In November, we partnered with our friends over at Rice Bowls to encourage churches and ministries to help feed orphans through the Red Bowl Challenge. Rice Bowls feeds over 1,500 happy kids in 52 Christian orphanages across the globe. Through the challenge, we were able to provide 5,560 meals for those orphans. That number is about 1 full month of meals for all of the children living in 2 different orphanages.
In the past year we have posted a few updates about an anticipated major release of our easy to use Content Management System (CMS). Well, we have great news as 2011 draws to a close! After over 2,500 combined man hours in the past 18 months, we have planned, designed, coded, tested, beta released and officially launched this brand new update for our partners.
Next week most people in the USA will celebrate by eating turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and squash, pumpkin pie and cylinders of cranberry goodness. We all have much to be thankful for. Which is why we are announcing a special holiday challenge that will give back to those in need, when we have plenty. From Thanksgiving Day until New Year's Day, we are asking everyone we know to team up with the good folks over at Rice Bowls to feed children in 52 orphanages across the globe. But we are not only asking, we are going to reward the biggest giver with a big gift!
Today is a new day. We are now offering all gospel-centered ministries one low fee to set up a Church Plant Media website. This includes churches of any size or age, missionaries, Christian schools, Bible colleges or seminaries, as well as any gospel-loving, para-church ministry. We welcome anyone that has a gospel-centered mission who will uphold our Gospel Agreement. One price point for one purpose: to expand the reach of the gospel via the Internet.
Church Plant Media is excited to announce the addition of Jim Cook to our team. Jim has a knack for developing relationships and he has experience working for several technology firms. He is joining our partnership building team to be a Ministry Advocate to larger, gospel ministries. Jim is a graduate of Bob Jones University and currently manages the Human Resources for their School of Business.
Church Plant Media is happy to announce the addition of Rob Gering to our team. Rob has a background in website development and search engine optimization. He joins us in our Oklahoma City office and will be spending the majority of his time developing our new design styles. Rob studied a semester at Oxford, holds 2 Bachelors degrees from Southern Nazarene University, and is currently pursuing his Masters degree at The University of Oklahoma.
Church Plant Media is happy to finally announce the addition of Matt Ayers to our team. Matt joined our band of brothers (and sisters) earlier this month as our Ministry Coordinator. Although Matt is the youngest member of our team, he has a fire in his belly that burns for the gospel. He has been a friend of Church Plant Media for a number of years now, since his days as the media pastor for Paramount Church in Jacksonville, FL. It was there that he caught the vision to make the gospel paramount in all things, for the sinner’s joy and the Savior’s glory.
In connection with the 4th of July holiday, I read and pondered the Declaration of Independence. I thank God for the Founding Fathers and their passion for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In this historic document, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”. While we do believe that all men are created equal, it is our firm conviction that all websites are NOT created equal.
Are you tired of wandering around the web, searching for the products and services that your church needs? Are you getting blisters on your finger tips as you do all of the research for your team, trying to track down the best bargains available to your church? So were we… that is, until Housetop Media introduced us to George Kreger.
On Friday, April 8, 2011, at 11:30am, our Partner Support Specialist, Tanner Hubbert and his wife Lisa, welcomed their very 1st child into the world. Lyndon weighed in at 7lbs, 3oz. The brand new Momma, baby, and Poppa are all doing great.
Some months ago we posted about our highly anticipated CMS Refresh. Since then we’ve been remodeling and reworking what was already an easy-to-use system, into an even easier-to-use system. Good things take time and great things take more time. So while you are waiting for the upcoming CMS goodness, we wanted to give you a few more screenshots to let you see what we have cooking in the kitchen.
Church Plant Media is stoked to announce the addition of Kevin Fitzgibbon to the team. Kevin will be our new in-house Partnership Coordinator. He will be spending his days loving on people who are interested in all that we have to offer. And you are going to love connecting with him! Kevin has the vision of a church planter and is actively involved in an Acts 29 Network church plant in the Oklahoma City area.
