12 IT skills that employers can’t say no to

12 IT skills that employers can’t say no to

Have you spoken with a high-tech recruiter or professor of computer science lately? According to observers across the country, the technology skills shortage that pundits were talking about a year ago is real (see “Workforce crisis: Preparing for the coming IT crunch”). More here…

Bluetooth ActiveSync Guide for i-mate Smartphone2

In this article we show how to configure and use your desktop or notebook as a Bluetooth ActiveSync partner for your i-mate Smartphone2. The Windows Mobile Smartphone based i-mate Smartphone2 is also known as XPhone or SPV E200 in other markets.

More here…

Crack RapidShare MegaUpload YouSendIt Download Limitation with Universal Share Downloader (USDownloader)

Universal Share Downloader (USDownloader), also called RapidShare downloader or MyTempDir downloader is actually not a crack or hack program. Instead, Universal Share Downloader is a download manager for automated download a list of files from most popular free uploaders or free unlimited upload files hosting servers such as RapidShare, MegaUpload, YouSendIt, FileFactory and etc.

More here…

No More Big Ideas

No More Big Ideas

Six years ago, Phil Vischer revolutionized Christian family entertainment by selling 30 million Veggie Tales videos. He was running the largest animation studio between the coasts, and had dreams that his empire, known as Big Idea Productions, would become the next Disney.

But by 2003 his dream was over. After a heartbreaking court decision, later overturned on appeal, Big Idea declared bankruptcy, and Vischer sold the company’s assets, including his computer animated characters Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber. His new book, Me, Myself, and Bob (Nelson, 2007) tells the story of Big Idea’s rise and fall. We sat down with Vischer to talk about what he’s learned.

More in Christianity Today at http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/002/9.15.html

“Ghost” Windows XP for free

“Ghost” Windows XP for free

If you have ever had the pleasure of re-installing Windows XP from scratch, you know what a hassle it can be. The idea of endless tweaks, patches, driver hunts, reboots, and scouring the web for software does not exactly fill me with glee. Did I mention the reboots? For me, the worst part is the sinking realization that when I finish the endless tweaks and software installs, I may end up doing the entire process over again from scratch six-to-eight months down the road. Why? Masochism may be one answer, but a more probable answer is an unexpected bout of spyware, a rogue virus, or a bloated registry that is causing the system to behave erratically.

Read more here …

German researchers put final nail in WEP — ZDNet blog

<p><a href=”http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=464″ rel=”bookmark” title=”Permalink”> German researchers put final nail in WEP</a> by <a href=”http://zdnet.com”>ZDNet</a>’s George Ou — A group of German cryptographic researchers (Erik Tews, Andrei Pychkine, and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann) at the cryptography and computer algebra group at the technical university Darmstadt in Germany have come up with a new statistical attack against WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) that’s faster than anything achieved before. Wireless security researcher Jon “Johnny Cache” Ellch was so impressed [...]</p>

Killing the crapware problem on PCs — from ZDNet

Killing the crapware problem on PCs by ZDNet’s George Ou — As many readers know, I’m not a fan of the Apple ads, but this one was spot on and not to mention funny. Poor old PC looked like a balloon and his dangling arms almost made him look like Jabba the Hutt. One of the things that bother me the most about the PC industry is [...]

Leader’s Insight: There’s Something About Joseph

Leader’s Insight: There’s Something About Joseph
What leaders can learn from the Nativity about the high cost of righteousness.
by John Ortberg, guest columnist

Because we live on this side of Christmas, we want to rush to the end of the story where everything turns out okay. We miss the anxiety in a young woman’s announcement, “I’m pregnant” and the tension on a man’s brow as he parses the right decision. You might even be tempted to think Joseph was slow spiritually and should have figured out what was going on a lot sooner. But if you do that, you miss the whole point of what Joseph is learning, and of what we can learn from him—that there’s some amazing stuff going on around Christmas besides how Jesus got here. You miss out on how God is already beginning to redefine what true righteousness is.

Matthew 1:18–19 tells us: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

Joseph, Scripture says, was a righteous man. There’s a rich history behind this idea. The Hebrew word for a righteous man is tsaddîyq. Joseph was a tsaddîyq, and this means he was known for his uncompromising obedience to the Torah, the law of Moses. (For some of this concept I’m indebted to an article by Scott McKnight, a New Testament scholar.)

Joseph didn’t eat unclean food. He didn’t mix with the wrong kinds of people. He didn’t keep his carpentry shop open on the Sabbath to make a few extra drachmas. He was a tsaddîyq; that was his identity. Everybody knew this about him. Nobody invited Joseph over to have ham sandwiches with tax collectors and prostitutes. He was what people wanted to be. Like a businessman in our day wants to be a CEO, or like an athlete wants to be an all-star, an Israelite wanted to be a tsaddîyq. Becoming one meant you were admired and looked up to. Then you were somebody. And that was Joseph.

