Several years ago, my congregation paid for a consulting firm to design and install our website. And it was a mistake. It wasn’t even state of the art at the time, and it never really spoke truth about who we are. It just wasn’t right.
This summer, a committee and some other dedicated volunteers put together a brand new site for us using WordPress software and a lot of creativity. Here it is.
I wish I could provide a link to the old site, so you could appreciate the dramatic difference.
Now, I’m not holding our site up as the ultimate, perfect site. I’m sure it’s not. Rather, the process of working through the design of our site has led to some serious thinking about how to do these things, and I thought I’d share a few thoughts.
1. Who is your audience?
Well, potential visitors and members, right? And visitors are surely the number one audience. Nowadays, no one uses the Yellow Pages. They Google you. And so the first contact many people will have with your church is through your web page.
And yet in researching what others churches do, I’ve been astonished at the number of insider buzz words that are surely inscrutable to non-members. If you invite someone to the “Big Event,” well, your members may know what the Big Event is, but your visitors have no clue.
If your classes are named “Sassy Chicks” and “Love One Another,” visitors have no clue whether these are for children or adults.
If the sermon series is on “Hermeneutics for Beginners,” well, most beginners have no idea what you’re talking about.
Find an un-churched friend (you surely have at least one) and ask him or her to go through the site with you and ruthlessly critique it. And then add explanations that make it easy for a perfect stranger to understand everything you say. Kill insider jargon at every opportunity.
2. Present reality.
Don’t use models. Don’t use staged photos that are supposed to show something not staged. Use real members engaged in real activities that speak truth about who you are.
Don’t present racial diversity that’s not really there. Don’t lie.
3. Protect children.
While I think it’s okay to have pictures of children on the website, you should never, ever use their names or other identifying information except within a password protected area. Don’t give a pedophile the information he needs to fool a child into thinking he’s a friend.
We run a notice in our bulletin urging parents to let us know if they object to the use of their children’s pictures on the website — and we honor their requests. Some parents have very good reason to keep their kids off the internet — such as an estranged relative trying to find the child to kidnap him or her.
4. Make contacts easy.
Again, it’s astonishing how many churches have websites that don’t give an address or even an indication of what city they’re in! They are only thinking of their members — and it shows.
Add a Google map. Give a phone number. Don’t dare force visitors to use email to contact you. Wouldn’t you prefer that they call? Give phone numbers as well as email!
5. Give email addresses for leaders.
But use a obfuscator program or other tool to shield the email addresses from spambots.
Just don’t let fear of being spammed make you appear uninterested in talking to visitors to the site.
6. Help visitors know how to act.
Tell readers how to dress. Make them aware of any customs that might seem odd to someone outside your community. Tell them how they’ll be treated.
If you’re going to make them stand up and introduce themselves, say so. If you want them to wear a name tag, mention that.
People will be more likely to visit if they’ve seen a picture of the building and some of the members and if they know how to dress. You want them to feel comfortable and at home. No unpleasant surprises!
And tell the truth. Don’t tell them it’s okay to wear jeans if you have members who sneer at those who wear jeans!
7. Flee mission statements
They were cool and cutting edge 20 years ago. Now they all sound the same and few say much of anything beyond “We’re a church.” The typical statement is something like “We’re a community of believers who serve Jesus and others through service and worship.” Yep, and now we know that you’re a church.
Rather, tell us something about yourself that makes you special. Why should I visit you and not the church next door? What is your unique, distinctive, real reason for existence?
We went for a “Who We Are” statement that is more about our goals than defining the five purposes of a church. It could stand some refining, but at least a visitor knows where the church wants to be headed.
8. Think hard about that “What We Believe” statement.
We struggled with this one. It’s customary for churches to attach a “What We Believe” statement to their website, but —
* We Restoration Movement churches are opposed to creeds.
* Where do you stop? Do you have to write a 5,000-word essay on baptism or instrumental music? Lots of churches do!
* A true statement of faith — in the New Testament sense — would read something like: “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Matt 16:16) or “Jesus is Lord” (Rom 10:9). That’s “faith” as the apostles used the word. Who are we to redefine God’s vocabulary?
Do we really want visitors to define us in terms of our baptismal theology? Our views on instruments? That’s just so Constantinian — that is, assuming that evangelism is about which church you should join as opposed to the post-Constantinian question: “Is Jesus Lord?” We live in a post-Constantinian world where far more visitors are deciding between Christianity and some other religion than picking between one kind of Church of Christ vs. another.
We punted and didn’t include a statement of faith at all. Well, actually, we chose to show our faith in pictures. And that’s far truer to New Testament thought than the Modern approach that views faith in terms of intellectual propositions to be accepted as true. It’s really more about the narrative of the life of the church and its members — and so we decided to show our story in photos.
Now, we have a long way to go. We elders need to get our pictures taken. We have some gaps to fill in. The sermon software is on the fritz (but being worked on). And we would be delighted to hear any suggestions for how to do better.
Uh oh are you a nondoctrinal church now? 🙂
From Larry Cheek:
“Good website for church Jay!”
Zach,
We are very doctrinal, if by “doctrinal” you mean “teaches the Bible.” But if by doctrinal you mean “draws lines of fellowship for reasons other than faith in Jesus,” well, the Bible is pretty plain on sufficiency of true faith.
From Larry Cheek:
“I have seen no equal to what you have accomplished and will be accomplishing! It does keep you busy learning about the members and their relationship to each other. I did not see anyone that did not look like they were fully involved and enjoying themselves, seems to me that is a message we should all desire that a visitor experience. It should entice a visitor to desire to associate with you. I did notice that the resources to lessons were not fully in place yet, possibly there will be enticing messages leading visitors to the lessons most needed by them. I guess what I mean would be that visitors and members lessons could be somewhat categorized. I fully agree that some of the websites that I have experienced would drive more visitors from the church than to it, only dedicated, committed members could tolerate some of them. Great work!!”
This was very helpful to me, having redesigned my church’s site (as a volunteer) over the last few months. I thought through many of the same questions about audience, how to help visitors find us and know how to act, and posting “what we believe,” and reached similar conclusions.
We went for a very short statement of belief but effectively punted the traditional CoC issues. I know a lot of churches (probably most) put all of that out there, and I understand there are some visitors—transplants, mostly—who will want to know what we think about those issues. I just felt they were better explained by our elders and ministers in personal discussions than they were as a section on our website, which would seem to draw unnecessary attention to those issues compared to their relative importance.
Anyhow, that’s a great-looking website. I ran my own WordPress blog for a while but am basically an amateur at this stuff. I saw the need at my church and strove to fill it as best I could. I chose WordPress as well and would appreciate any critique my fellow commenters can offer—the site should be linked at my name.
The one really basic, obvious thing which I have nonetheless had to call a church to find out because it wasn’t on the site: times of service!
Great job on the website, Jay. I most enjoy the sense that the slides give of a community active among its neighbors, rather than of a religious institution and its attendees.
Jay, I did notice that the majority of the people pictured on the slides appear to be under 25 or in foreign countries. Does this reflect the overall makeup of your congregation?
Jay, ya’ll are doing this right. Great informative site.
We sure need a progressive church sponsored by ya’ll on our side of Birmingham.
Charles,
As indicated by the labels, those in foreign countries are part of our mission work. Regarding the youth of the rest, my wife would be highly flattered (as she’s in one of the photos) — but you make a good point. We need more photos of our more “mature” members.