4/16/2009

Intern Report: Progress, Proposal & Looking Ahead

Summary: So far, my work has been focused on five areas: 1)maintaining the current
website and developing the podcast 2)enhancing existing literature and
making new pamphlets/packets for members and visitors 3)designing a new
website 4)developing ideas for youth ministry and outreach 5)occasionally
teaching Sunday School. I will show the work I have accomplished,
propose ideas, and discuss what projects I will work on in the upcoming
months.

I) Welcome Packet
i) It is a folder of info that we would give to visitors and/or mail to people
moving into the area. It provides information about the church to inform
them as well as encourage them to come to CBC.
1) It will make a better impact on visitors since they will see what our church
is doing and how they are able to get involved.
2) If we can send them to new residents we would be able to reach people
who might not otherwise know we are here.
3) Encourage people to use the website.
ii) Final Version
1) It would have a nicer layout/format…this was a mockup so the info could
be approved
2) It would have a sermonette from Pastor on CD in hopes that they will at
least listen to that even if they don’t come to CBC.
3) Business card?
4) Is the folder style good for this or should I change it more of a newsletter
to make it easier for mailing and less expensive?
II) Ministry Pamphlet
i) Purpose: To encourage enfolding of members and visitors into CBC.
1) It is simply a consolidation of information we have on the website and
other pamphlets so that the information can be easily accessible and
given to guests.
III) Podcast
i) Purpose: To ease the use of our MP3 files for consistent users , attract more
people to start listening, potentially gain a wider audience.
ii) What was involved
1) I wrote the xml code for a feed that iTunes in particular is able to read.
2) I added a button to the website that will automatically open iTunes (if they
have it) and bring them to our podcast page so that they can easily
subscribe. I also made a ‘Website Upgrades’ page that included
information on how to subscribe or download iTunes.
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3) I added to this feed items for sermons going back to Sep 08 as well as the
sermons on Ephesians for husbands, wives, and parents. It also included
two adult class series: Pastor’s Shepherding a Child’s Heart and Chris’
Biblical Worldview.
4) In order to make the podcast more manageable for listeners, I just made a
separate podcast for the adult Bible class audios. It will be reachable
through the new website.
IV) General Website Work
i) Maintenance
1) Each week I add the new sermon and SS lesson to the website and
podcast feed after the A/V team uploads it to the server.
2) Upload the new calendar each month.
3) Work out bugs and work on ways to make it better
ii) Upgrades
1) Interactive Google Map—makes it easier to get directions, looks nicer
2) Bible verse tooltip—pops up when the mouse hovers over any verse,
shows the passage
(a) Courtesy of RefTagger, a service provided by the Bible software
company Logos.
3) Podcast Button
4) Upgrades page—help people learn what is new on the website
V) New Website
i) Reason: to improve the image of CBC on the internet, encourage greater use
of the resources, reorganize and restructure the site so that it is more easily
navigated
ii) Since I have never done any work on websites or designing, I had to learn
how to: use Dreamweaver, write HTML code, use/write CSS styles, and gain
general web server experience.
1) I had to teach myself how to do something before I was able to do it, so
that made the process longer and forced me to redo things a few times to
get them right.
iii) Problems faced
1) The overwhelming majority of visitors to our website use Internet Explorer,
which limits what we are able to do withthe website. If there are
interactive menus on a page, for example, IE gives the user a warning that
the page might contain dangerous information and asks if they want to
continue. People unfamiliar with this would generally say no, which
messes up the code on the page and makes it less attractive and
functional.
(a) Once I learn more coding I should be able to find a way around this so
that we are able to incorporate better menus and perhaps flash.
(b) Had to redo the welcome page after finding that IE didn’t work with a
good portion of it
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2) General debugging that is involved with designing a new website from

scratch.
3) Need to keep in mind visibility issues for older visitors who don’t have
much experience with websites and users with poorer vision.
iv) The New Structure
1) Welcome PageSection PageSubsection Pages
(a) Welcome Page: has a separate design from the rest of the website, it
sets the color scheme, displays current information about events,
resources, sermons, and classes.
(b) Section Page: introduces the section, e.g. a description of the church
for ‘About Us’ section
(1) Has links for each subsection on the side
(c) Subsection Pages: displays the information for the specific information,
e.g. Doctrinal Statement
(1) The links for related subsections still on the side
v) Design
1) Darker colors based off image of the book of John are easier on the eye
than the other website.
2) Textured background prevents it from looking monotonous
3) New CBC logo allows for a distinct heading that is transferred over to the
podcast image
4) Wrote up a Print CSS style sheet so that users can easily print the main
content without worrying about using up a lot of ink or having more on the
printouts than they actually wanted.
vi) Other Website Work
1) Fixed META data so that search engines will correctly index our site,
leading to more accurate results from searches and more likely visitors to
the website
2) Incorporated pictures Danielle took of the church
3) Went through the coding for the websites and added comments
(a) Explained what each section of code was and what it did
(b) To allow others to understand it in case they need to change it
4) Fixed the Adult Bible Class table coding
(a) It had a lot of junk coding that wasn’t visible on the page but may have
slowed it down
5) Need to incorporate Google Analytics into the coding
vii) Future Plans for the Website
1) I am still working on getting password protection so that we can have
members only pages
(a) More difficult than simple designing, it requires server side databases.
(b) Would allow us to have pages for individual home fellowship groups as
well as prayer lists or business reports
2) Putting more resources on the website: docs to download, reading
schedules, etc.
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3) Continue working on making it better looking and more ‘professional’ in

