Kyle Kutter

Special Mother’s Day performance by Committed

Kyle Kutter — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:06:16 +0000

I have had the opportunity to be the “promoter” for many of the special services with guest musical artists at The Ark Church. We have made it a tradition of bringing in a special musical act for Mother’s Day and this year’s talent was even more special to me personally.

In December 2010, Stephanie and I got hooked on NBC’s second season of the vocal competition tv show “The Sing-Off.” We both gravitated to one group in particular that we felt stood out above the rest and that 6-man a cappella group was Committed. After their remix performance of “Apologize” by One Republic I looked at Steph and said, “We need to have them at The Ark!”

Well, 18 months later Committed made the trip from Huntsville, AL to perform live during our 2 Sunday morning Mother’s Day services. One thing unique during this “promoter” experience is I made a request for a certain song to be performed and it was one that Committed doesn’t unusually perform in their live show. With it being Mother’s Day and knowing these guys have been musically inspired by Boy II Men (they said that during The Sing-Off) I thought “A Song For Momma” was a very fitting song for the event.

The coolest part of this story is the guys of Committed agreed to learn and perform the song live for The Ark. It was so amazing getting to experience their music live and especially that song (and I am not even a mom). Big thanks to Therry, Tommy, Maurice, Robbie and DJ for such a great performance!

Also, big shout out to my wife Stephanie for the original idea of them performing that song! Love you babe and Happy Mother’s Day!

Getting & Maintaining Staff Buy-In | Fellowship One Conference #DC12

Kyle Kutter — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:56:55 +0000

Last week I had the opportunity to be a presenter at Active Network | Faith’s “Dynamic Church Conference” in Plano, Texas. This was the third conference I had been to for Fellowship One and I was looking forward to the chance to share about a topic that is close to my heart.

During the 6 month implementation of Fellowship One at The Ark Church plus the 2 years that we have been operating strong on the software there has been a lot of “staff buy-in” that I have had to get and maintain. With any major change there is always the opportunity for people to get their toes stepped on or feelings hurt. With the application of these 4 simple principles from this session, “Getting & Maintaining Staff Buy-In”, I believe you can implement a new way of doing “back-end ministry” while keeping your whole church staff energized and enthusiastic about the change.

I was definitely excited to getting the chance to share (twice) at #DC12 but I was even more excited the fact that my friend Becky Grothe was joining the session to share her experiences with this topic while she has served at New Life Church in Colorado Springs as the Membership & Guest Relations Pastor.

It was truly an honor and I hope all that attend were able to hear my heart for all church staffs and be able to apply some of these principles back at their home church.

Here is a quick overview of my notes plus the downloads of the PowerPoint slides and my personal speaking notes (PDF). Enjoy!

1) Software is not the only Solution

“Your data is only as good as what you put into it.”
Fellowship One (and all other software) is not perfect
Adapt your processes to maximize the software
Systems Trinity: People, Process, Technology

2) Getting Staff Buy-In

“Every person has a reason they are in ministry. Tap into that reason and show them how F1 can accomplish that.”
Cast Vision
Handle the “Debbie Downers”
Roam the halls

3) Speaking the Leadership Language

“Reports are not just numbers, make them speak to values of your church.”
360 profile – Power of knowing their name
Productivity = More Ministry

4) The Champion In You

All church staff seeing Champion Team as resource
Having representative/voice on Leadership level
Building a Champion Team

Download PowerPoint Slide
Download speaking notes

Under Pressure – Message Series Artwork

Kyle Kutter — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:20:01 +0000

Under Pressure was a message series at The Ark Church where I serve as MediaPastor. Our Senior Pastor, Alan Clayton, described the series the following way:

“We’re all familiar with the pressure of the last second kick, the important exam or a job interview. Moments like that have the ability to define our lives, but are usually infrequent. Reality is that all of us deal with pressure on many different levels everyday, and how we handle that pressure can shape our future and impact the lives of the people around us. God never promised a life without pressure, but He did promise His help and His peace. With God, handling pressure is possible!”

In this download we included:

Title Slide
Logo Slide
Scripture Slide
Lower Third Template
PT Sans Font
Video Intro Bumper (via vimeo)

To listen to the messages from this series visit www.thearkchurch.com/media

Kudos to the creative team – @rperkinstweets and @clay_hestilow

Church Series Design – Starting Strong

Kyle Kutter — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:51:42 +0000

Starting Strong was our first series for 2012 here at The Ark Church. I was so excited to see the media team take this series from title, concept, design, and done so quickly. The concept was a taken from the Kayak.com brand. We liked the series design so much that we thought we would make it available for free download for anyone else to use.

In this download we included:

Title Slide
Logo Slide
Scripture Slide
Intro Bumper

To listen to the messages from this series visit www.thearkchurch.com/media

A full description of how the Intro Bumper was made is available in the description on our vimeo page.

Big shout out to @rperkinstweets and @clay_hestilow

Just a Little

Kyle Kutter — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:40:07 +0000

I am big believer of adding “just a little” to my designs and the new facebook app loading page has done just that!

Notice the very light gradient of blue in the background, the oh so faint texture that gives the background a certain dimension, plus the maybe 25% drop shadow behind the word facebook that cause it stand off the screen. I know it is small but to me it adds that needed “pop” to what could be a bland solid blue screen.

It is not too much, it’s just a little!

