Ministry Friendly Software... Pt. 5 PORN, VIRUSES & THE GARAGE

In this final installment of my ministry friendly software series, I'm going to introduce you to the fundamental free software that everyone needs to use. Have you ever needed to transfer a large file to someone else or even make sure you have it backed up somewhere safe? Have you ever had a virus or spyware on your computer? Have you ever regretted using your computer for something other than ministry... if you know what I mean? That's what we're going to cover today.

First off, you need to safeguard your computer, your family, and yourself from the wiles of internet wasteland by installing something to keep your fingers from typing certain words. A lot of people recommend CovenantEyes, which is a great program for blocking images and sending reports to accountability partners (those are people who are in charge of making sure you don't do what you said you wouldn't do) but the major hindrance is cost. If you're a poor youth pastor making just enough each month to pay the rent and read your Bible, a monthly fee just doesn't fit. I agree it's a worthy investment, but if you can live with the trade-offs there is a worthwhile option out there that I've been using X3Watch which offers a pro version, but the free version still monitors your browsing activity and sends a report to an accountability partner. It's really hard to find it on the website, so I'm going to cheat and just give you the direct download link right here.... X3Watch Free
But before I move on from this topic, I want to give each and every one of you permission to ask your spouse about their sexual activity. Don't wait for permission and don't assume you don't need to ask. Ask regularly in love, and not accusation or anger, and be open to working around issues. You'll have to find the right way to do it in your marriage, but if you keep the communication open and two-way it will go a lot further than just getting a list of websites every couple weeks. Remember, be proactive, not reactive. Have something installed on your computer to keep everyone accountable, and keep communication open so when something comes along that causes trouble your marriage doesn't go to crisis level 28 and you can handle it firmly, effectively, and holistically.

Next on the list is storage. You have a beater computer that barely runs and it could die any day? Or you've had bad luck with external hard drives? Go online! Dropbox gives you 2GB of free storage which is great for important documents like last year's TurboTax information, the Word document with all the family's passwords in it, or a few important photos. Zumo Drive is pretty much the same deal, and so is 4Shared. Between all of these and free photo storage on Flickr or Photobucket, you shouldn't have to worry as much about your computer crashing. And if you have less worry on your shoulders about your computer then you can carry a little more confidence and spend a little more time worrying about people.

Now let's talk about the down and dirty.... all those viruses you seem to attract. Have you ever opened a webpage that was flashing red lights and saying all your files were being deleted because you downloaded a virus? Or have you had weird things happen that even your nerdy grandchild didn't understand? Both of those are prime threats to your computer's stability. But if you have anti-virus software installed you won't have to sweat it. I've tried all the noteworthy anti-virus programs. McAfee, Norton, Symantec have been tremendous disappointments and I've actually considered them to be viruses in themselves for how much they slow down my computer. I was coming up on the time to renew my McAfee when I discovered an article in Consumer Reports about free antivirus being able to sometimes outperform their paid competitors. So I gave a bunch of those a test run and found out that Avast Free AV is incredibly well-suited to the task of protecting your computer. If you're using Symantec or McAfee I highly recommend using Revo Uninstaller to get rid of all traces of it so you can make the switch. After that, be sure to disable Windows Defender so that you only have one antivirus program running. This way they don't fight each other and slow down your computer.

Lastly, you need to keep your computer clean and running efficiently, so you need to learn to defragment your computer. Your computer tends to spread bits and pieces of things everywhere like a 7 year-old playing with Legos, so it can focus on the task at hand. Later on, however, this slows it down as it has to navigate all this clutter. So defragmenting comes in and sorts all the blocks and puts them in the best configuration to improve your computer's performance. But forget about the built-in Windows defragmenter. It's weak sauce compared to Auslogics Disk Defragmenter, which is awesome sauce and works better and faster. Everyday before I leave my office I set it to run "Defrag and Optimize" along with setting it to shut down the computer when it's done. That's done wonders at keeping an old and weak computer able to handle heavy tasks like Photoshop, audio editing, web design, and Outlook.

Remember, keep it running cheaply, efficiently, and safely. I hope this series has been helpful, and I encourage you to continue making decisions that free you from the prison of PC problem solving and allow you to grow your ability to minister to people in the name of Christ as your computer becomes a tool rather than a burden.

God is not a Republican

One of my friends got me hooked on Micheal Gungor. His unique sound and lyrics are a really refreshing step away from Hillsong (nothing against them, jut needed a change.) In particular, one song really sold me on Gungor, his song “God is Love.” I was amazed at what Gungor states in many of the one lined phrases, perhaps more to write on later, but I want to focus on one line. The line that caught my eye is when he sings, “God does not belong to Republicans.”

