A Church Voice

Issue #9: Make It Personal

April 1, 2001 - Fifth Sunday in Lent

http://www.laufers.com/churchvoice/
To subscribe, churchvoice-subscribe@topica.com

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From Barbara’s Keyboard

To each of the 445 current subscribers to A Church Voice, thank you so much for subscribing. To the newest subscribers, welcome! I am honored by your interest in church Web sites and newsletters.

As always, I invite you to pass along this ezine to a friend, colleague, church staff member, pastor, denominational resource person, or anyone else who would enjoy this newsletter. I appreciate your support.

Remember to visit our partner, ChurchSite: Resources for Webmasters, for its discussion boards, church Web site reviews, and well-organized resources area. ChurchSite is at
< http://churchsite.gatheringspot.com/ >

The ezine archive for A Church Voice is up to date at the Web site
< http://www.laufers.com/churchvoice/ >
and I'm contemplating the possibility of a search feature for the archive. Or some other way to improve the archive -- I'm not sure exactly what it'll be yet. I’m open to suggestions! cveditor@laufers.com

In this issue I offer some resources for Lent and Easter, readers’ suggestions for clip art sources, and ways to make personal connections with your readers.

blessings,
Barbara Laufersweiler
cveditor@laufers.com

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You are receiving this newsletter because you requested it. Thank you!

I will  n e v e r  share your name or your email address with anyone else. If you need to unsubscribe, you'll find that information at the end of the newsletter.

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C o n t e n t s

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Recently I came across a church Web site that, after a bit of poking around, I found curiously unfriendly. I realized it was because there was not one name of a person on the site. No clergy person was named, no staff member, no contact people for the activities, no ministry contacts, nothing. The effect was surprising to me: I was quite put off by the total lack of peoples' names. Names of people throughout a church Web site are a gentle reminder that it presents a community, a congregation, a gathering of human beings.

I do understand privacy concerns, and I have seen and understood the use of given and family names only (e.g., "Simone O."). I counsel avoiding birthday lists, children's names, personal phone numbers, and the like, for a Web site. None of that is truly needed on a church Web site, given the privacy risks.

On the other hand, I expect the full name of the clergy members, and usually some key staff members, to be available somewhere on the site. It's useful to provide some contact info in the parish announcements for your parishioners; use the church office telephone number with the contact person's given name and family name initial. Relevant names on a church Web site help create the friendly face -- the personal touch -- that churches ought to have.

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Daily devotional writings are a wonderful way to connect with the people coming to your Web site. You can create them in your church community for a particular season and put them on the Web site. You can find sources online and offer them on your Web site. You can even email them to interested visitors who sign up for such an email list.

Here’s an article that I found inspiring and encouraging; to go to the article further down the page, click on "Go Online With Lent" the direct URL is much too long to reprint.

"Go online with Lent: Discover how you can receive -- or better yet, send -- daily Lenten devotions," from Voices of Congregational Life, Winter 2001, a quarterly magazine of the ELCA.

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Ads

Explore and enjoy your faith with your kids!
Faith at Home has great ideas for playtime, stories, Godly play, art, lots more. Tips for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter at home. Great articles and book recommendations!
Faith at Home < http://www.faith-at-home.com >

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ChurchSite: Resources for WebMasters
Helping Christians design and build church-related web sites with articles, discussion forums, FAQs, examples and links to the best church web site building resources on the internet.
< http://churchsite.gatheringspot.com/ >

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If you want your newsletter to contain more of what’s going on in your church, it’s essential to tell potential contributors how to get their information into the newsletter. A first step is to publish your deadline in every newsletter, along with a note about how and where to deliver contributions.

Make the deadline predictable (e.g., Mondays at 4 pm). If you want the information to be delivered to a specific location, say that as well -- whether it’s a box at the church receptionist’s desk, an email address, or the church’s mailing address. You might want contributions to be text files on PC-compatible disks... or email, text and/or WordPerfect files... or typewritten as well as in electronic format.

Whatever you choose, look for the middle way of being both accessible to contributors and helpful to the newsletter production.

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A Holy Easter. Comprehensive, managing to be both wonderfully broad and deep.
< http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/easter.html >

The Easter Page: Lent, Easter, the Resurrection! A beautifully presented collection of links.
< http://www.execpc.com/~tmuth/easter/ >

Paschal Triduum: The Great Three Days. A great reference for Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Day.
< http://www.st-matthew.on.ca/bulletin/tridex.htm >

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"Clip art... both line art and color... humorous and serious... from Communications Resources, Inc., < http://www.comresources.com/ > is the very best that I have found."
~ Don Caswell, editor, The Trinity Voice

"A site with many contemporary Christian graphics: < http://www.fci.crossnet.se/ > "
~ Brian Koyn

"A resource that I have found to of some help, particularly to liturgical churches, is Catholic Graphics 1, along with Catholic Graphics 2. Both are accessed through Catholic 1 Publishing, < http://www.catholic1.com/ > Go there to see the terms of usage. To see the clip art, click Religious Graphics, then Catholic Graphics 1 or 2. This is not an all-inclusive collection, but it does offer many items not found elsewhere."
~ Br. Thomas Taylor, O.S.A., < http://www.StClareM.org/ >

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A bit about my design business:

Let's put your Web site to work for you!
Creative, effective Web design for your church or small business.
Barbara Laufersweiler Web Design
< http://www.laufers.com/idesign/ >
< design@laufers.com >

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Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

[The Book of Common Prayer, 1979, ECUSA]

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If you find this information of value, please pass the newsletter on in its entirety.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome! If you’d like to submit a tip, question, or Web site, send me an email at

cveditor@laufers.com

For more resources, visit

http://www.laufers.com/churchvoice/

See you in two weeks!

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To submit a tip, question, or Web site, cvsubmit@laufers.com
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Copyright © 2001 Barbara Laufersweiler.
All rights reserved.

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