USA/MC History

On October 19, 2008

Below are Web Design Notes for Movement for Christ:

“The following is my proposition to Pastor Silas.

Your proposed committee is too broad. Your mission is too broad. I need to sit in on your next English Lesson with Kareen. We need to focus on the term “focus”. And we also need to talk about organizing an organization. I do not know enough people to be able to suggest names for all of these positions. And I still don’t see one for “Discipleship” (the only one I’d be interested in). And then there’s the issue of availability. The people we could contact for the committee already have a full schedule. If we want a fully functional committee – we need people with the will and availability to be able to serve effectively. Plus there are 3 more issues.

YOU are going to have to “sell yourself” to the Dayton Community. After all – you’re assuming the leadership of this committee (that in itself has been an issue for some ministries in America). Only after that will you (and I) be able to recruit people for your committee.
We need a definitive “statement of mission and vision”. Then every department needs a statement that supports the “mission statement”. We also need a clear, delineated statement defining the roles of the American committee and the roles (and input) of the churches in Africa. If the churches in Africa are going to determine the content of the WEB Site, then they need to be represented in some way on the American committee. Pastor Scott Davidson and Pastor Norm Perkins have some experience in this area.
We need “English Content”. We’re not going to get “buy-in” without more information (concise). There are so many good causes that every practicing Christian is aware of – that without a clear statement that differentiates your mission from others – it will be difficult for people to switch loyalties from missions they are already supporting. And if they’re not already supporting other missions – then we have the added difficulty of soliciting their support for anything, including the “Movement for Christ”. Also some people look at Africa as one homogeneous place. They won’t see your use of the word “International Ministry” as any more significant than being involved in our neighboring states of Indiana and Kentucky.

Also – Shaun – my professional WEB Developer (and son) had the following pointers:

The Fonts should be smaller. Each WEB Page should be no more than 3 or 4 Screens ion length.
Use wordpress.org for “Guest” page.
Use slideshowpro.net for pictures

Jim’s presentation suggestions:

Create a Power Point Presentation (slide show with text bullets).
I could put it on a “flash drive” if we visited churches with computers and “display” equipment.
We could print out handouts (paper copy of slide show presentation). I prefer this anyway – since the audience could make notes on the handouts.
We would need to explain why so many positions on the committee because of governments in Africa.
We need to know how much input or control the African Churches expect to have.
We need to solicit suggestions as to how to organize considering input from African ministries and sponsors here in USA.

You were right – we need more space for the WEB Site. I was able to make the “slide show” work – but I need 2 copies of each picture in order to do it. And we’re already using 245 MB out of the 250 MB available for the site.

So I will go through and make a “slide show” of not more than 30 pictures. When you see them, you can send me descriptions. This will take me the rest of the week in order to find time to do it. Maybe two weeks. In between I’ll make sure that what we already have is working. Then I’ll select 30 pictures and redo all of the pictures in “Services”. Later I’ll do the same on “About Us”, “Pictures”, and “Map & Directions”.