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Setting Your Sites on the Web

"Setting Your Sites on the Web." is an article that was published in the April 2000 issue of The Covenant Companion. The article is © Copyright 2000 The Covenant Companion.

Edited January 2007.

For many, the Internet has become a primary source of information, replacing even the Yellow Pages. In response, churches have begun to set up websites to reach people in their community and connect with their own church members.

If you don't already have a website for your church here are a few reasons why your church may want to consider getting on the web:

• Inform visitors and new residents to your community about service times and directions to the church.
• Publicize special events.
• Share your vision and opportunities for volunteer service.
• Publish sermons, letters from the pastor, church newsletters, Bible studies, and devotional resources.
• Reach high-school and college students who are more likely to look up information online or use email than to call.

The easy way

Any church in the United States can create a website for its congregation in about ten minutes, using ForMinistry.com. This service, sponsored by the American Bible Society, has created a page for every church found in U.S. telephone directories. All you need to do is go to the site ForMinistry.com,  find your church's listing, and fill in the blanks. You do not need to know anything about web design to do this.

The benefit of a ForMinistry web page is that it is simple to set up and free. The web page is also part of a listing of all U.S. churches. The downside is that that every church's page looks the same. However, even if you design your own web page, you may want to create a ForMinistry web page and add a link to your independent site.

Creating a church website

If you want to have more control over the look of your web page and its content, you'll have to design an original page. While this may seem daunting at first, there are ways to make the process less complicated and time-consuming.

Step One: Doing Your Homework. Before you start, have a clear idea of what you want your website to accomplish, and what you want on it. A first step would be looking at current church websites. Visit here to check out other Covenant Churches with websites.

Find out what resources are available in the church. Is there someone in the congregation who creates websites as part of their job or as a hobby? Is there someone who could maintain and update the page regularly? Is there money in the budget to pay for a website or do you need to create a free website? The answer to these questions will help you decide whether to have a rather simple page or a complicated one.

Plan ahead. Make an outline or draw a flow chart of your proposed site before you start. Your home page is the first step in the outline. If you decide to have more than five pages, this will impact the type of tool you will want to use to create the page.

Step Two: Creating your website. It used to be that you would purchase a url and server space first and then pick the software you would use because most programs to create webpages worked on whatever server you choose. No longer. Now you need to decide what you will use to create and maintain your website first. 

You have two options. Using software like dreamweaver that you install on your computer and than use to upload your webpages to the internet or a content management system which allows you to create your website online using a web browser.

The Covenant website I already mentioned uses a content management system called WebGUI.  Blogs are another form of a content management system and some churches use blogs. Even with a content management system you will need to do some work to create a website that looks and functions how you want. And there are many options out there.

If you don't use a content management system we recommend that you use a program that automatically writes the HTML code for your page, rather than writing the HTML code yourself, especially if you are not an expert at webdesign. Although many word processors and desktop publishing packages now have a web publishing, it is best to use a program designed specifically for creating web pages. Since most of these programs are available on a trial basis, you may want to download them and try them out before you buy. The program we have used in conjunction with our content management system is called dreamweaver. It's created by macromedia and fairly well respected. Many of the web hosting services also offer web-authoring software. Software download sites, like www.downloads.com, offer a variety of web programs. The software you decide on will depend on your needs and price range. Most are available for the Mac and PC.

Step Three: Obtaining Space. After deciding on the content of the website, you will need a server to put it on.

The Covenant website is hosted by a company called Verio. We use a free open source content management system called WebGUI created by the open source community and plainblack.com. This allows people to update the website from any where in the world using a web browser like the one you are using to read this article.

Some churches choose to use a free blog to post their content but pay for a website address. Your community may also have a local free net service check with your local library or local school system.

If you choose a content management system the easiest option is not to worry about getting a server and installing the content management system on it. So one option would be to use server space associated with the content management system. If you are going to try something small like a church blog all you need to do is pay for your website address. If you are going to use something like WebGUI you can purchase space from plainblack.com that has the software WebGUI installed already. 

You also might want to check and see if your Internet account includes server space for a web page, and if there is an extra charge for using it. Some providers like Yahoo! offer space with your regular account or for a small fee.

Since the market changes so fast it's always recommended that you do your research. Google things like "open source content management system" which means it's free, "server space". Even better, talk with someone in your church who already has a website or another church whose website you like and ask them what they do.

A word of caution: free space providers get their money from advertising. If you choose a free provider, you will not have control of the type of advertising that is placed on your site. Free advertising could be anything from travel and entertainment to casinos and pornography.

