New Year...New hopeinGod.org Web Site.pdf

The Web is, increasingly, the most important communications platform and face to the world. The importance of getting Bethlehem’s site right is hard to overstate. In many ways hopeinGod.org is the tip of the spear: a first point of contact whose role is Bethlehem’s ambassador to the world.
—Andrew Lang, Systems Director, Bethlehem Baptist Church

Back in 2008, our Web Team “quarterback,” Andy Lang, wrote this in a proposal for the development of a new Bethlehem Web site. Now, after months of meeting, planning, praying, designing, writing, editing, tweaking, and de-bugging … the Web Team at Bethlehem is pleased to bring you an all-new hopeinGod.org.

So What’s New? The following are just a few of the new features you’ll find (all accessible from the homepage):

Searchable Calendar: Though our previous site was searchable, the Calendar—arguably the most useful tool of the site—was not. With the Search bar you can now search the entire site for information, including a document, recording, or Calendar event.

Sermons tab: Pastor John’s sermons, other Bethlehem pastors’ sermons, and guest preachers’ sermons (since 2006 when we began archiving sermons other than Pastor John’s) are now available in one place. Also, see who is preaching the upcoming weekend, and access links to the most recent sermons. Podcast links are also now available.

‘What’s Happening’ section: At a glance, see major upcoming events and church news updates. Here you can also connect to Executive Pastor Sam Crabtree’s daily blog.

Resource-Full

In addition to these new features and others, we also improved the organization and accessibility of resources. For example, you can find out what resources/documents have been most recently added to the site, which ones have been most clicked-on, and which ones our pastors feel are the most essential to Bethlehem.

Brought to You By …

I’m thankful to God for the varied gifts of all the team members who made the new site happen:

Andy Lang: Bethlehem IT Person Extraordinaire and gifted with a pastor’s heart, Andy always pushed for the highest level of functionality for the site—that it be the most helpful it could be for the user. Also, Andy is the most forward-looking of our team from a social-networking perspective, and he is researching ways to integrate new community-building platforms on hopeinGod.org.

Joby Morgan: Where would be without Joby? Quite possibly launching in 2011! As our project manager, Joby kept us moving and on task. We have a site to you now—one of the busiest times of Bethlehem’s year—largely because of Joby.

Amanda Johnson: Do you sense an increase of white space on the new site? As we honed the structure and design, Amanda cared for our future users by often raising the flag for “design calm.” And as calendar administrator on our former site, she also provided invaluable feedback for the new site’s calendar. (And a thank-you to Colleen Eichenberger for joining our team and taking over the calendaring work just before our launch.)

Matthew Taylor and Bob Goebel: Both members of the church, designers Matthew Taylor and Bob Goebel “get” Bethlehem, and so they could come closest to the mark in translating our multi-faceted identity as a church into a Web site. This allowed us to save time and money by avoiding design choices that would not be a good fit for us. We are grateful to Matthew and Bob for donating so much of their time, talent, and energy to this project.

Matt Perman: If you notice any similarities with our site and desiringGod.org—particularly in its organization—it’s likely because Matt Perman, DG’s Senior Director of Strategy, was the key architect of our site map. Matt was also a huge help to us in “streaming” DG sermons and resources onto our site.

August Ash: God blessed us with the opportunity to work with a local Web development team that specializes in church and non-profit Web sites. Adept at making technology serve the Kingdom, this knowledgeable group of co-laborers went the extra mile in many areas to help us launch a complex Web site.

In addition to this core Web team, myriad others gave hours of their time to take, select, and place photos; edit and proof copy; and offer significant feedback for how the site could be improved. Dozens of Bethlehem ministry assistants and support staff also worked to make information about the church accessible and readable.

That said, we are well aware that the site is a work in progress and that parts of the site could function more ideally. We welcome your comments, and to that end, we’ve installed a Web site feedback link at the top of the “Contact Us” page. We invite you to send your ideas, and to partner with us in using this portal to make much of Jesus within our Bethlehem family—and to present our site as a welcoming ambassador to the world.

Happy New Year—and new Site!

Amanda Knoke
Communications Director