I recently finished reading the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs and I quite liked it.

I especially enjoyed learning about how many of the Apple products like the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad were created. But my big take away from the Isaacson book was that none of these actually represent Jobs' greatest creation.

Jobs' best invention was Apple - the company - itself.

Apple famously began in Jobs' garage. He and Steve Wozniak hit it big with the Apple II and then really big with the Macintosh. Apple took off, but then Jobs almost destroyed it. His temperment and behavior tore Apple apart until the board had no choice but to fire him. In his wilderness years, he created the NeXT computer system and then found lightening in a bottle with Pixar. His triumphant return and subsequent accomplishments at Apple has been called the greatest second act in business.

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the annual Rocky Mountain Synod Theological Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. I presented material from my forthcoming book with Elizabeth Drescher, Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible, much of which was inspired by my home congregation.

I shared how a strategic goal Redeemer established in 2008 of "improving communications" led to our push into the new world of social media and the subsequent redesigns of our church website. I relayed many of the real life experiences and learnings of our congregation from these last four years.

It was gratifying to see how the things we learned in what I described at the conference as our "wonderfully average" congregation could help other pastors and ministry leaders in using social media, engaging digital culture, and thinking about how we are church today and how we will be church in the future.

I believe one of the major underlying reasons many congregations and pastors are reluctant to adopt social media for ministry is because historically we have had such low expectations when it comes to ministry leaders and technology.

Think about it.

Everyone has a favorite Steve Jobs moment.

Mine is an rather unlikely one.

It's the 20 minute presentation Jobs made to the Cupertino City Council on June 7, 2011 to introduce Apple's plans for a new corporate headquarters, affectionately known as "the mothership."

This presentation caught my attention because it happened on the heals of Jobs' big introduction of OSX Lion, iOS5 and iCloud at annual Apple World Wide Developers Conference.

I laughed that even Steve Jobs had to deal with the local politics and I wondered how he would perform on someone else's much smaller stage. So, I watched.

People sometimes drive many miles to church on Sunday - but that's not the only commute they have to make. 

They also have to make a cultural commute.

They commute from our present day culture to a church culture largely created 30, 40, 50 years ago.

This kind of cultural commuting hit home for me on a recent trip to Springfield, Massachusetts and the Student Prince German restaurant.

Summertime in the church is often a time to gear back and take stock of our ministry.

We review the last program year and plan the next one. We map out worship, adult education, youth ministry, Confirmation, Sunday School, service projects, and the list goes on.

But what about our communications?

Do we take time to step back and evaluate how we are communicating? Summer is a great time to do this.  Here's how: