Below is a report on this website requested by Church members without access to the Internet, this has been published in our monthly magazine called FOCUS, this is included here for your information and perusal, naturally any feedback via
e-mail is appreciated.
In early 1998, it was proposed that EMC should seek to use all means of communication with the present membership and at the same time offer a welcome to all via the Internet. Over the next few issues of these notes, we will bring you details of how the EMC web site is going, this is important for those without Internet access, as you should be aware of it's purpose. However, perhaps we need
to look again at the aims we envisaged at that time.
The purpose of starting a web page for EMC may be summarised as follows:-
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To ensure that a wider sector of the population is invited into our fellowship, both in a spiritual context and in a leisure activities sense, naturally with a view to enhancing the first via the second medium.
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To make a welcome for visitor, especially from other countries who may choose EMC as their place of worship whilst in the London zone.
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As all the schools are promised a link to the Internet, then our young people will expect EMC to be there with our web pages, even with a special slot for various age groups.
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To ensure a wider presentation of the material published in Focus and other Christian literature.
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To promote the fellowship in the wider range of activities available at EMC
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To offer a monthly message/s from our leadership team.
To find
out the number of visitors (since 1998) to this site look at the counter on the
Home page.
Taking the first point, whilst we have not seen a great influx of visitors via the web, (but we have had some especially for the Cafe Style Worship) it is interesting to note that on average every day we have many visitors to the site. These visitors to the site come from a wide range of countries.
Whilst we do not expect many of these to arrive at EMC, there is a vast amount of
information available to spread the message that Jesus is Lord.
For example the
Prayer Needs written each quarter by
Malcolm Boyd, and the
monthly messages from the Leadership team, printed in Focus but having a much wider circulation, etc.
The second aim, to make a
welcome for visitor, especially from other countries who may choose EMC as their place of worship whilst in the London zone.
There is a specific
visitors page, with a picture of the Church, this states
"May we welcome you to Epsom Methodist Church, referred to as EMC, in case you do not know the Church is located in the Centre of Epsom, about 300
metres from the Railway station".
We can be found in Ashley Road, see
map, the map shows a street location of EMC with parking details; it is worth noting if you have speakers coming to any meeting to mention this. The Worship, Leadership etc. can be found from the main menu.
We have a current membership of about 450 with another 450 in youth organisations, we rank in the top six for the
largest Methodist Church in the UK, but we can always find room and a welcome for visitors.
To meet people the 10.30 service is followed by coffee and this give a good opportunity to meet, mix and chat."
As we stated above, only a few have come to EMC worship via the Internet, but the welcome is there, so please advertise to all your friends about this method of welcome.
As all the schools are promised a link to the
Internet, then our young people will expect EMC to be there with our web pages, even with a special slot for various age groups. This was and still remains our third aim on introducing the EMC website, there is a whole section devoted and called
All Age Youth covering Junior Church, Guides, Scouts, Holiday Bible Club
renamed SWAP, the Computer Club (they have their own website), PAG, BITE, the Very Young (Nursery, etc.) and Youngsters.
There are group photos of members,
quizzes etc. covering a wide age spectrum. If you come into contact as a parent, teacher, class leader, grandparent etc then please make sure the youth of our Church are not only aware but have your full support.
Another of our website aims was: -To ensure a wider
presentation of the material published in Focus Magazine ( the EMC monthly
publication) and other Christian literature. The grand efforts of the Focus team
are further transmitted via the website, this means that folk who have moved
away from EMC, USA, Moscow and Saudi Arabia spring to mind these folk are able
to keep in contact with EMC. The Christian Book Shop has a page.
Also various reports such as
Send a Cow has generated response from as far away as New Zealand seeking advice, that they wish to send cows to East Timor rather than Uganda. We were able to direct them to the correct website, as our cow expertise is rather limited!
The final aims are all covered within the
pages of the EMC site
To promote the fellowship in the wider range of activities available at EMC
To offer a monthly message/s from our leadership team.
A feedback service via e-mail, to a range of specialists, via the web master
Of course, the accuracy of the information on our site is dependent on ensuring that any changes are relayed to the webmaster. Our policy is not to publish any
telephone numbers apart from the Church Office and e-mails go via the web master, who redirects them to a limited number of members. Hence, on the monthly message and the leadership pages there is opportunity to send a message direct to the pastoral team via this alias process.
All the activities have some information as to their functions and times, but we do not give a programme for those that make such arrangements. However, reports are
published if printed in the Focus Magazine, sometimes supported by photographs if available, for example the
Cricket Team.
From time to time we get various requests for help because of the details published or indeed we are in Epsom, these are always responded to the best of our ability or passed onwards to a more authoritative source.
Cliff Douthwaite your webmaster
