I've just finished reading The Blogging Church, by Brian Bailey.  As someone heavily invested in helping UU congregations get online and social, I'm very interested in what congregations are doing with websites, blogs, and other forms of social media, and this book is right up that alley.

While the book is ostensibly about why churches should use blogs to tell their story, it has broader applicability to the web and social media in general. It is written with good humor and has lots of good suggestions for how churches should use blogs, and how they shouldn't; what kind of content they should post; the different sorts of voices they can employ in blogging (the senior pastor's, another staff member, a supervised volunteer, etc.)  Bailey lists a very helpful list of ten suggested blogging topics for senior pastors; I'll give you the first five:

1. What is this weekend's sermon about?
2. What is your favorite restaurant?
3. What part of the Bible are you reading, and what is it saying to you?
4. Which staff member or volunteer constantly challenges and inspires you?
5. When did you know you were called to ministry?

As you might imagine, this is just the tip of a very useful iceberg.  Also included are interviews with blogging pastors, podcasting tips, suggested policies for employee blogs, and plenty more.

You also may have picked up that this book - like many others written about church growth and online ministry - is written from a Christian point of view.  All the same, it is still largely applicable to Unitarian Universalists, and quite a helpful guide for anyone wishing to build a beloved spiritual community.

The book is showing its age somewhat; it was written in the dark ages (2007), before blogging lost a bit of its shine and social media presences for congregations became more or less mainstream.  Moreover, some of its suggestions about what to blog belong, in my view, in a better-structured website - for example, upcoming events should be saved in a format that facilitates sorting by event date.  (Wizard users will have picked up on this belief by now, as the software package is fairly riddled with structured content types for everything from sermons to RE classes and beyond.)  Nevertheless, the book's suggestions about what types of content belong online, and how a congregation should approach telling its story online, are solid and still very relevant.

Whether you are just getting started with your congregation's web presence, or are an old dog looking for new tricks, I highly recommend The Blogging Church.

This week, Welcoming Websites released version 1.3 of Welcoming Websites Wizard.  Version 1.3 includes a basic default site map, meant to give Unitarian Universalist congregations a jump start on organizing their website and providing useful content to visitors and members.  Pages in the default site map can be edited and deleted, and the site map can be rearranged or removed altogether at any time.  The new version of the Wizard also includes streamlined installation and configuration workflow and minor bug fixes.

Version 1.3 also takes advantage of the new packaging scripts available on drupal.org.  Developers who download the Wizard will find that all necessary modules are pre-packaged, meaning that installing the Wizard is much easier and less time-consuming.

We are very excited about this release, and will be working diligently to build upon it by adding a ready-made template and improved site map in version 1.4.  Stay tuned for more!

Quite often, when people find out that our websites are built almost entirely on Drupal, a leading open-source content management system, they want to know more. How does Drupal work, and what does it do? Peter Campbell recently wrote up an excellent piece on basic Drupal concepts that answers many of these questions, so if you've got similar questions, I highly recommend it!

Hat tip to Josh Sheldon, who you can follow on Twitter: @joshsheldon.

In the middle of the presidential election for the Unitarian Universalist Association, Anna Belle Leiserson wrote a fascinating blog post reviewing the websites for UUA presidential candidates. Because Welcoming Websites did not want to appear partial to either candidate, I did not respond at the time. But Anna Belle's post was very interesting, and now that the campaign is over, I thought I would go back to it and see if I could offer some additional thoughts.

The end of the post lists a wish list of new media tools that would be helpful in UU ministry:

A UU podcast that speaks to me. I don’t mean yet another sermon-cast. Ho hum. That’s trying to mold the ‘net to old faith models rather than molding faith to the new models. All I’m asking for is a five minute podcast, perhaps every-other-day, with a meditation or thought for the day. We have roughly a bazillion brilliant orators in UUism. Can’t one of them do this?

Twitter feeds from UU leadership.

Targeted, informative, ministerial email newsletters that are easy to subscribe to.

Websites that collect feedback in meaningful ways and build new, virtual UU communities.

And of course, the Obama signature technology — highly selective blast texting — at just the right moment.

There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but I think the first point is particularly valuable. The sermon-cast is indeed just another way to "mold the net to old faith models" rather than adapting to new realities and new ways of communication. To be sure, a sermon-cast can be very useful to members who can't make it to service every week but want to stay up-to-date. But outreach requires much more than that.

What will it take to bring UU worship up to speed with new realities, and new methods of communication? That's a big question, but I think these ideas are a good start.

In particular, I think the answer lies in making the sacred elements of UU life more easily accessible. It's not just about finding one more distribution channel, but rather about changing worship so that it fits into a broader range of contexts. A five-minute meditation-of-the-day is a perfect example of this idea. If you have a thirty-minute commute to work in the morning, a one-hour sermon-cast isn't particularly useful. But a five-minute thought might be just the thing to get you started on your day.

