Technology at Fort Calhoun Presbyterian Church
Technology at Fort Calhoun Presbyterian Church
My involvement with the church's technology started pretty simply: I volunteered to run the worship slides and livestream on Sunday mornings. I was comfortable with the software, and it was something I could do to help.
When our pastor left, we were going through a period of transition, and some of the technology systems we'd relied on started having problems. As I worked on getting things running again, I began to realize how much of our technology had been set up over the years without much documentation or a clear plan for maintaining it.
None of this was unusual for a small church. When you have limited resources and rely on volunteers, people find ways to make things work. The problem is that those solutions aren't always easy for someone else to understand or maintain later.
What started as troubleshooting the occasional Sunday morning problem gradually turned into a much larger project. I began looking at how our systems were organized, who had access to what, what needed to be updated or replaced, and how we could make everything more reliable.
Eventually, I took on the role of volunteer Technology Director.
My background isn't in IT. I'm a Spanish teacher with a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics, but I've always been interested in technology and how things work. I also have a fairly low tolerance for doing something manually over and over when there's a reasonable way to automate it.
So I've spent a lot of time learning new things, experimenting, troubleshooting, and trying to build systems that will continue working even when I'm not the person maintaining them. At some point, I started thinking of this as my own little Sagrada FamÃlia project. Antoni Gaudà took over a project that was already underway and spent decades building something that he knew other people would have to finish. I'm certainly not comparing a small Nebraska church's technology infrastructure to one of the world's great architectural achievements, but I appreciate the idea of building something that will continue to evolve long after the person who started it is gone (and I had to get my Spanish teacher nerd content in this somehow).
I redesigned the church's website using Google Sites, replacing the previous WordPress-based site. My priorities were making it easier to navigate, easier to update, and less dependent on specialized technical knowledge. The website brings together worship information, upcoming events, ministries, calendars, and other resources in one place. I also wanted it to be something that other church volunteers could eventually maintain without needing to know how to build a website.
One of the problems with maintaining a website is keeping event information current. I didn't want to manually create and rearrange website content every time someone scheduled an activity. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted: a spreadsheet where someone could enter event information and have it automatically appear on the website. There was just one little hiccup: I don't know how to write Google Apps Script. So I worked with ChatGPT (OpenAI) to develop the system. I described what I wanted it to do, and ChatGPT generated the code. I implemented it, tested it, identified problems, and worked with ChatGPT to troubleshoot and refine the results.
The finished system uses Google Sheets and Google Apps Script to automatically generate event cards with dates, times, descriptions, locations, and images. Events appear chronologically, with separate handling for ongoing activities. I also worked with ChatGPT to develop a Google Drive Image Link Converter that makes it easier to add images to the event cards. Now, maintaining the events page is largely a matter of updating a spreadsheet rather than editing the website itself. I still don't know how to write Google Apps Script from scratch, but I knew what I wanted to accomplish and was able to use AI to make it happen. To me, that's one of the most promising uses of generative AI: not replacing people's expertise, but helping them apply it in ways that would previously have required skills they don't have.
I worked on establishing organizational accounts and services through Google Workspace for Nonprofits and Microsoft 365 for Nonprofits. One of my biggest concerns was making sure the church, rather than individual volunteers, controlled its digital resources. That meant organizing accounts, setting up shared storage and email services, configuring permissions, and figuring out how to make everything accessible to the people who need it without giving everyone administrative access. I also worked on moving resources away from personal accounts and into systems that can be passed along when church leadership or volunteers change.
Over time, organizations accumulate accounts, passwords, subscriptions, and services. Sometimes the hardest part of troubleshooting something is figuring out who actually owns the account. I've worked on organizing the church's digital accounts, managing domain and DNS settings through Cloudflare, establishing administrative and operational accounts, and documenting recovery procedures. I've also been working on multifactor authentication, access permissions, and emergency access documentation. The goal is to avoid situations where the church loses access to something important because one person is unavailable or nobody knows how it was originally configured.
I maintain and troubleshoot the technology used for worship, including the computer, projector, televisions, audio equipment, and HDMI distribution system. This has involved a fair amount of detective work. When something stops working, the challenge is often figuring out which component in a chain of connected devices is responsible. I've worked on diagnosing equipment failures, reconfiguring connections, and finding temporary solutions that allow worship services to continue while equipment is repaired or replaced. I've also configured streaming devices and tested AirPlay so that people can share presentations from their own devices without having to connect directly to the sanctuary computer.
I continue to work with the systems used to livestream worship services through YouTube and Switcher Studio. I also prepare and manage digital worship slides, including Scripture, hymns, prayers, announcements, and other service materials. Because technology doesn't always cooperate on Sunday mornings, I've developed backup options, including mobile-friendly PDF versions of the worship slides that congregation members can access using QR codes. That way, even if the sanctuary displays aren't working, people can still follow along with the service.
I've been working on making the church's televisions and presentation equipment more useful outside the sanctuary. This includes configuring Roku devices for the sanctuary and planning installations in the youth group room and fellowship hall, with options for AirPlay and guest streaming access. The idea is to make it easier for church groups and visitors to use the equipment without needing someone to troubleshoot connections every time.
A lot of technology problems become much more complicated when nobody has written down how things work. I've been documenting equipment configurations, account information, operating procedures, and troubleshooting steps. That includes instructions for using the sanctuary audiovisual equipment, streaming devices, and other systems. I want someone else to be able to walk into the church, follow the instructions, and use the equipment without having to call me.
I've also been helping the church make decisions about technology purchases, repairs, and ongoing support. That includes researching equipment, comparing options, and evaluating managed IT services. A small church doesn't need a full-time IT employee, but it still faces many of the same security and maintenance issues as larger organizations. I've been working on identifying which things volunteers can reasonably handle and where professional support makes sense.
This has been an interesting extension of the work I've done throughout my teaching career. I've learned a great deal about website development, scripting, cloud administration, networking, audiovisual systems, and information security. Most of that learning has happened because I encountered a problem and needed to figure out how to solve it.
I enjoy that process. I like understanding how things work, and I especially like finding ways to make complicated or repetitive tasks simpler. But the most important lesson has been that a good technology solution isn't just one that works. It's one that other people can use, understand, and maintain long after the original architect is gone. That's what I've been trying to accomplish at the church.