A Plainfield woman has combined her major interests–her church and computers–to add a family flavor to the Internet.
Gloria McCants, the web minister and head of the children’s ministry department at Harvest Church in Plainfield, is using her computer expertise to design a church web page that includes advice for parents and activities for kids.
Her husband, Rev. Nolan McCants, is pastor of the Christian church, which holds traditional Sunday services at Plainfield High School and presents a more untraditional religious family experience all the time in cyberspace.
Gloria McCants says she and her husband “don’t look at (religion) as a Sunday morning-type thing. We go outside the church doors.
“We’re a fairly new ministry. . . . Family is one of our key focuses. We’re basically trying to meet the needs of the entire family.”
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Gloria McCants, who has three children, a 22-year-old son and two daughters, ages 3 and 4, sees technology as a force that can forge and strengthen the social links that will keep the family unit from breaking down.
“There are so many things on the Internet that are positive,” she said, noting that browsing the World Wide Web can yield wholesome information that is useful and entertaining.
The Harvest Church home page, accessed at http://www.harvestc.org, uses color and graphics to provide educational information and activities for parents and children as well as to illustrate the church’s message.
The parenting connection covers topics from suggestions for home-based religious devotions to information about pregnancy, childbirth and child-care concerns, such as potty-training.
Gloria McCants makes a point of previewing site links for parents and kids. “For the most part, everything is very safe (and) updated at least once a month,” she said.
Harvest Church is a new congregation, with about 50 people regularly attending weekly services, but the web ministry has expanded its reach beyond limitations of time, place and size.
As many as 800 people a month “just come through (the web page) exploring,” she said. And the church has gotten e-mail from all over the country.