Helping you handle church technology -

While there are a number of possible solutions for logo design, there are precious few that are affordable yet easy to work with and who provide quality work that is unique to your church. I have found just such a company, however. Our church has ordered a number of logos from David Gagne and the team at MyChurchLogo.com and we have been pleased with everything they have done. A logo design starts at just $149 which is incredibly affordable, particularly in comparison to the $500-700 options that seem to be so prevalent out there.

If you are interested in ordering a logo from MyChurchLogo.com you can do so by clicking here.

For most small churches software can be an expensive need that often gets pushed to the back burner because finances simply don’t allow for it to be a priority. Due the existence of OpenOffice, however, that needs no longer be true.

OpenOffice is an Office suite, much in the vein of Microsoft Word, but is an open source project which simply means that you can have it for free! If you download OpenOffice you receive 6 different programs to help enhance your productivity. OpenOffice offers their versions of Word, Excel, Paint, Access, PowerPoint and an equally powerful math program that lets you build and execute equations. What may make this most exciting is the existence of their version of PowerPoint which allows for you to use presentation software in your worship service even if you cannot afford to purchase PowerPoint itself.

If you want to download the latest version of OpenOffice you can do so here.If you need OpenOffice support you can access that here.

Wordpress is a content management system. Basically that means that if a website is a house, Wordpress is the frame that holds up the house. For a church trying to build a website that is high quality, very flexible and easy to use, Wordpress is the choice for you. It becomes an even better option when you realize that Wordpress is free!

Once you have downloaded Wordpress you will need to download a theme (using the house analogy, a “theme” would be the vinyl siding - or what makes the house look good). Themes are available for free, or you can spend a small amount of money (usually under $100) and purchase a premium theme which generally offers more options. These themes are very easy to edit once you have installed them on your site. To find free theme’s, you just need to Google “wordpress themes” and you will find thousands to choose from. If you would like a premium theme, try the ones located at iThemes.com or ChurchThemes.com

To download the latest version of Wordpress, click here.

For Wordpress support, click here.

For a series of video trutorials to help you set up and run your website, click here.

The creators of Audacity have this to say about it:

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to: Record live audio.Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.Change the speed or pitch of a recording.And more! See the complete list of features.

From my perspective, Audacity is one of my favorite free software dowloads on the internet. If you have a computer in your Worship Center then you can easily record sermons in a much better format than cassette, cd, or otherwise. Simply run a line out of your sound system into your microphone jack on your computer. Setup Audacity on your system and you will be recording in minutes! From there it is incredibly simple to convert those files into mp3’s so that you can podcast, etc.

If you would like to download Audacity, you can do so by clicking here.

If you need technical help with Audacity, please look here for advice.