"I just wanted to say thanks to you fellas for all you do for us. We count you as partners in our ministry! Your work, professionalism, vision, and talents really are a blessing."—Matt Vanderwarker, Bethel Baptist of Hampton Virginia
Why Your Church Can't Ignore the Web
Imagine that you have a super usher. With extraordinary stamina, he stands by the doors of your church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. His pants are always pressed, his tie is always straight, and he never runs out of Gospel tracts. Whenever people pass by, he invites them in and tells them about your church for as long as they will listen. Maybe a super usher sounds too good to be true, but most churches have one these days, even if they don't realize it. He's your church website. But how well has he been working for your ministry?
It's time to start thinking of your website as your primary communication tool. At the time of writing, the estimated US population is 302.5 million people. As of May 2007, 210.5 million of them were active internet users, and more are being added to this figure every day. A report from Pew Internet, also from May of 2007, showed that half of all American adults heavily use the internet and only 15% (mostly older adults) have no internet connectivity.
The simple truth is that in our day and age, your church's online presence is too important to ignore. When someone is searching for a local church to visit, the church with the most successful website will get the most attention. Taking a half-hearted attitude about your church website can mean losing potential visitors and fostering a poor perception of your ministry within your community, especially among the younger generation. It's interesting that many churches will keep their lawn neatly trimmed and their carpet clean while their website looks unkept and antiquated.
If you feel frustrated or discouraged with your website, you're not alone. According to a survey from the Center for Church Communications in 2005, although 83% of churches had websites, 59% of them were ambivalent or dissatisfied with their current site! Why are so many churches disappointed by their site? Perhaps they are overwhelmed by the time and effort it takes to keep their site up-to-date, or they have no budget for a website and are stuck with something created years ago by a volunteer, or they have been left out in the cold by an untrustworthy service provider who was more interested in collecting his fees than meeting their online needs.
Regardless of your church's current situation, this series of articles is designed to help you understand the importance and benefits of an effective, usable website, and to give you practical tips on how to take it to the next level of performance, efficiency and outreach.
In the next article in this series, we'll discuss the importance of usability.