First Presbyterian Church
Las Cruces, NM
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First Presbyterian Church |
Site Information
This page contains some information about this site and the mechanics of maintaining it.
FPC on WWW
The heading is really a bunch of acronyms gone wild. But they do have meaning. The letters stand for the First Presbyterian Church on the World Wide Web. Most members have at least heard of the Internet connections between computers and have seen many web addresses on TV ads. However fewer know that almost 300 Presbyterian churches, including two in Las Cruces, have a presence on the web. There are also hundreds more web sites with a Christian message.
Many of these sites are quite elaborate. Ours is primarily utilitarian. It is designed to give visitors a look at the activities and purposes of our church and to provide our members with another source of information about our programs. The site contains information about the staff and officers, reports from organizations, and even copies of the church bulletin, calendar, and schedule which are usually up-to-date. Other sections regularly up dated include What's New ( the quickest way to find new pages), the page on special musical performances during the main worship service, and articles on the misssion activities of the church. There are also several convenient ways to contact the church, e-mail to the pastor, e-mail to the church, and a web form.
Visitors are directed to the site by listing in local directories and relevant national data bases. The web address, www.zianet.com/fpc, is published in the church’s weekly notice in the paper. It is estimated that on the average 3 or 4 people per day visit the site. Most are from Las Cruces but the site has had visitors from as far away as Great Britain and Japan and some special pages (such as the ones on The Great Ends of the Church and Chrismons) have attracted scores of visitors from across the nation and around the world.
Local church members can use the site as a starting point for hours of profitable browsing, following some of the more interesting links. These links lead to the national church, confessional documents, and some very elaborate creations on Christian themes. One flashy, net aware site is located at www.godweb.org. Here you can follow links to more impressive, thought provoking sites than you will have time to study.
The connection to the Internet is provided to the church by Zianet, a local internet service provider. They are giving the connection, space, and technical advice to us as a service to the community. If any members have suggestions, or ideas send them in. Perhaps somebody would be interested in presenting some aspect of the life of the church in an interesting way for visitors and other members alike. This can be easily arranged. The logical way to send your suggestions is, of course, on the internet. Point your browser to www.zianet.com/fpc/formfpc.htm.
FPC on WWW (2)
The church’s web site is first of all a repository of information: information
about the church, information about the organization, information about its
activities, and information about the people connected with it. Some of this
information is current as in the bulletin, calendar, and announcements. Some of
the information is historical, as in the past annual reports, and copies of The
Lantern. Some of the information is educational and some is useful for
backgrounds.
Considerable effort is spent keeping this information up-to-date. An attempt is
made to keep the bulletin, calendar, and announcements on the site current.
Sometimes, due to scheduling difficulties or absences, this is not possible, but
one can usually expect to find the latest information under these headings.
Some of our congregation use the web site to keep track of meetings after the
Sunday calendar is misplaced. Others use it as a reminder of exactly when a
certain meeting is being held. Still others look at the pictures of people and
activities and keep up with the doings of our missionaries. The links section
serves as a gateway to more Christian sites than anybody has time to study.
The site has its share visitors who have no other contact with the church. They
are looking for information on the city or on Presbyterian churches in the city.
They are referred to this site by various search engines, which classify sites
by the keywords they use. Recently there has been an increase in those
connecting to the site from out of town as those people interested in our search
for a new pastor look for more information about the church and its programs.
FPC on WWW (3)
The Church’s web site is designed to be a repository of information and it is. It contains more than 340 pages and 380,000 words. In addition there are numerous pictures and other graphics. It has so much, in fact, that it can be difficult to find just what you want.
There are four features which will help you:
The Home Page
The Table of Contents
What’s New
Search
The Home Page serves as an introduction to the web site. It provides easy contact with the church, information as to location, and an introduction to the program and organization of the church
There the Table of Contents will give you an overview of the site. The title of every page is listed. If one page refers to another, the second page is listed under the first, more general, page. Thus you have sort of an outline of the whole site. One difficulty with the Table of Contents is that if two or more pages link to another one, the other page will only be listed under the first linking page.
The What’s New page is an easy way to keep up with changes to our web site. Any major (and some minor) changes are noted on this page, complete with a link to the new or changed page. If you want to keep up with the changes in the web site, you might bookmark this page.
For a more detailed look at the structure of the site, follow the Search link. It will take you to a page which will connect you to other search aids.
The most powerful way to find items for which you are looking is to use one of the two search forms at the bottom of that page. These forms have just been added and allow you to search for every occurrence of a word or phrase. All you have to do is type in the item for which you are looking and click the search button. The search engine will then send you a page listing links to the occurrences of your search term. Some of the context of the term is included as well as an estimate of the probability that the link is to the information you wanted.
The second form works in the same way as the first, but allows you to narrow the search down with several factors, including dates. It even has a sounds-alike search for poor spellers. There is also a page that contains hints on how to most effectively perform your search.
With the addition of these search aids, you should be able to find the information you are looking for more easily.
Best experienced with
Click here to start.
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Send comments, suggestions, and requests to Alex. F. Burr or send email to aburr @ zianet.com.
Technical assistance and net access provided by zianet.com
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Last update
2002-09-06 19:26:05