I am excited to announce another new website design, this one is for Jenkins Travel. The new website launched less then a month ago and features a new presence for Jenkins Travel online. The site was built with wordpress as a backbone which provides the client with an easy way to manage content and updates in the future. The site is designed with travelers in mind. Go ahead and check out www.jenkinstravel.com.

Last November I helped out Bridge Connections Inc. by creating a new logo and website for there ministry. Bridge Connections needed a way to communicate with sponsors as well as the teams of people who will be going on short term missions experiences through Bridge Connections. The website was designed using wordpress which allows for easy management by the organization. The logo reflects the organizations passion for global awareness and being the bridge between local churches in the United States with grassroots orphanages in countries like Uganda and Haiti. Check out the new website and logo by visiting www.bridgeconnections.org.

I am sorry to report a disturbing trend that I am seeing in blogs, facebook, twitter and other social media and I wondered if it troubles you? It seems to me that more and more people are voicing opinions through new posts, status updates and comments that are filled with bitterness, envy, criticism, anger, and self-pity.

Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters.sIf you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. James 4:11 NLT

The bible is clear on this issue of criticizing and judging others. That is why I believe that using any social media platforms such as twitter, blogging or facebook to criticize others is a sin. So why do people do it? I think some do it for the traffic it generates to their blog. I also think that it is much easier to criticize someone online. We don’t often get into yelling matches in the hallways of our local churches. We don’t criticize or humiliate our neighbors or friends when we invite them over for dinner or small group in our homes. Because in social media online we don’t have to look the person(s) in the eyes, we can pretend that they don’t hurt.

I continue to wonder why other Christians look on and even support those who behave this way and don’t say anything. Do we not have the nerve to speak up? Maybe it’s that we don’t recognize what is happening, or that it is just happening so much. I just doubt very much that we would just stand by as a brother or sisters property was being vandalized? Why is it that we stay silent as someone vandalizes the sites and esteems of others?

“In the Epistle of James, the author says no one can tame the tongue because it is a restless evil (James 3:8). In our day and age, we could say the same for our fingers as we write blog posts and leave comments online. Fingers can tap out to their fair share of destruction, effectively tossing Jesus’ Golden Rule into the desktop recycle bin.” -Ed Cyzewski We each have a choice to make. Will we continue to attack one another online or will the next time we witness an act of e-vandalism we will respond by trying to bring peace, clarity, and inspire meaningful conversation, or keep our flamethrowers ready?

-Portions of this post were inspired & taken by reading Collide Magazine’s January/February issue.

For those of you out there who are designing websites or are just curious what your own website or favorite website looks like to the rest of the world Google has released a fun tool called “Browser Size”. Google Browser Size is a visualization of browser window sizes for people who visit Google. For example, the “90%” contour means that 90% of people visiting Google have their browser window open to at least this size or larger. This is useful for ensuring that important parts of a page’s user interface are visible by a wide audience.

So if your wondering why a certain link or button is not being clicked in comparison to others it might be because a majority of users are unable to even see the button or link. Googles example webpage shows how a good percentage of people can’t even see the “donate now” button. It’s a simple tool, but a great resource! Click here to give it a try.

Just a few weeks back, I launched a brand new website for New Covenant Community Church. NCC Church is located in York County Pennsylvania. Using wordpress as the backbone I was able to provide a complete web solution. NCC had a previous website that was limiting in features, space, and design. The new site is far more robust and offers a fresh design with a new logo design, sermon audio, photos through flickr, and blog updates. Each time I work on a project like this I am encouraged with the positive response of churches being able to take into their own hands the maintenance and updates of a website that fits them. You can visit the website by clicking here.

When Pequea Church decided to launch a service on Wednesday night we knew we had to get peoples attention by thinking differently. In our community Church on Wednesday was not something new. In fact we had even had a fall program for children. When deciding upon a marketing campaign it is essential to do research and understand your audience. You need to determine the appeal factor. For example we don’t market a weekend youth conference as a time for you to grow spiritually, pray daily, and have times of communion. — While all that stuff might happen, which is great, it is not what today’s teenagers are appealed to. If you ran an ad for that type of conference you are going to get the same types of kids over and over, not the ones that really need to come to a weekend conference. To get the fringe kids you promote that it will be a weekend away, games, friends, water slides etc. When the kids are already in the environment they will be more open to praying, communion, and growing spiritually. – I think you get the idea.

