Articles

This week I made a quick trip to South Bend, Indiana to attend Granger Community Church's IT Forum.  That event and others like it are great places for good fellowship and for sharing ideas and solutions common to most in church and ministry IT.  Following are a few things I picked up that may be helpful!

Church and ministry networks have unique security needs.  Many mistakenly approach network security in our niche like they would a club or hobby, and thus don't go far enough to protect our data and our team.  Others mistakenly go so far they impede the team and increase their support call volume unnecessarily.  We have worked or consulted on hundreds of networks in churches and ministries, and we have developed an approach that protects and empowers while minimizing support needs. I'll share it with you so you can enjoy the same results.

Macs and PCs do mostly the same things, but they do them differently.  Each platform has its quirks, and since I now use a Mac I'm learning some good tips and tricks that make me more productive on it.  A couple of these have been in my previous Mac articles, but most haven't.  They may help other Mac users-- especially those who are former PC users or who primarily support PCs-- understand how to make the Mac work a little better.

Many who serve churches and ministries require that their clients sign a contract.  We at MBS have never done that!  We believe we should do our best to earn your business every day, and if we don’t earn it you have the option of simply terminating us.  We’ve been serving churches and ministries since 1986, and we understand your corporate culture.

Church and ministry computer systems and networks have grown in response to perceived needs over the years, and most have grown with very little intentionality or strategy.  The results are often higher than necessary complexity, cost, and risk.  CPAs are now being required to look at IT during audits for fiscal years ending 12/15/2007 and later.  Are you ready?

Calculating a tithe for employees is easy because they receive a paycheck.  Doing so for business owners is more difficult because there are so many organization models, income sources, and accounting system standards.  The result has been that business owners are left to themselves to identify their own methods for calculating a tithe.  I hope this attempt at identifying factors for business owners to consider is the beginning of a discussion that helps many to do what our Lord challenged us to in Malachi 3:10-12.