Tools of the Trade: GTDAgenda

I’ve been asked by Dan at GTKAgenda to review their online task management/ planning application. I’ve mentioned previously Todoist which I used for awhile. After a few days of internet outage (web access issues is one drawback to being a country parson) I began using tools that don’t require an internet connection. [...]

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Tools of the Trade: Best Commentaries

Kim Riddlebarger posted on this helpful site -  www.bestcommentaries.com.  It lists commentaries by book and gives reviews and pricing info.  Very helpful for folks starting a library or replenishing after selling theirs to buy a new computer.

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Tools of the Trade: The Sword Project

When I started getting my first regular paycheck as a minister I purchased the fanciest Bible Software I could find, at the time it was Logos and cost over $400.  I used it, but I never used all of the features or books that it came with.  For the most part I used one Bible [...]

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Tools of the Trade: Snopes

Every once in awhile I have a concerned member of the congregation bring a petition or a message they received through email.  Sometimes it’s about a sick child who’s wish it is to receive cards from all over the world.  Other times they have news of a supposed threat to the Christians from atheist lobbyist.  [...]

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Why Churches should use Open Source, pt. 5: The Software

A few years ago our Church did a Yard Giveaway. Instead of having families take items to charity donation boxes, we wanted to try to recycle items in our own community. We had everyone clean out their closet so we could give stuff away to people who might need it — no one [...]

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Why Churches Should Use Open Source, pt. 4: Responsibility

In this last post of reasons churches should consider using open source computer tools I will be discussing responsibility.  In particular our responsibility to keep parishioners information private and our responsibility to keep records accessible for future generations.
Security 
Computers used for churches will probably have some very sensitive and private information.  At the minimum a church [...]

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Why Churches Should Use Open Source, Part 3: Stewardship

Last week I discusses some of the common values the Church has with open source software.  This week I wanted to look at another reason Churches should consider Open Source — Stewardship.  The Church is responsible for money and other resources that others have entrusted to them as an offering to God.  Therefore, congregations and [...]

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Why Churches should use Open Source, Part 2: Common Values

Last week I tried to explain what open source and open formats are. This week, before looking at more practical reasons, I want to touch on the first reasons, namely that churches and the open source community share a lot of the same values.
I’m convinced that too much of the church (here in [...]

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Why Churches should use Open Source, Part 1

Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing a series of posts on “Why Churches should use Open Source”.  Before I start though, I probably should explain what Free or Open Source Software is.
As you are reading this you are using a program called a web browser that reads the file containing these words.  Most [...]

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Tools of the Trade: Todoist

Todoist is an online todo or task list utility. I tried several such sites because I wanted something I could access from my laptop or desktop without having to sync the two. I also like knowing it’s backed up elsewhere.
There are several additional features that makes Todoist really useful: gmail [...]

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