It amazes me the number of names I can rattle off, the websites I visit, my Google Reader subscriptions, that chatrooms I participate in, the twitter updates, the emails we send, and the networks we all join, but all that being said who do you really know? Other than the great web pics on some of your sites (the rare times I visit a real website) and the great ustream.tv live webcams I couldn’t even pics most of us out of a crowd (maybe the 2 laptops, smartphone, HTML for dummies, and bible might give it away). So what are you doing to strengthen those relationships as we’re scattered all over the place?
Many of us are the entire IT department at their church, it’s them by themselves, drudging through minimal budgets trying to make things work that others in the "real world" couldn’t even imagine. We aren’t doing this to get rich (if you are let me know your church) but because we’ve had a calling to be involved in ministry. Personally I see the tech ministry as one that helps the other ministries get their "ministry" done faster, cheaper, and more effectively. Some of us are at larger churches and actually have numerous people working tech. You’ve got the same headaches they are just magnified because they effect more people. Typically I would say you know we are all in the same boat, but that analogy just doesn’t seem to fit quite right so I’m going to change it up a bit. We’re all in the ocean, some of us can see the other boats, some are in kayaks cruising along by themselves, others are holding on to the preserver and waiting to be rescued. (Okay maybe a little cheesy, but you get the point, we’re all connected but it might take a little effort to realize it)
I say all that to say take a chance, put yourself out there, get involved. The IRC Chatroom is active pretty much steady from 9am till most nights after midnight. Blogs, Emails,and commenting are available 24/7. Twitter I think is open even longer, I think they go like 25/8. We all need help, we all want to help, we all need each other and need to be encouraged and need to be encouraged.
Again if you are one of the "regulars" be nice to the new guys, if you haven’t seen someone in a while, they have joined the chat room, or haven’t posted a blog in while send them some "virtual encouragement". I’m sure they’ll appreciate it, I know I did. Thanks Matthew!