{"id":84,"date":"2012-03-23T18:46:48","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T18:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/?p=84"},"modified":"2012-04-23T20:11:23","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T19:11:23","slug":"156-the-church-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/156-the-church-online.html","title":{"rendered":"156-the-church-online"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The church online can make a difference!<\/h1>\n

Is your church online?\u00a0 If not you’ll find that the church online is starting to happen all around you.\u00a0 There are lots of reasons for this but perhaps the main one is aging church memberships.\u00a0 The aging membership means that the new intake is starting to appear and that intake in online savvy.\u00a0 They want to be able to find their information on line and at any time.\u00a0 So if you’re not part of the church online set yet perhaps now is the time to start thinking about it!<\/p>\n

Getting online doesn’t need to be an arduous process.\u00a0 It’s quite possible to pick a company (like ours) and simply ask them to put up a few pages for you.\u00a0 You don’t need anything fancy just a simple three or four page site:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  • a home page<\/li>\n
  • an about us page<\/li>\n
  • a contact us page<\/li>\n
  • perhaps an events page<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Nothing too complex to start.\u00a0 Just the basics, enough to tell people searching on the web, who you are, where you are, what you do and how to contact you.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Websites are hosted by various companies.\u00a0 Hosting simply means what computer your site is stored on so that people can access it – and before you ask storing it on your own computer isn’t really an option.\u00a0 Websites4Christians host all their own church websites to ensure that they are properly hosted and have the right software loaded but you don’t have to do that.\u00a0 Instead you could use a free hosting account from Google or create a Facebook page for your church.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Now it might sound like we’re suggesting lots of free ways to get your church online and we are!\u00a0 Although websites4christians is a business we’re really about helping you and your church (or christian organisation) get online.\u00a0 As a Christian family run business it’s more important to us for you to be on line than for you to come to us for your website!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Facebook pages are great.\u00a0 They allow you to quickly build a list of events and things about your church online .\u00a0 However there are some limitations.\u00a0 You can’t control the look and feel of the site.\u00a0 You can’t have your own banner or menu items etc.\u00a0 That said they are a great starting point and a good way to get going quickly on the web.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Google online and other free hosting companies have similar issues but again are great starting points.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Once you’re online and your church life is starting to appear online you’ll soon discover that building you own website is a good idea.\u00a0 It gives you the freedom and flexibility to “own” your space on the web.\u00a0 There are plenty of companies that produce websites and many that focus on providing Christian site.\u00a0 They vary a lot in price and capabilities.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    When looking at the prices it’s definitely worth discussing in depth the ongoing price.\u00a0 Many companies have a monthly fee and although they seem cheap at first they quickly become expensive (in case you’re wondering Websites4Christians sites generally cost between \u00a3250 and \u00a3700 depending on what you want).\u00a0 Some companies (like ours) will also offer to build and host the site for free if your church doesn’t have the funding.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    As always if you’d like to know more why not have a look at the “find out about …” section which explains in more depth website features or have a look at our templates etc.\u00a0 This will give you a good feel for what a website is all about and how to get your church online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The church online can make a difference! Is your church online?\u00a0 If not you’ll find that the church online is starting to happen all around you.\u00a0 There are lots of reasons for this but perhaps the main one is aging church memberships.\u00a0 The aging membership means that the new intake is starting to appear and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websites4christians.com\/our-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}