Cornerstone has a very active and dedicated Missions team. From serving our community to multiple trips to the Gulf Coast to help with the Katrina devastation, to multiple trips to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, our church has a true vision for showing the love of Christ to our community and world. Our church even helped build a church in Nicaragua and starting paying the salary of their pastor before I was hired and before we moved into our own building!

One of the goals for our mission team has been to create a central website that lists mission and service opportunities for our area. We launched MissionCentral.net this weekend to our church and plan on sharing it with all the local churches and ministries over the next few weeks and months. Here’s the intro from the site:

This site was created by Cornerstone Community Church so local churches and ministries can share mission opportunities. We want to be a resource to help you learn more about how you can make a difference in the lives of others.

For this site to be successful, we need your help. Please submit information about local ministries, about upcoming mission trips, and about local service opportunities. We have even bigger plans for this site, so continue checking back as we make improvements and add information.

Check out the site and let me know what you think. I’m excited about the missional opportunities this site will provide to bring together churches to serve our community. Churches must cooperate more and compete less, and this is definitely a step in the right direction.

for my technology friends, I created the website in WordPress on the excellent Diarise Theme by WooThemes

Over the past few years, I have looked into several different options for integrating audio and video sermons into church websites. Many churches are using websites that don’t have this functionality built in, and they need a quick and easy way to get audio and video uploaded each week. I wanted to share a little about the different options out there, and share what our church has chosen to use.  Here are a few options to checkout.

• Sermon.net – This seems to be the biggest service out there, but it can be a little confusing to get started. Their website is tough to navigate, and their basic player is very dated. They offer the ability to share both audio and video, and I would definitely go with the premium account if you choose them.  The pricing info can be found here.
• Sermoncloud – This is another good service focused on audio podcasting.  The service is easy to use, but they have just started charging if you want to archive more than 1 year of audio sermons. Our church has used this for several years, but we decided to find something new because of the cost. We also wanted to start sharing video as well. Sermoncloud is also tougher to integrate into an existing church website since they don’t offer a custom player.
• SermonDrop – Another service for audio podcasts. The player is adequate, but the service becomes a little pricey for only hosting audio files.
• BuzzSprout – Although not designed for sermons, this is a slick podcasting service for audio that would work well. The player is very sleek and contemporary, and I could see this working with most church websites. The pricing is reasonable as well.
• MediaRush - This is one of my favorites. It is a player for audio and video sermons. You can categorize your sermons and integrate this player easily into most websites.  It is by far one of the best looking solutions, but it has two big drawbacks.  One is the cost.  At $30 per month, it can be expensive for smaller churches.  The other is that you have to host your audio and video files somewhere else. For less experienced computer users, this adds another step to the process.

So that brings me to the solution we are currently using, MediaFusion.

MediaFusion

MediaFusion is a new service that does several things right. For only $10 per month (or $99 per year) they offer a sleek player for both audio and video.  They host all your audio files and you can even include sermon notes or powerpoint files.  For video, they have chosen to integrate video from other sources. By not reinventing the wheel, they can keep their cost low by working with other video services. We are using Vimeo Plus which costs $60 per year for the ability to store and stream large video files. The sermons can be organized by series, and you can also link directly to the RSS feed and iTunes podcast.  If you want to see it in action, click the above photo to see what we have uploaded so far for Cornerstone. We plan on going back and adding older series as we get time.  So far, I’m impressed. It seems like a good service for smaller churches who want great results. They are still adding features and updating the service, so I’m hoping to see more statistics available, and there are a few quirks to the RSS feed, but I’m confident those things will be addressed soon.

I really like the current trend of offering web services that integrate and play nicely with existing websites. I hope we see more vendors taking this approach.

Online Video Audio and Podcasting – Media Fusion

A great use of a church website is for sharing prayer requests. PrayerEngine is a new web service that looks promising. It allows you to embed a prayer wall directly into your existing website. Anyone can submit a prayer request, which is then posted to your website as soon as it is approved. You can share those prayer requests through email, twitter, facebook, and RSS. People visiting your website can click on a counter that shows how many time each request is prayed for. This is such a great use of social media for the church. If you are interested, check out the demo on youtube. I think you will see more services like this in the future that embed directly into your existing website.

The service costs a one-time fee of $99. Since there is no monthly fee, it’s a great bargain. As an added bonus, you can head over to MediaSalt and pickup an additional 15% discount for today only!

