What Can Realistically be Achieved by a Church Website?

[George Little]

I have been very involved in making sure churches that I was working with had a strong internet presence. I started in 1996 and was flying blind because there wasn't a lot of information out there.

In the beginning I viewed church websites as the equivalent of Sign Posts. A place in the cyber world where someone could find our address, phone number, directions and email address.

I suspected that there were other practical ways that websites could help but I really couldn't realistically say that they could do much more than be a sign post.

Since then I have come up with some more practical uses. I think that as the internet becomes more and more the dominant media in our society that our church websites will be a lot more than just sign posts. But I wonder what.

Will they become effective social networking sites (like Missional Outreach Network)? Will they become effective teaching tools? Or are we yet to realize what they will be used for?

In the kingdom there are many retail websites that are quite successful at selling products. However the church isn't here to sell you the latest Christian music CD or the latest book etc. The church is here to proclaim the risen Christ and His kingdom. Our websites are not to be driven by a profit motive. They are to be driven by the eternal purpose of God. Can church websites do that?

Or are they a toy for me to play with? I do enjoying playing with websites but I would like to think that such creations are more than a hobby.

I really would like to hear how churches are effectively using their websites.

[James Nored]

George, you are a great discussion starter! This is another good question. I feel like there is a huge potential tool here in the internet that we have not yet quite fully tapped.

Let me say that in just the last year, online social networking technology, or the web 2.0, has exploded so much that any site that does not employ these technologies is doomed to have little impact or interest. These will be the key sites of the future--and present.

Here are some ways that websites can help in outreach:
- the look and feel of the site can tell a person if they are current and in tune with culture
- the currentness of the site tells a person a lot about the church, intended or not
- good content can be helpful for those who reach the point that they are looking for a church
- blogs embedded in the site can give a "voice" to the church, and outsiders can decide whether or not the person is loving and caring or harsh and judgmental
- testimonial videos can tell a person a lot about the hope that Christ offers and what a church is like
- sites can link to Facebook and the church can have a facebook page, using a medium familiar to outsiders
- videos, blogs, and sermons can not only be put on the site, but also spread virally to non-Christians
- social networking aspects can help build a sense of community and be an early entry point for non-Christians
- Christians can network for outreach and mission, as they do on this site

As to direct teaching on websites, I have not seen many people have success at this. World Bible School has started putting all of their lessons on their website, and I believe this format is working for them. I would suspect that it works primarily outside of the US.

My current belief is still that websites help lead to personal contact, where the main teaching occurs.

Much of this is the subject of my last D.Min. class, which I'm working on finishing up. It is an issue we really need to explore.

[James Nored]

Jim, our visitors also cite our website as how they found out about us. Virtually no one uses a phone book now. And yes, it is important to build up a church's natural rankings in google!

Still, people are much further along in the Christian faith before they come to the point where they are checking out church websites. How do we reach people through the internet if they are not looking for a church?

Jim Settlemoir said:

What George doesn't mention is that the growth in our congregation is happening almost entirely within the "young adult" demographic, and our website seems to be playing a big role. We make it a point to ask visitors how they heard about our church, and among the young adult visitors, almost all of them mention checking out our website before they decided to visit. Tip #1: make sure your church appears near the top of any internet search for a church in your city!

What I'm VERY curious about is whether any potential visitors have checked out our website and thought "Nah, not for me," and why our website made them feel that way. That data would be fascinating.

Maybe we could "focus group" each other's websites via this discussion board and share our impressions with each other.

[George Little]

Jim is right. We are getting extraordinary results from our website in terms of visitors on Sunday. He is also right that this is mainly within the young adult demographic. When that group is looking for a church they go to Google or some such search engine to begin their search. Committed Christians need to be helped to find church homes.

What I am looking for is effective strategies for creating websites that seekers would go to in their search for truth or God or purpose.

I do agree with James that church websites should be designed to lead to personal contact where teaching, discipling, relationships occur.

What about Jim's idea for a focus group style analysis of a variety of church websites?

Jim Settlemoir said:

What George doesn't mention is that the growth in our congregation is happening almost entirely within the "young adult" demographic, and our website seems to be playing a big role. We make it a point to ask visitors how they heard about our church, and among the young adult visitors, almost all of them mention checking out our website before they decided to visit. Tip #1: make sure your church appears near the top of any internet search for a church in your city!

What I'm VERY curious about is whether any potential visitors have checked out our website and thought "Nah, not for me," and why our website made them feel that way. That data would be fascinating.

Maybe we could "focus group" each other's websites via this discussion board and share our impressions with each other.

[George Little]

James, here are some things that I think really help a church website to communicate to people who view it.
1. Appealing to the eye without looking too "professional". Uncluttered, with appealing graphics and a good percentage of white space.
2. On the other hand websites must not look to clunky and unprofessional. Some of those "one size fits all" prefab websites really don't convey a clear positive message.
3. Navigation needs to not only be intuitive but it must be extremely obvious. Multiple navigation paths to the same location.
4. Home page should have quick links to the sections that many people want to get to quickly. We try to have quick links to Times & Directions, Young Adults Stuff, Next big event, or something we are trying to highlight.
5. As people dig into the website they need to find things that give them a good "taste" of what the church is about. Personal (not generic) photos of people doing stuff, not just standing there and looking at the camera.
6. Personally I think that the design of the site needs to be simple. It shouldn't intimidate or look like it is trying to be impressive.
7. It should include as many ways as possible for someone to contact a real person (as opposed to an answering machine etc.) as soon as possible. I find a lot of church websites don't include phone numbers or make them hard to find but make it very easy to send an email. Business websites may have a financial motivation to not generate a lot of phone calls but the church should not.

