Semi-definitive list of "church sector" Web 2.0 applications
Bible
- Bible Server – the Bible in over 20 languages
- eBible – a social Bible to search, study and share
- YouVersion – new project from LifeChurch.tv
Blogging
- About Life – supports the work of Alpha a popular small group study on the Christian faith
- Minor Prophet Bible Blogs – blog the Bible
Church Content Management Systems
- Ekklesia360 – comprehensive church and content management software
- Ministry Home – websites for your ministry
- Ministry Starter – easiest to use web software to manage ministry web sites
- Sky – high end custom web sites for Churches
Directories
- Church cloud – connecting people with churches
- Church Rater – rate your church visit (an Off-the-map project to promote the book Jim and Casper go to Church
Bookmarking
- blogs4God – a semi-definitive aggregation of Christians who blog
- GospelShout – digg like social bookmarking site for Christian blogosphere
- Moral Metric – online community devoted that evaluates movies, TV, video games and web safety
- Sermon Cloud – find and interact with sermons
- Remarkable! – digg like social bookmarking site for the emerging church
User-created Content
- Ask Seek Click – stories of people in NY
- Godtube – YouTube like Christian videos
- iQuestions – safe and trusted video answers
- My Secret – online confessional by LifeChurch.tv
- Share My Testimony – read and comment on testimonies
- Wiredparish – listen to Christian podcasts
- Wikiletics – wiki for homiletic resources
- Yaaway – community of Jesus centred videos from around the world
Productivity
- Church Director – volunteer scheduling and ministry tools
- Cross Connector – easy way to manage missions trips
- Lambs List – church nursery check-in solution
- groopik – easily manage your small group ministry
- Plaid – shared communications and tracking software
- Planning Center – stay organized and keep your worship team on the same page
Social networking
- 5 Loaves
- Faithbase
- Christianster
- Lights Together
- MyChurch – best way for church to build an online community
- Oak Tree Idea – social network to discover ideas and innovations
- People to Pray
- Pray About – share prayer requests
- Prayrbox
- Shoutlife
- MeetFish
- YouthRoots – digital youth room for students and youth leaders
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Welcome to the Reader Forum
Please feel free to express your opinions and share your ideas by adding a comment to this article.
hi tim
i think i wrote some thoughts on ‘church 2.0’ last year [here, actually but dont like the idea of the church following or adapting what is going on and what it is being called
because many of us, as you know, are a part of it whatever it is called.
hey – you said you were working on a new project – could send me stuff on that to remind me. what was it called?
wooah . . where did my html go? and why isnt cocomment picking up these comments?
anyway, the link i mentioned to church 2.0 is attached to my name on this comment.
Andrew—I totally get not doing church 2.0—but I’m talking strictly about technology, adopting social aspects of Web 2.0 into our thinking and execution of web products.
—
I got some bugs to work out on the commenting system—I do not believe I accept html but “textile” see the help link above.
Ahh Andrew and Tim,
I think I bugged you both before about starting a Church 2.0 definition on Wikipedia. Click on my name where I blogged about it a few months ago.
3 months later – I’m not sure I even understand the term… or if we should just avoid the Church 2.0 mantra altogether. I wasn’t part of the initial discussion, and feel a bit like an outsider trying to spin a term for an agenda. Then the term seemed to evolve away from what TSK initially defined it as.
FYI, we’ve ditched the Church 2.0 term. Haven’t used it at all. I don’t think we plan to either. What was initially a romantic idea of getting behind a “Church 2.0 movement” has become an abandoned reality for me
Oops, my link in the previous comment is the wrong one. Click my name on this one instead :)
I’m not talking about Church 2.0; but building so-called “web 2.0” applications for the church.
We (BlueTie) currently have several large churches using our paid email, calendaring and collaboration software. We now offer a free version with no ads, 5GB of storage per user, 20 users per account, domain support for email addresses, etc. This would be a great tool for church administrators and volunteers. Its free- no strings attached.
I am one of the people behind the yaaway.com project. In the coming weeks, expect to see our temporary web site up that more accurately describes our intentions. We are building the repository right now and anticipate a release in the Spring of 07. Our desire is to create space for people to share their stories, a space for stories to be heard, and a space for response.
It’s kind of sad that half of the websites aren’t working or are in development still. It looks like there are a few great ideas out there indevelopment. I hope that they finish the sites soon.
the article talks a lot about christian-based sites and such, have you found any similar trends or sites with other faith communities?
There are similar trends in other religious traditions; but I have not tracked them except occasionally as I read about new site launches.
prayrbox.com has launched, and thank you for posting about Ministry(Starter). We are greatly excited about it.
Blessings on prayrbox.com
Hey yo Tim!
yeah – about time I got back in the game huh?
I’ll be helping out keep track of the whole semi-definitive list thing once I’m done beating the Pligg template into submission
I think you recommended that tool to me some 6 months ago
Not both it, and I are ready for each other.
hey so call or skype me wouldja – wanna exchange some memes and stuff
Nice list, though churchrater.com is pretty scary.
I’m wondering if you’re aware of any Scripture feeds, preferably something that follows the liturgical calendar?
I recommend listing WishApp.com under “Directories” or “User-created Content” categories
The website allows visitors posting ideas and suggestions for software and has a huge directory of free software
A great resource for creating a website for your church is http://TinyPurpleGrapes.com
Anyone can quickly and easily make a website for their church for free. Also no ads will be displayed on your website.
You might also check out www.roov.com
One great resource I did not see here is Ministry Scheduler Pro – ministry software for scheduling church volunteers. It includes a scheduling engine that schedules around preferences and availability and it also has an optional web-based portion so volunteers can access and update their schedules via the web. Anybody who has had experience trying to organize volunteers will appreciate this one!
www.MinistrySchedulerPro.com
You might want to take a look at the HyperOffice Collaboration Suite. What makes them suitable for the not-for-profit market is the simplicity with which just about anybody can use it. It takes just a few minutes to set up.