The Prayer Engine – The Best Way to Share Prayer Requests Online

For a long time, I have had a passion for helping smaller churches utilize technology. From assisting them with their websites, to setting up podcasts, to helping plan audio and video systems, I have gained much experience over the last 15 years.  So today, I’m making it official, I am offering my services to other churches as a consultant and web designer.

My goal is to help churches develop an overall technology and web strategy.  If we’re not careful, technology can consume huge amounts of money and distract us from our main mission of making disciples. I want to help churches realize how it can create connections between the people inside your church and the community. Technology is an incredible tool to advance the Kingdom when used properly.  Since I am a pastor, I will only have limited time available for consulting and web design.  My focus will be on smaller churches with smaller budgets.  Click on the Design and Consulting Link from my website to find out more about how we can partner together.

The blog here has been a little slow this week. We have added a second Sunday service at Cornerstone and have kicked off our new youth ministry structure. I have been busy with all the details of getting everything off the ground. I did want to share with you a new youth website that we will be using to let our teens know about upcoming events. I had to bring myself back up to speed on a CSS formatting and working with html templates, but I’m happy with how it turned out. We have added the ability to subscribe to announcements by email or by txt messaging. We have also created a church facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mycornerstone, so if you’re on facebook, become a fan of what God is doing at Cornerstone!

Youth Overview | cornerstoneyouth

Lifechurch.tv has started yet another online service called videoteaching.com. This time, they are pulling together great video sermons from many different pastors and offering them as free downloads.  What for?  Here are some of the reasons they suggest:

• Expand your teaching team: Introduce your church to additional perspectives by bringing in top teachers from around the world via video. Who would you like to come speak at your church?
• Make a smooth transition: For churches who are without a pastor during a leadership transition, video messages can help with interim teaching. Line up your message calendar with ease so you can focus on finding the right leader for your church.
• Develop your ministry: You might be bi-vocational or maybe you’re planting a church. Either way, video teaching allows you put more energy into reaching your community by freeing you from weekly message preparation.
• Take a break: Regular rest is essential for pastors who want to maintain a healthy ministry. Whether it’s a sabbatical or just a short vacation, video messages are an excellent way to bring quality teaching to your church during a pastor’s time off.

I think it’s a great idea, although I could see some churches not using it wisely.   I know there are video venues of many churches, but what happens when you are watching a pastor every week that is not even connected to your fellowship?  We have used video teaching during the One Prayer series for the last two years and it has been warmly received.  But again, I don’t think it would be wise to use it every week, unless your church was personally connected to the pastor and leadership of the video teaching.

Lifechurch has really just made it easier to use videos like these.  Many churches have provided video podcasts for the last several years that could be downloaded and shown in church, but now Lifechurch has provided the framework and licensing to make it possible for any church to use.  I think the biggest benefactor of this service is smaller churches without pastors.  What do you think?  Good idea or bad?

I started this blog back in July of 2006, and much has changed since then.  That was before I was on facebook, before I was on twitter, and before I was in full-time ministry.  My blog mainly served as a place for me to share my random thoughts about life and family.   I’ve been thinking lately about my online responsibility to share and minister.  It’s a little scary when I realize that I minister to more people each week online through my blog, facebook, twitter, and podcast, then I minister to in my local church.

After coming to that realization, I want to take my online responsibility seriously.  I have tried to make my blog more focused on things that would interest and help others.  I have decided to post and tweet less frequently, hopefully so I won’t waste your time or mine.  I will try to post at least once a day, but I won’t throw something up here if I don’t have something to share.

The internet has made the world smaller, but it has also increased the noise that we have to filter through each day.  My prayer and desire is that I can share and minister through what I post online.

For the second year in a row, our church is joining other area churches to do a week-long event for children.  I finished up a quick website for it last night using iWeb.  After using iWeb, I am really tempted to start using wordpress as a framework for all my little side projects.  It’s more powerful, and easier to keep updated.  iWeb is great for static sites that don’t change much, but it definitely has some limitations.  I was glad that iWeb ’09 added the ability to publish to ftp sites.  I added this website to my Bluehost web hosting account and it worked great.

I’ll be posting some more information about the event as it draws near.  Especially about the kickoff youth event, Praisin’ Loud in the Park, with Decemberadio in concert.  This thing is going to be huge this year.  You definitely don’t want to miss it!

I came across an interesting service by the church web design company elexio. They are offering several different ministry related plugins that will work with any church website. Currently, I am trying out the MediaRush plugin here on the blog. Check it out, it seems pretty slick. They have reasonable prices for most of these. I would love to see more companies offer web solutions like this.  It really opens up some great opportunities to create feature rich church websites using any web design program.