So often we hear in the media about the liberal left, and the religious right. It appears today that Christianity has been labeled as a right-wing movement, serving only the purpose of the Republican Party. Obviously, we as Christians certainly don’t see it that way. Hopefully we realize that there are both liberal and conservative Christians. This idea of God being a Republican seems so preposterous in fact, that Christians hardly realize that there is a huge misconception about Christianity.

I was talking with a friend about Christianity this past week at college. As we were talking about it, she seemed really open to talking about faith, so I asked why she hadn’t looked into it more than she had. Her response startled me. She told me that she was not a Republican, so she didn’t think the church was for her. Ouch. I know it was an excuse, but the fact that it could even be used as an excuse stung me when I heard it.

Despite our political beliefs, we need to remember that God is above it all. There is nothing wrong with religion in politics, but we as Christians need to make sure our focus is the lost, and not a Christian government. Ultimately we know that God will be the sole authority for us all, and therefore the lost > politics. As someone who loves to debate politics, this was a hard pill to swallow. None the less, it is a humbling moment that had to be. If you are like me, I humbly ask you to think about if your outspoken political views are helping, or hurting the kingdom of Christ.

It all comes down to what matters, God does not belong to Republicans, or to Democrats, nor to Libertarians, the greenies, the American Independents, or even the minor Christian political party! If you want to know what is important to God, look around. In fact, he left a list known as the 10 commandments, then added more with his Son who he sent for you and I. Christ makes it simple when asked what the most important commandment is. He states “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” Followed by (making it second most important) “Love your neighbor as yourself.”(Mathew 22:37-39). If you want to compare your political platform, and what is important, to that of God’s; the question then becomes, how are doing taking care of widows and orphans? (James 1:27).

Training or Trying

By Kyle Reynolds


Last year, I realized I was getting kinda fat. Too much beer and toaster
strudels I guess. So I decided to take up jogging again. I remember the day I first laced up my shoes and headed out the door. It was raining out but I had made too many excuses for far too long. Today would be the day! Off I went! Three blocks later I was vomiting into a neighbors bush. “I suck at this,” I thought to myself.


Unfortunately, this looks like our attempt at spirituality as well. Something we hear or see at church inspires us to grow and so we go home determined to pray an hour and read through the whole Bible. Five minutes later, we’re playing games on our phone and figuring out our lunch plans. We feel defeated. Who else besides me, sucks at praying? Maybe we should stop trying.


I remember how easy it was to run back in college. I was so in shape and actually enjoyed running. I could go for miles so effortlessly and that runners high was amazing. However, running was never the point back then. I was training for something. I had a big soccer match coming up and I didn’t want to let my team down. I wanted to outrun my defender to the corner and serve up the most perfect assist across the mouth of the goal. I wanted to hear friends cheer me on. I wanted to be ready because the game was going to be exciting. Oh, and I was really good at soccer too. I was on scholarship and could outplay and outrun most of my competition. I loved it!


Now, lets bring this blog full circle, shall we? Why don’t you stop trying, and start training when it comes to your spirituality? When we think of prayer, Bible reading, and other spiritual disciplines as training we don’t get nearly as discouraged. If you read five verses or pray for five minutes, so be it. We’re supposed to be out of shape, that’s why we’re training! Also, may I challenge you with the idea that prayer and reading the Bible are not the point. The point is knowing God. The joy of the game is experiencing Him.


Oh, and eventually, the training becomes effortless too. If you keep training, someday you’ll get a runner’s high. Someday, you’ll look back at the miles you’ve traveled and wonder where the time has gone. When the upcoming game is on our mind, it’s amazing how much more joy there is in training.


May you stop trying, and instead fall more in love with your Creator today.

Finding Simplicity

With my second doubleshot in hand, and walking aimlessly through the mall for more than forty minutes trying to decide if I needed another pair of Italian ankle-booties, it hit me; I cannot live like this anymore. I have allowed the clutter of everyday to press down upon me and dictate my every thought and action. My priorities have swung with the pendulum of cultural expectations, rather than with the Divine, and my sense of reality has become all but lost. Though I have taken up vows to live as a reflection of Christ, I have allowed my attachment to need and want to behest my time, my body, and my mind.

Therefore, I am beginning an experiment— a leap toward transformation. Though it may seem simple on paper (or perhaps ‘on screen’), I am about to embark on one of the most difficult venture of my entire life: find simplicity. I will be turning to the Scriptures, the desert fathers and mothers, and contemporary theologians for the next six months to find what I would call ‘nothingness.’ I have allowed austerity to escape me, and I will allow it no more.

