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Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Steve Hewitt - [email protected]
Managing Editor
Kevin Cross - [email protected]
Applying Tomorrow’s Technology to Today’s Ministry
Volume 25
September 2013
No. 9
4 cover story
Why I Like and Unlike Facebook!
By Steve Hewitt
Contributing Editors
Yvon Prehn
Nick Nicholaou
Kevin A. Purcell
Russ McGuire
Michael L White
Copy Editors
Gina Hewitt
Magen Cross
Corporate Home Office
3 Editorial
What Is Apple Doing?
8
Steve Hewitt - [email protected]
12
© Copyright 2013 by Christian Computing®, Inc.
By: Steven Sundermeier
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Spicing up Social Media - Hot Ideas for Your Church’s Facebook Page
By: Amy Scott-Lundy
Checking the W-2s now will prevent headaches at the end of the year.
By: Craig Chadwell
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editorial
What Is Apple Doing?
Steve Hewitt - [email protected]
I just returned from speaking at the Dallas NACBA
Chapter, and the Salvation Army International IT
Conference. At both, I shared much of the same
message I have been sharing this year on what is
hot and what is coming. I share that Microsoft is
dead as a leader of technology, and Google seems
to be the one to watch. However, over the last few
years, I have become a big Apple fan. But, that
might be about to change.
Do you remember the day that Apple users would
rub it in our faces whenever a new version of
Windows would be released and immediately bugs
would be reported? In fact, consultants like Nick
Nicholaou would often recommend to our readers
that they wait before updating to a new version of
Windows in order to let others work out the bugs. I
am beginning to feel the same way about Apple!
I love my AppleTV! Luckily I was too busy to do
the newest upgrade for the AppleTV. I now hear
that people are having serious problems with connections, programs are missing, and some claim
that their Internet speed between their WiFi and
their AppleTV is cut in half!
I DID make the mistake of doing the iOS7 upgrade
to my iPhone5. While I am happy to see that Apple
fixed hundreds of things that had been frustrating
before this upgrade (for example, the time stamp for
a series of text messages would only show the time
of the first text, not the time for each of the responses as a discussion continued), but they also released
the iOS7 with some MAJOR bugs! For example,
by doing a few unlikely gestures, some people have
discovered they can get past the lock screen and
actually access some aspects of a locked iPhone, including the camera, check out photos and videos on
Christian Computing® Magazine
the iPhone, and email them to others or print them
out. It also didn’t take people long to discover they
could grab someone else’s iPhone and make calls
to their friends, even if the phone is locked. They
could simply click on “emergency number”, enter
any number they wished (even international calls)
and then press the green call button repeatedly in
a fast manner. The phone will go blank, the Apple
icon will appear for a few seconds and then you will
be connected to the person you were calling.
What is happening to Apple? They are no longer
leading in interfaces (still rumors abound about an
iWatch that might be coming, even though cool
watches that interface with an Android phone are
hitting the market), and they may find themselves
VERY far behind when Google releases their new
glasses. While I don’t expect the first versions of
Google Glass to be a big hit, they are well down the
road on Visual Interface Computing (VIC) before
Apple.
Steve Jobs, we miss you. Apple may begin to falter
without Steve’s leadership, just as Microsoft has
dropped the ball after Bill Gates got married! Watch
Google, they seem to be the leader… at least for
now.
Together We Serve Him,
Steve Hewitt
[email protected]
September 2013
3
cover story
Why I Like and
Unlike Facebook!
By Steve Hewitt
F
acebook is important! People spend more time on Facebook than they do
checking email. In fact, one survey reported that the average Facebook user
is on Facebook 16 minutes of every hour! While this might seem impossible, and there are certainly many people that use Facebook on a much more limited basis, I also believe that many people DO spend this much time on Facebook.
How? Because Facebook streams to their smart phone or tablet, and they are
addicted to checking it, reading posts and connecting with their friends. And, of
course, every time I log on, there are a couple of people that instantly try to initiate chat with me because they love to spend time communicating in that mode.
When Betty White was invited to host Saturday
Night Live a few years ago, it was in response to
requests by her fans, using Facebook to encourage
Saturday Night Live to invite her to host. In her opening monologue she thanked everyone. She stated she
wasn’t even sure what Facebook really was so she
checked it out. She said she discovered it was a fantastic waste of time!
However, churches need to realize that Facebook
shouldn’t be overlooked as one of the leading ways
to connect and communicate with their congregation
AND might well be the leading way to encourage their
congregation to reach out to their friends and share
their faith with others.
Last week I was invited to speak to the Dallas
Chapter of the NACBA (National Association of
Church Business Administration). I did a quick survey
Christian Computing® Magazine
and asked the group how many have an active Facebook site. The response was about 1/3! While that
was encouraging, the answer should be 100%.
How should you use Facebook? You should use it
to distribute anything that you might have distributed
in the past through email! You should encourage every
person in your congregation to come to the site and
“like” it. Then, whenever you post an announcement,
promote a link, post a video, etc., etc., your information will be pushed out to everyone in your church. It
is PUSHED out to them. This is much different from
posting these items on your website where they will
only be seen IF your members come to the churches
website. And, there is a very BIG reason why using
Facebook in this way is important!
Every member that receives your posted status
(again, a video, link to the churches newsletter, an
September 2013
4
announcement about a new ministry,
etc.) can instantly share this information with all of THEIR friends and
family by simply clicking “share”
which is an option when the see your
post!
I have way too many people who
have signed up to be my “friend” on
Facebook, so I really can’t use myself as an example, but in checking
with my wife, she has 67 people that
have “friended” her on her Facebook
site. Now imagine that you have
100 members of your church that
use Facebook and have 67 friends.
If you were to post an announcement, video, etc., on your church’s
Facebook site and it showed up on
your members “walls”, if they were
to share it (and each had 67 friends
and family members on Facebook)
you would quickly reach over 6,000
people with your information!
But wait, there’s more! (I love
that phrase.) While I don’t have an
immediate source for what I am
about to say, I have seen evidence of
what I am about to share from several sources over the years. It seems
that when people come and listen
to your sermon on Sunday morning
and your message is to encourage
them to do something specific, it has
some impact. Let’s say your message was trying to encourage them
to read their Bible more. Sociologists say that IF you recorded your
message and made it available as a
podcast, those that listen to it in that
form are 30% more likely to be impacted and encouraged to read their
Bible! Why? Because we live in the
personal communication age and
people value information that has the
perception of being personal.
