Ministries In Cyberspace

by Charity Plata

With any creation, starting from scratch means there needs to be a bit of extra work, time, creativity and commitment in order to achieve the best desired outcome. Often, the result is not exactly what was originally intended; however, it can be something that leaves room for a project to grow and change as more input is generated.This general scenario can apply to Asbury-First United Methodist Church in Rochester, N.Y. Being the largest church in the Western New York Conference of the United Methodist Church with more than 2,000 members, the pastoral staff and administrative cabinet were trying to create a vehicle that could provide effective ministerial and evangelical outreach to the growing congregation. In order to remedy the situation, as well as to communicate with others beyond Asbury's members, the church leaders created an Internet presence.

"We organized a computer committee," explains The Rev. Susan Shafer, pastor for Asbury's membership care and evangelism. "Their knowledge permitted us to move ahead."

According to Shafer, the committee drafted a proposal and presented it to the church's finance committee and trustees for review. The proposal included how the site would function as well as projected costs. Once agreed upon, the project progressed quickly.

"We had an informal meeting, and the congregation was invited to come tell us what they wanted to see on a Web site," says Susanna Ferris, a member of both the church and its computer committee. "We had about 30 or 40 people show up, and I walked away with almost four pages of information that they wanted to see on the Internet."

Asbury coupled expanding its Internet capabilities with installing a new network for the church staff and pastors. In total, the church operates 16 workstations on its network. From December 1996 until June 1997, Asbury's computer committee worked to maintain the Web site in-house.

"When we got to the point where people wanted sermons on a weekly basis, updated event calendars and synopsis and follow up of events, I realized there was no way to do this by ourselves," Ferris explains. "That is when we began looking for an outside vendor, and Internet Solutions got involved."

Internet Solutions, a Web design firm also based in Rochester, has created Internet sites for three churches including Asbury. In order to create the optimum site for Asbury, Todd Vallie, a Web designer, attended meetings and toured the church buildings to get a feel for its operations. He then applied a few questions that he recommends all groups answer before they initiate building Web sites.

"Initially, they need to identify the audience," he says. "There is no use in wasting the time or money on an Internet site if the congregation is exceptionally computer illiterate or doesn't have many people working in offices with computer access. Another consideration is how large they want the Internet presence to be. Churches need to think about the general information they want on the Web, and whether they want someone in the church or an outside company to do the site."

Additionally, Vallie recommends that church leaders hold an old-fashioned brainstorming session to generate the ideas necessary for bringing the proper information to the site. The same group also can be responsible for trimming out the unnecessary or repetitive material.

"With as many people that are part of the congregation, everyone has different interests, work areas and groups," says Ferris. "It was a challenge to decide what should be on-line."

By bringing in Internet Solutions to work on the site, Asbury added another perspective to its Internet vision. The company's technological expertise helped to grow the Web site from its original goal of merely being a place to read about the church's history and archives to using it as a tool for outreach and to get connected with more than just the people in the congregation. The pastoral staff, which was provided extensive tutorial to understand the operating systems, has been surprised by the runaway success of this type of ministry.

"During lunch hours, several members read sermons as a devotional time in their day and have sent comments about how helpful it has been for them," says Shafer. "As pastors, I don't think we ever dreamed that the Internet would provide opportunities that people would take advantage of and respond to with such enthusiasm. Nor did we realize it would have real spiritual meaning for them."

Some church groups also have benefited from the Web exposure by adding volunteers who learn about a particular program as they tour the site. To promote this, a stewardship portion will be added to the site that will cater to the people seeking to donate their time and talents but are not sure how to initiate the process.

One of the most important issues concerning Web sites is how to keep them from becoming "cobWebs" or static, unchanging pages. Initially, Asbury's guestbook feature provides an area where comments can be generated and shared. Through the guestbook, the church already has answered questions about its music program from a Methodist music director in Germany and about its youth programs by a pastor in Oregon.

To keep people coming back to the site, information such as the pastors' biographies are updated with news about upcoming ministerial opportunities so the links do not become stale. In addition, the Web site will feature a new interactive devotional area called the Asbury Forum where pastors will pose questions aimed to foster a better understanding of Scriptures, sermons or religious conundrums.

"Everyone who visits that part of the site will be able to add their comments and information and ponder other people's ideas," Ferris notes. "It will be an interactive bulletin board."

