Tag Archive - Mac

Will Christians thank Steve Jobs?

April 27, 2010 in Christian Living, for Churches, Pastors

Christians are often known for what we’re against.

  • Abortion.
  • Pornography.
  • Gay marriage.

But are we also known for what we are for? And how do we respond when others, even organisations, act in support of the things that we are for?

Take for example Apple.

CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, won’t have porn available in the iTunes store. In fact, he is happy to promote his competitors products if porn is what you want. Wired reports:

“You know, there’s a porn store for Android,” Jobs said. “You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go, so we’re not going to go there.”

Given the size of the porn industry, it’s hard to imagine that Jobs would be making this decision on commercial grounds. And whilst the iTunes store still has some questionable (i.e. soft-core porn) content, this resolve by Jobs is good news, news that should be celebrated.

How will we respond? Will we thank Steve Jobs? Or will we remain silent?

I’d like to suggest that as well as being the ones who jump up and down in protest when decisions are made that are bad for our society, we are also the ones who celebrate and thank those responsible for making decisions that support our society. Are you with me?

Perhaps if you agree you can write a note (i.e. comment) at the bottom of this post, and I’ll pass them onto Steve (via the Apple contact page!).

On a semi-related note…

Speaking of Steve Jobs, Joshua Harris recently wrote a letter to Steve Jobs. I liked the intention behind it. Here’s an excerpt:

“I’ve been using your computers now for 25 years. I’m grateful for the work you’ve done. I mean that. Thank you! And I want you to know that I pray for your good health often. I also pray that one day soon you’ll come to know and worship God’s son, Jesus Christ, who gave his life to save sinners like you and me. All the success you’ve achieved is meaningless apart from knowing him and finding through faith in him reconciliation with God.
God bless you, Mr. Jobs. And great work on the iPad.”

Free tools to quickly and easily create booklets

January 18, 2010 in Christian Living, for Churches

I’m getting married next week, and I’m putting together an order of service. I’ve created it in Pages (I haven’t installed Word on my new MacBook Pro) and I have the order in 6 A4 pages, laid out in portrait. However, I want to print it as a booklet (where the pages are printed on landscape, and folded in half). Perhaps you’ve had the same need with other printed materials – I know I have in the past! If you use Microsoft Word, this is a relatively painless process. I couldn’t work out how to do this without Word. Until tonight.

Thanks to Check 1-2, I discovered CreateBooklet. It adds an option to ‘Create booklet’ when you print a file on your Mac. It’s a little tricky to explain, so I’ll leave that to the guys at Check 1-2. Thankfully, the developer has also released an update for Snow Leopard. And, it’s free. I’ve got a lot of respect and thanks for people who develop free, quality apps. Thanks Christoph.

If you’re not using a Mac, an online application that does the same thing is Booklet Creator. Here are some instructions about how to use BookletCreator, including explaining how A4 PDFs are turned into A5 booklets.

My guess is, most people are still using Microsoft Office. However, if you’re not using Word, or you have a PDF that you want to turn into a booklet, you might find these tools to be quite useful.

20 tweets you may have missed

January 17, 2010 in Christian Living, for Churches, Outreach, Pastors

If you’re not on Twitter (or you’re not checking Twitter 24 hours a day!) you may have missed some of these popular tweets over the past month:

