A New Day for CMC
Hi everyone –
I wanted to drop a quick note to say how excited I am about our new Website and the Coldspring Methodist Church App. As we venture out on an exciting new chapter for our church, I wanted to share some updates on our brand-new website and mobile app.
The reason I decided to make this move was get us beyond a static “Website” and using a medium that is much more dynamic. Through the mobile app we are going to see instant benefits in how we worship, interact with one another, and most important – how others see us. We will finally look like a 21st Century church.
When we migrated to the new website we tried to mimic much of what existed. This is because you all worked very hard a few years back to identify how you wanted to present yourself to the community and the church. When I walked through all the pages I found it very comprehensive. That was encouraging and allowed us to bring over much of what I call the essential nuggets for information disbursement.
A website is about sharing information – it needs to do that job well. So, we stripped some of the bulky information for the "initial release." It may make its way back in – or not. The idea is to keep the site streamlined and populated with current data. The more pages we need to monitor the tougher that is. Right now- I am the Website manager (yes – I’m looking for a volunteer to take this over).
However, there are two real important new features to share.
First - the new website allows us to stream anything we want “live,” and we don’t risk getting blocked by Facebook or Google because they didn’t like my sermon or our beliefs.
The second benefit is the website is 100% flexible – we can move it into any direction we want as new technology comes along. We even have an option to show our services on television as a Smart TV app. That’s cutting edge. Who's ready for the little screen?
But the feature I am falling in love with is the phone app. I am doing my best to not load it down with pages. I want it to be a tool for visitors to get a quick pulse of what and who we are, but more importantly a tool for church members to use.
The church app has messaging capability, we can create unique groups, we can use it to check into church (no more passing the paper pads), we can "give" online quickly if we forget our cash, we can pull up the church bulletin for today’s service (perhaps we save a few trees). I’m making the PowerPoint slides available so you can follow along on your own. You can watch the service on your phone and soon, fingers crossed, I will have close-caption for those that are hearing challenged like me.
The list goes on and on. I'm out of breath!
I’m sure we will hit some snags – with change comes the need for patience. But it also calls for collaboration. The more feedback we get the better both the website and the app will be.
Don’t wait to download the app on your phone or tablet. Do it now, it’s pretty fun.
Ok, need to get to bed – church in the morning.
I Love My church!
For His Glory,
Rev. D!
I wanted to drop a quick note to say how excited I am about our new Website and the Coldspring Methodist Church App. As we venture out on an exciting new chapter for our church, I wanted to share some updates on our brand-new website and mobile app.
The reason I decided to make this move was get us beyond a static “Website” and using a medium that is much more dynamic. Through the mobile app we are going to see instant benefits in how we worship, interact with one another, and most important – how others see us. We will finally look like a 21st Century church.
When we migrated to the new website we tried to mimic much of what existed. This is because you all worked very hard a few years back to identify how you wanted to present yourself to the community and the church. When I walked through all the pages I found it very comprehensive. That was encouraging and allowed us to bring over much of what I call the essential nuggets for information disbursement.
A website is about sharing information – it needs to do that job well. So, we stripped some of the bulky information for the "initial release." It may make its way back in – or not. The idea is to keep the site streamlined and populated with current data. The more pages we need to monitor the tougher that is. Right now- I am the Website manager (yes – I’m looking for a volunteer to take this over).
However, there are two real important new features to share.
First - the new website allows us to stream anything we want “live,” and we don’t risk getting blocked by Facebook or Google because they didn’t like my sermon or our beliefs.
The second benefit is the website is 100% flexible – we can move it into any direction we want as new technology comes along. We even have an option to show our services on television as a Smart TV app. That’s cutting edge. Who's ready for the little screen?
But the feature I am falling in love with is the phone app. I am doing my best to not load it down with pages. I want it to be a tool for visitors to get a quick pulse of what and who we are, but more importantly a tool for church members to use.
The church app has messaging capability, we can create unique groups, we can use it to check into church (no more passing the paper pads), we can "give" online quickly if we forget our cash, we can pull up the church bulletin for today’s service (perhaps we save a few trees). I’m making the PowerPoint slides available so you can follow along on your own. You can watch the service on your phone and soon, fingers crossed, I will have close-caption for those that are hearing challenged like me.
The list goes on and on. I'm out of breath!
I’m sure we will hit some snags – with change comes the need for patience. But it also calls for collaboration. The more feedback we get the better both the website and the app will be.
Don’t wait to download the app on your phone or tablet. Do it now, it’s pretty fun.
Ok, need to get to bed – church in the morning.
I Love My church!
For His Glory,
Rev. D!
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