Fun with Church Websites - Easy! Quick! Limited Time Only!

Problems with Church Websites
[from personal experience and researched data]

1. Churches often believe they need a website but have not really thought out what they want it to do.
2. A techie does the site, but then leaves the church or becomes too busy. Site grows out-of-date.
3. This often gets repeated many times as it has in our church.
4. No one but the techie can change it, so soon it is not really up to date.
5. It does not encourage communication between members the way Facebook and other social sites do.
6. Often a professional is hired and makes a beautiful site for a BEAUTIFUL price. Seldom is it built for easy updating or communicating new info to members and the public.
7. If you want it updated the pro has to do it and that costs MORE money.
   
8. Does it really communicate what your church's purpose is to the world of cyberspace?
9. Does it connect your members?
   
10. All-in-one websites are very satisfying and accomplish many purposes.
1. Informing visitors and members about what is going on currently
2. Connecting people and groups within your church
3. Can be updated by anyone with very little training if you can use a word processor
4. Can inform members of sudden events between Sunday's such as the death of a senior member, the birth of a baby, a victory in someone's life so that all may celebrate
5. Appear to the general observer looking for a church that here is a church which is up-to-date, active and alive

Here are three of the sites I have found, each of which is a solution for most of the problems presented above.

Hosting, informing, domains, updating, newsletters, event calendars are all contained in one place.

Each of these sites have free trials.

Advanced Ministry ranges from free to so comprehensive that you can a store so that members can have access to purchasing materials and books being studied in various groups within the church. The price range is the best I have found anywhere.

Just recently I helped a small church here in Niagara to get a website that they could maintain themselves. If you are interested see WindMill-Point-Church

This Church has a different philosophy which gives you everything available on the site but just a bit less storage space for smaller churches.

More and more churches are turning to comprehensive all-in-one websites like those at Advanced Ministry, or This Church or ChurchFlock.com [a demo site for MyFlock]
Probably the MOST important use for these sites is that ANYONE with a little instruction can update the section of the site for their small group. The church secretary can update the event info weekly or as often as needed.

No professional is needed [with apologies to web pros]. A workman IS worthy of his hire.

Any discussion about this would be welcome. Constructive disagreement is NEVER disagreeable (:-).

I have spent many hours poring over sites on the web and forums and listening to the tribulations of churches with out-of-date websites which are not a good witness to the world about your church.

I have found sites which give excellent tips for effective church sites. Contact me directly at churchmedia@cpedley.com or through the group as you prefer if you would like individual help with this changing field.

We live in an age of connection. People are "crying out" to be noticed. If this were not true why is Facebook so successful EVEN among Christians? Why is there a Twitter? Why has GodTube changed to Tangle?

It seems that every time I do a bit of web searching I find new sites which tend toward social interaction. A few years ago Plaxo was a way to store your email addresses on the web so you could get them from anywhere. Now it too is changing into a social interaction site.

It is a phenomenon that a church which wants to minister to the current needs of society cannot ignore forever.

At the same time it solves the problem of static, out-of-date websites which do not represent your active church or which drain too much money from church coffers which could be used for the ministry that Jesus left for us.

The Great Commission

¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." NIV Mathew 28: 16-20

Is there any better use for the Lord's money or your time?

Sincerely,

Charles G. Pedley
905-228-2161
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Leveraging Technology for Ministry