But now he’s a tsaddîyq with a problem. The girl he has promised to marry is going to have a baby, and whoever the father is, Joseph knows it’s not him. Nazareth is a small town, and as a general rule, word gets around in a small town. So we have a tsaddîyq and a pregnant fiancée in a small village where, as a general rule, everybody knows everybody’s business.

The Torah has some clear instructions about what to do to somebody in Mary’s condition. A section in Deuteronomy 22 covers marriage violation. If a woman pledged to be married is unfaithful, it says: “She shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge this evil from among you.”

The Torah was clear. Joseph’s reputation as a tsaddîyq was on the line. His fellow tsaddîyqim would have told him this sin must be publicly exposed and punished. But Joseph couldn’t bring himself to do this.

The Ministry of Disequilibrium
Being a righteous man, Joseph must have agonized over this day after day. When the angel comes to him, Joseph already knows Mary is pregnant. How did he find out? Mary would have told him. Put yourself in his place. Your fiancée comes to you and says, “I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is I’m pregnant even though we’re not married yet. The good news is I haven’t been with anybody else. An angel came to me and said, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace.’ I’m going to have a miracle baby, and all generations will call me blessed. I know it’s never happened before, but it’s going to happen.”

Imagine how she must have protested to him about her innocence. Imagine Joseph’s struggle. Most likely his father had arranged the marriage. He probably did not know her terribly well at this point. She seemed to be sincere. But an angel? A virgin birth? No way. So he decides to divorce her quietly, the text says. A betrothal was a legal act in that day, so to end it required an act of divorce. That way he could minimize her suffering but maintain his status as a tsaddîyq, a righteous man.

Then God sends a message to Joseph: “After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.” Why did God make Joseph wait till after he had to think and struggle with all this stuff? Why couldn’t an angel come to him ahead of time and explain everything and remove that anxiety?

Is it possible that anxiety removal is not God’s number one goal for Joseph—or maybe for you and me? Is it possible that in getting his world turned upside down, in having to struggle between what he thought a tsaddîyq—a righteous man—ought to do, and his longing to show compassion to this young girl, maybe Joseph was being prepared by God to come to a new understanding of what righteousness is?

Is it possible there’s a ministry of disequilibrium God is allowing to take place in Joseph’s life so he’ll come to a new era of growth? Is it possible in your life, maybe right now? If you’re confused or disoriented or uncertain about something, maybe it’s not because you’ve done something wrong. Maybe you’re about to grow. Maybe what you need to do is wait on God and trust God’s going to do something in your life you don’t even know about yet!

A New Definition of Righteousness
The angel says, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.” Why would Joseph be afraid to wed Mary? Of course Joseph would be afraid of offending God and violating the Torah, but it’s not just that. Joseph would be afraid of losing his reputation.

He would be afraid of what everybody would think about him. Joseph knew about his own doubts when Mary told him about the angel. There’s no way people in his town were going to believe an angel came to a poor couple in an obscure village and caused the conception of a child in the body of a virgin teenage girl. He knew that if he married her, his friends would never accept his account of what happened. He would not be invited to their homes, he would not be given their business, and he would never again be admired and respected as a lover of the Torah. If he committed himself to this baby—to the one who would be known as Jesus—he would do so at enormous sacrifice. His whole reputation, the work of a lifetime, would be trashed.

Since that time, millions of people have made sacrifices for the sake of this one called Jesus. Many have given up status, possessions, convenience, freedoms, even their lives. But Joseph, who gave up his identity and reputation for Jesus, had not even seen him yet. When Joseph looked into people’s eyes after he obeyed God, things were never the same. They never looked at him with the same respect and adoration. But when he looked into the eyes of that child, Jesus, he knew he had done the right thing.

Later, when Joseph was long dead and Jesus was a grown man, he taught in Matthew 5:20, “Unless your righteousness passes that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law”—the old system—”you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus must have been thinking inside, I’ve seen the better kind of righteousness firsthand; Joseph was such a man.

Maybe God had a reason for this odd, painful, lonely way to start a family. Maybe God still calls people to be willing to die to reputation and status and comfort for the sake of love. That’s why we seek to extend this kingdom launched by that little child.

When Joseph made the decision to wed Mary, he thought it was the end of his being known as a righteous man. He did not know fully that the child he would adopt would bring to the human race a new kind of righteousness. That’s what we celebrate this Christmas.

