Comments on: Yo Dawg, McLean Bible Church Busted

By: Yumbi

Yumbi — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:19:44 +0000

I know nothing about this church, but I can assure you the website sucks. It sucks really hard. And the firm that designed it sucks too.

From Site Organic’s FAQ’s page:
Can I add my own logo to a SiteOrganic Express theme?
“This work normally takes only an hour or two of billable design time.”
(from http://www.siteorganic.com/express/faq.asp#q2)

Just to put that in perspective…That adds $150 to the cost of your $500 website just for the logo. And yes Virginia, Site Organic Express is cookie cutter design. (Apparently just like God intended.)

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:58:50 +0000

I’m a little irritated by the fact that this discussion went from a healthy debate over web standards, flash and other technologies having to do with a church website into the inner-church politics that those who never attended MBC and never will won’t understand. Who cares? The discussion was about web.

By: B. Janus

B. Janus — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:29:13 +0000

Dear stillwater,
Have you tried joining a MBC small group? This is where you get loved on by fellow MBC goers. If you get involved in service (volunteering), you also meet a ton of very nice people who will love you for who you are no matter what (Retriever).
MBC is so big and growing for a reason, it is a Godly church. God is there in a big way. Yeah sure, there are lots of yuppies there because it is the ‘cool’ church and they may not be authentic (otter). But at it’s core, it is an authentic church- God is there, God’s word and wisdom are infused in the sermons, the music moves you closer to God, and lives are being changed for the better.
I think that if you feel so strongly about this, you should write to the pastors-I disagree that they won’t have time for you.

By: stillwater

stillwater — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 16:10:53 +0000

Yeah, I have no doubt Mclean B. cares about all kinds of people. It cares about all the people filling up their services.

Listen. I went there and allot of people make great connections and go on those little service trips they have like intencity in_ten_city. Cute isn’t it? I’m still trying to figure out how mtv road rules fits into growing real Christians or makes lasting connections with the people or ministries they are supposedly serving. You see, it just illustrates the prime result of Mclean. On the surface quick in and quick out, let me get on with my life and get to the next transient event. It’s kind of hit and run ministry. Look! Now you see it. Now you don’t! Until the next drive by ministry.

I once heard of those silly animal categorizations that the Shape “ministry” parcels everyone into. I’ll just mention two to make my point. One, you got the otter. Playful, always up for a good time and in fact, that’s basically all he’s up for. If you’re not having one, he’s gone in no time. They don’t say that part of it but it is certainly true and we know for the church that’s all about growing the numbers we don’t want to risk insulting anyone with the pesky little thing called truth. Why would we want to do that. It hurts ratings. Oh, that’s right, this isn’t TV. Or ,at least, not yet. Oh and back to my point. Then there’s the Golden Retriever. Loyal, with you through thick and thin, accepts you for who you are and loves you anyway. Sound like anyone? Maybe like someone mentioned in the Bible? Well the Bible is good to put in your church’s name anyway. Well, I heard of these two also characterized like this. The Otter: A mile wide but only an inch deep. The Golden Retriever: An inch wide but a mile deep. Get it? The otter is all over the place and has acquaintances everywhere but knows nobody really deep. He doesn’t sit still for that. There’s good times to be had. The Golden is there when the good times are and when they aren’t because he truly cares and it takes time to care and it takes the effort to take the time and the caring to take the time to get past the shallow surface impression that comes in the short amount of time it takes to become someone’s acquaintance. The Golden takes a few acquaintances and makes them friends.

Perfect analogy for Mclean. It’s the otter of all churches. If you’re an outgoing gregarious extrovert you’re in man. If you’re not, you better already know someone going in because you’re going to be forgotten about quick. You gotta be fun from the start or you’re just simply nobody. That was my experience and I’ve met allot of others who had similar experiences. I gave it allot of tries over 2 years. How long should it take? I think 2 years is enough to get an idea.

