Can Our Church Have a Web Page?

Reasons Churches Have Gotten on the Web

What You Need to Have a Web Page

Ways to obtain a web server host

A Word About Freebies: NSTAAFL

A Helpful Word from Our International Missions Center

There are several ways to go about it.  The question to ask yourself and the church before you start the process of finding your way on is, "Why? Why do you want your church on the web? If you have no real answer for that, don't go farther. God may be signaling to you that it is not yet time.

Reasons Churches Have Gotten on the Web:

    1. Establish a presence as resource for people looking for a church with whom to worship.

    2. Establish a storehouse of information for members of the church family to readily
        access at their leisure. (For example: newsletters, current bulletins, schedules of
        activities (sports schedules, group activities, bible studies, church calendar, etc.)

    3. Resource church family members and members of our world wide community to read 
        mission updates, bible studies, sermons, and any other educational material out there.
        (remember: once on the web, a church's web page can be accessed by Christians
        from Canada to China, Britain to Brazil, India to the Indies.)

    4. And yes, some have published a web page just because it seems it is the thing to do.

Three of the above are intentional ministry, one is not.  If you believe God is leading you to use this technology for ministry, then there are several ways to publish a web page.

 

What You Need to Have a Web Page:

  1. A Web Master

  2. A Computer with Modem

  3. Web Authoring Software

  4. Web Publishing Software

  5. A Web Server Host

 

A Web Master: This person is the most important part of your effort.  Have you wondered who this is? This title appears on many web pages. He or she may or may not know any of the computer language (html and dhtml, soon xtml) that web pages are written in.  Though it is nice to know and helpful for certain problems, the below-mentioned authoring software requires neither knowledge nor experience in this esoteric code. Here is what she or he does:

The best ministry is carried forth by those with passion for that particular ministry. Being a web master is, for the church that is intentional about the use of its site, a vital ministry. There may be someone with a passion and gifts to do this already in your worshiping church family. That person may even already have had experience in constructing web pages. Ask around. Share with the church the vision of the group that is planning the web page. Once you are assured of that person's passion and competence let her/him know who she/he is responsible to then, let that web master serve! Instead of micro-managing let his/her gifts of creativity freely serve our Lord with you.

Computer with Modem: A web page is composed on a computer.  The modem allows you to connect to the internet where you will send (publish) it.  The best choice is that the church have a computer. If not, then see if one of  your members can do this from home on his/her computer and internet connection. However, if this is your choice, make sure your church offers to reimburse him/her for their internet connection time on behalf of the church.

Web Authoring Software:  This is a type of program that will give you the tools that you will use to develop your web page.  The price range of this type of software begins at nothing (free download of Netscape Communicator contains Netscape Composer. Composer has  all the basic tools to help you develop a web page.) But, like most tools, you can spend as much as you want. Macromedia's Studio sells for close to $1,000.  Here are a few that settle between these two.  Suggestion: don't buy until you try it out with the freebee.

  1. Front Page by Microsoft

  2. Page Mill by Adobe

  3. DreamWeaver by Macromedia (This web site is composed and maintained using this program.)

Web Publishing Software:  This type of software gives you the tools to upload your web page (put it on the web) .  Each of the web authoring software titles above give you the tools to do this. But, you may need more to manage your site. That is, to remove parts of your web page as well as put those parts "files" on your web page. One that is available for trial then modest cost is WS_FTP PRO by Ipswitch, Inc. It will allow you to view the listing of files that you have posted, upload updates of those files, AND remove those you wish to remove. Remember, being up-to-date is one of the most attractive and useful qualities of a website.

Web Server Host: This is not a  person, but a company which is directly or indirectly connected to the world wide web's backbones (the main avenues of the web). A server is a computer that stores the files of your web site for access by those who are looking for your page.  

If your church wants to be its own host, it would require a separate computer (a "dedicated" computer) to do only this, an always connected phone line to the modem within the computer, web server software, backup system (hard drive and power), and a trained technician.  This is why organizations choose to pay a monthly fee. The cost is less because it is distributed among your organization and others who also are on the specific company's server.

There are several ways to obtain a web server host. Each of these ways is represented in the listing of our Area III churches.

Pay for a service associated with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is the way East Peoria FBC has obtained this. The cost from Earthlink for a maximum file space of 5 megabytes and 7 hours of internet connection for web service and email is $9.95/month. The not so obvious advantage of this arrangement is that the cost of having a web page in addition to your on-line connection is minimal with most servers. Look for different plans. The disadvantage is the web space is minimal and versatility is limited.

Pay for a service not associated with your ISP. The Area III site is not associated with the Area III office ISP. It costs about the same, but has 500 megabytes of space and ability to have interactive scripts. Call me and I will explain what that is. 

The advantage of this area's arrangement, by being separate from an ISP account is the name. The Area III web site http://www.aiii-grr-abc.org is registered. No one else can use it. And it is more easily found on search engines and understood when it is. 

Sign up with a freebee.  Our National Missions Center makes available web space for those churches affiliated with the ABC-USA. You can find out more about this program at  http://www.abc-usa.org/search/freeweb.htm  

The state of Illinois funds community grants connected through community libraries. Chenoa Baptist Church has web space through this program. You may even have space that is already reserved for you (an enhanced web based community bulletin board) and not even know it. Call your community library system and ask.

Another source of low cost or free web space is through a college. If you are in a college town you may be able to take advantage of this. University Baptist Church of Champaign is on the web this way as is Judson Baptist Fellowship of Normal.

www.forministry.com offers every church in North America space to have a "web presence." This can take the form of being listed in a directory or having your own web page. Click on the link that starts this paragraph for more information. A church in our region that is using this service is First Baptist Church of Decatur. Click on this link and find what is available.

Commercial sites are looking for ways of reaching you with their advertising our using your website to advertise.  However, if you don't mind the trade-off, you can get a free website. Yahoo's recently acquired Geocities is one avenue into this. For more information on how to do this surf to: http://geocities.yahoo.com/main/about.html  Another resource can be found at
http://www.angelfire.lycos.com A newcomer to this offer of free web space is http://www.nbci.com They are the General Electric (Parent company)/NBC (that's right, the television network) addition to this field. Please note the good and bad about free web site hosting in the paragraphs under "A Word about Freebies..."

Community resources - commercial, educational, governmental - are all around. Ask around. Do some research on the web. There will be a resource for you, God willing.

A Word About Freebies: NSTAAFL (No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)

Sites such as Yahoo.com and Hotmail.com also are among a once growing number of commercial ventures that joined Juno.com in offering free email service. If you have a computer, a telephone, and a modem you can sign up for a mail account. All correspondence is written and read off line. Most of these companies will not forward your email until the phone rates are cheaper, non prime hours (i.e. night) so your email may not be as swift to get to you as services you pay for. 

The retreat of "dot com" companies in early 2001 has caused several of these once free services to either start charging for the email services or completely close up shop and leave their customers looking for email service. Juno.com and NetZero.com both changed, then merged.

To obtain a table that compares Internet Service Providers see http://techsearch.cnet.com/search?curl=1,0,0-0-0&partner=techsearch&cat=103&timeout=3&tag=&qt=isp&cn=&ca=0

If this site is changed, go to http://www.cnet.com and enter "isp" in its search window.

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