JOHN ORTBERG is teaching pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, California. He is author of several books, including If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat (Zondervan, 2001).

This column is excerpted from the sermon “Recognizing Divine Interruptions” at our sister website PreachingTodaySermons.com.

To respond to this newsletter, write to Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.
November 27, 2006

http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2006/cln61127.html

Leader’s Insight: Under-Communicating

Leader’s Insight: Under-Communicating
Why aren’t people listening to what I think I’m saying? Conclusion of the series The Three Legs of Trust.
by Angie Ward, guest columnist

In several earlier columns, I pointed out the three legs of trust: character, competence, and communication. All three are necessary to gain and maintain credibility as a ministry leader. But of the three, communication often seems to be the least recognized as a component of trust.

By communication, I don’t mean the communication of God’s Word from the pulpit. I’m talking about leadership communication, the kind of communication that can help or hinder your church’s attempts to row together in the same direction. Whether at the visionary, missional, strategic, or tactical levels, good communication is crucial to ministry effectiveness and to your personal credibility as a leader.

Years ago, when my husband and I signed the contract to purchase our first house, our real estate agent told us, “Congratulations, you’re halfway there!” We didn’t realize that agreeing on a price was only the first step of the process. Next, we had to find a lender, arrange for an inspection and appraisal, work through the entire loan process, and secure insurance, not to mention manage all the documentation needed to actually close on the house.

In the same way, many leaders fail to realize that reaching a decision on an issue is not the end of the process, but the beginning. The communication (or lack thereof) that follows is just as important as the decision itself.

How can you tell whether your communication is effective? There are several indicators that can help you evaluate this element of your leadership.

The Telephone Game. Can your hearers communicate your message back to you? More important, can they communicate it accurately? Like the old game of “telephone,” the message can easily become garbled as it passes through another person’s frame of reference. Does what they hear match with what you are trying to say?

The Pass-Along Factor. Do you hear people communicating the message to others? I’ll never forget the first time I heard someone in our church communicate the vision to someone else, not just repeating words they had heard in a sermon or read in a bulletin, but passionately sharing what our church is about. The church’s vision had become their vision.

Action Steps. Do you see communication translate into action? In a church, vision often breaks down at the implementation stage because of poorly communicated action steps and roles. Whether at the visionary level or the tactical level, do people’s actions demonstrate that they got the message? For example, if you change the date of a meeting but everyone shows up on the original day, those actions point to a communicator problem, not a listener problem.

Leveling the Stool
Improved communication will help those you lead better appreciate your character and competence, and thereby build trust. Here are some principles to help you become more effective at communication as a ministry leader.

• Any time you need to communicate something, ask yourself: “Who else needs to know?”
  Many great visions, ideas, and decisions have been killed during the communication process because the word does not reach the right people in a timely manner. In addition, failure to communicate adequately throughout an organization can result in mistrust of the leaders as the congregation begins to wonder if the leaders are trying to hide something.
• Always try to over-communicate.
  Remember that you are always less clear than you think you are. If you think you’ve done a good job of communicating, you’ve probably just scratched the surface. Also, remember that you may need multiple “passes” to ensure adequate coverage with your message. At my church, many folks are gone two to four weeks out of any given eight-week period because of school, work, and vacation schedules. In this type of setting, it’s important, for example, that we follow up a “Vision Sunday” with additional communication to those who may have been absent. And something as important as vision needs to be re-communicated regularly throughout the year.

  A corollary to this principle is that the larger the group, the longer it generally takes to get a message across. Like the wave cheer at a stadium, communication ripples through an organization and takes time to get across a large group.

• People always inject their own emotion into an issue.
  You may say one thing, but people will assign an emotional timbre to your words. Help avoid this pitfall by sticking to facts, and giving as many of them as possible. If you’re the one trying to communicate emotion or urgency, keep the central issue clear and free from your own “tangles.” That’s hard to do when you’ve invested so much blood, sweat, and tears into something, but it projects clarity and objectivity to the people under your leadership.
• Use multiple methods to communicate a unified message.
  Whether it’s a variety of media (brochure, bulletin, blog), a variety of settings (worship service, small group, Sunday school, personal conversation), or a variety of people (pastors, staff, lay leaders, parishioners), your message will be more likely to reach its target if you utilize multiple delivery methods.
• Communicate even when you don’t think there’s anything to communicate.
  If people don’t hear anything, they will draw their own conclusions, maybe even the conclusion that you aren’t doing your job. Even if nothing is happening, build trust in your leadership by communicating that to people. For example, building campaigns are subject to countless slowdowns with permits, zoning, fundraising, etc. Explain the overall process, then keep people informed of whose court the ball is in. When I’m stuck in a traffic jam on the interstate, I’m much more content to wait (usually) if I know the reason for the slowdown.
• Use communication methods that are most effective in your ministry setting.
  At our church and many others, the primary methods of communication are e-mail and e-zines. In other churches, the weekly paper bulletin or a phone tree are the best ways to get the word out. In one church we served, leaders decided to reschedule the all-church annual meeting, and communicated that decision by taping handwritten paper signs to the doors of the church building. That approach may work at a neighborhood church in a smaller community, but not in a larger, regional church where members live a half-hour’s drive or more from the facility.
• Allow people adequate time to process information.
  You may have been wrestling with a key decision for months with your leadership team, and perhaps privately for months before that. It’s easy to think that everyone else is as immersed in the issue as you are. Guess what: they’re not. Give your congregation ample time to digest the information and its implications, especially if it requires a decision or commitment on their part.

