Resource Links For You: Photo Sharing

Every now and again I decide to procrastinate from work and surf the web. Ok it happens more than it should, but I bought a patch to control the habit. Well at least you can take advantage of my procrastination.

Photobucket

This is one of many websites which seek to share photos from one individual to another. There are other "Photosharing Networks" such as flickr and Stock.xchng, but photobucket is the most real. It is used by mostly teenagers and the younger crowd to share goofy photos to the world. While I do not want to get into the ethical ramifications of such people sharing photos of themselves, there are many great photos on the site for the potential use of your Church or Youth Group Website. In many instances all you want is a general but lighthearted photo to make a webpage look more appealing, persuasive, informative, or influencing. Now with photobucket it is quite easy to grab that right picture to make your website appear real and friendly.

Church on a Budget? Free Webhosting Options [part 2]

No matter where you turn or run, everyone is putting them up. You are finally placed into a position of flee or join in what everybody is doing... What do you do? If you do decide to join our darkside and actually make a website for your church, then the first obstacle is getting a host. In our last installment of Church on a Budget, we introduced and disected the world of Blogger: The King of Free Blogging. This option is really great for those pastors with the big mouths who never shut up. Honestly though, Blogger is a great choice for pastors/churches who have constant news/information that they would like to relay.



On the other hand, blogging is very one-dimensional. It might be the preferred choice for all writers, but most churches are looking for more than on online journal. Most need a space for potential visitors and members to see the church as it functions on a day to day scale. This is where free hosting options like angelfire come in. Angelfire acts just like an hosting company that you would pay for but on a much smaller scale. You don't get as much server space and you will also get a angelfire domain: yourchurch.angelfire.com with unwanted banner advertisements, but in the end it still is all free. Quite easily with this service, you could set up a static website of your church that will be the key to bringing in that family whom has just moved from across the country.

 In our last reading we learned that blogs are for those preachers who never shut up and we also know that Myspace is best for that social butterfly who wont stop bugging you, but what good are forums? On eministrynotes.com I have been discussing the different use of social networking sites, and one person was pondering about the future of forums and spirituality. In my personal opinion, discussion boards are the heartbeat of the evolved church. Not because it is the centerpiece or is vital, but it can pump blood/passion through the conversations that emerge in it.

This is the role that forums will have in the future: the central location for open-ended discussion about specific ministries, theological questions, and spiritual disciplines. Unlike blogs where one individual creates the conversation, message boards are open to any user. Any member of the church or any participant in a specific ministry, whether it be Bible Study, Men's Fellowship, Children's Ministry, or the Leadership Team, can add a new topic. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

In real conversations the topic and subject are over once the two individuals separate from one another, and in start a conversation a person must be next to another human being. These rules do not apply on the cyberworld. If you thought of an additional response or idea after a meeting was over, just head over to the boards and post a new topic. If the boards stay active and they are actually used then someone will have a reply when you return. On the other hand, the best Bible Studies can come straight out of the conversation that is occuring right in the forum. There can be sections just for specific Bible Study groups, Smallgroups, and Sunday school classes. Did something apply during the week that was discussed on Sunday? Go ahead and jump right on in...

Tags: forums, evolving church, bible study, ministries

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Links & Ministries: Keys to your Church 2.0

So you want to know the quickest way to make your church or youth group website sticky to members? The simplest and most effective way of doing this is a good links section with relevant & reliable content. If you consistently and routinely browse over different ministry & nonprofit's pages & add them to the website, then your members will see the site as a reliable source platform onto the web. A great deal of people that will be browsing the website do not know how to get to the good useful websites on the internet. They are always looking for the right places but do not fully know how to get there. When they can trust a website as a source to find good content, you can be comfortable in knowing that they will at least keep on returning at least to find good links.

You might reply, "yeh that sounds simple, but I don't have the time to be continuously browsing the web for good links". Oh how true, you do not have enough time for this. Who really does? This would be an extremely time-consuming endeavor, but as with most problems there is a good solution outside-of the box. Create a section on your links page where your members can submit links that they see as relevant. Truly this is the foundation to Church 2.0: growth & addition by everyone's participation. You alone cannot find all the good information out here on the internet, but if everyone submits a small 5 links the exponential growth is amazing. If you and 15 members submit 5 links then there are 90 links, but if this is a consistent addition for three months then there are 270 links. Amazingly, this could be quite a conservative number if you enhance it by drawing your members thirst for competition into it.

Tags: website links, church 2.0, ministries

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Church on a Budget? Free Web Hosting Options

 It has been my experience that many churches cannot and do not have the funds for a full fledged out website with their own hosting and domain name. Sure the prices have gone down to a manageable $100 a year for a good hosting company like Ipowerweb, but even still that is not pocket change for most struggling churches. Luckily, there are many free options out there for a church to get a voice out. There is Blogger, Myspace, Angelfire,  Yahoo User Groups, Google Frontpage, and the list goes on. While it would be good for every church's internet ministry (you have one of those right?) to be involved in more than just one option, it probably is best to begin with one and there is not one ideal for every church and their situation.

Blogger: The gift for the rambler

Blogs and blogger is probably my favorite of all the options simply because I like to write about nonsense. If you are looking for a place where the pastor can have an outlet to speak to the community for devotionals, Bible insights, sermon refreshers or whatever then Blogger is the way to go. It is the medium of choice for free-lance internet journalists and writers. The set-up and maintenance is user friendly and posting new writing cannot be simpler. As with most free hosting there are predesigned templates that the church can choose from and not have to worry about the design (unless they choose too). Whats really great is the comments section at the bottom of each post. Members of the congregation can add their own opinions, additions and viewpoints to keep the conversation going. I have seen some comments going years after the original posting was done. The main drawback though would be that the preacher or whoever uses it needs to be constantly updating it at least on a weekly but preferably on a daily basis....

Next Time: Myspace and AngelfireTags: internet church, myspace, blog, blogger, angelfire, web hosting

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