Building Blocks: Great Church or Ministry Web Media

1. Start with Great Technology

There is absolutely no reason your ministry should not have the best stuff. It is almost never a question of money today when it comes to managing a terrific website. Many of the best content management systems, blog applications, video and audio tools and graphic editors are totally free. This website, along with many of the greatest on the web are built almost exclusively with Open Source solutions.

Open Source generally always means free. If not free, certainly at a far lower cost than the competition. These tools are built largely by a community of developers instead of one single company. They are open for edit and modification by day to day users and other contributors who are motivated by building a better system rather than simply cash. While it doesn’t always mean great or even good, looking for a General Public License (GPL) wouldn’t be a bad place to start when doing your initial investigations.

A couple of GPL programs you may want to investigate first: WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. You can also contact us at any time for advice on either the Open Source concept in general, or specific programs you may want to try.

2. Ideas Should Always Come First

Don’t start building a new website – then start thinking over the reasons behind its creation afterward. Site visitors are going to recognize thoughtlessness when they see it. It will be both a direct and indirect signal that you are lacking a level of care and attention to detail that is necessary to minister effectively. Don’t do that. It would be better to wait, develop a strategy, then move slowly to accomplish goals.

3. Commit Some Time

If you are hoping to “set it and forget it” you are probably not going to have a great deal of success. Any ministry that is worthwhile will take commitment, work and time. These are absolute imperatives for the development of internet media.

That being said, it is not as though we are talking about dozens of hours per month. We hope the vast majority of your time is spent interacting face to face with people you hope to reach and would never even suggest you should suspend those activities for your devotion to the web. You can start very slowly and in very small ways. Set aside an hour a week to write, take some pictures, capture audio recordings, video or do something else creative.

One way or the other you need a plan for keeping the content of your site fresh. The days of the dormant website are pretty much over. People look for interaction – and that’s a big opportunity for reaching out and making connections with those in your own community or around the world!