Kindle, it too uses 3G and Wi-Fi to download e-books.

With the billions of websites available and the increase usage of mobile smartphones like Blackberry and iphone, more people are reading and gathering digital content information quickly and on the go.

Castanet with more than 5.6 million site visits per month

Recently, a news article posted on the local news website for the city of Kelowna where I live, grabbed my attention.  It stated,  “According to numbers released by ComScore, Castanet is number 1 in B.C. in general news with more than 5.6 million site visits per month.” (cited from Castanet’s website)

Considering the increased number of online readers, your church website must have written content that is going to provide the information people are looking for in a quick and readable format.

You have probably noticed that writing and preparing content for your church website requires a different approach from writing and preparing content for print documents and publications.

To make the reading experience of your church website more enjoyable for your visitors, here are 5 points to keep in mind.

1.  Less is better

Most people find that reading from a computer screen is hard on their eyes.  Because of this, reading online takes 25% more time than reading a book or article in print.

Keeping this in mind, it is a good practice to keep your website content 50% shorter than what you would have on the printed page.

2. Text Scanners

In a study released by usability expert Jacob Nielson, 79% of online readers scan or skim text rather than read word for word.

3. Lack of Patience

Do you remember the catchy little kids song about a turtle?  It went something like this, “Have patients, have patients, don’t be in such a hurry.”

Well, most readers on the Web are in a hurry to get things done.  They want the information, and move on.
Studies show you only have about 10 seconds to grab attention with your web site content so make sure to use relevant information. Also, try putting the most important information at the top with clear and concise text.

4. Skeptics

With all the misleading and incorrect information that can be found online, many people are very skeptical of what they read.  It is extremely important to show credibility when writing content for your church website.

Use objective language and avoid marketing jargon or exaggerated claims. Don’t use Adventist Lingo on the Home Page or at all unless you explain what you are talking about. (eg. “Our Worship Services are every Sabbath.”, Three Angel’s Message, Sabbath School)

Hyperlinks to the sources of your information or to related information tend to add credibility.

5. Information Overload

With all the information available to us today through the internet and email, people don’t want to spend time and effort reading content that they may not find useful.

Write website content that provides your visitors with information in bite-size chunks, easily digestible.

Highlighted keywords, meaningful sub-headings, bulleted lists, one idea per paragraph and starting with the conclusion, are just a few ways to help them nail the information they want, quickly and easily.

Conclusion:

With all this said, I don’t think technology will ever replace the convenience and enjoyment of picking up a good old paper back book and a cup of hot chocolate.

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Global evangelism and digital media