Social - August 2003

Internet site brings church services home

Sermon Surfing

By DIANE TURBYFILL, LTN Staff Writer

An organ plays. The voices from a choir echo through the room. But it’s not another Sunday morning at church.

The sounds of area church services and sermons travel through the speakers of computers thanks to a new Internet service.

Ron and Susan Ramsey of Crouse have started MyChurchService.net.

“It’s a way for people to not miss events like weddings and church services,” says Susan Ramsey. “You’re not left out.”

The site, which just became fully operational this month, allows churches and individuals to post audio recordings of worship, weddings and funeral services.

Customers who post the audio recordings pay a fee, but the service is free for listeners.

Ron Ramsey said the idea came to him when a friend said she’d love to hear her son’s sermons every week. Her son lived and preached at the beach.

Ramsey began searching the Internet for such a service.

“We didn’t see anyone doing this type of thing,” he says.

The couple hired Kenneth Maynard to design their site.

Maynard’s design gives users various options when posting their church’s information. He has even set up a service for listeners to make donations directly to listed churches.

All software needed to listen to the recordings is available online at no charge.

The Ramseys feel their services could help area churches reach more people.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for all the churches,” Susan Ramsey says.

While they are happy with their current service, the Ramseys are always looking for improvements. They are working with Maynard to add more options for their customers.

Right now Maynard is creating standardized pages for their customers to set up their own Web pages.

“We’ve found that a lot of churches don’t have Web sites,” Ron Ramsey says.

There will be options to offer unique looks including various colors, calendars, discussion boards and member directories.

“It’s kind of like an online community,” says Maynard.

They are also considering running video on the site but haven’t ironed out all the details yet.

For now they’re still fine-tuning their current options and hoping for a good response.

“It took a lot of tweaking, but it has really evolved,” says Ron Ramsey.

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The Internet church services can be found at mychurchservice.net.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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