oops

Brandon and I posted the exact same thing.... wow, next time I'll read before I post! :)

Almost There

I sent out an email on Friday to all the missionaries on our staff. I shared that we were nearing completion on the web sites for each of the missionaries. At this moment, the great news is that we are 99% done. There are a few finishing touches left to do tomorrow and a double check on everything. We'll then move into the process that is GOING LIVE. It will take a few days to accomplish all the necessary steps, but praise the Lord that we are SO close!

Be praying for us this week as the team works hard to make everything happen. Be praying for:

· Nathan Shoultz

· Brandon Collins

· Luke Colburn

· John Yarosh

· Laurie Yarosh

· Wendy Williamson

· Sylvia Eger

· Cathy Krach

· Butch Jarrell

· Amber Boyer

· Elisabeth Daneen

Starting tomorrow we will be putting the finishing touches on the LCM site and all that entails. There's still some money left to be raised toward this project so please continue to pray for the finances and ask God to do a great work.

We’ll keep you informed on when we go live.

John Armstrong
Word of Life Local Church Ministries
The Leader in Principle-Based Youth Ministry

Quick Update as Progress is Made

This is from an email that John Armstrong sent out this evening:

I mentioned to you on Friday, we had started created web sites for each [Area Missionary]. The great news is that we are 99% done. A few finishing touches tomorrow with a double check left to do. So praise the Lord, each [Area Missionary] will have a site and it will be ready when we go live.

Be praying for us this week as the team works hard to make everything happen. Be praying for:

· Nathan Shoultz

· Brandon Collins

· Luke Colburn

· John Yarosh

· Laurie Yarosh

· Wendy Williamson

· Sylvia Eger

· Cathy Krach

· Butch Jarrell

· Amber Boyer

· Elisabeth Daneen

Starting tomorrow we will be putting the finishing touches on the LCM site and all that entails. Let’s also continue to pray for the finances asking God to do a great work there also.

We’ll keep you informed on when we go live.

60 websites and counting

WOW, you haven't heard from us in a while! but that's because we've been feverishly building websites! we didn't even notice when our webcam went down a few days ago. Oh well, no time for fun right now!! We literally are in the throws of building 60 websites. No that's not an exaggeration. We're building sites for Local Church Ministries, Leadership Development(eTransfer), Teens Involved, Superbowl, Storm, Fascar, Green House Project, Mike Calhoun, Web Store, and one site for each of 51 missionaries!! This does not count the websites we've enlisted other help outside the WAR ROOM to create in our ministry wide switch over to this new system. Some of those sites include some General WOL pages, some general International Ministries pages, Reach Out Sites, Nehemiah Network sites, Gospel Productions Sites, and more and more and more!!!! SO, we apologize for not communicating as often as we would like but we are very excited about the progress we're making. We've even got some volunteers from out of town here this week helping with some of the finer points in programming and database management. We'll keep you posted as we move toward our rollout date now only TWO WEEKS AWAY!

Batman and Superman working together

Remember cross-over shows or issues of comics where super-heroes would work together to stop unusually tough bad-guys? That has been the situation here at Word of Life Headquarters over the last two days. Only, this is bigger and better than anything Batman and Superman ever did.

We have had some guys from WMTek (the company that built our new system and is working with us to get it up an running) in Schroon Lake training us and helping us sort through some of the difficulties we've been running into (and some that might come in the future). It's been a very productive time and very encouraging to see their commitment to our success on this front.

One conversation we've been having is about how to help people learn and use this new (incredibly sweet) system. The answer? Use the system itself! The plan is to use the our CMS to build a "help" site for training, ideas, and software fixes. The site will have videos, articles, and walk-throughs and will allow people using the site to ask questions, share ideas, and recomend upgrades.

Live Web Cam

If you're like the rest of America, you're dying to know what goes on inside the WAR Room. In a word: magic. However, we know that a picture is worth 1,000 words and rather than give you a few pictures a day, we've set up an almost-live web-cam feed straight from the WAR Room. Every 10 seconds the feed is updated with live images that are whisked away to your computer screen.

Check out the latest picture in the sidebar. Click on the link above the picture (or click here) to go to a screen that will automatically refresh every time there is a new image to see. We'll rotate the view every few days to focus on different members of the Word of Life web team.

New Superbowl page looking great!

