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 Wrestling with the Web:: Visit the Westbury Baptist Church Website There never are enough ways to “get the word out” to church members in a timely fashion. Bulletins, newsletters, and mail outs are fine, but they do not allow complete control with the “timing” even under the best of circumstances. At Westbury Baptist Church, we needed another outlet to reach our members and others seeking information on our church ministries and Jesus Christ. The Internet was the obvious solution. It’s versatile, timely, and available to anyone who has access to a computer. Imagine our surprise when we ended up generating and managing our own site. Being the in-house web person (I prefer not to use “webmaster,” since most of the time the web was master over me!), I was continuously frustrated and perplexed by one glitch after another. Our church leadership eventually appointed a committee to research alternatives to our web situation. After reviewing several different possibilities, they proposed Ezekiel, and the “Platinum” program. What a difference! Ezekiel “has it all!” The simplicity of inputting information is wonderful, not to mention the great choices in web templates there are to choose from. Practically everything is done for you with the exception of inputting your information and graphics (they have a very nice library of animated artwork also), publishing, and you’re done! Oh, and the publishing is automatic and accurate every time! We now have the ability to track those who visit us and generate databases to send out specific information per their requests. The Communications Manager makes it easy to send out broadcast emails to our members when our church newsletter is published. Another great feature is the ability for those visiting our site to personalize their web viewing to specific information that interests them and their family. We are also notified immediately when someone new has registered on our site. Our Prayer List is one of our most crucial pages and was primarily updated by word of mouth, or phoned-in requests. With Ezekiel, we know have the ability to receive prayer requests and post them automatically. The benefits of using Ezekiel are countless as you can see from just the few mentioned. Since our change over to Ezekiel, we have heard nothing but compliments on the professional look of our site and the ease in use. Our main focus at Westbury Baptist Church has always been reaching our members and others regarding our ministry in Jesus Christ. Ezekiel has made that focus even easier for us to reach now. The future looks bright! Susan Nutter |
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