Now that I am (interim) pastoring at Christ the King PCA I find that I am spending a lot more time in prayer. I also find it difficult to keep track of all that I am praying for, and for how those the situations were resolved.

I started with a pen and paper prayer journal, but I have found that I never have it when I need it, and since I tend to lose things I worry that it might fall into the “wrong hands” if I try to carry it everywhere. So I am now experimenting with a new system. I am treating prayer like I treat other parts of my life—prayer is something that I need to prepare for, that I need to keep track of, and most importantly, that I need to do. It is a (blessed, glorious, holy) task. So, like other tasks, I have begun putting prayer requests into my Remember The Milk (RTM) list. (For an introduction to using RTM for Getting Things Done (GTD), see this.)

I have a “Pastoring” list where all prayers get added (along with other churchy things). All prayer requests get tagged with the “@prayer” context tag (I use the @ in RTM to create contexts; if you’re familiar with Getting Things Done that probably makes sense to you, if not try here). If the prayer is about a person, I stick their phone number in a note, and if they have a tag in my system (my wife gets a tag, and so do co-workers and other people I interact with regularly) that tag gets added as well. I also add the date of the prayer request to the note. If the prayer has an expected end date (“pray that my stressful event Friday goes well”) I give it a due date, if it is more open-ended I don’t. I use the notes feature of RTM to keep track of how it all develops. When the prayer is answered, I “complete” the prayer, but I can still go back to it later because RTM will let you see completed tasks—all your answered prayers.

This system is secure (RTM’s servers are super encrypted, and my passwords are super weird and long), it is available to me anywhere (I love my new phone!), and it works almost exactly like most prayer-journaling systems I hear about. The biggest downside is… well, it feels weird. Prayer is such a sacred thing, and pen-and-paper seems more personal/appropriate/holy.But is pen and paper more sacred than bits and pixels?

I have talked to a couple of pastor friends regarding this but have yet to find a system that works for me. Does anyone have any suggestions, pen-and-paper or otherwise? Is there anyone out there who uses technology to keep track of their prayer life? Anyone think that sounds, for lack of a better word, weird? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Getting Things Done with Remember the Milk
2. How I use drop.io for Sermons, Papers, and GTD

NPR‘s All Things Considered reported yesterday on an interesting web-app that allows churches to write or rearrange hymns and easily distribute new music. It’s called SongMap and is available through LifeWay Worship. NPR explains:

The Southern Baptist Convention has introduced a new Web-based application called SongMap, which allows music ministers to rearrange hymns and contemporary praise songs with a few clicks of the mouse. For example, the traditional hymn “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross” has four verses and four choruses, but the Web site allows a verse to be cut, a chorus to be added or the song to be put in a new key.

When the song is mapped, a window pops up with a dozen alternative segments. Once those are arranged, the score can be printed out for bass guitar, piano and even a trombone. For a fee, you can download the audio of the custom arrangement.

It also takes care of all the licensing and legal stuff for you, and charges you on that basis. Being only moderately musical, I have not tested any of this, but those who lead worship might want to check it out. And feel free to report back in the comments!

Related posts:

1. Sync Thunderbird Address Books using Funambol
2. An Open-Source Alternative to Apple’s iPhone

Google has issued a call for religious writings, including sermons, papers, pamphlets, etc. From their site:

Share your sermons, essays and other religious writing with Google users worldwide by uploading them for free to Google Base.

Google Base is a place where you can submit information about all sorts of interesting items you want to showcase or sell and have them show up on Google properties for free. You can add relevant keywords about your items so that people can easily find them; you can also link directly to your own website or, if you don’t have one, let us host the information you want to share at a unique URL.

ChurchCrunch speculates on how this might help you and your organization or church:

Although the thought might “feel” weird at first (well, for me perhaps) it’s probably a smart thing to do.

More than a few SEO (“Search Engine Optimization”) thought leaders have suggested that adding your content to Google Base will help you perform better in Search.

Doesn’t hurt to try, right?

Not only will your ministry perform better, but some of it will show up on “Google properties” for free!

Check out the whole post at ChurchCrunch.

Related posts:

1. Google reaches Settlement over Google Books/Scholar
2. Google Earth Lets you View the Past, and More
3. Multitasking Mondays: Use a Feedreader to Keep Up-To-Date

A variety of applications (like TweetDeck) can monitor twitter chatter based on keywords and other filters. Imagine if you were monitoring this data during a certain important time period. You could put your finger on exactly what people were interested in at a certain place and time, and the difference between interests at different places.

The NYT has done just that with SuperBowl related tweets, organized along a time-line punctuated by various markers such as TD and FG.

