Free web apps that can help your ministry focus

Tony Morgan, author of Killing Cockroaches and Other Scattered Musings on Leadership (on my Kindle 2), shared on his blog the top 25 free apps that he uses in his ministry:

1. Gmail
2. Google Calendar
3. WordPress
4. Twitter
5. Google Reader
6. PeopleBrowsr
7. YouVersion
8. Mint.com
9. Google Documents
10. Lala.com
11. Google Analytics
12. FeedBurner
13. ChurchMetrics
14. Delicious
15. ScribbleLive
16. Facebook
17. YouTube
18. Hulu.com
19. Skype
20. Mogulus
21. Google Groups
22. Pandora
23. Woopra
24. YouSendIt
25. Bringo

Thinking about switching to a free app (like Gmail) but hesitant because of the lost productivity getting used to a new system? I understand. When I switched from Outlook to Gmail last year I had a learning curve I knew I would have to endure and dreaded, but now I’m more productive than before and wouldn’t go back.

Seth Godin wrote in a recent blog:

There’s always a gap between the short-term results of a well-polished system and the first results of a switch to a more efficient one.

If you stick with that thing you’ve worked so hard to perfect, the next few hours or weeks or months will surely outperform the results you’ll get from the new thing. That’s because there are switching costs, glitches and a learning curve.

The end result is that organizations that choose to switch are usually the ones with the least to lose. The upstarts and the outliers. One reason they’re always leapfrogging the market leaders.

One way to stay innovative is to understand that this gap exists and to budget for it. Denying it won’t make it go away.

If you are interested in the broader discussion about the use of technology in ministry, listen as Mars Hill pastor Rob Bell interviews Shane Hipps, author of Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith.

Hat Tip: Solar Crash

The Emerging Church

In some of your Rockbridge Seminary courses, you may have been exposed to discussions about the “emerging church.” Still confused? There’s good reason because of the difficulty in defining the emerging church movement. For help, read ”Explainer: The Emerging Church,” on the blog “Off The Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders.”

Rob Bell is often identified with the emerging church movement. Hear his discussion about criticism before the Mars Hill family (Grandville, Michigan) where he is pastor: