Kaleo Church Website v 5.0

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Aug 7, 2007 in Church, Church Technology, Ekklesia, General Technology, Monk Dev | 8 comments

Kaleo Church has re-launched it's website for the 5th time.  Our website has been a significant tool in our ministry as an effective way to connect our community, communicate with people who visit our church and non-believers.  Through our website we've seen people attend events/services and become Christians. 

To commemorate the launch, I thought I'd talk about why we have done this now and in the past and other decisions involved.

Kaleo v5.0 -  As Kaleo seeks to launch it's third and fourth locations, we created this design to reflect our multi-site church planting strategy.  We also wanted to change the style of design.  Our previous website designs were typically black/dark.  We wanted to change this to a more clean/white-space design. The functionality is powered by the Ekklesia 360 Church CMS.  Some of the changes included:

• Design: A new clean design was used, created by Mark Priestap at Designwise.  We partnered with the Journey in St. Louis in sharing the cost for the design and we each customized our one layout to reflect our community.  Mark's design was influenced by Mars Hill and we spoke to them to ensure it was ok that we moved in this direction.
• Design: We wanted to put more people and stories on the site.  We now have 3-types of Kaleo Stories: Gospel Stories (how the gospel is changing lives), Mission Stories (how people in our community are living on mission) and World Stories (how people internationally are spreading the gospel.  The persecution of believers and the church planters we support/pray for.)
• Content: Changed a lot of content, such as the gospel, added Mission, Serve & Connect sections and other pages.
• Media: We centralized all sermons (previously on three pages) to one Media & Messages page.
• Blog: We added a blog to the home page for better updates/communication.
• Social Networking: We added a backend for community members to create their own page, blog, galleries, commenting on content, participate in groups, discussions, etc.  As part of the previously mentioned Mullet Strategy – "business in front, party in the back".
• Event Registration: The site now has event registration both for free and paid events.

Kaleo v4.0 - While we had this site, we moved into AMC Theaters for our Mission Valley service.  We had the site up less than 2 months when we launched our 2nd site at San Diego State University (SDSU).  We had decided to move to a multi-site, multi-congregational church planting strategy.  The site was designed by Church Plant Media and the flash was done by AM Design.  This was our first transition to the Ekklesia 360 Church CMS.   (click on design for screenshot) Some of the changes included:

• Content Management System: CMS to manage content (sermons, articles, events, pages, etc.)
• Design: First design not created by me! 

Kaleo v3.0 - This was the site we had when we moved into a church building because we outgrew our warehouse.  The design was created by me and used a php/mysql database.  We managed it through phpMyAdmin.  Chris Livhdahl and I did most of that.  Click on the image to the right to view an interior page.

• Dynamic - We moved from a static, hard-coded site to php-based. 

Kaleo v2.0 – While we had this website, Kaleo 'went public' in 2004 with a move to Sunday morning service in a warehouse we rented.  We went public when we had about 50 adults attending the church.  This design was created by me (man I'm glad I don't design anymore).  It is a static site that better laid out content to view.  Click on the image to the right to view an interior page. 

• Flash - Each interior page had a unique flash header. 

Kaleo v1.0 – This is our first site ever.  We launched this site as we began to do services with a core group of a dozen or so people in the 2002-2003.  I had 7 or so images for the home page that were selected at random to give it a changing appearance.  Click on the image to see another home page.

Triperspectival Benedictions

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Aug 6, 2007 in Church, Sermon, Triperspectivalism | 4 comments

Each week I (or an elder @ Kaleo) end our worship service with a benediction.  I used to do these benedictions based on verses in the bible.  In the last 6-months I have transitioned to Triperspectival Benedictions that follow the sermon.  The three elements of the benediction are:

Normative/Information: What was the passage, topic or emphasis we examined from the Bible.

Existential/Transformation: How, as Christians, are we changed by God in this area?  What is God's grace doing in our lives?

Situational/Sending: What is our call to now live in response to this new reality.  How are we a sent people to be on mission and proclaim/live this reality?

This was today's benediction based on a sermon in Acts chapter 9 that dealt with Paul's conversion and his radical life of faith through the gospel.

Kaleo, may you grow in faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

May you see yourself as the children of God.  That you are forgiven, that you are more loved, accepted and approved than you dare imagine.

May you go and live as the children of God, rejoicing and telling everyone the good news of what God has done.

Go in peace. 

Just another crazy triperspectival idea from the Kaleo guys. 

Tentmakers, Porn, Worship and Near Death Experiences

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Aug 3, 2007 in Church, Church Planting, Church Technology, Culture | 0 comments

Here are a few links of interest:

Seminary’s, Vocation, Depressed Cities & Tentmakers – Learn how seminary's, church Bible schools, cities with high unemployment can utilize the Tentmaker Group to make a difference.

The Porn Myth – Great article on the myths of porn by an early feminist.  As Challies says it, "I delight in finding articles in secular publications that just say what the Bible has been saying all along. In many ways, this is just such an article." 

An Interview with Tim Smith – Including info on the Continuous Worship Conference.

The 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis – It was only a week ago we (and those at the GCA conference) drove across this bridge several times.  Read John Piper's "Putting My Daughter to Bed Two Hours After the Bridge Collapsed".

What is your churches Mullet Strategy?

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Aug 3, 2007 in Church | 4 comments

As we prepare to relaunch Kaleo's website with a new design, we are adding a major element.  We will implement Ekklesia's "web mullet strategy".

The biggest sites on the web are all embracing the “mullet strategy”—business up front, party in the back! User generated content is all the rage but most of it totally sucks. That is why sites like YouTube, MySpace, CNN, and HuffPost are all embracing the mullet strategy. They let users party, argue, and vent on the secondary pages, but professional editors keep the front page looking sharp. The mullet strategy is here to stay because the best way for web companies to grow traffic is to let the users have control, but the best way to sell advertising is a slick, pretty front page where corporate sponsors can wistfully admire their brands.  (Source: Doubletounged Idea/Image: think:lab see more images HT: Bryan Zug )

We want people in our church to be in community, connect, discuss, post, interact and all that other yummy social networking functionality. Churches who understand how to tap into social networks have a tremendous opportunity to connect with people.  Some goals include:

• Connecting people with similar interests (eg. Mountain biking) to connect, organize and be missional in planning activities.
• Allowing home groups to continue the conversation throughout the week, post, discuss interact around topics.  This area would facilitate some of this conversation.
• To participate in conversations for 'registered members' to discuss church business.

How would you want to use a mullet strategy for your church?

The Tentmaker Group Launches

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Jul 31, 2007 in Church, Church Planting, Church Technology, Culture | 7 comments

The Tentmaker Group website has launched! If you know people looking to fund a church plant transition, pastors who seek supplemental income or people interested in roles that will re-invest money into church planting and ministering to people in their city, this is one avenue.  From the site:

The Tentmaker Group exists for God’s glory to create self-sustaining, gospel-centered movements to change cities.  Learn more about our vision. The Tentmaker Group was created in answer the following questions:

How do you transition into ministry?

How do you create a sustainable movement?

How do you fund a church plant?

How do you change a city?

For many, funding is a significant challenge to the pursuit of their calling. The Tentmaker Group provides opportunities to help fund these transitions and city-changing movements.