I think Frontline is a great kinda Christian Vegas floor show but after the gig is over everyone hits the road and they go about their real weekday lives until the next drive thru ministry or until it’s time to hit Vegas next week for a Starbucks and an amen with the good and fuzzies all over with some sprinkles on top. Until then don’t intrude on my real life with your baggage man that’s not fun and they’re slip sliding away down the muddy river bank to frolic with the other otters.

Hey, don’t bother trying to point anything out to the pastors. If you’re not a celebrity they ain’t got the time for ya. And besides they’re soakin in the cruise money to go on a cruise to “retrace Paul’s journeys”. I think that one is just too absurd to even comment on.

Hey, I may hit Frontline again sometime I’m in the mood for a show. If I want to grow in my walk with Christ though I’ll go elsewhere. I recommend you do the same. Unless of course you’re an otter.

Oh an to take this back to this site’s main point. What else kind of website would you expect a church like that t to have? Gotta get the attention of the shortened computer TV sitcom attention spans out there before they miss the next intencity drive by. I’m not so worried or concerned about Mcleaners commenting on this because they probably couldn’t sit still to read all this anyway. Bon Voyage Lon!

By: Michael Geary

Michael Geary — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 07:30:38 +0000

I have no doubt that McLean Bible Church is a wonderful organization that cares about all kinds of people.

That doesn’t change the fact that my visit to their site was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, with its tiny fonts, nausea-inducing animation, and slowing down my computer when I was trying to do other things and forgot that I still had their site open in another window.

By: LtCol Frickey

LtCol Frickey — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 20:14:21 +0000

You’re all sick.
McLean Bible Church is a wonderful organization who cares about people, all kinds of people.

By: HansR

HansR — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 22:58:03 +0000

I knew a pastor whose goal was to “Do few things and do them well.” I think this mantra should be considered in light of the web as nearly anyone can access (and link to) what we proclaim. There are many churches who probably shouldn’t have a web site, at least not until they are willing to commit the resources necessary to build a decent page. So, I appreciate organizations who seek to help churches communicate more effectively. However, Elliott Wrote: “Go to siteorganic.com and read what we’re about, it certainly not so we can get rich.” However their Gold package is “$3,995 setup and design fee” plus “$229 monthly fee”. If you’re not getting rich, where is all that money going?

By: Tim Bednar

Tim Bednar — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 22:28:30 +0000

It even displays on Mac OS9 IE 5. I’m psyched.

By: Tim Bednar

Tim Bednar — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 22:10:09 +0000

Okay, just to show I’m not a spoiled sport. Here is the staging IP address for a site that I’m working on right now (it loads very slow because its on a overloaded server),

http://209.200.108.181/

It is a CSS layout, no tables, but ahh, it has Flash.

But if you look, no redirect. I found a great way to put flash in XHTML and if the user does not have flash it loads an (nicely worded) alternative text and a link to the plugin download page. No redirect, the rest of the page load normally.

The flash movie is a repurposed from their old site and loops endlessly and is not formated to the new size. I’m working on that…

But hey its not perfect–but so far its the best I’ve been able to code. The rest of the site is being built–so don’t expect much more than the home page.

Hey, Dean you should open up a thread on your site for designers to post their “newest” work for others to see…

Let me know if I can do things better…oh the orginal site needed some healing…

http://www.kenyachildrensfund.org/

Look at that javascript!

By: Michael Geary

Michael Geary — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 09:49:09 +0000

Oh man! I’ve been trying to do a little late-night hacking, and my ThinkPad has been running really, really slow. I wonder what could be eating up the CPU time? Hmm… Task Manager says it’s iexplore.exe.

I see… I forgot to close the McLean website after writing my previous comment. Yep, every time one of those swoopy “today’s features” animation zips by, the CPU spikes to 60% or more!

Well, time to close that site. Ah, MUCH better now. Holding steady at 3% CPU or less. It feels like my computer again, now that I’ve closed the McLean site.