Pastor Scott's Church Tech

My how things have changed

2013-02-06T13:39:00.001-06:00

As a young preacher (and I started preaching at age 16) I was encouraged to use lots of Scripture references in my preaching. I probably overdid it and over time dialed things back, especially as I moved away from proof texting.

Still, I often mention different verses in a sermon, generally to give an example of what I'm talking about.

At first, I took strips of paper and numbered them in the order of verses I intended to mention. I bookmarked my Bible with those bits of paper so I could easily find the verses. As you can guess, it wasn't a very good plan and sometimes left me searching, first for that numbered slip of paper and, not seeing it for some reason, for the passage itself.

My next plan of action was to type the verse directly into my notes. That solved the slips of paper problem and worked okay. However, at some point it dawned on me that I was going to be typing some verses many times in my preaching career.

So, I hit upon a plan. Every time I referred to a verse, I'd take time to type it onto a 3x5 card. In my sermon notes, I simply included the reference. I'd organize the cards in order for that sermon, then, after the service, I'd file the cards by book of the Bible.

From that point on a part of sermon preparation was to go through my Bible verse file and see if I'd already added the verses I wanted for the sermon. I'd add the news ones for that sermon and then file them after the sermon.

As you can guess, after 20 years of so of preaching, I developed quite a file system. It was so useful that it crossed my mind that the file box and cards needed to be placed into the hands of some young preacher when my preaching days were over.

Then in the mid-1990's I added a computer to my study and things began to change. I now had the Bible in electronic form and in multiple translations. Inserting the text of a verse into the sermon notes was a simple copy/paste process. My extensive collection of 3x5 cards was no longer necessary.

For years the file box remained on my desk simply because that is where it had always been. Finally, needing desk space, I moved it to storage in the attic. There it stayed for several years until today.

I decided it was time for me to clear out the attic and there, covered with dust, was my old file box of scriptures. In spite of the countless hours of work represented by those 3x5 cards it was time for it to go. I reluctantly brought the poor old filebox down, took these final photos of it, and put it all in the recycle bin. Just awhile ago the pickup crew came, and not knowing or caring what was in the bin, carried it off.

Looking back on my system, I think I hit on a good plan. I accomplished exactly what needed to be accomplished. Not only that, but by typing out the passages, I became more intimate with them.

Still, over time, things change and the need for that approach is now part of my personal past. Happily, even though the way I handled the Bible has changed, I'm glad to report that it's message is just as current and needed as ever before.

Inserting material from Google Docs into Wordpress

2012-08-15T13:57:00.000-06:00

So here’s the scenario:
1. You have a Wordpress site
2. You have a Google Account, including Google Drive
3. On your site, you have a page you want to allow someone who doesn’t know a thing about Wordpress much less html to edit

Try this….

On Google Drive
1. Create a Google Doc that will contain the material you want to appear on that page of your site
2. Click on file, share and enter your Wordpress clueless friend’s email address – they will now be able to edit the document
3. Click on file, publish to web and say okay – grab the embed code

On Wordpress
1. Create/edit the page where you want the Google Doc inserted
2. Using the html view paste the embed code at the place where you want the Google Doc material inserted
3. You’ll probably want to add a couple of iframe attributes like width="100%" height="1000" align="top" (height is a bit of a wildcard – you may have to toy with it to make the number high enough to get all the material, but not so high that it makes the page super long)

Having done all that, you are ready to start publishing the material from your Google Doc into the Wordpress site – your helper has no access to the menus or other material on the page or other page features, only to the portion of the page you want them to edit.

Google Voice for Church - and Personal - use

2012-02-17T10:34:00.003-06:00

If you phone my wife during the work day her cell phone will ring. If you call in the evenings, her cell phone and our home phone will ring at the same time. If she’s at home she can use the home phone, if she’s out of the house, she catches the call on her cell phone. If you call in the middle of the night her phone(s) may ring, or you may get voicemail, depending on who you are. When she’s on vacation, if family members call, her cell phone will ring. However, if others call, they go straight to voicemail. If someone leaves a voicemail, she gets an email transcription of their voice message. When someone texts her she can either read and respond to the text from her phone, or if she’s near a computer, she can read it and respond to it on a computer.

Someday she may decide to change cell phone numbers or we may get a new home number (or do away with it all together). However, all our friends will never know the difference because the number they dial or text to will stay the same.

It’s all done with Google Voice. Just about everybody should have a Google Voice account. When you sign up you can pick an available local phone number. You then configure the account to handle calls and texts as I described above.

