Welcome to our website!
As we have explored and grown in our use of the Web Empowered Church (WEC), we have become increasingly excited about all the things we can do with this website in the future. As webmaster, I am part of the Communications Team, a subcommittee of the Information Technology Committee and part of the Witness Ministries. We hope to use this website to open channels of communication within our congregation, to enrich the spiritual life of seekers, and to reach out to our community and surrounding communities to share our faith and invite them to join us in the journey of faith as we worship God.
21st Century Circuit Riders
Remember those pastors who rode around the State on horses, teaching and preaching in local churches? Well, the Greater New Jersey Conference has a program which uses Circuit Riders to travel around the State and help other churches get started using the Web Empowered Church and Typo3 Software. There are seven or eight of us throughout New Jersey. Yours truly has just completed a "tour of duty" helping St. Mark UMC in Hamilton set up their new website. And another training opportunity has opened up for me in Hunterdon County -- where this Jersey girl grew up! Rev. Mercia Solomon is pastor of Quakertown and Kingwood United Methodist churches. You can see their new website (under construction) here. These are exciting times for the churches that want to pursue technology to get the word out about the good things happening in their congregations and, hopefully, reach "seekers" for Jesus.
All Things Methodist!
Use the link on our Home Page to find these interesting things on the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference (GNJAC) website. They include:
- The Conference online newsletter, the GNJ Digest will send news items directly to your e-mail inbox. From our home page and click on the GNJAC link and go to their home page. A sign up box is prominently placed on the upper right.
- Did you know that the Conference has a Media Center with thousands of books, vhs tapes and other materials that church's can borrow? Here's a link. Why buy expensive materials for your Church School class when you can borrow them?
- The Relay, a Conference publication is available to read online. How green is that?
- Thinking about camp for the kids this summer? We have links to the Pinelands and Aldersgate camps on our United Methodist Weblinks page.
Of interest from the United Methodist Church website (umc.org):
- The Re-think Church Campaign and 10,000 Doors websites are fascinating and I hope you will visit them. To learn more about this UMC campaign, please visit our new ReThink Church page.
- An RSS news feed has been placed on our website's News page. Here you will find links to news releases about current topics, such as the Methodist response to natural disasters.
- "Moodle" Online Training from UMC.org -- Some courses are open to guest registration and others are by invitation. Check it out.
- Links to many UMC.org web features have been placed on the United Methodist Weblinks page and wherever possible links have been placed on individual pages. For example, the Outreach page has links on the right to the United Methdodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and the General Board of Global Ministries. Here you can learn more about our denomination's outreach to the poor and needy.
- Find interesting tutorials and training materials with terrific graphics and audio. Learn about your spiritual gifts by visiting this page.
- The Interpreter Magazine online edition contains stories and other valuable information that is also published in the Magazine itself. They will soon be making available the entire magazine in a virtual reading format. Your webmaster has test driven this new technological marvel.
These are just a few of the MANY things you will find on our United Methodist Weblinks page. Explore and enjoy! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me: webmaster(at)princetonumc.org.
Webmaster Pat
