DALLAS (ABP) — Baptist Standard Publishing has announced plans for a $5 million community called FaithVillage, an interactive Internet presence designed to provide Christian resources and a social network targeted to serve 20 million evangelicals ages 18 to 44.
The site will provide a single location where users can access:
• A social media platform with personal pages, groups, forums and blogs.
• News, information and other articles.
• Video, music, podcasts and Web-based seminars.
• A digital marketplace that will feature books, music, ministry resources, Christian gifts and other merchandise from vendors, as well as user-generated content.
“The driving vision for FaithVillage.com is to provide a vibrant online community that expands personal faith, fosters robust sharing of ministry resources and deepens collaboration among vital Christian causes,” said Brad Russell, senior editor and chief operating officer of the new venture.
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The site’s unique design — a street scene with buildings such as “Grove Theater” for video resources and “City Pod Studios” for audio — will provide users a visual sense of visiting a physical community where they can enter buildings to find a wide array of content.
Through the social media platform, users will reserve their own “lofts,” where they interact online with other users in a safe, secure environment free from offensive ads or unwelcome comments common on some social media sites.
Churches will be use the platform to create user groups for Bible studies and discipleship and collaborative groups for missions and ministry teams and committees, as well as providing their members a place for social networking.
FaithVillage will enable ministries, institutions and nonprofit organizations a vehicle to connect with global online audiences and network with like-minded ministry partners.
The idea for FaithVillage grew out of the Baptist Standard’s desire to inform, inspire and engage the rising generation of Christian leaders, said Marv Knox, editor of Texas Baptist newspaper and publisher of FaithVillage.
“We became open to broadening the vision of the Baptist Standard as we faced the disappointing truth that traditional newspapers are not reaching a young audience,” Knox said. “Our staff and our board of directors began to ask, ‘What can we do to meet the needs of young adults?’”
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The Standard conducted nationwide research of evangelical Christians ages 18 to 44 to explore how they use the Internet, how they practice their faith and how those two factors intersect. Additional research involved looking at evangelical Christian sites already on the Internet.
The Standard discovered a potential market of 20 million young evangelicals — and found that what those Christian young adults said would be helpful and what they would like to find online does not exist in any single, easy-to-navigate location on the Web.
Among respondents, 82 percent said they belong to social media sites. Half said they had visited a faith-oriented site in the previous six months, but half said they were not satisfied with available Christian websites.
Those findings led to the development of the FaithVillage concept — an idea that will require $5 million to become reality.
“Because we receive no Cooperative Program funds, we are raising the money to build out the site and operate it for three years until it can become self-sustaining,” Knox said.
To date, $1.1 million has been raised, including a $1 million gift from the Christ is Our Salvation Foundation, founded by Paul and Katy Piper, and another significant gift from an anonymous donor.
“Our board believes in this so deeply and is so convinced now is the time to move forward that it authorized a $2.1 million loan from our reserves to build FaithVillage now,” Knox said. “We will continue to raise money to repay that loan.”
While the audience for FaithVillage reaches beyond Texas Baptist life and the scope of the site extends beyond traditional journalism, the Baptist Standard remains committed to its 122-year-old mission as the news journal of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Knox emphasized.
“The news operation is not going away,” he said. “That’s a commitment that reaches back more than five generations. One of the buildings in FaithVillage will be the newsstand, and the Baptist Standard will be featured prominently there, along with other news sources.
“Beyond that, we will continue to provide the news through multiple avenues of delivery, including the Standard’s own website, apart from FaithVillage.”
The public launch for FaithVillage is scheduled in October 2011, Russell said. Partner churches, organizations and individuals who enlist as “FaithVillage Fans” will be invited to test the site late next summer.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.