Think of the advantages of this service for a church. You can customize voicemail based on who is calling, you can listen to voicemail as it's being entered and answer right then, you can customize what callers are forwarded to what phone(s), and much more.

And…it’s free!

Conversation with my Android Phone

2011-12-15T16:10:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting at a light, about 4 cars back and decide to call home.

My Android is mounted on the dash, so I reach out and punch the "voice command" icon. At that point, I find myself in a conversation, not with home, but with the phone.

"Please state your command," it says.

"Call home," I command in a clear voice. After all, I'm not interested in calling Nome or somewhere else.

"Did you say 'call home'?" she (a very business like woman's voice) asks.

"Yes," I respond.

She asks, "From which location?" I forgot that I have an alternate home number in there.

"Home 1," is my reply.

"Next time, say, 'call Home 1," she patiently instructs me. Then, "Calling."

And, finally, the light has changed and, since there is no answer, I drive along wondering if my phone and I can have any other instructive, for me, conversations.

Adventures in Social Networking

2011-10-27T11:58:00.000-06:00

So…forums, blogging, facebooking, tweeting, google plussing. Too many irons in the fire, too many websites to visit, too much background noise. Time to simplify.

Google+ is promising but hasn’t yet caught on. I tired some add-ins that brought Twitter and Facebook feeds into Google+. Doing that, I ended up with a dissatisfying experience with all three. It helped me realize one thing though: many of those I was following on Twitter are also posting to Facebook. I decided to try moving all those connects off of Twitter and over onto Facebook. Once that was complete I realized I only had a few Twitter follows left and none of them were all that significant to me so I removed those follows.

From now on, my writing efforts will autopost to Twitter, and I’ll get emails of comments, new follows, etc. but I’m not going to check Twitter because I’m not actually following anyone.

I use Gmail and I’m keeping Google+ alive so if anything happens there, I see the notification at the top of any Google page. Again, though, I’m not paying any more attention to Google+ aside from that. Maybe someday it will be worth my while, but not now.

I’m keeping the forum activity up because I find forum discussions much more satisfying than Facebook ones, but, for now, all the other eggs are in the Facebook basket.

Now, the problem with Facebook is that it’s too busy. Here’s my solution. I created some lists and made them favorites. For instance, I now have a RV-ing list. I put all my former Twitter follows on that topic into that list. I created another for News and put a bunch of news sites into that list. These and several others are in the Favorites section of the left Facebook column. When something new is added, there’s a number next to that list – so I know something has been posted.

I haven’t tried to divide up my friends, although that may be the topic for another entry here.

Anyway, that’s my current approach. Anybody have any suggestions for something better?

London/Paris trip

2011-10-24T20:46:00.002-06:00

We've recently enjoyed a terrific trip to London and Paris and I blogged the trip on my travel blog. You will find the entries here.

Printing Mailing Labels from Google Contacts with Word 2010

2011-08-25T22:58:00.002-06:00

I've written about this before, but I think I have an approach that uses less steps. Once it's set up, it's just a three step process

Go to your contacts list online – export the mail list to Google.csv format – save to the desktop
Open Word, Mailings, Start Mail Merge, Labels (pick the correct label)
Select Receipents, Use Existing List, Pick the Google.csv file you downloaded, Comma Separators

These steps only need to be done the first time
Insert Merge Field: Name - (on the next line): Address_1__Formatted
Click on Update Labels
Save this document -- you'll just reload it next time and skip all this first time stuff

Click on Finish and Merge – Edit individual Documents – select all
Check out the results, print when ready

Exporting a Google Calendar for a nicer print job -- UPDATED

2011-08-25T11:56:00.002-06:00

I’ve been working on exporting a Google Calendar so it can be printed. I know Google Calendar has a print option, but the results are anything but satisfactory. The events are truncated and the font is pitifully small. Also, it’s impossible to format items.

Anyway, here’s my work around solution. (This an update to this post)

1. Download and install Mozilla Sunbird. (note: Sunbird is no longer being updated, but you can still download it here.
2. Go to your Google Calendar…under “My Calendars” click on settings
3. In the calendar settings, get the ical "private address"
4. Open Mozilla Sunbird -- select "File, Subscribe to Remote Calendar"
5. Enter the private address - the Sunbird Calendar will now populate with the Google Calendar Data - enter your username and password when prompted (note: edits you make will now be automatically changed on your Google Calendar - it's two way - if you don't want this right click on the calendar name on the left, properties, mark it "read only")
6. Click on View, then select month
7. Edit the events to suit
8. Click on File, Page Setup, switch to landscape
9. Click on Print, insert a title if you want, change to the monthly grid layout
10. Print it

You now have a nicer looking printed calendar than you have if you print directly from Google Calendar.

