25 Jul Where can you get a domain name?

On Wednesday, I encouraged all churches to get a domain name, whether or not they have current plans for a website. Now you may be wondering, “So where do we get a domain name?”

There are many places. My experience is limited to Network Solutions, Aplus.net, and Yahoo. Yahoo! was extremely frustrating, Aplus not so much. But I’ve transferred all UB domains to Network Solutions.

Network Solutions makes it easy to configure domains to use with websites hosted by other service providers. We have domains scattered among several providers, and have never had trouble configuring things through Network Solutions.

• UB.org and UBMissions.com are hosted on the Huntington University system (with the server in my office).
• Ubonline.org (home of the UB News page) is hosted by Aplus.net.
• Bluehost.com hosts our atmychurch.com and healthyministryresources.com websites.

GoDaddy.com is the largest domain registrar; Tucows.com is also popular. I’m sticking with Network Solutions (which is a bit pricier) for the UB accounts, because I’ve had such good experience.

If you open an account with an internet service provider (Bluehost, Aplus, GoDaddy–there are scores of them), you often get a free domain name (at least for a year). But make sure the account is in the church’s name (not the name of a staff member or layperson). Make sure the church controls the name.

To search for available names, go to the homepage of Network Solutions or GoDaddy.

What advice or experience can you share?

23 Jul Got a Domain Name?

Your church needs a domain name.

• The potential domain names for your church decline every day. Unless your church has an unusual name, or you add “ub” to the end, you’ll probably have trouble finding an appropriate name. So get on it now.
• When my church, Anchor Community Church, started a website in 2002, we had a terrible time finding a good domain name. Most any name containing “Anchor” was already taken, and that was six years ago. We finally settled on “Anchorpeople.org.”
• Domain names are bargain-priced real estate on the internet. Prices vary, but $20 a year might do it.
• Once a name is gone, it’s gone. Unless somebody forgets to renew it somewhere down the road (in which case, somebody else will probably grab it first).

You don’t need a website to have a domain name.

• Even if you have no immediate plans to create a website, I recommend obtaining a domain name. Set it on the shelf until you need it.
• The national office owns 37 domain names, most of which aren’t being used. We’re just saving them for possible future needs, and don’t want anyone else to own them (like unitedbrethren.com, ubchurches.us, ubchildren.org, and ubusa.org).
• If you have an internet service provider, you can possibly use your domain name for email even if you don’t have a website.

To search for available names, go to the homepage of Network Solutions or GoDaddy.

What advice or experience can you share?

22 Jun The UB.org and UBMissions.com Sites

In case you’re wondering:

• UB.org is the official, flagship website of the US National Conference. Anything you want to know about the UB church you can probably find there. Use the search box on the homepage.
• UBMissions.com is the official website for Global Ministries.
• HealthyMinistryResources.com is the website for the national office only.

20 Jun The UB Email List

An email was sent out yesterday afternoon to the UB constituent list, which consists of 1070 addresses. It gives information about current work trips, our newest missionary, and other things.

How about forwarding it to your church’s email list, with a note inviting parishioners to subscribe on their own? The email includes a link they can use to subscribe. There might be other people in your church interested in receiving these emails.

11 Jun Microsoft Non-Profit Licensing

A call came today regarding non-profit licensing of Microsoft products. The Healthy Ministry Resources office took advantage of this several years ago, buying multiple copies of Microsoft Office for the Mac for about $30 apiece (a huge, huge savings). Learned about it through Chris Moore at Emmanuel Community Church.

But in checking for the Office 2008 version, I learned that Microsoft changed the requirements to, basically, eliminate churches. Their new policy reads:

Religious organizations with a secular community designation may participate in the Microsoft and I CAN software donation programs. A secular designation is defined as an organization separate from the church or religious organization that provides services to people regardless of their religious beliefs and does not propagate a belief in a specific faith. Example: A food bank with nonprofit or charity status that is run by a church, but is a separate and unique organization that provides food and meals to anyone who qualifies for services, regardless of religious beliefs.