Trust is perhaps the most valuable leadership commodity. One of the ways your church needs and deserves for you to guard that trust is through good communication.

Angie Ward is a leadership coach, pastor’s spouse, and associate director of the Innovative Church Community in Durham, North Carolina.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2006/cln61120.html

5 Moral Fences

[  Send to printer | Close window ] 5 Moral Fences Fact: Some kids like to play “near the edge,” and some kids don’t. I always did! Whether the “edge” was rock jumping into a cool mountain lake or “bumper jumping” moving cars to slide along an icy winter street, the potential of peril invigorated me. But “when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Cor. 13:11). I was a pastor and in seminary when the moral failures of the late ’80’s hit the news. In addition to the big names, I heard a shocking number of similar tragedies from my own circle of pastor/friends. One Sunday night in 1987 I remember crying all the way to church. I was terrified. I asked over and over, “How does this happen? Could this happen to me? How can I protect myself, my family, and my ministry from the devastation a moral failure would cause? How can I keep myself pure when men better than me are falling like flies?” As I prayed it through, I figured that those who fell morally must have disregarded the warning signs. They didn’t go from Spirit-led to stepping off the cliff in one day. They must have crashed some social barriers before their slippage became sexual. Where is that line? I wondered, And how can I make sure I never cross it? I knew I had to make my decisions early and my standards public so that others would know when I was “playing near the edge.” I was determined that, by God’s grace, I would not take the plunge. So I set some boundaries of behavior. I remembered an incident back in Bible college when the college president would not give my (young, beautiful) fiancee a ride to our church almost two hours away when he came to speak. At first that seemed odd; now I was beginning to understand why. Sexual temptation is where we are held least accountable and where we can fall fastest. I began to form my list of moral fences: 1. I will not, under any circumstances, ride alone in a car with a female other than my wife or an immediate family member. No lifts home for a church secretary, no baby sitters driven home late at night, no rides for teen girls in my student ministry, more recently no personal pickups for my daughter’s girlfriends, no exceptions. Recently while speaking out of town, I had to explain to my pastor friend why it would not work out for his wife to meet me and drive me over there. It has been awkward at times, but it’s a beneficial discipline. 2. I do not counsel a woman in a closed room or more than once. No matter what the issue, counseling is an intimate activity, and when the subject matter itself becomes intimate, counseling the opposite sex is like playing with fire. When our church was smaller, keeping this standard meant that some women had to seek counsel elsewhere and two or three left our church over my “fence.” I was hurt at first, but it blessed my wife. My time was better spent training a team of men and women to do the lighter counseling and then referring those with more complex issues to biblical counseling centers outside our church. When I cannot avoid a second session with a woman in our church, I have my wife or another pastor join us. Pretty hard to commit adultery with someone you never spend time alone with. 3. I do not stay alone in a hotel overnight. I did my doctoral thesis on increasing the incidents of self-disclosure of sin among men. I have heard more confessions of addiction to various forms of sexual sin than any one pastor should have to hear, and it has changed me. It has left me deeply persuaded that “there but for the grace of God (and some moral fences), go I.” I know myself too well. Lengthy, unaccountable hours with manifold temptations available is a recipe for failure. Romans 13:14 instructs us to “make no provision for the flesh.” Do I sound weak? I am! And when I forget that weakness, I cease to know God’s strength (1 Cor. 12:10). When I travel, I travel with someone. When that is impossible, I stay with a friend. When that is impossible I do not go. Period. Early in my ministry, that meant there were things I missed out on. Recently our elders have agreed to help fund a travel partner for me. If an outside ministry opportunity is deemed worthwhile, and the ministry cannot afford a second airfare, our church pays for me to take another pastor or elder, or best of all, my wife! 4. I speak often and publicly of my affection for my wife, when she’s present and when she’s not. Marriages that are failing often become silent in public before they become loudly negative. If a pastor neglects publicly affirming his wife, it may reveal a private deterioration of that relationship. I have tried to develop close friends who consistently monitor the way I refer to and interact with my wife. I know some men in our church feel the heat because I am so publicly wild about my wife of 16 years, but maybe that’s good for them. 5. Compliment the character or the conduct, not the coiffure or the clothing. I’m still working on this one. As our church