Note: If all this sounds too complicated check out my post on WinCalendar.

Check out these Google Calendar related posts.

Inserting a Google Calendar in a Wordpress Blog

2011-08-19T12:50:00.000-06:00

There are other ways to do this, but this is, I think one of the best. The result is a page on your Wordpress website with a full sized Google Calendar. You'll find he instructions here: http://falcon1986.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/insert-google-calendar-iframe-into-wordpress-page-update/.

Picasa Web Albums - it's complicated

2011-07-26T09:17:00.000-06:00

This is a vent and not a "how to" post.

For years I have had both a personal and church Picasa web album. I managed both from the Picasa3 software on my home computer. I'd just sign in to either my personal gmail or my church gmail account.

When they came along with a nifty Google Apps feature, I signed the church up -- works great, letting us use gmail and other features with the church web address.

Then, they decided to do a bunch of merging of services. The lines between a regular google account and a google apps account were blurred.

One result is that I somehow ended up with two church picasa albums web accounts. The thing is that I never knew which one a new album would end up in. Then, once it was in a particular account I couldn't get access to it. Sometimes the same album ended up in both web albums.

Today I spent a couple of hours trying to resolve the issue once for all. I finally managed to on purpose log into either of the two accounts. I then migrated all the albums in the old pre-google-blurring-the-lines account to the new setup. I had to delete several albums because they were duplicates.

Now I have an empty web album and one that *should* work okay. I made a graphic with just the church web address and put it as the lone "picture" in the old album to help people find their way.

All this done having to constantly log out of one and into the other and then back because Google decided to blur the lines between regular accounts and apps accounts.

Then, I had to go through my church web pages and change the links to the photo album.

I'm not going to try to explain how I did it because (1) I'm still not sure I understand the process and (2) I'm not sure I did it right.

Again...just venting.

Electricity, forums, and internet misinformation

2011-07-08T12:46:00.002-06:00

I've been reading about electricity. Now, I'm not an expert on electricity, although I guess I've learned more than the average person in passing several FCC exams on my way to my Amateur Radio Extra class license. Still, I make no claims to knowing about electricity.

The thing that started me down this line of thinking has to do with using in Europe a simple multi-outlet power strip with plugs for our USA 110 outlets.

Most electronics these days, like phone and laptop chargers are built for 110-240V~50/60HZ operation. That means that aside from the plug being different, the device is just as happy being plugged into a European outlet as being plugged into an American one. You can use the right plug adapter and it will work just fine, no transformers or other converters necessary.

I want to know if its okay to take along an American power strip, plug it in using the adapter, and then plug the devices into the power strip.

As I surf around the internet looking for answers I find more "junk" answers than reliable ones. On one forum the question is asked and a thoughtful reply from someone with a degree in electrical engineering is given. Just use a cheap power strip without lights or surge protectors (in other words, with no electronics of its own) and it will work just great.

In that very same thread people give dire predictions of smoke and destroyed equipment. They say the wiring isn't sufficient for 220 and the EE replies that, actually, higher voltage means lower current - the wiring will do just fine. They ignore him, as though he never posted, and conclude, "Well, I'd never take that chance."

On another forum a person links to pictures of how he's done it for years. No power strip, just one of those little multi-outlet blocks with a plug adapter. That way he plugs in three chargers at once, using just one outlet and plug adapter. Again, others warn against it - ignoring the fact that he works for the State Department and has done it for years in multiple countries without a problem.

Some cautious soul says, "don't do it - you might accidentally plug something in that's only 110/60Hz." Of all the things to worry about - including being run over because you stepped into traffic that drives on the "wrong" side of the road - they're worried about that!

Okay, enough of that - what all this brings to mind is how easy it is to give and receive misinformation on an Internet forum. If we were around some people for 10 minutes we'd realize that they might be well meaning, but we'd never take their advice about some things. If we were around others that same 10 minutes we'd know that they know what they're talking about, especially on certain topics.

On one hand, then, we need to be careful who we allow to influence our thinking, especially when we've never even met them in person. On the other hand, as "opinion-givers" we need to be careful we don't state with certainty things that we actually know little about.

As someone in good humor and fine sarcasm said: "It has to be true, I read it on the Internet."

