iPhone Sacrifice

In my continual effort to support those in ministry, I purchased an iPhone so that you could have the skinny on this device before taking the dive. (Actually, it was a semi-complex transaction between my employer and I but those are just details).

First of all, the iPhone is a great device. The thing works as advertised. Having used two other smartphones in the last couple of years, it clearly is the best when it comes to interfacing with the device. It seems to have an uncanny way of just knowing what you want to do.

The Mac philosophy is clearly in play here. Whereas Windows often makes people cower into corners because it presents a "press this button and every thing will go wrong" interface, the iPhone invites touching. See a button, go ahead and press it. It's there for you to use. Come out of your shelters people, it's safe to compute again!

Although the EDGE network that AT&T uses is not the quickest for browsing, having just come back from a business trip in Ft. Lauderdale, I was impressed with how many places I could use the available Wi-Fi (and free at that) and speed things up. Call quality was excellent. And the ability to dynamically enlarge text in emails and in the browser was phenomenal. This feature alone bypasses the typical compromises that other handset makers have when you have a system wide font setting with only 3 sizes, too small, small, and cyclop-sized.

If your church uses Microsoft Exchange as your email server, you will have to turn on the IMAP email protocol and open up a port in your firewall to allow the email traffic through. Some administrators may not like that because of security concerns but I hope to see a resolution to that soon.

Otherwise, most email setups should work just fine for your iPhone. The ability to stay connected when you're physically disconnected is an awesome and liberating feeling. No need to carry a laptop everywhere you go just because you need email and browser connectivity. Not to mention that it feels not much bigger or heavier than my previous Motorola RAZR V3 so I carry it often just in my pants pocket, leaving the belt clip behind.

The iPhone isn't perfect but it's better than all the other devices I have worked with and with the impending software development kit (SDK) that Apple will release shortly, a lot of that will be alleviated when third party developers can create applications for it.

If you have a Mac, the setup should be fairly seamless. If you have a recent PC running iTunes, it should work too but I haven't tried it.

If you're not a Mac convert after using the iPhone, you probably will be after using it. Might be a great conversation starter and entry way into the gospel too because strangers will ask you about it.

MacBook Air - One Less Burden in Ministry

If you haven't already seen it, jump down to www.apple.com and check out the MacBook Air. It is a cool new, ultra-lightweight, ultra-thin MacBook with a shiny, taut aluminum skin.

If you're tempted to bite into this wicked looking fruit, you might want to think of your ministry needs and concerns before doing so. Part of the reason is that you are paying a premium for looks so you can gauge your flock's response to a computer in designer duds.

This beauty is designed for people who love the look, can live in a wireless world, and have minimal need for optical media. There are a few things that you can do to overcome those moments when an all-wireless situation is not possible, such as networking (you gotta buy an affordable adapter), or when you need multiple USB devices (use a portable hub, they're cheap too).

But if you need Firewire, such as connecting up to a so-equipped digital video camera, you will have to look elsewhere.

Otherwise, the MacBook Air would be a great travel companion that doesn't conspire to make us all one-armed neanderthals like most notebooks. Ministry has enough burdens as it is already.

ProPresenter Rocks!

I just did two back to back youth conferences using ProPresenter for the first time and the software really rocked! As the main guy to switch between Keynote, DVD, and ProPresenter, everything worked smoothly as it should have. The only glitches were operator error and experience will fix some of those. But both venues reported a much improved lyric presentation and asked me back for next year.

One of those conferences involved over 3,000 students with By the Tree, who led them in a weekend of worship. The band often just followed the Spirit in the songs that they often sung and at one point, I was switching between the choruses of two different songs that they were singing in an amazing mashup! And it was cool because the video guys used a luma key so I could present the lyrics in the bottom third of the screen over live IMAG video.

One funny story is that I had a DVD cued up in ProPresenter to play halfway into a service. The video started to play just fine along with the audio but after a minute, my wakeup software that automatically launches and plays iTunes came on and took over the audio. I had incorrectly set my alarm time so it was my fault completely. It's one of those caveats of using a computer that isn't totally dedicated for presentations.

Microsoft Office for mac:2008

For those who have to work in a mixed environment or share complex Office files frequently, this next release of Microsoft's Office for Mac (January 2008) is hotly anticipated.

When Apple switched to Intel processors in 2006, Microsoft had a huge task to change their software code so that it would run natively on the Intel-based Macs. Instead of upgrading the current version, Microsoft decided to focus on the next version. The current version of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) works on the new generation of Macs using Apple's built-in emulation technology called Rosetta.

