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Questions For Your Web MinistryTo Ask As It Gets Started

Getting started in the development of a church Web presence requires working through a process of identifying both the purposes and tactics which will be used to establish the site and keep it running.

The following is a series of questions which will help you get started in that process.

  1. What is the mission and purpose of our church?
  2. What are the most important things for someone to know about our church?
  3. Who are the constituencies we want to reach?
  4. What are the strongest programs within our church?
  5. How can the web presence further that mission and purpose and reach these constituencies?
  6. What are the first steps you need to take in order to develop the web ministry?
  7. What do the statistics and other information tell me in regard to how I should develop my own site? www.pewinternet.org has done extensive research on how American use the internet including work on how we use the web for religious purposes.
  8. Who are the people within the church who need to participate in some way to make the web ministry flourish? (Who do we need to get buy in from)?
  9. Who could be on a team to develop the web ministry?
  10. What kind of technology do we want to use? Host ourselves? Outsource? Temple based solutions?
  11. 7)Who and how can we develop new and fresh content for the site?
  12. What can we do to promote the site?

Ideas for Your Church

Start an Online Small Group - Start small groups that meet regularly in your church's chat room. Select small group leaders who selects the topics, prepares the lessons, leads the discussion, etc. Advertise the small group meetings with a catchy phrase like "Finally a small group you can attend in your underwear...".

Hold an All-Church Online Meeting - Schedule a meeting that every church member is invited to attend. You can get input from the congregation on an upcoming important decision, etc. Just announce the time and that the location is online in your member's site chat room. Start a Hobby Group - Use the "Find Someone Who..." database tool to see what members enjoy a particular hobby. Send those members an email inviting them to join a small group around their hobby. For example, you could start a woodworking group if you find a large percentage of your church members enjoy woodworking.

  Tailor Your Sermons - Use the member site tools to view your members demographics, hobbies, life events, etc. Tailor your sermons to popular attributes evident in you congregation.

Use the Phone Tree to Make an Announcement - The phone tree system will phone all your members instantly using the internet. For example, you could use the phone tree system to call every member at 6:30 pm announcing an online meeting in the chat room occurring at 7:00 pm that same night.

 
 
Church Web Site Elements Page1

Announcements
Announcements and special events such as births, concerts, weddings, thank you messages and funerals can be displayed on this page. Through the use of a "time windowing" feature, announcements are no longer displayed when the end date is reached. The text is retained for future use such as may be necessary for Vacation Bible School and Revivals. This eliminates a web site with announcements for events that have passed and "old news".

Audio File Playback
This feature allows you to place a welcome song, recent sermon, welcome message or inspirational message on the web site for play selection by visitors to the web site. Copyrighted materials must have specific written permission of the copyright holder. The audio file may be placed on the home page, the pastor's page or music ministry page. NetOneStopsm will construct the web site so that church staff can upload new audio messages as desired.


Audio File Catalog for On-demand Play

This feature allows you to establish a catalog of audio files for on-demand playback by visitors to the web site. Selections could include musical selections, sermons or worship services. Copyrighted materials must have specific written permission of the copyright holder.

Audio Web Broadcasting
Weekly church services and other events may be broadcast and heard by accessing your church's web site via an on-site broadcast server by a direct Internet connection or transmitted by modem to our server for broadcasting. Audio connections can be made from an existing soundboard or amplifying system. Costs for on-site equipment will vary based on existing equipment and options selected. Broadcast fees are dependent on the number of audio streams available. With on-site server installation, on-demand audio replay is available with no additional monthly fee.

Building Fund Pledge Form

In addition to your current method of receiving pledges, your web site can be used to allow members to enter the amount of pledges for your building fund campaign or any other fund. An email will be sent to the designated parties containing the information entered on the pledge form. The member can print the page as a record of the pledge, and an automatic reply can be sent to that member acknowledging the pledge.