According to Shafer, visuals have contributed to much of the positive feedback generated from those who view the Web site.

"Adding pictures and putting a face on the church and pastors made the site seem interactive before it really was," she notes. "It gave the Web site some warmth and personality. I think having pictures of the two female pastors and the male pastor helps people know it is an inclusive church. It is amazing what the site says beyond its words."

Shafer expects the site also will become a source for other churches looking to understand what being a membership and evangelism, discipleship or coordinating pastor entails and how to evaluate their own pastoral positions.

Asbury expects to add pages and links for children and youth ministries, as well as a college newsletter since those audiences have spent most of their lives siphoning information via interactive media and often are the best at navigating through the Internet.

"The college students who come to Rochester for six or nine months have never been targeted," Ferris explains. "The college newsletter will allow all of Asbury's students to keep in contact as well as inform the students in the area about the activities at Asbury while they are at school. For the first time, the Web offers us the opportunity to showcase what kinds of youth fellowship and young adult opportunities we have."

One of the benefits that Asbury's church office has reaped from the growth spurt of the Web site has been how information is routed through the facility. As Ferris notes, the old way consisted of bringing typed or handwritten notes to the full-time staff person responsible for inputting the data. Web demands have changed all that.

"We now get nearly all our information in some kind of digital format--either e-mail or via disk--and it is forwarded to Internet Solutions for input," says Ferris. "It saves the church office a lot of time and work because people know if they want to see the information on the Web site, it must be provided electronically."

Both Shafer and Ferris agree that each church group has reaped benefits from the Web presence and they share plans to continue the site's rapid expansion. Internet Solutions currently is investigating the specifics involved in creating a virtual tour of the church facility on-line, as well as creating links to emphasize the importance of laity resources. As Vallie points out, growing the site will be an on-going challenge.

"When it started, I don't think we realized the site would grow this quickly or that the demand would be there," he says. "The site hasn't reached its full potential yet, and we already have expanded it."

For those churches interested in adding an on-line presence, Ferris recommends seeking the smaller web design companies that often are willing to adapt to churches and their technology budgets. The smaller firms also may be willing to provide training to allow the church to control Web updates in-house, thereby reducing some of the design costs. However, if cost still is an issue, smaller churches can contact their denomination headquarters and find out if they offer Web page access through the organization's main home page.

"Churches also need to be upfront and honest with the Web designers about what it is like to work with the church because it is not like working with any other business," Ferris points out. "Churches are run by committees where everyone gets a vote. If the Web designers don't have the patience to wait for that, it will not be a good marriage for the church or the design firm."

Furthermore, Vallie, whose work with Asbury resulted in Internet Solutions being awarded the contract to handle the Western New York Conference of the UMC's Web site, recommends that churches seek a designer who is willing to take the mood and feelings in the church and apply them to sites, as well as noting the design and cost issues involved with creating an Internet presence.

Overall, Shafer explains that the effort and input have resulted in something the church is proud to have initiated.

"We wanted the Web site to represent who we are and the integrity of our ministry," she adds. "We wanted people to be able to have spiritual enrichment from the site, and we quickly became committed to ministry on the Web site, not just information. The congregation values this sophistication, not as elitism, but as an evangelical tool that continues to grow."

To check out Asbury UMC on-line, contact: www.asburyfirstumc.org.

For more information about Internet Solutions, contact (716) 787-1223, via e-mail at marketing@spidermen.com or check out the Web site at www.spidermen.com.

More Internet Solutions:

A Discussion With IMConcepts, Inc.

At the Cincinnati-based IMConcepts Inc., a company that specializes in creating interactive Web sites, e-mail and other communications for churches, the requirements for churches to create an Internet presence follow a format shared by any company or organization that wants a Web site.

According to IMConcepts' President Scott Smith, the following are a few questions church leaders must address when creating a Web site:

• Will the site primarily be used for internal ministry or do you expect to outreach to the community and world?
• How do you want to present information on the site--with text, images, audio, video or a combination of all of them?
• How much or how little information will be featured about particular categories?
• How often will information be updated, weekly or monthly?
• How will design navigation be addressed in order to connect every page logically with out getting 'lost'?
• What attitude do you want the Web site to portray?

The look and feel, or attitude, of the site can be important because it allows people to get an idea about the church environment without feeling pressured.

