Web and Other Resources for Churches
Three Ways to Easily Update Your Website | Website Resources | Publishing Resources for Church Newsletters | Image Editing Software | E-Newsletter Resources | ListServ Resources | On-Line Events Calendars
updated 8/10/2008
Three Ways to Easily Update Your Website
1> Using Adobe's "Contribute" software:
A number of churches and non-profit organizations, including the Interfaith Resource Center, have found an easy way to maintain their websites by using Adobe "Contribute" software. This $169 software package allows volunteers and staff to update their websites. Some of the people currently using this software are:
- Sister B.J., Anamchara Fellowship
- Dale Gregore and the Rev. Al Holland, Ascension Episcopal Church, Claymont, DE
- Paula Hartzell, Interfaith Resource Center (this website)
- Melissa Jackewicz, All Saints Episcopal Church, Rehoboth, DE
- Jill Jensen, Grace Episcopal Church, Wilmington, DE
- Chris Min, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Bridgeville, DE
2> Using browser-based updating on sites built with Joomla:
Bob Gilley at St. Thomas's Episcopal Parish, Newark, recommends building websites with Joomla. Websites created with Joomla are managed and updated via a web browser on either a Windows or Apple computer. There's a host of free modules you can add to the site, too. For example he's added a calendar and Google map to the St. Thomas's website. Below are three other sites created using Joomla.
Episcopal Diocese of Ohio
Episcopal News of the San Francisco Bay Area
St. Luke's, Des Moines, Iowa
3> Using browser-based updating on sites built by the Digital Faith Community:
Websites created by the Digital Faith Community (DFC) are currently being used by Trinity Episcopal Parish, Wilmington, and St. Peter's, Lewes. DFC creates websites that can be updated from any computer without any special software; all you need is an Internet browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox.
WEBSITE RESOURCES
- http://www.teledavis.com/ -- Be Web wise to free and cheap digital solutions. The Rev. Tom Davis lists links to software for websites, photographs, telephone, video, RSS feeds, wikis, and calendars.
- http://www.w2mw.org/ -- Priorities for website design. Websites should be easily maintained, have minimal Web rot, on-line event calendars, clear navigation, high search-engine rankings, etc.
- http://www.techsoup.org/ -- an Internet resource for nonprofits
- http://www.elexio.com/ -- Click and build church websites
- http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ -- Hartford Institute's guidelines for website design
- http://www.argylestudio.com/PMUG/home.html -- Princeton University Users Group - old but relevant
- http://www.webreference.com -- Web design tutorials - a mixed bag
- http://www.useit.com/ -- Jakob Nielsen champions ease of use and navigation
- http://www.usability.gov/ -- US Dept. of Health's guidelines to making websites usable
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PUBLISHING RESOURCES for Church Newsletters: Make attractive documents
Desktop Publishing: Many churches compose their monthly newsletters using a word processor such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. True page-makeup software does a better job: Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign are industry standards but a low-cost alternative is Serif Page Plus (PC-only), which also has PDF-editing capabilities.
IMAGE EDITING SOFTWARE
Adjust photos and graphics. Google offers a free, easy-to-use image editor called Picasa. Also free is GimpShop. Also free is Photoshop Express, an on-line Web tool. The expensive industry standard is Adobe Photoshop software, but it comes in a less-costly version called Photoshop Elements.
E-NEWSLETTER RESOURCES
Upload your list of e-mail addresses, upload your HTML newsletter or create it on-line, then send it. Each newsletter is e-mailed separately to everyone on your list.
- http://www.graphicmail.com -- a commerical service
- http://www.constantcontact.com - a commercial service
- http://www.mymailout.com/email/ -- a commercial service
- http://www.shelbyinc.com/ -- this clumsy but reliable church database software has mass e-mail ability. Your organization's software may have this ability as well.
- http://www.wpc.org -- example of a newsletter sent out every week
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LISTSERV RESOURCES
- Using Listservs -- a resource on this website.
- http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/ -- Introduction to listservs by U.S. Government Printing Office
- http://www.gracemadison.org/ -- Grace Church in Madison uses a listserv - see bottom of their Home page
- http://groups.yahoo.com/ -- Yahoo!'s free listserv
- http://groups.google.com/ -- Google's free listserv
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ON-LINE EVENTS CALENDARS
Once set up, these on-line calendars are easily updated by anyone with the username and password. No special software is needed. A great way to keep your church members informed and visitors as well. Some offer a way to send e-mails to invite people to events as well as a map function.
- Google Calendar is free and has many of the features of the product below as well as integration with Gmail and synchronization with some other calendars.
- http://www.mychurchevents.com -- $59.99 a year. Several Delaware churches using this calendar are:
- All Saints Episcopal Church, Rehoboth Beach
- Grace Episcopal Church, Wilmington
- Elsmere Presbyterian Church, Wilmington
- Episcopal Diocese of Delaware
- Concord Presbyterian Church, Wilmington
- Westminster Presbyterian Church, Wilmington
- http://www.ChurchArtOnline.com offers churches the above calendar plus its library of graphics.
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