For church leaders trying to navigate the digital age, the challenge can take on biblical proportions. While the psalmist looked to the hills in his hour of need, pastors, staff and lay leaders today find themselves looking to the “cloud” – that place in cyberspace where a host of new Web-based resources and services are found.
It’s all part of the digital church, where multimedia and social networking are as common as hymnals and printed bulletins. LifeWay Christian Resources is making it easier for church decision-makers to access and download a wide range of resources through the new Web portal, LifeWay.com/DigitalChurch.
“We launched LifeWay’s Digital Church to provide solutions that will help churches be more effective in ministry,” said Tim Vineyard, LifeWay’s chief information officer. “Ministry leaders now have access, in one place, to a full range of digital resources.”
The “cloud services” available through LifeWay’s Digital Church include existing LifeWay resources such as WorshipMap Pro and SongMap, online services that enable users to download and customize worship music; LifeWayLINK, the church Web site service; and eMediaLINK, the solution for adding online video to ministry Web sites. It also features new services available through alliances between LifeWay, Fellowship Technologies and ServiceU.
Among the new services are:
– Church management software through Fellowship Technologies’ flagship product, Fellowship One, which provides secure integrated solutions for managing members, visitors, contacts, small groups, children’s check-in, volunteers and contributions.
– TransactU, software that equips churches to set up online giving and event registration. The software comes from ServiceU Corporation, one of the few companies in compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards as a Level 1 service provider.
Other services and service providers will be added in the months ahead, said Vineyard.
The Digital Church initiative is part of a larger strategy for LifeWay, according to president and CEO Thom Rainer. In his address to trustees last month, Rainer said LifeWay will maintain its historic biblical fidelity, but enhance its delivery systems to keep pace with the digital needs of the church.
Rainer cast a vision for LifeWay for the next decade. “LifeWay will be the ministry leader in the digital world,” he told trustees. “When people think about digital Christian resources, they will look to LifeWay. A digital strategy is critical to our future.” He said more people are coming to LifeWay for digital content. Church and ministry leaders are going online to download hundreds of resources from multiple areas of LifeWay.com including LifeWay Kids, LifeWay Women and many others.
More information is available at LifeWay.com/DigitalChurch. – LifeWay