has grown, and I don’t know everybody personally, the power of a compliment has become a problem. As pastors we love people and want to be an encouragement. Formerly, if I noticed that Shelly had a new dress or Susan had changed her hair I would compliment her on that. I felt it was harmless. If it seemed to meet a need and I meant it sincerely, I thought, No harm done. But more recently I have seen that this seemingly innocent gesture can have far more impact than I ever intended. Now I’m trying to restrict my compliments to character and conduct. I get to use my gift of encouragement, but I focus on the things God is doing in a person’s life and not the externals that are so easily misunderstood. Make the fences public The fence is useless if I can take it down any time my sinful heart desires. To make it work, those around me must understand the fences and be willing to tell me if they see one broken down. I periodically weave the fences into a sermon. My most recent example was a message on “Meeting God in Moral Failure.” When the message came to the “how to prevent” part, I simply explained my five moral fences. At the staff level, we require the fences to be maintained. From pastors to ministry leaders, custodians to bookstore personnel, every paid staff member is held to this standard. A former singles pastor found it very difficult not to have lunch alone with women in his ministry, claiming he “forgot.” Eventually we told him we would “forget” to pay him if he “forgot” again. Isn’t this legalism? This is not legalism. Legalism is when we judge another’s spirituality based on man-made rules. We are not judging anyone’s heart for the Lord. We are simply reasoning together how we can remain pure and faithful in our commitments to God and family. Of course, Christian morality involves far more than righteous sexuality. Money and power have often been observed to destroy ministers and ministries. However, decisions about money and power are more public. People see the kind of car I drive, the clothes I wear, the vacations I take, and the home I live in. People also observe the ways I use my influence over others. If I become powerdriven rather than servant-oriented, if I lord my authority over others and abuse my position, people will “vote with their feet.” With both money and power, there is a broad public accountability that is a “fence” of sorts. Beyond that most of us have elders and/or deacons who monitor the way we use power and money in the church. I account regularly for the way I use my influence and am excluded almost completely from the money matters of ministry. Yet none of these co-leaders can monitor my sexual purity. It stands alone as a purely private matter capable of instantly destroying my ministry. Moral fences are most needed in the area of sexual temptation because it is here we are held least accountable and it is here we can fall fastest. What about solo sexual sin? The fiercest battle for sexual purity is fought in the mind, what I look at, and what I think about. Moral fences may protect me from the act of adultery, but what protects a minister from the mental/emotional infidelity Jesus warns of (Matt. 5:28)? My resume in these matters is certainly not spotless, but I have found great help in weekly accountability from my men’s small group, which asks specific questions about Internet usage, television/movies viewed, and magazines read. Knowing that within days my brothers will ask me point blank, “Have you set anything unclean before your eyes this week?” (Ps. 101:3) has been a strong deterrent. Above reproach In both Timothy and Titus, Paul instructs leaders in Christ’s church to be above reproach. That is, our conduct must be such that it would be difficult, even for those who oppose our ministry, to bring an accusation against us. Many a pastor has had his ministry destroyed over accusations that could not be proven false, though they were. Our congregation is comforted in knowing that our ministry team is seeking to protect themselves and the church from moral failure. By identifying the behaviors that lead to moral problems and avoiding them, we embrace the wisdom of Proverbs 4:26 to “ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established.” Of course, the standards themselves are not in any way righteous. They are only a protection against potentially overwhelming temptation. Last summer on our family vacation, we drove through some very high, single lane, mountain passes. The road was narrow and the drop-off immense. I drove slowly and hugged the mountain! I kept my eyes on the road and refused to look down, but I’m still glad the guard rails were there. This is one pastor’s attempt to live above reproach. What are your reactions? LEADERSHIP would like to publish other approaches to protecting the integrity of ministry. Send your thoughts to ljeditor@leadershipjournal.net or to LEADERSHIP, 465 Gundersen Dr., Carol Stream IL 60188. James MacDonald is founding pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel 800 Rohlwing Road Rolling Meadows IL 60008 Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal. This article is located at: http://www.ctlibrary.com/3096 www.ChristianityToday.com Copyright © 1994–2006 Christianity Today International Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Advertise with Us