With Church on Wednesday we determined that the largest appeal factor is the day “Wednesday”. We know that people in our area are busy, or work on Sunday mornings. We know that no other churches in our immediate area are holding services other then Sunday mornings. This affirmed that “Wednesday” was the sweet spot. The word Wednesday is not something new, it’s not hard to pronounce like our name (Pequea), but it is ordinary. What is not ordinary is churches holding “church” on Wednesday. Now I should note for readers unfamiliar with our community we are located in what many call a “bible belt”. They are used to having children’s clubs on Wednesday nights, and familiar with the word Church.

All that to say in order to keep it simple we created a campaign centered around a website. We purchased the domain names churchonwednesday.com and wednesdaychurch.com. Our primary thrust was towards www.WednesdayChurch.com but we wanted to take out the possibility that people would forget the domain name and purchased them both. The website is a landing page for information specific to church on Wednesday. It’s simple, easy to understand, and connected to our main church website. Everything we designed for this campaign was simple, asking the question “Church on Wednesday?” and promoting the website www.WednesdayChurch.com.

I will give you a taste of our other marketing ideas in my next post!

In 2008 I made the transition to Google Apps for our church. To this day I have been satisfied on so many levels with that transition. You can read more about it in a previous entry here. One thing the entire church staff uses on a daily basis is the shared calendar. This is an obvious wonderful resource. One that is not so obvious and seems to be slower to become popular is the use of Google Docs.

For those of you who are unaware Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Pequea Church starting this fall is introducing a new style of trimester based Grow Groups. We needed a way to allow our Grow Group leaders, pastors, and staff to be tracking our groups and what they are studying. Our church body needed an easy, quick way to register for a new home group. Thanks to Google Docs form application we are able to create our very own unique form that people can register to join a group, or lead a group. Results are published live in a spreadsheet that can be shared and collaborated upon by numerous people. You can check out the page and forms by clicking here.

While this is just one of the ways that I have used Google Docs recently, I would encourage you to give it a shot. It’s free and easy to use, go ahead and click that “docs” button available to all of you who have a free Google account!

Well, in today’s post I want to share some additional insights on connecting with your church online. Tip #2: Go to where your people are already at! Again seems simple, that’s because it should. Social networking sites like facebook, twitter, & flickr have already done the work for you. They already have the appeal of your people. Most likely you already have an account on one of all of those social networking sites. One of the most popular has to be facebook. Facebook makes it easy to create groups and fan pages. What’s the difference? Facebook “groups” in my opinion are best used for smaller and often shorter lifespan “groups” of people. Fan pages give you all of the same features and more then groups. Fan pages are also better recognized in search engines and now you can even create your own “nickname” just like you can for your own personal public profile.

First step is to have the administrator of the facebook fan page to go here. Once you create the facebook fan page invite your facebook friends that are a part of your church to “become a fan”. Also promote your fan page on your website and through email newsletters etc. This will now act as another mode of communication for your church body. Instead of expecting your church to come to your website to get news on events etc. Give them the news in a way that they already know and use on a nearly daily basis. New updates to your facebook fan page will appear in the followers stories section which allows them to comment and share the news with others. Go ahead and give it a try today!

Twitter & Flickr: At my church (Pequea Church) we have created accounts on the popular flickr photo sharing site, as well as the growing service known as Twitter. The great thing about both of these services is that they are so easy to use and are recognizable. With our flickr account I can have our missions team uploading photos that automatically appear on our flickr photostream. The flickr photostream can update our website automatically with the latest photos from events at our church. Even though we don’t have a lot of followers on our twitter page it is just another automatic way for followers to receive updates on new blog posts from our website. With a simple wordpress plug-in new posts are automatically “tweeted” to our followers!

Leave your comments and ideas below!

Send-off prayer for missions team!

Another great way that I builds community online is by receiving direct updates from our missions teams traveling around the world! At Pequea Church we are a local church with a global vision. 10 years ago this Pequea Church was inward focused. Today, that has changed this summer alone we are sending around 80 people to places around the United States and to La Montanita Brethren in Christ church in Nicaragua. Missions teams build excitement within our church body. We celebrate each time our church sends a missions team! Our church body supports these trips financially and through prayer. When people invest in something the love to see the rewards. Our team is currently in Nicaragua and they have been sending back daily stories and photos as they work in Nicaragua! Our website traffic has nearly tripled since the trip started and the photos have been viewed thousands of times! Family members and friends of the team have been able to keep up with the progress as well as share the story! You can follow the story and see the pictures on our church website by clicking here.

What are ways that you develop community online? What are ways we as the church can do better? Give me your thoughts!