If you listen to a message live,
sitting in a large room with many
others, at a specific time, the message isn’t perceived as personal.
However, if you download that
same message and listen to it at your
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
5
leisure, the listener carries the subconscious perception
that the message is one-to-one and is personal because
it is heard when THEY wanted to receive the message.
So, if your goal is to get your message out to
others, why wouldn’t you upload a podcast (audio or
video) and post a link to it on Facebook? Here are two
important reasons you should do this!
First, your members can now go to the site and
listen at their leisure if they were not able to make it to
church. BUT, more importantly, IF they were moved
by the message, when they go home and find it is now
on their Facebook site, they can click “Share” and
send your link to all of their friends. They can also in-
clude a short word about the message. Imagine if they
shared it with all of their friends and stated how much
the message touched their lives! Imagine the impact.
Their friends would be much more likely to take some
time and listen to the podcast since it came to them
from someone they knew personally. The odds of their
listening, and the impact of your message, will be
much greater since it came from someone they knew,
as opposed to the chance that those who don’t know
you or your church will actually visit your church’s
website to listen to the recorded message.
Second, one of the reasons I believe less and less
people are attending an organized worship service is
because it goes directly against the
rules of the personal communication age. They are invited to sit and
listen, but are not offered the opportunity to ask a question or voice a
comment. However, I believe if you
announced on a regular basis (every
week at the close of the service) that
the service would be posted on the
church’s Facebook site (hopefully
within an hour or so after the morning service) and encouraged people
to click on the “comment” option
and leave a comment or question,
it will go a long way in helping to
open up communication and connection between a preacher and his
congregation!
What I Hate About Facebook
I think Facebook is a great way
to connect and communicate with
your immediate group of family and
friends. I also think it is a great way
to communicate and connect with
organizations or institutions. We will
begin posting our magazines, Christian Computing Magazine and The
American Church Magazine from
our new Christian Digital Publishing
Facebook site!
However, I am bothered by
many of the posts I see from Christians, that I really don’t know or
hardly know, that are my “friends”
on my personal Facebook site.
Here’s why. Again psychologists
and sociologists have noted sev-
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
6
eral alarming trends you can see from people’s posts.
Many use Facebook to use it as a means to create a
version of themselves that isn’t really who they are. I
am a big fan of Janet Beverley’s book, “Creating Loving Relationships” and have taught it several times to
adult groups. She states that one of the leading causes
of relationship problems is because people want others
to like or love them so much, they create a “false self”
and spend a lot of time doing what she calls “prove I
am”. They are seeking to project a version of themselves that they think others will like. So, for example,
psychologists say that if a person is constantly posting
funny pictures, jokes, and “likes” to humorous pictures
or videos, they are probably very
sad with their life but are working
extra hard to convince everyone
that their life is full of contentment.
Along these lines, I am bothered by some Christians I have
followed who post a quote from
a famous Christian or Bible verse
about every hour or two. I am not
learning anything about their life,
nor are they allowing me to be their
friend. They seem to be trying to
project that they are a strong Christian, yet there is an obvious missing
of a personal connection with their
savior. On the other side, some post
VERY personal prayers to their
savior on Facebook, opening their
heart up and trying to evoke a very
emotional response. However, I am
uncomfortable with such displays.
It seems to me to be similar to
those that Jesus rebuked for praying on the street corner for others to
observe. Facebook has become our
new public street corner.
Even though there are things
that I personally don’t like about
Facebook, I use it. So should you!
Use Facebook. As a church,
use it to communicate, connect and
provide outreach opportunities for
your membership. On an individual
basis, use Facebook to be yourself
and connect with your real friends
and family!
As for me, if you are a “friend”
on my personal site, yet we don’t
Christian Computing® Magazine
exchange presents on birthdays (grin), you will soon
find that I will be contacting you and encouraging you
to “like” our Christian Digital Publishers Facebook
site. There we will post our magazines (where you
can share, comment or “like”). In addition, I will start
to post more about technology issues, things I like or
things I don’t in technology, etc... For those that I really count as friends or families, I will be keeping up
on my personal Facebook site, so you will get to see
the cute pictures of my new pug, Peanut!
September 2013
7
protected with purpose
Shipping Wars
By: Steven Sundermeier
A
s the owner of the security company Thirtyseven4, a husband
and a father of three small children, it can become quite a
challenge to find any downtime, especially downtime that
would involve watching T.V. The other night I decided to take fifteen
minutes to sit down and let my brain rest in front of the T.V. As I
flipped through the stations I came across the show ‘Shipping Wars’
on A&E. As a newbie to this show, I was quick to realize that this
show centers around six independent shipping carriers that go out
and bid on jobs that the traditional carriers can’t handle or have no
interest in carrying. I have to admit I didn’t watch very much of this
show but I mention it because of what happened next.
As in typical fashion before I call it a night, I
head to my office, check emails, and prep my work
for the next day. As I checked our filtered emails
[to see what is getting proactively blocked by our
Thirtyseven4 Mail Scanner], I noticed a flood of
emails with subject lines like “Shipment Notification”, “Your package is available”, “Delivery
Information”, etc. Given my exposure to the reality show earlier in the night I was fascinated by just
how many maliciously crafted mail/package carrier
emails we receive each day. It was as if there was
Christian Computing® Magazine
a cyber shipping war taking place in my inbox.
The next day at work, I used the resources
and tools available to me to investigate just how
prevalent these shipping emails are. What I found
was surprising: fraudulent emails relating to the
delivery of packages and/or mail are received in
higher volume than any other type of spam run.
They even outnumbered those relating to banking information and merchant account services (ie
PayPal) almost 2 to 1. I am sure much of this can
be contributed to our love of shopping and buying
September 2013
8
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
9
online, using eBay, etc. The ease, anonymity, and
turnaround time of shopping online has fed our culture’s desire for more and having (more) quickly.
But the bad guys are hoping to capitalize on our
sprees. Be on your guard for false notifications
about parcels.
Statistics of what I found:
Most commonly exploited mail/packaging company/service:
• USPS – 31.8%
• UPS – 25.1%
• DHL -> 17.4%
• FedEx -> 13.9%
• Other -> 11.8% (ie. Royal
Mail)
1. The overuse of embedded links. These are
the hyperlinks, embedded in the body of the
email message that may say something like
‘Track your package here’ or ‘Get Shipment
Info’, etc. However, when clicked on instead
of going to the carrier’s site you are instead
directed to a maliciously crafted website.
