Have you ever looked at a room in your house and wondered…maybe it’s time for a new paint color? Maybe after last winter you vowed how next year the car would have snow tires on it rather than all-season radials just for better traction. Or perhaps you’ve looked in the mirror lately and considered getting a different look by cutting your hair shorter.

Change–It can be refreshing. It can be invigorating. It can also be scary and intimidating!

Previous First Lutheran Church website.

With all this in mind, we move forward with a new website and appearance for First Lutheran Church. Now, understand there was absolutely nothing wrong with the previous website. It was just time for a change. A change not only dictated by us, but a necessary change as technology keeps advancing with exciting possibilities.

When the Internet first launched websites were very simple and basic. I know, I’ve been building websites for over 20 years. During those early years a person could spend a lot of time designing a web presence only to learn that a dozen people visited the site all month. Not so today. I have websites that now get over a thousand visits most days. People of all ages are familiar with the Internet, they prefer to get their information electronically, and they expect things to be kept up-to-date.

In the early days websites were built for viewing on a desktop computer. That was fine and dandy until technology kept rolling along. Now people view the Internet on their desktops, their laptops, their tablets, their smartphones, and yeah…even their smart watches. A website once made easily with .html coding just doesn’t cut it to work across all platforms.

The new First Lutheran website is what we call “responsive” basically meaning the functionality is tested for all (perhaps I better say, most) devices.

Yet, even more importantly we tried to keep things rather simple. And simple is always good, but this website you are now viewing also has much potential for the future. I haven’t explained much of it to Pastor Julie as I did not want to make her nervous. Indeed, someday if it becomes necessary to livestream her sermons the new website can handle it.

And so I end today hoping you enjoy the new web look. I also appreciate your comments if you care to share them with me. Just email me at jim7226@hotmail.com with comments, pictures or anything you would like to see included on this website. Thanks again!

Jim Braaten
webmaster