The World According To Chris Brewer

If you’re an internet surfer who Googles the web for information, chances are you’ll come across a litany of websites tailored to the one specific subject you’re looking for. Say for example you search for “poodles” and a bazillion links pop up. So you narrow down your choices to two results. One of the links points to a website that is well-designed, well-built and well-maintained. The other site contains outdated information, looks tacky and was worst of all a free, ad supported website.

Which one of those two websites do you think you’re going to want your information from? The one that contains the accurate information and is well-maintained, but more than likely you’d choose it for the reason it is clean and well-designed.

Now let’s take this concept and apply it to something else. Church, for example. While perusing the interwebs for any and all links to various websites in my former church organization, the Church of God of Prophecy, another litany of results came up. I would say about half of the sites I visited were up to date, and even fewer looked well-designed.

Personally I will not visit a website that is not maintained on a regular basis, much less a church website for that matter.

For example, let’s look at the website for the international headquarters of the COGOP. It has updated news on the front page, which is good, and the design is nice, but alas if you click on some of the ministry departments, some critical information is sorely outdated. This link promotes the Youth Conference that took place half a month ago. Not good…a more professional website would have a recap or photos of the event up by this point.

I won’t even begin on some of the individual COGOP church websites I visited. Let’s just say half of them were built on a free website like ForMinistry or Angelfire.

A church. On a free, ad-supported website that sometimes display ads that shouldn’t be viewed by church folk.

I’m not trying to bash anyone here, but I believe one of the most viable ministries a church can have is its website. To many people who have never visited the church before, a home on the internet can be a first impression. A well-maintained and clean website with no ads, cross-browser compliant and with real photos of real people can work absolute wonders for a church body. But on the other hand, you could have the nicest church building and a wide range of programs, but people speeding by on the info superhighway aren’t going to be interested if the website isn’t as well groomed as the church.

I always maintain that the same amount of work put into the church building, mentally needs to go into a church’s website. And it doesn’t take someone with a bunch of head knowledge to be able to do it either. I don’t see why a church can’t fork over $100 for 30 gigabytes (that’s a TON of space) on a site like DreamHost, or $30 a year even over at WordPress.com for a blog or info space for the church.

And speaking of blogs, a blog is a great way to connect with the public. I’ve always been one for pastoral staff maintaining a public blog to be accessible to anyone who comes in contact with the church over the ‘Net.

All in all, if a church really wants to use an effective tool to grow that doesn’t require knocking on doors, putting signs out on the lawn or even plugging your church to friends in casual conversation — a website is a perfect opportunity. It’s really simple too — buy some webspace, get a good content management system or blog, and please, please fork over the little amount of cash it takes to get webspace. $100 a year is chump change and can be raised by anyone. Spend a little more for a professional designer to work on the church site too.

At any rate, I would love to see churches in general grow, and I think the power of the Internet is a great tool that needs to be harnessed by some bright minds. You can never spend too much on a great ministry that will end up benefiting your church in a HUGE way in the end.

I have a huge window of opportunity that God has allowed to fly open and I am taking full advantage of it. I am excited for this potential new adventure — those of you who know me well know exactly what it is. Please keep me in your prayers as I seek direction, guidance and wisdom over the next few days!

In other news:

Tonight I took a listen to Moby’s new album “Last Night.” I think it’s different than anything Moby has produced recently. He has apparently moved away from the ambient/experimental music he was getting good at producing, and moved back to the club, so to speak. My fave track is “I Love To Move In Here.”

That’s about it for now. Prayers much appreciated!

(For those of you who want more of a background on my gripes with the Rainier School District, please click here, here and here.)

I have been clued in by a couple friends that things are still humming along with the Rainier School Board recall petition back in my hometown of Rainier, Oregon. The local media there has been quiet but I have been told that there are near enough signatures to initiate a public recall of six of seven members of the Rainier School Board.

The Daily News had reported the following on February 25, and I have not seen a follow-up:

Signature gathering in the Rainier School Board recall effort is going “very, very good” and should be completed well before the state deadline, organizer Russ Crawford said recently.

Crawford filed recall petitions against six of the seven school board members in January, saying they have neglected their duties and given Superintendent Michael Carter too much leeway.

To force a recall election Crawford and his supporters must gather 431 signatures of registered voters on each of the six petitions by April 23. If the signatures are verified by the Columbia County elections supervisor, the board members will have five days to resign or face a recall vote.

Facing recall are Board Chairman Dale Archibald, Penny Blahm, Rod Harding, Scott Schuff, Bill Scholten and Chad Womack.

Only Alison Dale-Moore, who was appointed in December and not eligible, is not facing a recall.

Crawford said he didn’t have an exact number count of signatures because the petitions are still being circulated, but added he has no doubt he’ll gather enough before the deadline.

“Oh absolutely,” he said. “It’s not a question of if, just of when.”

And tonight while at JRA choir practice (yes, you read that right) I received an email notifying me of a blog comment from a concerned Rainier parent that still refuses to send their child to Rainier schools until Superintendent R. Michael Carter is gone. Here is the text of that comment from “Gordo” on my original “Fire Michael Carter Now” post:

Chris, feel free to continue this for as long as it takes to straighten this all out. My kids will not be attending rainier until the superintendent and school board start treating the kids and parents with respect and in a responsible manner. Not likely with the current regime.

Gordo I feel your pain and I definitely plan to continue spreading the word for the Rainier citizens to do something and save their school district. Thank you for your comment and please continue to keep me informed of anything you may hear.

For that matter, if any Rainier citizens have any news they can verify, please shoot me an email or leave an anonymous comment and I will get back with you later.

Save the Rainier School District! Fire Michael Carter!

Jason Wert, a good personal friend of mine and a hearty contributor to the comments section here on The World According to Chris Brewer, has announced his candidacy for Springfield’s upcoming mayoral election in a post on his personal website.

Good luck Jason and I stand with you in your quest to become mayor of this fine city!