Church Management in Church Management in the Digital Agethe Digital Age

MSCM 8630: IT for Church ManagementDr. Wagner

Sept. 11 2008

Class announcementsClass announcements

Goals for this weekGoals for this week

Welch’s view Welch’s view

What is the Digital Age?What is the Digital Age? Education

◦ Miami U. - Started as a Civil Engineering/Math major

◦ Ended up with 2 UG degrees; B. Phil and BA (ancient Greek/Latin)

◦ Worked on Agora Excavations in Athens

◦ America School (Athens)

◦ Masters in Classical Languages (U. of KY)

◦ MBA (U. of KY)◦ Ph.D. in MIS at U of KY◦ Villanova since 1991

Research/Professional Interests◦ Dissertation in Expert

Systems/ Applied AI◦ Published in a variety

of journals◦ Published first college

text on XML (2003- Phall)

◦ Published first text on Customer Relationship Management (2007)

◦ First at VU to teach class over Internet

◦ Coordinate SAP University Alliance

◦ Editorial Boards for several journals

Binary worldBinary worldWife and 2 children

◦Son at U. Del and daughter at VU◦Wife doing Masters in Counseling at VU

Lu-Bhu◦Raised Lutheran but practicing

Bhuddhist meditation for last 25 yearsHistory buff

◦Founder of VU civil war round table◦Archeology and ancient history

Fixing up old farmhouse◦Gardener, camper, hiking, play on VU

faculty basketball team, etc.

What is IT?What is IT?

Organization of CourseOrganization of CourseDivided into three main modules

◦IT for Personal Productivity How can IT help you and your office work

better?

◦IT for Church Communications How can IT help you and your church

communicate better?

◦IT for Church Operations How can IT help the overall church

organization function better?

Course ResourcesCourse ResourcesShort, new text by Tim Welch

Welch, Tim Technology Tools for Your Ministry, 2008, Twenty-Third Publications. 

Augmented with other readings. Mainly from Christian Computing magazine

Vendor demos (especially in last module)Element K tutorials for hands-on work

Check out web site and loginNote: Hold off on purchasing the

Expression Web text.

Assignments/GradingAssignments/GradingReadingsHands-on

◦IT inventory◦Spreadsheet report◦Database application◦Web site design◦Group collaboration project – design a

web portal for all things related to IT for Church MGT

Final Projects – research or applied use of IT

Assignment for next weekAssignment for next weekReach chapters 1 and 2 of Welch

book◦May also send you a brief CC article

Initialize and familiarize yourselves with the Element K site

Try to list all the main activities in your office (informal list)◦Be prepared to give 2 examples of tasks

that could be done better with IT◦We will meet next Thursday (9/11) at 7:30

p.m. (EST)

Questions?Questions?

Questions?Questions?

Go Cats!!