What exactly is The iChurch Method?

The iChurch Method is simple: a method to help ministries have a global presence online. To provide digital solutions that help ministries connect to people everyday around the world. It’s a five part approach to taking your ministry online and reaching the world:

Part 1: Website – A Great Website that is Easy-to-Use.
Part 2: Multimedia – Interactive Multimedia, online video and online streaming
Part 3: Ecommerce – Online Stores/Online Donations.
Part 4: Social Media – Engage and Connect with Facebook and Twitter
Part 5: Mobile – The Future of Technology and Ministry with mobile websites and mobile apps.

With these five parts, a ministry can reach and change the world. The iChurch Method book is a MUST READ for every ministry leader who desires to have a global presence online. Caston Digital and CEO Jason Caston, created this method to help all ministries establish a global presence and utilize technology to the fullest, without having to worry about huge financial investments and hiring numerous technical specialists. As explained in the book, this method is as advanced enough for a technical expert to understand, but simple enough for a non-technical church leader to understand.

Order The iChurch Method Book today!!

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iChurchMethod.com is now FASTER!!

Over the last few months I noticed that my website was running slower, load times went from 3 seconds to 60 seconds and I could not figure out why. I tried to put on my server admin hat as well as my developer hat and went into wordpress and optimized the website, removed some plugins, setup a CDN (Content Distribution Network) with maxcdn.com and finally found the issue. The issue wasn’t anything I had done, it was my hosting company, Godaddy has failed me.

Godaddy is a great hosting company to start off with but as your website grows the shared hosting plans have so many websites on each server that your site starts to slow down considerably. This is an issue for anyone whose site needs to load quickly, which should be all websites. Personally, I give websites 2 – 3 seconds to load before my A.D.D. kicks in and i’m onto something else. So how can I expect people to wait “10 internet years” for my website to load due to my hosting company overloading the servers with thousands of websites.

Well all is well now because I have migrated to Hostgator.com and my website is running very very fast, with a loading time of 1.08 seconds!!

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/ichurchmethod-com-is-now-faster/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ichurchmethod-com-is-now-faster

The iChurch Method TV – What Makes a Church Website a Good Website?

In this interview I was asked about good website practices for ministries, here is my answer (video is above and transcript is below).

There are five good church websites that I can think of:
One would be Willow Creek Church. That’s out of South Barrington, Illinois. Their website is www.WillowCreek.org. That’s a good church. That church website has some good things going on with it and I’ll tell you why in a second. Another example is Fellowship Church out of Dallas, Texas. Their website is www.FellowshipChurch.com. The Potter’s House Church; their website is www.ThePottersHouse.org. That’s another site that’s good. Cotton Wood Church out of Los Alamitos, Orange County, California. Their website is www.CottonWood.org. Lastly is Saddle Back Church out of Orange County, California. Their website is www.SaddleBack.com

The reason those sites are good is because they hit on some good aspects of design and functionality, usability, and just information. First and foremost they touch on the top things people are looking for when they come to a church website which is location, service times and contact information. Those are the things that people are looking for outside of the amazing design, the banners, where they’re at and stuff like that. People just want to have quick access to that information; when’s the next service, how soon can I get there, how far are you from me, is there an online service incase I’m not in your area, stuff like that. So, they have a good usability in terms of that.

They also have good imagery going on there. Again, large banners and pictures are good to hold people’s attention. They load quickly; people are usually looking for something to load in one to three seconds, and three seconds might be pushing it in our “right here – right now” culture.
They also have good site design in terms of being able to get anywhere on the site in two to three clicks. I believe a couple of them have site maps right at the bottom of their page similar to Apple.com where they have a site map right at the bottom of the page. That helps to get all around the entire site fairly easily and quickly.

The way those websites are laid out just seems like it’s made for the user to be able to navigate easily, and that helps. When people come to a website they get frustrated if they can’t find what they’re looking for.
I’ve seen this as well where certain churches try to put everything on the homepage where the website looks like a bad episode of hoarders. You don’t want your website to look like a bad episode of hoarders.

