If Jesus Had A Website

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.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 6:42 pm and is filed under archives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.