487 – A Family Friendly Internet

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Tune in to WELSTech this week for Sallie’s show and tell of a recent parent talk she led covering positive uses of the Internet for kids and families. You’ll also learn about an opportunity to host a theater showing of the new Martin Luther movie from WELS and be inspired for Lent by Martin’s ministry resource.

The discussion:

Discerning hearts – Parental (and teacher) responsibilities in the digital age are like never in history with many streams of digital media available at the fingertips of our children. Sallie shares resources from a recent presentation on Positive Uses of the Internet for Kids & Families to assist with teaching children to have discerning hearts.

News in tech:

Amazon’s massive AWS outage was caused by human error

WELS now:

Host a Screening of “A Return to Grace: Luther’s Life and Legacy”

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Featured video:

The newest addition on the WELSTech Product Demos YouTube playlist is MaKey MaKey – An Invention Kit for Everyone.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 488 – In the next installment of the WELSTech Social Media for Ministry series, we look at social photo sites Flickr & Google Photos. Release date: Wednesday, March 15.

Get involved:

Lenten Inspiration

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Lent is a season filled with imagery. The cross, the upper room, palms, thorns, etc. All of them are helpful in deepening our connection to our suffering Savior as we walk with him on our own Lenten journeys. Those images are certainly something that we can use to enhance our personal or ministry related messaging on websites, blogs and social networks too. Perhaps you need an image that introduces a lenten sermon series or Bible class. Maybe for a weekly or even daily Facebook post/devotion/inspirational thought.

I’ve been getting into Instagram a lot more lately and have found it to be a great inspiration for Lenten imagery, as well as an outlet for my own creativity. For example, just go to the Instagram website in your browser or open the app up on your phone or tablet and search for hashtags. I searched for #lent2017 and found over 10,000 examples of lenten themed photos and in many cases Bible references. Lots of ideas there. Check every few days for new ones added.

If you’d like to create your own, there are also easy ways to do that. I’ve been using a wonderful little app from Adobe called Spark Post. It allows you to pick your own image or search for others, add text, and then easily post to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. It’s free and easy to use. I’ve found it to be just perfect for these little Lenten images/messages. I am jumping into my photo archives, finding an appropriate image and then applying a relevant lenten Bible passage. It’s been fun and hopefully inspiring to those who see the images.

See my screencast below where I cover searching Instagram and a quick walkthrough of Adobe Spark Post.

Application/audience

Pictures are a powerful medium, and with the proper inspiration and tools, you can take advantage of them in your online endeavours. I’d suggest considering using seasonal images in almost any digital postings you make:

  1. Sermon or Bible Study series promotion
  2. Short devotional thoughts on social media sites
  3. As a lead image in a long form blog post, similar to this one
  4. Just sharing on image sharing sites like Instagram or Pinterest where people can “like” or even better, share with their friends
  5. Change your profile picture to a seasonal image that sends a spiritual message

Related resources

Besides Adobe Spark, there are any number of image creation tools that allow you to upload your own image or find an existing one, then overlay text in creative ways. Two that come to mind are Canva and PicMonkey. Another place to find inspiration are through sites like Outreach, where you can purchase entire campaigns or program…or just search through their resources that might spark other ideas for your ministry.

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Common Sense Media

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In today’s digital age, guiding children’s use of the many flavors of media available to them can be a daunting task. Not only are there challenges knowing enough about the many apps, websites, movies, and books, but it can sometimes be a pretty large hurdle to simply find appropriate media to consider.

CommonSenseMedia.org can help. The first few sentences of the mission of Common Sense Media give site visitors an idea of what to expect on the site.

Common Sense is the leading independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. We empower parents, teachers, and policymakers by providing unbiased information, trusted advice, and innovative tools to help them harness the power of media and technology as a positive force in all kids’ lives.

Application/audience

As the mission statement suggests, Common Sense Media is great for parents and teachers. In church and school settings, it would certainly be appropriate to share the site with anyone who has responsibilities involving children up to age 18. This includes Lutheran school teachers, but also may be helpful for those who lead after school care and Sunday school. The digital citizenship curriculum available from the site can be adopted by schools and has units for use in grades K-12.

