Media Outreach

For those churches seeking one more reason to join the social networks to reach your community, I have it here.

The compelling and encouraging story of Grace Road Church testifies to the effectiveness of outreach on Facebook.

A Rochester news station reports the captivating testimony here.

Grace Road Church began its mission just one year ago, with Pastor Kevin Maloney leading the way.

“We started in Kevin’s house just meeting, just 10 to 15 people in his basement for a while,” said Shelly Zastrow, member.

It went from that to 175 to 250 people who now attend Grace Road. Pastor Kevin said a major reason for the growth is social media sites like Facebook.

As many churches attest, Facebook is a common ground for possible church visitors to get to know the members and pastor before stepping foot in the church. How much more comfortable will these visitors be when they attend a service and recognize those around them?

In fact, this is exactly how Josh Viola got plugged in to Grace Road.

“I knew Kevin, but somebody had sent me a group request on Facebook so that’s how I got to know them to check them out,” said Viola, who regularly attends.

Watching the body of Christ work together to accomplish one goal, it is no question that we are built for relationship.  Facebook allows churches to continuing building community with members, while reaching new acquaintances in one place.

Pastor of Grace Road, Kevin Maloney shares why they see the need to utilize this tool for outreach.

“We look at the bible and we see Jesus going into the world that people lived in. Today the world that people live in, in large parts, are social network sites,” said Maloney.

Facebook is certainly not a magic wand to grow any church. But it certainly a tool worth pulling out to continue growing the relationships we have begun, with the opportunity to reach others in the process.

It’s not too late to start. For additional ways to use Facebook and Twitter for your church outreach, view these articles.

Photo By BenStein

Continue Reading

You’ll have to wait a little over a month before you can get your first iPad, but will it really be worth all the hype?

As I saw with the iPhone…and really any techy gadget…there’s going to be a better version released not long after the first version is released. It will have more features and will only make you wish you had waited.

But is the hype over this new gadget really worth it? To me it looks like a glorified iPhone…but without the Phone..ok, so maybe an iPod touch, just bigger and maybe with a few more features?

The slick design does seem appealing and the usability entices me…but I have a BlackBerry phone for my portable online needs, managing contacts and Email, and I have an iPod for movies, music and pictures. The only thing I don’t have is a Kindle to read books. But I have a big bag that I can throw a book into along with a notepad for taking notes…and my Atlas, just incase I get lost. Why would I spend at the minimum of $499 for an iPad, just yet?

ReadWriteWeb.com posted 5 Reasons to Wait for an iPad…I’ll let it’s speak for itself.

What’s your thought on the iPad? Win? Fail?

Photo By: ArabCrunch

Continue Reading

You’ll have to wait a little over a month before you can get your first iPad, but will it really be worth all the hype?

As I saw with the iPhone…and really any techy gadget…there’s going to be a better version released not long after the first version is released. It will have more features and will only make you wish you had waited.

But is the hype over this new gadget really worth it? To me it looks like a glorified iPhone…but without the Phone..ok, so maybe an iPod touch, just bigger and maybe with a few more features?

The slick design does seem appealing and the usability entices me…but I have a BlackBerry phone for my portable online needs, managing contacts and Email, and I have an iPod for movies, music and pictures. The only thing I don’t have is a Kindle to read books. But I have a big bag that I can throw a book into along with a notepad for taking notes…and my Atlas, just incase I get lost. Why would I spend at the minimum of $499 for an iPad, just yet?

ReadWriteWeb.com posted 5 Reasons to Wait for an iPad…I’ll let it’s speak for itself.

What’s your thought on the iPad? Win? Fail?

Photo By: ArabCrunch

Continue Reading

Apologies for my extended absence, my loyal reader(s). The intrepid souls that populate the halls of faithHighway are so devoted to their work, that some choose even to come to the office when infected with unidentified strains of the influenza virus. While I admire their devotion, if someone here gives me the flu or any other virus again, I will unleash a barrage of Nerf darts upon them so fierce that they will endure suction cup nightmares for the rest of their natural born lives.

Picking up where we left off 2 weeks ago, one of the most common questions I’m asked is how to best organize content on a page. For a long time, one of the prevailing theories of web content is that everything should be kept, “above the fold.” I’ve heard arguments both supporting and denying this theory, even from people within our own office here. Personally, I don’t feel that staying “above the fold,” is cardinal law when it comes to web content… especially since there is no fold on a website, until such time as the good folks at Apple give us the iFoldingMonitor, which in my head will be kind of like silly putty, but with a high definition monitor built in. However, I do think that people should avoid having excessive content on any one page.  The definition of excessive is also up for debate, but to keep it simple, if the majority of people who visit your site stop reading one of your pages part way because they’ve gotten bored, then you probably have too much content on there.

