diff --git a/reagent-data-views-browserchannel/src/reagent_data_views/browserchannel/server.clj b/reagent-data-views-browserchannel/src/reagent_data_views/browserchannel/server.clj
index fabf949..7e014d4 100644
--- a/reagent-data-views-browserchannel/src/reagent_data_views/browserchannel/server.clj
+++ b/reagent-data-views-browserchannel/src/reagent_data_views/browserchannel/server.clj
@@ -5,15 +5,24 @@
     [views.core :as views]
     [reagent-data-views.server.core :as server]))
 
-(defn configure-views!
-  "performs browserchannel-specific initialization on the views system that is
-   necessary to hook views and reagent-data-views together via browserchannel."
-  [& {:keys [context-fn]}]
-  (views/set-send-fn!
-    (fn [client-id [view-sig view-data]]
-      (log/trace client-id "refresh view" view-sig)
-      (browserchannel/send-data! client-id [:views/refresh view-sig view-data])))
-  (server/set-context-fn! context-fn))
+(defn- views-send-fn
+  [client-id [view-sig view-data]]
+  (log/trace client-id "refresh view" view-sig)
+  (browserchannel/send-data! client-id [:views/refresh view-sig view-data]))
+
+(defn init-views!
+  "initializes the views system and adds browserchannel-specific configuration
+   to it to enable the necessary hooks into reagent-data-views.
+   you should call this *instead* of views.core/init!. all of the same
+   options can be used. see views.core/init! for more information.
+
+   an additional option :context-fn can be specified which is a function
+   that accepts an initial context map created by reagent-data-views and
+   allows your application to add any information necessary to the context
+   passed to various view system functions (such as auth-fn, namespace-fn, etc)."
+  [views & [options]]
+  (views/init! views views-send-fn options)
+  (server/set-context-fn! (:context-fn options)))
 
 (def middleware
   "clj-browserchannel server-side event middleware. this should be included in the