Another form is to literally display a link
that looks like it is going to the carrier’s site
but again is masked to visit the maliciously
crafted website (rolling over the link will
allow you to see where it is actually going to
take you). Another tactic under this category
Most common malware families associated with these Spam
runs include:
1. Trojan.PWS.Farit
2. Trojan.Agent
3. Trojan.PWS.Tepfer
Most common Subject lines:
1. Track your parcel
2. Track your shipment
3. Package is available for
pickup
4. Delivery Information
5. Shipment Status
What started as a 15 minute
TV break quickly turned in to
a call to educate others (you!)
to a safer online environment.
I’ve corralled a few suggestions
focusing on ways to safeguard
and educate ourselves against
falling victim to such scams, as it
can become very difficult for the
average user to tell the difference
between what is real and what is
fake. This is also why these types
of emails are increasing popular
and readily used by cybercriminals.
Below are a few tips to identify
a fake email:
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
10
2.
3.
4.
5.
Easy
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Christian Computing® Magazine
would be to display a website link that appears to be the real site but instead as a slight
misspelling, etc. For example, instead of
thirtyseven4.com it may display thirtysevn4.
com.
Urgent wording. Cybercriminals will
usually create an email message that has
an urgent tone to it, knowing that this may
create anxiety and concern and users may
become less aware of what they are doing. It
usually involves clicking on one of the links
(as detailed above).
Generic greeting. Emails arriving under
these types of emails are usually not personalized and arrive with a generic greeting. In
my personal experiences dealing with legitimate Tracking notification emails, etc. they
are always personalized.
Request personal information. Most
reputable companies institute policies where
they do not ask for your personal information
through email or make you reply to a request
for confidential information.
Attachments. Again, most legitimate businesses will not be sending these emails with
attachments. It is never recommended to
open and run these attachments. Cybercriminals also know that many gateway mail
filters will scan for and remove these attachments so it is a common practice to include
password protected attachments [that can’t
be scanned] to these emails and include the
password in the body of the message.
Another way I like to relax is to wet a line fishing. And after cleaning about 50 pounds of yellow
perch tonight, a metaphor comes to mind, or to
nostril. If an email smells fishy, looks fishy or even
feels fishy: it’s probably fishy! Fish have a distinct
smell and we know it when we smell it. These
malicious emails almost always invoke some sense
of question in our minds or our gut. If you have
doubts: avoid it, delete it, and definitely DON’T
OPEN IT!
Beware of the “Shipping Wars” going on in
your Inbox, and use my simple reminders to help
you identify them. I know it is exciting to receive a
package, but be aware that cybercriminals are trying
to prey on that excitement to bring you harm. If it
seems fishy: leave it alone.
September 2013
11
the browser
Want to Blog from
Your Phone? Try these
Four Great Mobile Apps
By: Susan Codone
B
log writing has changed so much in the last few years that
companies which study blogging activity now refer to the
“blogosphere” or the “blogconomy”. The website Social Media Today reports in a recent infographic that 6.7 million people blog
using blogging platforms and over 12 million people blog on social
media sites like Tumblr.
Recent apps for the iOS and Android mobile
platforms have made blogging from your phone
or mobile application simple and easy. I’d like
to recommend two useful blogging apps and two
Biblical apps that Christian bloggers can use to
craft and post blog entries from mobile devices.
The two most prominent blogging platforms
are Wordpress and Google Blogger. Both provide
mobile apps from the App Store that make posting a pleasure. The Wordpress app allows you
to create and edit posts in an email-like format,
adding photos, checking spelling, and embedding
links without bothering with any code. Comments
Christian Computing® Magazine
can be moderated with a swipe, and even bulk
moderated if your comment traffic becomes overwhelming. The app allows writers to draft and
preview posts before publishing. I use this app
for my blog. Recently I wrote a quick blog update
while sitting in an airplane waiting to take-off.
With pressure from the flight attendant to turn off
my phone, I was able to quickly draft, preview,
and post to my blog in just a few minutes.
The most popular blogging platform remains
Google Blogger. Probably used by more hobbyist bloggers, Blogger connects to your Google
account and automatically posts your blog to the
September 2013
12
Google blog directory and allows you to use
Google Adsense. The Blogger mobile app offers many of the same features as the Wordpress
mobile app, offering bloggers the chance to draft,
preview, and publish blog posts, use images, and
send links and photos directly to your blog. Both
the Wordpress and Blogger app are free from the
App Store.
For Christian bloggers who desire portability,
mobile Bible apps are essential. Along with over
100 million others, I use the YouVersion Bible
app to check multiple translations and versions of
Scripture. I enjoy the ability to
change translations and versions
easily, use the bookmarking feature, and the clean, white backlit
screen is easy to read even in the
dark.
For Bible study and reference, though, nothing beats Blue
Letter Bible (blueletterbible.org).
Now, Blue Letter Bible comes in
a mobile format, available free
from the App Store. Christian
bloggers can now use Blue Letter Bible on their mobile devices
to compare versions, consult
dictionaries and concordances,
and view the Greek and Hebrew
translations of words and phrases. The App offers 30 different
Bible versions, including an
audio bible, a Hebrew and Greek
lexicon, and advanced word
searches. Users can customize
the app by changing fonts, colors
schemes, and even display parallel versions. For on-the-go Bible
study, the Blue Letter Bible app
is a superb source of information, and even offers Cloud
backup for any notes you take
while studying.
If you want to begin a blog
related to your faith, now you
have blogging options beyond
the desktop. These four apps
give you the Scriptural foundation you need along with the
blogging power of the two major
blog platforms. Do you use any
Christian Computing® Magazine
of these apps? I’d enjoy talking about blogging
with you. Send me a message and let’s talk.
Happy browsing!
Susan is an associate professor at Mercer
University. In Mercer’s Technical Communication
undergraduate degree, students can specialize
in Ministry Media & Technology. Contact Susan
anytime for more information at [email protected].
September 2013
13
ministry leadership
Spicing up Social Media
Hot Ideas for Your Church’s Facebook Page
By: Amy Scott-Lundy
W
ith worship services, Bible studies, small groups, and events,
churches and organizations offer multiple opportunities each
week for visitors, members, and prospects to connect with your
ministry. But, how do you nurture these connections on the other days of
the week when people aren’t physically together?
