At the City Gates

iPhone App Setup

Published on Friday, February 19, 2010

As a follow-up to yesterday's announcement, here is a video walk through of setting up the customization of a church iPhone Web App:

The church has complete control over the look and feel of their app. Here are all the things you can customize:

• App icon: upload any image and the system automatically sizes and formats the image to the correct iPhone icon format.
• App name: change the app name to whatever you want (although we recommend keeping it short).
• Icon gloss: choose whether or not to have the standard iPhone gloss applied to the icon.
  
• App startup screen: this image appears during startup while the app is loading in the background. Upload any image the the system automaticlly sizes the image to fit the screen.
• Status bar style: chose how you want the iPhone status bar to look in your application.
  
• App theme: we currently have two themes available for the app: Charcoal (darker) and Apple (class mac look and feel).
  

We hope that you think the iPhone App is cool (we sure do), but more importantly that it will help the church better impact their community by enabling them to reach them in the technology spaces they already are.

What do you think? Can the Kingdom spread through iPhone Apps?

Posted by Nathan

Introducing an iPhone Web App for Every Church

Published on Thursday, February 18, 2010

Here's a big new feature announcement: every church now has its own iPhone web app. Yep, if your website uses City Gates, then you've got a brand new mobile site that's customized for Apple iPhones, iPod Touches, and the forthcoming iPad. We love making these kinds of big announcements, so pardon us while we do a little endzone dance:
iphone! ipod! ipad! iphone! ipod! ipad!

OK, ok. Here' s a little video to show you what's up:

Just take out your iPhone or iPod Touch, and navigate to your website. Look for the little banner at the top, and click to go!

The new mobile version isn't just a rewrapped version of your current site - it's a full rethinking of what information users want and need when they're on their mobile device.

• Blog Posts: Easily scan the newest updates to all the blogs running on your website, or drill down into a specific ministry.
• Upcoming Events: Check out what's happening this week, or select a single calendar to see only its events.
• Photos: Flip through recent photos posted to the webite.
• Podcasts & Sermons: Listen to podcasts and sermons directly from your phone.
• Staff: Go straight to a specific pastor or staff member and find their contact info.
• Contact: Gives the user direct access to contact info for the church - phone, email, and an address that connects with Google Maps.

If your church isn't running on City Gates already, Sign Up For a FREE 30 Day Trial today and check it out!

Update: Check out the customization of the iPhone App video.

Posted by Matt

CG Dossier: 1BL's embedded video

Published on Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Let’s open the dossier.

We're excited to announce (we get excited a lot here) a new series for the blog - The City Gates Dossier.  We’ll be showcasing cool stuff that happens on websites powered by City Gates. These are the things that make us proud to be serving your churches and ministries.

First up: First Baptist Church of Lakewood. 1BL, as we like to call them, are a vibrant church in Long Beach with a rich history of community. They’ve got a sharp-looking City Gates theme - with some stellar photography - but they’ve also done some great work extending what City Gates can do.

Embedding Video

A good example here is 1BL’s use of embedded video. City Gates has automatic video encoding for sermons, but if you’re looking to plant video anywhere else it’s best to use a 3rd party service. 1BL has gone to town with this, shooting lots of fun videos, and then embedding them in the page. One of the coolest innovations is their weekly sermon wrap-up - Lead Pastor Brent Eldridge shoots a short ‘debriefing’ after each week, reinforcing the main points of the service and helping cement those ideas.

They’ve also shot great promo videos focusing in on the church’s ministries - and then embedded those along with the ministry’s page on the website.

We’ll be posting more cool sites using City Gates in the near future. If you’re already running a CG site, Email Us and tell us how awesome you are. And if you’re not using City Gates, give it a try for free.

Posted by Matt

A plan for every church

Published on Wednesday, January 20, 2010

We're excited to announce the next big step in City Gates development - lower-priced plans. Our mission here at City Gates is to make it possible for every church to have a great website, and our new plans are another step toward that goal.

How it works

You can now sign up with at different levels of service - so you can find one that matches your church's budget. As before, the first month is totally free (you don't even have to enter your credit card info), and you can test drive any of the plans. They all offer the same great tools, but with little extras thrown in for the larger plans.

The plans

You can check out the pricing page for full details, but here's the basics:

• Metropolis - $99/month - offers everything, unlimited!
• City - $79/month
• Town - $59/month
• Village - $39/month

And there's even a limited Free Plan for longer test drives.

Find out more

Questions? Let us know.

Posted by Matt

A new way to invite users

Published on Thursday, December 17, 2009

This week we rolled out a new way to invite new users to edit your website. It's a much smoother process, and it allows you to initiate the process. Here's how to do it:

Oh, first thing: you'll need to be an Administrator to invite a new user.

1. Select 'Users' from the Site-Wide Tools dropdown.
2. On the right-hand side, there's an 'Add User' dialog. Just enter in the email address and select 'Editor' or 'Administrator.'
3. You'll then be prompted to assign them a 'dashboard gauge.' Done and done!

The person you invited will get an email with a link; when they click the link they'll get to choose a password and be directed straight to the dashboard.

It's pretty simple! If you've got any questions or recommendations, let us know.

Posted by Matt