This are some things that I have found helpful although most of my evidence for their effectiveness is anecdotal.

What I really want to discuss is the question, "How do we design a site that helps seekers and maybe even non seekers move closer to God?" and "Is this a realistic goal for a website?"

If anyone has examples of sites they think are helpful I would love for them to share them for us to look at.
Here are some examples.
http://www.rhchurch.org/
http://bwchurch.org/
http://www.culverpalms.org/
http://www.glendalechurchofchrist.org
http://www.cochristmetro.com/

[John Dobbs]

Great thoughts by all. I'd welcome any input into our church website at www.facoc.org ... I have not kept it up as I should. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings!

[George Little]

If a church wants a sign post site so that people can find out the basic info of the church, a one page basic site is just as good as any. It will be a static site that will need very little updating.

However if you want to do more with your site then I think there are a few more guidelines.
1. Decide to do a good job. Invest time and money into it.
2. 2 main things are absolutely necessary. Someone who will love and nurture the site. That someone needs to be in close touch with the vision and leaders of the church. That person needs a backup person. The second thing is some good WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get software). This is where most of your financial investment is. I use Adobe Dreamweaver on a Mac but there are other good programs out there. The other reason for this kind of software is that you are more likely find people who know it or who can learn it easily. Some churches fall into the trap of letting a good brother who can write HTML code do their website. Problem is that very few people can do this and he becomes a bottle neck and even sometimes a gate keeper.
3. Never put anything on your site that brags(??) about when it was last updated. How do you feel when you go to a site and it was last updated in June 2004? Really doesn't convey the right message, does it.
4. Never put a counter of hits on your site in plain view. You can get reporting software and sites that will tell you the statistics on your site (Google Analytics is a good free one). How do you feel when you come across a site that has only 23 hits on the counter? Probably a little dubious about its value.
5. Commit to keeping the site up to date. If you are putting your church bulletin on the site, make sure the latest is up there early after or during the week of its publication. Outdated stuff on your site sends a message that you really don't care about the site. That may not be true but it is the message that most people get from this.
6. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the average person who might view your site. More on this at another time.

[George Little]

John, you are a brave man. Please understand that when it comes to websites, they can always be done better and there is alway some "expert" out there to tell you all about it. With that in mind and with your feelings in mind here are couple of suggestions (criticisms??).
1. If there is anyway you can get rid of the picture of the church building (it is a very good picture) and replace with a picture of some people from your church, I would advise you do it. I know we theologically believe that the church is not the building but we still seem to put it front and center on our letterheads and websites. Getting pictures of people takes a lot more effort but it is well worth it. If it is all a bit too much find an image that can be a logo for your church and use it as the key visual element. This is what we did at Glendale.
2. A good thing about your site is that it is simple and uncluttered. The layout is clear and consistent though out the site and that is very important.
3. I would work on replacing the paragraphs on the front with a short clear statement of what the Forsythe church is about and what you care about. The text, as it is, is a little too small. It is a good font but just needs to be larger. The three paragraphs are good but they really should be an About Us sub page.
4. Finally, I would move the elders and deacons names to a sub page about the leadership of the church. I really don't see how having them on every page helps the site. It does give them respect and honor and that is good but I really don't think that is the purpose of the site.
5. I know I have already said "Finally" but I just noticed that there is no mention of directions to the church building. I think this is vital. People often are looking for how to get there. It is easily done by embedding a Google Maps reference and looks pretty professional.

Remember that we it comes to websites, you can only do what you can do.

John Dobbs said:

Great thoughts by all. I'd welcome any input into our church website at www.facoc.org ... I have not kept it up as I should. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings!

[George Little]

Here is a great site that outlines the issues in producing an effective website for the message of the gospel.
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/medium.php
In fact the whole site is very helpful

[Darin Hamm]

John,

Darin Hamm here.

You asked about your site. I like how you put facebook and twitter under your names. I'm going to use that. To be truthful, beyond that, it doesn't look good. Without a graphic or something that makes it your own it says canned. I would try to get some motion into it. Use some slide show widgets or video widgets to get some movement. Most people find our church on the web and I'm not sure they would even take a second look.

Try white space. It is dark and that makes people think dark. Whites Ferry Road isn't much better but it is white and that helps.

[Mike Ellis]

Has everyone seen Tony Morgan's post? 10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website http://bit.ly/15Fg6M. In my opinion, Churches would do better to have NO website up at all if it looks cheesy and unprofessional. A person who looks at your website may or may not visit your church due to content and look of your website. FYI...Get a professional to do your website. Don't put the front desk receptionist in charge of your website.