OnTheCity Blog

Go Tell It On The City

Over the past year, I’ve heard some amazing stories of how The City enabled connection in really meaningful and practical ways. Some of the stories are extraordinary like when the Mars Hill Church downtown campus organized their “Day of Service” event using The City. The turn-out was so great, local news covered it.

Then there was the Acts 29 boot camp event organizer who needed last-minute accommodations for a dozen pastors-in-training coming in from out of town. She created a “need” in The City and had the accommodations settled by the end of the afternoon.

Those, of course, are extraordinary. And the great thing about The City is the number of more common stories of how it enabled connection in a meaningful way. The result is the gospel in action and those stories never get old.

So, what’s your story?

The reason I ask is I’m putting together a series of testimonial videos and want real people telling real stories. If you’re interested, email it me at stories@onthecity.org.

The "Powerbar" Has Arrived

Early Monday morning we deployed a new tool that is going to enable some really exciting new features. We call it the Powerbar and its job is to make things easier.

First off, when you login, you’ll notice a grey bar at the very top with some links in it. We’ve moved some of the things you use regularly to the Powerbar; your profile, a link to our blog, and the Logout button are now all in the Powerbar.

Some of you have multiple City accounts, especially pastors and members of networks like Acts 29 or The Gospel Coalition. The Powerbar will enable you to have one user name for all of your accounts and simplify navigating between them.

Secondly, we’ve redesigned the the login and kiosk pages with bigger input fields, a new login button and a cleaner look. And, of course, these may still be styled to fall in line with your church or organization’s branding.

Lastly, some of you may have received an email stating your login name has been changed. This is to make sure your user name is unique. If your user name has been changed, and you’d like to change it to something else, just login and edit your profile.

We're Building A Team

One of the unique things about The City is the vision of utilizing technology in the context of REAL community. Life as a Christian involves the church. Church life is all about group involvement – we’re in a bible study, a worship team, or the hospitality ministry – sometimes all three. Group is the context in which we serve the Church. The City exists to enhance these groups enabling deeper connection, discipleship, and maturity in Christ.

Whether its a bible study organizing a community service project, or a place for the worship leader to post his song sheets for the band to download before Sunday, The City is making gigantic strides as a way of connecting people & mission to see the gospel go out.

If this vision gets you excited, then we should talk because we need help. We need folks excited about technology as a means of spreading the gospel to fill many roles:

• Launch Team (System Integrators)
• Support
• Rails Developers


Most simply, we need to build a team. Are you with us? If so, let’s talk: jobs@onthecity.org

Making more awesome happen

Exciting times here at The City today. We deployed a number of performance upgrades, bug fixes, and user experience improvements. Here’s the highlights:

• Home page now loads 2x faster!
• Marketplace listings will now expire after 60 days
• Improved Internet Explorer experience
• No more system updates (the messages from Pastor Zack at the top of your home page)
• Improved the “Find A Community” dialogue
• Replying to messages via email has been simplified (see image)

As I type this, there are so many more really exciting things happening. Next week we move into our new office space and add a great designer to the team. We’re all super amped about what’s happening and the myriad of improvements and new features we’ll be able to roll out over the next couple of months.

At the end of it all is churches and non-profits fostering deeper community, real relationships, meaningful connections through The City. Stay tuned.

Hired Designers!

Thank you all for your interest in the Web Design positions we had available…they are now filled!

If you’re a Developer, we still want to hear from you!

The City is Hiring! - Developers

We’ve received a fantastic response on the designer side, so let’s open it up for Developers!  We need highly qualified developers that are savvy with Ruby on Rails, comfortable working within the agile methodology, and love the Seattle area.  Apply today at jobs.on.the.city[AT]gmail.com

What does the developer do?

They work with the rest of the development team to create all the cool stuff that happens in The City.  They need to be self-motivated, excited about Christian community, and pleased as punch to be hands-on in the code for a majority of their days.  We have a number of different focus areas that are nice to haves (we want an iPhone dev, a mobile person, a Facebook dev, etc.)

Requirements?

B.A./B.S. Computer Science or related field of study.  7+ years of software development experience.  This position is full time in our Seattle offices.

The City is Hiring! - Web Designer

We’re shifting gears over here at The City and are aggressively ramping up our team in Seattle.  If you’re a skilled Web Designer that is really excited about The City, please submit a resume and cover letter to jobs.on.the.city[AT]gmail.com.

