Just for kicks I went to the ELCA website, locate a church,synods, Indiana-Kentucky, and selected the first congregation that had a website posted: St. Marks Lutheran Church in Noble County. Opened it up and was confronted with tropical colors,two running strips near the top and bottom which stated the vision and mission statements of not just one church, but two. But wait, the two women pastors serve three congregations, the latter being barely mentioned in the site. Eight blocks labelled “Welcome, Our Pastors, Our Churches, Sermons, Special Memories, Newsletters, Discipleship, Credits and Links” into which you can click and learn more about the congregation. Definitely the site would not rate high on updated information as posted sermons are from Lent 2007, outdated newsletter (Mar.2007) mentioned the third congregation or you wouldn’t know it existed, but no schedule of services for the third.Link into another page and it’s not found. For information on the pastors, there’s brief written bio info and a far away shot of the pastors (?) taken at an outdoor service. No up close shots. Scroll down and the bottom half is blank. On page of “The Marks of Discipleship” there are two animated hovering doves on the left side that just drive me nuts with their flapping wings. Definitely after visiting this site I’d continue searching. Oh, the congregations? St. Marks in Albion,Mount Pleasant in Kendallville, and Emmanuel–somewhere in Indiana (?). Oh, wait, back to the ELCA site, locate Emmanuel, and it’s in LaOtto, Indiana! Emmanuel even has its own website that has links into the ELCA, The Lutheran magazine, Lutheran Woman Today magazine, Davey and Goliath, FishersNet,and Augsburg Fortress! After an initial attempt to score the first site, I’ve abandoned the effort. I will say that for three small congregations, they’ve made an effort to make themselves known. Three cheers!
oooo… I hate those animated GIFs too! Cheesy and distracting!
BTW, here’s the site of the first two congregations: http://www.stmarksandmtpleasant.org/index.htm
The other one is: http://www.emmanuelca.org/
Did you note the link to the “Virtual Church Store”? It’s an association they have with AugsburgFortress.
Also note at the bottom of the page the “Lutheran Church Web Hub.” These use to be interesting deals, but they are rather worthless now…
Yes, I visited the “Virtual Church Store” and decided it must be an option for those who are buying Christmas gifts for finicky Lutherans or possibly when you’re not really sure what to get your pastor. You know, a virtual gift card.
Just for kicks I went to the ELCA website, locate a church,synods, Indiana-Kentucky, and selected the first congregation that had a website posted: St. Marks Lutheran Church in Noble County. Opened it up and was confronted with tropical colors,two running strips near the top and bottom which stated the vision and mission statements of not just one church, but two. But wait, the two women pastors serve three congregations, the latter being barely mentioned in the site. Eight blocks labelled “Welcome, Our Pastors, Our Churches, Sermons, Special Memories, Newsletters, Discipleship, Credits and Links” into which you can click and learn more about the congregation. Definitely the site would not rate high on updated information as posted sermons are from Lent 2007, outdated newsletter (Mar.2007) mentioned the third congregation or you wouldn’t know it existed, but no schedule of services for the third.Link into another page and it’s not found. For information on the pastors, there’s brief written bio info and a far away shot of the pastors (?) taken at an outdoor service. No up close shots. Scroll down and the bottom half is blank. On page of “The Marks of Discipleship” there are two animated hovering doves on the left side that just drive me nuts with their flapping wings. Definitely after visiting this site I’d continue searching. Oh, the congregations? St. Marks in Albion,Mount Pleasant in Kendallville, and Emmanuel–somewhere in Indiana (?). Oh, wait, back to the ELCA site, locate Emmanuel, and it’s in LaOtto, Indiana! Emmanuel even has its own website that has links into the ELCA, The Lutheran magazine, Lutheran Woman Today magazine, Davey and Goliath, FishersNet,and Augsburg Fortress! After an initial attempt to score the first site, I’ve abandoned the effort. I will say that for three small congregations, they’ve made an effort to make themselves known. Three cheers!
oooo… I hate those animated GIFs too! Cheesy and distracting!
BTW, here’s the site of the first two congregations: http://www.stmarksandmtpleasant.org/index.htm
The other one is: http://www.emmanuelca.org/
Did you note the link to the “Virtual Church Store”? It’s an association they have with AugsburgFortress.
Also note at the bottom of the page the “Lutheran Church Web Hub.” These use to be interesting deals, but they are rather worthless now…
Yes, I visited the “Virtual Church Store” and decided it must be an option for those who are buying Christmas gifts for finicky Lutherans or possibly when you’re not really sure what to get your pastor. You know, a virtual gift card.