A church newsletter is a great idea, but people
usually read it and set it aside, or it gets lost in
the sea of e-mail. Church websites are great for
sharing news, but people have to check them
periodically.
Chances are your parishioners are already
using a social media outlet overlooked by many
churches – Facebook fan pages.
A Facebook page lets your church, school,
or organization share content and connect with
members, visitors, parents, students, and prospects. Not only does a page provide visibility for
your church, it also shows that you’re keeping
up with the times and using technology to your
ministry’s advantage.
Christian Computing® Magazine
What are Facebook pages?
Facebook pages represent businesses, brands,
and organizations and have “fans” rather than a
traditional friends list. Members of your church,
visitors, and others in the community can “like”
your page to receive status updates on their
Facebook timelines. You can add photos, events,
polls, links, and even videos to customize your
church’s page, engage your audience, and provide
an online bulletin board for your church.
Unlike Facebook profiles, which are limited
to 5,000 friends, pages can have an unlimited
number of fans and you won’t have to approve
requests. Since pages are public, anyone can
search and find your page, making it a great outSeptember 2013
14
reach tool for your ministry.
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Setting up your Facebook page
To set up a page, log out of Facebook (if you’re logged in) and
visit Facebook- Create a Page. Creating a page is much like creating
a profile, as you must sign up for
Facebook, name your page, and
make it public. Be careful when
naming your page, as page names
can be difficult to change.
With Facebook’s current settings, you can only change the
page’s name when it has fewer
than 200 followers; otherwise,
you must submit a change request
to Facebook. To learn more about
creating a page, check out this
article from Church Mag.
Promoting your page
Once you create your page,
you’ll want to promote it to your
congregation and community.
Here are a few ways to promote
your page:
•
Add a Facebook page badge
to your church’s website. A page
badge displays your page’s name,
profile picture, status, and number
of fans. To do this, visit Facebook
Page Badges for the html code to
paste on your website.
•
Advertise your fan page in
your church’s newsletter or by
adding a link to your e-mail signature.
•
Write a blog post about your
church’s fan page.
•
Invite your own Facebook
friends to like the church’s fan
page. This is like word of mouth
for the digital age, as once your
friends became fans, they can then
suggest their friends become fans.
Posting on your page
Since Facebook posts move
quickly on user news feeds, it’s a
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
15
good idea to post on your page regularly. If you
post infrequently, you miss out on opportunities
to engage your congregation, but if you post too
frequently, people may get annoyed seeing multiple updates in their news feeds and unsubscribe
from your page.
Facebook recommends posting about once per
day. You may feel like you’re posting too much,
but remember, your page’s fans don’t see every
post immediately, and unless they visit your page,
they only see posts displaying in their news feeds.
Here are some posting ideas for your Facebook page:
• Post about your church’s upcoming events,
such as Vacation Bible School, fundraisers
and benefits, small groups, volunteer opportunities, and mission trips. You probably already promote these events in your
church’s newsletter or on your webpage,
but taking advantage of another digital
medium doesn’t hurt.
• Ask questions in your page’s Facebook
status, and then use the reply function to
respond to those who answer questions.
This drives a conversation on your page and
inspires engagement. Multiple choice or open-ended
questions work well. For
example, you could ask
questions regarding what’s
discussed in Sunday’s service to keep your congregation thinking about the
message later in the week.
• Don’t limit your Facebook
posts to just words! Posting pictures and videos
to the page attracts more
attention. For example,
you could use a picture to
give readers a sneak peak
of Sunday’s sermon or any
upcoming event, or you
could film and post a video
of your praise band’s latest
song. With permission, you
could also film and post
video testimonials from
members.
Christian Computing® Magazine
• Take Facebook on the road. Since you
can post pictures or videos from a mobile
device, don’t feel limited to post only
happenings at your church. For example,
if your ministry team volunteers at a soup
kitchen, quickly snap a picture of your
volunteers after they serve and share it on
your page. This shows your community’s
involvement and is a great way to show
your volunteers you appreciate them.
Building your church’s Facebook presence
may not come quickly or easily, but don’t give up.
It may take a while for everyone to catch on, but
post regularly and interact with those who follow your page. Consistency is key, and soon your
congregation and community will embrace Facebook’s benefits for your ministry.
Amy Scott-Lundy is a technical writer for the
support and training departments at ACS Technologies.
September 2013
16
church windows software
CHURCH WINDOWS SOFTWARE
Checking the W-2s now
will prevent headaches
at the end of the year.
By: Craig Chadwell
F
or churches who do payroll manually or who use payroll
software, now is a great time to look ahead to avoid potential headaches (and embarrassing situations) when it comes
time to present final payroll tax documents to church employees.
We suggest that after running the final payroll
of September (but BEFORE running any payrolls
in October), that you manually calculate or, preferably, print informational copies of W-2s for all employees. It’s also a great idea to check numbers as
they would appear on the Form W-3. If your software has not yet been updated, please note that the
data on the form will be 2013 data, but the physical
year 2012 might print on the forms. That’s OK; you
are looking at them for information only. Software
companies typically update to the 2013 forms in a
late-year release.
When looking at the W-2s:
• Does each W-2 contain the social security
number and address for the employee?
Christian Computing® Magazine
• Look at the amount in box 1: is this approximately ¾ of the annual amount budgeted
for the employee?
• If the criteria for Federal and State wages
are the same, does the amount in box 1
agree with the amount in box 16? If the
criteria are different, are the amounts different?
• If you have employees who participate in a
dependent care program, is there an amount
in box 10?
• Do amounts that are required to be stated
separately show up in box 12 with the appropriate code?
• Is box 13 marked for those employees participating in a retirement plan?
September 2013
17
• If box 14 is used, does it provide the information expected?
Make a list of any items that need to be investigated or corrected.
Gather the 941s for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters.
