The Christian And Missionary Alliance

World-Wide Web site: http://www.gospelcom.net/cmalliance

Created: November 1997

Usage: About 7,500 pages are viewed each month.

Cost: About $70,000 to create and maintain the site this year. Costs include computer equipment, software, and the salaries of one full-time and one part-time employee.

Highlights: The most popular section of the site is the “daily devotion,” an excerpt from the writings of the late evangelist A. W. Tozer. “If we have a technical glitch and he’s not up there, we hear about it,” says the Rev. Richard W. LaFountain, the group’s Web “pastor.” The Christian and Missionary Alliance also uses its Web site to highlight “unreached people groups,” pockets of people around the world among whom Christianity has not taken hold. For example, one group highlighted is the Gwen tribe of Burkina Faso. Accordingto the site, there are 70,000 members of the tribe, but fewer than 1 per cent of them are Protestants.

Lessons learned: The Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Web site is hosted by Gospel Communications Network, which forbids fund raising by its member sites. Mr. LaFountain says that his group is exploring leaving the network so that it can attempt to raise money from the new audience it is reaching through the Internet.

Future plans: The Christian and Missionary Alliance plans to beef up the daily features that it offers. The hope is that people will return to the site every day to see what is new. Mr. LaFountain says that he would like to highlight a different “unreached people group” each day, as well as have daily news bulletins pertaining to the organization’s mission.