Monk Development v2.0

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 26, 2008 in Church, Church Technology, Ekklesia, General Technology, Monk Dev | 1 comment

Monk Development's corporate site was starting to show it's age and I'm glad I can now show off the redesigned site!  Designed by Designwise with rebuild help by our friend Kyle Sollenberger .

About Monk

Monk Development creates web-based Content Management Systems from the ground up around best-of-class technologies.  We service our clients with our design network to build award winning websites.  Our solutions are used by thousands of individuals, organizations and corporations around the world.

Monk Development began in 2004 in a home office and has since grown to now employ nearly 20 people.  In 2007 we opened development offices in South Africa.  All along we have been able to grow through being a profitable company, investing back into creating the best suite of products and services for our clients. This is is because clients are viewed as partners at Monk Development.  We are committed to create comprehensive solutions to achieve their business goals.  We recognize that our clients success online is critical to the ongoing achievement of our organization.  

Church Websites & CMS

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 25, 2008 in Church, Church Technology, Ekklesia, General Technology, Monk Dev | 0 comments

Stealing our Website: the greatest sign of flattery?

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 15, 2008 in Church Technology, Ekklesia, Monk Dev | 6 comments

Over the weekend a company in Turkey must have decided they liked the Ekklesia 360 website.  

Our site:

Their site: [snip]REMOVED[/snip].

UPDATE: The owner of the site has taken it down.  Thanks for your help! 

Ekklesia 360 Church CMS v2.0

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Aug 10, 2007 in Church, Church Technology, Ekklesia, General Technology, Monk Dev | 2 comments

Ekklesia 360 Church CMS has launched our new design.  The old design had run it's course and we decided to give the site a fresh look.  The website uses the Ekklesia Website CMS.  The website was designed by Designwise and Shane Thacker developed our new logo.  (see blue/white logos)

It's been a great year so far, we have had 20 different design companies use our CMS for their clients.  (View a few of our website design partners)  We now have over 800 churches, ministries and companies using our backend to manage their website/content.  Our team has grown to 12 people who are passionate about helping use technology for God's glory.

 Learn more about Ekklesia's:

• Content Management System
• Event Management System
• Member Management System
• Contact Management System
• Blogging System
• Outreach System
• Social Networking
• E-commerce

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.

Using the Internet to Gather, Connect and as a place of Mission

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 29, 2007 in Church, Church Planting, Church Technology, Ekklesia, Ministry Design, Monk Dev | 4 comments

Breakout session 6   Thursday 845 to 945am

Today is Internet Evangelism Day. More and more we need to see the internet as a mission field.  As our culture moves increasingly online, this presentation discusses how churches can be missionaries to unbelievers, gather the unchurched and connect with their community.  This is a session I did last week at the National New Church Conference.  The session wasn't recorded but a lot of Q&A occurred as much of the information was new for the audience.  Feel free to post if you have questions.

Session PDF: Using the Internet to Gather, Connect and as a place of Mission