A Small Church with a Big Presence: Building a Church Community Via the Web
Roxanne Miller, Web site editor for First Presbyterian of Corona, has a vision to reach beyond the brick-and-mortar boundaries of the church building -- to seekers in the area, across the nation, and even around the world. The Web site is now a shining example of effective online ministry.
Automate Your Assimilation Process
Use technology to support an intentional, strategic and effective process of connecting people to the life of your church
Blogging: Advice for Church Websites
Too many church websites miss the real value and power of the Internet: connecting people and creating community, the opportunity to reach out to others and to listen, to minister to one another.
Building a Christian Blog Community
Adrian Warnock’s UK Evangelical Blog has some ideas for ways that blog aggregators and prominent Christian bloggers can make a point of highlighting worthy posts and material from lesser-known Christian bloggers.
Building a Showcase Website
Showcases are a staple of the American shopping experience. They’re designed to grab the attention of shoppers enough to make them want to stop and look. Hopefully what they see will draw them inside the store, where the items of interest are easily found, resulting in a purchase. Our websites should follow the same guidelines, but few really do. The author describes the four steps involved in creating a showcase website.
Can Virtual Churches be Real Churches?
“Properly speaking, the church is the assembly of saints and true believers.” In this sense there may be a church -- “where two or three come together in my name” -- because Jesus promises: “There I am with them.” This broader understanding of the term church does also open doors for computer-mediated gatherings.
Connected Congregations
Many churches benefit from the Internet and e-mail. But according to a study, having a church website designed chiefly to attract newcomers might be worse than having no Internet presence at all.
Cyber Pastors
Our small-group follow-up is faster and more frequent.
Cyberspace and Religious Life: Conceptualizing the Concerns and Consequences
In this essay, Lorne L. Dawson surveys the presence of religion on the Internet, discussing the diversity of its forms and functioning. Then he dwells on two of the many research problems that are emerging from this new field of study: the potential impact of the Internet on the formation of personal identity, and the emergence of new kinds of communities.
The Electronic Church
If Moses were alive today would he use stone tablets or a PDA? Bradley Mason looks at how technology can help or hinder your church ministry.
Extend Your Online Church Community
A key for growing your ministry in the 21st century is using the unique power of the Internet to build a meaningful online community. There are hundreds of ways that you, your staff, your members and your visitors can benefit from the far reaching scope of the Internet.
Finding Links That Matter at Schultz's Deli
Gen X Pastor Andrew B. Warner explores connection -- of the digital and human kinds.
Greeting Ministry: Real and Virtual
With the web, greeting ministry now extends beyond the foyer, past the parking lot, and out into cyberspace where anonymous visitors can and will check out a congregation before ever darkening the church’s physical door. Make no mistake—how churches welcome visitors on its website can speak volumes about the church itself. Here are three tests for your online greeting ministry.
Ideas for Building a Christian Blog Community
Blogging is becoming increasingly important and are transforming online culture—many Christians are putting serious thought into how to develop and promote a healthy Christian blogging community.
The Internet and Its Potential and Use for Ministry With Young People
For those of us in Youth Ministry, Internet awareness is of the highest importance—because it’s the young people who we work with who are making it so popular.
Launch a Lifely Listserver for Your Church
How to sell the concept, set it up, and secure participants.
Message Boards: The Job of the Contributor
Good message boards are a great way to build a church community. In fact, a message board is a good idea on just about any website as long as it is properly controlled, defined and moderated.
The New Age of Human-Computer Interaction
The specific area of interest in this article is virtual communities. Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Internet when enough people interact long enough to form webs of personal relationship in cyberspace.
Surprise Connection
Internet listservs can connect us when — and where — it counts.
Using the Internet to Build Christian Community
Websites are important because they provide information, but they don't build "community." Community requires interaction and relationships, and those can hardly be built with the one-way medium of a webpage.
The Wired Family
How the Internet is changing the way families relate.
