Asbury United Methodist Church

Aimee McCullough

Asbury United Methodist Church (“Asbury UMC”) is a church rich with history, located in the heart of York, Pennsylvania. There are approximately 10 regular staff members and ministries for babies, college students, seniors and everyone in between.

ChurchKatalyst customization has been a good fit for Asbury UMC. While they did have a web presence in the past, “…it was a static picture book. Today, it’s a changing newspaper” says Aimee McCullough, the church’s Business Administrator. The new website has made a positive impact on both the staff and church life, in general.

Asbury UMC now has an outreach tool that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Before ChurchKatalyst, the hours were limited to that which the staff could maintain on their own. Some of the most popular pages viewed include the worship schedule, interesting facts about the church and a map with directions. They now know that they are reaching the surrounding community in a way they hadn’t in the past. ChurchKatalyst provides them with a simple way to check on what is most popular with the readers. Asbury UMC can then tailor the pages as those needs then reflect.

Here’s another bonus. Ministry leaders are updating their own pages. It’s real-time and definitely current. This lessens delays in having the correct information up right away, and it ensures that the readers have the most current information available. If you are the men’s ministry leader, for example, you could update it to reflect your next gathering. Think of the time saved in having to telephone each of those men individually. And if periodic attendees, vacationers or those serving on a given Sunday might have missed the information in the bulletin, they would have the current information on the website.

Another area that Asbury UMC has seen ChurchKatalyst as a great benefit is in creating a staff directory. The basic directory contains pictures and short descriptions of each of the staff members. But it also includes a way to contact each member directly by either phone or email. Now the staff members can receive those direct emails without their actual email address being posted. That helps reduce spam mail and still allows the more direct connections with the church members. In the days before ChurchKatalyst this wasn’t happening.

In the future, Asbury UMC is looking to enhance their website even more by offering members additional ways to use the website. They plan to do more email “blasts” to the congregation with special announcements or messages from the pastor. They are also beginning to take prayer requests and other information that their members would find valuable.

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