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Why would you want a website?
That is a good question. A brief discussion of what it can do for your fellowship may be in order...
Firstly,
the Church has always thrived when it has been in the centre of where
it's community is. Out in the Marketplace as it were. Once the Church
sits behind it's stained glass windows and waits for the world to come
to it, that is when decline begins. Today's community is more and more
spending it's time on the internet. So then, this is an important
factor for the local Church to consider in it's stategy for coming into
contact with it's community.
At the most
basic level, a website can provide a Church fellowship with a presence,
much like a billboard on the super-highway, advertising it's presence
to the passing traffic and providing basic information on the six
essentials of communication - what, where, when, how, why and who.
At a higher level, interactive possibilities exist that are limited only by your imagination...
- Your website could host a survey that you
invite your community to fill out on-line, that provides a statistical
analysis of the answers to your ministry team.
- It could serve as a central booking and
information service for the range of community activities your
fellowship already engages in, or grows into in the future.
- It can provide a confidential discussion
forum for people both inside and outside of your fellowship to talk
freely about any issues of community concern.
- It may be a repository of information
about what your fellowship stands for, testamonies from new members,
invitations to participate in the life of your fellowship and the like.
A website also has the ability to provide service to the members of your fellowship as well as the wider community...
- The website could become an on-line
library for your Church Newsletters, or perhaps even a dynamic
replacement for them, in the form of an on-line magazine continually
updated by members with the latest happenings and events from the
fellowship.
- You could set up a library of mp3 recordings of worship or sermons that can be downloaded by members who missed a week.
- With a little more effort, and assuming a broadband connection to the internet, you could even
have live streaming of your services to the web, so that remote and
isolated members could participate together with you in real time from anywhere in the world.
- You could set up your rosters on-line in
a calendar application to remind members by e-mail when they are due to
lead worship, mow the lawns, or clean the toilets. Perhaps even allow
the facility to arrange swaps when the pressures of life make a duty
impossible.
- It
can maintain mailing lists for automatic distribution of e-mail to
groups within the fellowship. Eg. You could send one e-mail to
board@churchname.cofc.org.au and all your Board members automatically
get a copy by e-mail to their home e-mail accounts.
And of course, your website need not only have
one of these functions. You can mix and match within the limits of the
hosting package you choose...
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