I’ve been involved with Web development work at my church for several years now. In that capacity, I’ve been confronted with (1) the huge need churches have for Internet development, and (2) the general inability of churches to pay for it. Good Web development is expensive, and churches have much more pressing needs for their discretionary funds.
For about 18 months, I entertained the idea of running a class at my church to train people in Web development skills. I was looking for computer geeks, but not necessarily Web geeks. I wanted people who were quite computer literate, but not in Web development, the area that my church (and I’m sure many others) need most.
I’m happy to announce that everything came into focus last Thursday when I led a class of five students in two hours of instruction on HTTP, Web servers, Web clients, DNS, and URL structure.
We’re meeting once a week, and this Thursday we tackle basic HTML. The week after that will be CSS, and I’ll review our progress at that point to see where we go next. We’ll eventually end up writing PHP. I’m shooting for eight weeks of instruction, provided the students do quite a bit of study outside of class.
There is “tuition” for this course. The students must each complete a Web project for a faith-based ministry within 90 days of the last class. During the class, they’re challenged to find a ministry that needs help, work up a proposal explaining exactly what this ministry needs and how they’re going to accomplish it, then — with help and direction — deliver the completed project.
So, why did we call it “The Joshua Project”? When Moses died, Joshua led the Israelites through the desert to The Promised Land. There’s no image that better illustrates the state of church Web programs than a bunch of people wandering around in the wilderness trying to reach this great benefit that was promised to them.
Joshua pulled it off, and perhaps so will we.
I announced The Joshua Project over two months ago, and I've been awfully quiet about it ever since. Well, I'm proud to announce that Joshua has just released its first Web site. Command Two is a prayer ministry focused on recruiting prayer supporters in community neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. …
The value of passivity: I'm more and more interested in instructional techniques and the psychology of learning these days due to my work on The Joshua Project. Here are some great thoughts on active and passive learning. "Passivity is a missing element in many online courses I take. For years,…
What's the difference between a blog post and an "article" or a "story"? By those terms, I mean content that isn't as ephemeral as posts that hit the site every 15 minutes. Blogs are, by definition, transient — they're time-based, and items get essentially dropped into a stampede that tramples…
the business value of web standards: This is a good article about how to write good, solid HTML, and the author hits on something I discovered as well when re-assessing how to teach HTML for The Joshua Project. "For years, the standards community has been extolling the virtues of keeping visual…
We're deep into HTML and CSS now with The Joshua Project, and I'm determined to teach these guys the right way to do things from the start, which means lots of CSS. I'm not going to let them get into the bad habits of HTML hacks. No FONT tags, no…
Very cool idea. I'm about to help my church set up Movable Type so the pastor can have a "Pastor's Corner" on the web site. And I'm adding Movable Type support to weblog tool to make it even easier on him.
Deane, if there's anything useful on http://HealYourChurchCebsite.com to help you compile courseware, please don't hesitate to contact me.
I'd love to do the same at my church, but need the teacher/student guides.
The internet can be such a useful tool, can't it? I love what you're doing. It not only helps younger people develop a skill, but is also a discipleship outlet that teaches them ministry with their gifts and interests. Great idea! I hope it grows beyond your expectations!
