Many churches don’t have websites simply because no one knows the process to obtain a website. They fear the unknown but today we will demystify website hosting and website design. I am going to make it very easy to understand with only three simple steps. Ok lets get started:

Step 1: First, you need a domain name. A domain name is like the street address for your house. It is where people find you online. There are many companies out there that you can purchase a domain name from. http://www.musiclanehosting.com is one and http://www.hosting.webdesignforministry.com is another. Using one of the companies above, you would click on the link to go to that company’s web site. On their page you should see a search bar for domains. It will say something like “Start a Domain Name search” enter the desired name you want people to find you by: note this might take sometime if the name you want is already taken. Every name has an extension “.com, .org, .net, .cc, etc…” think of it like an area code except this is at the end instead of the beginning. Here is an example domain name: calvarychristian.org. Once you have created a domain name that you like and is not already taken purchase it.

Step 2: Next, you need to buy some property or as it is called online “hosting”. Unlike house buying, where your address comes with the lot, on the web you purchase the address (domain name) and lot (hosting) separate from each other. You can purchase your lot (hosting) from a hosting company. Note: most domain name companies also sell hosting. Both companies above offer hosting.  There are many factors that come into play when purchasing hosting but for first time buyers it is simple. Purchase the basic plan. Once you have purchased your hosting plan you need to associate your domain name to the hosting plan. Again most companies will walk you through this process while you are purchasing your hosting account. They will ask you something like do you have a domain name you want to associate this hosting account with. They then give you a drop down box to select any domain name you already have purchased. You just have to select the domain name from the drop down and finish the setup process for your hosting account. The two companies above offer 24/7-tech support so help is always just a phone call away.

Step 3: Finally, you need a house (website). Not all hosting and domain name companies offer website design so you might have to look elsewhere for a website designer or design company. http://www.webdesignforministry.com is a web design company that specializes in churches and ministries. Whatever company you go with should be able to upload all the files necessary so you don’t have to worry about anything.

Conclusion: Well, that is it. Think of websites and the web as home building. Buy some property (get hosting), register an address (buy a domain name) and build a house (design a website). I think the hardest part in this process is building the website because it deals with artist abilities. Most hosting companies have free website builders but they tend to be very generic and template based. For my money I go with custom every time. It is unique and mine alone. There are no duplicates of it anywhere else on the web.

I was talking with my brother the other day (he is a worship leader at a church in the northwest) and he told me that 79% of churches with a congregation size of 500 or less do not have a web presence. Alarming isn’t it. Why is that? Shouldn’t churches be embracing the latest technologies to spread the gospel and unify their congregation as one body in Christ? It breaks down to two main reasons with one common denominator; age.

The first reason: A good portion of churches still has senior pastors over 50 years of age. As we all know technology doubles about every six months thus most of these guys just don’t know what is out there. Since they did not grow up with computers and the Internet as a part of their daily life they are at a loss and a bit intimidated. How does the saying go? “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Don’t get the wrong impression; I am not trying to sound mean. I am just trying to figure out myself why so many churches have not embraced the Internet as a means to communicate with and unify their congregation. My desire with this article is to encourage pastors to make good use of what is out there. I was talking with my pastor the other day about a new website I am building the church and it’s features. I started telling him about the blog section and the ability to subscribe to the RSS reader. He was clueless as to how he could use this to his advantage. I told him he could do a bible study via the blog. This blog section is great. It allows people to subscribe and receive the blogs in their email as well as make comments. Whoever subscribes to receive his bible study can now do the work and ask questions right from their home and he (my pastor) can answer and teach right out of his home. In addition I told him how RSS could help. Let me ask a question: do you have a home page you go to when you get online (yahoo, igoogle, myway, etc…) if so do you notice how you get your information via little modules that you select. Well most of these sites also let you add your RSS subscriptions. I subscribed to my churches blog RSS and added it to my igoogle page. Now when I go online to my home page, along with my news modules I see my churches blogs. See how that works. It awesome!

The second reason is cost. A new church is struggling just to keep the electricity on. Even If they wanted a website they could not afford one. They would have to wait for someone in their congregation to offer to build one for free. Church Website Design can be extremely expensive; especially because of all the features most churches need or want. They need lots of server space for audio and video so they have to buy more expensive hosting plans, they want to send out newsletters thus they need a way to allow their congregation to subscribe and the a way to send out HTML emails, they need to let everyone know when events are coming up so they need a calendar of events, etc… I wont go into all the different features but you get the idea. To communicate with their congregation they need more advanced tools then a simple HTML page.

So there are a lot of churches that could use a website and it all comes down to age; too old or too young. Older ones need someone to hold them by the hand and help them through the door while younger ones need guidance to spend what little money they have wisely. If your church does not have a website encourage them to get one.

Music Lane Recording

Music Lane Recording is a Christian owned and operated CD Replication & DVD Replication & Recording company. We handle CD Duplication, DVD Duplication, CD Reproduction & Replication. We manufacture your products at a price people can afford. Let us take your project from Recording in our award winning Recording Studio to CD Mastering. Once your CD is complete we can Design and Layout your graphic artwork and then we will reproduce your CDs or DVDs. After manufacturing the disc, you will want to promote it. We can help. Let our Web design team create you a new web site; as simple or complex as you like. Finally cap your entire project off with Posters. Music Lane will walk you through the entire process from concept to the retail shelves. www.musiclanerecording.com

Some of our recent clients include:
Salvador
Sheryl Crow
Blue October
Rosanne Cash
RealNetworks
Yahoo Music

Web Design For Ministry partners with Music Lane Hosting to provide quality web hosting. If you do not need a site but only want web hosting or would like to purchase a domain name click here: MusicLaneHosting.com