Churches Closed... Until Further Notice: Doing COVID Life Remotely

Churches Closed...Until Further Notice

Doing COVID Life Remotely

actionable advice and best practices for the technologically challenged

Thomas Jeffrey Vining

Trilogy Christian Publishers

TUSTIN, CA

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2021 by Thomas Jeffrey Vining

All scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM

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Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-63769-010-9

ISBN 978-1-63769-011-6 (ebook)

Contents

Dedication v

Preface: Can You Learn From Others? vii

Introduction xi

Prologue: Learning to Do Life Remotely! xii

Part I. What Just Happened? 1

Chapter 1. No More Alibis 3

Chapter 2. People Don’t Like Change Much 6

Chapter 3. Until Further Notice 8

Part II. Can You Learn to Thrive Online? 11

Chapter 4. Restaurants Survive by Natural

Selection 13

Chapter 5. When Did the Virtual Become

Virtuous? 15

Chapter 6. Digital Transformation and Avoiding

Panic Attacks 19

Chapter 7. Develop Competency Not

Collegiality 27

Part III. Managing Expectations 33

Chapter 8. You Volunteered, Now What? 35

Chapter 9. Stakeholder Management—Pilot Use

Cases 40

Chapter 10. You Cannot Change What You

Cannot Measure 44

Part IV. Quo Vadis? 47

Chapter 11. Doing Life Remotely 50

Chapter 12. What is User Interface and User

Experience? 56

Part V. The Workplace 59

Chapter 13. Is HIPAA Applicable? 61

Chapter 14. Vendor Selection—Best Practices 63

Chapter 15. GDPR and CCPA Compliance

Requires Action 68

Chapter 16. Cybersecurity—Best Practices for

Keeping Safe 73

Chapter 17. Virtual Private Networks—Best

Practices 78

Chapter 18. Ransomware—To Pay or Not

to Pay 82

Chapter 19. Conduct Web Conferences Until

Further Notice 86

Chapter 20. No More Identity Crisis 90

Chapter 21. When God Closes a Door, He Opens

a Window 93

Epilogue 96

Afterword 98

Biblography 99

Acknowledgements 104

About the Author 105

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife, Folake Vining, who epitomizes the Proverbs 31 standards. I love you.

preface

Can You Learn From Others?

In March of 2020, many worship styles and services changed forever. And it’s all due to a pandemic and technology.

This year, due to government mandates and public fear, many religious organizations (RO) began to test many strategies, theories and technologies for how best to remain viable in a virtual setting. As this digital transformation began to emerge, along came with it difficult questions for many ROs to answer. For example, what type of apps, how best to use cloud-based data, what is proper governance, and then how best to use social media platforms, what vendors should we hire and how can we develop engaging content for their audiences.

And then came mistakes, poor content, clunky technology, overpaying for vendors among a culture not really comfortable existing in the digital world.

Let me back up in time.

When I first began researching the IT industry and how to differentiate vendors in 2004, my only experience was by asking the users themselves. I assumed as an analyst that I could cull complete information from their experiences, expectations, and impressions. I quickly learned that was not the case at all. When I asked a user of a particular software vendor when and where do you think other organizations could benefit from this software product, I will never forget her I really don’t know… response.

Her absence of a meaningful reply taught me organizations select and use technology and vendors based on their own unique circumstances. In other words, I no longer assumed what I found as valuable would be valuable to others. Over the next few years, I would strengthen my research techniques to include comparative market offerings, financial management, vendor and user briefings and surveys, case studies, and scenario planning. I would then use that information to distill into easy-to-understand best practices and lessons learned research. Learning from other organizations helped