XPIRITMENTAL is a resource that is designed to inspire creativity and conversation among Christ-followers. It's a place to share thoughts on marketing, design, service, technology and culture.

For years we've been getting asked by people as to whether or not we have a business version of AdvancedMinistry. Well the wait is finally over! Introducing BarkBuilder (beta), AdvancedMinistry's business platform. With BarkBuilder, entrepreneurs can now use the power behind AdvancedMinistry in their businesses!

BarkBuilder is named after Electricurrent's sister company, Bark Communications. Whereas Electricurrent (the creators of AdvancedMinistry) focus on building brands for ministries, Bark Communications focuses on building brands for businesses. Both companies employ the same group of people; it's simply two different marketing arms.

To view BarkBuilder, visit www.barkbuilder.com. From there, select an industry -- “Business Edition” will be the one you want. (We are currently in the process of forming partnerships in different industries so that we can offer specific versions of the platform to each industry, thereby enhancing the experience of each one.)

We are very excited to finally have BarkBuilder off the ground and into beta (testing) mode. Over the next few months, both AdvancedMinistry and BarkBuilder will continue to grow and expand in its service offering. Both platforms are built off of the exact same codebase, meaning that if we make a major addition to one platform, the other benefits as well! Additionally, if we find a bug in one platform, one simple fix will cover both AdvancedMinistry and BarkBuilder.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. We are very excited to see what the Lord has in store for the upcoming year!

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As a follow up to the article I posted yesterday, I read an interesting article today on CNet entitled “HTML vs. Flash: Can a turf war be avoided?” If your interested in the future of Flash and how it will affect your ministry or organization, this article is an interesting read. Here is a quote from the article:

“HTML vs. Flash has the potential to become a religious war. As long as there have been programming languages, there have been arguments about which tool is the best for getting the job done, and this issue has some extra elements that add some emotion to the mix.

There are plenty of Firefox-using open-source fans who chafe at proprietary plug-ins, and they're accustomed to making their opinions heard. Another group enjoys bashing Flash as a conduit for in-your-face online advertising. Add a little Apple iPad love-hate invective into the mix, and you've got great potential for Flash bashing...

...Indeed, it's probably wiser to take a deep breath and accept that both technologies will prevail and neither will conquer the other any time soon.”

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For anyone that's been following the recent news of Apple's new iPad, one of the most apparent things that people noticed (besides its lack of GPS and camera) was it's inability to display Flash within websites. Apple seems to blame it on Adobe, but Adobe today released a very interesting response which can be found here.

As we move into the next five years, it will be interesting to see whether or not Flash will play a critical role in websites as we know them today. HTML 5 offers a lot of new features and technologies, but as to whether or not it's a replacement to Flash, the jury is still out.

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Here is the third fulfilled request for an Xpiritmental wallpaper. This one was from a friend of mine and it will be interesting to talk to him and see what he thinks and if it came close to any of the ideas he may have had. This design centres on Matthew 7:13-14 where Jesus explains the difference between the wide and narrow gates and where the paths lead for those that enter them. I was about to recreate a PowerPoint slide I did last year for these verses at a larger size, but then another idea hit me. I created this large labyrinth maze as a visual for the scripture. The cool thing here is that the maze actually works, there is a solution for it. So not only will it nicely decorate your monitor but when you have some free time you can actually work on finding your way through it.

I am looking forward to comments from those that are frustrated by it and and those that are able to solve it.

Xpiritmental No. 66
The Narrow Gate
Matthew 7:13-14



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Here's a fun experiment:

Take a few minutes and walk around your office and without any set up, just ask five people: "If you were to explain who we are to someone outside the organization, what would you say?"

You might be interested to find out what each of them have to say...I know I am.

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Communication is a two-way street right? Well, maybe. But there's lots of times when communication becomes entirely one-sided. It occurs when one person really wants to communicate something but the other has no interest in hearing it. Companies with garbage products do this a lot...and fail. Lots of them use tactics of repetition (read annoyance) in order to make sales happen, but that doesn't build brand loyalty and as such, it's an unsustainable model.

So it's important to ask yourself: “is my audience interested in the message I'm sending?” If not, then what? Well, at that point, it's time to stop and take stock of what it is that your audience does value and reconsider how to approach them with your message. It will feel a lot like being responsible for both speaking and listening...and that's perfectly ok...right where a good communicator needs to be.

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We get asked on fairly regular basis if we can provide a complete list of everything that AdvancedMinistry has to offer. Typically we point people to the Pricing page which gives a list of everything, however, it doesn't provide a detailed account of each module does.

As of today you can now find a complete list of features along with a screenshot of each one. Click here to view them now.

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For years now, we've been asked by many of our customers as to whether or not we have a corporate version of AdvancedMinistry. Our response up to this point has been, “No, unfortunately not... but maybe one day.”

Well, that day has finally arrived; the corporate version of AdvancedMinistry is finally here. The name of our new product along with its pricing model will be announced next week.

Stay tuned!

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Here is another fulfilled request for an Xpiritmental reader. One of our readers suggested that we do a wallpaper for John 3:16. This is probably the most well known verse in the New Testament. It is one that had been on my mind for a while and I had to this point been avoiding doing something for this verse for that very reason. Because it is so well known I was having a hard time visualizing something that I thought would be appropriate or inspiring. So after some exploring I did something that I feel is simple and puts a lot of emphasis on the words. Then I surrounded the verse with a piercing, glorious light that could be interpreted as God's presence. The mission I gave myself going into this one was to create an image that made the word's look as important as they read. I think I was successful. I hope everyone enjoys using it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Xpiritmental No. 65
Eternal Life
John 3:16



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