Jamie Booth

Quite often as a children’s pastor I get asked by parents what I recommend to keep their kids safe online.  This is an important question for parents to ask.  The average kid is first exposed to pornography on the internet at age 11.  And beyond pornography, there is a lot of other junk online as well.

There are also a lot of great tools out there to protect kids, and one that I always recommend is Covenant Eyes (http://www.covenanteyes.com/).  The thing I love about Covenant Eyes is that it is more than a filter, it also provides accountability so parents can see when and where their kids are trying to test the limits.

If you have never been heard of Covenant Eyes before I would encourage you to watch the video below to see what it is all about.  Or you could simply come out to parenting class this Sunday that Pastor Clark and I are teaching.  We are going to be meeting in Room 106 at 10:15.  This week we are talking about how parents can monitor and have good conversations with their children regarding the internet, cell phones, television, video games, the whole deal.

Here is the Covenant Eyes promo video….

If you can’t see the video above simply click here.

I was recently asked what some of my favorite iPhone apps are.  Here is my current list….

1. Amazon.com –  When I hear about a book (or just about anything) I want, I can add it to my wishlist right away from my phone.

2.  Amazon Kindle – I haven’t read a lot of books digitally yet, but I love having my books automatically synced between my phone, work and personal computers.

3. Bank of America – Most of my personal banking accounts are held at Bank of America, so this app allows me to do some mobile banking.

4. BBC World News – I use a few different news apps, but this is the one I frequent most often.

5.  Dropbox – Dropbox allows me to access files stored on my computer when I am away from my desk.

6. eWallet – eWallet is where I keep all my personal and work usernames and passwords.  I am one of those people that has a different password for almost everything, so occasionally I forget one and have to look it up.

7. Facebook - I am not the biggest Facebook user, but I usually check in once a day.  Quite often that is while I am waiting somewhere and only have access to my phone.

8. Mint – I use mint.com to handle my personal finances.  This  app allows me to keep up to-to-date on all my accounts.

9. Pandora – I use Pandora more on my desktop than on my phone, but it is my favorite music streaming service.

10. PhotoShop Mobile – This is a newer one for me, but for a iPhone app it has some pretty amazing photo editing abilities.

11. Twitterrific - Keeps me up to-to-date on what is going on in Twitterverse.

12. YouVersion Bible – In my opionion, hands down the best Bible software out there for the iPhone.  40 plus translations of the Bible, reading plans, and much more.

13. WordPress – This allows me to manage the blog on the road.

14. xMarks – xMarks keeps my bookmarks in sync between my work and personal computers, and my phone.

These are my favorites.  What are yours? What am I missing?

My blog has been in need of some updating, so I gave it a facelift this week.   Hope you like the changes! The new format will allow me more flexibility in promoting upcoming events at the church and I also think it looks a whole lot sharper.

Let me know your thoughts!?

According to Children’s Ministry Magazine and compete.com the top 5 most visited children’s ministry websites are…

1. ministry-to-children.com
2. childrensministry.com
3. kidology.org
4. kidzmatter.com
5. cmconnect.org

I am familiar with all but one of these.  What other good sites are there out there for children’s ministry?

I had been wanting to try You Version Live out for several weeks now, and I finally had my chance this past Sunday.  It was neat to have people following along with my sermon points, and scriptures on their cell phones. Not everyone was able to participate as you have to have a compatible phone, but for those who were able, everyone I spoke with afterwards said they appreciated the added feature.

Not saying we will use it for all of our services at Calvary, but I am sure it something I will include with many of my sermons.  Check it out for yourself.  http://www.youversion.com/live/all.  If you click on “groups” and search for “Calvary Christian Church”, you can join and follow our group.

Here are a few free ideas I have found that are making my life a little easier to manage… 

1. xMarks – Keeps all the bookmarks I have saved synchronized on all my computers.  So whether I am at work, at home, or traveling, I have every bookmark accessible that I have saved, regardless of the computer I saved it on.  www.xmarks.com

2. Dropbox – Keeps all my files synchronized, accessible on every computer and backed up.  And hey, the beginner version is free!  https://www.getdropbox.com

3. TweetDeck – Allows for an easy way to post and track multiple people on both Twitter and Facebook, without getting overwhelmed.  http://www.tweetdeck.com/

4. Google Docs – Great way to share documents with the team at church.  http://docs.google.com/

5. Google Reader – Easy way to follow multiple blogs without having to go to each persons site, or get every post emailed to you.  Just log in and read.  http://www.google.com/reader/

6. Google Groups – Easy way to think through an idea with the team.  Simply create a post and let others chime in with their thoughts and ideas.  http://groups.google.com/

7. Logmein – Remote control several computers from any other computer.  Works well for troubleshooting without having to physically go to the broken computer.  https://secure.logmein.com/US/home.aspx

8. Mint – Still experimenting with this one a bit, but an easy way to track your finances online for free.  http://www.mint.com/

I'm sure there are other great free sites and apps out there, what are they?