GetFilled.com
Introduction
Today’s youth is inundated with the speed of life. Many kids rise at the crack of dawn and do not slow down till way after the sun has gone down. They are dragged to before school and after school programs; they are involved in extra-curricular activities and social groups; they eat in the car and believe that a hamburger is a healthy meal. Through all of this, church becomes just another activity on the long list of things to accomplish each week. As the average family continues to accelerate their lives, relationships suffer. Getfilled.com will work to bring relationship back to those who are seeking Christ.
Calling, texting, emailing, or IMing is as common today as the doorbell was to those fifty years ago. Communications through electronic devices have grown in popularity and have allowed kids to achieve a level of peer-connectedness that no culture has experienced before. Of late, “online social networks” such as Myspace and Facebook have become the central ground for peer communication. They allow kids to remain connected to friends, meet new ones, and foster relationships via the worldwide web.
Currently, there are Christian social networks that bring together Christian friends, but these forums have been met with limited success as they only seek to offer the same services as the non-Christian networks do. Getfilled.com will seek to go beyond the profile based social network and seek to create an online world where people can meet, talk, and learn about the Christian faith.
Getfilled.com will offer an array of services from an online profile, status updates, picture posting, and a friend bank. These services are typical of any social network, but Getfilled.com will seek to take it a step further. Through an innovative design, Getfilled.com will allow the user to create an avatar (digital creation of a human, similar to that seen in the Sims). When the user is signed on, the avatar will appear in a digitally created coffee shop. Objects and other avatars will be accessible to the individual’s avatar as they control the avatar in similar fashion to playing a game. The digital coffee shop is the main forum in which extended services will be provided. Some examples of these are; a prayer board, where individuals can post a prayer or read others prayers; community games, such as send someone a hug or a cup of coffee; ask a minister, where questions can be sent via email to registered ministers to get a question answered; ask a bible professor, where individuals with deeper biblical questions can ask registered bible professors for some feedback; or chat rooms, where a variety of biblical and other daily life questions can be discussed by those seeking their peers advice. Additionally, to be able to email and join chat rooms, the avatars will be able to communicate with each other and acquaintances could be made through these encounters.
The desire of Getfilled.com will be to primarily encourage and teach its subscribers through its registered ministers and bible professors. These individuals who stand in life as examples of Christ-like influence, can now enter into the world of the modern computer user. Getfilled.com will seek to be a non-threatening way of present Christians to seek advice, teaching, or encouragement. Additionally, for new Christians or seeking individuals, the online forum is particularly non-threatening as it is not a face-to-face interaction.
Schedule of Access to Getfilled.com
1. Log-on to Getfilled.com
2. Create an Online Profile
a. Insert user information (address, phone number, email)
b. Upload pictures to profile
c. Upload songs to profile
d. Upload videos to profile
e. Search for friend’s profiles
f. Customize colors or background
3. Create user avatar
a. Customize face and hair
b. Choose an outfit
c. Accessorize
4. Use tutorials to discover how to control avatar and access services of GetFilled coffee shop
a. Provides a walk through to key board controls
b. How to talk to other users and add as friends
c. How to access friends profiles
d. How to access email module
e. How to access chat room module
f. How to access prayer wall
5. Access various services
a. Prayer Wall
b. Bible in a Year reading
c. Chat rooms
d. Email
e. Community Games
f. Friends
g. Ask A Minister
h. Ask A Bible Professor
i. Church Locator
6. Remain online and enjoy the fellowship
Advertising
Like many online websites, the best audience is those who already commonly access similar Internet websites. For this reason Getfilled.com will advertise through click-able banners on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. This will attract attention of those who commonly use these networks, by adding an additional one they may belong to. Additionally, Getfilled.com will advertise through search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Continuing to attract those who commonly spend time online.
To attract those who do not use the computer as frequently, Getfilled.com will seek permission to set up a table or hang a banner at Christian events, like summer camps, concerts, or community events. This visibility will ensure that the website’s name will gain presence with those who are members and future members.
Invitation Call/Email
For those individuals whose information is gathered via advertising table or through member sign-up, an automated phone call and email will be sent to encourage interaction on Getfilled.com. The script will be adjusted as it is reviewed, but will be similar to:
Thank you, for you recent interest in Getfilled.com. Our staff wishes to create a forum that is uplifting, enlightening, and a great place for you and your friends to visit online. We are constantly wishing to serve you better. Please continue to look for new services and online forums to get involved in. If you would like to get your friends signed, please visit our website, log-in, and use our “Invite A Friend” link.
Thank you for being a part of our community!
In Jesus,
The Staff at Getfilled.com
With the proliferation of cell-phones and email accounts, Getfilled.com will seek to engage both of these communication devices to encourage the continued use of our online coffee house.
Lapse Member
In the event that a member’s profile is deemed inactive for a period of three months or more, an email will be sent to that person’s online friends. They will be encouraged to follow a link to choose a form letter or create their own, encouraging that person to remain connected in the Getfilled coffee house. The desire is that rather than an impersonal email being sent, a message sent from an individual’s friends will prove a greater encouragement to remain connected. If the account remains inactive for a period of longer than a year, it will be closed and a form email will be sent apologizing for the inconvenience.
Minister/Biblical Professor Involvement
As one of the main objectives of Getfilled.com, our website will seek out and utilize the callings of ministers and biblical professors to disciple our users. Due to this, much time and effort will be placed on training and familiarizing these Disciplers in the use of Getfilled.com. The following will explain how we will seek to educate our Disciplers:
Introduction Letter
Dear ____________,
Thank you for your interest in becoming part of Getfilled.com’s dicipling efforts. As today’s youth continues to spend more time on the computer and less time in the church, Getfilled.com hopes to provide a forum that will allow for teachable moments and guidance back into the local churches. Getfilled.com seeks to be non-denominationally focused, but to stand as a place for Christians and non-Christians to learn about the teachings of Christ. We hope that your expertise and call to service, will translate into the beginnings of relationships between the users online and yourselves.
The following links will provide tutorials to help you get started on Getfilled.com
• Create an Account: www.getfilled.com/accountcreation.htm
• Create an Avatar: www.getfilled.com/avatarcreation.htm
• How to control Avatar and access features: www.getfilled.com/basicinstructions.htm
• How to access “Ask A Minister/Bible Professor” forum: www.getfilled.com/howto/discipleforum.htm
May Christ guide us,
The staff at Getfilled.com
Follow-Up on Contacts Made
As the Disciplers’ avatars roam the Getfilled coffee house, they may be approached and asked questions by some of the users. We encourage the Diciplers to add these individuals as friends and therefore gain access to their Getfilled email account. Adding a user as a friend will allow the Discipler to continue contact, via email, even if the two individuals are never online at the same time again. This active involvement by the Discipler will allow for conversation to continue past a basic question or a simple hello. This is critical as Getfilled.com hopes to be more than just an entertainment spot for bored Internet surfers.
Conclusion
While the online open forum idea is not the most ideal for ministers who wish to create those close relationships with today’s youth. We must remember that, “in an age of meaningless, there’s not much for people to cling to. As people search for what’s transcendent, most will encounter the meaning in and through relationships” (Johnston, 2001, P.54). Getfilled.com hopes to be the stepping stone needed to reconnect today’s youth, to today’s church, allowing those personal relationships to grow in every forum our teens are involved in.