Leveraging Technology for Ministry I recently came across some interesting statistics with regard to the Church and the use of the internet. The resource stated that in 1998, 17 percent of churches reported having web sites but today, that number is 44 percent. Another interesting data point is that seventy-four percent of all church attenders nationwide are in churches with a web site. This tells me that while only 44 percent of the churches have web sites (which I still find surprising), those churches with web sites are attended by 3 out of every 4 persons attending church anywhere. At my church (AliveChurch.com), the leadership has consistently tried to leverage the power of the internet and they're still learning new ways to reach people for Christ. They've been through some major transitions over the past 12 months with some incredible results. One area where they've matured by leaps and bounds is in the use of video on the web. A year ago while still meeting in a local high school, we were diligent to video tape each teaching service with a member's camcorder then post that video onto our web site using the services of Google Video. Almost every new visitor to our church checked us out online before they came in person and one of the more popular areas on our site was our sermons area. In February of '08 we moved into our new building and soon decided to take the video to the next level. The leadership embraces the one church/multiple sites philosophy, so they launched another campus on the other side of town and turned to the internet to broadcast the teaching from the main campus to this satellite campus meeting in an elementary school. Since they relied on the internet broadcast to the satellite campus, the leadership decided to also offer the services live on the internet to anyone interested in attending. We started by simply embedding the video stream onto one of our web site pages. One thing led to another and the church leadership decided that they would make the internet site into a full-blown web campus. The church hired a full-time "web pastor" and focused on making the live web service a more interactive, rewarding experience for those attending online. The church employed the recently developed services of StreamingChurch.tv to create an interactive online experience. StreamingChurch.tv provided AliveChurch.com with several tools such as push technology to update the site dynamically during the service, member and guest chat, integrated sermon notes and most recently a dynamic map to show where guests are attending from. AliveChurch.com also invested in an improved high speed dedicated internet connection, a high quality video camera, a video switch, a separate mixer board for the internet sound and the talents of several volunteers. The results have been amazing! The online experience has dramatically improved while the total church attendance has more than quadrupled over the past 10 months. While moving into the new building was a major boost to the church's growth, I feel that the leadership's attempts to embrace and leverage technology has also helped dramatically.

Micro-Blogging has Arrived We've recently incorporated micro-blogging into your ministry web site. What's "micro-blogging"? Well it's just like blogging, only quicker and shorter. It allows your friends and ministry partners to keep up with your daily activities. Micro-blogs provide short commentaries on a person-to-person level. Now when you visit your ministry site, the system will recognize you and prompt you for "what are you doing now?". As your members reply, your blogs and updates area will automatically be updated. It's only been in place for a day and it's dramatically increasing the activity at our church site. As the administrator, you have the option of turning the feature off if you prefer. Just go to your admin control panel and select the "Enable/Disable Features" link to turn off micro-blogging on your site. If you aren't logged in as a member on your ministry site, the tool isn't visible.

Broadcast Your Services Live over the Internet This new system allows you to conduct your church services live over the internet. You can get more information at StreamingChurch.tv. The system is set up with an integrated chat room, an active dynamic area on the page that automatically updates when the administrator pushes a button, and a choice of streaming video players. The system is really cool as it lets you do things during the service like "pass the plate" to allow for online donations, you can allow guests to learn more about a worship song or even buy it online while it's playing, you can also set up the sermon notes for immediate download plus lots more. It's all built into your existing MyFlock ministry site. You'll just need to contact us to set up the streaming server account. This new service is found under "streaming services" on your admin control panel and will be free for a limited time. Contact us at info@StreamingChurch.tv to begin broadcasting your services live.

Native Domains We've made some changes that will allow your domain name to remain in the browser address bar when anyone visits your site. In the past there were some drawbacks with member logins that prevented us from setting up your domain to remain in the address bar of your site. Our technical folks have upgraded the system to now be able to handle domain names natively without compromising the member login information. So now when you type "AliveChurch.com" in the address bar, it will take you to the AliveChurch.com site without redirecting the URL. We're in the process of updating each domain name starting with the beginning of the alphabet. We've got hundreds of domains and we've made it through the A's and B's so far. We hope finish updating all the domain records within a few weeks, although if you can't wait, send an email to info@myflock.com and we'll update yours right away. Multi-media Cover Flow Vault We've completely remodeled both the admin portion where you upload your sermons and media, as well as the area where guests choose and download notes, videos and audio messages. We've implemented a new "cover flow" tool for selecting and downloading your media. Every media item now comes with an automated cover flow artwork and/or you can upload your own custom artwork for each media item. Streaming Services With some cameras, computer and a streaming server provider, you can now stream your services live over the internet. Check it out, there's lots of tools to create a great environment for streaming your video services live on the internet. We've also added a new automated page to your site manager called "Streaming Services" that will allow visitors to participate in your service online.

Featured Products: ExtremeYouth.com: 92% of your teens are going online. With ExtremeYouth.com you will have an edgy, powerful web-site for your youth group. You can provide a safe place that your teens will love, www.extremeyouth.com MyFlock.com: Interactive Web-site and your churche's online community: myflock.com. With MyFlock you will have a professionally designed web site that will connect your members with one another. You'll also have easy to use online tools that will allow you and your staff to manage your site and church.

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