As a user, you never see this emulator but you can feel it at times with sluggish responses. And if you only have 1 gig of RAM, you may notice other programs running sluggishly as well. In fact, I have noticed that PowerPoint runs at turtle-speed when it has graphics inserted from the PC version. So slow in fact that many times, I run the PC version of PowerPoint in a virtual machine which is so much faster.

However, the next version of Office for the Mac promises to run natively on Intel-based Macs which should mean increased speed and performance.

But it also promises better compatibility with PC originated files. In most cases, the current version works with the majority of documents just fine but once in a while, some formatting or graphic would trip the mac version up. For instance, if someone put a 4 color picture (CMYK) instead of a 3 color (RGB) picture, the image would show up as a black box on the Mac.

PowerPoint is the worst transgressor cross-platform as Flash and Windows Media files would work in the PC version but would not work on the Mac. And then if you inserted a QuickTime video into a Mac version of PowerPoint, a PC user couldn't play it. Managing cross-platform issues sometimes posed an ugly challenge and as a minority Mac user, I hated to ask my PC associates to make compromises. My short term solution was to run the PC version of PowerPoint inside a virtual machine running Windows which ran faster. Go figure.

So we'll see what the next version holds. Microsoft said that cross platform compatibility was a top priority during development of this new version coming in January. Time will tell but from what I've seen so far, it is a must-have upgrade for someone like me that spends most of the day using Office.

Death by PowerPoint

I use PowerPoint all the time at work but when I'm in ministry and I see PowerPoint, it usually is a boredom enhancing tool.

The reasons?

Most speakers use PowerPoint as a way to keep their thoughts organized. And they want to share those notes with the rest of the world.

Uggh. Just talk to me.

Also, people put way too much text on the screens, use low grade graphics, and cheesy looking animations to get people's attention.

The best communicators today use very little PowerPoint at all except for putting up Scripture, showing a video clip or photo, or using it as a visual backdrop.

And if you use PowerPoint, or my personal preference for ministry, Keynote, using it in that fashion makes your points much more, well, poignant.

When you have to prepare a message, ask yourself this question "If there was one thing you wanted your audience to walk away with and apply to their life, what would it be?"

When you have that question answered, focus on that. Use PowerPoint or Keynote as a visual backdrop or to highlight one key thought or asking one question that you're spending time on answering.

Everything else you might talk about, although interesting and likely very important, may be a distraction from your message. Save it for another time.

For the really bold who want to dramatically improve their delivery, I highly suggest that you read "Communicating for a Change" by Andy Stanley and Lane Jones. 

Still in doubt? Go to Northpoint Church and watch or listen to Andy Stanley speak. He is one of the most gripping speakers I know and he doesn't use PowerPoint.

PS. Some of you may read this and question my Simple Church presentation in another post. The difference is that in a sermon, message, devotional, you're goal is life change, not information transmission. In my Simple Church presentation, the goal was information transmission.

iChat Screen Sharing

Last week I was able to check out iChat's new Screen Saving feature that allows me to see and even take over someone else's desktop (who also must be running Leopard).

This was really helpful in troubleshooting an error in seconds and explaining it while it was being fixed, instead of trying to explain everything over the phone.

One cool feature is that it scales the other person's screen so it fits nicely on your own. This allowed me to work with a 24" iMac on my 15.4" MacBook Pro. 

There are just a couple of caveats - you have to have good upload speeds for smooth operation otherwise the response can be a little choppy. Setting your background to black instead of your favorite abtract rainbow spectrum might help with that too.

The other caveat is that if you're controlling someone else's screen, the moment he or she touches the mouse, you lose control until the mouse on the other end stops moving. So tell the person to sit on their hands or pick up that Rubik's cube that they have never solved.

Simple Church

I have become a big fan of the Simple Church concept because it helps churches to focus on the process of discipleship and not on creating or maintaining programs as a shotgun, hope something happens approach to discipleship. I'm not talking about the house church movement but what Rainer and Geiger talked about in their book, The Simple Church. You can read much of the book online here

What I did is use Keynote to create a QuickTime that you can click through to watch a presentation. The version on this website converted to flash so it doesn't allow for manual control that the QuickTime version does. There is no audio but it was all done without any special tools, plug-ins, etc. Just goes to show some of the cool things you can do with Apple technologies to get your point across in a high quality way.