Studies have shown, and I believe it’s up to 70% to 75% of people will look at your website before stepping foot in your sanctuary. I think that’s what a lot of churches miss sometimes. That, in turn, makes the website one of the most important parts of your ministry. It’s the welcome ministry, it’s the greeting ministry, and whatever information they’re looking for, it’s that ministry to them. So now since the website has become that important in your ministry, you should invest in it as such and make sure it represents your church and your ministry in that manner.

People put a lot of effort into their sanctuary and pay a lot of attention to how it looks, how the building looks and the experience of the person when they get to the actual church building, but they don’t pay as much attention to the experience before they get to the building, which is the website. So, when the website becomes the most important outreach ministry of your church and people understand that then you’ll pay attention to it as such.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/the-ichurch-method-tv-what-makes-a-church-website-a-good-website/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ichurch-method-tv-what-makes-a-church-website-a-good-website

Give Your Church Website Photos that Pop and a Pleasing Color Scheme

When it comes to your church website, it pays to remember that this may be the first impression a visitor gets of your church. You want it to be warm, inviting, and above all, professional. Pictures should not look like someone took them with a cell phone camera.

If a picture really does paint a thousand words then you can use them to tell your story, and save having to come up with quite so much content. Consider hiring a professional photographer or finding a budding amateur among your members. A good camera and photo editing software are a must.

A common mistake amateurs make is to place low-resolution photographs on their site as is, without even bothering to crop them appropriately. Photographs should be high resolution, corrected for lighting, contrast and color, and cropped to frame the subjects you wish to highlight.

Photo editing is less about fixing bad photographs, but rather taking great photographs and altering their mood, lighting and tone to set the stage for your story. Photographs can be modified to reflect the color scheme of your site, the mood of the occasion and more.

If you’ve ever watched the television show CSI Miami, you may have noticed that the coloring is very intense, in order to achieve a certain mood for the program. That look can be achieved by simply bumping up the saturation levels during the editing process to make the colors really pop. Colors can be removed, as well, to give photos an old timey, sepia-toned look.

Lighting levels can be adjusted in your photographs to create a somber mood, or brightened up to make them appear more festive. Any number of modifications can be made to your photographs to help them tell the story, so be sure to take advantage of the technology to best effect.

Your color scheme is equally important, as it will set the tone for your website and may have a strong influence on the type of parishioners you attract. If you’re hoping to attract young people, you’ll want bright, vibrant colors, whereas if your congregation is mostly older and conservative, then you’ll want to select more traditional, muted colors.

You should browse a number of different sites before deciding on the color scheme of your church website. Do you want your site to be joyous, vibrant, reverent, pious, respectful, humble, glorious, or serene? Pick the word that most describes your congregation, and find the colors to match.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/church-website-photos/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=church-website-photos

The iChurch Method TV – How Technology is impacting the Authority of Pastors and Leaders

I was interviewed about how authority in technology is viewed, here is my answer. (the video is above and the transcript is below).

I think what technology is doing with authority is amplifying it. If the church leader, the pastor, is a good leader—is transparent and has good intentions—then digital media and social media will amplify that.

They’re a good leader when they’re preaching their sermons, they’re a good leader when they’re leading conferences and they’re a good leader on the grand stage, but they’ll also be a good leader on the small stage when it’s just a random Tweet on a Tuesday. Those skills will permeate from them and people will see that. Now, if they’re a bad leader then that will be amplified as well.

Technology, I believe, just amplifies what you really are. Basically people can only hide who they really are for so long. If a leader is on Twitter or Facebook and they’re continuingly putting out messages from themselves, not calculated marketing department-driven messages or messages that are scripted for them, but these are their genuine messages then they will genuinely come out. I think the delivery methods we have with digital media and social media just amplifies who people really are.

