wfn.org | Church creates safe place on Internet for youth

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 3, 1999 News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{241}

A UMNS News Feature
By Michael Wacht*
	
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The Rev. Phil Miller-Evans, youth pastor at First United
Methodist Church, recently went into a computer chat room on the Internet.
Within 15 minutes, he received 12 e-mail messages advertising pornographic
Web sites and three from people claiming to be America Online (AOL)
officials asking for his password.
	
That experience is one reason Miller-Evans is now doing more than just
surfing the World Wide Web. 

"We wanted to create a place on the 'net for United Methodist youth groups
to gather," he said, "a safe place in the Internet." That safe place,
created about a year and a half ago by Miller-Evans and two youth from the
Clearwater church, is called UMYF.net. It's at www.UMYF.net on the Internet.
	
The idea for UMYF.net was born out of frustration at trying to find other
youth groups on the Internet, said Jeremy Slater, one of the founders and
the current volunteer director of operations for the Web site. "Our group
was going on a trip, and we were looking for churches to stay in. We had
trouble finding other UMYFs (United Methodist Youth Fellowships) on the
'net."
	
So Miller-Evans, Slater and another youth, Jeff Scarsbrook, decided they
would host their own Web site for the Clearwater church. They did some
research and found that nobody else was using the name UMYF.net, "so we
snagged it," Slater said.
	
The Web site is hosted on a computer server that is a combination of donated
and purchased computer equipment and located in office space donated by a
church member. The staff is all volunteer, and members of the church's youth
group help maintain the system, Miller-Evans said.
	
Soon after starting their site, the team came up with the idea of inviting
other UMYFs to put their Web sites on the server. Currently, more than 50
youth groups are on UMYF.net, including two in the Philippines, and another
two or three groups are added each day, according to Slater. The newly
upgraded server has room for the sites of more than 100,000 youth groups. 

Four annual conferences - North Carolina, Detroit, Louisiana and New York --
are using UMYF.net as the home site for their conference youth programs.
	
In addition to hosting Web sites for youth groups, the UMYF.net server is
also home to the online site for an outreach mission to the Dominican
Republic called InMission.com.
	
The ministry is supported by donations from churches that use the service.
UMYF.net has also started offering Internet access to Florida residents in
Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, Tampa, New Port Richey, Sarasota,
Venice, Naples and Lakeland. Since it is a non-profit group, it cannot
charge fees, but asks users to give a donation equal to what they would pay
other service providers, Miller-Evans said.
	
The Clearwater church also budgets money to support the ministry. "The
church is supporting the project because they've seen what it can do,"
Slater said.
	
Another benefit of the project is the publicity it has generated for the
church's youth group. Its UMYF home page receives 60,000 visits each month,
according to Miller-Evans. "I don't know any church sending out 60,000 per
month in tracts, fliers, or even getting 60,000 people to read a newspaper
ad," he said.
	
Although the success of UMYF.net has far exceeded Miller-Evans'
expectations, he said he expects to continue to reach out through the
Internet ministry. "We'll continue to be a source of information and a place
of ministry in this brand-new mission frontier."

# # #

*Wacht is the assistant editor of the Florida Conference's edition of the
United Methodist Review. This story first appeared in that publication.

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