The pastor who called today had been told, through CDW, that they do qualify, and he should submit an application (which, ultimately, would need to be approved by Microsoft). I’m skeptical he’ll get approved, but told him to go for it and keep me informed. (I also read on a discussion board somewhere about a church that got non-profit Microsoft licensing through Dell. Whether or not they represented themselves truthfully….)

What’s been your experience? Can you clarify anything here?

02 Jun 17 UB Churches Doing Podcasts

Devonshire Church in Harrisburg, Pa., is the latest United Brethren church to offer a podcast of the weekly sermon. That makes 17 churches doing podcasts. Plenty of great sermonizing there. A number of other UB churches are doing podcasts.

A podcast is simply a sermon you can download from a website and listen to on your computer or on a music player, like an iPod, Zune, They are typically an MP3 file.

At least two churches are doing video podcasts, which means you can watch the sermon: Emmanuel (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Mount Pleasant (Chambersburg, Pa.).

01 May A Forum for UB Interaction

The new BishopBlog has several purposes:

• A vehicle for me, as bishop, to cast vision.
• An informational Grand Central Station (as already described).
• A forum for interacting over UB-related issues.

We’ve needed a forum.

• The United Brethren magazine was a forum…until we discontinued it in 1993.
• Annual and midyear conferences were a forum…until we discontinued them in 2005.
• The national conference isn’t a good forum. Not with several hundred delegates, and meetings only once every two years.

But good interaction can occur via the Internet. That’s what we want here.

• I want your honest reactions to what I and others write.
• I want to know what’s on your heart.
• I want to know how you perceive things.
• I want to learn from you.
• I want us all to learn from each other.

01 May Your One-Stop UB Bookmark

The BishopBlog is your one-stop United Brethren browser bookmark. The UB Grand Central Station of information. Come here, and we’ll point you to what’s happening in the UB world.

The United Brethren church has a large web presence.

• The UB.org site–the official website of the UB church in the United States.
• UBMissions.com–the work of Global Ministries and our international conferences.
• Huntington.edu–the Huntington University site.
• The BishopBlog–which is where you’re at right now.
• AtMyChurch.com–a UB service which provides websites for churches.
• The UB News page–where we regularly post UB-related news.
• The staff openings and church websites pages frequently contain new info.
• The UB church and missionary directories are tied into our master database.
• Blogs by UB people–a growing list.

So how do you keep track of what’s happening?

• Bookmark all of these sites in your browser.
• Check each one individually to see if something has changed?

No. Just come here. As a shortcut, Bishopblog.org will get you here, too.

16 Nov Making Visitors Not Feel Like Outsiders

We lifetime churchgoers have our own lingo, with inside-the-Bible-Beltway terminology seldom used beyond the church walls. And some words, though they get used in the secular world, adopt a slightly different connotation when used in a church context. We all know that, but ingrained speech habits are hard to break.

Last Friday I attended a Communications workshop at Granger Community Church. Since they focus laser-like on unchurched people, they force themselves to use language which the world understands. Now, I don’t think it’s worthwhile to get too uptight about this stuff, but it is worthwhile to be sensitive to it. So, here are some terms they avoid at Granger, and how they replace them.

I was reminded of this a few months ago when I attended a funeral at a Lutheran church. They used terms like “chancel” that weren’t part of my church experience, and I felt like an outsider. Yes, I was an outsider. But a church shouldn’t remind someone of that. We need to help people feel comfortable, find ways to put them in their comfort zone. As Kem Meyer said in the workshop, a person’s comfort zone may be behind a cup of coffee or sitting in front of multimedia. But much of what we do in churches does not make an outsider feel comfortable. We don’t inflict this discomfort intentionally; we’re not thoughtless or cruel. We just keep stumbling into our familiar ruts, and kinda forget where other people are.

Thinking about the words we use is a nice start in helping visitors feel comfortable in our midst.