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Graphics design and social media go hand-in-hand. For the church communicator and pastor who need to have all social media channels firing at all times, knowing what sized images and graphics to use both for personal accounts as well as for church social media channels is very important to appear professional and engaged. 

I have to admit, buying a smartphone is not what I call fun. If you have piles of cash hanging around, perhaps you enjoy this process, but for the rest of us, figuring out what device to invest in is well, not a walk in the park. If you have a large mobile carrier such as AT&T, Verizon, or some other big name carrier that charges a few dollars shy of a mortgage payment for phone service, you might be able to get the latest and greatest phone, or amortize it over several years so that you aren't really aware of how much it's costing you. Once you know what plan, you can take a look at the battery life, operating system, storage size, and other features that help define your smartphone experience. 

With the advent of Pokemon Go and all the excitement last year with this augmented reality game, more technologies have been released and are currently being developed to take advantage of both augmented and virtual reality--both in secular and religious applications. In case you're already confused about what the differences between these two technologies, below is a helpful infographic with information to clarify what defines each technology.

You know the scene. You succumb to your elementary-aged child begging to play Candy Crush on your phone. Ten minutes later, your phone is down to 50% and it's only 11:00 am. You're rushing to a lunch meeting and as you hand your child back to your spouse to take an urgent call from a church member in need on the way there, you discover that your phone is suddenly down to 25% by the time you get to Panera. It's only lunchtime and you have visits and errands before making it back to your desk where you can plug in. You could join a support group for pastors with old smartphones that don't hold a charge well, or you could employ some of these helpful smartphone battery-saving tips:

From smoke signals to social media, communication tools sure have changed a lot over the years. It can be tough to try and keep up when technology has forced so many changes, at such a rapid pace. At the end of the day, getting your message across to your audience still remains a challenge, however, we have more tools at our fingertips as church communicators than ever before.

Just last month, there was a surge of ransomware attacks all over Europe that affected businesses far and wide. Church websites are also subject to these types of attacks, and so we're sharing with you this helpful infographic. For some churches, having website tech support is vital to ensure that backups are done regularly and someone is there in the event that there is a security breach.

Video isn't going anywhere. In fact, video is perhaps the fastest growing ministry tool available to churches and believers all around the world. We recently shared a helpful article that covered seven ways video can save your pastor time, and these suggestions can easily parlay into opportunities to share the Gospel and ministry of your church with a wider audience.

Where once screens were only in a few select locations - perhaps the living room - now screens ride along with us in our pockets, our purses, and our backpacks. Children have access to screens throughout the day at school and each of us, regardless of our field, use screens in some way whether we're a server at Chili's, a teacher, or business professional.