Making these sacred elements more accessible also means challenging our assumptions about who is listening in. A sermon delivered at a worship service in a congregation can make a big assumption about the audience. Everyone listening to the sermon (except for those wacky few downloading the podcast) got up in the morning, put on some clothes, and physically made the trek to hear the sermon. There's some dedication there. But online, the audience is a constantly changing, considerably more casual group. Consequently, the messages directed to online visitors can't just be sermons.

Online ministry is a challenging endeavor, because it might not yield any tangible results. Add a Google map to your website, and you might well see additional visitors on Sunday morning. Tweeting about the importance of the right of conscience or the interdependence of all beings might help you reach a lot of people and might open up some minds, but might not get any new visitors walking through the door.

That's a tough reality to swallow, but I believe that online ministry is still vital, for a few reasons. First, it helps spread the principles of UUism, and ultimately it redounds to the benefit of the movement as a whole in the long term. Second, it helps sharpen our thoughts and helps us communicate our ideas more clearly. And finally, it allows for a form of feedback - on Twitter via retweets, on Facebook via comments, and so on - that is just not comparable to real-life feedback.

There is more to say about all of this, in a lot of different directions. For one thing, I'm not well-qualified to really make suggestions about what kind of content, exactly, UUs should be putting online in addition to their sermons. Secondly, there is a lot more to UU life than worship service; religious education, small group ministry, social action and casual fellowship are all aspects of UU life which could be adapted to online audiences in interesting ways. There's certainly plenty of work to be done!

We now have a demo site available for Welcoming Websites Wizard. The demonstration site is meant to give you a taste of how the Wizard works, without the need to install any software or make a commitment.

You can log in as an editor using the following information:
Username: editor
Password: editor

Please note that the site will be reset every hour, so no important information should be saved there. Also, for security purposes, some functionality on the demonstration site has been restricted, so users may see "Access denied" messages in a few places which would normally be available to Wizard editors.

Try out Welcoming Websites Wizard today!

We are very excited about today's release of Welcoming Websites Wizard version 1.1! The new version is released on the eve of 2009 Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in Salt Lake City.

Welcoming Websites Wizard is a distribution of the Drupal content management system, which is tailored to meet the needs of Unitarian Universalist congregations. We hope that it will give Unitarian Universalist congregations the tools they need to reach out to prospective visitors, engage members and friends, and express a message of welcome and justice.

Version 1.1 of the Wizard empowers congregations to deploy a wealth of multimedia content on their websites. It includes the capability to create multiple slideshows, which can be displayed in a variety of locations throughout the site, using Drupal's block management system. The Wizard now also includes multiple podcast channels in addition to the basic sermon podcast channels, empowering congregations to provide podcasts on many different topics and in many different formats; visitors may download the audio to their portable audio players, or listen in via an audio player embedded in the browser. Moreover, the Wizard now includes support for uploaded video and embedded YouTube videos. These features give congregations the tools they need to "tell a story" about themselves, to visitors, members, and people throughout the world.

The new Wizard release also modifies the way in which information about individuals is stored, giving site editors more flexibility in displaying content about their ministers, staff, and lay leaders. Minor bugs identified in version 1.0 have also been fixed.

The Wizard, and all of the Drupal modules it requires, may be downloaded from the Wizard project page at drupal.org. Welcoming Websites is available to assist congregations with installation, support, maintenance, and custom development, as needed.

Shai and I recently revisited our goals for Welcoming Websites, including the second goal: "Minister to people through the web by providing pastoral resources and building relationships." To make sure that our goals are still relevant and compelling to the work that we do, we considered the questions "What does it mean to minister to people through the web? What is online ministry? How is supporting online ministry different from our firstgoal of helping congregations welcome newcomers and engage members and friends?"

Our goal statement provides part of the answer: ministering through the web includes providing pastoral content and building relationships. But to get an even clearer picture of what online ministry is, I think it's helpful to consider what is not online ministry.

There's a significant amount of important content for church websites that does not constitute online ministry. It is critical for congregations to post their contact information, directions and service times on the homepage of their website. But that content is not online ministry -- it is content intended to encourage newcomers to take a next step (i.e. attend worship).

A useful church website should also include content that helps newcomers and members engage more fully in the life of the congregation. Examples of this kind of content include calendars of upcoming events, religious education registration forms, and reports from committees. But this content -- however important for engaging members and newcomers in the life of the congregation -- is different than the content of online ministry.

Online ministry provides sites for meaningful spiritual engagement online . The primary purpose of online ministry is to provide spiritual nourishment to people where they are (on the internet). At its best, online ministry offers comfort and healing even to people who never visit a congregation in-person.

