Small Church + Web Site = Ministry
By John D. Trombley

As webmaster for my church there are always those times when I open up my browser, go to the page and ask myself: “Am I the only person who actually looks at this? Did I just spend hours of work on a shiny nothing?”

Then, about a year and a half ago, my pastor told me that the new family that had been attending for about the last month wasn’t invited by someone at the church–they found us on the web. My questions were answered; the web page was more than a nothing.

Yet what came next I don’t think anyone expected.

Several months later a lady moving to southwestern Ohio from the American southwest was searching for a new home church and found us online. During this time her son was incarcerated. We had begun posting our Sunday sermons online in the form of MP3s. One Sunday a few months back we posted the sermon “Forty days” about going through trials and that trials always have an end. His girlfriend held the phone up to the computer and allowed him to listen to the sermon. He is now out of prison, changing his life, and because he listens to our sermons weekly, he felt it proper to support the church in his giving.

As one would expect, we get many visitors here from Ohio, the United States, and India. Yes, India. An elder in our church, Bro. AI Friend, has been writing a weekly e-mail devotional and books for the last few years; the devotionals are archived on the site. He has developed a readership locally and in India.

It’s amazing how God could take a small Midwestern church and use it for global impact.

This article “Small Church + Web Site = Ministry” by John D. Trombley is excerpted from ninetyandnine.com, August 2008.