What does the Web Designer do?

The ideal candidate would be able to directly modify Ruby on Rails RHTML to enact their design vision for The City.  If you haven’t been involved in RoR before, it’s a short ramp up time provided you have strong HTML experience and have worked in a collaborative development environment before.  You would be responsible for the overall look and feel as well as the usability of the site (a shared responsibility of course).

Requirements?

4+ years in Web Design, a B.A. in Graphic Design or related education/work experience.  You need a portfolio (online naturally) that we could look at of work you’ve done.  Bonus points for doing a work example where you redesign an existing page in The City.  The position is full-time in our Seattle office; remote/contract work is not being considered.

Stay tuned for more job postings…

Zondervan Acquires The City (press release)

Zondervan, a world leader in Christian communications, has acquired The City, a propriety online community-building software program created by Seattle-based Mars Hill Church. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Developed over the past two years by Mars Hill pastor of technology, Zack Hubert, who spent eight years in management at Amazon.com, The City was created in response to the church’s need to improve communication, better engage with members, support small groups, build a stronger church community and free up administrative resources. Mars Hill launched The City earlier this year to create a dynamic, engaging interactive online community for its more than 7,000 members. Within two months of launch more than 85% of the church’s members had signed up and more than 75% visit the site every single day.

“The City is an essential part of the way our members and our staff communicate every day,” said Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill’s founding and preaching pastor. “Thanks to Zondervan churches and organizations around the world will have access to this resource to help people meet Jesus and build community.”

Zondervan plans to build out the current features of The City and offer scalable and customizable modules to churches nationwide who want to create their own vibrant, interactive community for members.

“The City is the most creative, dynamic church-building resource that I have seen, and we are thrilled to be able to make it available to churches of all sizes and denominations,” said Moe Girkins, president and CEO of Zondervan. “The impact The City has had on Mars Hill is nothing short of remarkable, and I’m confident other churches will be attracted to the substantial community-building benefits that come from offering this unique resource to their church members.”

The City is specifically for the church internet community. Each church member has a unique username and password, assuring the community of a secure and reliable network. Members of each church’s social network can post and maintain their personal profile, find spiritual resources, sign up for volunteer opportunities, engage with their small group members, join book/study groups, maintain a journal, access news, and connect and share personal feelings, experiences, needs, and prayer requests with other church members.

“The City is much more than a social network as it helps churches to solve their greatest challenges — whether it’s church planting, fundraising, developing small groups, building the global church, bolstering a sense of community or improving communications among members,” added Girkins. “We are excited to take this incredibly valuable resource that Mars Hill has created and bring it to other churches throughout the U.S. and around the world.”

As a result of the acquisition, The City creator Zack Hubert will be joining Zondervan as Vice President of Church Community Networks.

A virtual tour of The City’s features can be found at www.onthecity.org.

About Zondervan

Zondervan, a HarperCollins company, is a world leader in Christian communications and the leading Christian publishing brand. For more than 75 years, Zondervan has delivered transformational Christian experiences through general and academic resources by influential leaders and emerging voices, and been honored with more Christian Book Awards than any other publisher. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., with offices in San Diego, Miami, and London, Zondervan conducts events and publishes its bestselling Bibles, books, audio, video, curriculum, software and digital products through its Zondervan, eZondervan, Zonderkidz, Youth Specialties, Editorial Vida, and National Pastors Convention brands. Zondervan resources are sold worldwide through retail stores, online and by Zondervan ChurchSource, and are translated into nearly 200 languages in more than 60 countries. Visit Zondervan on the Internet at www.zondervan.com.

About Mars Hill Church

Mars Hill Church is a non-denominational church that meets in seven different locations throughout the Seattle area, with twenty weekly services broadcast via satellite from the flagship campus. In 2008, Outreach magazine named Mars Hill Church the second-most innovative church in America. The church began in 1996 as a small Bible study in the home of founding pastor Mark Driscoll. Today, over seven thousand people attend Mars Hill on a weekly basis, with millions more accessing free sermons, music, and other resources through the church’s extensive Internet library. To learn more about the ministry of Mars Hill Church visit www.marshillchurch.org.

SOURCE Zondervan