Welcome to the first monthly "Spotlight" article at YourChurchBlog.net. Each month, I'll be featuring one of the churches/ministries that's hosted at YourChurchWeb.net. This is our way of recognizing some of the excellent web design and internet ministry that's being done.

This month, I focus on the church I grew up attending, South Paris Baptist Church, in South Paris, Maine. You can visit their site at www.southparisbaptist.org. Take some time to look at the site, and the services that they make available to church members and visitors as well. My brother Arnold is the webmaster there, and I asked him to join us for an interview in this "Spotlight" article.

Q. What is your primary occupation, and how did you get into webdesign?

• I am a Controls Engineer, which includes electrical design and programming of computer control systems for industry. For the most part, this programming is a very specialized type of programming, and has nothing to do with webdesign. However, with the advent of asp.net, computer controls operator interfaces are more and more becoming web page based. Creating this website for South Paris Baptist allowed me to get into this type of programming.

Q. What is the size and mission statement of your church?

• We are a church currently of 175-200 regular attendees.
• Our purpose statement is “Through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we purpose to Exalt our Lord Jesus Christ, Evangelize and care for our community and world, and Edify and Equip the believers”.

Q. How does your website help you accomplish that mission?

• On the surface, the website is a means to let the community know what we as a church is all about, so I suppose that is part of Evangelization. The Prayer Chain and Church directory really support building the body of believers and helping to create a sense of community and family. That is part of the Edification of the believers. In addition to that, the website also aids in a number of administrative areas which are necessary to support ministries that help fulfill these purposes. I believe that as a church, administration should be done as efficiently as possible so as to release people into doing more ministry directly with people. The website helps us in attaining that.

Q. What tool(s) do you use to create and maintain your website?

• I use Microsoft Visual Studio for the basic html & asp programming. In addition to that, I use Blogger to maintain the Pastors Blog, as well as a message board, Sermon blog, and Guestbook. I also use Feedburner as the means to creating the RSS feed for our sermons as well as FeedPlayer to allow a person visiting our site to play our messages.

Q. How long has your church had this website, and how has it grown since the beginning?

• We have had the website now for two years, and I am continually adding to it as I have time. Our most recent addition is to add the ability to listen to our sermons online.

Q. I see that there's a place for members to sign-in. What are some of the things on your website that only members of the site have access to?

• There are actually quite a number of things that are only accessible to those who sign-in (which is only available to regular attendees). Most specifically that includes our Online Picture directory as well as the Church prayer list. Because of the personal information that is included in each of these areas, we restrict access to these sections. In addition to that, a user can customize to some extent their own home page, including which online news feed they prefer as well as favorite links.
• With regards to our Online Directory, each person can modify their own information directly online themselves (in addition to a few administrative people who can also edit anyone’s information). It is also setup so that a user can create a printable version of the directory for themselves. I have it setup such that I can copy this online Directory directly into a word processor, pictures and all, along with pages for Birthdays and Anniversaries as well as church phone list. I then simply add a cover page and I have a printable copy that can be copied for distribution to all those in the family.
• Our Prayer List includes a Submit Prayer Request link which allows anyone (whether logged in or not) to submit a prayer request. We have setup a few Prayer Chain moderators who all receive an email whenever someone submits a prayer. The first one to get this email then goes to the website, checks the request for validity, and then clicks a button to send the email to all those on the chain. While we still do have a phone prayer chain, its use is becoming less and less. The email chain has some significant advantages to it – Everyone gets the same information, often directly from the person asking for prayer, and many people can get the request even at work where on the phone chain they would not be able to get it.

Q. So you manage your church directory online. Are there other administrative tasks that you manage through your website?

• There are. One of the things that I have wanted to do for quite some time is create a means for people to work out of a common database from home. We do not really have a centralized administration and we use many volunteers, including our secretary, and it is much more efficient for them to do administrative things online, rather than come into the church office to do them.
• We maintain our church calendar on the website. People who are putting together events can schedule them online or call the secretary to schedule them. An email is sent out to the Pastor and administration whenever a date is requested, and the event can be approved. This helps keep the pastor informed about all that is going on. We also have a Christian School that uses the building and this allows us to coordinate with them as well.
• I have also built into the website the means to keep track of who is at our services, and detect those who are missing. In a church our size, it is sometimes easy to not notice when someone is missing for a couple of weeks, and as the church grows this will become even more likely. Of course as the church grows, it will also become more difficult to determine who is there as well.

Q. How have you promoted your website to people in your congregation? How about people who don't yet attend your church?

• Currently, we have the website URL on all of our stationary and church bulletin. We also use the site database to send all of our members with email addresses various news information from time to time, including instructions from time to time on how to use the site and to let them know what is available. For those outside of the church, we have posted the address on the sign in front of the church, along with a message indicating that if they need prayer that they can submit a request online at our website.

Q. Have there been any new ministries that have come about because of your church website?

• Sure, most specifically the addition of an audio podcast of our sermons each week. We now videotape our services both for a close circuit broadcast to our nursery, as well as to be recorded for distribution to shut-ins and others who miss the service. Along with that though I am able to strip out the audio portion of the recording and create a blog and podcast to distribute it. I have not started to actively publicize the podcast yet, but once I do this will allow us to start having an outreach into the internet world.

Q. Are there any other highlights or success stories about your website that you'd like to share?

• Back during the winter we received an email from an older gentleman who lived in California. He had come across our website and had listened to one of our sermons that I had just started to podcast (all that without publicizing!). He emailed back to us that he had lived in this area as a boy, and that this sermon was the first sermon that he had listened to from our church in 60 years. We are now mailing him a bulletin each week.
  
  

Labels: Spotlight

posted by PastorJon @ 8:50 PM