We're on our third day in the WAR Room and we have three quotes on the board (one for each day). We decided we would share with you the wisdom that drives us. So far, here are the quotes:

Day 1: "Get the facts first, then you can distort them as you please." -Mark Twain
Day 2: "The LD-50 (lethal dose) of caffeine is generally 10 grams. That's about 100 cups of strong coffee in rapid succession. Not to worry. Well, er, most of us." -Anonymous
Day 3: "I've got too much blood in my caffeine system." -Anonymous

In other news, I'm posting the first glimpse of what the new Word of Life Superbowl website will look like. Thanks to the genius of John Yarosh for providing this incredible step up from where we used to be on this front. In fact, I'm providing a before and after picture to underline just how far we've come (click each picture for a larger view):

Web Architecture Reboot

As you can see, the Web Architecture Reboot (WAR) Room is all set and ready to go. Since this will be my first full week in the WAR Room, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of our work-spaces and give you a window into the lives of the Word of Life Web Team:



We'll start with Nathan. He likes a clean desk with a lot of monitor viewing space. The key thing to notice here is the red and gray Stewart's travel mug. While only one is pictured here, he owns no less than 4 (with up to three being in the office at any one time). Caffeine (apparently) plays a major role in giving Nathan the passion necessary to meet the challenges of this immense project.


John Yarosh is next. You'll notice that he uses his desk space to lay out things that he is working on or needs to get done (obviously a visual thinker). Again, notice the two wide-screen monitors in front of him. This allows him to work on layout and look-and-feel without having to switch back and forth between different windows. Also notice the MacBook Pro (you can see the screen peeking out from behin his right shoulder) on his right. We all know that truly creative people use Macs...


We'll finish off with my desk. The key thing to notice is the stand on the left (usually used for holding pages that you need to look at for quick reference) featuring a picture of the Mario Brothers dominating some bad-guys with turnips just like they used to do in Mario Bros. 2 (the picture is titled "Turnip Death"). This serves as my inspiration on most days.

On a slightly more serious note, we officially have our new system in the building! It didn't come with a cool box or a flashy intro movie (I guess that's the price you pay when something is custom built for you) but it was definitely a big step. Right now we're working to get the system up and running on our servers so we can kick it into high gear and start cranking out websites. They won't be viewable by the public until our "go live" date of August 1st, but hopefully, we'll have everything built and ready to go beforehand. Then we'll move everything "online" (so to speak) once everything is working on our own servers.

Keep checking back here (or subscribe in an RSS reader or by email) to keep up with what's happening with the Web Project.

Changeover Day

Today is the day that happens every year where all of our 08-09 specific products get set aside and all the 09-10 products get put on the shelf. We've got a great bunch of guys working to make it all happen. We've got Dave, Brett, Matt, and Megan down in the shipping room doing all the physical stuff.


We've got Butch, Melissa, Megan, and Ellora changing over information in our online webstore.



Nobody knows what this guy is doing.


And I'm just following people around with a camera!

Actually, we're all working hard to make it all possible and provide the world with the best youth and children's curriculum out there. We'll let you know when the site is all back up and running and you can order the new products. For now, check out these new products.

D-Day - August 1st

In the last couple of days, we have begun assembling a WAR room. You know how political campaigns, news agencies and the like always create a room which is the central hub for the operation? We're doing the same. We've moved some of our most talented people all in one room together for the next 6 weeks. August 1st is our DEADLINE. On that day, we intend to have all LCM missionaries up and online with a brand new website. IN addition, we hope to also have a brand new overall site for Local Church Ministries. The software is almost completely developed and bug tested.... now it's go time! We'll keep you updated.

If you want to help, here's what you can do... Find your nearest area missionary and ask them, "Have you uploaded all your content for the web guys to create your site?" If they say no, you have my full permission to beat on them and then demand that they go upload their stuff :)

Serious Headway

We've been making some serious headway on the new website. Not a lot to post lately because there has been A LOT of coding, nitty gritty, stuff. But, it's all necessary! You can't get a Firebird with out the nuts and bolts! (Actually, come to think of it, you can't really get a Firebird any more at all!... that's another story). SO, here's some things I can share...

1. We are going to have a platform that is STRONGLY built in a module/gadget/widget friendly way. We are pumped about the myriad of mini-apps we will be able to offer on our site. From ways to quickly find what you want, give you top stories and articles, feature model youth groups, give you the day's quiet time passage and MUCH more!

2. We are very near completeion on podcasting, blogging, video gallery, and file share. All of these pieces are going to enable us to communicate, share, collaborate, network and generally be much more effective and efficient in our ministry to youth and their leaders. These tools will also offer leaders the ability to increase their ministry potential as well.

3. Our new webstore has been going through some beta testing and is really looking great. It is going to be a huge blessing at the end of the summer when people start ordering all their yearly materials.

Within a short amount of time, we hope to begin posting even more screen shots. We plan to take this whole thing live by this coming fall. We look forward to continued ministry together!

Register Your Club Online

Each year in the summer and fall, literally thousands of ministries across the country will go through the process of registering their Early Learner, Olympian, or Student Ministry for the coming school year. It's not a difficult process and it's certainly worth it, but would it not be easier to skip all the paper? Shouldn't we be able to use our credit cards right online and take care of everything instantly? As a former youth pastor myself, I can relate with these kind of thoughts. Well, hold on tight, because things are about to get really cool!