The implications are pretty staggering. Take advertising as a simple and obvious example. Advertisers could set up a Twitter filter using words tailored for their ad. The data provided could tell them what areas of the country responded most favorably (or at least most often), when, and possibly even why. Notice, for example, that at a particular point in the game, when the Steelers have the lead, Arizona is all a-twitter about the Cardinals, and presumably couldn’t care less about the Hulu commercial. By contrast, that’s the dominant topic of conversation in the NE.

Any thoughts on how to harness this kind of information for the church? There is a Sunday morning #rollcall hash-tag that could make this an interesting topic of conversation.

No related posts.

While I am (quite obviously) a big advocate of the church putting technology to good use, it is also important to be careful and purposeful about such adoption. To that end, Justin Taylor lists Five Things the Church Needs to Know About Technological Change.

No related posts.

I love all my gadgets and widgets, my beeps and bops and all the many tools I use to make sure I’m always connected all the time. But there is a danger—all these technological tools tend to feed my idolatry. From Mark Driscoll:

As I drifted off to sleep, it dawned on me that I had not had one minute of silence during my entire day. It was possible, I realized, that I could live the rest of my life without ever again experiencing silence.

In that moment, God deeply convicted me that I was addicted to the false trinity of our day, the gods known as Noise, Hurry, and Crowds. I remembered the words of missionary martyr Jim Elliot, who said, “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds . . . Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.”

The Bible also describes multiple benefits of purposeful silence, including:

• hearing from God (1 Kings 19:11–13)
• waiting patiently for the Lord to act (Lamentations 3:25–28)
• worshiping God (Habakkuk 2:20)
• knowing God better (Psalm 46:10)
• praying effectively (Luke 5:16)

Since God convicted me of my addiction to noise, I have sought to conform my life more to the pattern of Jesus’, which has proven quite helpful. I try to spend at least five minutes an hour in silence, at least thirty minutes in uninterrupted silence each day, and a full day in silence once a month. During those times I find myself going for silent prayer walks to listen to God, writing in my journal, and sometimes doing nothing at all, which for me has become an act of faith that God is at work even when I am not.

Read the whole thing. Of course Mark is not talking about just technology, but all the many ways in which we avoid the silences that surround us. But for me, technology is my number-one crutch.

Vern Poythress makes some similar remarks, though with a slightly different focus. From a secular perspective, Peter Sagal has some thoughts on the subject.

Related posts:

1. Web 2.0 for the “Local” Church
2. Some Examplary uses of Bible Software
3. Every iPhone Captive: Poythress on Technology and Christianity

Mars Hill Church developed “The City,” a Facebook-like Web site, in order to create a “Real, not virtual, community, for Jesus’ fame.” Zondervan has recently acquired this software system.

MarketWatch reports:

Developed over the past two years by Mars Hill pastor of technology, Zack Hubert, who spent eight years in management at Amazon.com, The City was created in response to the church’s need to improve communication, better engage with members, support small groups, build a stronger church community and free up administrative resources. Mars Hill launched The City earlier this year to create a dynamic, engaging interactive online community for its more than 7,000 members. Within two months of launch more than 85% of the church’s members had signed up and more than 75% visit the site every single day.

“The City is an essential part of the way our members and our staff communicate every day,” said Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill’s founding and preaching pastor. “Thanks to Zondervan churches and organizations around the world will have access to this resource to help people meet Jesus and build community.”

Zondervan plans to build out the current features of The City and offer scalable and customizable modules to churches nationwide who want to create their own vibrant, interactive community for members.

See The City in action, here. (This is how webcasts should be made, by the way—an excellently done example of Christians using technology to great effect!)

No related posts.

The good folks down at Read Write Web are doing a series of articles about religious groups and web technology. Their most recent article follows the activities of LifeChurch, a megachurch in Edmond Oklahoma that has launched a series of web-based applications bundled together on a social site called LifeChurch.tv.

From the Pastor, Bobby Gruenewald:

We’re doing this at a few different levels, ranging from simple steps like tweets and internet campus e-invites to more in-depth efforts like sharing online how God is working in your life and embedding video teaching on your blog. We’re connecting daily through a live video stream to talk about next steps and pray together. LifeShare is open to anyone, anywhere, so feel free to join us by signing up.

Mostly the church has bundled together the “best of the best¨ web-apps publicly available on the net, but they have also contributed to that pool. Though not yet released, they are currently developing an attendance tracking tool called ChurchMetrics. More significant is YouVersion.com, “a revolutionary online Bible that enables community and collaboration like never before.” It is further along in development; anyone can join. It also has an iPhone app.

Check out the whole article for more detailed analysis.

Related posts:

1. Mark Driscoll on Silence

Tim Keller and David Powlison offer some biblical reflections on what we should do when we hear negative criticism about an individual. Justin Taylor indicates that such biblical reflection is particularly important for bloggers.

No related posts.