5/02/2002   Churches Get a Helping Hand with Electronic Ministry

Grand Blanc, MI, February 5, 2002 – The digital divide on the religious front is evaporating, as low-cost hosting options allow even the smallest church to have a Web presence. Unfortunately, many church Web sites find themselves with few visitors in spite of the increasing number of people online. As the number of Web pages grows into the billions, churches are discovering that visitors need a compelling reason to return. The greatest online challenge that these churches are facing is the task of publishing fresh content week after week. Until recently, it was a challenge that most churches were not able to meet.

"eMinistry is much more than simply building a Parish Web site," says Brandon Jubar, eMinistry Consultant and founder of ParishWebmaster.com. "Most church Web sites I review are nothing more than online brochures and advertising for offline programs. They don''t ''minister'' to people – and they don''t give many visitors a reason to come back."

In order to help churches provide fresh content and truly minister online, ParishWebmaster.com offers a Content Subscription Service. The service was developed by Jubar and piloted at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Burton, Michigan. Each week, the service publishes three (3) or more articles – 500 to 1,000 words in length – and a customizable electronic newsletter, which is distributed to a Parish''s email list. "The truly unique aspect of the service is the eNewsletter," commented Jubar. "On the Web, if you build it, they won''t necessarily come. You need to remind people. You need to meet them at their inboxes. I make that very easy for a Parish to do."

For a small monthly fee, ParishWebmaster.com delivers over a dozen articles – either automatically to a Parish Web site or as text files downloaded from the internet – and the weekly eNewsletter. The eNewsletter is easily customizable, or ParishWebmaster.com can do the customization for the subscriber. "We''re actually sharing the teachings of Christ online," said Deacon Jim Corder, Business Manager for Holy Redeemer. "The service lets us give our parishioners quality articles every week. We just didn''t have the resources to do that ourselves."

For more information on the ParishWebmaster.com Content Subscription Service, visit their Web site, email Brandon Jubar directly, or call ParishWebmaster.com at (810)348-9807.

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