Discussion starter samples for your church forum

[David Gillaspey]

Hi all,

I've achieved, I think, moderate success launching and growing this forum by posting what I call "conversation starters" such as this one (i.e., "What have you learned from administering a forum on your website?").

Forum member "srmcatee" (Steve) wrote me today offline asking me to start this thread to solicit possible similar conversation or discussion starters for a forum on his church website. I am happy to do this.

Therefore, I am asking members to reply to this thread with questions that might (for Steve's website or any other church website) help to encourage posting on a forum.

Of course, the nature of the questions I have used on a forum devoted to church website design will be much different than those intended for a church website-based forum. The latter presumably would focus on spiritual matters, but ? not necessarily!

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
Forum Administrator

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Steve,

The best way in my opinion to get momentum is to deliver useful information. For information to be useful it needs to meet some basic criteria.
1.)Accurate- You have to have people that can answer questions about the areas you want to focus on.
2.)Complete- cannot be a persons or groups soapbox all must have the chance to talk
3.)Relevant- Has to fit the ministry your congregation does. Talking about the poor in africa when your church has never even volunteered at a soup kitchen before is wasteful.
4.)Timely- Has to be about the present and near future not ten years from now and definitely not in the past.

I hope this gives you a basis to begin complying questions. Look at what ministries you church is passionate about and begin discussions there.

[mrbelfry]

Lol. With my tongue firmly in cheek here are some suggestions:
1. Homosexuality. Discuss
2. How evil is <insert other religion here>?
3. Is our Pastor backslidden?
4. Why is <insert church members name here> such a muppet?
5. What is the worse sin you've ever committed?

How about a section where people can write testimonies. What amazing thing has God done for you today?

[mrbelfry]

Lol. With my tongue firmly in cheek here are some suggestions:
1. Homosexuality. Discuss
2. How evil is <insert other religion here>?
3. Is our Pastor backslidden?
4. Why is <insert church members name here> such a muppet?
5. What is the worse sin you've ever committed?

How about a section where people can write testimonies. What amazing thing has God done for you today?

[mrbelfry]

Oops somehow I posted twice. Sorry (ouch now it is 3 times of a wasted post)

[srmcatee]

Hi,

I think Dave's post about spiritual might be a good thing to key on.

My thought is:

How did Sunday's sermon touch you this week?

Did you approach someone this week to visit our church, and how did you do it?

Can you name one point from Sunday's sermon.

[srmcatee]

Here's an interesting one.

Do you know of a prophet of God, in our town (our country)?

[srmcatee]

Here's a good one:

Should we have a contemporary service?

[srmcatee]

Ok, I'm on a roll this morning. Here's a few more:

How many places have you seen a reference to our church other than, at church?


Why did God tell us not to touch the apple? It's just an apple.

[srmcatee]

Hey Everyone,

We are kicking up an interesting tactic. We started posting the discussion starter in our Sunday bulletin (7/23). This weeks bulletin will read:

Why did God tell us not to touch the apple? It's just an apple. Go to the churchweb site to get the answer....

I'll let everyone know how it goes. You can check out the discussion here:
http://broadway.churchledger.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=23&forum=16

[flutem3]

Hi, Steve,

I like your forum. Where did you get it, and did it cost anything?

Thanks.

Carol

[Faithhb_lutheran]

Carol,

I believe steve's site is powered by churchledger (http://churchledger.com)

[srmcatee]

We used Xoops to create Ecclasia (ChurchLedger). It's Open Source.

[jeffinj]

David, Its good you dont allow promotions of irrelevant sites but I think you should give the members the freedom to write their signatures the way they want it. Signatures talks a lot about the members personality and belief.

My forum was promoted by posting the link in other forums and inviting members. I didn't then realise this was something admins usually don't like because i have not participated in forums that much. That is the reason why I am not that strict with members trying to promote their sites through my forum. Some of them turned form lurkers to frequent posters. Anyway, it all happened by the grace of God. :)

[flutem3]

David, Its good you dont allow promotions of irrelevant sites but I think you should give the members the freedom to write their signatures the way they want it. Signatures talks a lot about the members personality and belief.

My forum was promoted by posting the link in other forums and inviting members. I didn't then realise this was something admins usually don't like because i have not participated in forums that much. That is the reason why I am not that strict with members trying to promote their sites through my forum. Some of them turned form lurkers to frequent posters. Anyway, it all happened by the grace of God. :)

Hi, Jeff,

Good to see you. I am not certain what your point is exactly. David, forum administrator, allows us to use quite a variety of signatures as you have probably noticed.

However, because he is the administrator of this forum, he can call the shots...just as you can as administrator of your own forum.

I think each of us has his/her own concept of what is "proper" in a signature. I, for example, do not like signatures which advertise something on a website about working with church websites. On other kinds of websites, advertising would be more appropriate. But it is always the administrator's call. We can give him/her feedback on it, but we are not responsible for the forum and what is on it. He/she is.

I am certain that you as well as I have seen some extremely inappropriate material on this kind of forum. That is what David does not want to have happen here. This is a wonderful group of people who have all kinds of expertise...and some of us have much less. But it is a good place to come to figure out what to do and how to do it.

David, thanks again!!! I appreciate your creating this forum for us and for being as protective as you are. I am glad you are. I know I am a grown up woman (65), but nonetheless, it is wonderful that you care enough to keep track of what happens here.

Carol
www.wabashfirstumc.org (http://www.wabashfirstumc.org/)

[jeffinj]

I did realise that Davids more liberal with the sigs after a browsed a bit more. :rolleyes: Anyways, he maintains an excellent site which I wouldn't dream of doing and yes, he would know how to maintain websites better than any of us. Even I dont like seeing advertisements in signatures. My previous post was right after I read the signature rules and I thought the admin was a very stern guy. Assumptions cause too much confusion. :D

By the way, its good knowing Carol. :)

[David Gillaspey]

he would know how to maintain websites better than any of us. Hi Jeff,

Thanks for joining the forum.

I would hardly call myself an expert on maintaining websites. To that end, my homepage explicitly states that I maintain on my website (I'm referring to Great Church Websites for the moment, not this forum) only a few key resources that I can do well. One of those is this forum. Another is the database of church home pages, with which I started the whole site.

You did mention lurkers. Yes, that's the problem with all forums ? far more people "lurk" (browse) than join and participate. However, I just have to walk in faith and believe that, even during times when this forum is not very active, it still is serving a purpose in the Kingdom. I know that to be so because there's usually always a 100 or so people browsing at any time, even in the middle of the night.

I also have to remember that my website and this forum serve a very narrow niche market, compared to Christian sites in general.

Now regarding signatures, as is often the case, the rules that I established were the result of some abuse of signatures that occurred. Also, this is a not-for-profit site ? Great Church Websites is not-for-profit Oregon corporation, though not a 501c3 tax exempt organization. So, I'm bit cautious about letting for-profit companies use the forum to promote themselves.

Anyway, I appreciate your sharing your thoughts.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites
(and forum admin)

[jeffinj]

Now I totally understand David. :)
Even though you serve a narrow market, the idea is excellent and worth exploring. Well done.

[StubbyD]

always a 100 or so people browsing

How many of those 100 are search engine bots or spiders? Because they'll show up similar to users.