Matthew Brown - Do You Have a Frankensite?

Do You Have a Frankensite?

By Matthew Brown

I'm writing this article now rather than this fall because I want you to read it far away from Halloween, so that you know I am not trying to make more of that day than I ought. However, if you have actually read Frankenstein-or even the Cliff's Notes-you will know what I mean. In that book, a scientist with a grand vision sets out to build a person using spare parts. In the end, he only succeeds in building a monstrosity that never lives up to his vision. So horrible was the outcome, most people know the monster, not by its proper name, but by the name of its maker. You see, "Frankenstein" was the name of the scientist, not the monster.

Frankensite

A Frankensite works in much the same way. A visionary for an organization decides to put together a web site. This hero wants to have the best possible web site, so he determines to use "the best tools out there." He calls a friend that knows computers and gets him to help out with a home page. Once the home page is in place, the hero signs the organization up with various web sites that can provide the different tools they need. He adds one site for their online calendars, another site for blogs and a third site-maybe MySpace or Facebook-to show people who they are. Then he uploads a few videos to YouTube or GodTube, links to them, and off they go.

The Upside and the Downsides

The upside is that with only a little research and effort, our hero has cobbled together a virtual web place that is "linked in" with the best of the best. The downside is that now he has created a Frankensite. This new web place thing is like a web site-sort of-but it looks like three, or four or more. There is no consistent design to help people understand the organization. The visitor to the Frankensite is forced to navigate back and forth through a real web of different sites and experiences in an effort to figure out who they're dealing with and what the organization believes-and that is only the beginning!

In reality, our poor hero has little to no control over what a visitor to the Frankensite might see. In some cases, the visitor might end up looking at content from the church down the road-a minor confusion you might expect when using GodTube. Of more concern is the fact that secular sites like YouTube, Facebook and others have no drive at all to keep the focus on Jesus. Your Frankensite might have your content neatly posted right next to the latest Brittney Spears videos or next to an unapproved advertisement for questionable medical supplements. It sounds humorous, but it is true-and the list goes on and on.

Another downside to the Frankensite is that there are the additional logins and hassles. With each new site our hero links to, there is a new password and a new way of doing things, creating more to remember, more to track and more to pass on to whoever takes up this task at a later date. After all, our hero has a ministry to run, right? He can't be expected to minister and to be the "web guy" too, right?

Another issue is that our Frankensite hero was hoping to save money. Rather than making the investment in a true Ministry-Hosting Provider like CorData, he believed he could save money by spending $4.95/month here, $25/month there and so on. Who knows? Maybe one or two of those sites were "free" in terms of money, but think of all the time and energy wasted and the lack of excellence our hero sacrificed to save what turned out to be only a few dollars per month. In the end, was the Frankensite really worth it?

CorData Ministry Services is a service line of CorData that exists to further the kingdom of heaven by providing excellent hosting for your ministry-and it goes WAY BEYOND simple web hosting. Please call us, and we'll be glad to show you what we mean!

Matthew Brown, his wife and their four children attend Liberty Church in Marietta, Georgia. Matthew wants to encourage you to slow down, make friends and live the life Christ has planned for you.