WARNING: This post is pretty nerdy

There has been a lot of talk lately about the DroidX which is set for release on July 15th on Verizon. I’ve been looking forward to a new touchscreen smart phone on Verizon for a long time. This will be my next phone. I’m especially excited about it because it runs on Google’s Android operating system and just last December, I switched our entire office over to Google Apps.

I have been following a good number of church tech people on twitter for a couple years now and have noticed a large trend in switching their churches to Google Apps. I have even discussed with a few church tech people how I went about implementing Google Apps at my church. With the release of this new DroidX it just makes sense that I get it. I’ll be able to sync my calendar and contacts list as well as have easy access to all my email messages in the same way I view them through the browser. Collaborating on Google Docs will be a breeze as well. Not to mention all the cool features that come with it.

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We all know that smart phones are changing the way we do business. Many church positions require a fair amount of mobility throughout a normal work day. Off-site meetings at Starbucks, home visits, brainstorming retreats, mission trips, and many more reasons why we aren’t at our desks from 9-5 on a regular basis. I have been working with a Blackberry for the last couple of years. I can’t count the number of times having instant access to my email has saved my behind and allowed a project to continue even when I’m away from my desk. When we are off doing all those things… we still must produce worship services for the following weekend, no matter if we’re in-town or not. A smart phone is the obvious solution.

I realize that I’m preaching to the choir here… as the demographic that reads this blog is a lot of church workers who are up on technology. So I would like to take this opportunity to ask a question.

Who pays your cell phone bill?

If we truly are using our smart phone capabilities for ministry… who is paying for that?

*Discuss*

As you may have heard, Coversites recently launched the second edition of their backend editor tool – Greenhouse 2.0. The new features that come with it are welcome editions to any church that uses Cloversites. If you have been following this blog or me on twitter, you may know that my church is set to launch our new Cloversite on Monday, May 24th! We are all really super-de-duper excited about our new website and I wanted to take some time to show you how we’re using some of the new Greenhouse 2.0 features.

1. New Media Player

Clover has created one of the easiest online media players out there. It is easy for us to upload new sermons and very easy for you to listen to them. It allows us to upload audio files as well as video files. We currently do not video tape our worship services, therefore we only offer audio of our sermons so far. However, video messages is something that we are hoping to offer in the near future. The media player is also a simple way to podcast via iTunes! This thing really is the cat’s pajamas.

2. Image Slideshow

The ability to loop multiple images on a page is very important to us. OSLC has many ministries and when designing our new site, they were given their own page based on age group. For example the Junior High page is now able to showcase some of our Junior High youth growing together at one of our most recent retreats! Instead of being tied to a static image on a ministry page, we are able to be a little more dynamic and show more smiling faces!

3. Linkable Pictures

I couldn’t think of a better way to link to OSLC’s social media properties than by simply showing off the logos. Users don’t always think to click on images when visiting websites. For example, have you thought to click on the thumbnails for each of these features? It will bring up the full-size image for you to view. Another place we are going to be using linkable pictures on our new website is when we scroll announcements on the front page. Sometimes you will be able to click on an announcement and it will take you to the ministry page for that event or the registration page.

4. New Calendar

The Clover calendar is really easy to navigate as well as update. It has the ability to have events repeat on a weeky, monthly and/or yearly basis. OSLC’s website calendar has never truly represented what all goes on here and we are very excited about keeping this calendar up-to-date. We are so excited about the cleanness and user-friendly Clover calendar that we are giving key ministries their own calendar link on their ministry pages. For example, if you visit our Child Faith Formation page, you will be able to click on their calendar and find out when their events are happening and not have to sift through other ministry events.

5. Font Sizing Options

The ability to change the font size of text seems like a simple thing but it was not included in the original Greenhouse. We are excited about this ability so that we can highlight certain words, names, etc over others. When we launch our site in a couple weeks and you navigate it, you will see different font sizes throughout the site. Hooray!

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6. Linking Within the Site

Clover now allows each page of our site to have it’s own custom URL. This way we can include links in our weekly e-newsletters (eConnections) directly to the registration page or any other page. We are also able to include lines of text in ministry pages that read, “See News.Calendar.Resources for registration information” and make “News.Calendar.Resources” a link to that page of the site.

These are just some of the ways we are using the new Greenhouse 2.0 with our new website. Since we are a larger/older church, we were used to some of these features in our previous (current as of this post) website. We are very happy with Clover and the simplicity of their design and site navigation, however without these features we probably would not have purchased a Cloversite. If this review helped you in any way please let me know in the comments section. Also, if you are thinking about purchasing a Cloversite for your church, please purchase it after CLICKING HERE, I am part of an affiliate program with Clover and get a percentage of the sale for referring you. Thank you!

“Clover Walkthrough Video” after the jump

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I will say that I use Google for a lot of stuff.

• It’s my homepage
• It’s the home of my work and personal email accounts.
• It’s where I look for news.
• It’s how I find where I’m going.
• It’s how I sync my calendar with my phone.
• It’s where I keep all my contacts.
• It might be how you got to this blog.
• It’s how I track website stats.
• It’s where I watch funny videos.
• It’s one of the ways I connect with friends.

So how do you feel about this?

Discuss.