appearance and functionality
4) Adapting based on feedback
5) Make a How-To for updating the Podcast so that others can do it if needed.
6) Add welcome to audio files. “This sermon was uploaded by Community
Baptist Church in Neptune, NJ etc”
7) Make a Youth page and/or a blog for the leaders
8) Bio page for the church leaders
VI) Sunday School
i) I’ve taught three times, continued on Mike’s lessons through John.
VII)Youth Ministry Ideas
i) General Focus
1) Getting the teens to mature
(a) Actively develop from children to adults in terms of: responsibility in
the church, maturation in faith, behavior and attitude
2) Developing their involvement in the church body
3) Expand the influence upon their learning beyond others their own age
ii) Service
1) Reason: It will instill a sense of community and understanding of the
Church as the body of Christ
2) Need more opportunities beyond missing service to watch kids.
3) Allow them some responsibility to come up with ideas and implement
them
iii) Growth
1) Perhaps special attention for professing believers
(a) Discipleship-pairing off with an older Christian of same gender
(1) They would be learning from an adult rather than being only
surrounded by peers who may not be the best influence or at least
don’t have wisdom and experience to pass on
(2) It would maintain cohesiveness between generations at CBC
(3) Introduce accountability into their life, but with the comfort of it not
being a family member
2) Can’t only put teens with other teens, they need to interact with and learn
from adults more
(a) Would take a collective effort from the church to be dedicated to the
development of young Christians
3) This would help the teens be a better influence for guests or unsaved
teens who are in the church
4) Emphasize the importance of baptism and membership.
iv) Home Fellowship Group
1) Should have a name aside from Youth Home Fellowship
(a) It would give a better sense of identity, encouragement, motivation to
make a reputation for themselves
(b) One:Ten, written on fliers as CX—Philippians 1:10; 2 Peter 1:10
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2) The focus would be to actively work on the spiritual

maturation/development of the teens.
3) I would lead it and would be encouraging/teaching them to take their faith
seriously and to pursue a wholly Christian life beyond Sundays and youth
group.
4) Perhaps every few meetings we would have an older Christian or couple
from the church come and share their experiences and trials as a
Christian.
5) In general, the purpose would be to groom the next generation for our
church so that complacency doesn’t take hold and so that they can be
actively desiring and pursuing ways to improve our Church body and work
in outreach.
VIII)Outreach
i) Since I have devoted so much time to the website designing, I don’t have a
strong list of outreach plans, but they are going to be my next focus, in
addition to the youth ministry.
1) Neighborhood Run---a short run, for fun not a race
(a) Advertise in the community, have food in the parking lot
(b) Would be able to set up tables with info about our church, the Bible,
God
(c) People to talk to whoever has questions
(d) Potentially Bad Idea
(1) John Calvin’s 500th Birthday is in July
(i) Could have a Perseverance of the Saints 5k run
(2) It’s a Catholic neighborhood
(3) …would raise lots of questions though, and interest hopefully

IX) Hours so far

February Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

Monday 3.00 4.25 1.50 1.00
Tuesday
Wednesday 5.75 4.50 2.50 5.50
Thursday 3.00 3.75 3.75
Friday 3.00 2.00 2.75 5.00
Saturday 3.75
Sunday 2.00 1.75 1.00
Total weekly hours 2.00 14.75 16.25 10.50 15.25
Feb. total: Regular
hours 58.75
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March Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

Monday 1.00 1.75 5.25 3.25 3.25
Tuesday 5.25
Wednesday 5.50 3.50 6.25 5.00
Thursday 3.75 4.25 4.25 6.25 4.00
Friday 5.00 3.75 2.25 3.25 3.00
Saturday 2.00 1.00 1.50
Sunday 1.25 1.00 0.50
Total weekly hours 18.50 15.25 17.00 21.00 15.25
Mar. total: Regular
hours 87.00

My pay period is Sat-Fri, so the weekly hours on this chart are not the same as my
hours reported to Adrienne.