Church and school communication can be used to encourage parents to explore the resources available on the site. For example, consider newsletter or bulletin blurbs pointing to Common Sense Media when movies of interest are released, reminding parents to consider the age recommendations and areas of concern identified in the posted movie review.

Watch this brief video tour of CommonSenseMedia.org to learn more about the resources available on the site.

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486 – Online Ed

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This week on WELSTech Rachel Feld joins the conversation to discuss the latest developments in online and adaptive learning. Educators will want to listen on Rachel’s iPad/iPhone pick called “Duck, Duck, Moose.” Sallie is unplugging … for a day, and Martin shares a great site to get reviews of gadgets for those who are looking to plug more things in.

The discussion:

Individualized learning for littles – Using the New Media Consortium K-12 Horizon Report 2016 as a springboard, the edtech conversation du jour is online learning, but not just for high-schoolers. Teacher Rachel Feld from Bethany in Kenosha, WI shares her 1st and 2nd grade classroom experience with online tools that adapt for individualized student needs.

News in tech:

Amazon AWS S3 outage is breaking things for a lot of websites and apps

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Featured video:

Celebrate Lutheran Schools Week with students from St. Paul’s Lutheran School in New Ulm, MN, We’re Happy! on the WELSTech Schools YouTube playlist.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 487 – Tune in for a primer on positive parenting in the digital age. Release date: Wednesday, March 8.

Get involved:

Reftagger

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Reftagger is a simple utility that allows webmasters or blog writers easily and automatically to link Bible references to the entire verse or verses. The way the utility works is the site visitor will see any Bible reference appear as a link, and when they hover their mouse over the link a small box will pop up over the link with the Bible verse displayed in the desired translation. The pop up box also allows the user to visit Biblia.com to see the verse or other version, in addition to click on icons that give them a chance to share the verse on social media networks like Twitter, Facebook or Google.

Adding the Reftagger functionality is as easy as copying and pasting a script tag, or installing a plugin to WordPress, Drupal or Joomla. It takes very little technical expertise. See the screencast below for a quick run through of how to set it up.

There will be times that you will want to physically include the entire Bible verse(s) in your web page or blog post, but if you are looking for an automated way to allow site visitors to easily see any reference you happen to include, this would be well worth the effort to include it.

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485 – Lenten Resources and Feedback

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It’s time once again for WELSTech’s Community Feedback episode. Martin and Sallie share everything from church newsletter tips to pinned infographics, Chromebook news to ideas for creating church directories. Sallie is raking in the ministry resource comments and Martin is printing (imagine that!). All this, plus Pastor James Hein shares his insightful thoughts on ministering to millennials.

The discussion:

Share and share alike – The WELSTech community is not known to disappoint, and this month’s Community Feedback is proof!

The interview:

Ministering to Millennials – Pastor James Hein from St. Marcus in Milwaukee joined the WELSTech conversation to share his insight on reaching out and nurturing the millennial age group (born from 1980-2000). He also shared his interesting view of the how the church of the future may look a lot different and why quality and efficient technology may play a role in the change.

WELS now:

Martin Luther College 2017 College Choir Tour Schedule

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Featured video:

The newest addition on the WELSTech Music YouTube playlist is What a Friend We Have in Jesus from Koine.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 486 – Rachel Feld, techy teacher extraordinaire, co-hosts as we look at the future of online learning in K-12.  Release date: Wednesday, March 1.

Get involved:

Footsteps To The Cross Illuminated – Koine

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Most of us have walked the 40 days of Lent many times over the years. The symbols, songs and traditions of this seasonal observance remind us of the grace and sacrifice of Jesus, our savior. The repetition is a welcome reminder, but like all repetition and traditions, we might, at times, run the risk of becoming numb to the message because it is so familiar.

