Our client’s church websites continue to receive awards and recognition. For example, Church Relevance lists the top 90 church websites and numerous Ekklesia clients are on the list. On ChurchBeauty one-third of the sites on the current home page are on our system. Even the Ekklesia 360 admin interface was deemed one sexy interface on this list of 10 inspiring admin interfaces for a CMS. A couple new sites launched on Ekklesia 360 that I really like the design of. They include:

College Park Church

Park Community Church

Second Presbyterian Church

Lately I’m running across a number of companies that are building social networking sites targeted to the church market. A number that have set their sights at being the ‘church Facebook’. Yet, most of what is called ’social networking’ is meaningless. They often offer me-too features that don’t add real value. For example, I’ve joined church-targeted community sites that allow their members to blog and even with hundreds of members, one site had three blog posts total. Or how many sites do I need to continue to add friends to? I believe a lot of the problem stems from trying to be all things to all people (a new Facebook or MySpace) or the lack of creative and difficult thinking around building for a specific community.

Zack Hubert a pastor at Mars Hill put it well when he spoke about a community network for Mars Hill that is “geared to build up a community of people and not the community of one.” This is right on. He goes on to say:

A social network is centered around the individual…my friends, my media, my blog, my connections, my thoughts, my experiences, my pictures, etc…whereas a Community Network is centered around the Community, groupings of people, real relationships forge the bonds, not imaginary ties that have aspirations to reality. My becomes our and I think that’s a significant change…

Churches who seek social networking should use existing mainstream sites. You should be missional using these social networks, go join an existing one like Facebook. In fact, you can become my friend at Facebook and I’ll join you. But I do believe there is plenty an online community can do to help promote the very activities that are central to being the church. Serving, community, mercy all facilitated by tools created to these specific needs. And it is because of this we will soon seek churches to use our beta of a Community Network from the people who brought you Ekklesia 360.

What do you think a Church Community Network should be?

Monk Development seeks a dynamic sales executive that can demonstrate building a business plan to engage with target accounts at decision making level. The primary focus is to expand sales revenue as well as drive new market share by hunting for new business. Candidate needs to have a track record of calling into large accounts and reaching key decision makers. You will be leading our strategic & large account development for Ekklesia 360 into ministries, churches, denominations and non-profits. This is an excellent opportunity to work at a start-up company that has over doubled in sales for the last three years.

The role requires:

* 3 + years of experience selling into Fortune 1000 accounts or equivalent.
* Experience in selling to Ministries, Churches and Denominations.
* Knowledge of Content Management Systems, website and custom application development.
* A solutions-oriented consultative sales approach.
* Experience and ability in the full proposal development cycle.
* Solid writing and communication/presentation skills
* Bachelor’s degree
* A passion for churches and helping ministries see beyond a website, to doing real ministry online.
* Full-time role that requires a total commitment to the vision of Monk.

If you are interested in a career at Monk go to Jobs @ Monk.

PHP developer wanted for development of a niche community building and social networking product that tightly integration into Monk Development’s existing Content Management Framework. This product provides developers with an opportunity to shine on a cutting edge product aimed at a large user base. Product development is fast paced with rapid prototyping preceding larger scale implementations. We need motivated developers who are comfortable with flow charting ideas, contributing in brain storming sessions and correcting course if need be.

Developers will work closely with an existing team in our Old Town corporate offices in San Diego. This position will require the candidate to live and work in San Diego. We are a young company with fresh ideas and seek developers who are ready to work hard, play hard and enjoy
great success in their career development path.

Skills Required:

* PHP 5 (OOP required)
* MySQL 4.x, 5.x
* HTML/XHTML (4+ years)
* AJAX, JavaScript
* C programming experience a plus (Unix Socket Programming)

Additionally:

* A willingness to work on bug fixes, timely and untimely
* An excitement and drive to do it right the first time but also be willing
to get code out the door
* Be a team player

Education:

* BS Degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering
* Demonstration of existing successful web development projects

If you are interested in a career at Monk go to Jobs @ Monk.

Monk Development is looking for a full-time person to work in our San Diego office (Old Town) with churches and ministries using Ekklesia 360 by conducting online training, answering questions, overseeing the implementation process and providing support and assistance. This position will require customer service, project management and end-user support (limited technical know how).

The role requires:
1. A passion for churches and ministries helping them use their website to do real ministry online.
2. Organization and attention to detail to provide project oversight and direction to see projects through to completion.
3. Great communication skills and the ability to support and educate clients on the use of Ekklesia 360 system.

Bonuses:
1. Previous project management and customer support experience.
2. Church planting, church or ministry experience.
3. Knowledge and use of Content Management Systems or blogging software (e.g. WordPress).

Learn More: Jobs @ Monk

Nathan Smith, founder of Godbit posted an interview with me.  About Godbit's mission:

The purpose of this site is to help the Church catch up with the rest of the world in adherence to Web Standards given by the World Wide Web Consortium, the governing body of best-practices on the Internet. The majority of Christian web design agencies are using outmoded methods of coding to create websites that the rest of the world would scoff at. Basically, they are stuck in the 1990’s.

