A Forum For a Specific Local Church?

Tellastory

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Most churches have their own sites but it is not a forum for their members to go to and discuss issues on or just gab.

I had always wondered if a sub forum could be created that would tailor to the needs of a local church as a meeting place online for discussions and asks questions that would not be normally asked in church because of timed lessons or just plain don't have enough time for small talk?

That sub forum of that local church could even have a sub forum to tailor to a specific Sunday School class age group if they really got alot of interests but too many to be holding it in their own local church sub forum in its appropriate denomenational setting in the church community forum.

Probably an announcement from the forum administrators would serve as an invitation to any member to ask the church they go to if they want one and how many would be interested in signing up for it from that local church, and let the administrators know to know if it warrants a local sub-forum.

I do not know if this idea will be for good or for ill, but I reckon a member's survey of the church they go to would have to answer the question if they would use that offer from this christian site ( If they offer it) to have a local church forum.

So I guess all those that read will have to investigate and maybe enough survey and responses in this thread may lead this site to give that offer.

I do not go to church any more as apostasy is running so high and too much red tape and lack of time prevents any serious reformation from being undertaken.

Maybe the Lord will use this idea as a means to start that reformation. It is up to Him.

In any event, for those members that go to church, what do you think of this idea and would you do a survey to ask your church's members if they would even use it to see if the site would offer it, depending on the amount of people signing up for it? Plus... if it gets too many, hopefully then maybe sub-forums could be created by this site to the various age groups of those Sunday morning classes within that local church as well?
 

dobson67

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As a webmaster of our church's website, I think I might be able to shed a little light on this. First let me address forums on church websites. Depending on what hosting service your church uses (Or if it is hosted "in house" aka at the church building), Some hosts do not provide PHP and or SQL support. Both are needed for most forums. (As the owner/Founder of CF can most certainly testify.)

Also, the person acting as Webmaster must know how to set up PHP And SQL to make a forum work. The host we use DOES Support forums But it uses a drag and drop editor which makes further coding needed more of a chore then doing the hand code (Which is an annoyance to me since I'm a hand-coding type person, but I don't decide what host to use, the church council/Pastor does). Many Churches may not have anyone in the congregation with all this know-how. Most Church websites are also a form of advertising to draw in new visitors and to give prospective worshipers a chance to get to know the church a little more before attending a service.

Now to address adding forums for local churches to CF. This would be a nightmare for anyone tasked with putting them all here as there are so many potential candidates. The whole CF could be overwhelmed with such forums. Adding to that, how many people with such diverse Denominational affiliation and location that currently come to CF (As well as future members) would actually use said forums? Not many. Making putting them here a waste of time and resources.

My suggestion to you is simply this, Talk to your church's webmaster about this. See what he or she has to say about it. Odds are pretty high that they know what the church host is capable of and what it is not.
 
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George95

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While I see where you are going with the idea, I don't see how it would benefit CF. An alternative would be to use a free forum hosting service to create a forum for the church. Most of the time you do not have to do technical work, and you can customize it to your liking(well depending on the restrictions set by the host). But doing this will allow you to make it your own so to say. :)

God Bless. :wave:
 
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