One way to renew our love for Lent and it’s timeless message is through the unique presentations of the message. I was lucky enough to experience one of those “presentations” a few years ago by Koine, a Lutheran worship band formed in 2003. Their “Footsteps To The Cross Illuminated” concert is not your typical set-based performance. Rather it is a mixture of song, video, animation, and the word sewn together to bring an emotive, if not inspiring look at Jesus’ journey made on our behalf.

Koine is offering this “musical journey from the Mount of Transfiguration to Mount Calvary” this Lenten season. If you live in the southeastern Wisconsin area there are many opportunities to experience the “illumination.” If you can’t attend in person, they have their 2014 presentation available on YouTube.

So if you think a Lenten reboot might be in order, check out Koine’s Footsteps To the Cross Illuminated!

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Christian Worship Lectionary for Google Calendar

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Google Calendar is a popular platform for personal, family, group, and organization use. The Christian Worship Lectionary for Google Calendar has lectionary notes for Christian Worship as well as Christian Worship Supplement. For each Sunday and Major Festival of the church year the calendar entry includes

  • Lessons and Psalm, including the Supplemental Readings
  • Prayer of the Day
  • Verse of the Day
  • Hymn of the Day
  • Church year color

Application/audience

Worship planning is a big task centered around the prescribed readings for the day. Certainly pastors benefit from having the readings and hymn of the day easily accessible. In addition, the church musicians and choral directors will appreciate the ability to make music selections which are complementary to the readings for the day. Even the altar guild will appreciate knowing he seasonal colors so paraments can correspond correctly. Google Calendar is widely used and conveniently accessible from computers as well as mobile devices, making the Christian Worship Lectionary for Google Calendar a very useful tool.

Besides personal use, Google Calendars can be embedded on websites. Having the lectionary available for members on the church website gives members the opportunity to prepare for service by studying the readings they will hear.

Related resources

In addition to the Christian Worship Lectionary for Google Calendar, WELS also provides a weekly devotional series titled Worship Helps. New devotions are released each Monday and include the lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend as well as some questions and answers regarding each reading for consideration and discussion. You may subscribe to receive Worship Helps via e-mail.

Additional church year resources:

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484 – Social Media in Ministry: Facebook

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It’s Valentine’s Day on WELSTech, and we’re talking about chocolate’s important place in technology along with a little discussion on the use of Facebook for church and school as part of a social media strategy. Martin pulls back the curtain on Google’s logs of his travels, and Sallie shares a ministry resource walkthrough of the Free Bible Images web site.

The discussion:

Facebook for ministry – Martin and Sallie answer the Why, What, Who and How questions regarding using Facebook to share the Good News of Jesus with the 1.2 billion daily users of the site. View the Facebook for Ministry infographic.

WELS now:

Registration is underway for the 54th LWMS Convention, happening June 22-25 in Orlando, FL

Picks of the week:

Ministry resource:

Free Bible Images

Featured video:

Learn more about Sallie’s pick of the week in this new addition to the Product Demo playlist titled Word Swag Tutorial – Turn your iPhone or iPad into a Marketing Machine.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 485 – Martin and Sallie share the latest and greatest news from the WELSTech community. Release date: Wednesday, February 22.

Get involved:

Free Bible Images

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Teachers of all flavors recognize the importance of having just the right image to support the lesson they are preparing. And the fact that cameras are a rather recent invention in relation to the full historic timeline limits the ability to do a quick Internet search and find the perfect photo for every lesson. This is especially true when it comes to images from Bible times, and it makes FreeBibleImages.org a highly recommended ministry resource.

Application/audience

The site name is self-explanatory. It exists to share all types of images of the Bible for my favorite price … FREE!! The image sets have a variety of copyrights associated with them, from public domain to creative commons by attribution and non-commercial to copyright retained and only accessible for education purposes, so read carefully and take steps to comply. It’s well worth the effort as most are provided in two aspect ratios – 4:3 and 16:9 – and in Powerpoint, Keynote, PDF and JPG formats. Something to fit all those flavors of teachers mentioned earlier!

I prepared a quick overview video to orient you to the site offerings. I’d welcome comments on how you use Free Bible Images in your ministry setting!

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