Tech Saturday (on a Sunday!): Planning Center Online

Hello friends! 

 

Sorry I haven't been on schedule around here on the J-Blog. It's been a busy season with a final paper and a new language to learn down at the seminary, as well as the kickoff of a few things at Westminster that need my attention. But, happy happy news is coming to the J-Blog, and I'm hoping to make that announcement next week! In the meantime, accept as my apology a late Tech Saturday offering, and we'll see you all again on Tuesday!

 

To quote Rob Bell, I would screw up a one car parade. My administrative abilities are negligible at best, and disastrous at worst. Before the advent of iCloud, and the ability to keep all of my calendars and to-do lists in a single space, my desk, car, refrigerator, backpack, and palm were covered in sticky notes and reminders, about half of which I ever remembered to follow through on. My arrival at Westminster forced me to change my habits when it comes to planning and personal discipline, because the mistakes you might be able to get away with in a smaller church can be devastating in a larger environment.

 

One of the hardest things to keep straight and going was planning for our Bridge worship service. The way we've always put it that makes sense to me is that the Bridge is made up of many moving parts, each of which are changing from week to week. There are two primary worship leaders, who are both sometimes out of town. There are (at the moment anyway) 5 regular preachers. There are dozens and dozens of skilled and talented musicians who have cycled through our doors in the last 5 years, almost none of whom work for the church. And so we have to keep it all straight, some how we have to manage this monster of a thing called the Bridge, and in a perfect world, do so in such a way that to the congregation it seems seamless and smooth. 

 

This is not an easy task! 

 

Enter Planning Center Online. This outstanding web based service has helped us to keep track of what's going on from week to week and keep everybody in the loop. There are any number of excellent features on this site, and truth be told I still don't think I have figured out how to use it to its full advantage yet. But here for the sake of a blog post are a few of the features that have changed our worship service, and that I think could help you organize yours:

 

1. PDF downloads with YouTube Videos. We are forced because of the temporary nature of our worship space to run the no huddle worship team, meaning we do not have a weekly rehearsal time to get things ready for the Sunday to come. So one of the challenges we faced early on was how can we best equip our musicians to be ready to play when they walk in the door for a quick hour long sound-check that doubled as rehearsal? 

 

In Planning Center, you are able to upload PDF files of your chord charts. Our habit is to simply download the chart directly from CCLI when we can, and upload the PDF to planning center. That way each musician has the ability to download the music on their own when they're scheduled for worship. You can also attach a youtube video to the song in question, so that musicians can listen to the song and maybe even practice along with it with the chord charts. A few of our musicians show up to practice on Sunday mornings with their charts all marked up and highlighted, so they know what to expect when they walk in the door. 

 

2. When did we use that song last? We try our best to limit the number of times we repeat a song in worship, because we don't want to get bogged down singing "How Great is Our God" for ten weeks in a row. But because we have several different worship leaders sharing the workload, it's hard to keep track of what we do from week to week. Planning Center offers us a Matrix view, where we can see how each of the last few services shaped up, and what songs we might need to step away from, or what songs we haven't done in a while that could use re-introducing. 

 

This feature is also great when it comes to be our turn to participate in CCLI reporting. Planning Center can communicate directly with your CCLI account and report the songs we're doing from week to week, to make sure that the goofy worship leader doesn't forget to do so on Tuesday morning after staff meeting! One less thing to worry about in a busy week.

 

3. Scheduling. This is the biggest help for us. Once we know who's leading worship on a particular week, they can sign into planning center and set a schedule for each of our musicians. The musicians themselves can even help things along by letting us know which weeks they are unavailable, so that we can avoid scheduling them or schedule someone else. When someone declines an invitation, Planning Center can help suggest people who might be able to fill that role. 

 

Planning Center is a monthly subscription service. The cheapest package is zero dollars a month, so you really owe it to yourself to at least give it a shot! Plus, they do an incredible job with their video tutorials so that you know your way around the service. Stop on by and check it out today!

 

www.planningcenteronline.com

Building towards Sabbath part two: Technology Saturday

Good morning bloggers!

 

As I left you in the last part of this series, I had come to the sudden realization that I had not taken a real Sabbath in a while. It is indeed a spiritual discipline, in that it's extremely easy to fall out of if you're not careful. The feeling that comes from falling out of the Sabbath practice is subtle, creeping up on you until one day you're cursing your phone out while driving down RT 28 in the middle of the day like a lunatic. 

 

So what is a Sabbath? Take a moment to reflect on this definition from Exodus:

 

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

 

So really, at the heart of things, this is about not doing any work. That would be hard enough, right? It leads to some pretty serious discussions about what is work. Our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Jewish tradition believe that even something as simple as turning on a light switch would qualify as work. That's not as really silly as it sounds though. Is a game of dodgeball work? It is to a youth pastor! Work can be defined in lots of different ways by lots of different people. I think at the end of the day, it's a heart issue for each person. 

 

What helps to solidify things is a sneaky little phrase in this passage, one that is too easy to look over. The seventh day is a sabbath TO the Lord your God. It's as if God knows (because he does) that the things we do as work actually wind up separating us from Him. God wants just one day out of our week where our primary focus is on Him, and our relationship with him. He wants us to stop producing things. He wants us to stop placing our value or hope in the things that we DO. He wants (I believe) to speak into us our worth and value, and he needs our undivided attention to do it. 

 

So if you were going to start a Sabbath-keeping practice, what would you do? What kinds of things would you stop doing because they get in the way of your relationship with God? What kinds of things would you have to START doing to enhance your relationship with God? If you find God in nature, would it be beneficial to have a day each week where you spent the majority of it outside? If you find God with people, would it be beneficial to have a day where you invited your closest friends over for a meal? 

 

For me, I realize that while I have a deep and profound love of technology like my Macbook, iPhone, iPad (ok, maybe just Apple Tech) that these things do little to nothing to enhance my relationship with God. I understand I could use them for that, and wouldn't discourage anyone who would want to go down that road on their Sabbath. But my technology devices remind me of work. The texts, e-mails, tweets, Facebook messages, all point in the direction of work sometimes, which can make Sabbath hard. I combine that with the fact that as an introvert, I connect with God best when I can sit on my porch for a while, reading, studying scripture, praying, and thinking in silence. So a new Sabbath for me looks like a Monday where I shut the phone off, leave the laptop at work, keep the TV at bay, and spend time in study and prayer. I would deeply encourage each of you to figure out what activities keep you from God and which activities enhance your relationship with God, and set aside (the definition of Holy by the way) a day to the Lord.

 

Incidentally, this presents a problem for the olde J-Blog. Monday is the first day of writing, and writing is a big part of what keeps me sane. You'll note that I've had more posts in August this year than I have in any month in the last three years. But if my laptop is turned off, I can't very well write for the J-Blog. What to do, what to do?

 

And so we're introducing Tech Saturday. I'm going to move the whole J-Blog's week back a day, so there will be no posts on Mondays. But then, on Saturday, since I'll be turning off my tech on Monday, we'll spend a little bit of time on the intersection of Technology with our four big areas (Youth Min, Worship, Seminary, and Book Reviews). I'll work through products, apps, websites, and other things related to the techy world. I think it will be fun! If you have any ideas for a Tech Saturday post, please let me know!

 

As for me, it's time for a Sabbath. See you next week J-Bloggers!