Productive Catholic » catholic church

006 PC Podcast: Getting Things Done with The Daily Saint

Dean Soto — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:28:47 +0000

If you are looking for another Catholic site that melds work, productivity, and spirituality – then look no further. The Daily Saint, run by Mike St. Pierre, is a fantastic blog/podcast that really hits at the heart of the Catholic word ethic. He has a plethora of resources to help you kick butt at work and to focus on the things that truly make a difference.

Thankfully, Mike agreed to an interview on the Productive Catholic Podcast. Let me tell you, I am seriously in awe of how much this guy gets done. Not only does he find the time to spark a Catholic reformation and leadership revolution within a school of hundreds of kids, he manages to care for his family, and maintain his blog on a regular basis. It’s no doubt that he knows how to be effective.

In the podcast we talk about how he utilizes a hybrid form of GTD. While he uses an electronic means to keep track of tasks, he spends some time every morning planning his day in order to build a productivity anchor.

We also talk about how working smarter, not harder, is something that everyone should be striving for. Just working for the sake of working is not what leads to holiness, but working effectively, setting boundaries, and finding the best way of doing things is something God wants.

Lastly, one very interesting discussion was on leadership, and how it is a skill that is extremely important to every Catholic. Being a true leader involves inspiring others to be better in every way possible – that includes work. The church needs more leaders that can teach others the value of being effective. Currently, work is dominated by the secular and by secular leaders. Of course, not everything secular is bad, but if we want to spark a Catholic reformation of work, leaders need to teach younger generations how to become successful and make a difference in the working world for Christ!

For more of The Daily Saint, visit his blog! Also check out his podcast on iTunes! You won’t regret it!

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2010. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Business, catholic, catholic church, catholic reformation, christianity, leadership, management, mike st. pierre, podcast, politics, Productivity, saints, skill

005 PC Podcast: Interview with Matthew Warner from flockNote

Dean Soto — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:28:12 +0000

If you are involved with Catholic social media, then you will love this interview. This episode features Matthew Warner, the creator of flockNote and the author of the blog Fallible Blogma.

We discuss how a father, husband, and Catholic managed to become an entrepreneur and create a valuable service to parishes and catholic organizations around the world. FlockNote allows parishes to reach their parishioners is ways that they never could before. Each member of the parish can choose how they want to be communicated to, and leaders can easily organize events and disseminate news. There is a whole host of other capabilities, too.

We also talk about time management and how Matt chooses what is important. Although there are countless opportunities to support the Church and also new creative ventures, he finds a way to weed out those things that may not be valuable to his overall goals. If you would like to find out more about Matt and the work that he is doing, check him out at Fallible Blogma. It was a blast to have him on the show, and I hope he finds to to come on again.

I highly recommend taking a look at using flockNote for your parish or organization. With the money that you spend on one snail mail shot to your parishioners, you could send unlimited messages to people in the way that they’d like to receive it. It is a fantastic way to keep everyone connected, informed, and in your community.

Are you looking to help the Church by putting your talents to good use? Or maybe you have a question on how to find the time to get important things done in your life? If so, leave me voicemail on the feedback line. I’d love to here about what you have going on and what you are doing to make a difference.

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2010. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: catholic, catholic church, catholic organizations, catholic social media, christian theology, christianity, communicate, ecclesiology, matt warner, organization, parish, parishes, social media, stay connected

5 Catholic Social Networking Sites That You Should Know About

Dean Soto — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:01:51 +0000

Social networking is the quickly becoming the premiere means of developing strong and communicative groups that would otherwise be unable to function on a large scale. Unfortunately, not everyone is jumping on the web 2.0 bandwagon as quickly as they should (Catholic Church… I’m looking in your direction…). While it may be forgivable for a parish to not have an up-to-date website, it is simply a sin not to take advantage web 2.0 phenomenon. Fortunately, there are some fantastic Catholics out there that realize the importance of modern communication as a means of evangelization and fellowship. Here are 5 blossoming Catholic social networking sites that you should check out right now!

