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JimDoty.com |
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FORMINISTRY ADDENDUM by Jim Doty, Jr. This is an Addendum to the
BUILDING A CHURCH SITE ForMinistry.com will allow churches to put up web sites that are free and have no commercial ads. They do put a
small "ForMinistry" link at the bottom of the page. ForMinistry is a ministry of the American Bible Society. I did the following simple site in a little over an hour just to check out how their web site
service and templates work: The most obvious disadvantage to having a site at ForMinistry.com is the long site name, which you don't get to pick yourself. They determine the name for you. The
"Basic Site" they start you with is four pages, but you can add or subtract as many pages as you choose. They have several templates, colors and images to choose from.
I chose the following for the above site: One-page or basic: Basic They have several templates, colors, and images to choose from, and it is simple to change any of
these, at least with the Basic Site. I did not try a one-page site. The process of going through the registration and site choice options results in a basic site with four pages and links all ready to go. You
just fill in the blank pages with text and/or images. During the registration process, ForMinistry gives you the option of choosing a paid domain name. If you want a totally free site, just skip that page and go on.
You can always go back and pay for a domain name later. Adding to your pages is a two-part process. First you upload text blocks and images to their servers. You give each text block or image a "label" name
that you can identify later. Then you go to the page you want to add to, bring up the list of text blocks or images and pick what text block and/or image you want to put on the page. It took me a while to figure out to
do this until I found the page of instructions. It is simple once you find the instructions. They are here: If you decide to build a site at their location, print out the instructions. You will be lost without them (at least I
was). Suggestions If you go with ForMinistry, I would suggest the following:
1) Go through the registration process. Choose your denomination from the list. If you have come here from a Community of Christ link, when you select from the denomination list, choose OTHER since Community of Christ
is not on the list. 2) Skip the "buying a domain name" option. 3) They will ask you for a church name and a slogan. I used "Western Ohio Mission Center" for the church name
and "A ministry of the Community of Christ" for the slogan. Note on the WOMC sample site (above) how they put the slogan under the name. You could use "Sonshine Community of Christ" or
"Springfield Methodist Church" or whatever else you choose for the church name, and the slogan of your choice. 4) When they give you a choice of a single page or basic site, I recommend you choose
"basic." It will give you a pre-built four page site with a HOME page, and three sub-pages: NEWS, SERVICES, and ABOUT US. You can put announcements on the NEWS page, your weekly service schedule under
SERVICES, and any brief information about the church or a link to the world church on the ABOUT US page. You can do all of this in one to two hours if you follow the instructions once you get your basic site up. 5) Select a Template, Color, and Image. These are easy to change later. 6) They will create a basic 4-page site. Now you can go back and add text and images to the pages. For churches, I think
ForMinistry is one of the best free options for a site host. 7) To add to the site later on, just go to the site, click on LOGIN, enter your user name and password (you create these when you register), and
you see your site but with the addition of page editing menus. Just follow the instructions page to change page content, or to add or subtract pages. Then LOGOUT. |
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November 24, 2002 |
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