One thing that I do not hear discussed is the reasons why you even need a website. In my consulting work, I will frequently ask if the client is sure that they need a website.
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MediaShout Express
written by Blake Atwood
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Can’t justify replacing PowerPoint with a $400 piece of software? Maybe it’s time to take the $200 plunge and get the newly released MediaShout Express, the stripped down version of the popular presentation software created specifically for churches. Download this pdf for the differences between their Express and Standard versions.
We’ve used the full version of MediaShout for years now and we’ve never looked back. With a very helpful forum and regularly updated software, MediaShout listens to its users as to how they can best serve the church.
If you’re not using presentation software created specifically for churches, you are definitely missing out and making your life more difficult. Commenters: What software are you currently using? Have you made a switch recently? Love it? Hate it? Can’t live without it?
(On a semi-personal blog aside, we apologize for the lack of updates here at Betachurch over the last few months. It seems we were all consumed with our various jobs, which is a good thing for those that employ us, but not so good for this site. As for myself, I’ll hope to update weekly, and also not shill so much for different products, although these items are very useful to those in the world of the digital church).
At my Church (http://minehead-baptist.com) we use http://opensong.org
It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of mediashout, being only songs/bible, but we love it. Very easy to use and easy to update/add to. The support forums are also good. And best of all, it’s free!
James September 13th, 2007 at 6:12 amYes, MediaShout is very good and is will designed for weekly presentation. It modular design allows you to reuse parts week to week. If you are a tighter budget, you can use OpenOffice Presenter (NeoOffice for Mac). If you need to presentation, this will easily get you over the bar and is as good as PowerPoint.
Michael Calabrese September 13th, 2007 at 12:12 pmI usually pride myself in knowing what’s out there in software for the church, especially open source software, so color me humble…I hadn’t heard of either of these options. Thanks for posting them. Although we’re very happy with MediaShout, I’ll look into these alternatives. Smaller churches, or even small ministries within large churches, could gain great benefits from using these apps.
By the way, Open Office Presenter (aka Impress) can be downloaded here. Open Office is a suite of free, open-source business apps that could replace those costly MS apps.
By way of disclosure, I have not used the suite, so I’d also be interested to hear if anyone here uses them personally or has actually deployed them at a church.
Blake Atwood September 14th, 2007 at 1:15 pm