I’ve been contemplating the need for another blog post for a while now and an updated Church Directory listing yesterday finally gave me the topic. I want to congratulate First Baptist Church of East Machias for providing an excellent example of what can be done with the recent Church Directory feature enhancements and for making the most of the tools made available through this site. Thank you, FBCEM! Briefly, I would like to explain what they have done to improve their listing:
- Tabs -If you visit the FBCEM listing, you will notice that they have four tabs of information. All churches have one tab labeled General, but they have added two content tabs: one with information regarding their current sermon series and one that presents their statement of faith. This allows them to additional provide information that doesn’t fit within the standard categories. It is perfect for churches without their own web sites, but is obviously also useful for churches with web sites.
- Feeds - the fourth tab utilizes another recent feature of the Church Directory: it fetches the feed from their blog and presents a list of blog posts with links to each post. This allows them to present fresh information on their Church Directory listing by simply updating their blog. Sermon podcasts can also be added as Feeds, as Poland Baptist Church has done.
- About the Church - FBCEM has provided a great About the Church description.
- Photo - wonder how churches get featured on the home page? This is it: add a photo to your listing and you’ll automatically be included in the Featured Church rotation. FBCEM provides a great photo that will assist people in finding the church.
By the way, churches that do not have their own web sites may use their Church Directory listing as a web site by utilizing the Tabs functionality mentioned above along with another recent feature that provides a “shortcut” web site address. For example, the Poland Baptist Church’s shortcut address is http://mainechurches.org/pbc, which fits in promotional materials and newspaper listings much more easily than the standard Church Directory listing address of http://www.mainechristian.com/directory/churchdetail.php?id=26, but does the exact same thing. Every church can add a shortcut address, which looks like http://mainechurches.org/ followed by a short string of characters of the church’s choosing, by using the “Shortcut” link in the church administration page.
Have questions? Want to make suggestions? Please do so!