Verizon has an update for the Droid X

2011-06-23T10:58:00.001-06:00

Verizon has released the Android software upgrade from version 2.3.340 to 4.5.596. I suggest that you dial *228 and update roaming/towers before you start. I hadn't done that in awhile when I first tried the update it just sat there spinning. Once I did the update roaming deal, it went right on through with the process which took about 15 minutes for me. Rather than me typing it in, just read the documentation on how to do this directly from Verizon.

Once the installation was finished my only real problem was WIFI. The Droid X would connect to my home network, but there was no throughput. Ultimately, I had to change the settings on my router from WPA-Personal to WEP. Then, of course, I had to change the settings on two laptops and a Nook. The XP laptop, in particular didn't like the change but I finally got it going. In my internet searching I found that lots of people are having WIFI problems with this update. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon. As it is, I can connect to a WEP WIFI or a non-secure WIFI, but, for instance, at church I won't be able to use the WIFI because it needs better security than my home network.

Posting with Windows Live Writer

2011-06-16T09:51:00.001-06:00

Since I do a lot of writing for the Internet I wanted to find a way to streamline publishing and I think I’ve found an answer in Windows Live Writer. It’s a free download and it’s made exactly for bloggers.

I have to add that I spent a few HOURS trying to get Word 2010 to do it. It’s supposed to, but if it doesn’t work right off, there’s pitiful support for unexplained errors. I was able to get it to recognize my blog but there are some weird problems with categories that chokes it.

I gave up and went to Windows Live Writer and after just one bump in the road, I got it going and am writing using it right now.

For the person who hits the same bump, here’s the deal:

You want Live Writer to download your site theme so you can see what your post will look like as you write it and you are using Wordpress.
However, the download times out…no theme downloaded.
Here’s the problem: you have a static front page. Live Writer is doing a temporary post, looking at your front page to see it, and then downloading the theme. Since it isn’t seeing the temporary post when it goes to the site, it times out and gives up.
Solution: temporarily change the front page to show new posts. (Settings>Reading)

I got a lot of help on this at: http://drupal.org/node/742468

Trying iGoogle again

2011-05-20T09:04:00.001-06:00

I played with iGoogle in the past, but decided it didn't work for me, so I forgot about it. Today, I decided to take another look at it. There it was, all my previous settings still in place!

I spent a few minutes adding some gadgets and arraigning things. I now have a page with my Gmail, Facebook feed, Twitter feed, Google Calendar, and my Remember the Milk to do list all in view. I added another tab for news and another for my contact list.

Once that was done, I removed Facebook and Twitter tab apps from the top of my Firefox and added the iGoogle page. I hope it will be less distracting when I work. Before, every time someone posted to the Twitter or Facebook feed, the tab would change colors and I'd have to stop to see what they said. I couldn't bring myself to remove Gmail - maybe later on, I may be too addicted to email to hide that one too!

So, I have pinned tabs for just Gmail, my favorite forum, and iGoogle. I may not get used to it and go back to more tabs, but for now, I think it'll work.

Google Docs - Android - OCR

2011-05-13T11:49:00.000-06:00

This video shows how to do a quick and surprisingly accurate OCR with a paper document and even off an iPAD. Using the Android Google Docs app you can take a picture of a document and send it to your Google Docs account. Google Docs will automatically do an OCR on it.

I think this can come in handy in meetings where you are given paper documents that you'd rather have in electronic format. You can also use it to scan in business cards to be added to your address book.

Using your Android as an Internet radio

2011-05-05T20:15:00.000-06:00

I enjoy listening to traditional Southern Gospel music and I've been pleased to find a nifty option using my Droid X (Android) phone. Here are the key components:
1. An Android Phone (of course!)
2. An unlimited data plan
3. A car radio with an auxiliary in port(or earphones)
4. A cable for connecting the Android to the radio (Radio Shack has 'em)
5. An App such as TuneIn Radio

Using TuneIn Radio, find a station you want to listen to. I'm been enjoying www.allquartetsradio.com -- it's an internet station that plays exclusively Southern Gospel quartets. There are other stations and you can find them easy enough via Google or using TuneIn Radio. If you like a more country gospel mix, you'll want to check out www.kjic.org - the folks there are some of the finest I've ever known.

Start the stream, plug the Android audio to the car radio, and you're in business. It's not satellite radio, but then again, you're using your unlimited data plan so there's no extra charge.

It works great anywhere you have 3G or better.

