Building a Web Page for Your Youth Ministry

www.buildaWebpage.com

Highlights

Why create a Web page?
What should I put on the Web page?
Ok, I want to develop a page, but how do I start?
HTML Basics
How do I get my page onto the World Wide Web?

Everywhere you turn lately, there's www.this.com or www.that.com.

If you've been paying the slightest attention to advertising, you've probably noticed that most products, services, companies and organizations list a Web page address.

The Internet has rapidly become a major communication force in the world today. Not only does it easily provide the information, it allows for an exchange of communication. Organizations gather information through online surveys or registration forms, and many individuals and groups converse more by e-mail than on the phone, and certainly more than through the U.S. Postal Service.

Young people are among the most computer and Internet savvy. They're Internet explorers―browsing their favorite music group's Web page or chatting with friends from around the world. They want to keep up-to-date on their interests and they know where to go to find the information they need.

But, hey, what about information regarding your congregation's youth ministry? Consider the possibility that someone might seek or stumble across your youth ministries Website.

Why create a Web page?
The answer depends on your purpose. Most likely, you want to involve young people in youth ministries. You'll be piquing their curiosity by using one of their primary information sources―the Internet! In an otherwise hectic life of school, work and friends, they might just type www.myyouthgroup.com to see what's going on.

Once they're on the page, however, you want to keep their attention with an interesting and informative page. Remember, they've probably surfed the ‘net and seen what the web has to offer―from funky interactive pages to plain text on a white screen.

What should I put on the Web page?
This will vary from page-to-page, but here are some ideas:

A mission statement of sorts. What is your youth ministry about? What do you hope to achieve through meetings and activities? If a young person has not been involved before, what can he or she expect?
Contact information, such as address, phone number, email. Give enough information so youth can easily reach someone, get questions answered and get involved.
Information on upcoming events and activities. They'll be more inclined to get involved if they have a clear idea of what activities are ahead.
Graphics. A Web page without any pictures can be dull. Get your hands on a scanner and scan pictures taken at past youth activities. You may be able to use one at a library or a school computer lab if you don't have one at home or church. Or, search for animated GIFs or clip art on the Web. A GIF is a picture file format; an animated GIF is exactly what the name implies. Animated GIFs are eye-catching and interesting to look at, but don't overuse them. They can make the page slow to load in someone's Web browser depending on the speed of their connection.
An interactive section. Create a blog, chat room, or discussion board for young people. You'd be surprised how many free services on the Internet allow you to utilize chat rooms or Web boards on your Web page. Be sure to control access to these sites, manage them, and monitor them to ensure the privacy and safety of youth as well as deal with inappropriate content (e.g., racist or sexist comments, sexually suggestive content, etc.). Where do you find them? Usually by running across them on other peoples' pages. Some sites to check out are:
- www.bravenet.com (guestbooks, Web forums, hit counters, greeting cards, search engines, e-mail forms)
- www.parachat.com (chat rooms)
- guestworld.tripod.com/ (guestbooks)
- www.delphi.com (Web forum)
- www.thefreesite.com (free services, clip art, and just about anything you could think of)
Resources for youth. Provide links to youth-specific Web sites, a youth ministry newsletter, help lines for youth with specific concerns or problems, ELCA Youth Ministries and Gathering resources, or devotions written especially for them.

Ok, I want to develop a page, but how do I start?
Approaching the vast Internet to create your own little port can be a daunting task, especially if you're not computer savvy in the first place. But it can be done. Your own computer comfort zone may determine the path you choose in developing your Web page. Choose which of the following profiles best fits you, and work from there:

How do I turn the computer on?

Your road is the rockiest. You reluctantly agree that the youth ministries should have a Web page, but don't know where to begin. Seek help. There may be people in your congregation who enjoy working with Web pages and who would gladly contribute their knowledge and experience.

Ask among your youth population. Some young people even have their own home pages. If you ask them to develop one for youth ministries, you'll be honoring their talent and learning from them.

If those options aren't open to you, consider hiring a high school or college student who is studying computers. They often have fresh, creative ideas, and would appreciate the opportunity to gain experience for their careers.

I'm comfortable with computers, but isn't developing a Web page too complicated for my basic skills?

Absolutely not. There are many resources that will make the process easier. You don't have to be a computer science expert to develop a good Web page.

All you need is an HTML editor and you can get started. HTML editors are software programs that interpret what you want to have on the page and translate it into the HTML code that the Internet browsers read.

Working on your web page becomes as easy as working on a word processing document. You can easily insert hyperlinks, pictures, sounds, background images, etc.

A lot of editors even provide clip art and background patterns that you can use in the document. And, to make the process as painless as possible for you, most offer built-in wizards, which take you step-by-step through the procedure to create a basic Web page.

Some current popular HTML editors are:

Adobe Page Mill

Claris Home Page

Hot Dog Professional

HoTMetal PRO

Microsoft Front Page

Microsoft Word

Netscape Navigator Gold 3.0 (a web browser combined with an editor)

Visit your local computer store to see what's available. Read the boxes and ask for advice from the store clerks. Choose the software that you think you'll be able to work with most comfortably. The rest is simple―install your software and start exploring the wonderful world of Web page development.

I love working with my computer and I'm up for a challenge!

You're a computer geek at heart aren't you? You've probably been thinking for a long time, "Our youth ministries could really use a Web page." Here's your chance to create it from scratch.

Since you're comfortable with computers, you might enjoy writing the actual HTML code for your Web page. It's not as difficult as it looks, and seeing the results of your coding makes the whole experience worthwhile. You'll also save money by not having to buy an HTML editor.

