As we get into the new year 2008, we'd like to try something new here called Tech Tuesday. This is where we'll post a question for you as readers and for our contributor team to answer in the comment thread. One of the goals of this blog is to have a friendly place where non-techies can learn about how to use technology more effectively in their churches and personal lives, without all the technical jargon (or, as little tech-speak as possible.)
This will be an open comment thread every Tuesday. You may also post your question by adding a comment and someone should be answering during the week. If not, I'll do my best to feature it as a future Tech Tuesday question of the week.
Here's the first question I've gotten in my inbox:
I am a pastor of a small church and definitely agree that the internet is a wonderful opportunity to reach people we would otherwise not see. My computer skills are pretty good, as I spent 23 yrs. as a maint. technician in the automotive industry and most things I grasp fairly quick.
HELP! Where do I start?
I created a website on web.com- Right or wrong I don't know. But I have been having trouble uploading any pics and or video. Video not at all. I am on Broadband connection (Verizon Wireless) Whatever it takes, I need to be able to download, upload, skits, videos etc. It seems I need some basic do's and don't.
Can you give me some direction?
Your turn. Add a comment below with your suggestions about building an effective website for a small church.
And, to have your question featured in a future Tech Tuesday, email them in to me, DJ Chuang.
-- DJ Chuang
I'm fairly biased, but I think that the best solutions for small churches are the open source content management systems like Drupal and Joomla. Specifically, I have used Drupal to build websites for my church (elstonfamily.org) and for our church's youth group (mp3generation.org). I'm actually starting my own part-time business (redleafmedia.com....not setup yet) developing sites like these for churches using Drupal. Drupal has lots of flexibility in user control, theming and module development. It has been suitable for virtually all of my church's needs thus far.
The webhosting for such sites can be something like $10 per month, and the domain name is only ~$10 per year. So, after the initial setup cost (if you pay someone at all), the cost of maintaining the site is very minimal.
If you don't want to pay someone for the site setup, the Drupal community is quite helpful to learners. Although it might take a few months to learn the system well.
Posted by: Mike | January 15, 2008 at 08:05 AM
Videos are still too complicated for most small churches to host themselves. Between size issues, formats, etc -- it's quite a pain.
Utilize a free video service like YouTube. Upload your video to them, then just put the "embed" code on your site. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Posted by: Mickey | January 15, 2008 at 08:20 AM
There are many different options for starting a website, some free ones, some paid ones. Free ones would include http://www.googlepages.com and http://www.forministry.com . I'm also beginning to see a few more churches use WordPress http://www.wordpress.com/ for a basic website. The nice thing about free websites, besides being free, is that you don't have to install extra software. If you know how to do webmail, you can build a website using their services.
Paid ones can range from custom solutions with a template-driven site like http://www.e-zekiel.com/ or an entirely custom-built website by a web development company.
Adding photos should be do-able, but audios and videos will most likely require more technical work-arounds to integrate with an existing website.
Posted by: DJ Chuang | January 15, 2008 at 10:11 AM
I second the motions above. I'm a wordpress (wordpress.org) fan myself but I've seen several great sites using Joomla as well. CoryMiller.com has some great Wordpress themes that can be purchased for a minimal amount and put to use right away.
Also as for video we pretty much only use YouTube or MetaCafe for video uploading. Not only is it simple to use it makes embedding the video into your own website easy and doesn't kill your bandwidth if a lot of people view it. Plust it gives your church added exposure by having content not dedicated or exclusive to your website. We get hits from people all over the world on YouTube and MetaCafe that probably wouldn't have stumbled on to a website from a church in Waxahachie Texas.
Posted by: Jonathan Blundell | January 15, 2008 at 10:14 AM
I'd have to give a small nod to www.webempoweredchurch.com - they have some great starter packages based on TYPO3 (not quite as easy as Drupal or Joomla, but the starter package is really well set up to get a church up and running). It just needs a host to run PHP and MySQL, preferably one that gives a pretty decent amount of memory for the shared account. The biggest drawback I see with TYPO3 is that it tends to be resource intensive.