Add together the amount on line 2 for each of
the three quarters, and then do the same for lines 3,
5a, 5c, and 9. (If any amended 941’s (Form 941x)
have been filed then substitute the corrected numbers when totaling the 941s.)Compare these totals
with the W-3. Here is what should match:
Total of the 3
Should equal
Form W-3, box
quarters of form
941, line
2
1
3
2
5a
3
5c
5
The wages from box 3 of the W-2 multiplied
by 6.2% should be within a dollar of the amount in
box 4 of the W-2. If any employee’s box 5 wages
Christian Computing® Magazine
are in excess of $200,000 there is a two-step process for the next calculation. If no one has wages in
excess of $200,000, then the wages of box 5 of the
W-2 multiplied by 1.45% should be within a dollar
of the amount in box 6 of the W-2. If employees
have wages in excess of $200,000, make the previous calculation, determine the amount of wages in
excess of $200,000 and multiply that by .9% and
add it to the previous calculation. Compare this
total with the amount in box 6, it should be within
$1. There should only be wages on line 5d of the
941 if an employee is subject to Additional Medicare Tax (wages over $200,000). If the employee
is a minister, then boxes 3, 4, 5, and 6 should be
blank.
Gather your state and/or local returns for the
first three quarters and compare these with boxes
17 and/or 19 on your W-3. If there are discrepancies, work to resolve those before December payrolls.
A little extra effort and preparation now can
certainly save time, embarrassment, and headaches
later.
September 2013
18
higher power with kevin
9 Tips for Using
Bibleworks 9
Kevin A. Purcell - [email protected]
I
n this third installment of our Bible software tips, we look at nine
ways to improve the use of Bibleworks 9. The previous tips slid
over to the beginner side of the spectrum that ranges from neophyte to power user. This time we’re going to give some basic level
tips and a few that might take users over to the power user side.
1. Use the Help Menu
This seems like a no-brainer to some, but the
Help menu in Bibleworks 9 offers more than most
software help menus. Bibleworks understands that
their software comes with a steep learning curve, so
they offer a lot of assistance for users to take them
from neophyte to power user without paying big
bucks to a trainer.
A “Getting Started” box pops up by default
when a user first installs and runs the program. It
offers some great basic help information and video
tutorials. If a users dismissed this permanently, they
can still access it from the Help menu.
Bibleworks veterans will remember that the
company used to ship a detailed help manual that
probably cost them more to print and ship than the
actual installation discs. Now, that content shows up
Christian Computing® Magazine
in the Bibleworks Help Content menu item under
the Help menu.
For students, get the Bibliography information
from the Help Menu to include in research papers. A
few other items include:
• Hints – turn on the hints that give tips on usage while using it
• Shortcuts – turn on keyboard shortcuts and
command line shortcuts
• Bibleworks on the Internet – this fly out
menu offers useful help links including online
support from the company or from their great
Forum
2. Use the Main Status Bar
Along the bottom of the main Bibleworks 9 winSeptember 2013
19
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
20
dow users will find a status bar with tiny boxes with
faint text. This status bar offers incredible tools for
working with Bibleworks 9. Users can do the following in order from left to right:
• Change the search Bible translation
• Limit search – for example search only the
book of Psalms
• Turn Strong’s numbers display on/off
in versions with Strongs numbers like the
NASB
• Toggle the Browse mode from verse per line
to paragraph mode
• Toggle the Analysis window, which sits
along the right side filled with useful context
sensitive info about the current verse
• The next two buttons change the way notes
get added to Bible text either by verse or by
chapter. When verse gets clicked the program
adds notes in the Notes editor window to the
current verse. When “C” for Chapter gets
clicked they’re added to the chapter instead of
a single verse. I prefer verse notes so that the
notes window doesn’t get cluttered with content from other verses, but sometimes I want
to add notes to entire chapter, like outlines or
contextual information. When the C is grayed
out, the notes editor is in verse mode.
• Accents, Vowes, Qere, Kethib are all for
Greek and Hebrew texts and they turn these
visual cues on or off
• Last is the keyboard language so users can
quickly pick the original language keyboard
for typing search terms
3. Customize the Toolbar
People often forget that they can customize the
user interface of their Bible software. I recommend
doing this regardless of which package you use. The
first step is to make the Toolbar look the way you
want. There’s a button on the toolbar for doing this.
Click the button second from the left.
Read through the list of available buttons to see
which you use and which you don’t use. Remove the
ones you don’t use and add the ones you do.
Users can also reposition the buttons by dragging them up and down the list on the right. I use the
diagramming window a lot, so I put it further to the
right.
4. Connect Bibleworks with Other Software
ERMIE isn’t a Muppets character, but an awesome tool in Bibleworks that lets users connect
their software to external resources (the E and R in
ERMIE). The tool can link to websites, other Bible
software so long as it accepts outside links or to other
tools.
To open ERMIE click on the Resources menu
and click on the ERMIE item. A window opens that
looks like a file manager window with folders of the
kinds of resources one might wish to link to. Find
the kind of link you want to make, like a link to an
external commentary. Click it and add the link from
the Add button at the bottom left.
Please see the help tools in Bibleworks to learn
how to do this. We don’t have space to explain it
here.
Notice the collection of external resources already linked. One Bible software tool that allows
for this is Logos. Users can find Logos URL’s in the
program and enter them here. Go to http://www.bibleworks.com to learn more about this.
Bibleworks and WORDsearch partnered together
to connect their programs.
Bibleworks can access a
collection of WORDsearch
books. Find out more at
https://www.wordsearchbible.
com/bible_works/
5. Compile a Bible Translation or Book
The only way to win
credibility as a real Bibleworks geek is to compile
your own version using the
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
21
Version Database Compiler. This tool (from the
Tools, Importing/Exporting Information menus)
lets users create their own Bible translation. This
helps people who want to add a translation that
doesn’t exist, like a missionary working in translating the Bible to an indigenous population that
doesn’t currently have a Bible version available.
Learn more about this in the Help contents,
which give detail info. Simply, a person creates a file
with a verse per line and then, so long as it is formatted properly, they use the compiler to import the
version into Bibleworks.
Others have used this to create commentaries
that show up as if they were translations, a
useful took when turning on the parallel version feature.
To add more translations type the translation’s
three letter code, like NIV for New International Version.
7. Learn to Use the Command Line
The Bibleworks Command Line has two purposes – to give users incredible power and control over
the program by entering search strings OR to humble
smart people who would otherwise know how to
find Bible verses in Bible software.
That’s a joke because the first is the intended purpose, but the second is the resulting purpose to lazy
Bible software users who don’t want to learn the
6. View Multiple Translations at Once
Bibleworks makes it really easy to switch
between a parallel mode that shows the present version in multiple translations at once
or shows the verse in browse mode. Toggle
between these two modes using the toggle
button seen in the graphic here.