Syncing folders with Dropbox

2011-04-18T14:57:00.001-06:00

I use Dropbox all the time. It's one of the finest services out there and it's free! When I got it, I moved many documents into the Dropbox folder, changed shortcuts, and changed the default save path for some of the programs I use. Some files, though, need to stay right where they are for their programs to use them.

There are some other solutions out there, but this is the hands down winner as far as I'm concerned. Install it and start using it...that's my kind of program! If you use Dropbox you want to install Dropbox Folder Sync. Then, you go to the folder that resides outside of Dropbox, right click on it, and select "Sync with Dropbox." Done!

As always, let me add that if you don’t have a free DropBox account account and use this link to sign up, you’ll score some additional storage for me.

Using Google Forms to Create a Contact Website Form

2011-04-01T20:10:00.002-06:00

I wanted a simple "Contact Us" form for a couple of websites and found just want I wanted here.

Go to your Google Docs account and create the form. When you are finished with the form, click on "More Actions" and edit the confirmation to add a link back to the website. Also under "More Actions" grab the embed code.

Follow the instructions from the linked website to set up email notification, paste the embed code into the web page, and you are ready to go.

The form will spit out information to your Google Docs spreadsheet and you'll receive an email when it is updated.

I think it's a nifty way to add a contact form to a website.

Mambo - Tinymce - editing problems

2011-04-01T11:17:00.000-06:00

I've been on the phone with a friend who is trying to edit a website I set up years ago using the Mambo platform. He would log onto the site and go to the editor, but when he tried to insert an image he'd get an "object not found error." He was using Chrome so I thought there was some kind of issue there. He doesn't have Firefox installed, so I sent him to Internet Explorer. On IE he had even worse luck - just a blank page. I went through all my browsers and was able to log in and edit with all of them. I did a Google search and found a hint that reminded me that I had to solve a similar problem a few years ago. Are you ready for the solution? He was going to "domainname.com" instead of "www.domainname.com." That was it! Even though Chrome would let him into the editor, it choked when it tried to open up the image insert popup. IE wouldn't even let him get that far. Adding the "www" fixed it in both browsers! That's one of those two hour problems that must drive phone techs crazy!

Embedding a Picasa Web Album Slideshow In A Wordpress page

2011-03-29T11:07:00.001-06:00

Here are the steps for embedding a Picasa Web Album slideshow in a Wordpress page:
1. Go to the album you want to embed, and start a slideshow of it. Grab the URL.
2. In the page or post edit mode, HTML view on Wordpress, enter this code:

<div style="margin-right: 22px; text-align: center;"><IFRAME SRC="URL OF SLIDESHOW" TITLE="Slideshow" width="600" height="500">

<a href="URL OF SLIDESHOW">Slideshow.</a></IFRAME></div>

Note to add: stay in the HTML editor - if you switch over to the Visual editor it will break your IFRAME code.

Building a website with Wordpress

2011-03-12T14:20:00.000-06:00

Wordpress is primarily a blogging platform. However, it can be used for a more basic website too. I've just moved my pastorscott.com website to Wordpress. In my case, I have access as an administrator to a server so I did the full installation myself. If you are on hosted web space most web hosts offer Wordpress to their users. Once installed, it's easy to set up. I'm using the out-of-the-box Twenty-Ten theme with a custom photo at the top. I've also done some minor tweaking to the style.css file to make links look the way I want. However, instead of blogging, I just sat up some static pages and some blogroll links. More work than setting up Wordpress was making my many pages of devotional archives match the new "look" of the website. I ended up copying the style.css file to the devotionals directory and working from there. If you look at it, you'll see that the pages look a bit different but feel as though they're very much part of the website. Anyway, if you have the responsibility of maintaining your church website and want a fairly easy yet professional looking site, you might want to consider using Wordpress as your platform.

Browser automation with iMacros

2011-02-23T16:55:00.002-06:00

I'm a fan of iMacros from Iopus. I use it with Firefox but there are also versions for IE and Chrome. Basically iMacros will automate web activities. I use it as part of writing my daily devotional blog, letting iMacros fill in some of the blanks that have to be filled in each time. I've also used it to check the camping reservation system for last minute cancellations when I want to go camping but they have no vacancies. And, I have an iMacro to check air fares on a future trip I'm planning (saved $30 just the other day)! Firefox and iMacros work together beautifully. There are professional versions, but I'm happy as a clam with the freeby. I go to the website, start the recorder and do what I'm there to do. After that I save it as a bookmark. The next time, all I have to do is click on the bookmark and watch as the macro navigates it's way through to it's conclusion.

