April is Internet Evangelism and Outreach Month at OurChurch.Com. Throughout the month of April, OurChurch.Com will be making efforts to raise awareness of the opportunities to share the Christian faith online and to increase participation in Internet Evangelism Day Sunday April 27th.

The Internet has revolutionized the way we get information, communicate, and build relationships and as a result it presents unparalleled opportunities to communicate the Gospel for both individuals and organizations. Here are some ways we can help you in your efforts to reach out to unbelievers online.

Updated April 16 - OurChurch.Com has launched ChurchMarketingOnline.com. The new site includes the Top Church Search Rankings service which puts a church website at the top of the search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask for the phrases people search when looking for a church. It also features a new blog where we’ll be posting articles about church marketing, Internet evangelism, and search engine optimization in an effort to help pastors and church webmasters better understand how to reach the people in their communities online.

1) Free Search Engine Registration
What good is great website if nobody can find it, right? Unfortunately, churches and Christian ministries usually don’t give much thought to making sure people can find their websites in search engines. Have you? OurChurch.Com is the leading provider of search registration and search engine optimization services to Christian organizations. This month we want to see as many Christian organizations as possible take steps to make their websites more visible in search engines.

This month only, if you buy the Christian Search Engine Registration service (which will get your site listed in about 50 Christian search engines), we’ll give you our Major Search Engine Registration (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc) for free.

Or buy the Guaranteed Search Ranking or Search Engine Optimization Management services and get both the Christian Search Engine Registration and Major Search Engine Registration services free.

2) Is Your Church Website Attracting or Repelling Visitors?
Your church website has enormous potential as part of your outreach strategy to reach into your community. It can be like an enticing ‘shop window’ and virtual doorway to draw people into faith and fellowship. However, many churches do not understand how to design a site that will do this effectively. Now you can get a free evaluation report of your church’s website using the Church Website Assessment Tool. If you use OCC’s NE1 Website Builder, you’ll find a link to the Church Website Assessment Tool on your admin panel.

3) Internet Evangelism Day is April 27
Are you a Christian leader with a heart for reaching people with the love of Christ online? Internet Evangelism Day (IED) is April 27. IED is a focus day to bring awareness to the opportunities the Internet provides for sharing God’s love online. The IED website makes it easy for your Christian church or ministry to do an IED event by providing tons of ideas and resources. Participation can be as simple as including an insert in your church bulletin that gives church members ideas for how they can share their faith online.

4) Internet Evangelism Blogs
This month we’re focusing our blog articles on tips and strategies for online outreach. Plus we’ll be linking to and commenting on every Internet evangelism related news and blog article we can find this month. So, consider our Christian Web Trends Blog your source for all info related to Internet evangelism and IED this month.

5) Discuss Internet evangelism in our forums
We’ve initiated 3 Internet evangelism discussions in our forums. Take a few minutes to learn from others and share your knowledge and experience:

• Personal Internet evangelism strategies Have you had spiritual conversations online? What worked? What didn’t work? What questions do you have?
• Church Internet outreach strategies What have you done with your church website to make it more appealing to unbelievers and encourage them to attend a service? What have you done to make your church website more visible in search engines?
• What are you doing for Internet Evangelism Day? Share your best ideas. Ask questions about IED.

6) More Improvements to NE1
Updated 4/24 - We've added 6 new features to the NE1 website builder: a sitemap, map & directions page, address in footer, bookmark link, navigation clues, and spell checker. For more details see the announcement: New NE1 Web Builder Features for Internet Evangelism Month.