In an effort to encourage web excellence among North American Seventh-day Adventist churches, the North American Division Office of Communication, PlusLine, and TAGnet recognize twelve churches annually which have outstanding websites. Each month an evaluation committee reviews sites nominated for consideration based on criteria established, and designates one website as “Outstanding Website of the Month.”

The November 2004 eChurch Award was presented to Pioneer Memorial Church (PMC) in Berrien Springs, Mich. Mario Pietravalle Jr., a member of the evaluation team, shared that in addition to meeting the established criteria he found "42 different ministries listed on the Ministries page, each one going to a page that describes that ministry and how to participate."

The PMC pastoral staff is excited about this honor earned by Janine Lim, webmaster, and her team. "Janine Lim eats, breaths, and sleeps pmchurch.org," remarked Skip MacCarty, a PMC pastor. "She is constantly thinking of new ways to expand and improve the site, to make it more user friendly and user valuable," he added.

"What an honor to receive the NAD eChurch award. Receiving this award shows how God has blessed our team with grace and wisdom to share the gospel and encourage His children through the use of the Web," remarked Lim.

In its beginning, the focus of the website was the church bulletin, posted by Friday, the sermons, and study guides. Lim remembers, "In the fall of 2003, it became apparent that the website had grown exponentially and needed ... to become more user friendly." New members were added to the Web ministry team and a decision was made to convert the website to a new format using Simple Updates (see www.simpleupdates.com).

Now the Web team focuses on the overall site design and maintenance, and training and equipping each interested ministry to maintain their section. Lim remarked, "Truly this couldn't be done without a team effort."

Esther Knott, a PMC pastor, recently expressed, "One of the things I appreciate about Janine is that she listens to the announcements at church, the ministry opportunities, and incorporates them into the website. She takes the initiative. Janine comes up with ways to improve the site. ... Recently, Janine made it possible so people could sign up for small groups online. It has saved us an enormous amount of time and paperwork. Someone from South Korea signed up for a small group. ...We're not there yet, but it is possible in the future. ... It is exciting to think about how God can use technology to connect us around the world."

During the last couple of months, over 600 messages have been sent to the website from non-members in places like Qatar, Arizona, Oregon, California, Canada, South Africa, South Carolina, Oman, Alabama, Zambia, New York, and Texas. These messages contain theological questions, prayer requests, requests for information, comments on sermons seen via 3ABN, SafeTV, or one of the many other ways the sermons are distributed. PMC's online chaplain fields most of the questions.

The mission of the PMC website is to be an avenue through which people can find Jesus, join His body, and participate in the great commission to share Him with others; to help members find a ministry in which to serve; to help visitors and members find and participate in worship activities; and to assist members in finding activities that build community and connect them to their church family.

To learn how to enhance your church website, or to nominate your church for an eChurch award, visit www.plusline.org.

Diane Thurber, Lake Union Herald managing editor with Janine Lim, Pioneer Memorial Church webmaster