If Jesus Had A Website

I apologize for any inconveninece over the last few days. My ISP was clearly having some issues with both their web and database servers. Just when I was getting to be really happy with them too…

Piggybacking on my last post, I wanted to spend a little time looking at some other ways that we can cause our church website to be less effective. After all, it's better that we learn from the mistakes of others than have to make them all ourselves.

• Full Frontal Assault – Also known as overwhelming your visitors with information on your homepage. We need to make sure that we plan our site layouts not only in terms of where information appears on a page, but hierarchically (where links to more detailed information are located and lead to). Sometimes we need to ask ourselves if everything really needs to go on the first page, or can it be better placed elsewhere.
• Hide & Seek – We need to make sure that information is not only available, but easily and logically reachable. If they can't get to key information in 2-3 clicks, then your visitors may just stop trying.
• A Little Bit Of Everything – I know we all like to think of our church websites as important (and they are), but sometimes we lose site of how important they are in peoples' daily lives. I've seen a few webmasters try to make their websites a portal/startpage with local weather reports, sports scores and news headlines on their homepage. While it works for a general audience, like Yahoo, there's a very good chance that those aren't the things that most visitors to your church website are looking for.
• Now That's Flashy – Don't get me wrong, Flash and Javascript functionality can help make a website very inviting. However, let's not forget that not everyone has Flash installed, nor does everyone have Javascript enabled. Make sure your website is still useable to these folks. And you'll need to check it yourself, because it's highly unlikely that they'll let you know they had trouble with your site.

As always, there's lots to consider when working on our church websites. When working, try to get feedback from a range of people, including other webmasters and general web users. Chances are, if you ask their opinion, they'll be more than happy to share it.

Most of the time here at IJHAW, we spend our time examining how we can make our web sites more effective. However, there are things we can do which, despite all the bells and whistles we can add, can make a church website completely useless. Pardon my tongu-in-cheek humor.

• Don't Post Your Service Times – After all, why would anyone want to know when the service started?
• Don't Post Your Location/Address – This is especially ineffective for churches that do not have their own buildings.
• Don't Post Any Contact Information – If they really want to get a hold of you, they can just use the phone book, right? No chance they'd just move on to the next church website.
• Use A “My First Website” Design – No, this doesn't make it look like we're not even trying, or that we're completely behind the times.
• Write About What Your Church Won't Stand For – Nothing oozes love like singling out all the things your church hates.
• Have Broken Links – Because people can just look at the Status Bar and figure out where the link was supposed to go.
• Have Music Playing In The Background – If they don't like the same music you do, then you don't want them at your church anyway.
• Don't Keep Your Website Content Up-to-Date – Surely, visitors will realize that you just don't have the time to get them information.
• Don't Even Bother Having A Website – We like our members like we like our Senators, over 30!

Remember all the little things that you look for in a website when putting your site together. While the above list was meant to be funny, I have seen real cases of each! Making sure you take care of all the details will help to ensure that your website is a more effective tool for your church.

It's been a contemplative week for me, as I've been taking a step back out of my little programming world and taking a look at how others do their work.

Today, I wanted to ask where you get your ideas and inspirations in your designs and site development. We all have our tried and true resources, but oftentimes there isn't too much in common from one developer/designer to another. Sometimes, it's good to come together and share our resources, and maybe see things a bit differently.

Here's a quick list of some of my inspirations:

• Open Source Web Design – For a bunch of "starting points" in the layout and design process.
• Andreas Viklund – Who reminds me that both form and function are important.
• Ray Camden's Coldfusion Blog – Covering a lot of the little things in ColdFusion development that help make a better end-product.
• Blog Ministry Lab – A small group, but trying to move Christian blog design forward.
• The Church Webmasters' Forum – Sharing experiences and ideas with other church webmasters with a wide range of experiences.

Wow, the month is already beginning to fly by, and I realized that I had not posted last month's poll results yet. Time flies when you're staying busy.

Looking over the results, it looks like the dominant player for most church websites is PHP. I can't say that I'm surprised, but I can say that I'm glad to see it winning out over static coding.

The biggest surprise for me was that nobody was using Plain HTML. While that's great news, I did expect to see a few cases of it. Of course, there are some sites out there using it, but obviously it's none of you.

Oh, and I was glad to see that I have a few partners in crime on the ColdFusion front!

For those of you who voted for other, I'd be really interested to hear what you're using. Maybe I just comepletely missed something.

For September, I'm asking what the primary function of your church website is. Hopefully, this one will make you think a little bit. Try to vote for what the primary function actually is for your church and congregation, and not what you want it to be (because often they are not one and the same).

Checking in today, I find myself with more questions than I do knowledge to share. Therefore, I have decided to post a set of open questions to you all:

• Do you have any experience using Content Management Systems (CMS, like PHPNuke or Joomla) or Church Management Systems (ChMS, like the Web Empowered Church)? If so, which one(s)?
• Do you have any experience installing and/or maintaining a CMS or ChMS? If so, which one(s)?
• What are your overall opinions of CMS and ChMS setups? What are the advantages and disadvantages of them?

I've just been thinking a lot about these types of systems recently. I have experience with both PHPNuke and PostNuke in the past on other projects, but I've never been fully satisfied with the results. Being a developer myself, that's why I wrote the blog software for this site. I wanted more control over things than any CMS could give me.

I have yet to try any of the ChMS systems currently out there because I figure I'll run into the same kind of situation.

I look forward to hearing from all of you about your experiences.

EDIT: Wednesday, Ruben over at BlogMinistry added his thoughts on Drupal and Joomla.

We all go through periods of life where we lose our focus on God, and we let other things creep ahead of Him on our priority lists. It's one of those things that happens among the highs and lows of our walks with Christ. Usually, it happens when we focus on something we want instead of following what God wants for us.

Similarly, we can do the same thing with our websites. We want to add in the latest offerings from a hot API, or we want to put together a flashy look, or add the latest multimedia offerings to our site. We want to keep up with the ever-changing technologies so that our sites don't fall behind the curve.

However, sometimes when we try to take on these projects, sometimes we lose track of what is supposed to be our focus. Using Flash-based menus can leave a site difficult to navigate through for those either without Flash enabled and those using text-based browsers (like the blind). A new design may push important information to counter-intuitive locations if not planned out properly. We may get so excited about a new feature we've added that we don't notice that it's broken something else.

While I'm not trying to put down the use of new features and technologies, I do want to encourage you to examine the benefits of simple design and implementations. Your website doesn't have to be the next Digg or del.icio.us, but it should be an easy-to-navigate presentation of your church, group or yourself. The vast majority of people will appreciate a well thought-out design plan over flashy features.

So, next time you go to add a cool new feature to your website, take a minute to think about what benefit it will have to your site's visitors, and if there are other important parts of your site that may need the attention more. Make sure you keep your focus on the things that are most important.  In the end, you'll find yourself with a better overall site that people enjoy using.