Have you ever searched for a church online? If you manage to find a church website online, you get smacked with some goofy pictures of a flashing cross or dove with out of date calenders and the colour scheme? It would cause anyone to come to church to get their eye sight prayed for. Its embarrassing and down right hard.
Around 1/3rd of the Worlds population are online World Internet Usage stats and if you are in Western Europe, Australia and North America over 70% of the population has access. Most businesses have an Internet presence, so its far to say most churches also needs one.
So why do churches have sucky websites?
Most of the churches boards and people in charge are of the older generation which causes a few problems like:
- Lack of understanding of today’s generation
- Lack of resources
- Church marketing sucks
- Lack of risk taking
- Being an inward church
We all know that resources are a major factor and understanding of today’s generation is a problem in today’s church, especially when Men are not present so lets focus on the last two points in taking risks and being an inward church. Church marketing does indeed suck and some guys have developed a whole website to that area, so we will leave it for now.
Creating a church website is risky
You cannot control your website like you can the church. In a church you can control your audience, the time and when they contact you. A website however you cannot control those things which scares so many people especially seeing most people who run churches themselves do NOT even understand the world of the Internet.
Being an inward church
This is a big problem. If no one in the church goes to them asking to create a website or volunteers, then it does not get done. The average church would never go to a professional web design company because they are NOT saved or part of OUR church 
Benefits of a church website
- More attenders – I have failed going to a church just because I could not find their times or address online.
- Reach the unreached – Most of today’s youth are online.
- Reach beyond your borders – Jubilee now has contact with an Indian Pastor just through their website.
Effective ideas for a church website
We now know websites are beneficial but what do we put on the website? It all like most things depend on your target audience and resources.
Every church website should have their times, Pastor details and their location and advertise the address on their flyer’s, newsletters, business cards etc.
For Larger churches
However If your a larger church you could include:
- Blog featuring non-Christian themes – Yes you read right. You could have a Christian section but why not have regular features like favourite recipes, mum tips for cleaning, stories from a professional business man (like a policeman) and the list goes on. This will help get people interested who do not attend church.
- Podcast of the church sermons
- Reports from the Missions and other churches you support
- Daily bible reading plan
- Forum
- Tips for sport – get men involved
For Smaller churches
However if your a smaller church do not be disappointed as even smaller churches on smaller budgets can still be effective. You could have a blog featuring weekly/ fortnightly reports/ newsletter from the Pastor. If your also part of a denomination you could pool the resources of the churches together and get a denominational website.
A perfect example is Foursquare of Western Australia who have just released their website (still in development). The 16 churches together have over 1,200 members which is an average of around 70 per church. The churches separately could not have all these features on a website but pooling their limited resources together you can.
Wrapping up & your Feedback
Do you have any other ideas that you would like to see on church websites, both large and small? Do you even think churches should have websites as you doubt they are worth the money, time to keep them up to date and worth the hassle? If so, please let us know why. Your comments, values and opinions are important to this topic.
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