Some more robust add-ons aren't worth the learning curve, but I think this one is and I recommend it to you.

Keeping your Android church friendly

2011-02-18T20:48:00.000-06:00

You're sitting in church, enjoying the service. Then, just as the service reaches a quiet, contemplative moment, your Andriod phone cuts loose with your "Who let the dogs out" ringtone. Oh man, you've forgotten to silence the phone again! The Android app "Silent Time" will keep regular church attenders from becoming the unwelcome center of attention during the pastoral prayer. Using the app you can set the phone up to go silent by day and time. I use the app to schedule silent time during weekly church times and overnight each night. It's a popular and free app and one church attending Android users will appreciate.

Moving blogs - a lesson learned

2011-02-09T15:36:00.002-06:00

As mentioned in a previous post, my General Writing blog has been, I think, somewhat frustrating to my readers. For instance, some folks are interested in my Rhapsody of the Seas series or my adventures RVing and have no interest at all in my thoughts about the Bible inerrancy debate. Other are interested in my Tech side but don't care for some of my other interests.

I've had folks subscribe to that blog and then, after I've done several posts on, say travel, have unsubscribed, commenting that the blog is no longer relevant. As a fix, I started two new blogs: this one, and one on travel. My intention is to leave the Miscellaneous blog for theology and the like.

So, I did it. I exported the entire Miscellany blog and then imported it twice, to each of the "new" blogs. I then deleted all the posts from each blog that didn't fit that particular blog.

So far, so good. Then, I went to the original blog and started deleting the posts that now appeared elsewhere. Big mistake. What was I thinking? There are back links all over the internet to the original posts. Search engines still link to the originals. People who followed those links ended up with a "page not found" message.

I still want the three blogs (plus my main, Daily Devotionals blog), but I decided I'd better keep a copy of the posts in their original location. A small problem. The new blogs are at blogger and the old blog is a WordpressMu. I don't have administrative rights on any of them and when I tried to export from blogger and import to Wordpress I ran into a plugin problem. At first I thought I was stuck, but then I found an online Blogger2Wordpress utility. I ran the export files through it, and then was able to put the posts back into the original blog.

Lesson learned: don't move posts if you can't leave a redirect. It's better to have them posted twice than it is for readers (and that's what we want, right?) to end up at dead end "file not found" pages.

Church prayer chain options

2011-01-31T13:18:00.004-06:00

In the old days we used a calling list. One person initiated the prayer chain by calling, say, two people. Those two people called two more people each, and in a fairly short time the prayer request had been distributed throughout the church.

However, by the time the prayer request got repeated and discussed four or five times there's no telling what the poor soul at the bottom of the list actually prayed about! I guess the Lord knew and he could easily sort actual prayer need from the extra material that had been added along the way.

Then, we got a nifty unit called a "Phone Tree." Our folks loved it, and still do. I keep it in my office. When there's a prayer request I record it and send it out. Everyone receives the same message. I'm also the "gatekeeper" of it. When the prayer need is for the immediate church family, and depending on how pressing the need is, I put out a prayer line right away. Otherwise, I collect the requests and try to not initiate a prayer line more than, at most, once a day. Generally, it works out that they are sent out maybe three days a week.

When I'm going to be away for an extended time, I used to pass the machine on to someone else who handled the requests. Finally, I decided to go with one of the newer on line services for that. A couple of people in the church have the information on initiating a phone tree using the service and it works great. We use "Call 'em all" as our backup. Anyone with a phone and the log in information can initiate a prayer line and it practically delivers all the messages at one time, rather than working through a list as our Phone Tree does. Still, the Phone Tree works great and it's already paid for, so we use Call 'em All only as a back up.

A few years ago I asked folks if they'ed be interested in an email version of our prayer line and several said "yes." I created an email group for our Prayer Line and removed their numbers from the Phone List. It works pretty good. I go to the computer and compose an email and then read the text from the email into the Phone Tree. I send the email and start the Phone Tree at the same time.

These days I'm thinking of adding a Twitter prayer line to the mix. Some of our real prayer warriors haven't a clue about Twitter, but, know what? Some of our prayer warriors do...and they use texting and Twitter all the time. When I recently got my new Droid X I found out that there were at least 2 other people in the church with the same smartphone...both men in their 50's. "Talking with your thumbs" isn't just for teens!

One nice thing about all this is that we don't need to be a member of a telephone prayer chain, or get calls from a Phone Tree or through Call 'em All or receive prayer request tweets to pray. God is the ultimate Communicator and he hears our prayers without the help of any technology at all!