Discussion Forums

One key to church health is a sense of community. The key to community is the building of relationships. The key to the building of relationships is sharing information and providing opportunities for connection.

Discussion Forums are a great opportunity for relationships to build by providing a means of dynamic communication. Topics and responses appear in a way that makes reading and responding easy. More comprehensive than chat sessions or email, Discussion Forums can keep a permanent history of conversations among all users. This tool is indispensable for building community.

As part of CCB's complete and integrated application suite, the Discussion Forums application is readily available from anywhere in the world using a simple web browser.

Features

Discussion Boards
Discussion boards are provided for all groups, public or private. Elder Boards, for example, can have a discussion board that only they can see and participate in as a private group.

Administration
Group leaders can decide whether members can start new discussions or just post to ones that have been started by a group leader.

Integration
Discussions also give you a chance to express yourself past just plain text. Use emoticons to help convey tone, create links to other sites, and even bold certain points you wish to emphasize.

Locked Discussions
Group Leaders and Assistants can "Lock" discussions to prevent any more content from being added to a Discussion, but still allowing individuals to view the discussion.

Group Member Discussions
Because Discusssions are a part of Groups, group leaders can decide whether group members can start new discussions or just post to discussions that have been started by the group leader.

Edit Ongoing Discussions
Individual posts to a discussion can be edited to correct mistakes, change the tone or simply eliminate any portion one wished one had not communicated.

Why Are Discussion Forums Important?

One of the important characteristics of the internet and subsequently Discussion Forums is the opportunity to participate in the life of a community. Not limited to time or space, key information of any group of people can be communicated whenever the thought occurs to one of the members of the group. People want to be involved, they want to participate.

Discussion Forums are the perfect vehicle for allowing people to connect with one another. The web is not about pushing information only. It is about interaction.

Who are you?

• IT Director
• Senior Pastor
• Executive Pastor
• Office Administrator
• Small Group Leader
• Assimilation Director
• Children's Director

Uses for Discussion Forums

• Establish forums on any topic to generate feedback on new ideas from your group.
• Limit a discussion to a specified group of users or open participation to your entire church.
• Brainstorm new ministry ideas.
• Encourage member participation with a Community Suggestion Box.
• Establish forums for use by ministry teams and small groups to comment on lessons, events and theological positions.
• Members can contribute at any time of day, from anywhere in the world.
• Maintain a Record of Committee Decisions with a private discussion board available only to members of the committee.
• Post minutes of prior meetings and allow committee members or church members to comment on policies and procedures.