NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–When Dale Duross and his wife found out they would be moving to Eugene, Ore., Duross turned to the first place he always looks when he’s trying to find information — the Internet.
“That’s how I found Riviera Baptist Church,” Duross said.
Duross lived in northern Idaho, and before he moved 500 miles to Oregon, he began looking for Southern Baptist churches in the Eugene, Ore., area on the Web.
“Because of Riviera’s website, I took them seriously,” Duross said. “I could find information about the church pretty easily.”
Duross, now the webmaster for Riviera Baptist Church, as well as the college and career minister, said he believes that having a website is one of the most important tools churches have at their fingertips. “To me, the website is better than having your name in the Yellow Pages,” Duross said. “There’s so much more information available on the Internet.”
Riviera Baptist Church is just one of thousands of churches participating in LifeWay Christian Resources’ LifeWayLINK service, which allows ministries to conveniently create dynamic websites to reach people, both as an outreach and an inreach tool.
For the second year in a row, LifeWay’s technology department is rewarding churches and ministries who have best utilized the LifeWayLINK service with LINKie awards.
“A church website no longer is a luxury or a gee-whiz part of a ministry,” said Gary McClure, marketing manager of LifeWay’s technology division. “Websites increasingly are becoming standard features integrated fully into ministries. They are expected by both congregants and visitors.”
LifeWay’s E-Business department will distribute the awards to the winners following the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 17-18 annual meeting in Phoenix. Five churches, one Baptist association and one state convention have been named “Linkie” winners while nine churches and one association received honorable mentions.
“Winners’ sites reflect an engaged, vibrant church body and online presence,” said Michael Utley, E-business marketing coordinator. “Posted events and prayer requests reveal a lively awareness and use of the site on the part of church members.
“Winners’ sites also include a range of functions such as sharing the Gospel, providing clear and accurate descriptions of meeting times and places, as well as deeper information such as Bible study groups.”
LifeWay is awarding one of the LINKie awards to Bluebonnet Baptist Association in Texas for its interactive website. J.K. Minton, director of missions at Bluebonnet, said the association uses the website to fulfill its purpose.
“Our purpose is to assist churches to fulfill the Great Commission,” Minton said. “So we put everything on the website that a church in our association might need.”
Bluebonnet’s site contains a downloadable search committee workbook, prayer requests, sermon notes, a newsletter and much more. Minton said the site has been much more effective than he ever thought it would be.
“There’s no part of the website that I’m unsatisfied with,” Minton said. “It’s been everything I hoped it would be.”
Any site that is part of the LifeWayLINK service is eligible for the awards, unless the ministry won in a previous year. Utley and his staff went through each of the thousands of websites in the LifeWayLINK program and chose the ones that were most functional, creative and active.
LifeWayLINK was launched in collaboration with a technology partner in 2001. McClure said LifeWayLINK’s success was immediate.
“We are providing a very useful tool to ministries,” he said. “Churches, associations and conventions have adopted LifeWayLINK as their preferred way to have a great website. Most are actively seeking new ways to use their site and new features to enhance it. It’s this ongoing customer input that keeps us on our toes.”
Since LifeWay launched the service, 5,000 churches and ministries have signed on to use LifeWayLINK, which is constantly improving to meet the needs and suggestions of users.
“With the nature of the Internet, things change quickly,” McClure said. “The advancement of LifeWayLINK is an ongoing process.”
LifeWayLINK offers churches and ministries a crisp, professional look for their websites. “LifeWayLINK provides ministries of all sizes the opportunity to have a very professional and easy to use website,” McClure said.
The service is an easy to use, online application that uses tools similar to simple word processing programs. “It takes the hard work out of getting a web site,” Utley said.
Chris Dickerson, minister of education and family life at Grey Stone Baptist Church in Durham, N.C., said the design of the service allows several people in his office to update the church’s website. “It’s very accessible to other people,” Dickerson said. “It’s quite easy to use.”
Another benefit of LifeWayLINK is its affordability. Developers of the service wanted to create something that would be both efficient and affordable for churches and ministries. Churches can sign up for a free site or choose among three levels of monthly subscriptions. Each level offers more services, features and benefits.
Riviera Baptist Church and Duross are looking to upgrade their package. The church is currently a free user, but Duross said as soon as funding is approved, he will add more options to the church’s site.
“The price is right,” Duross said. “It makes it very easy to get churches into having a website.”
Designers have many options to add life and flavor to their sites. With templates, images and animations available from LifeWayLINK, as well as the option to use their own images, there are several ways for ministries to create a unique website that fits the character of their church.
“Sometimes there are too many options!” Dickerson said. “I want to use all of them.”
To create better visibility for the websites, material provided by LifeWayLINK is available to help promote the website to the congregation and the community.
Customer service is available when users run into trouble and have questions. Users can find online support on lifewaylink.com or they can contact a service representative for individual help by sending an e-mail to [email protected].
“As society gets into more things on the Internet, I believe it’s important for churches to keep up,” Duross said. “I believe that’s the way society is going.”
For more information on LifeWayLINK, visit the website at www.lifewaylink.com.
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Leslie Ann Shoemake is a communications department intern at LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. (BP) graphic posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Graphic title: LINKIE WINNERS.