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
22
codes and strings that give users
powerful searching tools.
Learn the command line tools
from the Help menu. This will
make Bibleworks 9 a powerful
tool. Otherwise it’s not as useful
to owners.
8. Diagramming Module
In a recent post at the WORDsearch blog, I wrote about doing
sentence diagramming to help
users discover how the various
words and phrases of a passage
relate to one another. This helps
students and teacher understand
the structure of a text. http://blog.
wordsearchbible.com/2013/09/09/
quick-tip-sentence-diagramming/
Bibleworks offers a powerful diagramming tool available at
Tools, Language Tools. We don’t
have space to explain all the ideas
of how to diagram or how to use
Bibleworks’ diagramming tool.
Check out the above link for tips
for diagraming.
9. Make Use of Resource Window
The Resource Window sits
right of the Bible text in Bibleworks 9’s default layout. Users
will see a bunch of tabs, one of
which says Resources. Click on it
and a summary of resources will
show up related to that verse.
Next to the Summary tab we
see other tabs. Each of those lets
the user customize which resources will show up in the summary
window.
The resources here will give
users information about the text.
We see lexicon entries for words
from the current verse. We also
see translation notes as well as
grammatical resource information.
Christian Computing® Magazine
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September 2013
23
the power and the danger
Waze
By Russ McGuire - [email protected]
T
his summer, Google completed the acquisition of Waze, an Israeli
mobile navigation software startup, for over a billion dollars. As
Apple learned the hard way, Google Maps has established itself as
a remarkably accurate and usable mobile navigation app, so there must
be something special about the Waze app. Could ministries benefit from
it, or are there hidden dangers we need to be wary of?
What is Waze?
As implied above, Waze is both a company and
a mobile app.
Or at least, Waze was a company, until Google
acquired them. (By the way, the company’s 100
employees received an average of $1.2M from the
deal, which could be another column on the power
and danger of instant riches.) The company was
founded in 2008 in Israel and was acquired in June
by Google.
The Waze app runs on iOS, Android, Windows
Mobile, Blackberry, and Symbian devices. It
provides mapping and navigation functions similar
to Google Maps and other navigation apps. However, Waze took a different approach to mapping
Christian Computing® Magazine
and navigation than other mapping companies,
and that’s what makes it special. Waze leverages
mobile, social, big data, and gamification elements
to make mapping better.
Actually, the Waze approach resulted in a
mapping app that initially was worse than existing
products, but in a way that Clayton Christensen
would describe as “disruptive innovation.” A key
principal established at Waze’s founding was that
they wouldn’t pay to license map data, so the app
started with very basic map data available for free
– such as the Tiger data available from the U.S.
Census Bureau. In fact, according to Wikipedia,
Waze currently only has complete maps for 13
countries, unlike leading mapping and navigaSeptember 2013
24
Is Facebook safe
for your family?
http://cxfriends.com
Christian Computing® Magazine
tion apps which cover most of the
world.
But, as more people use Waze,
the software gets better. The
software is constantly collecting
anonymous information, such as
location and speed. That helps
Waze get better at routing people
to the fastest way to their destination. Users can also manually
improve the maps, naming streets,
fixing house numbers, marking one
way restrictions and turn restrictions, indicating whether two roads
cross as a junction or an overpass,
etc. Drivers can also use the app
to provide real time information
about traffic jams, construction,
accidents, police speed traps, and
gas prices.
What is good about Waze?
Apparently, Google believed
that Waze’s approach would create a better navigation app than
Google’s own approach. Waze
has many loyal fans who already
believe it is the best.
From a ministry perspective,
we can certainly appreciate an app
that improves the driving experience. Avoiding construction,
accidents, and traffic jams eases
stress and frustration, enabling us
to more easily display a Christ-like
demeanor. And given our limited
budgets, finding the cheapest gas
nearby is always a good thing. As
a socially-connected navigation
app, Waze also makes it easy to
create a “group” – for example
all the cars in a caravan headed to
youth camp. All the members of
the group can see where everyone
else is, and you can easily push
updates to other members of the
group (e.g. “We’re stopping at the
QT in Harrisonville for gas and a
quick break.”).
Waze is also free (although it
requires a smartphone and a celluSeptember 2013
25
CSG.173.mEs Digital Ad CCMag_Layout 1 8/1/12 9:25 AM Page 2
lar data plan – neither of which is free). In classic
“disruptive innovation” fashion, Waze’s capabilities have blown past products from a few years ago
costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.
The interesting twist to the “disruptive innovation” theme is the marriage of Google and Waze.
Google already has a very popular and capable
mapping application. Imagine Waze’s disruptive
improvement trajectory with the starting point of
Google’s already amazing map data. Imagine how
quickly Waze’s value will build when all Google
Maps users are feeding the Waze data engine?
Navigation could become amazingly effective!
What is dangerous about Waze?
Regular readers of my column can probably
already guess most of what I will warn about when
it comes to Waze. Waze is collecting your data all
the time. I tend to believe they are only using it
as an anonymous data store, but the fact that they
do know each user means that someone else, with
less honorable intentions, could potentially hack
into their systems and use my data for other purposes. (I’m not going to get into NSA practices in
this column, but it’s not hard to imagine less wellintentioned organizations using Waze data for less
honorable purposes.)
The easiest way to start using Waze is to connect it to your Facebook account. When you do
that, Waze defaults to letting your (Facebook)
friends and their (Facebook) friends know when
you’re driving nearby. You can change this setting
(and I strongly recommend you do). In general, I
think it’s a really bad idea to give a real time update to strangers saying that you aren’t home.
The biggest danger with Waze, however, is
distracted driving. One of the “cool” features in
Waze is the integration of “gamification.” You get
points for doing things – like reporting traffic jams
and gas prices. You graduate to new levels, and
if you’re really active, you show up on the leaderboard. But all of those points-earning actions are
distractions from what you really need to be doing
– driving!
The Waze app also provides a lot more information than other navigation apps. As you drive,
the screen becomes filled with icons, most of which
are clickable for more information. You can also
see icons of other Waze drivers around you (which
means strangers are seeing your icon) and you can
even click on the icon to send a private message
Christian Computing® Magazine
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26
to that other driver. Please don’t
be clicking and messaging people
while driving down the highway
– especially if it’s a highway I’m
driving on!
Bottom line – better navigation
is a great thing, but don’t be drawn
into dangerous driving habits by
the promise of better navigation.