I'd definitely say that starting with a CMS makes sense for a church site.
-Pete
Posted by: Peter | January 15, 2008 at 11:18 AM
I second the comment from Jonathan - I'm both a WordPress fan and a Cory Miller supporter and highly recommend both.
Additionally, I would add for the pastor with the question... recruit others - you may get really bogged down if you're thinking you'll feel you way through it by yourself because you are good with tech stuff. Inquire from within your own congregation; who has a similar interest in getting content online. Some of your youth members may be key assets in this regard. They intuitively understand both the technology & often have the ability to devise workarounds. You may get stuck enough to give up if you are all alone.
Posted by: Cynthia | January 15, 2008 at 06:56 PM
Since it's "Well-I'm-late Wednesday", I'll still pitch in. :)
If you have a knack for techincal things, allow me to make a few suggestions.
First, you'll need a good hosting account. A "web host" is a company that provides services, in particular space and "bandwidth" on a web server, that allow you to place files (upload) on a machine that is setup to deliver those same files (download) to others via a web connection. Most hosts will allow you to register a "domain name" as well. A domain name is a human-friendly "address" that routes web requests to a particular server. An example of a domain name is "leadnet.org". While it is not required, I recommend finding a web host who is also an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar. (You may opt to choose separate companies for domain registration and web hosting. However, be aware that you'll need to modify a few settings to setup the website with the domain name and it could take a few days for these settings to work properly.)
For domain registration and web hosting, I highly recommend 1&1. (http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=7643276) Some people vehemently dislike 1&1, but I've used their services for nearly five years and rarely have any problems. Avoid GoDaddy and Dreamhost.
The type of web hosting package or account that you choose is really up to you. There are a few variables involved, but for a basic site with self-posted images and video it won't matter much. If you do look into one of the content managements systems above, you'll want to look for a specific server environment. Linux. PHP. MySQL. For now, it doesn't matter what they are or what they do, but they are a requirement to run many of the open source and commercial content management systems.
A package I would recommend the 1&1 Home account under "Linux Hosting". It's just a few dollars per month and offers some nice options for a basic website. You even get two domain name registrations free with the account. 1&1 makes it easy to manage multiple website under a single account. (One of my accounts hosts over 20 websites and I pay a mere $10 per month for the package I prefer.)
Okay. Once you are set with a domain name and web host, you'll want to learn the basics of file transfer protocol. FTP is a platform to exchange files from your computer to your web server. You'll need a good FTP client (SmartFTP works like a charm) and you'll need your FTP login information. Your web host will probably setup an "FTP account" with your hosting account by default. If not, ask your web host for help. Your FTP login credentials will be a username and password and the server you connect to (perhaps the same as your domain name.)
http://smartftp.com
Once you are connected to your web server through FTP, managing the files is much the same as your machine at home. You can simply drag and drop files back and forth from your computer to your web server and they will begin to upload. This process can take time, depending on your connection speed and the size of the files you are transferring.
Having a good grasp of FTP, file management and organization is essential to managing web content. Every directory on your web server will correspond to a "path" listed in a web address. So you need to have things organized well and use very simple naming conventions. Never use spaces in file or folder names and if you need a separator, use a hyphen (-) or underscore (_). Use all lower-case letters whenever possible.
The structure of your files and folders dictates what your URL says. For an MP3 file that you upload into a directory called media, your URL would be:
http://yourdomain.com/media/name-of-file.mp3
Well-formed URLs are important for usability---how easy your site it to use---and search engine optimization---how well search engines "see" and index the content of your website.
Getting into crafting an actual website is fun, but has its own set of learning curves. And since your question targets delivering media files over the web, I won't address the topics of HTML and CSS, which are languages used to create documents served as web pages.
