If you want to move beyond having a church website that is essentially a digital brochure to one that is part of an Internet ministry, you need to continually put the web and other digital technologies on your agendas -- your personal to-do list, of course, but also on the agenda of your committees and teams. Talking about the website and other digital forms of communication reminds your leaders that ministry in a digital age requires everyone to learn to "think digitally."

Here are 22 examples of questions you could ask:

• How will we share this information on our website?
• Are there other websites where we could promote this event / share this information?
• Who can share this on Facebook / Twitter / MySpace / etc.?
• Who will take digital photos that can be shared on Flickr?
• Can we capture this event on digital video to share with others?

Jose Bowen, dean of Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts, uses a teaching technique in his college classrooms he calls, "Teaching Naked." Don't worry - it actually has nothing to do with the removal of clothing, but it is an interesting idea worth considering. The basic concept is laid out in this article and audio story (which I recommend you listen to now), but here's a quick summary. Rather than using technology in the classroom to communicate information via PowerPoint or other methods, he introduces a topic briefly, then instructs students to do online exercises and research before class. When the students come together, the classroom setting becomes a place for debate conversation, role-plays and the like.

Bowen makes the point that far from being an anti-technology approach, it recognizes that students are engaged with technology at many times during the day and are very comfortable with games, simulations, and other ways of exploring digital information. This concept could be adapted for use in your own educational setting. Here are three examples to get you thinking about the concept.

One of my favorite tech bloggers, David Pogue of the New York Times, has started a campaign called, "Take Back the Beep." The whole post is worth reading and is hilarious, but if you're short on time, the bottom line is that he's angry about the moolah that enters the coffers of the cell phone carriers (Sprint, Verizon, etc.) every time we wait through those inane instructions, "Press 1 to leave a message, or just wait for the beep." You and I are paying for that airtime, even though by now we know what to do. I'm all for it, and here's one reason he doesn't mention: millions of low-income individuals in our nation use prepaid cell phones, and they don't need to be wasting their money waiting through an unnecessary message. [Note: I wrote this email the day after the campaign started because I was leaving for vacation. It's possible the campaign has morphed by now.]

Pogue has pointed out just one example (one I had never thought about before) of the ways the tech industry is great at tapping our wallets. Now, if your congregation has an unlimited tech budget, just hit the delete key now. If not, here are seven suggestions to trim a bit of fat from your tech budget without it even hurting.

One of the things that amuses and amazes me about the internet is the way that one can stumble across information. While looking at a website, you click on a link, and then you click on another link and this process continues until you are on a web page and aren’t really sure how you got there. The website that I am reviewing today was discovered in this manner. I can’t tell you exactly how I stumbled upon it, but I can tell you that if you are interested in youth ministry, I recommend you take a look at this site.

Waytolive.org is a website companion to the book, Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens by Dorothy C. Bass, Don C. Richter, et al. I have not read the book, and the website states that it is not necessary to have done so in order to use the material on the site. I have found this to be true, although after perusing waytolive.org, I am interested in reading the book.

The number of digital photos you accumulate for ministry purposes can begin to grow quite large over time, making it increasingly difficult to find the photos you desire quickly. No one filing scheme works best for everyone, but here are a few tips to follow that will make finding photos easier down the road.

For each one of us, there are those things that we know that we should do, but for one reason or another, we just don’t always get around to doing them. (For example, I know that I should floss my teeth every day. I’m aware of the benefits of flossing. But somehow, much to my dentist’s chagrin, my flossing tends to be somewhat random.) Today’s technology tip is more of a gentle reminder than a tip, as I am sure that it falls into this category of information you already know. Here’s your reminder: Backup the files on your computer! Any data that you cannot afford to lose needs to be backed up on a regular basis.

Is all of the important data on your computer currently saved elsewhere? If your hard drive crashes as you are reading this email, how much data will you lose?

So, you've drawn up your will, paid your life insurance premium regularly, made arrangements for someone to care for your children or pets, and even pre-paid for a niche in your church's columbarium. You're feeling pretty responsible and know you have left a gift to your loved ones. But have you given any thought to what happens to all of those bits and bytes you have stored on computers all over the world?

The truth is that many of us forget that our family members will need or want access to our email, online bank accounts, passwords, and social networks in the event of our death. After all, these days many of us store our address book, our financial records, and virtually everything else that can be digitized on our computers or on various websites. Gaining access to email and other accounts can be extremely difficult or impossible if one does not have the usernames and passwords. 

Bulletin or newsletter announcements often end with the phone number or email address of the person to contact for more details or to sign up. But how often do you indicate if a person may be contacted by text message, or Twitter for that matter? Some people in your congregation (youth in particular) likely prefer text messages over emails or phone calls, while others can't imagine why anyone would want to type on their phone.

The solution is to begin to develop your own database that lists both acceptable and preferred contact methods, or to add this information to your church database. Start by giving your team leaders a form with blanks for email, home and cell numbers, Facebook/MySpace/Twitter usernames, and so on. Then, provide checkboxes where they can indicate preferred contact methods and any methods that should not be used. Later, you can expand your database to include the acceptable and preferred contact methods for everyone in the congregation.

One of the projects I'm working on is a faith formation website for the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church. When it is finished, the site will contain information about the many faith formation / Christian education ministries of the conference, with content created by many leaders from around the state. So that I don't have to do all of the work myself, I chose to create the website (which you can preview here) using a Content Management System.

According to Wikipedia, a Content Management System, or CMS, is a "computer application used to manage work flow needed to collaboratively create, edit, review, index, search, publish, and archive various kinds of digital media and electronic text." Put more simply, a CMS is a website creation tool that typically resides online rather than on your hard drive.

There are plenty of gadgets that are useful for Christian educators, youth directors, and others in faith formation ministries to have. I use digital voice recorders regularly, and would not want to go anywhere without my smart phone. These days, though, one of the handiest tools to have in your technical toolkit is a Flip camcorder.

The Flip series of camcorders have been around for about two years now, and they are incredibly versatile little tools. Little is certainly a key word, as the approximately 4" x 2" x 1" size makes it easy to put in a pocket or purse. The sharp, 1.5" or 2" diagonal screen is large enough to frame up a shot, and actually the small size can help you to remember to get closer to the action in order to get a good-sized image. They hold either 60 or 120 minutes of video, and the built-in USB connector and minimal controls make using the camera as simple as can be. I recommend getting one of the Flip UltraHD models for the best picture resolution and storage size, but if you gotta have a fun color or even a custom-designed Flip, then go with the Flip MinoHD.