Web Conferencing

Written by Staff

Time is the major currency of our day. It is often impossible to get strategic planners, ministry teams, or volunteers all in the same room at the same time. Teleconferencing has had some success and is still a great option for churches to link groups of people together at the same time, but now there is an even better solution. Web conferencing puts people in a virtual room together to help accomplish tasks and set priorities in a way that wasn't possible before now.

Web conferencing has been used in businesses for several years, and was attempted by several ministries without great fanfare. Now the solution has come of age and is ready to be employed by churches to enable information dissemination to help with delegation, strategic planning, and consensus building. The power of web conferencing is found in the ease of use with today's tools. Earlier versions forced users to apply plug-ins or actually load software for a successful interaction. Web browsers now have the ability to deliver information in more multimedia formats without plug-ins.

LifeWay has licensed Macromedia Breeze Meeting to deliver webcasts and enable web conferencing. "Using this tool we have been able to provide training to myBibleStudy.com users right at their desktops," said Julie Langmade, marketing manager for myBibleStudy.com. "Churches could achieve a unique level of connection to their leadership teams using web conferencing technology."

How It Works
Web conferencing uses an internet address to host a virtual meeting room with a host and participants. The information that is shared in the virtual meeting room can be uploaded to the server that hosts the service, or it can be shared directly from the presenter's desktop. LifeWay's licensing allows for 20 connections in a single virtual meeting room. Each person connecting to the virtual room logs into the room; then they all see the same presentation at the same time. The participants are able to view a list of attendees and also are able to have discussions with each participant individually or chat to the entire group at once.

Audio can be added to the virtual room in two different formats. The most popular method at this time is adding a teleconference line that allows all participants in the virtual room to call the same number and join in a conference call. This provides the most flexibility and interaction because participants are able to talk with each other.

Due to bandwidth improvements, voice over internet protocol (VOIP) is another method quickly gaining momentum. This allows the presenter to speak to all of the participants via the Internet. All interaction from the participants is done in the chat window — a solution that is slightly slowerm but one that costs less to accomplish. In the very near future VOIP will be the norm for web conferencing.

Communicating and connecting is vital in the church today. This step in technology will go a long way toward helping churches and ministries develop another level of connectedness to their staff, key leaders, volunteers, and members.

If you are interested in learning more about using web conferencing with your church or ministry, please contact Learning at LifeWay.com to receive additional information.

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