Web based tools that plug into any Church or ministry website in minutes

Just reminding everyone that there is an easy way to stay current with my posts here on the blog. You can just enter your email address below and whenever I post an entry, you will receive it by email the next morning.

I came across the examen.me website earlier today and it looks interesting.  There are days that I spend quite a bit of time behind the computer, and this definitely gives me a break to regain my focus.   If you are looking for an online devotional, then you need to check examen.me out.  I like that it is not complicated, you simply focus on meditating and journaling through God’s Word.  I like it’s simplicity and design.  You can read the passage, pray, meditate on it, and answer simple questions to get you to think more deeply about what you have read.   The best way to see how it works is to simply try it out.  I have been using youversion.com as well, but I like the simplicity of this site.   Sometimes, we need to cut through the noise and focus on the power and truth of God’s Word.

I’ve seen a lot of negative comments about the new Facebook layout.  I’m actually liking it for several reasons.  It allows me to quickly see updates from my different friend lists, and I like how it places popular items in the right sidebar.  You can tell that they have been influenced heavily by twitter.   If you’re like me, you probably have some fake friends on facebook in addition to people you really want to stay connected to. And I also get tired of getting crazy gifts and seeing endless requests to join pirates or ninjas.   So how do you filter out all the stuff you don’t want to see?  You can click the “x” in the upper right corner of a note to remove that person from your news feed, but there is an even better way to organize your Facebook homepage.

I decided to make a quick video showing how you can take advantage of friend lists to filter through the noise on facebook.   I used a free screen capture program called Jing to make the video.  Leave me a comment and let me know why you like or dislike the new layout in facebook.  And if you haven’t added me as a friend yet, go ahead and click here.

I’ve updated my links page here on FaithEngineer.  I’ve included church technology websites, all the Cornerstone bloggers that I know of, and some great ministry websites that I visit. This list is always available through the tab at the top of the page or by clicking here.

What websites are speaking into your life right now?

Most of you know that I have a heart for smaller churches in rural areas.   Churches that typically don’t have staff that handle technology needs.  In most smaller churches, this is how the website is created;  a friend of a friend who took a high school class about web design offers to create a page for free.  And many churches make the mistake of going with something less than desirable just to say they have a webpage.

It is better to not have a church webpage, than to have a terrible one.  Let that sink in for a minute.  You have one chance to make a good first impression. People will form opinions about your church from the first image that pulls up on their screen.  I have been amazed at how many people visit our church due to our website.   We have seen numerous families, especially those who are new to the area, mention that they found us first on the internet.

People expect a lot from internet sites.  In the past it was enough just to list your service times, but people want more information.  They want to know the type of church, what you believe, who is on staff, and how your children’s ministry works.  They even want to listen and watch sermons so they can check it out before they come.  Most of all they want to feel welcomed and invited to visit.  It’s scary visiting a church for the first time.  You don’t know what to expect.  Because of that, we have a responsibility with our websites to help people overcome their fears of church.

We are lucky at our church to have a part time administrative assistant who keeps our website updated and handles everything on it.  Even though I like designing websites, I simply don’t have the time to pastor and to work on the site.  We use a site design content mangagement system called Soholaunch

It’s not perfect, and I get frustrated sometimes by what it can’t do, but it has been a good solution for us so far.  If your church needs a new website, I did want to share some other low-cost options for you to consider.  If you really want to do a great customized site, then I suggest you find a designer who is easy to work with and can accomplish what you want.   But truthfully, most designers are out of the price range for smaller churches.

WordPress

After designing this site in wordpress, I am seriously impressed with it’s power to create and customize.  You can get basic unlimited hosting accounts for as little as $6 or $7 per month (see Bluehost as an example), and you can either use a free theme or an inexpensive premium theme.  To see the potential you have to create awesome sites with this blogging software, check out this church theme from Studiopress.com,- here is the demo site and here is the info on how to purchase it for only $59.

Church Website Solutions

If you aren’t quite comfortable designing your own site using wordpress, then you probably want to check out a company that specializes in church websites. There are some great ones out there, and prices vary widely based on what you want.  I would strongly encourage you to integrate audio and video into your website. I will give you a few examples of companies that I am familiar with.  These all do a great job of getting you started.

• Clover
• Elexio
• Ekklesia360
• SkyCMS
• VChurches
• Church123

Remember, you only have one chance to make a great first impression.  How are you using your website to build community and communicate truth?