Bring the Church to the Church not just the Mailbox

I think it is very important for a church to build doctrine upon doctrine, teaching in series and integrating the messages throughout the body including youth and kids ministries. A thought to consider is how teachers can bridge or interrelate the community message on the Web. If the church develops its own material for the various genres in the body, there can be great benefit to integrate everything together for families and those who serve in the various areas.

Parents have not only themselves to tend but their children and access to the teaching that goes on in Sunday school or special events can be much more in depth and plentiful than the after-class discussion with teachers or quizzing once home from church.

Bible verses, pictures and crafts, long-term goals and visions for students are things to consider making available on the Church Web ministry for the benefit of entire families. This will serve well to connect teachers and leaders to the information outside regular planning meetings. Teachers should “own” their material by preparing well in advance of the message. Parents can take part in this by preparing their children, demonstrating that the Word is important enough that we prepare in advance to receive it.

We encourage greater participation in our students and teachers when everyone is on the same page. This is just as applicable to teens and even adult classes. Some churches have gone so far as to email out the Bible Study assignments ahead of weekly events. I’d say this is a good start. How much better to draw students to the church repository of materials on the Web?

Instead of a quick email with “Here’s the homework for this week…” send out a quick note on the email or Twitter that drives people to the church Website. Did you know that there are online Bible translations, commentaries and much much more that can be connected to that homework for the studies in Romans this week? Link to them!

This brings me to a thought about technicalities such as bandwidth. Email is a heavily used medium in our age. Churches are growing in use of email to keep members notified of events and information related to the congregation. In light of the understanding that our local church is the family in which our personal families relate, I believe that one way to increase the connection between us all is through the church website.

Email is great, but consider this: a 1 megabyte email file mailed out 50 times is 50 megs of data. Replication of this email can exponentially increase the weight of one little file. This may not seem important considering the near-transparent power of broad-band communications these days but on local networks it can be a hairy problem. It is very possible that, given time, events can occur that limit, if not prohibit the emailing of large files or the mass emailing of multiple small files. I’ve seen it happen.

Compare this to limiting email broadcasts to specific requests and directing others who are capable to visit the church website to download or read material online. The difference is that of mass paper mail in context of sending one page to a hundred people or putting one page up on a bulletin board in the foyer with copies available on request. Limiting the amount of freely distributed quantities of data can speed up processes (read: free the secretary up for a little Bible study while at the desk). Put commonly accessed information on the Web.

Crafting an email for routine announcements and media can take time or become a hack-job of copy-paste rushing. Putting up an announcements page that anyone with a computer can visit is not only easier for the Church Office, it makes for a standard and familiar route for members to follow each week (or every day, even) to get the news of the church. Bulletins are a well entrenched part of church tradition, we all know, but they never seem to say enough or they seem to say too much. Neither do the Faithful faithfully check their email. Make the Web worthwhile and filled with the organization of the church.

Take a look around your church publishing business and see how you can cut costs and time by working with the Web.

Rob Hickok serves in the U.S. Navy and has been involved in information management for 15 years. He has worked on private Web publishing, graphics, design, networking technology since 2002. Christ called him to repentance and salvation in August of 2003 and he has been blogging about this event ever since. He lives in Southern California with his Wife and four children. He writes at www.lordandhearth.com.