The "Church Information" webpage is used to display detailed information about the LCMS churches. As such, it exposes information contained within the LCMS website about these churches, as well as information available via the churches' websites, as well as additional information made available via this website.

In addition to the typical help icon (), which displays this help page, the "Church Information" webpage contains two filter icons, one to turn filtering on () and one to turn filtering off ().

By default, filtering is turned off indicating that all churches for the previously specified state or district are shown. Filtering is turned on by selecting the image, which will display the following filtering information:

Any filtering criteria that is defined will reduce the number of churches shown to just those that satisfy that criteria. Therefore, the filtering criteria, when initially displayed, will be defined such that all churches satisfy the criteria (i.e., no criteria is specified). By changing this initial display, the filter criteria specified will result in only that subset of churches that satisfy the filter criteria being displayed. For example, specifying a city will limit the displayed churches to only those churches in that specific city.

The various filter criteria that can be specified are:

Name includes - will limit the displayed churches to only those that include the specified text. Note that this text matching is case-sensitive.

City - will limit the displayed churches to only those within the specified city

State- will limit the displayed churches to only those within the specified state. Note that this filtering will only reduce the number of displayed churches if the original specification was done for a district (as opposed to a state)

District - will limit the displayed churches to only those within the specified district. Note that this filtering will only reduce the number of displayed churches if the original specification was done for a state (as opposed to a district)

E-mail - used to limit the displayed churches to those that have an e-mail address or those that don't have an e-mail address

Website - used to limit the displayed churches to those that match any of the selected images. Note that the images correspond to the images shown in the "Website" column of the table displaying the church information. Each of these symbols is described later in this webpage.

Extended - used to limit the displayed churches to those that match all of the selected extended images. Note that the images correspond to the images shown in the "Extended" column of the table displaying the church information. Each of these symbols is described later in this webpage.

Selecting tbe image () to turn filtering off will hide the filtering information and revert the display to include all the churches for the state or district. Reselecting the filtering image () will turn filtering back on and will include any filtering previously specified. This filtering is not remembered when the webpage is dismissed, so closing the "Church Information" webpage and redisplaying it will clear out any previously specified filtering

The church information for the state or district is shown below (for the state of Alabama):

This table contains the following columns:

Name - name of the church

Location - street address, city and state for the church

District - LCMS district to which the church belongs

Phone - phone number for the church

E-mail - image indicating whether church has e-mail address. When clicked, this image will trigger an e-mail addressed to that church

Website - website for the church. When clicked, this image will display the website for that church. The explanation of each website image is covered later on this webpage

Profile - LCMS information for the church. When clicked, this image will display the LCMS information for the church

Map - Google map for the church. When clicked, this image will display a Google map that can be used to navigate to the church

Extended - displays images that expose extended information for the church. The meaning/function for each image is described below.

For each church that has their own webite, the church image () will appear in the "Website" column for that church. Churches that use Facebook, but don't have their own web site, will display with the Facebook image () in the "Website" column. Churches that neither have their own website, nor do they have their own Facebook page, will appear with one of the other images. All of these churches with neither their own website nor Facebook page should ultimately use the special webpage () for their website. Indeed, even those churches that use Facebook should, since Facebook is not very good for anything other than historical information (previous sermons/services, documenting church events, etc.), seriously consider switching to the special webpage as well.

The Extended information for a church references webpages (or tagged information within webpages) for the church's website. The images, when clicked, will display the corresponding church webpages.

- special webpage displaying information for that church

- webpage from church website that defines "what we believe"

- webpage from church website that describes the church's staff

- webpage from church website that identifies mission(s) for church

- webpage from church website that describes the church's history

- webpage from church website that contains information for visitors

- webpage from church website that contains information for joining the church

- webpage from church website that describes the stained glass windows for that church

- webpage from church website that describes the music ministry for that church

- webpage from church website that describes the liturgy used by that church

- webpage from church website that describes the sacraments of the church

- webpage from church website that contains newsletter infomation for that church

- webpage from church website that contains service/sermon archives for that church

- webpage from church website that contains church's calendar

- webpage from church website that is the main webpage for the school for that church

- Facebook webpage for that church

- YouTube webpage for that church

- Instagram webpage for that church

- Twitter/X webpage for that church

- Vimeo webpage for that church

- Reddit webpage for that church

- LinkedIn webpage for that church

- webpage from church website that is used to donate to that church

- webpage from church website that is used to contact the church

Extended information for a church is defined via a text file in which the URLs for the webpages corresponding to the images above are defined. For most churches, the majority of these URLs will be left blank indicating that the church does not have a specific webpage (or tagged portion within a webpage) for that image. This text file will be distributed to all those churches that have e-mail addresses and should be returned (emailed) to rickhilst1@comcast.net. Likewise, if a church is missing an email address (that column in the table is empty), then either the email address can be sent to rickhilst1@comcast.net or a request from a non-church email may be made to rickhilst1@comcast.net.

There are two ways to specify the information for the special website for the church. The simple way, which will result in a fairly simple special website, is done by merely providing the information at the bottom of the text file described in the last paragraph along with one or more picture files (PNG, JPG, etc.) for the church. For a more detailed special website, there is an Excel file that can be filled out with the appropriate information. This Excel file is available by request sent to rickhilst1@comcast.net (include the church name and location in the email) and should then be returned to that same email address upon completion of filling out the Excel file.