Who would Jesus write His website for? A question of gender...
In the third part of a series on website content, we will discuss questions that arrise based from the premise "If Jesus Had A Website..." in order to better analyze approaches and expectations of church website content.
One of the most socially remarkable things about the ministry of Jesus was that he treated people from all walks of life as equals: the rich and the poor, the educated and the unlearned, and the men and the women. Over the years, men and women have not always been treated as equals, but in today's society we have reached a level of gender equality that has few comparisons throughout history.
However, just because a level of equality has been reached, it doesn't mean both men and women should be treated the same. In an interesting article from CBN, David Morrow takes a look at Why Men Hate Church.
While this article may not apply to your church situation directly, it is important to note that we can rarely expect to reach both a male and female base through a single message. Now, I'm not advocating the creation of a "Men's Site" and a "Women's Site", but I am cautioning against creating a site that is too male or female oriented if it is a site directed at both genders (yes, . If you are the sole person in charge of the content on your church's website, be sure to step outside of your writing comfort zone from time to time and try something from another perspective. Maybe take a different approach to what may seem like traditional topics. Or try covering a broader spectrum of topics, even if they are of little interest to you personally.
As Paul instructed us to be all things to all men, you should try to reach as broad a variety of people as possible.
Take that step outside of your comfort zone, and you may find that you can reach others more effectively.
Its true, we have to appeal to every one.
Pixeljuggler,
I also remember reading somewhere an article about how men and women find different aestetics pleasing when it comes to their online browsing, so many sites were going back to the drawing board to make sure their designs were appealing not just to the men who originally dominated the internet, but to both sexes.
No one said this would be easy...