Amidst the frenzy and hype there are real reasons why the Church should give thought to how the internet can help to improve communication, administration and evangelism. The internet is already being used daily by millions of people in the UK to communicate, find information, and to share ideas. E-mail (electronic mail) allows easy, near-instant communication between individuals and groups of people, while the World Wide Web offers Christians the opportunity to literally broadcast our faith to millions of connected users.

This year has seen an explosion in the number of churches which are establishing an internet presence, and its not just the 'novelty factor' which is attracting them onto the information superhighway. Many churches have already been using e-mail (electronic mail) for several years to provide a quick way of communicating with one or many people at very low cost. Other congregations use the world wide web (www) to distribute their resources to christians around the world, and some are also starting to distribute their sermon tapes and transcripts through their web sites. It may surprise you that that e-mail is becoming a popular, and reliable, way of getting in touch with missionaries situated in the remotest of locations!

ChurchUK can register a domain name (something like "yourchurch.org.uk") and then set up email and web hosting using that address, but visit the ChurchUK web site and you will find many more useful tools and resources which you can use free of charge. Take, for example, the Christian Directory - a categorised directory of 1000 Christian resources on the WWW. There is also an events diary which you can search by date or region and a Jobs Database with dozens of Jobs being advertised by Churches and mission agencies.

Anyone can add information to the Jobs, Events or Classifieds databases just by visiting www.ChurchUK.net although additions are always verified for authenticity before the information becomes public.

If you would like to find out more about how ChurchUK can help your Church or organisation please contact Gareth Mulholland on (0161) 434 7358, visit the web site at www.ChurchUK.net, or email Gareth@ChurchUK.net.