Archive for Church Web Master Advice
Video and Audio Internet Solutions for Churches
Posted by: | CommentsOn Church Webmaster we are always looking for solutions to the problems that arise for churches pursuing web ministries. One of those problems has been finding affordable ways to handle video and audio files for websites. Having tried a lot of the services available for audio and video uploads and serving, we are currently recommending Vimeo for video files, and Sermon.net for audio files. Both of these providers have free options which work great and should work well for almost any church. Only churches who are trying to put together more of an online live streaming video web service would really need to use the paid services on Sermon.net. Sermon.net can be used for both video and audio. but the video portion is a paid service. Vimeo, however, has a free video service which allows for 5GB of uploads weekly. This is more than enough for most churches. Both providers have easy to use interfaces and it is also easy to embed the codes produced into your website for your online visitors to playback. You can check out these two services working together at the Preaching in Shorts website and then going to Preaching in Shorts Sermons tab. Once you click there you will see a menu of available messages that consist of the video file from Vimeo, the audio file from from Sermon.net and the accompanying notes for the message. This is an effective format that people really enjoy and find useful.
Adding your sermons and Bible studies in video and audio to your church website is a great feature for people who are not able to attend when they are on vacation or ill so that they can stay connected. With the cost of the equipment necessary to create good quality audio and video files, there is really no good reason not to get this process started in your church. A powerful web ministry is now possible for virtually any size church, not just the mega churches out there.
Is Your Church Connected
Posted by: | CommentsSometimes churches are so busy withe the day to day demands of being the church, that it is possible to miss something really big. The really big thing that a lot of churches are missing is the opportunity fro ministries that exist on the Internet. People have really embraced the Social Networking sites that are now popular. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are a regular daily part of millions of people’s lives and this presents a great opportunity for the church. Your Church should seriously consider it’s web ministry and if check to see if your current website is getting the job done. Do you have a blog component to your website that is updated frequently by the the Pastors and staff of your church or has it remained unchanged for the last five years? (I know there are some churches that don’t have an Internet presence yet and it is really time to get one).
Here at Church Webmaster we suggest that you give your website a face lift or maybe even start with a brand new site. The site should have a blog component that is updated frequently, and your church should also set up a Facebook page and Twitter account that link to the new site. This process is not that expensive. Perhaps you have some talented volunteers in your church that can help you through this process. If not, we would be happy to serve as your church webmaster. For as little as $560 a year we can build and maintain your website and Social Networks for you. If you aren’t interested in a yearly maintenance agreement, we can set you up with a website and get you started on the Social Networks and train you on how it all works for as little as a one time fee of $750.00. If your church has not yet moved into the ministry opportunities that are available on the Internet use the Contact page to get a hold of us and let us help you get started. There is a whole new ministry field that is waiting for workers to harvest it!
