How vulnerable is your church or school to hacking? On this episode of WELSTech learn why vigilant training on threat avoidance is important in ministry settings and find links to available (and many times free) resources to assist with those efforts. Sallie shares a family friendly YouTube channel and Martin has some hardware to detect those pesky leaks.

“The single most hackable piece of any computer system is, unfortunately, the people.” – Cybersecurity Basics for Churches from Concordia Technology Solutions

The weakest link – Martin and Sallie share ideas regarding church and school digital security and ongoing training.

A new season of WELSTech begins

The WELSTech summer tips and tricks keep coming with this week’s rundown of church marketing ideas courtesy of Grace Ungemach. Set a goal and see what changes may take place in your outreach efforts. Sallie’s got new hardware, Martin has a new Inbox, and WELS Intersections is talking about church communication guidelines. You don’t want to miss this jam-packed episode!

Get SMART – Martin and Sallie’s discussion springboards off of a recent newsletter article titled 10 SMART goals for church marketing by Grace Ungemach at lutheran.marketing. From avatars to Instagram, email opens to runways, you are sure to find at least one goal to adopt, personalize for your church or school, and learn from.

Out tips & tricks summer series wrap-up

Tune in to WELSTech 755 for a discussion on church social media graphics, including examples and templates to follow. Martin shares his latest gadget pick, plus we talk about a Facebook guide on branding your digital community.

Why Social Media Graphics Matter – Martin and Sallie discuss the ins and outs of social media graphics, including keeping it simple, being consistent, using branding, and templating the designs.

See you in August for more tips & tricks!

Tune in to WELSTech 754 for tips and tricks related to church photography. There’s also discussion regarding finding an icon for any need and the effect of AI on mission outreach. Plus the WELSTech Google Group is in the spotlight with lots of great input on the topic of cyber security training.

Click, click, click – Martin and Sallie discuss a recent blog post from Concordia Technology Solutions titled 10 Tips for Capturing Impactful Photos of Church Activities.

Recent conversations in the WELSTech Google Group

More tips & tricks to come!

This week on WELSTech we reveal ways to write church announcements which get the word out on needed topics without being ignored by those you’re trying to reach. AI weaves itself throughout the conversation from personalized AI in picks of the week, an overview of the AI for Education site, and new rules around AI for Google students of all ages. Plus, Android users will be happy to interact with their text messages from their computer.

Announcing … – Martin and Sallie discuss challenges that crop up when writing church announcements and guidelines that keep your announcements concise and action driven.

Come back for our next tips & tricks summer installment

Welcome to WELSTech summer series 2025! Join us as we talk about practical tips and tricks to make public and personal ministry efficient and effective. The series kickoff focus is church office communication. Martin and Sallie share AI picks of the week, and there’s a Chromebook discussion thread in the WELSTech Google group.

Church Staff Communication – Martin and Sallie chat about tools, etiquette, and standards around church staff communication. In-person or digital, response expectations, and collaboration are all pieces of the communication puzzle. Having best practices in place makes for smooth office operations.

From the WELSTech Google group – Teacher Michael Vlieger from Risen Savior in Mankato, MN asked about Chromebook repurposing after

Come back for our next tips & tricks summer installment

This episode of WELSTech features an interview with Pastor Nate Seiltz who recently creating 3 albums of music without singing or playing a note himself. With AI at his fingertips, he transformed his ideas for gospel outreach music into reality, and you can to! We also share survey results regarding church use of AI, a handy (AI-generated) summary of recent tech news with an emphasis on its impact on the church, and ideas for using AI to extend the impact of your weekly sermon.

Music for outreach – Pastor Nate Seiltz, Director of WELS Multi-Language Publications, talked with Martin and Sallie about his recent AI-assisted production of 3 albums of songs geared toward sharing the good news of salvation in Christ. His artist name is Freetide. “Free” because grace is free, and he is free from sin and eternal death in Christ. “Tide” signifies movement, the Holy Spirit’s work in him through His Word and movement in his life as he lives by grace.

The WELSTech co-hosts for all things edtech are driving this episode as we wrap up our SAMR focus with how it assists education leaders. We also introduce the AI Assessment Scale, a tool for clearly stating acceptable levels of AI use. Rachel has new headphones for “weird” ears that don’t like earbuds, and Jason shares a tool that uses AI to create individual student feedback. Bonus: It’s also a time-saver for teachers.

SAMR and Leadership – We close out our season-long look at the SAMR framework for education technology integration with our favorite edtech gurus, Dr. Rachel Renno, Director of Academic Computing for Martin Luther College, and Jason Schmidt, Director of Technology for Oshkosh (WI) Area School District. School leaders may find policy creation and maintenance challenging, but policies are definitely worth the effort as they provide needed structure to make decision making easier. And while a dedicated AI policy may not be needed, incorporating AI guidelines into standard policies – Acceptable Use, Academic Integrity, Data Privacy, etc. – is wise.

Welcoming visitors and tracking attendance are the topics of the day on WELSTech 749. We’ve got an interview on a kiosk worship check in system which is guaranteed to make you smile, plus examples of paper attendance tracking and guest welcome stations. We also kick the tires on the recently updated WELS Call Report, share free AI prompt training, and highlight an enjoyable read on all things domain name related.

Attendance tracking and visitor welcome – Martin and Sallie talk with Pastor Clark Schultz from Shepherd of the Hills, West Bend, WI about their digital check in process. The discussion continues with a look at examples of Connection cards and

Jason and Rachel finish out our school year SAMR focus with a discussion of Leadership and EdTech.

Welcome to Holy Week 2025, and a warm WELSTech welcome to art educator Lori Ehlke. Lori shares her path from art and Spanish teacher through Covid shutdown to YouTube fame, and how she benefitted from learning as she went and being consistent with her work. BONUS: Lori’s work isn’t confined to the K-12 classroom. We have a ministry resource idea that may resonate with adults in your community and congregation. Grab your brush, and tune in.

Dude Perfect and art collide – Art educator Lori Ehlke chatted with Martin and Sallie about how she, with her easy-to-follow art tutorials, became a YouTube star with 560+ videos and over 11,000 subscribers, and her best advice for your similar efforts.

Follow Lori at …

Attendance tracking