Lovin’ Life Ministries Launches First National Website

At the start of 2012, Lovin’ Life Ministries (LLM) launched lovinlifeministries.org, the first national website that publically projects the message of LLM and connects all 106 Unification church communities around the United States.

Heather Thalheimer, director of Education at LLM said, “Lovinlifeministries.org is a portal for non-members to see what LLM is all about. Now that we have the internet, people want information about someone or something instantly, and the website is a tool to meet the needs of the people interested in learning about LLM. This is new for us as a church, because in the past we would put information online only for members.

“Lovinlifeministries.org is a web presence that anyone can understand and access. A cool feature is that you can type in your zip code on the website and it’ll connect you to the LLM church nearest you. You’ll be able to find out when Sunday service is and get an address and a contact link. That is truly revolutionary.”

Unified Purpose, Unique Content

Thalheimer was quick to stress that despite the diversity of the LLM communities around the country, lovinlifeministries.org functions as the web presence for all those communities. “All 106 church locations will have a web presence linked to lovinlifeministries.org. In the past, individual churches had individual websites, all with a different look, different feel or even different purpose,” she said. “With this national website, we can have a unified look and feel.”

Creative Director Koichi Nakai explained how he and his team are currently developing the website so that local communities can easily and quickly update their own LLM sites. “We’re going to make a template for the various, local LLM sites so that we can make sure we all have a unified look, and then those communities will provide the content, such as videos, pictures, local news, etc. The home banner of the website will change according to each church community. If it’s the Chicago church, we’ll have a picture of the Chicago community. We’re trying to make this process really simple. By April, we want to develop twelve local LLM sites. Next quarter, we’ll keep expanding.”

Thalheimer tips her hat to the numerous individuals who have invested and continue to invest in creating lovinlifeministries.org. “I’m grateful to people at USA Headquarters – the design team, the education team, the national youth ministry team, the videography team and others. So much talent and energy went into creating a look we can be proud of, and for every church location to do that would have been an onerous task,” she said.

Using Social Media

“The website is video-based because that’s how people enjoy receiving information these days,” said Thalheimer. “We have video testimonies about members that are engaging, fun, informative, and through them, our church community seems more approachable and acceptable. Right now we’ve uploaded testimonies from Andrew Love, leader of the LLM outreach team and Seijin Tranberg, who rode a bike across the US to raise awareness about deprogramming, about why they are proud to be Unificationists. We also update the site with clips from Rev. In Jin Moon’s sermons and Sonic Cult’s music, so people can get a taste of Lovin’ Life.”

According to Nakai, other social media will contribute to the content of lovinlifeministries.org and help create a social presence for LLM on the web. The key is to make such a process simple. “More and more, the reason people are going on the web is for social media, meaning often free services such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, etc.,” said Nakai. “These sites are becoming people’s understanding of the internet and therefore, our presence on these sites is critical. So, the idea is that all the content from lovinlifeministries.org would also be reflected in those social media and vice versa. It’s our public face.”

According to Alexa.com, the leading provider of global web metrics, Google, Facebook and Youtube are the three most frequently visited sites in the world.

“If each local LLM community has its own Facebook, then the content they put on Facebook will be automatically uploaded onto their Lovin’ Life site,” said Nakai. “This will be much easier than having people send us content to put up on the website for them. For example, right now all the videos on the LLM site are driven by the LLM Vimeo account, meaning as soon as we upload a video on our Vimeo account and put it in a certain folder, it updates the website. We’re trying to make it really simple for our communities to update the site themselves. Stay tuned for videos to follow that of Andrew Love and Seijin Tranberg!”