A new Covenant website has been under development for the past several months, notes Don Meyer, executive minister of Covenant Communications, which is responsible for the Covenant website and Internet services on behalf of the denomination.
The new website incorporates content management technology that allows individual ministries and offices to update certain content in their respective portions of the website, instead of requiring all changes in content to flow through just one or two individuals.
The new website includes a number of new features, including a job postings area that includes available positions for denominational, conference, and local church ministries. (Churches desiring to post positions should contact webster@covchurch.org.) Another feature certain to be popular with users is a first-ever Covenant-wide events calendar that over time will contain the most comprehensive list of denomination and conference events available.
For those desiring a fast track for contacting individuals in denominational offices, a new staff directory will prove helpful, including email addresses and telephone numbers for all staff arranged alphabetically and by department.
A number of people have desired a more complete listing of local Covenant churches and information about those churches, which is especially helpful when making travel plans that include visits to Covenant churches along the way. The new website includes a home page for each local Covenant church containing basic location information. Links to an individual church’s website are provided if they have been made available by that church. Churches desiring to add information to their new directory home page may do so by emailing webster@covchurch.org.
An improved search function is incorporated into the new website with a search window built into every page. Also new is the ability to conduct searches for content in the Resources section without having material from the rest of the site included.
Those desiring to print out material or email items to friends will find the new “print this page” and improved “email this to a friend” tools of value. Visitors also will be greeted on the home page with a new scripture of the day feature.
Perhaps the most visited area of the website – the daily online news report – will now be available to local Covenant churches, conference offices and others as a news RSS feed, which will allow those ministry areas to position content from the denomination’s daily online news report on their respective home pages.
“These enhancements and the many others to be found in the new website reflect the hard work of a number of people over the past months,” Meyer observes. “A special note of appreciation is due Heidi Griepp, our Internet Services manager, who has led the new website development effort, with tremendous support from our Information Systems specialists Troy Caldwell and Greg Neumarke. And, we are deeply appreciative of the efforts by members of Team Glue, which includes representatives from every ministry area and offices in the denomination. It has been a tremendous team effort.”
Feedback is encouraged, especially from the various departments, offices, and affiliated institutions, but also from the thousands of individuals who use the website each day. Comments should be directed to webster@covchurch.org.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
