can any one help, i need information and help on getting my church on the way to being part of the distric and nation web sites, I am acomputer novice please is there any one out ther who can help.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

Answers

Mark,

Are you a member of the AME Church? If you are, you should know that the AME Church does not have a national website that's worth anything.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

What a response to a plea for help!

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Dear Mark,

I would recommend that you first go to the official AME web site at www.amecnet.org and click on the site administrator's site under Rev. Ricky Spain. You might also want to contact Rev. John Fisher, the administrator of this site. I am certain that they will be able to provide you the technical information that you need.

JazzMan

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Hi Mark

Getting started should not be too difficult for you. If you are able to post on this board, you are able to construct a web site.

But...and this is a big BUT...you have to have your church 100% behind you. There is a lot of information that you need to have in hand, and a group of pictures never hurts, before you are ready to start creating the site.

Your most basic information is like a newspaper article, the three Ws, who what where and when. The name of the church, where it is located and the timing of its programs. It also never hurts to have a bio and picture of the Pastor. Brief information on your most active organizations and any programs that you might have that you think would be of interest to someone seeking a church home.

Once you have your information together, then you have to find a place to launch (house) your site. There are some organizations that will host it for free. There are others that will provide a space for you at a relatively low, per month price. Again you have to be closely in tune with your church leadership as you make this decision.

A lot of today's hosting facilities work with "wizards" which make building a web site fairly intuitive.

After you make your way through the information gathering steps, drop me a line and I will try to walk you and your church through the actual building process. By then you should have determined whether the church is willing to expend a small amount a month for hosting...usually 19.95 and under and obtain their own url (internet address) or whether they want to be bundled under another ministry, where they may be able to get free hosting.

Pray on it, speak to your church leadership and stay in touch,. Your web site, if it be God's will, will become a reality.

God bless you in your endeavor.

Rev. John

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Hi, Mark welcome to the board. The AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY offers FREE WEB PAGES to all churches in North America. There is fee for hosting. And they have different layouts to choose from. My church is using them and the web pages are professional looking. In terms of adding your website to your district page. That too is easy. I do not know what district you are in, but first find out if your district has a web page. If they do you send them the address of your web site and they will post it on their web site. Having a church web page is a great idea! The AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY FREE WEB PAGE is www.forministry.com also you can see my churches web page at www.forministry.com/59715spcac My suggestion is to keep it simple at first, you can always add more later. Good luck and contact me if I can help in anyway. Thank you for thinking of your church and providing the service.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

OOPS, in my previous post I left a word out. THERE IS NO FEE FOR HOSTING. Churches pay nothing to have their pages on the American Bible Society site.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001