Prior to social media and digital media taking off, we saw these mega church ministries and ministers having large followings based on the TV audience and even the radio audience. So, what digital media and social media did was give them another delivery method to showcase the message that they were proclaiming, their sermons and so on, but social media took it to another level where we got to see a glimpse of their actual lives; what they think and who they really are as people.

We can see that on the grand stage they’re great leaders and they preach great messages but on the small stage are these men good fathers, are they good husbands, what do they believe on a Wednesday at 8:55 when the lights aren’t on; how are they? That access and transparency lets good leaders shine on a whole new level and lets bad leaders get exposed on a whole new level.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/technology-is-impacting-the-authority-of-pastors-and-leaders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=technology-is-impacting-the-authority-of-pastors-and-leaders

Mobile Churches are Global Churches

With more smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices being produced and sold than ever before, people are staying connected, from the office, the dentist, the chiropractor, the grocery store, and everywhere else that their busy day takes them. If not already the case, there will soon be more mobile internet users logged on at any given time than those using stationary personal computers and laptops combined.

When one of these mobile users, perhaps in a moment of extreme duress, conducts a search for Hope, Help or God, you want to make sure you are ready to answer the call.

Formatting Your Website for Mobile

Optimize your website for mobile phones. If you visit a site on your mobile phone that is not optimized for mobile, it will appear much like it does on your PC or laptop – only much smaller. You’ll have to blow up each section just to read it. Mobile optimized sites, on the other hand, are formatted differently, so that you can read each section clearly, and browse much as you would a regular site.

To do this, you will have hire someone to reformat your site for a variety of devices. You can then employ a “sniffer” program that will immediately detect what kind of device is accessing your site, and it will present the most readable site format for that particular device, whether it is a PC, laptop, cell phone or tablet.

Mobile Check In Keeps You Connected

Certain applications allow a user to check in, via the GPS feature in a smart phone, virtually broadcasting where that user is. This allows nearby businesses to send them coupons and discount offers, along with letting their friends know where they are, in case they happen to be nearby and want to connect. When people check in to announce that they’re attending your church services or special event, this brings a great deal of positive exposure for your organization.

You can also take advantage of the mobile coupon application to send notices of church services, discounted tickets to church sponsored events, church store discount coupons and more to people who check in within a certain radius of your ministry.

In summary, in order to reach out to your busy congregation today, sometimes you have to reach a little farther in order to keep up with them as they rush from place to place. Mobile technology puts your message right at their fingertips, any place, any time.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/mobile-churches-are-global-churches/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mobile-churches-are-global-churches

The iChurch Method TV – The Future of Technology and Online Ministry

I was asked about the future of Internet and Technology, here was my response (the video is above while the transcript is below):

If I had to prophesy then I would say the lines between offline and online are blurring. When you want to look five or ten years down the line, look at projects that are young in their infancy that make you think, “Wow, that’s pretty interesting.”

First aspect would be something like Google Glass where you have the glasses that are connected to the internet that you wear on your face that you can actually kind of change your perception; it’s like everything you’re looking at offline has an online component to it. That way you’re never disconnected. If you’re wearing those glasses and you’re always connected to the internet, let’s say you look at a church and automatically right there in those glasses that church website comes up or pertinent information about that church comes up as you’re looking at it or looking in that direction because it’s a virtual reality type of deal. That’s what I think we’re moving towards; virtual reality, an always connected life and pretty much existence.
Secondly we’re seeing that our appliances and everything in our households—SmartHomes—are coming along. All the appliances and everything that we use in our household will be connected to the internet somehow. Wirelessly actually, because we’re seeing 4G and by then it will be 6G and whatever the years down the line, so the internet will be much faster.

