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In my last entry (which was also the first), I mentioned that one thing I like about our church website is that it allows for discussions and forums. I also mentioned that as a congregation we have not used them much. Part of the reason is that only a fraction of our congregation accesses the website on a regular basis. I have seen a steady growth of usage, especially after we posted more picture albums. Many people have come to look at the pictures of the recent Woman's Retreat.
Another reason we may not have used forums or other communication tools on our website is that we do not know how to use them. I hope to remove that obstacle, at least partly, in this posting.
So, you might be asking, what is a forum? The concept originally comes from ancient Rome. In a Roman city, the forum was the very symbol of civic life and the nerve center of the community. It was the place where all the signs of municipal pride were gathered in one place, and which expressed the feeling of belonging to the Roman world. People went there to listen to government officials to find out what is happening. People also went to speak to their friends. The area where they spoke was the center court yard.
As the years went by and technology allowed communication from remote points, the concept of the forum changed. A forum could be a radio or TV program, area in a newspaper, a computer bulletin board or website in which two or more people may openly discuss ideas.
On our website there is a link to the Forum area at top of most web pages. Yes, you are right. There is no link from this page. That is because the web logs are separate sections of the website and have a different format. You also will not see any of the links in the Fun & Games and Devotionals areas. But they will be there in the rest of the pages. When you click on the link it takes you to a new page. Currently there are six forums: Site Forum, Public Prayer Requests, Worship Song Lyrics, Sermon Discussion, Bible Discussions, and My Testimony.
So then, let's get back to that question I asked above. What is a Forum? A discussion forum is a place for church members to post messages. Each forum contains a number of topics, and each topic contains a number of posts. Since it is common to mix up these three ideas, here's a concrete example to help.
Our site has a forum called "Public Prayer Requests" where all prayer requests should go that you wish to share with the congregation. You can go to this forum and add a new topic called "Please Pray for Bill" to request prayers. This topic will automatically contain the one post that you added when creating the topic. Another member can come to this topic and reply to the original message with words of encouragement. Now the topic of Bill's prayer request has two posts.
Just to note, if you have a prayer request that you do not want to share with everyone, there is a link at the top of the Forum page where you can send a confidential prayer request to the pastor. There is also a link there to request a new forum be added. Only the Administrator can add new forums. But anyone can add topics or posts to existing Forums.
Go ahead and give it a try. If you have questions or comments you can attach them to this web log. Next time I will talk about other forms of communication on our website including Instant Messages, Private Messages, and discussions that can be had in other areas of our web site.
Blessings, Ray~
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