David Teitsma
I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI. Growing up I attended Shawnee Park CRC, where I participated in the fellowship committee, youth group, and several trips to Philadelphia as a mission trip. I attended Calvin College where I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. I helped lead mission trips to paint and restore homes in Red Lake, Minnesota for a summer through Youthworks. A semester in Honduras allowed me to see first hand what I was learning at Calvin by living with a Honduran family and taking several class trips throughout the country. Since college I have been the Technology Coordinator at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Grand Rapids.
While I enjoy using technology, I also enjoy being disconnected. My hobbies include hiking, backpacking, photography, running, swimming, and cycling, all of which draw me outside to delight in the beauty of Creation. In fact, I got the chance to spend the summer of 2008 cycling across the continent in the CRC bike tour, Sea to Sea. This not only allowed me to feed my passion for cycling, but my passion to help make a dent in the poverty of developing countries.
The first website I created was for a high school English class on the Contemporaries of Shakespeare. Since then I have developed websites for several businesses and I also maintain my own site. My current job job during the day enables me to not only help develop sites, but also focus on design and marketing materials.
Posted in: Characteristics of Kindergartners and First Graders
I taught Sunday school for this age for several years. At this age there are very fun to teach and see them grow as they explore what's around them! I can definitely see many of these things. I had to be careful though as I am sarcastic at times, and at this age they don't understand sarcasm.
Posted in: Wiggio for Ministry Groups?
This sounds intriguing. From my experience everyone has a way to collaborate but is on a different platform which makes it difficult for everyone to participate without learning something new. I'm curious if Wiggio solves this. It seems that when deciding how to collaborate you need to choose between a platform that is feature-rich and one that is familiar or used by a high percentage of the group. I would usually go with the option that more people are familiar with, otherwise participation can be low. So, Facebook or email groups are becoming / staying a easy way to connect and have good involvement / participation even they they lack important features.
Posted in: How Annoying Is the Captcha?
I think requiring the captcha based on reputation would be worthwhile, or even moderating (I imagine they would/could be moderated quickly) comments if it gets bad again.
Posted in: Using Skype to Communicate
While I haven't seen it used in a service, I have seen it widely used. I've used it personally in my small group to include a member in our meetings who was in China for several months. I seen / heard about churches doing this, but it was either recorded or they used satellites (that was at Willow Creek)
Also, TWiT is a popular tech podcast network that conferences their hosts in via skype.
It's crazy how you used to need a satellite uplink or other means at huge costs now I can use Skype for free!
Posted in: Handy Web Resources
Good recommendations. I'll add some of these to the resources on the Network.
Posted in: Recording, Streaming, and Podcasting Worship Services
Great info. Here's another blog post on the topic.
Posted in: How to Choose a Domain Name and Guidelines for Registration
Great input. I skipped my mind about how many churches do have the same name. This definitely makes having prominence in search results difficult.
I don't know about you but domains are addictive to buy. I'm up to my third personal domain now. I have several others that I want to secure, but I haven't convinced myself. What about you?
Posted in: How to Podcast Sermons
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll add something in the article about recommended ways of recording or link to some posts describing it and with tips. I see you found the forum too and discusses this. Maybe some people will be inclined to share their setup there.
There are some good devices out there for recording straight from the board, but I believe the cost increases dramatically when it records in more formats than just mp3. I'll see if I can remember them.
Posted in: Say Thanks
Thanks for the laught about the 'sound guy neck crane'! I have to admit that I've done that. I've done sound at several church and have had several times that this happened to me. I was always glad when I could do a service where I was in the zone and went unnoticed so that the congregation wouldn't have to be distracted but could focus on the intent and purpose of the service.
Posted in: Salesforce for Church - Part I
Duane, great questions. Most of these questions will be answered in part ii that's coming out soon!
Posted in: Hello from the New Guide!
Thanks! I'm excited to see what's in store!
Posted in: Does Your Website Contian Speling Errors?
Yes, You're is a common error also. I was hoping that in an article about spelling errors that I didn't make any myself. I think it's clean... :)
I read another article on the Chicago Sun Times and I was surprised there were errors in there too. I would think that newspaper articles still have editors right?