Following are some screen shots of our brand new ONLINE registration system for your ministries. That's right, no more forms, no more checks, no more stamps, and no more trips to the post office! (Unless you just want to. We know there are those of you out there who just LOVE to write checks!) We want to make it as streamlined as possible for you to do the necessary administrative stuff without a major hiccup. Check out these screen shots and try not to kiss your computer screen :) [Click the Pics for a Bigger View] Feel Free to COMMENT below any blog entry.

Curriculum Management

One of the extremely useful features of our new Local Church Ministries website will be our ability to allow registered ministry members to download their curriculum. No longer will you have to remember where that little cd went, or have a breakdown when someone scratches that cd, or spend hours running off lessons in the copy room. Now you'll be able to view and download it all right online. What's more, the site will know who you are and what ministries you are registered for and will automatically grant you access to those files upon your login.

When we went into this project, this was kind of the limit of our scope. We thought the benefits to just this portion of curriculum download were a huge step forward. However, our web development company took us a whole step further! They suggested that we could give users the possibility to log back in after teaching a lesson and leave comments for others to use as they prepared the same lesson. They suggested we could allow users to rate the lessons, upload media content they had used in their presentations, and generally create an entire community of helpful networking around the lessons. We were BLOWN away! This is EXACTLY what we need!

I'm excited to share some of the screenshots and progress from this very project. Check it out!

What a couple of weeks!

Wow, these past couple of weeks have really flown by. One of the biggest accomplishments is that we are on the very edge of going live with our brand new store where customers can purchase all sorts of Word of Life curriculum, clothing, and ministry resources. Many people have put a lot of hours into this project over the past few days and we are VERY excited to see it come to completion. We'll be sure to announce it here the moment it is live. One of the greatest things is that this is only the first step! In the coming months, we will open up a whole new dimension to our store as we make it possible for supporters to support missionaries and projects around the world online.

Check out this latest screen shot of the web store.

Finishing up the Store!

This past weekend we worked long hours (past midnight every night) on the technical aspects of the new web store. We (John Armstrong and Nathan Shoultz) spent the weekend in the home of a volunteer, getting the new web store and our current sales and inventory systems to talk to each other. The volunteer is a very technologically gifted man who oversees all of the database administrators for one of the largest credit card / banks in the USA. We were able to put into place tools that will:

• Automatically bring orders from the web store into our systems at HQ’s
• Automatically send all the UPS & FedEx tracking information for those orders back to the web store after they are shipped so customers can track right from the web store
• Automatically update inventory between our HQ’s systems and the web store
• Refining on the look and feel and figuring out how to make adjustments on how it looks

We were also able to start working on the methodology needed to allow leaders of our club churches to have access to club only related products in the web store and tie all that into the new web site management tools we are working on. There is more work needed to complete this, but we have a tentative plan on where we want to go and what we think is needed to get there.

Missionaries

Last week our missionaries from across the country were gathered together in either the Northern Summit or the Southern Summit. At these staff summits, we presented our vision and some of the screen shots from the brand new website we're developing. Our missionaries were encouraged and energized as they began to see some of the potential for what they will be able to do with their own new websites. Posting articles, sharing articles, posting media, offering resources, online event registration and online giving will all be incorporated in the new websites. Check out some of these screen shots from a sample site we created.

So You Want Online Curriculum?

One of the things many people have been asking us for in the last few years has been a way to download their curriculum. Let's face it, who doesn't want that? I've been a youth pastor. I know what it's like to hit Wednesday night, scarf down dinner, head to the church, make it 3 minutes early, open my bible and find.... nothing! Where did that lesson go? I was sure I folded it up and put in here right after I wiped off the coffee and toast crumbs this morning! Don't leave me hanging here. I know there's more of you out there!

Seriously, that's only one of the many great reasons we want to do online downloads of our bible studies. We spent the better part of yesterday afternoon in a conference call with one of our developers utterly amazed at his presentation of what will be possible in a few short months! He showed us how each missionary, church, ministry staff, and volunteer leader will be able to login and download his lessons. But it doesn't stop there! He told us how a person will be able to log back in after he taught the lesson, rate it with a 5 star system, leave comments for others to see, upload resources like videos, illustrations, dramas, etc that he used (so others who taught the lesson later could use it) and more! I am PUMPED about this piece of our new website. Please be praying for our team as we forge ahead with this endeavor. Praise the Lord for these opportunities.

Web Store Under Way

One of the major areas of improvement we hope to make in our online presence is in our online store. If you used the old store, you know that it got the job done, but was a pretty difficult beast to navigate! We hope to make the new store slick, easy and incredibly adept at getting you what you want FAST. We've put hours into planning and implementing this whole thing. Here's a list of a few things the store will include:

• a sharp visual interface that is connected with our future overall look and feel for Word of Life
• a powerful reductive navigation feature that allows you to get exactly what you want FAST
• a well thought out and appealing layout of the products
• a quick and easy way to checkout
• and much more!

If you'd like to see a quick snapshot of what this site will look like, check this out...