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Phil Schneider

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Confessions of a Church Tech: The Professional [Part 2]


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Yesterday, I introduced you to Matt Drury, the Technical Director for Willow Creek Community Church's North Shore campus. He has been there for three years, having served Willow Creek as a whole—both as a staff member and intern—for five years. I've known Matt since fourth grade and he is easily one of the smartest people I know. If you haven't read the first part of my interview with Matt, be sure to read it first! As for the rest of you, here's the rest of my interview with Matt ... Read More

Confessions of a Church Tech: The Professional [Part 1]


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Being a church tech can be a lonely, thankless job. (Maybe not as lonely or as thankless of job as pastor, but pretty close.) No one notices you when you succeed, but everyone sees when you fail. You never get complemented when the worship service sounds good, but you always get blamed when it sounds bad. On any given Sunday, a missionary can pop up out of nowhere, and you're expected to take his seven-year old presentation work seamlessly with the brand new presentation software that the ... Read More

SOLOSHOT: Film Your Pastor with Ease!


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Update (October 27, 2015): Thanks to Reader Tim we have found out that SOLOSHOT 3 will soon be released and will include the capability to use the product indoors. And, of course, there is also Pixio to consider. That's it for now. - PS Is your pastor a pulpit pounder who doesn't move from directly behind the podium until its time to walk out the door? My pastor isn't. He's a wanderer. He'll walk all over the front of the church, making it impossible to film him for a video stream or a ... Read More

Could Your iPhone Be Hacked Right NOW?


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Sorry to "cable news" for the headline, but I couldn't help myself. Despite the hype, there is some truth to this, as CNN Money reports. It looks like the issue isn't a huge risk just yet, but cracks in a foundation don't collapse a house over night. Check out this video from CNN Money's report, and you'll see just how crazy this security issue could be: ... Read More

Does Your Church Give “Free Gifts”?


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Have you ever been given a "free gift" by a company or church or whatever? (Is there any other kind?) It's nice, right? Except that you most often don't need/want the gift you've been given. That's what happened to me today. I won't name the company because I don't want to hurt their business, but they sent me a "free gift" as a promotional. Their plan backfired, for several reasons. ... Read More

Newsweek Surrenders to the Internet & What the Church Should Do


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If this blog post had a soundtrack it would be Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," as Newsweek has announced that it will begin to shift to a digital only publication this fall. Of course, I'm not going to say it's a done deal until it's literally been done, but it looks like we may not longer see Newsweek on the corner news stands. Of course, that raises the question, "How much longer will other printed periodicals be able to hold out against the juggernaut that is digital publishing?" ... Read More

The Church’s Waste of Tech: How to Avoid It


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We were cleaning out a storage area in church office last week, and we found a nice little stockpile of these beauties (pictured above). I posted a picture of these bad boys on the ChurchMag Authors Network, and the conversation quickly turned to "wasted tech," technology purchased that's never used. It's lack of use can be for several reasons: ... Read More

What Do You Keep In Your Tech Toolkit?


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Are you the guy that everyone calls for technical tips and tricks? I am. It's a huge honor, isn't it? Except when it's pain, right? I mean, how many times can you tell your mom to reboot her computer? My hidden rage aside, I realized today that I generally only have a few tools in my tech toolkit and that I'm usually able to solve most of my friends', family's, and church's problems with those few tricks. Today, for example, a friend of mine called and asked how to download a YouTube ... Read More

WordPress for iOS Updated to 3.0


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I get so excited when I see that little badge icon indicating that I have apps to update on my iPhone! It's like a mini-Christmas, yeah? You know what I'm talking about, right? Ok, maybe it's just me. Either way, I got a little something dropped into my iOS stocking a week or so ago—the newest version of WordPress for iOS! I love this powerful, free app. I have all of my blogs loaded in this app which means that I'm only ever a few gestures away from a blog post. ... Read More

How Tech Has Made Me a Better Christian


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I've been thinking about this post for over a week now. I first thought of it when I saw a similar Father's Day related post on GIGAOM. Even after taking all this time, I still don't know how tech has made me a better Christian. In fact, I might need to change the title to this post: Has Tech Made Me a Better Christian? Without making too many Lee Majors/Six Million Dollar Man references, how has technology made us better...faster...strong? (I had to make at least one reference. ;-)) I'm ... Read More