Jun 15, 2009 | Technology
This video captures it so well doesn’t it? AT&T won’t let me do it without charging me a whole lot more than I’m willing to pay. What do you think, will you upgrade this week? HT: Michael... read more
Jun 14, 2009 | Miscellaneous, Reading, Technology
Uber blogger Tim Challies suggests that my using my iPhone Bible while listening to a sermon is not really a good idea and may have a detrimental effect on my actually deepening my understanding of and dexterity in using my Bible. I confess, I like using the Bible on my phone (I’ve done it for many years) while listening to a sermon. It is easier for me to take notes. I also use Bible software while studying and preparing for sermons. Most of my intake of Scripture is with a physical copy of the Scriptures. I do think there is something to be gained by using a physical rather than electronic Bible in regular reading, studying and teaching of Scripture. But times and people seem to be changing in the way they take in information. The electronic world seems to be utilized more and more. A good friend of mine does all of his devotional reading with his computer and even sends out his devotionals electronically to a e-mail subscription group. He has done it for many years and does not seem to be any the worse for it. I wish I had his discipline and depth of devotion. Give Challies’ article a read and let me know what you think. Do you do much reading online or through a PDA, smart phone, Kindle, etc.? Don’t Take Your iPod to Church! :: books, reading, technology :: A Reformed, Christian... read more
Jun 12, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology, Twitter
Should an ordinary pastor get involved in the latest social media extravaganza? Drawbacks and benefits abound. Like most things the devil isn’t in the device as much as in the one using it. To each his own, but here are five temptations to avoid and ten reasons why I use Twitter. Twitter Temptations 1. Narcissism. Twitter assumes not only that others care what you are doing, but that you should have a group of followers enamored with what you are doing. Who can know a person’s motives for Twittering, Facebooking, or involvement in any other social media. But if you lust for a following Twitter (or social media in general) may bring out the worst in you. 2. Wasting Time. This is obvious. If you have Twitter tools to interrupt you on your computer, or perhaps have it text you when someone sends you a Tweet, you can be continually interrupted, checking in and responding, that you will inevitably neglect the important issues of your life. 3. Too Much Info. Twitter is not a place for confrontation of sin or a place to air out your disgruntled feelings. Some tell us too much about what’s in their hearts. Not everything we think or feel needs to come out of our mouth or from our keyboards. 4. Not Enough Info. Some don’t say much when they Tweet. “Eating cereal” may be significant when you are an avid 140 character Twitter-bug, but if such is the sum and substance of your comments, it is hardly a benefit to anyone. 5. Avoiding the Face-to-Face. As with virtually all electronic media, it is... read more
May 28, 2009 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Technology
It”™s time to stop living the lie that I”™ve been living. The struggle has been a drain on my conscience, especially since I have been living one way in secret, keeping even my wife in the dark (sort of). It”™s time to be honest ““ it”™s time to acknowledge not merely a radical change for me, but more of an acknowledgment of who I really am-who I”™ve always really been. I really can”™t keep it a secret anymore. I am a . . . Mac User! Three weeks ago, I bought my first iMac and have been living in both the PC and Mac world since. Two weeks of using both, I can say I”™ve been continually frustrated with my PC and continually satisfied using the Mac. Today that all ends. I have come out of the closet and embraced the Mac way of living. First, a little history. In college, I was a Mac user. My university had two computer labs: a PC lab that most of the students on campus used and a Mac lab in the music and art building. Since I was a music major for a year and half I regularly used a Mac. At that time (late 80s, early 90s), PCs were a drag to use. I wrote all my papers and even did a substantial amount of church work on Macs. However, as I moved into seminary, the world of Mac was simply not as compatible or suggested. So I became a Mac hater ““ why in the world would anyone own a Macintrash? Yet, secretly, I have always been attracted to... read more
May 25, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
Here’s the last installment on the technology series: An area where I will be sticking with the paid versions is Groove. What, you don”™t know what Groove is? You need to. Groove is a collaboration software tool that comes in the new Office 07 suite. I can create multiple workspaces, invite who I want to them, assign permissions and begin sharing any sort of document with whomever I want (of course, they must also own and install Groove). If they make changes to the document, it synchronizes the doc for any who are a part of the workspace. You can even create files on your desktop to be “Grooved” and share those files with those you want so that you don”™t have to recreate or upload files to a separate workspace. The only problem with this is that the 64 bit version of Groove does not work with Vista and Microsoft has no plans to make it work. Go figure. This was a major bummer for me. For pastoral ministry this has become invaluable. Our pastoral team collaborates with one of our members who actually puts up a copy of the bulletin each week and we all add our two cents. I do this also with our Sunday School bulletin, PowerPoint presentations, and a vast array of documents I want to share with others. I looked into Zoho”™s Sharepoint-like site, but it simply was not as easy to use or set up. Groove has been a pleasure to use. What about note taking? When Office 07 came out I became hooked to One Note. However, I think the free... read more
May 23, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
More on my wrap up of Cheap Technology and the Ordinary Pastor Excel is a tool I regularly use, especially since I oversee our church”™s finances. The ability to quickly create charts and graphs in Word and extensively manipulate them to fit your desired look and express your information as you desire is easy. Word has vastly improved the styles of their charts and graphs, adding more 3D effects and sharper colors and backgrounds. Numbers is the Mac version, and it simply produces a better-looking product than does Excel and is very easy to use. I”™m no Excel power user, but what I do with it was not as easy to accomplish in the OpenOffice platform. Let me say a word about PowerPoint. I used to despise PowerPoint. They have the WORST looking templates. Another area Microsoft just simply does not do well in ““ really professional, modern, crisp, clean, sharp presentations. PowerPoint 07 is a great improvement over previous versions. I do a PPT presentation almost every week that I teach my mid-week class. OpenOffice is a joke. I also extensively tried out the free (and the paid versions) of Sliderocket. Sliderocket has some real potential, but was so buggy that it created some major headaches for me. I also called their customer support for help because once it was out of beta, I couldn”™t seem to get anyone to respond via e-mail. The guy was awesome on the phone and assured me that someone would follow up with my problems ““ I have yet to hear from them. While it still irks me that PowerPoint is so... read more
May 22, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
I”™m going to wrap up (belatedly) my little series on pastoral ministry and the quest for inexpensive technology. Honestly, this is not really an issue for some pastors (or others). Some are in the position where expense is not really an issue. Or they are willing to forgo something else in order to have the better technology. After evaluating the free side of life, I think it is worth spending some money in order to have the better technology and thus a more productive time accomplishing what you do and yet there are a few apps. Let me start with productivity suites. Word Processing, Number Crunching and Presentations. Hands down, MS Office: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are your best bets (all of these in the world of PC). For a basic suite, of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (more on this one later), you”™ll pay about $150.00. If you are a student, you can get the Ultimate Office suite for about $60.00. That”™s really the way to go for the power and ease of use you will gain over the zero-priced material like OpenOffice.org. Why pay the money for these? Word is the universal powerhouse of word processing. Other programs, including WordPerfect and Pages with the Mac, have to adjust to it. It is the standard platform. Office has become much more user friendly. Though it did take me awhile to adjust to the new ribbon format, the UI is much cleaner, easier to use, faster to navigate, and even pleasing to the eyes. As said before, OpenOffice reminds me of Windows 98. In Word (Excel, PowerPoint) you can... read more
May 21, 2009 | Featured Articles, Personal
Check out the mastery of photographer Chad Martin. Last week, Kelly, Brie, Mya and I had the joy of doing a photo shoot with the very talented Chad Martin. I cannot say enough about how pleased we were with Chad and his graciousness to come to our home, set up and do the photo shoot. I highly recommend him. Take a look ““ he really makes us look good (well, the others look good ““ Chad really helps me out). See Chad’s other work and contact him... read more
May 4, 2009 | Personal
I was doing so well ““ that is blogging much more regularly. However, the past three weeks have been a most busy time at the Capranica Villa. In addition to a week of vacation, the rigors of normal ministry and family life, we have had little added activity around here. I changed over [well, really my good friend Chad did the heavy lifting] THE CAPRANICA to its own domain name. There is still a bit to do to get everything working perfectly, but it is done and I’m very pleased with it. WordPress is such a great blogging platform. I also taught a seminar recently at our Association’s Equipped for Excellence Sunday School conference. The seminar was entitled, “How to Plan the Work of Your Church” (it was assigned to me). I enjoyed the prep for this five hour workshop. We discussed how to effectively implement your philosophy of ministry, organize around it and execute it well. I don’t think I do this as well as I like, but I thoroughly enjoyed the preparation, teaching, and discussion ““ and it is an area for constant personal and ministry growth. In order to be finished on time with the 50 page handout for 30 people, the power-point and my notes, I had to pull an all-nighter-I don’t do these as well as I used to and the effects tend to linger a bit longer. I’ve also begun teaching a new class at church on Baptist History and Theology. This has been a great time of study and review for me ““ reminding me of the biblical nature and the historical... read more
Apr 21, 2009 | Pastoral Ministry
John Piper’s comments to his pastoral staff is excellent stuff! What I Said to the Pastoral Staff About Unity Amid Differences :: Desiring... read more