"Especially in the larger churches, a person may feel a little scared walking into a 14,000-member facility," Scott explains. "However, if they can go to the Web site and look at 30 or 40 pages about different ministries, take a tour, get messages from the pastors or see question and answer forums, they get an idea about the attitude in the facility before they even come through the door. Web sites are a way for churches to break the ice."

After church administrators decide the focus of their Web site, they need to decide on a tool for building that site. Contracted programmers, volunteers or even tutorials that will allow someone to learn the programming are all options in creating a site that must be evaluated. The church also will be responsible for handling all of the issues entailed in achieving an on-line presence, including finding an Internet Service Provider, choosing and registering a unique domain name and initiating promotions to advertise the site.

"Churches need to promote their logo or domain names with search engines on the Internet such as Yahoo, Magellan or Excite," Scott notes. "They need to include descriptions and keyword searches so people in Phoenix looking for a Pentecostal church can search for one and find it. They also need to promote the site via printed materials, newsletters and mailings so people know it is there."

For churches that fear it is too complicated and time consuming to create an Internet presence, IMConcepts has developed a Web site hosting service and content provider software that takes some of the complexity out of creating Web pages.

"The software generates a 10-page Web site with navigation buttons and background banners, so that the church simply uses a data entry form with their Web browser to cut and paste data from their word processing or desktop publishing programs, and the information is published on to the Web site," Smith explains. "The result is many pages can be added quickly and it can be maintained with less than one hour of work a week without having to understand the Internet."

According to Smith, this Internet service does not require churches to buy any products, and they will not need to install any software on their machines. Pages are generated via the Web browser, and the company is equipped to run its service on both PCs and Macintosh computers with Netscape as well as Microsoft Explorer. Churches simply pay a monthly fee that is dependent on how many informational categories and pages they feature on the sites. Currently, a $25 monthly charge includes a site that contains five informational categories and features 10-20 pages.

"The cost includes image storage and use of the content provider software that will allow the church to update the site 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Smith says. "Sites easily can be updated any time by multiple people, and there is no limitation to the amount of activity they can have on the sites or the size."

By allowing multiple people to access the site, updating can be delegated to several individuals to limit the time it takes to keep a site current.

"If the Web site is kept up to date, is reliable and people understand it, they are going to keep coming back on a regular basis to look at it, which is what churches are trying to accomplish," Smith notes.

IMConcepts also will handle getting graphics on-line by digitizing photos, backgrounds and logos for a small fee. For churches that already have digitized photos or utilize digital cameras or scanners in-house, they can upload image files to their sites simply by dragging and dropping them from the directory to their Web browser and using the content provider software to clarify how the images need to be positioned in relation to text.

"Audio and video files also can be integrated easily with the same drag and drop to the server," says Smith. "Churches contract with us in order to have them play back. The files then are referenced by a name on the page."

Creating an interactive environment that will keep people coming back to the site is another point that churches must address as they establish an Internet identity. Many Christian and church-related Web sites are including discussion groups, question-and-answer forums and chat rooms in order to ensure that their pages get bookmarked and visited often.

"It would be a waste just to reprint the bulletin on the Internet," Smith says. "Churches have to do other things. For example, I recently created a registration form for a church's conference in Kansas City. They are going to try to take registrations and get people's travel dates and housing needs over the Internet.

"Another church denomination is having a form made to do church statistics over the Internet. IMConcepts also is involved with distance learning where there is integrated audio, video and text together so people can work at their own convenience to get seminary degrees over the Internet."

Ultimately, Smith hopes the simplicity of his Web service will help even the most pessimistic churches give the Internet a chance.

"IMConcepts wants to enable anybody to have a Web site, not just a page, but 20 or 30 pages," he adds. "We really want a church administrator, secretary or volunteer to be able to use the software without training or the need to pay programmers for Web development and maintenance. The goal is to make it easy enough so the basic information a church produces in one week can be uploaded to the site in less than one hour."

For more information about IMConcepts Inc., contact (513) 247-0114 or via e-mail at scott@imconcepts.com. Visit the company on-line at www.iamiam.com.

Promotional Tools

When churches create Web sites and chat rooms, it is not enough to sit idle and hope that the hits will start coming. The site needs to be promoted within the church and via Internet search engines.

The following is information provided by Global Christian Network to assist churches with adding their chat rooms and Web sites to some popular search engines. Please note that the process can take from a few days to several weeks to yield results. Thus, churches will have to do some follow up to ensure their Web and chat sites have been listed.

