New GBOD Website Makes Accessing Resources Easier
by Steve Horswill-Johnston* and Vance Morton**
A completely redesigned website is now available from the General Board of Discipleship (GBOD). The refreshed gbod.org was designed to provide church leaders with access to GBOD resources, training events, webinars, best practices and networking opportunities more efficiently than ever before. “The goal of our new GBOD.org website is to provide another way to more effectively equip leaders of local churches, districts and annual conferences with the tools and resources they need to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” said the Rev. Dr. Timothy L. Bias, the agency’s General Secretary (chief executive). “This is a resource to offer HOPE to our churches and our communities. This new online face of GBOD is designed so our leaders can more easily find and access resources that will help them lead.”
Take the site’s new Downloads Folder for example. In the past, you might travel through the website and hope you would remember what downloads were available. Or perhaps you’d find something you wanted to print, but didn’t have immediate access to a printer. Now as you go through the website, you'll be able to put resources in the Downloads Folder with just a mouse click. Then, when you are ready to leave, the website will allow you to zip all of those resources with another click and save them to your desktop.
The design team listened to input from all users, both outside and inside the agency, to produce the new platform with its 10,000 pages of content. The new site works equally well from a desktop, tablet or smartphone, with pages resizing to fit each device.
According to research, a vast majority of church leaders that come to the GBOD website each day are looking for worship resources. The GBOD site offers worship leaders and pastors with daily worship resources that are not readily available anywhere else in the denomination, and now, those worship resources are available from the home page or one click away at the most.
From the site’s homepage, leaders looking for worship information can click to find resources for worship planning, music and preaching. With another click, leaders can find resources for ministries dealing with children, youth, young adults, adults, older adults, laity, church leaders, Christian education, covenant discipleship, marriage and family ministries, stewardship, ethnic and language resources, camp and retreat ministries, congregational development and best practices.
Other links from the homepage make resources instantly available from:
The design team listened to input from all users, both outside and inside the agency, to produce the new platform with its 10,000 pages of content. The new site works equally well from a desktop, tablet or smartphone, with pages resizing to fit each device.
According to research, a vast majority of church leaders that come to the GBOD website each day are looking for worship resources. The GBOD site offers worship leaders and pastors with daily worship resources that are not readily available anywhere else in the denomination, and now, those worship resources are available from the home page or one click away at the most.
From the site’s homepage, leaders looking for worship information can click to find resources for worship planning, music and preaching. With another click, leaders can find resources for ministries dealing with children, youth, young adults, adults, older adults, laity, church leaders, Christian education, covenant discipleship, marriage and family ministries, stewardship, ethnic and language resources, camp and retreat ministries, congregational development and best practices.
Other links from the homepage make resources instantly available from:
- New Church Starts – To learn about equipping those who start new churches or who are interested in training to be a church planter
- International ministries – To find information about how GBOD helps United Methodist leaders in Africa, the Philippines, Europe and Russia who are working to expand their publishing capacities in a sustainable way
- Upper Room Ministries – To reach the global ministry that is dedicated to supporting the spiritual formation of Christians everywhere
- Young People's Ministries – To connect young people and those who are in ministry to young people to each other, the church and to God
To view a video about the new website, click on the below
*Steve is the executive directorof Communications & Brand Strategy at GBOD. stevehj@gbod.org
**Vance is the director of Communications & IT for the CTC. vance@ctcumc.org