Think about when you get up. While you’re brushing your teeth in the mirror, the mirror has a computer screen on it and it’s going through your tasks for the day or something like that. But, before you even look at the task you see a Daily Devotional or you see a nice message from your pastor. The church has the ability to integrate media and stay connected in people’s lives all the time. That’s the type of stuff I’m seeing. Before you reach in the refrigerator there’s a Daily Devotional on the refrigerator. You’re constantly being encouraged because you’re constantly connected to the information that’s coming from your church or your ministry. That’s the type of stuff I think will happen. When we step in the car I think the cars will drive themselves. Google already has that. So, while your car is driving you to wherever you’re going, you’re listening to a sermon. I think that’s something that will be going on.

Let’s say there’s a live service going on, a bible study or something, you’ll be able to interact with the pastor during that bible study no matter where you’re at. So, even if you’re in the car you might Tweet something or Facebook something—whatever the new social media method is—and the pastor responds to you and you’re five states away, but you’re connected to that service. There will be no difference between offline and online. There will be pretty much a virtual reality type of world.

Our kids, that will just be normal to them. They’ll be able to consume, digest, and distribute enormous amounts of information via the internet and that will just be the reality to them. I’m not sure, Google or Apple, who wins out here in this iRobot type of battle but one of them is going to win out. I love Google backwards and forwards and I think Google has a lot of great things going on.

My kids have had iPods and iPads since they were three and five, so the ease of use of those devices, they’re going to be able to connect to their churches with those devices because they’re used to them and they were so easy to pick up. They’re not going to go away from that. Kind of like when kids are three and they see McDonalds. They don’t go away from McDonalds until they learn later on how the pounds don’t come off as easily, but it pulls them in at such a young age.

Our kids and the youth of the future are going to be so technologically savvy and always connected that as long as the church is online and providing information and connectivity and a way for them to get ministry 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and not shunning technology and telling them to disconnect but to integrate that into ministry, then the church will always be accessible and it will evolve with technology.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/future-of-technology-and-online-ministry/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=future-of-technology-and-online-ministry

Basic Components of Your Church Website

When designing your church website, there are many options. What should you include? Consider some or all of these components:

• An eye-catching color scheme
• Optimized images
• Rotating Banners
• Multimedia
• User interaction
• Newsletter registration
• Content Management System
• Site map
• Social media icons
• High quality content

The color scheme is a critical. Color is a mood enhancer, and can trigger a host of different emotions. Consider your congregation, their preferences, age, liberalism or conservatism, culture, popular local sports teams, etc. You may want to simply reflect the interior or exterior colors of your building, for a sense of identity. Before selecting a color scheme, take a look at various sites and see what you find pleasing.

Along with the color scheme, images are key to creating a visually pleasing website. Images not only break up the text, but they can help to illustrate it, as well as giving visitors a visual representation of your congregation. Choose images that are warm and inviting, evocative of a caring community and paint a favorable picture of your ministry. Make sure your photos are professional in quality and not taken from someone’s cell phone camera.

Rotating banners are an effective way of displaying a greater number of images on your website without cluttering it up. They can also be used to advertise upcoming events, and effectively expand the usable space of your page. For maximum effectiveness, add other forms of multimedia to your site, such as digital podcasts of sermons, or short digital videos taken from recent services or church events.

User interaction can be accomplished through the use of online events calendars, prayer requests, donation modules, and registration forms for various church events, as well as to sign up to receive an electronic church newsletter via email.

A content management system allows different users to update different portions of the website, so that the minister can post a blog, for instance, without having to go through the webmaster.

A site map is your visitor’s “you are here” sign, allowing them to navigate directly to the page they’re looking for. Social media icons allow users to “like” your page on Facebook, Twitter or a variety of other social media sites, share content from your church’s website, or even to go directly to your church’s social media pages, if you have them.

Lastly, high quality content is crucial. This is the meat and potatoes of your site. Make sure all of your blogs, descriptions, captions and other content are spelled correctly, use easily understood language with proper grammar, and are interesting and informative. This is the most difficult part of all, and will likely require a large number of participants and one very good editor.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/basic-components-of-your-church-website/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=basic-components-of-your-church-website