doh-reh-AHN adverb
1. Freely, without payment.
Dorean The Church Digital Visibility Project
A website for your congregation, built and maintained at no cost to the church. For congregations of the Presbyterian Church in America.
No setup fee. No monthly bill.
Many small PCA churches have no website. Most have no one with the time or training to build one, and commercial church website services can cost more than a small congregation can reasonably spend.
I build and host websites for congregations in that position. A visitor searching for a church in your town can find your name, service times, address, and what you believe. Your members can find sermons and announcements. One person in your congregation can keep it current.
demo.greatidea.dev
- Cost to the church
- None. No setup fee and no monthly bill.
- What you do
- Your session fills out one form.
- What I do
- Register the domain, build the site, keep it running.
- Who controls it
- Your session. Your administrator can change any page.
What you get
- A domain name, registered and renewed for you
- A complete website: home, visit, beliefs, vision, leadership, ministries, sermons, contact
- Your choice of ten color themes
- A simple logo (symbol and wordmark) designed for use on your website
- Suggested wording for your beliefs and vision pages, which your session may use or revise
- A sermon archive that updates from your YouTube channel
- Logins for your administrator and editors, no technical training needed
- Hosting, security updates, and repairs
A sermon podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify is available on request. The basic site does not include photography, social media management, or livestream production.
How it works
- 1 Your session reviews the letter and the intake form.
- 2 Your session fills it out: church information, service times, leadership, a color theme, and your administrator.
- 3 You submit it online or mail it back. I register your domain and build the site.
- 4 Your session reviews and approves the site before it is announced.
Who I am
My name is John Larson. I am a member of Northpointe Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Meridian, Mississippi. I am also a full-time Master of Divinity student at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson and a full-time software engineer.
I rebuilt my own church's website and have maintained it since. The work taught me how much of a church website is the same from one congregation to the next, and how little a session should have to decide to get a good one. I turned that work into a reusable platform so other churches can have the same kind of site without the months of work.
John Larson Northpointe Presbyterian Church (PCA), Meridian, Mississippi
Why Dorean
Dorean is a Greek word from the New Testament: δωρεάν, said doh-reh-AHN. It means freely, without payment, as a gift.
It is the word Jesus used when he sent out the Twelve: "You received without paying; give without pay" (Matthew 10:8, ESV). It is also the word Paul used for how a sinner is made right with God: "justified by his grace as a gift" (Romans 3:24, ESV).
That is the idea behind this project. Everything I have in Christ came to me without cost. I also have a skill that small churches need and often cannot afford. So I offer it the same way: no setup fee, no monthly bill, and nothing owed in return. Your session stays in control of every word on the site.
I am not a company, and this is not a sales offer. It is one member of a PCA church serving other PCA churches with the work he knows how to do.
Questions a session will ask
- What does it cost?
- Nothing for the basic site. I pay for the domain and hosting myself, and those costs stay small because every church shares one platform. Needs beyond the basic site are handled case by case.
- Who owns and controls it?
- Your session controls every word on the site, and your administrator can change any page. I register the domain so I can manage renewals, but I will transfer it to your church at no charge whenever you ask.
- What if we want to leave?
- I will transfer the domain and send you your content and photographs.
- How fast do you respond?
- I do this alongside full-time work and seminary. You will normally hear back within two business days; urgent outages sooner.
- Does the site use artificial intelligence?
- Not for your pages or your church's wording. Each sermon page carries a short outline generated from the video's captions, clearly labeled as such. It is there so search engines can find your sermons by topic. It can be turned off on the intake form, and if your session has questions about it, write to me and I will explain how it works.
The next step
Bring the intake form to your session and fill it out together, on screen or on paper. On screen, press Submit at the end and it comes to me. On paper, post it or photograph the pages and email them.
- By post
- ATTN: John Larson
Northpointe Presbyterian Church (PCA)
920 Windmill Drive
Meridian, MS 39305 - john@greatidea.dev
- Phone
- 601-307-8581
Write to me
Or start with a question. You will normally hear back within two business days.