The HTML code can be typed in a simple word processing program, such as Notepad in the Accessories of Windows 95. When you're ready to save, select "All Files" as your file type and simply add the .html extension to the name of your file. Then open the file in your Web browser to see your work in Web page format―you don't even need to be logged on to your Internet account.

HTML basics
Need a look at what HTML is all about before you begin? Here are some basics:

HTML uses what we call tags to hide the code in the actual web document. HTML tags consist of the greater than arrows on your keyboard. Everything typed between these tags is recognized as code and not printed out on the actual web page.
Each new HTML document must begin with:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Type in the Title of your Web Page Here</TITLE></HEAD>

The / is added to the second TITLE and HEAD tags in order to "close" those tags, meaning that that particular command is complete. The HTML tag is not closed until the very end of the document. The title is displayed at the top of the web browser when someone visits your web page.

Next, you must begin the BODY. The code may look something like:
<BODY bgcolor="#9370DB" text="#FFFFFF" link= "#00FF00" vlink="#f87917">

BODY lets the browser know that this is the body of your document. And those strange letter and number combinations? They are hexadecimal color codes that the browser recognizes. You can find them on the Internet by looking up HTML color codes or any variation of that as well as in HTML books. The background color of your web page is specified by the "bgcolor=". Likewise, the color of your text is decided by the "text=". "Link=" defines the color of your hyperlinks and "vlink=" defines the color of the links that have already been visited by the person viewing your page.

If you want to tile an image as your background instead of just specifying a background color, replace bgcolor= with background="filename.jpg" or "filename.gif" where the file name is the name of the image you wish to use. If the image is in the same directory as your file, that's all you need specify. If it's in a different directory, make sure you include the path to the picture.
If you wish to format your text as you would in a word processor, making it bold, italics or underlined, use , , and or respectively. The text you would like formatted is placed between the opening and closing tags. To make something both bold and italic, just use both sets of tags. For example, This is bold and italicized The tag that is initially closer to the text is generally closed first.
If you wish to separate different topics on one page, you may utilize a horizontal rule by typing <HR>. To specify the size in pixels simply add a size= within the tag as so <HR size=10>
To move to another line insert a
To move to another paragraph insert a
To insert a picture, type <img src="mypicture.jpg">
To insert a hyperlink, you need to add an "anchor." The anchor tells the browser that when a person clicks on a particular phrase or a particular image, it should take them to the web page specified. The code for an anchor looks like this:

<a href="http://www.elca.org/dcm/youth">ELCA Youth Ministries Page</a>

ELCA Youth Ministries Page would then appear as a clickable hyperlink like so:

ELCA Youth Ministries Page

To use a picture to link to another site is just as easy:

<a href="http://www.elca.org/dcm/youth"><img src="elcapic.jpg"></a>

The picture would then link to the page like so:

It is important to always close the anchor tag. If you do not, all of the text that follows will also appear as a clickable link.

If you want an unordered, bulleted list, the code would look like:

<ul>
<li>this is item one
<li>this is item two
<li>this is item three
</ul>

On the web page, the data list would appear as:

this is item one

this is item two

this is item three

The <ul> tag indicates that the data to follow should be in bulleted form. The <li> tag specifies line items.

If you want an ordered list, the code would look like:

<ol>
<li>this is item one
<li>this is item two
<li>this is item three
</ol>

On the web page the list would appear as:

this is item one

this is item two

this is item three

The <ol> tag specifies an ordered list. Once again, the <li> tag specifies line items. To define what type of ordered list you would like include type=A, a, I, i, or 1 in the ol tag.

A= large letters

a= small letters

I= large Roman numerals

i= small Roman numerals

1= numbers

These are just the basics. If you want to learn more about HTML, get a book, such as HTML for Dummies, to guide you through the process. Learn even more by exploring the Internet for HTML help pages.

Another trick is to look at other peoples' code. If you're looking at a Web page and wondering "How did they do that," your answer is only a few clicks away. Choose the VIEW menu of your browser and select Document Source. Another window will open with the source code of that particular page. Looking at Web page source code can be an excellent way to learn.

How do I get my page onto the World Wide Web?

You need a server on which to store your files. The server makes the pages available to the World Wide Web. When people type in your Web page address, they are accessing your files on the server.

What server you use depends on the sources you have available to you. For instance, companies and organizations generally have their own servers. When you type www.elca.org you are accessing the ELCA server. For the average person or group, having your own server isn't practical. The cost would be too great. Servers require special software. And in order for people to be able to access your page at any time, the server must always remain on, no doubt making your electric bill skyrocket.

However, there are many good alternatives. Most big Internet service providers, such as American Online, offer account holders space on their server to store Web pages. All you have to do is upload your files to their server using a simple upload utility and voila―you're on the Web.

Another option is to sign up for a free homepage account. In exchange for advertising their company on your homepage, they give you space on their server. Though they impose a space limit, they still provide you with more than enough room to put together a well done page. And, if you think you need more space, you can pay a small monthly payment to increase your limit. Two popular homepage hosts are Geocities (www.geocities.com) and Tripod (www.tripod.com)

Happy Web page developing!

Hopefully this Help Sheet has convinced you, and helped you, to launch your youth ministries onto the information super highway. The Internet is truly the next frontier, not only for companies, but for youth ministries as well. With so many young people surfing the Web daily, shouldn't youth ministries make its Web presence known? Absolutely!

Contributed by Kathy Becknek.

Index of current ELCA Youth Ministries Help Sheet topics.

Permission to reproduce for local use. Copyright � 1998 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Youth Ministries/Gathering, Division for Congregational Ministries. 1-800-638-3522, ext. 2447.