Thanks to the Godbit community for their faithfulness to inspire the church and it's use of technology.  The interview discusses my role at Monk Development and Kaleo. Read the interview here.

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.  

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 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 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.

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  

We've learned a lot about using technology to connect people to the local church.  With that said, we've launched Church Cloud.  Church Cloud is a FREE web-based tool for churches who want to do ministry online. Churches are able to upload mp3’s, post events, stream audio, podcast, and gather additional visitors using our online network and directory listings.  (If you signed-up for Sermon Cloud, you already are part of this but make sure your information is current.)  

We will be launching many more of these sites as part of The Cloud Network.  Our goal is to influence or connect 1,000,000 people a year to local churches using the internet. 

One of the cool things working at Monk Development is we are able to do most of our work with churches and ministries.  I've posted a number of the churches we've done using Ekklesia 360 Church CMS, but here are a few ministries we are working with:

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals  is an organization of individuals that believes Evangelicals have largely forgotten the foundations of the Christian Gospel and is dedicated to calling on the Protestant churches, especially those that call themselves Reformed, to return to the principles of the Protestant Reformation. To that end, they produce print and internet resources, broadcast radio programs (The Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse & the Bible) and hold conferences (Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, Princeton regional Conference on Reformed Theology, Reformation Societies) aimed at educating different segments of the Christian population.  The Alliance consists of a who's who of pastors/theologians such as Dr. R. C. SPROUL, Dr. ALBERT MOHLER, Mr. C.J. MAHANEY, Dr. JOHN MACARTHUR, Dr. MARK DEVER, Mr. JERRY BRIDGES and many others.

The Alliance was formed in 1994, out of what was known as Evangelical Ministries, when the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, then senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and teacher on "The Bible Study Hour" radio program, called together a group of like-minded pastor-theologians from a variety of denominations to unite in a common cause to help revive a passion "for the truth of the Gospel" within the church.

Design Partner: Designwise

Services: Content Management System, Application Development, E-Commerce.  The Alliance  brought Monk Development in to build an e-commerce resource site (ReformedResources.org) to host 60 years of reformed resources, including conferences, videos, digital downloads, books and others. 

Launch: 2nd Quarter 2007 

Enjoying God Ministries

Enjoying God Ministries (EGM) exists "to proclaim the power of truth and the truth about power." This isn't just a catchy phrase. It reflects both what is lacking in the church today and what is burning in Sam Storm's heart.

EGM exists to serve the body of Christ. Their aim is to be a resource not only for pastors and leaders but for all Christians who long to dig more deeply into the Word of God and to experience the fullness of the Spirit's power. Enjoying God Ministries is a non-profit ministry organization of Dr. Sam Storms who brings over 30 years of ministry to believers seeking a deeper and more passionate relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Design Partner: DesignWise Studios

Services: Content Management System, User Interface, Content, Ecommerce, Application Development

Launch:  Enjoying God Ministries

CFCC Job Boards

Center for Church Communication is the parent company for Church Marketing Sucks.

Churches have the greatest story ever told, but no one's listening. We think there's a communication problem. That remarkable story is lost thanks in part to poor research, little or no planning, bad clip art, cheesy photos and ignorable ads.  We believe there's a better way. It's not simply flashy designs or catchy slogans, but effective and authentic communication. If we can't communicate, how can we fulfill the great commission? We want the Church to matter. We want your church to matter.

We help the church by offering information, resources, advice and starting the conversation about church communication. We are a non-profit organized by communications professionals who have been serving the church and mainstream clients since 1998.

Services: Content Management System, Application Development, E-Commerce.  Monk built a job board to allow users to post freelance gigs and full-time positions in the church communication space.

Launch: 2nd Quarter 2007 

Pastors Edge

Pastors Edge is the web ministry of Dr. James Merritt, a pastor and two time president elect of the Southern Baptist Denomination. Pastors Edge was birthed out of Dr. Merritt's desire to help pastors across the country preach God's Word with power. His passion is to offer the best resources available for the price in order to help congregations across the country flourish.

Design Partner: Designwise

Services: Content Management System, Application Development, E-Commerce

Launch: Pastors Edge 

Monk Development is looking for 1 full or up to 3 part-time people to work with churches and ministries interested in Ekklesia 360 Church CMS. In this role you will work with these active leads, conduct online demonstrations, answer questions and complete the sales process to hand-off to our development team.  In addition, you will attend church conferences to represent Ekklesia.  

The role requires:

1. The flexibility to schedule online demonstrations of the web-based cms and conduct these during the day. 
2. The ability to travel during the week and attend multi-day church conferences.
3. A passion for churches and helping ministries see beyond a website, to doing real ministry online.

Bonuses:

1. Previous sales experience
2. Church planting, church or ministry experience
3. Knowledge and use of Content Management Systems or Blogging software (eg. Wordpress)

If you are interested go to jobs @ Monk Development .