Calendar

An online calendar to be maintained by specified staff through the use of a user name and password. The web calendar from NetOneStopsm will display a seven-day agenda when initially accessed by users. Viewers can select daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly views of your church activities. Each calendar activity will include a description, date and beginning and ending time of day. Events can include athletic activities, worship services, bible study classes, outreach activities and music ministry rehearsals.

Chat Room
Members and other interested parties can log on and exchange comments and discussions about church issues. Your chat room can also be voice enabled allowing chat room participants to hear each other if they have an Internet telephone or microphone and speakers.


Church Facilities
Describe the physical amenities of your church facilities such as meeting rooms, sanctuary size, recreation facilities and parking capacities.

Contact Us
This page will typically contain the names, positions, email addresses of clergy and lay staff. The email addresses will be linked to allow a correspondence to open an email composition window.

Church Staff
You can list your church staff with areas of responsibility, contact telephone and Email address. This page can alternatively be a part of the secure area of your web site viewable only by members or others who have been assigned a user name and password. Deacons, Trustees and Stewards may be listed on this page, on a separate page for each group (with the activities or description of the function of each), or the previously described "Contact Us" page.

Directions to Church
Many churches include directions to the church facility from various directions via the main thoroughfares within the city or area. A link to one of the free online mapping services may also be added to allow a visitor to enter a starting location for complete directions to the church.

Electronic Mail (Email)
One of the more powerful features of Netonestop's enhanced hosting for churches is unlimited email. The ministerial staff lay staff and officers can be assigned Email addresses (mailboxes) for your church in the format "Name@YourChurchName.org". Email addresses must be unique with respect to the domain name of the church. We recommend establishing email addresses for lay officers in the name of the office rather that the office holder. Messages can be retrieved from our web mail site at http://mail.NetOneStop.net or could be forwarded to the mailbox of the office at an address at the church domain name or an existing email address. A single mailbox can forward mail to more that one address. For example, a mailbox for Trustees@YourChurName.org may be forwarded to the chairman and vice-chairman. A hyperlink can be included on the home page for accessing Email.
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Group Email List

When added to the availability of unlimited email addresses, the ability to setup group email lists is a powerful feature of the free web site program and for any organization's online communications. This feature allows you to send messages to multiple mailboxes within a group with a single message addressed to a single mailbox. You can send messages to the public list that can be subscribed to on the home page of the web site to allow correspondents to receive notices of events and activities, or create lists for selected groups such as choirs, trustees and ushers. Lists may be "public", allowing visitors to your site to add their email addresses to receive notifications from the church, or "private" which requires the web master or designee to add email addresses to a group list. Both lists are restricted for receiving messages. Public lists can be accessed by church designated email addresses. Private lists may receive email messages from any member of the list.
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Guest Book

A page to allow visitors to the site to register with email addresses to be added to the public group email list and enter comments about your church or the web site.

History
A history of your church that highlights the significant historical events of the congregation, pastors and facilities may be included as a page with appropriate links from the navigation bar, menu or home page.

Home Page
The home page is the first impression web surfers will have of your church. Introduce your church to the world with your home page at your own domain name (web address). The heading of your home page should include your church logo, name, address, city, state, telephone numbers and pastor's name. The home page is also a good place for your church slogan or brief mission statement and worship service schedule.

Member Business Directory

A directory of the businesses of church members may be included on the web site. The listing may include the name and contact information of the business, the member's name and a one-line description of the services or products offered. A search feature to allow the page or pages to be searched by the business name, member name or product and service will be included on the page.

Members Only
Some features of your web site can be shielded from the general public by creating a member login area accessible by entering a user name and password. This login area can include your church directory, activity registration and special announcements such as the results of elections or other church "business", and funeral announcements that can include addresses and telephone numbers that you may not want publicized outside of the congregation. Accessed may be established by the use of a temporary church user name and password to allow members to register a user designated "screen" name and password. Implementation requires a directory in electronic format (CSV or fixed field) from which member online entries are compared to validate the member and establish an online registration. This screen name can also be used as the member's Email address (Name@YourChurchName.org) in addition to providing access to the secure member login area.


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