I am excited to announce some newly completed websites!

First up is Haymarket Baptist Church, Haymarket, Va.  They first contacted over 1.5 years ago.  Since then their web committee dutifully researched, prayed, and discussed who their website would reach.  I’m most impressed with their visitor page - I will hold it up as a model for other churches to emulate.

Another church site recently completed is Belmont Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Va.  Already having a website, they were searching for a new look.  I very much enjoyed designing the color scheme for the site.

The website of Chestnut Grove Baptist Church of Earlysville, Va. was mostly finished last year.  However, we tied up a few loose ends within the last week by adding new pictures, enabling weekly posting of the newsletter, and changing the navigation scheme.

I currently have two more websites that will be done very shortly.  Another two sites are in very preliminary stages.  Exciting times here at Bridge Vision!

…I have failed in what I hoped to do with this blog.  However, as I’m preparing to assume my first full-time ministry position in the spring, I remain hopeful that I will have time and energy to further this blog.

However, I have been working a lot on church websites.  A new one that just went up is NewChurchReport.com.  I believe I’ll be keeping that site on my daily reading list.

Here are some tools to give thanks for!

How To Say That Name:  For those visitor cards with names you don’t know how to pronounce, run them through this website for some help.

Stinto Disposal Chat:  Want a quick way to chat with a few folks online but don’t want to sign up or download anything?  Use Stinto - set up a chat room very easily, send out the url, chat, and then walk way.

DialMyCalls:  Want to send out multiple voicemails at once as part of a phone tree?  The free service has a maximum of 25 users.  It’s smart enough to wait for voicemail to pick up before recording the message.

Tatango:  Instead of mass voicemails, how about mass text messages?  This free (but ad-supported) service will allow you to disseminate information quickly.

Found a post titled “15 Useful Project Management Management Tools” over at Smashing Magazine.  Among the list are tools that range from easy to use to some that are rather complicated.

I would recommend scanning the list to see if there is software that would either help your personal planning, staff/committee planning, or planning for the entire church.

Bridge Vision is excited to announce that the website for The Congregational Church of Manhasset (UCC) is live.

However, it’s not complete.  A few graphics may be changed and/or added.  More content needs to be added as well.

The next iteration of Wordpress will include changes to both administering comments and the dashboard.  Here’s the rundown of 11 new features.

I believe the biggest change will be that the top Dashboard menu will become a left menu.  Once it’s out I’ll announce it here - just let me know if you want help installing it.

Here’s something my wife and I could have used a few weeks ago at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta - a tool that helps find a place in the middle.  We had a friend who lived in Alabama and we were trying to find a good place to meet halfway.

Enter meetinbetween.us.  The website is powered by a Google “mash-up” and it is now bookmarked on my computer.

After entering in at least two addresses (though it’s capable of multiple ones) you can select what type of place you want to meet.  A list will be generated with the business’s name, address, and phone number.

Once a place is selected directions are generated from each starting point.

Stereotypical So What?: For pastors with large networks spread out over even larger geographic distances, hopefully this will make those meetups a bit easier.

For folks running Wordpress powered websites, it’s good to pop up your head every couple months to see what’s new.  New uses, plugins, and ideas spring forth from the open-source community of international developers.  So… in no particular order:

1.  Wordpress 2.7 is due to come out soon.  Word on the street is that the look of the backend will significantly change.  (Note:  you can check what version you have at the bottom of your Dashboard.  The latest is 2.6.3.  Contact me if you want to upgrade, which I recommend doing for security purposes.)

2.  On Wednesday a very well-respected theme developer will launch new themes and make them free.  The results will be exciting, especially for folks looking for a theme upgrade.  His are very professional, versatile, and easy to modify.

3.  I’m going to begin learning how to write my own theme.  The idea is to create a basic theme on which to use for future sites.  I’m using this source along with this one to begin.

4.  There are some newly updated plugins that may help your website ministry.

• Google Maps in Post:  Announcing an event that requires a map?  Easily insert Google Maps with this plugin.
• Draft Notifier:  Do you have folks that edit the site but cannot directly publish?  Be automatically notified whenever someone writes content and needs your permission to post.
• User Manager:  Want the ability to manage multiple users for your site?  Perhaps you want to have content managers for particular ministries so you don’t have to be the sole person working on the site?  This is one of many plugins that can assist in devolving responsibility for the site.

5.  Interested in unique ways to use Wordpress?  View this post called “The Weirdest and Wackiest Uses for Wordpress.“

Found an excellent guide to how Google Docs work.  Their advantage lies in that documents are stored online rather than your computer.  There is no software to download and it is free.  Welcome to “Cloud Computing”, where the web is the “Cloud”.

Even if you don’t plan on using Google Docs (or don’t want to) it’s a quick read to learn more about the future of the web.

Stereotypical So What?: Google Docs can save time and money while increasing mobility.  Additionally, multiple users can access a document, thus allowing potential for collaboration.  Whether it’s just for you or for a committee, Google Docs can make church life easier.

Lifehacker provides a thorough review of the first phone powered by the Google Android operating system.  Available next week, the phone is described as a “killer device for heavy Google users”.

If you’re not a heavy Google user, look for a post in the future for reasons why you should be.

Stereotypical So What?: The days of phones just being phones are passing.  Though lamentable in some aspects, another thing of the past is being 100% (or even 75%) tied to a computer.

Developing countries are now bypassing the age of computers and going straight to smartphones as they’re cheaper, widely available, and becoming more powerful.