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UMCom provides digital solutions, enhances technological offerings
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The Rev. Larry Hollon |
July 18, 2005
A UMNS Feature
By Joey Butler and Linda Green*
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--United Methodist Communications
has a “digital solution” to help every congregation in the denomination
fulfill its mission of making disciples.
On July 18, the communications agency launched
Digital Solutions, a network of tools and services to assist local
churches of all sizes, annual conferences and other ministries to
communicate efficiently and effectively.
Digital Solutions is United Methodist
Communications’ expanded technological offerings to help digitally
connect the entire denomination and to provide affordable ways for
churches to use the Internet to enhance their ministries. It includes an
upgraded UMC.org, the official denominational site, with new content
and features to enable churches to minister in a digital way.
“It’s clear that the future of ministry in the
church is going to be, in part, through providing digital information to
people,” said the Rev. Larry Hollon, UMCom’s chief executive. “It
is really a personal experience. It is a relationship through
technology to the church and to its history and even to other people.”
The new array of products and services represents a
major new initiative, one that effectively positions TechShop, UMCom’s
computer hardware and software provider, as the most comprehensive
digital services provider for United Methodist churches in the United
States, he said.
“The Digital Solutions effort is a step toward the
fulfillment of the mandate given to UMCom by the General Conference
several years ago to wire the church,” Hollon said.
“The opportunity for us to be connected as a church
and to extend the community of faith has never been as great as it is
today,” he added. “It is a joy for United Methodist Communications to be
in a position to assist local churches to develop Web sites, purchase
new equipment and underwrite ministry in new ways.”
Through is Central Conference Communications
initiative, UMCom is also helping conferences outside the United States
enhance their ability to communicate in culturally and technologically
appropriate ways.
 The
new packages provided by the communications agency include movie, music
and book reviews, United Methodist News Service syndication,
Web-building tools, church management tools and online training
resources.
New products give local churches the ability to
develop worship materials, prepare presentations, create newsletters and
e-mail messages, locate church organizations and simplify the
completion of forms and reports as well as track congregational life.
Digital technology is “a gift from God,” Hollon
said, noting that three out of five Internet users go to the World Wide
Web to learn more about their faith. Statistics from the Pew
Internet and American Life Project report that 64 percent of the 128
million Internet users in the United States go online for religious and
spiritual matters.
“The Web is a virtual community where we should be sharing God’s love,” he said.
The agency provides a variety of affordable computer hardware
and software to United Methodist organizations through TechShop.
Through partnerships with the world’s leading technology companies, the
agency sells to churches, at deep discount, high quality laptop and
desktop computers preloaded with all the software needed to set up an
office. The ministry has saved congregations nearly $20 million in the
past five years.
TechShop, in conjunction with a number of United Methodist agencies, also
offers a wide range of Web site content for churches. Users can
regularly update content from sources such as The Upper Room, United
Methodist News Service and the recently updated UMC.org.
The “refreshed” UMC.org increases functionality and is more user-friendly. It is the first step in a total redesign scheduled for early 2006.
The update responds to the need for quick links and
better search capability, according to Hollon. The reformatted site
features a flash or story rotator, which can display five different
stories, and drop down menus from the navigation bar at the top of the
site.
Hollon said he hopes the new site will be easier for Web users to access.
“I’m hoping that it will mean a great deal of
change in that the search function will be more extensive than it is
now,” he explained. “We would like to move to a global search option
that would allow people to go to Google and say, ‘I want to find this
about the United Methodist Church’ and they would be able to do that.
And that would direct them to our Web site, as well as the Web sites of
other boards and agencies.”
One new product, the
Small Church Computer Program, provides small-membership churches with a
computer and all of the software needed to perform administrative tasks
or publish newsletters.
Another computer
software package included in Digital Solutions helps churches manage
their ministries. The Ministry Management Tools features a small group
management system, an events management module, a business directory,
membership tracking and statistical tracking.
“Our digital solutions
ministry includes much more than equipment,” Hollon said. “Its purpose
is extending the ministry of the local church.”
The agency offers both
online and face-to-face workshop training in Web ministry. More than
2,000 church leaders have been trained in the use of digital technology.
UMCom describes itself
as a leader in offering Internet based solutions to local churches. The
Ezekiel Website building program allows anyone with basic computer
skills to develop and maintain a church Website. Available to
United Methodist organizations, Ezekiel simplifies Web site development
and guides Web site builders through common chores, without requiring
them to know computer language.
Six thousand churches
are already using Ezekiel to manage their web ministries, according to
Hollon. “It is an inexpensive, easy-to-use Web solution for local
churches of all sizes and budgets.”
The technological revolution has created new
opportunities for churches, including using church steeples as sources
of income. Cellular telephone companies are seeking place for
their antennas and have found steeples to be great locations.
A partnership between
SteepleCom, a company that matches churches and telecommunications
companies, and UMCom offers churches the opportunity to lease steeple
space for wireless antennas to relay cell phone calls. Information from
the denomination’s Find-A-Church database, administered by UMCom, is
used to determine geographical coordinates that SteepleCom shares with
Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and other companies as possible
antenna sites.
The Digital Solutions package is available at www.techshopministry.org. For more information, contact TechShop at (888) 346-3862 or by e-mail: techshop@umcom.org
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