Though my husband and I have taken significant steps towards reducing our carbon foot (now registering at 0.09 metric tons of CO2) and choosing to shop locally and organically when possible, I do not live as simply as I feel the Father prefers. Even as Christians, the race to impress even those we do not even particularly like with our possessions and stature does not escape many of us easily. Many of us love value, but we also love cheap; therefore, our closets have become filled with cheap clothes that give the impression of a reality we wish was ours. As a result, Ill-fitting garments hang limply from the branches our closets, many with the clearance tags attached. These items were manufactured under nice labels, but with the same environmental and humanitarian care that a wolf might show to a lamb. Deep down, several of us know the holistic harm our love affair with cheap causes, but it often seems too difficult to consider doing the right thing when the right look is so important.

This morning, I read a deeply philosophical and spiritual reflection on the Christian’s loss of simplicity by Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline¹, which tendered and humbled me beyond description. Foster’s rapture in Simplicity is exquisite and could not be eclipsed be even the most learned or articulated:

“The Christian discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style. Both the inward and outward aspects of simplicity are essential. We deceive ourselves if we believe we can possess the inward reality without its having a profound effect on how we live. To attempt to arrange an outward life-style of simplicity without the inward reality leads to deadly legalism.

Simplicity begins in inward focus and unity. It means to live out of what Thomas Kelly called 'The Divine Center.' Kierkegaard captured the nucleus of Christian simplicity in the profound title of his book, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing.

Experiencing the inward reality liberates us outwardly. Speech becomes truthful and honest. The lust for status and position is gone, because we no longer need status and position. We cease from showy extravagance, not on the grounds of being unable to afford it, but on the grounds of principle. Our goods become available to others. We join the experience that Richard E. Byrd recorded in his journal after months alone in the barren Arctic: 'I am learning ... that a man can live profoundly without masses of things.'²

Contemporary culture lacks both the inward reality and the outward life-style of simplicity. We must live in the modern world, and we are affected by its fractured and fragmented state. We are trapped in a maze of competing attachments. One moment we make decisions on the basis of sound reason and the next moment out of fear of what others will think of us. We have no unity or focus around which our lives are oriented.

Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. We must clearly understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy…Where planned obsolescence leaves off, psychological obsolescence takes over. We are made to feel ashamed to wear clothes or drive cars until they are worn out. The mass media have convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality. It is time we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick. Until we see how unbalanced our culture has become at this point we will not be able to deal with the mammon spirit within ourselves nor will we desire Christian simplicity.”

May we find that which we have lost: simplicity.

Grace and Peace

1. Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline. 1998. pp 80-1
2. Richard E. Byrd, Alone. 1938. p 19

Speaking to the Eye

Words, words, words. Note spoken, but written. Marketing firms have found ways to litter our visual fields with an array of slogans meant to elicit emotions and desires about products and services that will bring us closer to our (perceived) ideal lifestyle. While my husband and I were driving through metropolitan New England a few months ago, we commented how we eerily felt as though we were driving through words. Billboards layered haphazardly from buildings and frames, posters covering walls, digital screens projecting giant commercials made one’s mind feel as though it was unable to download the amount of information necessary to keep up with the ‘demands of the road.’ Every curve of the Massachusetts Turnpike was canvassed by a series of nouns to facilitate distinction, adjectives to arise desire, and verbs to encourage action. By the time we arrived at the university in Cambridge, our eyes and mind were desperate to see nothing.

So often our churches have become muddled with the same amount of visual clutter that plagues our streets, malls, and places of work. The church bulletins that were given out in our grandmother’s day may have simple, half page notes that expressed service times, the hymns to be song, births and deaths within the congregation, and the location of the spring pot-luck; however, many bulletins today serve as the church’s menu….or better yet, its resume. Photoshopped pictures of the pastors plaster every page; logos piled one on top of the other to promote everything from the youth camp to the baby dedication; to which countless hours and resources have been devoted to the forging of this thing which more often than not is read by only a handful, and discarded by all.

Escaping to the loo at my seminary I was horrified to be bombarded by three different advertisements taped to the back of the stall door. Being rather strapped to one’s placement in the 30” by 60” of space, I was forced to read about the upcoming Tea, the Beth Moore study to come, and the decline in tithing. Yes, church marketing has found its way into our potties.

We must ask ourselves if we are drowning our churches in the same media that bathes our highways and retail centers. Having an informed congregation is important, and staying relevant is equally essential, but we must become conscious of what we are projecting in the name of communication. I confess my affection for Photoshop, and my past position as a youth ministries publications and marketing director, but I had to find a balance. I realized that I spent more than eight hours a week writing and designing a publication that found sanctuary crumpled on the ground, rather than devoting time to publications of a spiritual and theological nature, let alone time with people who needed me.

It may be understood that words were given to us by the Father to lead others and ourselves into lines of communication Him, but often it seems we use words for everything but that purpose. When our words are no longer a reflection of divine translation, but rather become a means of communicating our interests, they lose their innocence and become as seductive and deceptive as the words that clutter the Massachusetts Turnpike.