Went to my first NFL game yesterday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, the two professional football teams in Florida. (Dolphins 0-8, have never been on my radar, this year especially, season ticket holders should get a refund) We parked off-site as a 2-minute walk saves $15, once we got on Buc property till we left there was no interaction with the Bucs. The security guard didn’t talk, the ticket scanner says “move on”, the give-away person just hand’s out the awkward to use Bucs flags without a word. We go to our seat wait for the game(service) to begin, cheer and sit (worship and the message), we lost so we didn’t like the ending, we then get in the car and leave. The herd moved in, grazed for awhile, and the herd moved out.

Obviously I’m awkwardly relating this to church services. How ofter do church’s move people in, let them watch while we do our thing, and then help them quickly leave. With the hopes the better our show the more people that will come back. What are we doing to interact with people, to get them involved, and to take the next step. Our Christianity isn’t about watching from the stands it’s about being part of the game. Now not everyone is comfortable with being “on the field”, but there are lot of other places to get involved that are essential to the game. How easy do we make it for others to realize this?

My weekly monday morning post of my 5 favorite posts across the blogosphere that showed up on my Google Reader, for an added bonus for you that actually come to my site, bradentontech.com, you’ll get to see my new layout, no longer WordPress default.

So what we’re your favorites from the past week from your feed reader?

We haven’t had a home phone since moving into our new home back in May. And before that we we’re sticking it to the local telco as we used Vonage, and the only reason for that was for home alarm system. When we moved we had no alarm system so we didn’t get any type of phone service either, figured we’d save a few bucks. The catch comes each month as the satellite company charges $5 for not having a phone line dedicated to the system as well we have the absolute worst cell service in our home, as in none, THANKS SPRINT! After reading on Crunchgear and Web Worker Daily, I have to admit that I just purchased a MagicJack for $40 ($50 after shipping and taxes) which will cover a full year of unlimited local and long distance phone calls, just $4.17 a month, so I’ll save a bit on the satelite bill, have a home phone that I’ll actually get reception on, and try out my grand central number as well (still have beta invites for whoever would like). And the next years are just $20!

3-5 days till the official review.

I surfed around to so many sites last night I don’t remember where I found this, but it looks like something fun to try out on a friday.

Public IP provides hotspot operators with an extremely simple, highly versatile, FREE, open source hotspot solution. Public IP’s ZoneCD is freely distributed software that has been created to help implement safe, free, WiFi hotspots. The ZoneCD can be used by all levels of free WiFi providers, from experienced programmers to coffee house cashiers. Setting up a free WiFi Hotspot can be as easy as hooking up an access point, popping in a CD and rebooting…

You can find it over at http://www.publicip.net/. So what do you use for your public wifi or do you even have public wifi?

After 24 days of no response this came to the inbox this morning, I even gave them a nice plug way back when on the original day of October 1st.

Thank you for taking the time to submit your application to the YouTube Nonprofit program. As you might expect, we’ve received many applications, but we’re limited in the number we can support. Regrettably, your organization was not selected.
We appreciate your interest in the YouTube Nonprofit program.
Sincerely,
— The YouTube Team

I’m quite excited about this as it will eliminate the problem of multiple readings of the same email and missing emails on the work computer’s Outlook because I read them on the treo. This will also help encourange some others to step out into that brave new world as they won’t have the fear of missing messages. Yeah Google, once again! And for those of you wondering, yes we are using Google Apps. The other thing that’s rumored that I hope will come soon is Google Calendar using Gears, which will allow offline use. The official release from the official gmail blog, Sync your inbox across devices with free IMAP.

It’s very rare but I actually have something to give away. No cost, no waiting, 10 ready to use invites for Grand Central. As a clue that this must be or will be something cool, it is now a “by Google” product that includes a local number for a bunch of areas. Just leave a comment if you’d like one, first come, first get. Some Features stolen from their website:

Screen Callers
Know who’s calling and screen unknown callers

ListenIn
Hear why someone is calling before taking the call

Call Record
Record calls on the fly and access recordings online

Block Callers
Unwanted callers won’t be able to reach you anymore

Notifications
Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS

Ring Different Phones
One number that rings different phones based on who’s calling

Greetings
Personalize your voicemail greetings by caller or group

RingShare
Go beyond the ring and choose ringback tones for your callers

WebCall Button
Let people call you from a web page without showing your number

CallSwitch
Switch phones in the middle of a call

Click2Call
Call from your addressbook and save your typing

Mobile Access
Visual voicemail for your mobile phone

A little later than normal but some Mondays are just that way. Here’s my five favorite posts that came across my Google Reader last week:

There’s not a whole lot more to say than the original from Jason Powell’s post.

FREE SharePoint Training! … Interested???
OK … so there’s lots of us talking about Sharepoint these days … pros, cons, etc. Check this out!!

As mentioned last Thursday in the Church IT Podcast -
What if you could attend a 5 day SharePoint training course taught by a well known and respected Microsoft Certified SharePoint Trainer, author and MVP … for … FREE!!??
NOTE: This same training goes for $2995 + $200 for training materials!

Interested? Good grief you should be!!

Bill English has offered us church IT folks an incredible opportunity! Who is this Bill character?

An author and educator specializing in SharePoint Products and Technologies, Bill English (MCSE, MCSA, MVP, MCT) is an industry leader on this exciting product set from Microsoft. Since 2000, Bill has authored 11 books on Exchange and SharePoint products and is currently working on another book with Microsoft Press.

Bill is the co-owner of Mindsharp (www.mindsharp.com), a company that offers top-notch educational opportunities on the SharePoint platform.

He has presented at Comdex, The Microsoft Exchange Conference, TechMentor, TechEd, Advisor Live, TechEd Europe and Networld Interop. You can find his blog at his AdminCompanion book site.

Bill lives in Minnesota with his wife and two children where he enjoys boating, photography and summer.

I’d say that qualifies Bill as an uber expert on SharePoint

Details are still solidifying, but here’s what’s known at this point …

This training will happen the week of Jan 7th … Monday through Friday 9am-5pm. Put that on your calendar like right now!
Slots available for up to 40 folks who are directly employed by a church/ministry … sorry, no outsourced staff
Each person would have to bring their own laptop. The requirements are 2GB Ram and 20GB free Disk space … 1.5GB of the RAM will be completely used by the image that will be provided to you.
Cost will be kept as low as possible … whatever it takes to cover lunch and maybe facilities usage during the day.
Training will be focused around the free SharePoint Services product, but will also touch on the benefits that the full blown SharePoint Server can offer. We’ll also have a day or so on SharePoint Designer.
Presently we’re looking to host this here at Granger Community Church … but location could still change. We’re trying to nail down this piece ASAP. Mega props to Fady over at Willow Creek for getting the ball rolling on this!

What they need to know – DOES THIS INTEREST YOU? What other questions do you have? Please comment back on Jason’s post and give feedback. Your feedback will help customize this training opportunity

Here’s my five favorite posts that game across my Google Reader last week:

Of course I already shared the free music so just follow my link here.