How Site Features Help You Make A More Effective Church Website
Earlier this year I came across two different articles:
- Top 10 Features of an Effective Church Website by Lauren Hunter in Church Solutions magazine (Thanks Cory Miller!)
- 10 Things an Effective Church Website Can Do For You by Mean Dean at Heal Your Church Website
These got me thinking...what is the connection between the features of an effective church website and how they can be used to make the site more effective. Well, I decided to try to combine these lists to observe how website features can be used to make the site more effective:
- Dynamic Content
- Save On Printing and Postage - If we no longer have to produce as many physical copies of the announcements and other paperwork used by our church, we can help save it money.
- Communicate Across Boundaries - Dynamic content also helps to make our church website more visible to search engines, which will make the church more visible to...
- Reach New Residents
- Convert Seekers - Let your site be a dialogue of faith instead of a pamphlet for the church.
- Online Donations
- Save On Printing and Postage - Reduce the need for checks and tithing envelopes!
- Online Calendars
- Reduce Staff Support Loads - Make your scheduling easier to maintain and all kept in one place.
- Build the Body Online - Keep everyone on the same page!
- Save On Printing and Postage (again) - No need to print a new calendar each week to keep up with changing events.
- Maximize Press and Ad Campaigns - Put everything in a central place that is easy to peruse.
- Event Registrations & Payments
- Reduce Staff Support Loads - Allow people to take care of these tasks on their own when it's convenient for them.
- Maximize Press and Ad Campaigns - Take advantage of the impulse buy since they can take care of it right where they are instead of depending on someone to make the venture to your church to take care of the same tasks.
- Online Ticketing
- Support Lay Ministries - Instead of having someone be physically present to sell tickets, let them simply check on requests when they have time.
- Gauge Relevant Interests - Quickly know how well your special event is being received.
- Volunteer Ministries
- Support Lay Ministries - Allow a place for these ministries to congregate online instead of depending on physical meetings.
- Build the Body Online - Present people with the opportunities available!
- Small Groups
- Communicate Across Boundaries - Your small group could be people from all over the globe, or just people unable to make a session due to travel.
- Gauge Relative Interests - Are your small groups too small or not small enough?
- E-newsletters
- Save On Printing and Postage - Since there won't be any more!
- Minimize Dead Ends - Help keep everyone more aware of what is going on in a more timely manner.
- Member-Only Areas
- Reduce Staff Support Loads - Allow members to maintain their own contact information online.
- Blogs, Podcasts and More
- Reach New Residents - Provide church seekers a venue to learn some more about your church without actually having to walk in the door.
- Convert Seekers - Again, blogs and podcasts help to generate a dialogue, which allows seekers to find out more about their faith.
As you can see, different features can help with multiple functions. So if you're looking at adding some new features, try to figure out which ones will benefit your church the most and prioritize them accordingly.
1. The very large number of people who are not active online on a regular basis, other than sending e-mail and browsing one or two sites.
2. The inertia of those who are active on the internet. I find that just because it is available, doesn't mean that people will actually start using it.
This means the staff will still have to follow up on those who don't use the internet, or don't take the time to check it. It also means that they will have to still make copies and mail out calendars, etc., or that they will have to deal with disgruntled members who want to know why nothing is being sent to them anymore.
Just my two cents.
John
<a href="http://john-simons.com/">john-simons.com&l...;
First, let me say that I don't think churches should completely drop what they're doing with paper and mailings and trade them in for their web equivalents. If it is done, it will need to be a gradual transition.
Secondly, I can't say that I agree with your limiting factors:
1. Research is showing that people are starting to spend more time online than watching TV. In fact, this is already evident with American youth (http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2003/07/...) and the European population in general (http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/brits-s...). We do have to be careful not to underestimate what our websites can do.
2. This is why it's important to implement what will be most useful to your church and congregation. If it's something useful, then they'll use it, and vice versa. For example, if your pastor has no interest in blogging, then don't put a blog on your church website because it will actually detract from the church's image instead of enhancing it.