Hey Friend! Thanks for checking in again! I’m glad for this time together where I can tell you a bit about what God is doing, and today’s post will focus on the development of a web presence for the church.
The New Front Door…
Remember my post last fall about the General Conference workshop by Rev. Lee Wells: (pastor of Landmark Fellowship and founder of iChurchMarketing.com). In a nutshell, he said that we no longer live at a time when people who are curious about your church will come to the front door for a visit without having first “checked you out” online; they want to get a sense of who you are before visiting for the first time. In this way… your church’s online presence (be it a website or social media profile) becomes the “new front door” for the church. To this end… I’ve been working on and have recently launched…
Goal:
The goal is this: Someone looking for a church in Châtellerault that does a google search, will get a good impression of who we are when they find our church’s site on the first page of Google’s search results. There are a few tricks to help achieve that one of the most important is this: Google’s search algorithms favor current, original content: Think “Blog” (If you were to do an English Google search for “Pentecostal church, Châtellerault,” this blog would be 3 of the top 4 search results amongst 12,900). Now… we’re not there yet with this site… but in time..
Content
What you will see: Besides general introductory information on the history and staff of the church there are a few blog posts on there already. On a go-forward basis, however, many of the posts will feature a photo I’ve taken locally overwritten with a portion of scripture. As people discover our site, they will have a series of short, encouraging thoughts from scripture… that each time, point them back to us, and ultimately, to the Lord.
What you won’t see: For right now, I’ll be breaking a cardinal rule of web development: “Let them know how to find you.” There remains one administrative hurdle to be resolved with municipal authorities before we are able to extend anything resembling a “mass invitation” to the public, to visit our building (although we can invite individuals by “word of mouth”). A website is definitely a mass invitation, so for the time being any indication of location or directions is intentionally absent. The workaround is to simply invite them to (a) contact me by phone or email, or (b) to begin the Exploring God’s Word home bible study, available online.
(We have a meeting concerning those administrative things this Wednesday afternoon – please pray for that meeting)
Case in Point
Remember Sebastien who recently got baptized? Here’s how he came to be part of our church:
- Reading his Bible, God showed him his need to be baptized by immersion in Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of his sins.
- He couldn’t find anyone willing to baptize him like this, so he began to search it out online.
- He found Bro. Kahozi’s church in Montreal – they have many online French-language teaching videos – so he contacted them.
- When they found out he was in France, they put him in touch with Bro. Brochu who, it turns out, was only about 20min away by car.
We need to be online… and now we are. Pray for more people like Sébastien… they’re definitely out there!
You can help:
Along with the website, we also have two social media profiles in place. You can help us by liking or following these profiles… that way, when others locally find their way here, they’re not the only ones (activity breeds activity). Please click below to connect with us via social media: 
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Pray that God brings us into contact with hungry people through this “new front door” so that we, in turn, can put them in contact with a God who loves them with an everlasting love.
This week
- By the time many of you in North America read this… we will have completed our first prayer walk through town – it’s happening at 10am France time. It was something that the church was doing regularly through the late Summer and Fall, but the winter months drove prayer time indoors.
- Tomorrow, Sunday, I’m headed back up to the church in Paris-Centre to cover Bro. Brochu’s absence up there. Another AIM couple is set to arrive in the next week or two. please pray for safe travel and a service filled with God’s presence in response to hungry people.
- Tuesday I will attend the funeral of a man who used to attend here in Châtellerault, but who moved to a nursing home in another city and recently passed.
Thanks for your support today… let what you read inform your prayers for us. Together we’ll make a difference here!
AIM Long 