  1. Help Haiti: Donate to the Red Cross Through iTunes -http://bit.ly/4ZW8zQ
  2. Reading: ’20 of the Best Church Website Designs’ -http://bit.ly/7hKd3f
  3. Red Cross Raises $1,000,000+ for Haiti Through Text Message Campaign - http://bit.ly/6hzxN9
  4. Google is fed up with China - http://bit.ly/5Q34Gr
  5. I’ll find this very useful for my work at church – Google now providing online storage for more file formats -http://bit.ly/72YmlL
  6. Normally I use #CoTweet for tweeting and been very happy with it - http://bit.ly/5Sjqoy. What do you use for your Twittering?
  7. The comments continue to come in on the post ‘Should Christian creatives work for free’. http://bit.ly/4SFBlK
  8. Great post by @stevefogg – ‘Losing Your Message but Gaining Publicity’. http://bit.ly/5aqsq0
  9. Church…Virtually - http://bit.ly/5mKGsv (via @challies)
  10. If you use Gmail, check out these useful keyboard shortcuts -http://bit.ly/8qlO4A
  11. Unicef’s ‘Turn soliders back into children’ campaign -http://bit.ly/5PkWv1
  12. Churches often struggle to liaise with creatives. How can we help churches work better with them? Add your thoughts -http://bit.ly/7x6qja
  13. My latest post at Sydney Anglicans. ‘Churches need to catch up’. The tools are there, but do we have the will?http://bit.ly/7x6qja
  14. The phone for priests?! I’ve never seen a priest feature in a telecommunications ad before! http://bit.ly/7gnzjj
  15. John Piper shares how he uses Twitter - http://bit.ly/6xDN4Z
  16. Reading: ‘Ten questions to ask at the start of the new year’.http://bit.ly/89NR8h
  17. If you use Gmail and the Mac Address Book, here’s a good tip for keeping your contacts in sync - http://bit.ly/7p5ueu
  18. Reading: ’4 Reasons To Employ Social Media In 2010′http://bit.ly/8Fc3DB (via @PennOlson)
  19. Reading: ‘The Best Free Software of 2009′ -http://bit.ly/7BA694
  20. Reading: ‘How Twitter Conquered the World in 2009′ -http://bit.ly/6IC0se

Mac or PC for Christian ministry? Part 1

July 6, 2009 in for Churches, Pastors

In my recent article on church databases I made the following comment:

“I’ve discovered that lots of churches use Macs. Not everyone in the staff team will use a Mac, but if there’s any chance anyone ever will, a PC-only, or Mac-only solution isn’t up to the cut.”

I received a comment that PCs are the computer of choice for the majority of churches, and that very few churches use Macs or are in need of Mac compatible software.

I realised we were debating different things. In the past, I think that many churches used Macs (and in fact, most still do).  But I was referring to what I have observed now, and how that will impact the future. My experience is that:

  • many people in Bible college (and in fact ALL the people I know who are at Bible college – and there are many!) use a Mac. These are the people who will be working in churches in the near future.
  • I have been involved in a number of churches (in a lay capacity, on staff, or assisting with marketing/tech issues) in recent years, and in all churches, at least one member of staff uses a Mac.
  • even looking at the stats for the visitors to Communicate Jesus (thank you to all of you for your support!) – 61% use PCs, and 36% use Macs (the remainder use Linux or mobile operating systems).

Clearly, there’s change in the air. This is reflected in statistics too – the market share for Macs is nearing 10% (source) – not a lot still, but more than the 3.25% in 2004 (source).

So what’s the lesson? Not that you should get a Mac – this choice comes down to your requirements and budget (however, I’ll discuss some of the benefits of Macs for ministry soon).

No, the lesson is that software that is limited to a particular operating system (either Windows or Mac) will have growing limitations in a world where the market share for operating systems other than PC is increasing. This is why I was (and still am) advocating for web-based databases and other software-as-a-service solutions (read more about this phenomenon here).

To lighten the mood, check out this humorous (i.e. not factual – don’t get too excited!) video – Why a Mac is really the only option. Can your PC do this?

Current Poll

Finally, please add your vote the current poll – “Do your church staff uyse PCs or Macs“?

[Feature image source: CyberNet News.]

Promoting Worthy – a worship night

June 29, 2009 in Christian Living, for Churches, Pastors

At Church by the Bridge on 31 July, we will be holding a worship night. It’s called Worthy.

Below is a short (simple) video I put together to promote the night at church, and on our website. It was created using Keynote and a stock image from iStockphoto. I then uploaded it to Vimeo, for simple distribution and embedding. The tools are out there to create useful (if not mindblowing) visuals to accompany or promote church activities. Give it a go, have a play, and share what you come up with!

If you’re in Sydney on 31 July, why not come along to Worthy. Let’s worship Jesus – he is worthy.