More than 65,000 Christian churches of all sizes, representing more than 120 denominations across Canada and the Us, can now be found in one central location on the World Wide Web. The Houses of Worship (HOW) web site (http://www.hows.net) provides free, easy-to-edit web pages where churches can publish their own content, thus connecting the people of faith for greater service to their own communities and to the world.

A non-profit partnership of the American Bible Society, the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation and OnTV Pittsburgh LP, Houses of Worship's mission is to provide a place of greatly enhanced visibility on the World Wide Web that enables Christian churches to extend their efforts for witness and ministry.

The HOW web site is an information clearinghouse for both congregations and individuals. Churches can post information on Schedule of Services and Events, Message from the Pastor, Youth Bulletin Board and Needs and Offers. Individuals can search for a church by geographic location, denomination and types of needs and offers, such as child or elder care, advocacy and disaster relief. In Find Church Doings they can obtain information on services the churches offer such as Bible study, singles groups, etc.

HOW remains free to congregations with the help of sponsor businesses serving the Christian community. Under HOW Handy: A Resource Guide of Suppliers for Churches and Their Congregations, churches can find a range of suppliers from stained glass to furniture. HOW also offers unique partnership opportunities for denominations and religious associations, schools and seminaries, a listing of official denomination web sites, an online magazine, and discussion forums on a host of topics.

Churches that already have web sites can link to them from their HOW pages, dramatically increasing the chance of being found on the Internet, thanks to HOW's powerful search engine. Those without existing web sites can establish web pages on HOW at no cost and can receive similar benefits.

Houses of Worship founder Robert Thibadeau stated, "This explosive growth of church participation has exceeded all our expectations. At this rate we could easily see more than 100,000 Christian congregations editing by mid-1999." Houses of Worship's goal is eventually to have all 300,000 Christian churches in North America on line at the HOW web site. HOW continues to work on its Spanish language version and hopes to serve Hispanic churches in the US and Mexico within the next 12 months.

To participate in Houses of Worship, churches must sign an electronic document that includes the editor's name, the name of the church on whose behalf he/she is editing, and the affirmation that it is a Christian church and that the church agrees that the Holy Bible (Old and New Testaments) is the unique written Word of God, bringing the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Churches can then edit their pages at Houses of Worship by clicking on the Help Center at www.hows.net and following the instructions. Houses of Worship welcomes any church that signs this affirmation to join the scores of thousands of congregations who, through their presence at Houses of Worship, manifest on the Web the rich diversity of Christ's church.