Getting your pastoral life organisedPosts in this series
It wouldn't take much reading of my steps for getting organised to realise that I consider a computer to be an important part of my life.
And so I should give a little advice on getting computers for pastoral ministry.
Get a fast computer
There is no point wasting time waiting ten minutes for a computer to boot or two minutes to open a program. Such time is wasted time and could have been used for something else. So buy a reliable fast computer.
But to have a fast computer does not mean you have to buy the most expensive top of the range model. Computer hardware has become faster and faster and costs less and less. Most baseline models are sufficient for pastors to do office based functions.
However as time rolls on the operating system on your new computer will upgrade automatically and the hardware will struggle more and more.
So I factor into my budget a new computer every two years. Now this may seem excessive but in reality it isn't. A computer does many of the functions that a full time secretary would have done for ministers in the past. And a full time secretary costs an awful lot more than any baseline computer. So see your fast computer as an excellent investment and upgrade regularly.
Get a decent warranty
Computer hardware will expire from time to time. I've had hard drives, screens, power cords, disc drives all give up the ghost on me within three years of purchase. It's just a fact of the fall. So pay a bit extra and get a good warranty.
My computers usually come with a next-business day hardware replacement warranty where someone from the company arrives the very next day after the phone call to replace the part. This usually costs a couple of hundred extra dollars but has been well worth it.
Get a laptop
Laptops used to be extremely expensive and only for the wealthy. But now laptops are cheaper than desktops were in the past.
And laptops are great for the pastor due to their portability. As a minister you will need access to your work outside the office and home. Having a laptop makes moving around a breeze.
Get an external keyboard and mouse
If you do get a laptop, using the cramped keyboard and mouse are going to slow you down microscopically which adds up over time (plus it's probably not good for your hands and wrists).
So when you are at your desk, make sure there is an external keyboard and mouse waiting for you.
Get a second monitor
You can't have too much screen space. It is a blessing to have calendars and lists on one screen and documents on another. Or to compare documents side by side.
Although I do realise there is only so much space that you can afford to put the monitors in, you should at least buy a relatively cheap second screen and have your laptop display with it.
If I've managed to convince you to get a second monitor but don't know where to start, there are plenty of guides on the internet, like here for example.
Also, if you can, get a large LCD monitor that rotates from the horizontal to the vertical. It makes reading lots of PDFs so much easier.
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