Apr 20, 2009 | Featured Articles, Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
In my quest to live off of the world of free applications for a month, I’ve shed my addiction to Microsoft’s Outlook and have completely moved to Google. I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to Outlook. Some of this I have reported on in my previous post regarding Gmail. But to be more specific in regard to Outlook: First, here’s many of the ways I used MS Outlook: Grabbing mail from multiple e-mail addresses Rules that pulled mail into particular folders. I.e., my inbox was restricted to only priority mail from church members, pastors, my wife, and a few others I needed to hear from quickly. All other mail went into the “Other” folder. MS Exchange Server. Through a tech company we have been using, they set us up with Exchange, which has allowed instant synchronizing of calendars, tasks, e-mail, and contacts. Organizing mail into folders for quick reference. I had only four folders: Inbox, Kel (my wife), Pastors, Members, Other. I could search a folder for finding an e-mail. I relied on search folders to keep up with mail that I needed to respond to but did not have the time to handle in two minutes or less. Calendar. I used a personal and a church/public folder. My public folder was available to staff and our receptionist. Tasks. I heavily used the Franklin Covey overlay for Outlook. If you know anything about the Covey system, this overlay organized Outlook to look like the Covey paper planner, and also brought e-mail in. I actually loathed to use Outlook without this overlay ““ Outlook, without this element is a... read more
Apr 14, 2009 | Blogging, Personal
The Capranica has successfully moved. Thanks to the help and expertise of one excellent, Chad Martin (who you should look at using for professional photography!), we are now located at a domain name all our own. What has changed? Umm, well, not much really. I hope to be posting more (although I’m on vacation right now and really should be relaxing and not blogging ““ just ask Kel). The entire site with all the thrilling articles of the past are still located here for your enjoyment. One thing that HAS changed are the FEEDS. If you feed THE CAPRANICA, you will need to change to the following: Click HERE for RSS feeds. Subscribe to THE CAPRANICA by Email Thanks to all 10 of you who regularly read (that’s really up from some time ago). I appreciate you dropping by. Now, back to vacation . .... read more
Apr 12, 2009 | Blogging
The Capranica has been hosted at its present address for about three years now. In the next week, I’ll be moving the blog to its own domain address: thecapranica.com. That means that we’ll be suspending activity around here for a few days. You’ll see an update here once the move is... read more
Apr 12, 2009 | General Theology, Interviews
Colbert is funny – blasphemous at times, but this is a good one here (HT: @Phil_Johnson): The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Bart Ehrman colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name... read more
Apr 11, 2009 | Culture, Interviews, Seeker-Sensitive
Without my comment, watch this one first: Then watch this one (it’s long and has more issues – but you will see the related material): From his own statements, what do you think? Are fundamentalists picking on small issues here? Is this the most helpful way to both speak to Scripture truth and reach out to the homosexual community? Is Rick pursuing a path on this issue that should be modeled? What should we think from one of the most visible professing Chrisitans and pastors in America? Compare to this pastor in Iowa: See the RAW video of Eric’s interview HERE. Read Eric’s recent article to Baptist Press... read more
Apr 10, 2009 | Miscellaneous
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Apr 7, 2009 | Ordinary Pastor, Pastoral Ministry, Technology
10 Reasons why an ordinary pastor (or anyone) should consider using Gmail. 1. It’s free. Gmail is a part of the free world of Google. All that is required is an internet connection (not free). Sure several other e-mail services are free. Your workplace gives you a free account, but this one is yours and no paid hosting service is necessary. 2. It’s simple. Anyone can quickly be up to speed with Gmail. No desktop mail software necessary. No account set ups for desktop clients. Just sign up with Google and mail is yours. The learning curve is easy to get up to speed. Even using some of its more advanced features is relatively simple to grasp. The help sections of Google are simple to navigate. Learning to use labels, stars, search, etc., requires little time and effort. 3. Search. This is Google’s bread and butter ““ and in Gmail as well. If your file is large, Outlook is cumbersome and lags when trying to search. I often cannot quickly find what I’m looking for. Gmail search has been simple, accurate, and fast. 4. Spam. I seem to get a lot of spam through Gmail, but I rarely have any of it hit my inbox. Gmail does an outstanding job at catching the spam-far better than Outlook or Yahoo. 5. Accessibility. Since it is browser based, Gmail works with any operating system (PC or Mac). Gmail works on mobile platforms, so that no matter where you are, you have access to your mail and it is always in sync with the multiple platforms you may use (desktop, laptop, mobile,... read more
Apr 6, 2009 | Blogging
I’m on of the 9200 people following the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge over at ProBlogger. We’ll see if I can keep up and if it has any beneficial effects here at THE CAPRANICA. 31 Days to Build a Better Blog – Join 9100 other Bloggers... read more
