Although many congregations probably aren't aware of their good fortune, the future for dramatically improving their church's communication ability with internet technology is now.

With just over 30 percent of all Americans, and now over 50 percent of teenagers and young people on line, effective churches should be turning their attention to developing online ministry.

If your church already owns a relatively new computer, is willing to pay about $20 a month for internet service, about $100 to $150 in software, and is willing to invest a modest amount of training time, the congregation can offer anyone who visits your website most of what AOL offers its paid subscribers.

Sound too good to be true? Click your mouse on over to the Elkhart Church of the Brethren's web site. Webmaster (should we say webminister) Gary Arnold heads up an effort which supplies a weekly "visitors" newsletter, audio copies of Pastor David Bibbee's sermons, a visitors FAQ, and more information than you probably know about your own congregation in a colorful well designed format.

In the spirit of Christian charity Elkhart City also offers churches interested in starting their own web site a web resource page.

Arnold has taken the time to learn the formal ins and outs of being an actual web designer.  Thanks to ever evolving powerful web site generating software like Microsoft's FrontPage2000, and NetFusion3.0. You don't have to.

Anyone who can operate Microsoft's popular Word software should have little trouble learning and using FrontPage 2000. The newest version of the FrontPage was just released last week and sells for around $150. It's drop and click format offers much the same easy use as popular word processors. In fact programs like Word 2000 for the just released Microsoft Office 2000 can be easily transferred into FrontPage 2000's web system.

Up until recently NetFusion 3.0 sold for around $299. If you link onto Fusion's site from CStation's Web Creation Station stop, you can purchase this highly rated software for $99.

Software like FrontPage not only offers templates for easy design, clipart, and basic web page generating ability to net novices, but also the ability to add message forums, simple video, site search, animation, and response forms. AOL won't give you much more.

Churches with or without web sites can offer their members and neighbors weekly or monthly email newsletters through reasonably priced or even free software. E-mail, the oldest "killer app" on the net is the most effective advertising and communication method the net offers today. The Pegasus Mail software, for instance, is available as freeware and can handle most email needs of small or medium sized congregations.

Congregation should consider adding an online communications room to their church complex. The wealth of Christian links and Bible study information available online can bring alive any Sunday School, youth or adult study, and even a VBS. Take some time to look around Believers' Station links for just a sample of what's available.

Good ol' AOL will even provide anyone who wants it with a free instant chat service. Members of your church who sign up for the Instant Messenger Service and include other members on their contact lists will be notified when both are online at the same time. They can then chat or  hold a Bible study. You don't have to subscribe to AOL for this service. 

Research by Christianity Today has revealed that while two years ago only about six percent of all churches had a web page, that number has jumped to 24 percent. Larger congregations are three times as likely to have an online presence as small churches.
Special Report: Churches and Computers.

Perhaps many church leaders aren't aware of how intertwined American life will soon become with the Internet. Billions of dollars are being spent on making the Web and Net household items within the next few years. Everything from cell phones, to gas pumps, to ice boxes, may soon be connected sharing information and providing communication for most Americans.

Take the television, post office, and telephone, bundle them all together, and the Internet will be used more often, and become more necessary to Americans, than these three present day mainstays. This future could be here as soon as the next two or three years. Growth of our online society is happening faster than any other technological advance in history.

Still not convinced? Take a look at the recently published USA TODAY news story Religion's Salvation: Logging Onto God.

Can your church afford to be left behind?