So how then, you might ask, can one include all the information they want to appear on a page without overburdening the visitor with excessive text? Here are a few solutions that faithHighway offers on their sites:

1. Splash / Landing Pages: There are some categories on church websites that, for most church, would have far too much information to fit on one page. Ministries, for example, can take up an entire section of a website rather than just one page.  By using a landing page for a Ministries section, a church can provide general ministry information, and then a series of links to additional ministry pages, perhaps accompanied with 1 – 2 line description of each ministry. This will enable the church to organize their information in an easily navigable manner, and will “whet the appetite” of the visitor as they seek to learn more about the ministry that has piqued their interest.
2. Anchors: If for some reason additional pages are not available, and the content on a page has grown to an excessive level, then page anchors can be used to create an index within the page itself. By creating anchor links at the top of a page, a visitor is given the option to jump down to the specific topic on the page that they’re interested in rather than having to scroll through other topics that do not hold their interest.
3. Group Content Manager: One of faithHighway’s newer tool offerings is the Group Content Manager (seen here). This tool enables users to include a great deal of content on a single page without presenting it all at one time to the viewer. This is an excellent option for topics such as ministries, staff directories, or in the case of my parents, inn room descriptions. While the latter may not apply so much to most churches, you can clearly see the organizational benefits of a tool like this.

A church should never inhibit themselves if they have a lot to say on a specific topic, and good, pertinent information should never be left off a site just to avoid overcrowding a page. By utilizing the organizational tips above, you can make sure that your site has all the information it needs, and that it is presented to the viewer in an easy-to-read manner.

Photo By: lotyloty

Continue Reading

Apologies for my extended absence, my loyal reader(s). The intrepid souls that populate the halls of faithHighway are so devoted to their work, that some choose even to come to the office when infected with unidentified strains of the influenza virus. While I admire their devotion, if someone here gives me the flu or any other virus again, I will unleash a barrage of Nerf darts upon them so fierce that they will endure suction cup nightmares for the rest of their natural born lives.

Picking up where we left off 2 weeks ago, one of the most common questions I’m asked is how to best organize content on a page. For a long time, one of the prevailing theories of web content is that everything should be kept, “above the fold.” I’ve heard arguments both supporting and denying this theory, even from people within our own office here. Personally, I don’t feel that staying “above the fold,” is cardinal law when it comes to web content… especially since there is no fold on a website, until such time as the good folks at Apple give us the iFoldingMonitor, which in my head will be kind of like silly putty, but with a high definition monitor built in. However, I do think that people should avoid having excessive content on any one page.  The definition of excessive is also up for debate, but to keep it simple, if the majority of people who visit your site stop reading one of your pages part way because they’ve gotten bored, then you probably have too much content on there.

So how then, you might ask, can one include all the information they want to appear on a page without overburdening the visitor with excessive text? Here are a few solutions that faithHighway offers on their sites:

1. Splash / Landing Pages: There are some categories on church websites that, for most church, would have far too much information to fit on one page. Ministries, for example, can take up an entire section of a website rather than just one page.  By using a landing page for a Ministries section, a church can provide general ministry information, and then a series of links to additional ministry pages, perhaps accompanied with 1 – 2 line description of each ministry. This will enable the church to organize their information in an easily navigable manner, and will “whet the appetite” of the visitor as they seek to learn more about the ministry that has piqued their interest.
2. Anchors: If for some reason additional pages are not available, and the content on a page has grown to an excessive level, then page anchors can be used to create an index within the page itself. By creating anchor links at the top of a page, a visitor is given the option to jump down to the specific topic on the page that they’re interested in rather than having to scroll through other topics that do not hold their interest.
3. Group Content Manager: One of faithHighway’s newer tool offerings is the Group Content Manager (seen here). This tool enables users to include a great deal of content on a single page without presenting it all at one time to the viewer. This is an excellent option for topics such as ministries, staff directories, or in the case of my parents, inn room descriptions. While the latter may not apply so much to most churches, you can clearly see the organizational benefits of a tool like this.

A church should never inhibit themselves if they have a lot to say on a specific topic, and good, pertinent information should never be left off a site just to avoid overcrowding a page. By utilizing the organizational tips above, you can make sure that your site has all the information it needs, and that it is presented to the viewer in an easy-to-read manner.

Photo By: lotyloty

Continue Reading