Kevin Giddings loves the gospel. Anyone who knows him has experienced his deep love for Jesus, his family and his local church. Although Kevin has been serving as our Partnership Director for more than a year now, his relationship with our team dates back much further than that. Along with his full-time sales duties with Church Plant Media, Kevin has also been on staff part-time with Harvest Community Church. Harvest is a multi-site church in the Southwestern region of PA.
One of the primary differences between Church Plant Media and other web development companies is that our team has made a commitment only to serve gospel-centered churches and church-based organizations. After years of serving churches from different denominational backgrounds and heritages, we felt that a litmus test was needed to define our partnerships. So in early 2009, we decided to draw a line in the sand and we created a Statement of Belief.
When we originally designed the Church Plant Media Content Management System, our goal was to create an easy-to-use system that would serve church plants, existing churches, and church planting organizations. Since our core focus is to serve gospel-centered churches, we chose to develop specific modules that every church needs. Now that hundreds of churches are using our system, we felt it was time for a system refresh. The best part? It is available to all churches on the new Church Plant Media CMS at no additional charge.
At 9:23 a.m. on Monday morning, September 20, 2010, our Creative Director, Andrew Bradshaw, and his wife Cristin (our Project Manager), welcomed their 1st baby boy into the world. Landon Reid weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz. and 19 3/4" long. Both mother and baby (and proud poppa) are doing well.
Church Plant Media is thrilled to announce the hiring of Tanner Hubbert to the team. Tanner is well versed in all things tech and will be serving our partner churches in the role of Partner Support. Does something on your website need attention, or do you have questions about how to do this or that with your website? Call (800) 409-6631 x 2 and chances are you’ll end up chatting with Tanner. Want more details on what makes a tech titan like Tanner tick?
Do your audio monitors give you feedback? Do you have monitor mixing nightmares? Do you experience wireless microphone interference? Does your audio simply not sound good? Does your video not look good? Our friends at Housetop Media will help you solve these problems and more. They help Christ-centered church plants, portable ministries and multi-site campuses, preach the gospel loud and clear. And they do it for free.
On Monday, May 17, 2010, at 1:44pm, our Lead Developer, Ben Otero and his wife Jeraldine, welcomed their 4th child into the world. Ezra weighed in at 8lbs, 8oz. Both mother and baby are doing great.
Our good friend, Justin Taylor, blogger at The Gospel Coalition and Editorial Director at Crossway, recently asked us the following questions for an interview on his blog. Justin is facilitating a free website giveaway for us to celebrate our partnership in the Gospel and to promote our new low price. A word to the wise: If you don't regularly read Justin's blog, we strongly suggest that you make it a regular part of your day.
On January 27th, Steve Jobs announced the new Apple iPad to the world. The iPad is a 9.5 inch tall, 1/2 inch thin, multi-touch tablet device that allows users to "experience" the web, e-mail, photos, videos, music, e-books, and more, like never before. At the end of his announcement, Jobs referred to the iPad as "our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price". We applaud Apple for announcing such an innovative device that will allow you to literally hold the Internet in your hand.
Church Plant Media is pleased to announce the addition of Kevin Giddings to the team (despite his love for the Texas Longhorns). Kevin is a tech-savvy gent who loves churches and loves all things web.
We often get asked the question: How is Church Plant Media any different than other web design companies? As we advertise on our home page banner: Simply put, we build (awesome) web sites for churches. However, the difference is not in what that says, but in what that means to our team. To plumb this even deeper, we are actually building web sites for Jesus and His Church. We posture our hearts as the magi did 2,000 years ago...
Welcome to the new Church Plant Media website! Many hours and late nights have gone into creating a site that accurately reflects our identity as a company. Our goal is to equip church decision makers with the information they need to make an informed decision as to who to use for their website provider. Obviously, we hope that we're a good fit for you!