wfn.org | New initiatives take center stage at commission meeting

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

April 16, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-32-35-71B{161}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #160.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Members of the United Methodist Church might be
surprised at the breadth of the new initiatives and services that are being
developed by the denomination's communications agency.

In the next few weeks, United Methodist Communications (UMCom) will
introduce a Web site providing made-for-TV features on faith in action and
begin offering highlights of the daily Upper Room devotionals to Web sites.

New ideas were the stars of the April 12-13 meeting of UMCom's directors,
the Commission on Communications. They include:

7	A revamped and expanded Web site for the denomination, www.umc.org.
The site includes almost daily updates on how tensions in the Middle East
are affecting Palestinian Christians there, an in-depth news package that
explores a current issue in depth, video features and a plethora of other
helpful features about the church and its ministries.

7	An improved umcom.org site that offers more communications resources
and tools for people and congregations. The site has started offering group
e-mail, giving any United Methodist the ability to create and manage an
e-mail group on any topic. UMCom particularly hopes that people in annual
conferences and local churches use the new tool, said Steve Downey, staff
executive in charge of the Internet Integration Team. "We're giving away the
technology to allow others to communicate using the Internet."

7	A public information unit providing faith stories and video features
with a positive angle on the denomination. "We have hundreds of stories like
this in the United Methodist Church," said Ginny Underwood, managing editor
of public information. The unit's goals include making UMCom-produced
television reports available to TV networks via news feeds, she said. In a
few weeks, UMCom will launch UMTV, a Web site that will feature those
television stories. Additional resources related to specific story topics
will also be provided, possibly in the form of study guides and other Web
links. 

7	A unit that provides training support to the church at large. UMCom
has sharpened its focus on providing communications training in addition to
continuing to help local churches become more welcoming and effective
through the "Igniting Ministry" advertising campaign.

UMCom also is providing support for a new United Methodist Web Ministry
Guild for people involved in church-related Web sites. When the United
Methodist Association of Communicators meets this fall in New Orleans, UMCom
will help the guild put together the first Internet Web training session for
the denomination, Downey said.

The commissioners received updates on two other major initiatives that are
still relatively new - the Igniting Ministry media campaign and TechShop, a
service through which churches and individual United Methodists can buy
computers and related equipment at reduced prices.

TechShop, introduced less than two years ago, is a 24-hour-a-day online
store (www.umcom.org/techshop) that offers products by Microsoft, Apple,
Dell and others. Based on the going retail prices compared with those
offered through UMCom, TechShop saved its customers about $4.5 million in
2001, according to the agency. 

An initial study on Igniting Ministry's impact showed that first-time church
attendance and overall attendance increased markedly last September, when
the campaign's first television ads were shown. Those figures jumped early
in the month and rose even higher following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The final figures for that first month: 108 percent increase in first-time
attendance, 22 percent increase in overall attendance. (See UMNS story
#039.)

Igniting Ministry staff members have met with Korean-American church leaders
regarding developing Korean-language ads, said the Rev. Steve
Horswill-Johnston, director of the campaign for UMCom. Those are in
production, now, he said. 

Work is also planned on additional ads for Hispanic audiences, he said. Some
Spanish-language spots already have been broadcast.
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United Methodist News Service
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