Photo by JohnRodgers

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FlockNote – “As a leader in the Catholic community, you can send notes to your entire flock – or just a specific group – without the frustrating job of managing multiple mailing lists by email. As a member, you can get the latest news and information from the groups you care about – through the website, email, txt message, and more.”

Catholic Community – “If you run a group, organization or parish you can use this community to promote your aims, charisms and your news and events. When people link to your group you can not only keep them up to date, but they can meet other people who share a passion for your work.”

4 Marks – Definitely one of the preeminent Catholic social networking sites out there. The 4 Marks site sates that, “Whether you are an established writer or an aspiring apologist; a lay person or a consecrated religious – 4 Marks encourages you to share your talent and your identity as part of the 4marks community.”

Xt3 – According to the site: “Launched at WYD08, Xt3 is the fastest growing social network of its kind, with members throughout the world from over 200 countries. Xt3 connects you with people who want to make a difference and helps you build a better world. Everyone is welcome.”

MyCatholicVillage - My Catholic Village is the MySpace of Catholic social networking sites. It’s not as active as some of the other sites, but it is still a neat place to check out.

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Catholic social networking sites are great, but don’t forget that mainstream social networking sites are also a worthwhile place to share your faith with Catholics and Non-Catholics alike. I use Twitter and Facebook like there is no tomorrow, and I have met a great bunch of faithful Catholics through both of them.

If you know of other good Catholic social networking sites, let me know in the comments and I will add them to this post!

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Career, catholic church, catholic community, catholics, communication, Community, evangelization, faith, network, Social, social networking, social networking sites

Make a Beautiful Church Website on the Cheap

Dean Soto — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:49:25 +0000

It amazes me how an institution like the Catholic Church, which dominated art in the west for over 1500 years, seems to be content with websites that look as though they were created for a third grade science project. I apologize for any hurt feelings, but it’s the truth. That being the case, I have taken the liberty of giving some ideas on how to remedy the situation in the most cost-effective way possible. Get ready for the tools to help your parish have an extreme website makeover.

Photo by Paul Soucy

Find a Host for $150 (or Less) Every 2 Years

It is not expensive to have a website hosted. There a ton of hosting companies out there that have plans that literally cost around $3.95 – $5.95 a month. That is nothing when you consider how much exposure a good website can bring to your parish, and how it can create solid communities that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Here are three web hosts that offer low prices, and great service. I am not getting a dime from them for this:

Bluehost – These are the guys that I use. They offer unlimited space and bandwidth for a very low price. They’ve been good to me and I definitely recommend them.
Hostgator – I’ve heard good things about these guys. They are generally the same as Bluehost as far as pricing.
Dreamhost – Another well-like web host service.

Install a Content Management System (CMS)

Once you’ve picked a host, it’s time to choose a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS allows you to quickly add content to a site in an orderly manner. Two CMSs that I really like are Drupal, and even more so, Joomla.

I’ve used Joomla on a number of sites and I really feel that it is one of the easiest tools to create and manage a website that demands a lot of content. You can write articles, make communities and groups, and create scalable ecommerce sites. It is a very powerful product, and it is absolutely FREE! Yes, I said free.

So pick a CMS that you like, and move on.

Download a Free Template and Add a Personal Touch

You don’t have to be a professional web developer to have a clean-looking website for your parish. There are tons of free templates out there that only require you to change a header logo or two in order to make it unique. A really good place to look is Joomla24, which has thousands of FREE (there’s that word again) Joomla templates.

If there are no free templates out there, you can always join a template club like Joomlart for approximately $75 a year. Not bad for some really cool looking templates.

Conclusion

Websites don’t need to be expensive and they don’t require you to hire a software engineer in order to maintain it. With a little time and research, you can have a professional looking website for your church that will cost less than a cup of coffee a day.

Update: For more tips, check out this article on the Catholic Tech Tips blog: “Can I get some ‘good’ Catholic artwork, Please?”

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© Dean Soto for Productive Catholic , 2009. | SOTO9438 | Read the article at the blog! | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Business, catholic, catholic church, cheap design, cms, content management system, extreme website, Money, Productive, web, web host service, web hosts, wed design