There are also a number of excellent resources that completely cover that topic, principally the W3C Schools. http://w3schools.com
I've armed you with enough information to upload media files that can be downloaded by others using a link to your web server. Though this isn't really the only form of media delivery, it successfully addresses your question. If you are interested in evaluating a few other options of delivering media, view theaterchurch.com/media. I manage this site daily and we present several options for downloading media as well as watching and listening to media using "streaming" technology. Our service certainly is not the best example on the web, but it could inspire ideas about how you want your media to be distributed over the web if you find the traditional upload/download method lacking.
Lastly, I'd like to address the issue of the "website-in-a-box" approach. Like everything in life, a well-crafted website takes work---and perhaps money. Be prepared for both and take everything in stride. It is rare to find a turnkey solution that works well. Very rare.
One question I often ask pastors who are deeply invested in the work of the church at this level is: "Is it more important that you learn the skill of crafting a website to articulate the Gospel, or investing in learning to articulate the Gospel through the medium of the web?" It really is not a loaded question, and there is no right answer. For some pastors, the answer is both, because they have time for both but no money to pay someone else to develop the site. For others, they find that the ability to craft a website comes so naturally they feel blessed of God for the gift. For others, it is clear that they need to delegate the responsibility of creating the site to someone else while devoting the time researching the best approaches to communicating on the web.
With respect to the other commenters who all have the right idea, the wisest advice so far comes from Cynthia (a very wise person indeed!) You really will need to have some folks who are knowledgeable about web communications to ping ideas and questions to. A good digital mentor seems like a good fit for you. Technology will frustrate. It's how you deal with that frustration that will determine how far you can push yourself and how much you can learn.
Have fun with it!
Posted by: David Russell | January 16, 2008 at 08:39 PM
Your 10 tips for building a Church website is really very much useful for me and others, who are in need of advise to build a religion website I'm so thankful for this tips. Church
Posted by: Jesus | January 17, 2008 at 04:50 AM
Advanced Ministry has a very nice looking website package for free: http://www.advancedministry.com/.
Here's a description from their site: "No need to rub your eyes - it's really free! Our passion at AdvancedMinistry is to set a standard of excellence within the Christian community. If you're a Christian church or ministry that's looking for a basic website (but don't have the budget), we invite you to use this service. May the Lord bless you in your ministry!
Additionally, by signing up for the Free Web Suite, you'll be able to download a PowerPoint background each week -- that's 52 free backgrounds per year!"
Posted by: George Hicks | January 17, 2008 at 08:33 AM
I would like to second the suggestion to use Web-Empowered Church software (http://WebEmpoweredChurch.com). The software is free and focuses on features that enhance church ministry, not just a nice website. I recommend these steps:
1. Read the book titled "Web-Empower Your Church: Unleashing the Power of Internet Ministry." There is lots more to internet ministry than the choice of software to build it. This book talks about all the issues related to building a strong internet ministry even if it begins with a fairly simple website.
2. Go to http://VineHosting.com and purchase Web-Empowered Church based web hosting. They install it all and you can be ready to go very quickly.
3. Go through the Web-Empowered Church classes available online or as documents especially WEC 101. http://webempoweredchurch.com/support/classes/
4. While creating the website, use the basicadmin account to do everything until you feel very comfortable or need to go to the full administrator account.
The installation immediately provides a complete working church website with features most church websites never have (prayer, google maps with directions to your church, auto conversion of scripture references to scripture via eBible, calendar, blog, forums, etc.). I believe that using this approach you can have a powerful church website that looks great and has excellent ministry features in the shortest time. And if you choose to add more advanced features (sermon video or audio, podcasting, online devotions, online teaching) you will be postured to do that any time you want. And many more features are being developed that you will be able to add to your website.
In Christ,
Mark
Posted by: Mark Stephenson | January 17, 2008 at 01:55 PM
Thank you David for taking the time to write detailed help in non-technical, layperson's terms. And because you're a great judge of character!
Posted by: Cynthia | January 17, 2008 at 02:38 PM