There are many reasons -- including disability, burdensome work or family schedules, and geographic isolation -- that people who are seeking spiritual support may not be able to attend a congregation.

Religious groups have long recognized the need to serve this group. Before internet use became widespread, religious groups were already employing postal mail, telephone, radio, and other communication channels to reach people who could not or did not attend congregations. Online ministry is a new twist on the old idea.

The creation of new web technologies and capabilities allows for an increased level of engagement with people who do not attend congregations. Blogs by ministers and committed lay leaders provide spiritual inspiration and opportunities for conversation about religious issues. Religious leaders and organizations can also use Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to engage seekers as well as congregants. Audio and video -- used in combination with mediums that allow for online conversation -- also provide means for sharing inspiration and comfort.

Of course, these ministry efforts not only serve people who cannot or do not attend church, but also church members who enjoy engaging with congregation online and in-person. But while online ministry sometimes overlaps with services for members and in-person visitors, it must also be considered as having its own unique purpose (to serve those who cannot or do not attend). The possibilities for ministering to people through the internet are extraordinary, the need for this ministry is real, and there are many religious groups and individuals who feel called to this kind of service.

We at Welcoming Websites are committed to finding new ways to help liberal religious congregations provide online ministry, and welcome any suggestions about additional services that we can offer to fulfill this goal. If you have a suggestion, please e-mail Shai (shai@welcomingwebsites.com).

If you're reading this on welcomingwebsites.com, you may have noticed our site has a new look!

This is our second design since we founded the company in September 2007. Our first design was the Garland theme for Drupal, with a purple color scheme and our logo in yellow. The Garland theme is a classic theme that comes pre-installed with Drupal; the design is attractive and the customization required is minimal. However, as the range of content on our site grew, we realized we had outgrown the design and the site had begun to feel crowded.

For our second design, we looked for a theme that was attractive, spacious, and easy to navigate. (And free!) We selected the Fervens theme for Drupal 6.


Here's a screenshot of how Fervens looks without any customization:







Our next step after choosing the design was to tailor it for Welcoming Websites by making changes to the colors, font and layout. To create continuity with our previous design, we developed our color scheme around purple and yellow. We also came up with new variations on our logo (the 8-point star) that fit with the use of round shapes and gradients were in the sidebar blocks.

With the new design, the website feels to us lighter and easier to navigate, and we hope that it is even easier for visitors to find what they are looking for on our site.

We are very excited to announce today's release of Welcoming Websites Wizard, version 1.0. Welcoming Websites Wizard is a distribution of the Drupal content management system which is tailored to meet the needs of Unitarian Universalist congregations.

The Wizard builds on our commitment to helping congregations:

1. Welcome newcomers and engage members and friends.
2. Minister to people through the web by providing pastoral resources and building relationships.
3. Make it easy for staff and volunteers to manage the website.

The Wizard includes a number of features that many UU congregation websites need, including:

• Search engine optimization with human-readable URLs
• Rich text editing and inline image insertion
• A wealth of pre-configured content types and content listings, including sermon archives, upcoming services, newsletters, minister profiles and committee pages, and minister blogs
• Support for flexible calendars
• Easy site map administration
• Social bookmarking

And even more exciting functionality is planned for an upcoming release! We will continue to provide updates on the evolution and development of the Wizard as it proceeds.

The Wizard is available in three ways:

• As a Drupal installation profile, at http://drupal.org/project/wwwizard
• As a package containing Drupal 6.10 and all required modules, at http://welcomingwebsites.com/files/wizard.tar.gz
• As a demonstration site, at http://demo.welcomingwebsites.com

The Jewish Women's Archive has released "Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia". This major new addition to the JWA site integrates a vast amount of high-quality articles and images from a CD of the same name, published in 2006 by Shalvi Publishing Ltd.

The migration of the Encyclopedia from a CD-ROM format to a Drupal-based website means a dramatic increase in access to the articles in the Encyclopedia; it also facilitates a wide range of conversations about the history of Jewish. Users may now share any article in the Encyclopedia with their friends on a variety of social networks; they may also post updates and revisions to the articles via a comments section on the JWA site.

Welcoming Websites worked closely with JWA to ensure that all of the content from the original Encyclopedia was migrated properly into the Drupal site. In addition to over 2,000 articles and 1,000 images, the work also included the migration of glossary terms and definitions for Hebrew, Yiddish, and other foreign-language terms. Welcoming Websites also developed front-end display features for the Encyclopedia, including pop-up glossary definitions, as well as pages which allow users to browse the Encyclopedia by time period, keyword, and country.

We are very excited for the future of the Encyclopedia. Making this high-quality, in-depth body of work available online means that the story of many eminent Jewish women will continue to be told and retold for a long time to come.