Arriving alive a few minutes later
than optimal is better than not arriving at all. To the extent that our
driving is done with young drivers
and future drivers in our vehicle,
we must be especially careful to
demonstrate safe driving habits.
Finally, we must remember
that, ultimately we must trust the
Lord to guide our steps. “Trust in
the Lord with all your heart, and do
not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
him, and he will make straight your
paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
It is my hope and prayer that
these articles on the power and danger of technology will encourage
you in your daily walk with Christ.
Whether it is navigation apps, the
printing press, radio, television,
personal computers, the Internet,
the Cloud, smartphones, or augmented reality, new technologies
continue to advance our ability to
know God and to serve Him, wherever we go.
shelby
Church Software
“I use Shelby to assign
& manage workflows to
different church
staff members.”
Scan or click
to see our
Webinar
Schedule
Russ McGuire is an executive
for a Fortune 100 company and the
founder/co-founder of three technology start-ups. His latest entrepreneurial venture is CXfriends
(http://cxfriends.com), a social
network for Christian families
which is being built and run by four
homeschooled students under Russ’
direction.
Š
800 - 877- 0222
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
27
ministry communication
Is your technology
limiting your ministry?
Yvon Prehn - [email protected]
W
e engage with technology in our churches to improve ministry—to enable online donations, to handle scheduling and volunteer activities. We
do this to make work in the church office easier and more efficient and
it usually does that. However, a problem arises when the congregation needs to be
actively involved for the system to work. Below are some of the challenges that
arise when the congregation does not embrace and may even resist the technology
you want them to use. After the challenges are suggestions to increase acceptance
of the technology and keep peace in the Body of Christ.
Challenge #1: The congregation doesn’t have the
same problems you do.
The system they have used for years to sign up for
volunteer work, turn in their weekly tithe, stay updated
on the news of the church is working just fine for them.
When you introduce a new technology that will change
their routine, they are not happy with it. As one church
secretary said to me after an almost complete failure of
the congregation to adopt a new membership system that
the biggest complain they had was: “Why should the
congregation do the work the church secretary was hired
to do?”
Solution suggestions: Before you launch a new system, spend some time communicating to the congregaChristian Computing® Magazine
tion why it is needed. Prior to informing the church “here
is the new system—now use it,” conduct a campaign
to help them get ready for it. Help everyone to see the
needs for all church that the software will solve.
For example:
• Remind the congregation that the growth of the
congregation is more than the one person in the
church office can keep track of and you don’t
want new people ignored or people who need
care to fall through the cracks.
• Help them see how technology can make the pastoral staff more effective shepherds by making
up-to-date information always available.
September 2013
28
• Calculate how the technology will save so much
time that additional staff will not have to be hired
and the cost-savings to the church because of it.
To make your campaign to help your congregation
accept new technology effective requires more than one
or two announcements from the platform. Explanations
on your website, emails, social media, PowerPoint—repeated messages through all channels of communications
are essential. It won’t seem like you have time to this,
but if you don’t take the time ahead of launching a new
system, you’ll be forced to take the time afterwards when
people have questions, objections, and outright anger at
unexplained changes.
Challenge #2: The congregation may not have the
required technology.
“Everybody is mobile” is the headline of an advertisement for church management software. That sounds
good if you are selling a product that can be managed
with a smart phone, but the problem is that when software developers think “mobile” in reality, they usually
mean smart phone which greatly narrows the available
audience. The following link is an excellent info graphic
( http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/smartphone/ ) on
the use of smart phones today. It is instructive that even
though the age group with the largest usage (25-34) has
a 62% usage, it means 38% don’t have one. The same
chart shows that one of the most available groups for
volunteers, 65+ is exactly reversed, 38% have one, and
62% do not. To adopt a system that will automatically
leave out 38% to 62% of your congregation may not be a
wise choice.
Suggested solution: Before you adopt any new
system, do a survey of your church to see how many
have the required technology to take advantage of your
system. It may still make sense to adopt something that
only part of your church can use, but do so with a plan
to communicate the same information or services of the
church to the people who don’t have the required technology.
Challenge #3: Even if they have the needed technology, they may not know how to use it.
Imagine this scenario: a church does all the scheduling of volunteer work at the church through an online
scheduling system. Potential volunteers are told they
must use this system—no exceptions. Volunteers will be
informed of their volunteer schedule through email—
again, no exceptions. The church does not provide training on how to use the system, volunteers are told to look
Christian Computing® Magazine
September 2013
29
at the company website (that is complex and confusing)
provide our churches and ministries with great options
to learn how to use the software. The church is constant- for outreach and efficiency, but at the same time, we
ly frustrated because they don’t have enough volunteers
need to keep in mind the needs and responses of our
for the positions needed with their growing church.
people. As long as we make loving people our primary
Suggested solution: the most important solution
motivation, we’ll figure out ways to make our technology
here is for the church staff to realize that not everyone
a servant for all of us.
today is comfortable with the computer, even if they
For more on effective church communications, go to:
have a computer. That may be hard for young, techhttp://www.effectivechurchcom.com
savvy natives in the church office to understand, but
that’s reality. Many of the Baby Boomer generation may
have a computer in the house, but in many instances they
will use it for one or two reasons, such as checking out
pictures of the grandkids on Facebook or looking at sports scores, but
they aren’t comfortable with using it
to accomplish tasks. They also don’t
use it every day and though they may
have an email account, they may not
look at it regularly.
… reach out
Once this realization is made, the
staff needs to obey our Lord’s com… minister to people
mands to be a servant to all, to be all
… create fellowship
things to all people, to care for the
“least of these” in the area of tech… contribute to
nology. It will take extra time and
your community
effort to teach people how to use the
new technology you have, but much
PowerChurch Plus was
more than church efficiency is at
created for just that!
stake here—it is a very practical way
to show the world we care for each
other and are more obedient to our
Lord than the demands of efficiency.
Membership
We provide you with the tools to
On a practical note, one way that
increase administrative efficiency
may help tremendously is for the
and streamline accounting tasks,
church to demonstrate how to use the
Accounting
freeing you up to perform the work
system by using Camtasia, a software that allows you to demonstrate
that matters.
Contributions
how to use software by enabling you
to create a video of you using it. If
Install on your PC or network, or access online.
you create a video in your voice, usEvents
ing your church as the real example,
Choose which fits your needs.
