DiscipleMakers Systems Blog
Minimize the Boring Stuff!
Sometimes I repair computer systems that are broken. Other times I get to take something that is good and make it great. Recently I got to work on making our ministry expense handling system and try to make it great...
Now you might be wondering: what’s a “ministry expense”? It’s what companies call a “business expense”, but we’re not a business, we’re a ministry. :) So for example one of our staff needs a new laptop or some thank-you notes for their ministry - that’s a ministry expense. They just need to document why it’s needed for their ministry and DiscipleMakers will pay for it (or reimburse the staff).
Sounds pretty boring and tedious, right? It is! So why don’t we leverage the power of computers to automate it and make ministry expense handling be as small of a part of our lives as possible? Bingo! That’s what I’ve worked on lately. My goal is to help our staff who are submitting ministry expense reports and the ones who are approving them to spend as little time on it as necessary so they can move on to other more important things - like fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ!
We’re now beta testing a nice web & mobile app called Expensify which unifies and streamlines our ministry expense handling procedure. It’s been fun working with the Expensify crew as I ask them for help and overall I’ve been very impressed with their product. It’s a great fit for a ministry like DiscipleMakers and I hope that it saves our staff lots of time and energy in the years to come!
Making Things Better
“That's the way we've always done it.” Sometimes when I hear that
saying it inspires confidence in timeless traditions. Other times
it causes me to wonder if anyone knows why it's done that way
anymore. As new staff come to work at the DiscipleMakers headquarters sometimes
they are trained to do a task without a full explanation of why it's
done that way. Then as available features and operational needs
change the procedures don't always get updated to be done in the
most effective ways.
Recently the Systems Dept has been tasked with observing and
understanding some of the procedures performed at the DiscipleMakers
headquarters. Our goal is to look at the big picture and suggest
and implement improvements. We're striving to use technology tools
to get more done in less time. The results enable more staff time
to be spent directly ministering the good news of Jesus Christ to
students!
So what have we found so far?
- Opportunities to use existing software more effectively:
- “Oh, I didn't know it could do that task for me!”
- “I was wondering why we weren't using that field!”
- Manual data comparisons that can be automated or removed
- Data re-entry that can be avoided by connecting databases
together automatically
- Numerous tweaks to help reduce errors up front which saves lots of time down the road
- Labels and wording that can be made more clear so that people
aren't confused and don't have to dig into our documentation as
often
We've also learned valuable lessons in how to interface with our “customers”. It's important to hear them out and not jump to conclusions. It's also vital to enter their world and experience the problems they're facing and trying to solve. Working apart, the headquarters staff implement non-optimal solutions that can cost us big in the long run. Working together, we make a great team and can support the whole ministry well!
A Real Life Tower Defense Game
Have you ever played a tower defense video game? They're fun little strategy games that involve setting up a system of guard towers to defend against oncoming waves of attackers. The proper placement of the right types of towers will keep your fortress safe, but if you don't plan well the attackers will overrun you!
Well, protecting computers and networks is a lot like a real life tower defense game! One of my roles with DiscipleMakers is to protect the computers, data and networks at the headquarters from the attackers (most of which are automated and fairly mindless just like in the games!) seeking to steal our data and use our systems for bad stuff. If we don't take adequate measures, confidential data could be compromised and the reputation of DiscipleMakers (and by extension, the Lord) could be damaged. I don't want to see that happen. Do we need to trust the Lord to protect us? Definitely! Has he given us counter-measures that we should use against computer attackers? Absolutely!
Recently I completed a project to improve our Internet Gateway which handles firewalling and other network services and protections. It's our main "defense tower" and now it has significantly newer software and hardware than our previous setup. It's also running Ubuntu Linux which will make it much easier to keep the software up to date and secure than our previous Debian "testing" setup. Praise God for many smart people who have written great free software that we can use to advance His Kingdom!
During this project God taught me some key lessons and grew my character. I learned a lot about the importance of communication with other people about the status of the project. I also learned about how to submit when decisions were made to do things in ways other than what I would have chosen. At the end it was really encouraging to rollout the new system and see it work and rest easier that night knowing that our tower had just been upgraded with the super bazookas. :)
Meet the Department: Jason Maas
My family's first computer was a Kaypro and from the moment we got it I was hooked! In high school my friend Phil introduced me to the PC demoscene and computer programming. I even got to go to NAID '96 in Montreal, the biggest demo party ever held in North America! The Lord blessed me with the ability and desire to understand computers and in college at Penn State I studied Computer Science so that I could learn more. Little did I know what God had in mind for my computer skills...
In high school God brought to fruition the work of a number of people investing in me, especially my youth pastor at the time, Mike Laurence. I realized that when the Bible said "sinner" it didn't mean "public school kids" and that I was as much a sinner as anyone else. That realization drove me to the foot of the cross and I accepted Jesus as my lord and savior! I then got a taste of discipleship with Pastor Mike and I got a taste of missions by going on week-long missions trips in the summer. Little did I know what God was preparing me for...
At Penn State I became involved with The Navigators and then DiscipleMakers. I met my brother-in-law Ben who started discipling me and I met his little sister Deeanne who later married me! My college years were an exciting time of spiritual growth and ministry opportunities. God used campus ministries to change me in big ways and helped me to become more bold for him. Little did I know that God would lead me into full-time college ministry...
After college I went to work for IBM as a computer programmer in the realm of TCP/IP support for a "mini-computer" then called the AS/400. Deeanne and I were married and we got involved with a church and volunteered with InterVarsity at nearby Binghamton University. During this time Bill Dripps persistently recruited me to join DiscipleMakers and serve on the Systems Department at the headquarters where help was desperately needed. I was thrilled about the idea of using my computer skills to have an impact on students in the same way God impacted me during my college years. But I was scared to death about the idea of raising our own financial support! Little did I know how God would increase my faith...
At the end of 2001 we decided to take a step of faith and join DiscipleMakers, knowing that if God truly wanted us there he could meet our financial needs. He has blessed us abundantly and met all of our needs and then some! He has also blessed us with three children so far whom we love very much. DiscipleMakers leaders care a lot about my family and they help me to make them a priority so they don't get left behind in the wake of ministry. Ministering full-time with DiscipleMakers has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done! God has blown us away again and again with what he does when we have the smallest bit of faith. I love the work I get to do with computers and with people. Our staff is like a big family and I love helping them with technology so they can spend more time with students. Praise God for choosing to include me in His work of making disciples on college campuses!
P.S. My latest interest has been in making ministry software tools available as web applications so that missionaries can more readily access them from anywhere on any type of computer (or netbook, smartphone, digital photo frame, wrist watch, etc). If you know anything about how to do that or want to learn more I'd love to talk with you!
- Phone: (814) 234-7975 x528
- Email: maasj@dm.org
- Skype: jason_maas
