Instead of using a guestbook with ads that you out-source from another site, why not set up your own ad-free Prayer Book for your parish or church organization? It works like a guestbook, but visitors post prayer requests. It's a place of ministry that looks and feels like an online prayer room.

Try out my sample of a working Prayer Book. But (ahem) don't be too uncreative ("Testing, one, two, three, does this work?") when you post your sample messages -- your words will be emailed to me the moment you hit the submit button. One of the valuable features of this Prayer Book is that it automatically delivers all messages to its administrator and/or the church member who's in charge of the prayer ministry. Not only is this a safety feature, giving the administrator a quick opportunity to edit or delete inappropriate remarks, but it's also a ministry feature, so that real people can really pray for whatever the visitors have posted.

This Prayer Book is an adaptation of a perl script for a guestbook.

To make your own Prayer Book, you may download the files (below) and install them on your website(s). Instructions are provided in a Word document. You can easily add your own graphics and edit the html code to match it to the rest of your site.

If you're unfamiliar with cgi programming and perl scripts, no problem! No need to feel intimidated! I've made the directions easy. And most of the work is already done for you. The only thing you need is a little bit of bravery and a good web hosting service that gives you cgi capability and access to files directly on their server (such as via the File Manager in the Control Panel that your server provides) so that you can "set permissions" (which, too, is explained).

Before downloading these files, create a new directory in your website. Name this new folder "prayer", then right-click on the zip file below to save it to where you can easily find it, and then unzip the files into the "prayer" directory. Afterward, go there to open the instruction.doc file and follow the step-by-step instructions.

prayerbook.zip

   
EXTRA TIPS

Prayer Books will draw people to your site more than guestbooks do. Many web surfers specifically use search engines to find sites where they can post their prayer requests.

Online Prayer Books will get used much more than ordinary guestbooks. But are you ready for this? Who will pray for the intentions that people post?

Before adding a Prayer Book to your website, line up people who agree to pray for the needs that are posted. If your church has a phone chain or prayer tree, arrange to forward the prayer requests to the person who starts the chain. I know of a parish that even includes "for all the intentions posted in our website prayer book" during the Prayers of the Faithful at daily Mass. That's a great idea!

On my evangelization ministry site (Good News Ministries) I started an e-group where the sole reason for joining is to pray for others. The Prayer Book automatically sends each posted prayer request to the list.