This community is a result of the vision of Bishop Robert A. Moore, Jr (Administrative Bishop for the Churches of God in Louisiana.) Bishop Moore wanted every COG congregation in the state to extend their ministry into the Internet.
Bishop Moore engaged the “Bishop of Technology” (Ray Waldo) to develop a system that would provide a free, full-functioning blog / website to every COG congregation in Louisiana. The original idea was to simply provide hosting for individual websites.
We have now evolved into a community of churches and individuals. The combination of free web hosting, social interaction, direct messaging between users, user-activity streams and discussion forums make this one of the most exciting opportunities available to the church today.
We provide both a “Facebook-like” social interaction & fully-functional website hosting. All for free to qualified churches and individuals.
There are many reasons why some churches have not begun an Internet ministry. Here are a few of the most common:
- Failure to understand the dynamics of the Internet
- Lack of technological knowledge & skills
- Cost of building & maintaining a web site
This system / community is designed to overcome these limitations. Hence, the name, “BEYOND Limits.” Here is our reasoning:
In the past, some church leaders either did not see the need for learning what the Internet is all about or they felt that it was too technically involved for them to learn. Fortunately, many of those folks now use email and browse the websites that they feel are both safe and valuable. But some still do not have a website for their church.
It is a fact that the church cannot retain a 20th century mindset and expect to be effective in the 21st century. People of this generation are more familiar (and comfortable) with Facebook than with a hymn book. It is not enough for a church to just “be there” — in brick and mortar – and expect new people to come and fill it up. Old school outreach techniques like bus ministry and tent meetings have lost favor with the current generation. For most younger people today, if it doesn’t work on their iPhone, then it probably isn’t relevant.
Enter “Internet Ministry.” For the majority of churches today, Internet involvement consists of a church email account and (for some more progressive churches) a static web site. Most of the church web sites are like an ad in the Yellow Pages. It tells people where the church is located, times for regular services & what ministries they offer.
That is NOT Internet Ministry! In order for ministry to take place, there has to be INVOLVEMENT. An advertisement is one-way communication. And the people that we want to serve are not “into” such an approach. If they cannot participate, respond, comment or share in the discussion, they are not interested.
So, we encourage all of the sites created here to INTERACTIVE. Draw the user into the communication. Be open to comments (even those with which you may disagree). And then RESPOND to those users in love and with an attitude of respect. All the users of this system deserve that kind of treatment. Don’t you agree?