Power of Gowalla Check In

Kyle Kutter — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:05:48 +0000

I am always amazed at the power of the internet and what a few iPhone check-ins with Gowalla can do for your personal SEO.

Thanks to Brandy Badger for this photo!

Cloud-based Church Management software

Kyle Kutter — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:00:55 +0000

I know the concept of “cloud computing” freaks some people out. For some it offers a sense of freedom. The Ark Church moved to a cloud based church management software, Fellowship One, a year and a half ago and have never looked back. I had the honor of sharing our church’s story of making the big move during the Fellowship One Dynamic Church Conference back in May 2011.

Here is that story shot and edited by the amazing story teller Matt Knisely.

Cloud-based Church Management with Fellowship One from Fellowship One, Church Software on Vimeo.

Kyle is part of a large church near Houston that went from an old system where they managed their own software and hardware to Fellowship One’s 100% web-based (on the cloud) church management software.

The difference has been dramatic, with the church making the change and reaping the benefits.

Welcome Koen Christopher Kutter

Kyle Kutter — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:15:48 +0000

Today Stephanie and I welcome to the world and to our family our first born child, Koen. It has been an amazing journey over the past 4 years as Steph and I held onto the promise from God that we would have children. This morning at 10:42am that promise came to life (literally) when Koen Christopher Kutter was born weighing in at 7lbs 6oz and measured 19.75 inches tall.

We want everyone to know that he is truly a miracle baby. It’s because of the years of prayers from family, friends and friends of friends plus the miraculous power of God that he is with us today. So thank you to all (you know who you are) that have stood in faith along side Steph and I over the years as we have prayed Koen’s life into existent. We love you all!

As a special visual treat…

Thanks to my best friend, Joey Mathews, with 31Films for making this video documenting today’s arrival of Koen.

Plus thanks to my sister, Jamie, with Jamie Kutter Photography for capturing the entire delivery. Here is just a teaser, more photos are to come!

How Your Customers’ Social Circles Influence

Kyle Kutter — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:10:42 +0000

Read the “7 takeaways from a Facebook Masterclass” from Bryan Person

Fellowship One iPad Check-In Explained

Kyle Kutter — Sun, 22 May 2011 17:22:00 +0000

First, I want to thank our IT Systems Administrator, Nate Saffle, for spear heading the advancement of our Fellowship One iPad check-in here at The Ark Church.

At our church we have designated check-in areas throughout the building. At each area we have 1-2 self check-in computers (with touch screens and “Ark Pass” scanners) plus at least 1 assisted with a single volunteer to manage the 3 computers. Plus throughout our campus we have mobile check-in stations that are a single computer/screen/printer/scanner on wheels. These are used to support the heavy traffic areas of our building and are moved around based on the day of week and service.

Elementary Check-In Station Area

With the addition of iPad check-in plus the ability to select almost any printer from the Fellowship One application we now are able to equip “roamers” to monitor the length of our lines and then offer relief.

iPad Screenshot with Printer Selection in Fellowship One

A few disclaimers:
1. This solution is not a check-in station replacement. For our campus, forming lines and having established check-in stations works well with our architecture. And to have selectable printers, we rely on the existing check-in stations and the printers attached to them.
2. This solution still relies on a Windows-based machine. This is not a Mac version or iOS version of the check-in software. We have taken the existing iPad Check-in “recipe” and have implemented it in more a server format.
3. This explanation assumes that you are reading this with some IT experience or have capable IT staff that will assist. We can not go into every single detail of the setup, it would simply take too much time and every network is setup differently. We can only show an overview of what we did and let you adapt it to your network.
4. The iPad and iPad Check-in Server must be on the same IP subnet. If they are on different subnets the connection will not function. If you’re not sure if they are, contact your IT or Technical staff.

Now, let’s look at the details of how we did it.

We used the following item for setup:
1. Windows Server 2003 machine with Terminal Services Licensing. (Bear in mind that it has to have the Terminal Services Licensing component. If you do not have this you will be limited to 2 concurrent connections i.e. only 2 iPads at a time to use for checkin)
2. iPad with a remote desktop app installed (We’ve used iRDesktop and WinAdmin and both work pretty well)
3. Multiple Windows-based check-in stations with Printer sharing enabled and sharing the Zebra Printer attached

First make sure your Windows Server 2003 machine has a static IP. Then set up Terminal Services licensing to allow unlimited concurrent connections and set up the machine with local profiles named iPad1 – iPad5. Edit these accounts to look exactly the same with all the shared printers added.

Next, download the remote desktop app of your choice to your iPad. Once downloaded, set up a connection to your iPad Check-in Server.

iPad Remote Desktop App Setup

Be sure to test the connection to make sure you can connect. If you are able to log in and see the Windows desktop, your connection is working.

Keep in mind your check-in server needs to be wired. Fellowship One strongly recommends to use wired checkin stations due to the need for the check-in stations to connect to the internet. Wireless connections can be finicky and using a wireless device to interface with another wireless device just gives too many points of failure. Therefore if you attempt this with a wireless Windows Server, you will have issues.

Once setup, the process for checkin is simple:
1. Connect to the iPad Check-in Server
2. Run Fellowship One Check-in and enter the Activity or Super Check-in Code
3. In the Menu, hit the “Select Default Printer” button.
4. Choose the Printer of your choice
5. Begin Assisted Check-in