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Why every individual congregation should be participating in online community to improve their own local real life community.

There are many ways in which having an online presence benefits an individual church congregation.  For example, giving people directions, schedules, special event information, news, and many other pieces of information.

But there are many ways that are not yet tapped in most church web sites.  A church is, at its heart, a community of people, and there are many ways it can augment this community nature online.  For example, here are some features churches could add to their web sites:

 * Forums: places where church members can post discussions between themselves, when you post a message, others read and respond later when you are offline
 * Chats: live discussions over the internet, typing with a computer keyboard
 * Blogs: frequently updated newsy information, in a web log format
 * User comments: letting web site viewers participate by responding to articles and posts, and to each other's comments as well

Here are some benefits churches would see from having more of the above-mentioned features on their web sites:

 * Increased awareness: The more active the site is, the more people will become aware that the church exists.
 * Increased attendance: Increased involvement in the web site encourages members to come to church more often.
 * Increased membership: As current members invite their friends into the online activities they become aware of the church and potentially join it.
 * Increased donations and tithe: from the increased attendance and membership.
 * Increased involvement: The more activities a church has, the more people will become personally involved in them, lead out, etc.
 * Better communication: The more ways there are to communicate, the greater the chance of finding the best way for each situation.
 * Closer friends: the more people can communicate and the more activities they have, the closer friends they become.
 * Increased participation in the Gospel Commission: the more different mediums are used to share, the more God's Word gets out.

I hope this list gets everyone's creative juices going.  At a later time we can think about the barriers to doing community and potential ways to overcome them.