Calendar
you can then load it up to YouTube
and make it available to your conCheck In
gregation. Because I want to practice
what I preach, on my website: http://
www.effectivechurchcom.com,
Completely
I’ll create a demo of what I mean.
We provide software tools,
Integrated
Just look up “Camtasia” in the search
freeing you up to fulfill your mission.
box if it isn’t available on the home
page when you go to the site.
www.PowerChurch.com • 800.486.1800
In conclusion, technology can
You want the
freedom to
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September 2013
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Reasonable & Essential
BYOD Policies
Nick Nicholaou - [email protected]
B
YOD— Bring Your Own Device— is an IT wave that is sweeping corporations. IT Directors are understandably uncomfortable about this. Adopting enforceable policies will make the
difference, however, in BYOD’s success in any organization.
What Is BYOD, Exactly?
There is a growing number of requests from
computer users to use whatever device they own
and prefer when at work. In our network consulting we have been seeing it for a few years in the
form of employees asking us if they can use their
personal computer instead of the one provided to
them. Thus, Bring Your Own Device.
Sometimes it is because the employee is used
to working on a more powerful system than the one
being provided by their employer. Other times it’s
because the employee prefers a different operating
system than the one running on the computer being
provided to them.
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The lines are getting blurry between operating
system platforms like Windows and Mac OSX, in
part because of some of the advances operating
systems, computer hardware, and Cloud Computing
have brought about (Microsoft Office for Mac, automatically synchronizing files, virtualization, etc).
Some are thus celebrating the fact that now people
can use Windows, Mac, or anything else they feel
most comfortable with when at work.
Management is wondering about the costs and
savings this trend will bring. Up for discussion are
employee productivity, compromised data and networks, and workstation purchase savings.
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Why Are IT Directors Uncomfortable?
IT Directors see the risks of letting “unconfigured” and “unmanaged” systems connect to the
network. They are the ones responsible to ensure
that essential data and systems are always available so that staff can be productive. They are also
the ones who see the impact of supporting multiple
platforms and configurations. Their teams are the
ones who get calls after hours because something
is no longer working and, left unchecked ‘til morning, may affect the ability of staff to get their work
done.
But many believe the benefits outweigh the
risks— cost reductions, program efficiency and
productivity increases, changing workforce adaptability, and an improved user experience.
What Policies Should We Have?
This is an evolving area in IT that is still
fairly new. Very few policy guidelines have been
published, and they are mostly about the use of
personally-owned smartphones. Policies need to be
approached in a few categories: the employee’s responsibilities, the employer’s responsibilities, and
termination procedures.
Employee Responsibilities
• To be productive - Employees who request to use their personal computers and/
or devices must understand that they are
responsible to be productive. Thus any such
BYOD request, if granted, will require that
the employee be at least as productive as
they would have been using the systems
normally provided by the employer. Standards of productivity are the responsibility of
management, and employees who are not as
productive on their personally-owned computers and/ or devices will be required to use
employer-provided systems.
• To be cooperative - Personally-owned
computers and/ or devices, if allowed to be
used at work, must meet minimum standards.
Those standards will be set and modified
from time to time by the IT Department, and
may address minimum processor chipsets
and operating system versions, amount of
RAM and storage, and the use of specific employer-provided applications such as productivity suites, anti-malware tools, email clients, and more. Use of substitute applications
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Phone: 714.840.5900 • www.mbsinc.com • [email protected]
September 2013
32
must be approved by both the IT Department
and the employee’s direct supervisor.
• To be responsible - The employee agrees to
maintain their personally-owned computers
and/ or devices that have been approved for
use at work at a level that meets or exceeds
(1) productivity levels set by management
and (2) the IT Department’s minimum system
requirements. The employee is responsible
for any costs due to failed hardware, configuration and/ or software issues, and theft or
breakage.
• To protect - The employee agrees to maintain the security of their personally-owned
computers and/ or devices to protect the data
and integrity of the employer’s systems, and
to let their supervisor and the IT Department
know if their device has been lost or stolen,
and to let the employer install software that
could delete the employer’s data if the employer so desires, with or without notice. The
employee agrees to submit their personallyowned computers and/ or devices approved
for use at work for inspection by the IT
Department to confirm that the system is being properly protected against malware and
other threats. The employee agrees that the
employer may see data and files that could
otherwise be considered private, but agrees
to hold the employer harmless against any
claims against loss of privacy in exchange
for the employer agreeing to allow the employee to use his or her personally-owned
computers and/ or devices for work.
Employer Responsibilities
• To provide a productive environment - The
employer agrees to provide a suitable work
area to help the employee be productive
at levels required by management. In case
the employee’s personally-owned computers and/ or devices are not available due to
required repairs (for which the employee is
responsible), the employer will provide a
substitute workspace using employer-owned
computers and/ or devices for a reasonable
period of time.
• To be reasonably accommodating - When
an employee requests permission to use their
personally-owned computer or device at
work, the employer agrees to be reasonably
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accommodating if the employee can demonstrate that their productivity will meet or
exceed the productivity standards set by the
employer.
• To be supportive - The employer is not
responsible to support the employee’s computer or device. However, the employer will
give help desk support at the same level as it
does for employer-owned computers on the
use of software provided by the employer.
• To explain Exempt vs Non-Exempt issues
- Some employees are subject to overtime
rules based on State and/ or federal law. The
employer is responsible to explain the employee’s exempt or non-exempt status, and
how that impacts work time recordkeeping.
Termination Procedures
If an employee is terminated by the employer or
initiates termination of the employment relationship,
the employee agrees to remove all employer-owned
software and data from their personally-owned computer or device, or to provide it to the IT Department
to allow the IT Department to remove it for them.
Signed Acknowledgement
The employee and the employee’s supervisor
will sign an agreement acknowledging the BYOD
policies in place. The acknowledgement will also
state that the employer may modify the BYOD
policy at any time and without prior notice.
BYOD is a new area of IT policy. Like all policies— especially those with potential privacy issues— yours should be reviewed by a competent
attorney. With policies like these and more, BYOD
can work to the benefit of the employer and the
employee.
Nick Nicholaou is president of MBS, an IT
consulting firm specializing in church and ministry
computer networks, VoIP, and private cloud hosted
services. You can reach Nick at [email protected],
and may want to check out his firm’s website (www.
mbsinc.com) and his blog at http://ministry-it.blogspot.com.
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