Founder Hopes Christian Social Networking Site Will Fill Niche
By Jim BrownMay 8, 2006

(AgapePress) - A new website designed in the sleepy coastal town of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, is offering Christians an alternative to questionable social networking sites like "MySpace.com" and "Facebook.com."

The "Oaktree.org" website orginally began as a "hope exchange" where people could post prayer concerns and words of encouragement for people depressed, hospitalized, or battling an illness. But last month the site was re-launched with more social networking features such as online journals, photos, biographies, discussion forums, and chat.

Oaktree.org founder Brady Stump says he and his wife felt this website could fill a void, as they did not see anything on the Internet fostering Christian community from a social networking standpoint.

What they happened almost spontaneously with the Oaktree.org site, Stump says, is "it flipped social networking on its head and created a place where people could share their testimonies, share their favorite Bible verses, where ministers and pastors and youth pastors could get on a forum, and they could share ideas on how to reach more people, how to reach more youth."
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