Stupid Technology Mistakes Contest
I’m looking forward to heading to Dallas for the Dynamic Church Conference later this week. Should be a fun experience. I’ll get a chance to hang out with some old friends. As an example, Terry Storch (the beta version…whatever that means) has promised he’ll teach me how to talk Texan.
I’ve decided in my session I’m teaching to unveil my newest "Top 10" list. Jeff and the crew at Fellowship Technologies who have invited me to speak would probably try to "defragment my disk drive" if I gave away too many secrets. I can tell you, however, that I’m going to share "10 Stupid Technology Mistakes that Churches Make." If all goes well, it will hopefully create a delightful moment for all the conference goers.
Between now and Saturday morning’s session, I thought it would be fun to have a little contest. This is the first-ever "Name the Most Mistakes in Tony’s List of 10 Stupid Technology Mistakes that Churches Make" contest. The rules are pretty simple. All you have to do it list stupid technology mistakes and hope that they match up with the mistakes on my list.
In honor of one of my favorite technology bloggers and my blogging mentor, Jason Powell, I’m going to award bonus points to the person who correctly guesses the most mistakes from my list. Having never awarded bonus points before, I’m a little unsure exactly how many a contest like this is worth. Maybe Jason can give some wisdom. I want to be judicious in how I award these points; otherwise, I may be on someone’s list of the "10 Stupid Bloggers Who Don’t Know How to Appropriately Award Meaningless Bonus Points." I would hate that.
For those of you who are attending the Dynamic Church Conference, I’ll see you in Dallas. For those of you who aren’t, you’ve just committed #11.
See ya there.. I will bring my cowboy hat, boots and horse and we can talk Texan!
I’d wager you’re lookin’ at a good solid 1000 bonus points
My number one worst tech mistake, is “A church that doesn’t utilize the talents of its members before spending its treasure.” Most churches of over a few hundred people have members who can do just about anything. Tech consultants are expensive. Use the skills of your knowledgeable members. They will also know when to seek additional expertise.
BTW: My church makes this mistake all the time.
Mistake #1 don’t centralise your database. Oh, and don’t keep it up to date. And oh, don’t have more than 1 person that knows how to use it…you get the drift.
My guess would be churches that don’t spend enough treasure and try to do it cheaply and it breaks numerous times before they decide to do my number two choice of actually researching options before buying equipment.
One would deffinately be… “what do you mean that our overhead profector doesn’t make us technologically advanced?”
or the crappy Powerpoint presentation.
Get your brother-in-law to build your site. (Why not? It’s FREE! And he’s an “expert.”)
1. “what’s technology”
2. “oh…that…thats from the devil”
3. No website
4. Don’t have a way to track your kid’os
5. Every department has a different database.
6. Not using Fellowship One. (that was a little red meat for the base.)
7. Don’t podcast, blog, or vodcast.
8. Thinking Technology and the web are a phase.
9. Over using mass email.
10. Not reading Tony Morgan’s Blog
having a web site, but having contact information that is two or three years out of date. Maintain it, or shut it down.
Biggest technology mistake. Here’s an oldie but goodie. Rely on spellcheck. If there are no red underlines everything must be okay! :(
The result was we unveiled a “plague” commemorating a special church event. All our promotional materials said “plague”. Needless to say attendance wasn’t what it could have been. :)