July 01, 2022
Closed for Independence Day 2022
We'll be closed on Monday, July 4, in honor of Independence Day.
March 22, 2022
Easter is Around the Corner, So Get Your Church Ready
It's already such a busy time, but don't forget that Easter is a few weeks away. That means getting ready for visitors, and we've got you covered with our list of 9 Things for Your Church to Check Before Easter. Tune up your online presence, learn how to better follow-up with visitors, and plan your communication for special and online services.
Head over to the post here: 9 Things for Your Church to Check Before Easter
March 17, 2022
Celebrating a Decade in Business
They say time flies when you’re having fun! Well, it’s unbelievable how fast these first 10 years in business flew by. So much happened over a decade, yet in many ways it feels like we’re just beginning. Maybe it’s because during these first 10 years we have learned even more about what churches and ministries need, growing our skills to provide the latest church management tools to help you thrive.
As we were finishing our time in the international mission field in 2011, we had no idea that it would give us a great foundation for serving churches today. Mark’s bivocational programming work and Alisha’s mission work building websites for churches and ministries gave us insight to helping churches communicate better. Our initial focus was on websites but quickly included an increased focus on communication and church management software (ChMS), the 14 tools your church can use today.
While you may have known we serve over 400 churches and ministries across the US and over 17 additional countries, during this decade we’ve been able to help spread the gospel with over 5 million streams of sermons, over 215,000 group texts sent, and email newsletter deliveries are approaching 1 million.
We reached this milestone thanks to many who’ve worked alongside us. And with what we’ve learned with your input, we are more excited about the coming weeks, months, years—and next decade! The 3+ Roll Out continues at this exciting time in our history, seeing a dream fulfilled and providing the vision for our next 10 years in business.
Thank you for being part of our celebration!
February 08, 2022
Get Ready for VBS or Bible Camp Now
It's gonna be a busy year, so get started now planning your Vacation Bible School (VBS), Bible Camp, or other summer children's events. We have some great ideas and tools that can make your work a breeze, from event registration to child check-in. Get all the details at our post, "VBS: Plan, Communicate, Promote and Organize with Our Software".
February 03, 2022
3+ Update: Quick-Change Controls
The 3+ Website Builder work continues, and the second beta release happens this month. Today we wanted to update you on Quick-Change Controls in 3+, bringing the controls as close to the on-page elements as possible. This means while building your webpage, you edit in a popup so there are less menus to click on and less steps to make the changes you want. It's a great improvement over both 2.0 and 3.0, helping you build your site even faster.
Want to see how this works? Watch our short video example using sections with buttons. Mark explains your ability to delete/add buttons, change button text, select icons (including position or not having one at all), button style, and links. You'll find that expandable lists, staff, and other sections will have popups for editing.
January 05, 2022
Introducing the All-New Sermon Podcast Media Player
We’re starting the new year by revealing our all-new sermon podcast media player! Over a year in the making, this is built from the ground up using a new engine, with the future in mind.
We now offer very fast load speeds with a player that’s responsive. Our initial design will soon be joined by additional looks with color controls and other new features to rollout in the coming months. Best of all, this new media player will work on OCS websites on 2.0, 3.0, 3+, and any other website that allows embedding.
The pop up player allows your guest to continue listening to their sermon selection while browsing your site. And check out the video showing the improved search and sort within a speaker or series.
To see this sermon media player in live use on a website check out First Baptist Fair Oaks.
Want to change your current sermon media player now?
- For OCS 2.0 website users: log in to your account and click on Podcasting on the left side for instructions.
- For OCS 3.0 website users: click on Website Builder, and then Podcast Player.
- For other websites using our Podcast Your Sermons product: log in to your PodcastYourSermons.com account and click Media Players.
December 16, 2021
3+ Update: Font (CSS) Live Editing
In our 3+ Website Builder, now in beta testing, you can change your fonts and font sizes for the elements on your page, and watch them change automatically as you choose. To see it in action, watch our latest one minute video about Font (CSS) Live Editing.
So this is our last weekly update on 3+. We’ll be taking our Christmas break starting on Thursday, December 23 at noon, and more 3+ updates from our current beta testing will begin sometime in January 2022!
