Earlier today, I received an email asking what functionality Arena provides when used to drive a church’s public website. I thought I’d share my response…
Content Management System (CMS)
Arena is a CMS. It may not be the fanciest and easiest to use CMS out there, but it provides all the functionality for configuring portals, templates, pages, modules, security, content, etc. And by using templates, you can create an Arena driven site to look anyway you’d like. The look and functionality of your site is only limited by the creativity of your designer. You can be as “Web 2.0” and as you’d like using Arena templates.
The biggest advantage of using Arena as your CMS, however, is it’s integration with all the information you already have in the Arena membership system and the modules that have been created to take advantage of that information.
Promotions
The most powerful area of integration with Arena is promotions. Church staff can add promotions in Arena that are categorized, prioritized and approved and will then automatically be displayed on your public website.
For example Canyon Ridge has configured a promotion display module to display the top three “All Church” promotions at the bottom of their home page…
There are several types of promotion display modules, each of which display your promotions in different ways. A Flash module is even provided for animating Arena promotions. An example of the Flash module can be seen on this CCV Stars page.
With promotions, the “web guy” doesn’t have to worry about adding or removing content when appropriate. As soon as a promotion’s date has passed, it is automatically removed from the site. Promotions can also be configured for different ministry areas (Men’s, Women’s Singles, etc.) and the website would show just promotions specific to those areas on their respective web pages.
But There’s More…
In addition to promotions, Arena can also drive the following functionality on your public site:
- Small Group Leader Toolbox (lay leaders can manage groups)
- Group Finder (several options including geographically based, affinity based, etc.)
- Online Giving
- Event Calendar
- Event Registration
- Prayer Requests
- Personalized Subscriptions to promotions (through RSS or Email)
- Online Folder/File browser for securing and sharing digital content
- Podcasting/Blogging
- Classifieds (One of the most visited areas of CCV’s site)
- ECards
- Newsletters
- Polls
- Serving Opportunities
- Sports Team information (Team info, standings, etc)
- Photo Albums
- Staff Pages
- Employment Opportunities
So, if you’re using Arena as your ChMS and not as your CMS, your going to miss out on a lot of built-in integration.
The issue with these big systems is really simple.
COST COST COST COST COST
How many church plants – how many medium churches – and how many smaller churches can afford ARENA – F1 etc etc.
We use the WEC system – and I have setup churches even using Word Press simply due to COST COST COST.
Bottom line for us was simple.
We buy food @ 27 cents a pound – serve the nations poorest city – feed, clothe and also minister to the souls of many who are lost.
Spending that revenue on a CMS vs an open source free alternative did not make sense…
that being said – if a church can afford it – pretty cool stuff.
Fellowship One provides a cost effective solution for plant and small churches that gives them robust functionality that has historically been accessible only to mega churches. There are price and cost considerations for any system, even open source. Time is expensive, and potential lack of functionality comes at a high cost…but a low price. Shelby Arena and Fellowship One both provide a great solution and both should make their products affordable to smaller churches. The great debate between cost and price continues. I think that saying the “issue with these big systems” is cost cost cost is not accurate. Price vs Cost analysis should always be performed when choosing a ChMS. When this done at a comprehensive level it is amazing how affordable these two systems become. God has blessed this market with several legitimate solutions, which does God want you to use to carry out His mission?
Well said Steve!
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Thanks for the post Steve. I was a pastor for 4 years and we used Shelby. Cost was definitely an issue so I can sympathize with Glenn. On the other hand, I worked with Open Source solutions as well and the security was very sketchy. I finally decided on http://churchinsight.com and it addressed both the security and cost issues. Thanks again!