11 Online Tools I Wouldn’t Want To Live Without as a Pastor

Like almost every pastor I know, the ability to spin plates and keep lots of things in the air at once is the key and greatest challenge to succesfully leading a church. Finding the balance between sermon prep, pastoral care, management issues, facilities issues, day-to-day operations, my own prayer and devotional life, and maybe some friend/family/personal time… well, it can seem almost impossible sometimes.

Like almost every pastor I know, the ability to spin plates and keep lots of things in the air at once is the key and greatest challenge to succesfully leading a church. Finding the balance between sermon prep, pastoral care, management issues, facilities issues, day-to-day operations, my own prayer and devotional life, and maybe some friend/family/personal time… well, it can seem almost impossible sometimes.

I have found that efficiency, time management, and finding the right tools (a long with lots of prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit) is really the only chance I have to kepe my head above water.

As I have reflected on some of the tools that make my life easier and ministry more effective, I’ve discovered that there are a bunch of online tools I use almost every day and would hate to be without!

Some are free, some I pay for, some easy to find, and some harder…

Here is the list (in no particular order):

(1) BASECAMP
Dave Merwin got me hooked on Basecamp. He’s written about it here. Suffice it to say that it is the best tool I have ever seen for project and team management. We use it in a variety of capacities at St. Paul’s: management team, worship planning, special projects, etc.

(2) BACKPACK
From the same guys who gave us Base Camp comes BackPack. Again, Dave got me onto this. As good as Base Camp is for team and project management, BackPack is for personal organization and project management. My favoite features: automated reminders, posting from email, and the ability to create as many projects/pages as I could possibly need to organize my life.

(3) GMAIL
I must confess (as you will see from the next few recommendations) I am in love with Google. Their tools are great, practical, and free! GMAIL (their free email service) is one of my favorites. And now that it is integrated with their “talk” application and calendar, it is even better. Highlights: threaded conversations, endless archives, and great search capacity.

(4) GOOGLE CALENDAR
Again, Dave got me on to this. Listen to his podcast about it here. I have tried virtually every computer-based (and paper-based) organizing/calendaring system you can imagine, but I fell instantly in love with Google’s Calendar. The ease of sharing calendars makes team scheduling a snap. Google Calendar also has an incredibly easy interface, great notification features (I get a text message 15 minutes before a meeting) and a whole bunch of other features. We have also created a public calendar for the church that members can subscribe too and add instantly to their own calendar. The ability to onvite people to an event is easy and awesome! The only downside is that I can’t sync with my palm pilot but I assume the Google geniuses will figure this out soon.

(5) GOOGLE SEARCH
I know, I know… it almsot seems silly to include Google Search on this list, but I use it constantly and for eveyrthing. I use it for sermon prep, to find resources, to research stuff, and to find links/pictures and other stuff. I would have a hard time getting through a work day without Google Search.

(6) GOOGLE NOTEBOOK
One of the newer additions to the Google family, Notebook is great! It allows you to “clip” info off webpages, enter notes, etc right from your desktop–and then is searchable just like all google things. Plus you can make mulitiple notebooks. For example, one for “sermon illustrations”, one for “building committee resources”, etc etc. I’ve just started to use it but my guess is that I’m going to love it!

(7) YOU TUBE
In a surprise move, when it comes to online video, YouTube beats out Google Video for ease and quality. YouTube, among other things, allows us to upload a video we have produced in-house and then drop it into our website complete with a flash player. (Click here to see what I’m talking about). This means that I can add streaming video to our blog or website with no knowledge of flash, code, or anything else! Pretty cool! We are just beginning to think through how to use this well, but I am excited about the possibilities.

(8) ODEO
ODEO is an audio/podcasting website and online studio. Not only is it an incredibly easy (and free) way to manage podcasts and sermons online, it also allows you to easily create audio files/podcasts online using either a desktop mic or telephone. Plus, like you tube, it creates a “player” that you can imbed into your site for easy playback. See how we are using it here, here, and here. Odeo also makes other applications (like iTunes) really easy for podcasting!

(9) QUICKBOOKS ONLINE EDITION
This is a bit less “sexy” than some of the others but from my perspective this one is great–and a huge time-saver! By using the online edition of QuickBooks we have been able to create access accounts for me, our treasurer, and anyone else who needs it. We can also cutomize access so that, for example, team leaders can see financial reports but nothing else. By allowing others to have direct access to this tool, it has really increased our ability to manage our finances efficiently. Though the cost is a bit higher than purchasing the traditional software, once you figure in the cost of upgrades I think it is worth it.

(10) CONSTANT CONTACT
I talked about Constant Contact before here. I love it! It allows us to manage our email databse easily, send great looking emails and e-newsletters, as well as track bounces, reads, and click-throughs.

(11) COMMUNITY CHURCH BUILDER
Church Community Builder is a comprehensive web-based suite of church management software. It includes our people database, giving records (with easy receipting), ability to create online forms, calendar (vCal format so it integrates right into Google Calendar, as well as Outlook and others), groups, directories, reports, and much much more. I’ve tried a number of these before but this is the first one that does all of these well. Plus you can customize administrative access for people so it allws me to empower volunteers in some pretty powerful ways.

These are tools that I literally wouldn’t want to live (or at least work) without. Check ‘em out and see if they might be helpful to you.

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Ben Dubow is Lead & Founding Pastor of St. Paul’s Collegiate Church at Storrs.