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Quick Start

 
There is little question that in ten years every church will have an Internet presence. This page will help you determine what you need based on personnel, politics, scaling, and outsourcing. You will find no turn-key pricing on this page or any other because each situation differs so greatly. (You may find general prices of individual components in the hardware section.)

  • Personnel

    The days of dead web sites are long past. Current events must be posted, calendars updated, pictures added, and content adjusted. While these tasks are simple and only take a few minutes (if your website has a good content management system) someone has to do it.

    If you plan on webcasting, know that no one will want to run the webcast every week for years. You will need at least three people with medium level computer skills. By medium level, we mean someone who is either forced to use a computer for their job, like a teacher, or junior-high and high school kids.

    If you can't find the people, you will be forced to scale back.

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  • Politics

    The key is empathy and preparedness.

    When the senior citizen asks "Why on earth do we need this?" An answer of "Times are changing..." will not impress. An answer of "We need to bring the Word to the homebound, those in the hospital, and reach our grandchldren when they are off at college and really depressed." Chances are that one of those groups scored a big hit.

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  • Scaling

    Level1 - The Web Site only

    This most basic level of Internet presence has a very low hardware requirement. In fact all that is absolutely required is for someone in the congregation to own a computer. A digital home movie camera would be nice so you can shoot video and upload it later, just like YouTube™. Even without a movie camera, you can have a pastor's blog, a forum, a calendar, on and on. Many of these additions while having a very small development expense can add greatly to the maintenence requirement. The importance of personnel to maintain a calendar or a forum cannot be over emphasized.

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  • Outsourcing

    Poor outsourcing creates a nightmare out of something that should be a turn key job.

    Think before you act. Find someone with experience in precisely what you need. For example, very few electricians have installed a pan/tilt camera, while a security company may have a professional who does this every day. Even though the professional will charge you twice that of the electrician, when it is all said and done you will get away cheaper using the professional.

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