Q & A:

Why the web? | How does it work? | How much does it cost? |

Everybody comfortable? Here we go!

Why the Web?

Basic truths:
We have 90 plus parishes in the Atlanta Diocese. Our folks at the Cathedral offer a nicely done web page for those that want to be on the web. But, which pages do you notice? The ones with their own design and "image" are the ones that really stand out. Have you ever said, "I wish everyone could know about the love, fellowship and ministries we have at our parish!" Thanks to the internet, they can!

This all started with the Atlanta Diocese EYC page. At St. James we saw a need to have one central web site for our youth. Our young people know the advantage of instant information and updates. Many youth directors are talented at ministering to the young, but it can get to be overwhelming to ask them to be webmasters too!

How Does it work?

What can you do on the web?
There are many options and the only limit is your imagination. The main idea is to get people into God's house. We want warm bodies to fellowship with us! First, think of what you would like your site to look like. Look around at other church sites and see what they're doing. You get some great ideas this way. You can do everything from printing the weekly sermons to posting the church calendar and servers scheldules. Pictures are always a fun option. It shows the great folks that make up your parish!

What will it look like?
Decide what kind of pages you would like. You certainly want to tell people where you are located, the times of your services and how to get to your parish. The goal of any site should be to inform visitors of the different ministries of your church. Do you have a great music ministry? What are different members doing in the church? Do you have an active Youth Group? Are there special seniors ministries? Do you want to print the schedule for serving on a monthly basis? All of this can be put on the web. This is your chance to tell what God is doing in the lives of His people in YOUR parish!

How much does it cost?

What will the fees be for the design and upkeep?
If you could pray for God to provide me with one million dollar lottery ticket, then I could do this for free. [grin] I make my living doing Voiceover work, but got involved in web design when I was in radio. I currently maintain two national web sites. This site is more of a ministry as you'll note that software and helpful hints are offered.

How do we get web space?
You can provide your own web space, or use a free service. Some churches have their own account already. That can be used. All I need is the FTP site and password to update and download the graphics and html documents that keep the site running. An added plus is there are now companies that will register a domain names (www.stpauls.com) for as low as $8.95 a year and other companies that will host it for free.

For a small site you could use a standard account. That's one that comes with your internet provider. I've found this web site that lists providers and what you can get. The standard offer around 10MB of space per e-mail account. Our Parish used Earthlink. They no longer offer MindSpring accounts, only EarthLink ones. You can have a "pseudo" domain name with a regular account. For instance, my home church of St. James had a domain name of: http://stjames.macon.home.mindspring.com It provides an e-mail address of: stjames.macon@mindspring.com and five megabytes of web space.