Media Outreach

Can you give me some background about the church and how long have you been there ?

East Side Tabernacle is medium sized church that has been in existence since the mid 80’s. We are a non-denomination Christian church with a fairly diverse membership. East Side Tabernacle originally began meeting from the basement of the founding pastor’s home and slowly grew whereby we were able to purchase a building that once housed a very popular disco. The original building was eventually torn down after being condemned by the buildings dept. and has since been replaced by a brand new church building that houses our church downstairs and apartment buildings ab

ove. The reality was that we were at a crossroads when the building was condemned. We needed a miracle because we  did not have the 3million dollars that were needed to rebuild. God answered our prayers as the funds for this project were provided by a developer who purchased our air rights which gave us the 3 million that was needed to rebuild our church and the developer built apartments over the church.  I myself have been at East Side Tabernacle for approx. 16 years  and was ordained two years ago.

How are you using your website to increase member involvement ?

We have been using our website to get every ministry involved with ideas and encouraging them to raise funds to purchase additional pages for their ministries. We have begun to show them the importance and the advantage of getting information out to the general public via the internet thru our new website. We now have members letting friends and family know about our new site and we believe that it will continue to grow! We are now starting up our new website ministry which many are excited about so who knows where this will lead.

How has the use of technology changed the way you do church ?

Are you kidding? It has simplified it immensely. Although nothing can ever fully and effectively replace good old fashioned footwork when it comes to evangelizing, but with the use of the technology we have been able to reach a greater amount of people in a shorter amount of time. People can now just log into our website to find out about any upcoming events. The advantage of having the forms editor is amazing as now we can have people pre-register for events in advance, thereby giving us a heads up with regards to responding numbers and the preparation necessary for these numbers and it also has made it easier for parents especially who do not have to take that extra day to come and sign their children up for events like VBS when they can now do it online. The websites calendar is awesome as well. People can sign up for updates and never miss an event.

How are you using media to communicate your message ?

Media has played a big part in us getting out our message now. With the help of faithHighway, we have recently redesigned our media page with the rotating juke box look that many people are familiar with and with Sermon Connect, we now are able to upload our sermon podcasts to places like iTunes where people can easily get our message; it has been incredible to say the least, and many have already complimented the ease in which they were able to get our recent sermons!

How has the use of technology helped your ministry change lives ?

We have a Mon – Fri ministry whereby people call in together on a conference line to close out our day in God’s word and in prayer. Thru the use of sermon connect, we have begun uploading these recordings to the iTunes website and the response has been more than what we expected. Our church is located in NYC, but already we have people calling in from Florida and Tennessee, is that a coincidence? This has opened the door for people who I believe have been hesitating in walking through the doors of a church but now can get a glimpse of God from the comfort of their homes, which in turn acts as a spring board to get them to a local church.

If you were the Chief Technology Czar for churches, what would be your recommendations ?

I would say simply but sternly, GET ON BOARD! We are a small church and finances were a big issue for us, but the people at faithHighway, from day one, helped to alleviate those fears and stated it from the beginning that they were there to help us. Now, I know many churches have heard this line before, but it is true! faithHighway worked within our budget and every single person that you deal with at faithHighway is super friendly, knowledgeable and honest. faithHighway truly represents the core values of Christianity! We had gone to other web developers who wanted to charge us so much more, maybe I could have received a similar product with regards to the website, but I am sure that I never would have received the honesty, service and commitment that I have received to date from faithHighway. If I had to sum it all up in one sentence, they treat you as though they were part of your congregation. So, if you are a small church out there looking for an effective cost efficient way to get out your message via the Web, then again I say GET ON BOARD! With faithHighway, everyone here at East Side Tabernacle has been blessed and so will you!

pic by shashafatcat