Categories
Pastoral

Funeral Recordings

About 30 years ago, during my training for ministry, I conducted my first funeral service. It was a family funeral. A great uncle of mine had died and I was asked to conduct the service. Some other family members were not able to attend the service, and unbeknown to me a cousin had arranged with the Crematorium staff for the service to be recorded. The service went well, my uncle had a good send off, and I had notched up the first of what would become a 4 figure number of funerals. I felt uneasy that the service had been committed to a C60 cassette tape, and I sought assurance that after it had been listened to the recording would be destroyed. But many, many years later when my parents were moving house I was reunited with the C60 cassette tape! I listened to it. Not bad for a first one, but how my style had changed, and I had said things that I wouldn’t now.

My attitude to the recorded funeral service has changed too. Nowadays I frequently record the audio of a funeral service, and can make it available on a CD or more often an MP3 file to stream via the internet, for family and friends unable to travel to be at the service.

Technology has changed, attitudes change… But video live stream for a funeral… a step too far… we’ll see what I think in a few years!

Covid19 update – have now recorded audio at a few graveside services. Would consider video now.

Categories
Change

Feedback

Always ask for feedback after an event or meeting. Why? Because some,but not all, will give it anyway and you’ll hear the extremes but not the overall picture. The folk who will say, “complete waste of time and money”, will tell you anyway and we all know that the negative comments linger with us much more than the positive ones. The comments “that was a really helpful and productive meeting”, may come anyway too. But what of all the middle ground? Asking for simple feedback: What went well? What could have been even better? What will you take away from this event? will give an overall context. If the majority of feedback is positive, then the negative (and the overly positive) can be seen as one person’s opinion.

Always ask for feedback, and be prepared to work on upping your game if the overall comment warrants it. Be encouraged where overall feedback is good and don’t let one negative comment get in the way.

Categories
Change

Create Change

How to adapt to changing times with Simon Sinek…

Categories
General

Lost Sheep Resources

Lost Sheep – Resources for Australia

Categories
Childrens Ministry General Video Worship

Veggie Tales

VeggieTales Official – YouTube

VeggieTales Official – YouTube

Categories
Change Covid-19 General

IT’s For Ministry

Back in February 2001, nearly 20 years ago, I registered the domain name itsforministry.org – IT’s for Ministry. Initially this was a place to host “Talks to Children”. Talks2Children.itsforministry.org is still there, with some Children’s Address type ideas. It hasn’t been updated for a while!

IT, Information technology has supported the ministry of the Church in many ways in recent decades, and now in the midst of the Covid19 outbreak we are making use of various virtual mission and pastoral opportunities for Church.

I’ll post some helpful links and tips here… as we negotiate steep learning curves… into the world of Digital Ministry.

www.itsforministry.org

Take Care…

Categories
General Productivity

Internet Connection Tips

Some interesting thoughts regarding maintaining good internet connection

BBC News article – Faster Internet Tips

Categories
Productivity Video Conference ZOOM

Getting started with Zoom

Many of us are on a learning curve with the various video conference possibilities during this time…

Zoom provide on-line advice at this link:

Zoom | Support during the COVID-19 pandemic


Getting started with ZOOM

It’s not as complicated as you may think to get up and running with Zoom! To join a meeting you DO NOT require to have a ZOOM account and login.

Phoning into Zoom Meeting

Getting started on Computer, Tablet or Smartphone.

To use Zoom you will need:

  • a video camera, built in, or a separate webcam (most modern computers, smartphones and tablets have this built in) You can use Zoom without a camera – but of course no one will see you!
  • a microphone, either built in to your device or in the webcam (most modern computers, smartphones and tablets have this built in)
  • a broadband internet connection
  • the Zoom app installed on your machine. (Zoom has apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.)

When someone invites you to a Zoom call, they will likely send you a link that looks like https://zoom.us/j/1010101010

If you are using a laptop or desktop computer and don’t have the Zoom app yet, when you click on the link the client will automatically download and then connect you to the call. If you already have the client, you will just be connected to the call.

If you will be using smartphone or tablet, you will need to download the Zoom app from the App Store.

Installing the App

If you are using a laptop or desktop computer, go to https://zoom.us/download where you can download the a for your machine. Install it the way you would install any software.

If you are using a smartphone or tablet, go to the iOS App Store or Google Play, and download the app.

iOS – Apple Devices

if you have an iPad, iPhone or other iOS Device, go to the App Store and download the free Zoom Cloud app. Then when you click on the zoom link provided by the person hosting, the video call should begin. You may be asked to enable audio, microphone and camera… click OK to any such questions.

Android Devices

If you have an Android device, go to the Google Play store and download the free Zoom Cloud app. Following the link (provided by the host) will open the video call in the app… you may have to enable microphone and camera and should respond OK/YES if requested.

Windows or Mac Laptop or Desktop

If on a laptop or desktop, clicking the link (provided by the host) will open a browser page, and if you don’t already have the app it will be automatically installed – you should follow the screen prompts and enable camera and microphone if asked.

Linux:

If a Linux user, you presumably know what you are doing and have ZOOM installed already! 🙂

Improve these notes..?

If you can help to improve and perfect these notes, please comment here, Thank you.

Categories
FaceBook General

Edit/ Delete FaceBook Posts

Had second thoughts about that Facebook post, just noticed a typo, spelling mistook, or the effects of auto-correct?

Facebook posts can be edited or deleted

Scroll to the post you want to edit.

Depending on whether you are on a tablet, phone, Windows, Linux or whatever… this may vary slightly… but you should see three dots, or a down arrow icon…

in the upper-right corner, click the three-dot or down-arrow icon.

There are options to EDIT or DELETE your post

Click Edit Post.

Edit: Edit the text as needed then click UPDATE/SAVE

Linked TIP: on iPhone/iPad you can place the cursor by press and holding until cursor becomes larger and then slide up down left right.

Delete: Click Delete and it’s gone.

Categories
Video

Edit YouTube live streams after the event

How to edit your YOUTUBE live streams after the event so that those watching the REPLAY don’t see the glitches…!