Waterloo Pentecostal Assembly

Site Credits

The current version of the Waterloo Pentecostal Assembly website was launched on September 7th, 2008. The new design includes standard’s compliant markup in order to display correctly across multiple platform and browser versions. However, it has only been tested on Internet Explorer 7.0x, Firefox 3.0x, Safari 3.1x, and the new Google Chrome Browser (we recommend you use Firefox to browse the web).

The Technology

This site is powered by WordPress (WordPress.org), a powerful and flexible solution for the management of content (for more on WordPress, read this documentation). The site is hosted on a Grid Service server by MediaTemple and it was built using the following tools:

A Windows XP Professional machine
GIMP for Windows (for layout and all graphics)
Notepad ++ (for coding and development)
XAAMP (for testing the design/coding).
SmartFTP and FireFTP (for transferring files – SmartFTP is no longer free so we switched to FireFTP)
FireShot (for screenshots)
Flickr.com (for creative-commons licensed photos/graphics)

The Inspiration

We’d like to give credit to the website for The Crossings for providing some of the main inspiration for the layout of our design. Some cues were also taken from the website for The City Church.

WordPress Plugins

One of the reason we chose to go with WordPress for the backend running our website is because of the rich developer community supporting this opensource software. Although there has been some custom coding incorporated in our site there are also a variety of plugins that we use. Here’s a linked list of those plugins and a big thank-you goes out to the authors!

Advanced Excerpt by Bas van Doren (fine control on how exerpts are displayed in post lists)
Akismet by Matt Mullenweg (keeps nasty spam comments away!)
Audio player by Martin Laine (used for our sermon archive)
Breadcrumb NavXT – Adminstration Interface by John Havlik (helps with knowing where you are on the site)
cforms by Oliver Seidel (This nifty plugin we use for all the forms on our site.)
Manageable by Aaron Harp (helps us with some of the backend stuff)
Shutter Reloaded by Andrew Ozz (gives our website some fancy image action…click on an image that is part of a post/page to see what we mean)
The Future is Now! by Ryan Boren, maintained by Scot Hacker. (used with our events stuff)
WordPress Database Backup by Austin Matzko (automated backup so we keep our site archived in case of disaster)

POWER

We believe that God is desperate for a relationship with His creation. He relentlessly pursues us, and once we submit to Him, He gives us the power of His Holy Spirit. Subsequently, living a life that pleases God involves allowing the Holy Spirit the freedom to direct our words and actions for His benefit, and to live out God's plan through us to accomplish the miraculous. It involves each believer individually responding to the Holy Spirit and finding fulfillment in the work that He calls them to.

PROCLAMATION

We recognize that our society is dynamic. Cultural influences continually change, and in order to successfully impact the community of today we will begin by discovering the questions people are asking. We will tangibly meet the needs of those doing the asking, and we will provide the ultimate answer; the answer that is found in a relationship with the unchanging God.

PEOPLE

We believe that God created us to be relational. He has called us to love one another and, in doing so, to create a social environment that cares for the individual. Our love for each other should be evident as we treat each other with care and respect, recognizing that we are all a part of God's family. We believe in lending a hand to those who are in need, feeding those who are hungry and in love restoring those who have lost their way. We are welcoming to all people by extending grace and compassion with impartiality. We are Jesus' hands tangibly extended.

PURPOSE

We acknowledge that God has made us multi-dimensional beings and that He cares about our whole person - spiritually, physically, socially and emotionally. When we become a follower of Jesus a journey of discovery begins; a journey of development that will last our lifetime. God has unique plans for our journey so that we might reach our ultimate eternal destiny with him. To assist in this journey, we endeavor to provide the tools required to develop the whole person, to inspire passion for the journey, and to bring as many with us as possible.

PREPARATION

God designed and created each of us distinctly, individually and perfectly according to His plan, and He has granted each one unique gifts and talents. These talents were given to bring honor and glory to God. We will only find fulfillment when we use them for His purpose. Giving glory to God requires the active use of our heart, mind and soul and we believe that when doing so we should give God our best, for He deserves nothing less.

PASSION

We believe that Jesus is God in human form. His life, death and resurrection removed all doubt and today Jesus calls us to follow Him. Following Jesus means to live a life that consistently displays His characteristics. When we live a life of love, service and submission, we will begin to look like Jesus...and God will be pleased.

PURSUIT

Living in truth is to live in freedom, without the kind of masks that we wear in order to appear as someone that we are not. God is not fooled and he desires a genuine, authentic relationship with us, one that is free from pretenses and pride. This kind of relationship is only possible when we know the truth of God's Word, when we deal with others openly and honestly, and when our lives increasingly match our beliefs.

Waterloo Pentecostal Assembly

395 King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada - N2J2Z4