Getting Your Web Site Listed In Search Engines

1) GCN Yellow Pages--http://www.gcnhome.com/scripts/sr_main.idc?

Step 1. To add your site to GCN Yellow Pages, click on this link: http://www.gcnhome.com/addurl.htm

Step 2. Follow the directions on this page, titled "Add a Site," as well as subsequent pages.

Step 3. Fill out the form to add your site to GCN Yellow Pages. Please make sure to select the most appropriate category for your site.

2) Yahoo!--http://www.yahoo.com

Yahoo! has created a new area specifically for chat rooms. The new area is called Yahoo! Net Events at http://events.yahoo.com/ . This is where you will add your chat room.

Read the directions for adding your site at http://www.yahoo.com/docs/info/addfaq.html#detail

It is important to follow the directions precisely or your site may not be added. Then, follow the directions below as well as the directions you may find on the Yahoo! pages.

Step 1. Go to Yahoo! Net Events at http://events.yahoo.com/

Step 2. At the top of the page, in the Yahoo! Net Events banner, click on the Add Event button or the Submit an Event link.

Step 3. To add your chat room to the Yahoo! Net Events listing, fill out the Add to Yahoo! Net Events form.

Step 4. When you have completed the form, then click the Submit button.

Step 5. In a few days, you should receive a reply from Yahoo! letting you know that your chat room has been received and should appear in the listing within a 24 hour period.

If you do not receive a response from Yahoo! within a week, follow up by filling out the form again. Once you get this reply, check that your chat room has been added to the appropriate category in Yahoo! Net Events by either searching for it or going through the category list.

3) Excite--http://www.excite.com

Step 1. Select the Add URL link at the bottom of the Excite Home page.

Step 2. Read the following for details on Getting Listed on Excite: http://www.excite.com/Info/listing.html

Step 3. Fill out the form.

Step 4. Once the form is completed, select the Submit button.

4) Submit-It! Free--http://free.submit-it.com/

Submit It! Free is a free service for Companies and Individuals wishing to promote their own Web sites. Use Submit It! Free to quickly, accurately, and easily submit your URL to more than 20 catalogs on the Web.

Step 1. Fill out the form on this page and then click the OK, move on to submitting area button.

Step 2. Select the Submit It! button to submit your site to the respective search engines/catalogs listed on this page. Select all or as many as you like. Fill out any additional information needed prompted by some of the search engines.

Recommended search engines to submit: Alta Vista, ComFind Internet Business Directory, Apollo, Infoseek, NerdWorld Media, What's New Too, Webcrawler, Submit It, What's New on the Internet.

5) Hot Bot--http://www.hotbot.com

Step 1. Select the Add URL graphic link at the bottom of the page.

Step 2. Fill out the form...just your URL and e-mail.

Step 3. Submit the form

6) Lycos--http://www.lycos.com

Step 1. Select the Add Your Site to Lycos link at the bottom of the page.

Step 2. Fill out the form.

Step 3. Submit the form

7) Magellan--http://www.mckinley.com/

Step 1. Select the Add Site link at the bottom of the page.

Step 2. Fill out the form...just your URL and e-mail.

Step 3. Submit the form

8) GOSHEN--http://www.goshen.net

Step 1. Select the Add/Update Your URL graphic link from the menu on the left side of the page.

Step 2. Fill out the form...follow the steps and read the instructions on each page carefully. Suggested category for your chat site: Christian BBSs OR in the General Internet Resources category, fill in the Other text box with "Christian Chat/Newsgroups" to create a new category specifically for chat rooms.

Step 3. Submit the form

9) Gospel Communications Network--http://www.gospelcom.net/

Step 1. Select the CrossSearch link

Step 2. Select the Submit button at the top of the page

Step 3. Fill out the form. Recommended category to submit your chat room: Online Forums and Chat Rooms.

Step 4. Submit the form

10) 711.net--http://www.711.net

Step 1. Select the Add a WebSite link at the top of the page.

Step 2. Fill out the form...read the instructions and fill out the form as detailed as possible and select the most appropriate category for your chat site. Recommended category for chat sites would be: Computing/Christian Chat.

Step 3. Submit the form

11) Open Text Index--http://index.opentext.net/

Step 1. Select the Add Your URL or Submit Your URL Link.

Step 2. Fill out the form...just your URL.

Step 3. Submit the form