New UMC Website
Sunday, February 04, 2007
The United Methodist Church recently completed a major overhaul of its website. Check it out at www.umc.org when you get a chance.
I haven't had the chance to spend a great deal of time on it, but I applaud United Methodist Communications for the effort. It seems designed to be highly interactive, with lots of portals going off the front page to various aspects of the church's ministry (one of the coolest is the 'interactive map,' where you can drag a little box around a world map and see what the church is doing in different areas. It's a little bit slow, but worth the time it takes). Seems pretty user-friendly to me. And in this day and age, having a website that is top notch is a must for a denomination that expects to reach people with the gospel in cyberspace.
That actually leads me to a question that I was asking myself as I was poking around on the new site. What is the purpose of a denomination's main website? Is it just for the purposes of sharing information - this is who we are, this is what we do, this is our history, etc.? Or is it actually to engage in evangelism through sharing the gospel with needy souls? Or, on the other hand, is information sharing itself a form of evangelism?
What are the main benefits of ministry in cyberspace after all, and what are the liabilities?
posted by Andrew C. Thompson at 10:18 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Andrew,
Enjoyed your article on denominational identity. I agree--we tend to "sell out" to the generic secular world when we go for the "Boston Avenue Church".......United Methodist type of thing. Too bad we have a hard time celebrating our denominational heritage in a humble way. Too often, the only denominational "pride" I hear coming from pastors is a fierce opposition to Christian Ed. directors buying anything other than the Abingdon Press. I think we have a lot to gain the wealth of resources at Cokesbury, but I have heard it coming across to lay-people as hard headed and wild eyed.
I preached a sermon series on "What makes us United Methodist" last year during the ordinary time between Epiphany and Lent and was happy with the response. We concluded the six or so week sermon series (which included sermons on Connectionalism, Threefold Grace, Holiness, etc. (http://waldronumc.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_waldronumc_archive.html) with a Wesleyan Hymn sing that we invited our Church of the Nazarene friends to. It went well, we dug up the stories surrounding some of the hymns, etc. etc.
If we want to make a broad, sweeping generalization about the denomination thing, I think it is our parents generation who have the difficulty with denominations, not so much GenX. They're the ones who birthed the Secularized mega church after all. (But, as with all generalizations, that one falls apart, I realize--it just "feels" true.)
And, about the evangelism through information thing--I think you're on to a big truth there. I've found comments on my blog to be poignant, probing, and soul-searching. I put my sermons on my church's blog, and they are read by folks around the world--pretty neat. Lots of people out there who don't step foot into church on Sundays are looking for spiritual content on the web. I don't believe it equals the flesh and blood community and communion of a church, but it is better than nothing. Kudos to the new UMC website! Take care over there in NC!
Nathan
Nathan -
It is great to hear from you, and I hope things are going well over there in Oklahoma.
I think your sermon series and Wesleyan hymn sing sounds fantastic (the most Wesleyan person I've ever known is a Nazarene, by the way, and since she might read this blog I am going to leave her anonymous).
It is those types of engaged approaches to indentity reclamation that could have a long-term, cumulative impact on Methodism.
For the record, I am ambivalent about the ability of blogs, church websites, etc., to really communicate the heart of the gospel. I may put up a post about this in the coming days (while irony abounds).
Dear Rev. Thompson, I enjoyed your recent artical in the UM Reporter on our slogan. I don,t know who came up with it, but it makes me cringe every time I hear it. Thank you for clarifying that it is not UM theology! I think this slogan has weakened our church. Thank you for upholding the gospel. Janet
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