Step four: making it real

Before you even start on your official web page, we suggest you try and create a play one. Make a site for you or for your five year old. This is good for practice but it also will allow you to get any extreme designs out of your system. Here you can experiment with a fluorescent orange background or flashing words. Once you've had time to play, you can focus on simple, clear, and uncluttered design for the church page.

A few thoughts:

• Start small, just do one page with the most important information on it as a trial.
• Play. Learn by playing with different programs and elements of a page
• Experiment with programs. Try all the features on a program
• Research. If you want to make a good website, then it is absolutely crucial to know what one looks like. Spend time looking at other pages that are award winners. See if you can recreate elements that are praised in awards.
  

Graphics

Text-only web pages are not always the most appealingÜor effective means of getting a message across. Use pictures and animations to liven up your web pages, and hopefully, make it more attractive to visitors.

Most web page graphics come in one of two formats: GIF and JPEG. Each format has its strengths and weaknesses. GIFs offer a sharper image, but only 256 colors. JPEGs, on the other hand, offer the full spectrum of color, but the images are not as sharp. In general, the GIF format is best suited for logs and graphics that include text. JPEG format is best for photos and illustrations.

There are many sites on the Inter-net that offer free clip art graphics in both GIF and JPEG formats. These graphics range from little envelopes to 3D words. The benefit in using clip art is that someone else has done all the work preparing the graphic for the Internet. To get graphics off the web go to your favorite search page, such as www.yahoo.com,  and search for clip art, graphics, and pictures. Always pay attention to copyright information before downloading graphics.

Pictures

Many church websites feature pictures of the building, neighborhood, or church staff members. To use photos, you will need to have a scanner or a digital camera. Scan the picture and save it at seventy-two dpi (dots per inch), sharp millions of color, and in JPEG format.

After you scan the picture there are tools that can help you edit the picture so it will look its best. Programs also help if your scanning software won't allow you to save your pictures as a JPEG. Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop are two of the most popular programs.

Finally, you'll want to save your pictures for the web. Most image-editing programs will give you compression optionsÜthe smaller the compression the faster the download on your web page. You'll want to save the photograph several times until you find the lowest compression that still gives you a clear photo.

A word of caution: if you use photos of people from the congregation, especially children, don't include any identifying information. Once that information is on the web, anyone with a computer and a modem can have access to it. Pay careful attention to issues of privacy and safety.

www.covchurch.org
When you finish your website, email the web address (URL), along with a contact name and address to webster@ covchurch.org. That way, it will be added to the list of Covenant churches on the web. For instructions on linking to the Covenant website  see the "About this site" page. You can also download the registered Covenant logo to use on your website. Just click on resources and then visit "downloadable graphics and logos."

nine tips for web design

1. Make sure people can read your text. Put light text on dark backgrounds and put dark text on light backgrounds.
2. When you insert an image, use an "alt" tag (or label) so people can view the images on the page if they have turned off the images on their web browsers.
3. Update regularly.
   
4. Be consistent. Use the same colors and basic design on each page of your site.
5. Watch your page size. Shorter is better. All the material on your page should fit on an 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper.
6. Avoid using blinking wordsÜthey make your page difficult to read.
7. Don't use lots of large or animated Gifs. They take a long time to download and most people will just give up.
8. Beware of italics they are hard to read.
9. Don't underline unless you link. Underlined words on a web page represent a link to another page.
   

A few things to keep in mind as you prepare the content of your website.

1) Be careful not to violate copyright laws when using information on your site. Check the copyright information on any images that you download from the web. A guide for copyright can be found at www.whatiscopyright.org/

2) Be careful when posting financial information and pictures. Anyone could have access to your website. Keep this in mind when putting up any pictures of church members and especially pictures of children. Don't identify people by name without permission. Ask permission from parents when posting pictures of children.

3) Pay attention to the details. Edit the text, check grammar, spelling, and make sure your information is correct and up to date. A website like The Grammar Lady www.grammerlady.com can help.

Need more help? Don't sweat it .

If you are already using the Web, then all the resources to learn how are at your fingertips. Here are some sites to help you design great pages:

    * www.gettingstarted.net/ Basic help includes tutorials for beginners and advanced web designers.
    * www.projectcool.com/   A searchable index of topics for web design (HTML, Javascript, Audio, Internet Copyright, color charts, and more) from professionals. Highly recommended.
    * www.randomness.com/webtips/   Some very important tips. Nice design too.
      Internet Dictionaries: Confused by all the web-related jargon? Want to know what bandwidth, cookies, and HTML mean? PC Webopaedia http://www.pcwebopaedia.com/ and Oh-No.com
      www.ohno.com/define.html# can help.

This information is presented in the hope that it will prove useful to Covenant churches interested in creating a web presence.  The Evangelical Covenant Church is in no way endorsing any of the commercial products or services mentioned on this page.