Redeeming Technology

Neil Harris
Technical Arts Pastor

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It's easy to forget how quickly the world is changing.  A few days ago I was reminded that September will mark just the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first website.  Yep, before September 1994 there were no web sites to surf and no web browsers to surf them with.  And even then, those first websites were nothing like what we browse today, a relatively short 20 years later.  Check out for instance this image of what Yahoo looked like when it first launched in 1994 versus what it looks like today.

THEN

NOW

The technology that powers the web has come a long way in its brief existence, and in that time the Church (big "C") has continually strived to understand and effectively harness this fast-moving, ever changing technology in ways that allow those who are far from God to be exposed to the message of Jesus and to empower those who have already placed their faith in Jesus to be equipped, encouraged and connected with meaningful opportunities to transform their lives and reshape their world.  Taking the things of the world and reimagining what they could do for the cause of Christ is woven into the very fabric of the Church.  To take things, no matter how badly broken or perverted and transform them to be used to bring God's light and truth to broken, hurting people is to participate with Jesus in the work of redemption.

I consider myself incredibly privileged to be able to dedicate my energies to redeeming technology within the local congregation, and excited to be part of a church that is passionate about making the best use of the ever-increasing capacities made possible by those technologies currently available.  So as I write, I want to share just two of the exciting things that we're doing here at Victor Valley to redeem technology in general, and the internet in particular for the cause of Christ.

The first of those things, I've shared about before, so for some of you this may be a reminder about something we introduced at the end of last year called RightNow Media.  One of the more awesome aspects of RightNow Media is that it is completely FREE to everyone who calls VVCC home.  RightNow Media takes the power of the internet to transmit video (ala Youtube or Netflix) and pairs it with the very best communicators and teachers of God's Word to offer a vast library of videos focused on helping believers grow at every step of their walk with God.  This tool allows you and I to access a huge library of videos that spans across a huge range of topics right from home.  

If you haven't been making use of this resource, you really need to check it out.  Even if you commit to watching just one 10-minute video each week you will be amazed at the impact that those 10 minutes can make, both in your knowledge of God's Word and your enthusiasm to pursue Him.  There are videos for your kids, videos about different books of the bible, videos about the struggles that arise in our lives.  There are literally thousands of videos at your fingertips, each there to nurture your relationship with God.  Check it out at rightnowmedia.org, and if for some reason you lost your invite or never received one, email me and we will get you set up.

If RightNow Media is about helping the people of VVCC connect with God's Word, then this second item is about helping the people of VVCC connect with one another.  When we launched the new design for vvcc.com back in April, we had 2 goals in mind, to make the experience of finding information on the site easier, and to help those people who weren't already connected with VVCC get a better idea of what the church was about by seeing how they might find a home at VVCC.  But in those early discussions about what we could do to improve the website there was a third string of ideas that at the time we didn't quite have the ability to make a reality— to create something that supported and encouraged the connection between the people who call VVCC "their church".  This is exactly what our most recent work in the technology area is allowing us to do. This new system is called Church Community Builder, although around the office we just called it CCB, and I'm incredibly excited about the possibilities it allows for building community and effective communication among the VVCC community.  

At its heart, CCB is an organizational tool for those folks who call VVCC home.  It is by far the easiest and quickest way to: 

• find out more information about an upcoming event you heard about
• see what is coming up on the church calendar that you might be interested in
• connect with a LifeGroup
• double check the next time you are scheduled to serve in an area of ministry
• communicate to a ministry leader that you are out of town and unable to serve on a particular day
  
• send a message to your LifeGroup, or  to that person you were talking to at church last Sunday
• privately (and securely) make sure that check you dropped into the offering bag for your kids camp trip was credited to the right account 
• look at a personalized calendar, showing just the events for your LifeGroup and the ministry teams that you are a part of.
• change your information when you get a new email address, or move or change your cell phone number.

And CCB is making ministry so much more effective for staff and ministry leaders.  Here's just one  quick story from around the office this week...

Tammy  was out running an errand and wanted to stop by the home of a member who has been dealing with some medical issues.  In the past this would have meant a call into the office and dealing with taking down numbers, and then putting those numbers back into her phone to call the house, look up the address and then finally map the address.  But instead Tammy was able to call the house and map the address directly from CCB running on her phone.  

As much as CCB is helping the staff, it also has great features for non-staff leaders.  Tammy's been meeting with LifeGroup leaders to show them CCB and the ways they will be able to use it to interact and communicate with the members of their LifeGroup, schedule events, post messages to their group, post if/when someone in the group has a need that others in the group might be able to meet.  We are working to make sure that ministry leaders are able to have the information they need to best serve those they minister to while at the same time guaranteeing that people's privacy and information is protected.

On the note of privacy, we are all concerned about how much and what kind of information is available on the internet.  I want you to be assured we take guarding your information seriously and without spending too much time explaining the intricacies of how CCB works, know that:

• The only people who have access to Victor Valley's CCB are the people that you attend church with each week, through a username/password system that meets the same security requirements as your online banking.  No outside person or agency has access to the system.
• As has always been the case, only the church staff has access to the information that you don't choose to share freely with others in the CCB system either through your privacy settings or by "friending" them in CCB.  As staff we are committed to your privacy and won't share you information with anyone.
• Your financial information (donations, monies paid for camps or event registrations, etc) can only be seen by you, your spouse and the church's financial administrator.  The system does not  store any of your banking information.

We've really just getting started with CCB, in the next couple of days we will be training our BASECAMP Check-In team on how to use CCB so that beginning Sunday, August 3rd when you go to check your child into either BASECAMP or BASECAMP jr., you will have a much quicker and easier experience using a new Check-In system, powered by CCB.   Here's just a tiny sneak peak at what CCB Check-In looks like...

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Much like the internet, CCB is constantly changing and adding new functionality, as it does I will be letting you know about the awesome new opportunities that it will make possible for us to connect with one another. 

If the church had a current email address on file, you should have already received your invite to join CCB and begin exploring all that it allows you to do.  If for some reason you didn't receive that email or if we didn't have your current email address, email me or talk to me at church on a Sunday morning and I would love to help you get started using CCB.

It's an exciting time to be part of Christ's church and I look forward to discovering what the weeks, months, and years have in store for all of us at Victor Valley as we grow together through our commitment to Christ, as we build community and as we unleash compassion!