This past Sunday, my wife and I, in our search for a new church, made a second visit to a local church.  We had had a fairly good experience on our first visit, so we went back hoping for more of the same.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and we got an hour-long sales pitch on the importance of the ministries of the church.

Now, I do believe it is important to support your ministries publicly.  However, there are good and bad ways to go about it.

For starters, it's important to differentiate between ministries and fellowships.  In my book, ministries are activities designed around the idea of reaching out to non-believers.  Conversely, fellowships are activities designed around building Christian community and bonds amongst fellow Christians.

It's because of this difference that I was rather bothered that the church listed basketball and softball, church teams formed of church members to play teams from other churches, as ministries.  I'm sorry, but an activity where 99% of participants are expected to be Christians doesn't fit as a ministry.

Another suggestion would be to avoid talking too much about financing your ministries in a public forum.  For example, I'd avoid phrases like "Only 5 of our 90+ ministries received more than $24,000 for the year."  They may not be received as you intend.

To most people, a figure like that is pretty substantial.  I'd estimate that for 70% of that congregation, that figure is at least half of their annual income.  Coming from a small church, my wife and I were flabbergasted by the figure, because we weren't even able to pay our pastor that much, and the churches operating expenses were around $80,000.  Yes, they were different neighborhoods with different demographics, but they were the same denomination and only three or four miles apart.

When you represent your church, in person or online, make sure that you do so accurately and realistically.  Don't call things something they aren't so you can brag about numbers, and don't use superlatives with figures that don't match (i.e. "Last weeks tithes were only $100,000") or don't use them at all.  You're more likely to find people respond to opportunities than the pressure sell.

We want the focus of out church websites to be on evangelization and reaching out to people, but there are some people we want to keep out of our sites: HACKERS!

Thousands of hackers are out there. Some are professionals whose job is to discover leaks in software, and then report them to companies so that the software can be made more secure. Others hack as a hobby to both show off their talents and to make the lives of others more difficult. This second group can really cause some troubles, as they may leave your website either tainted with some kind of virus or spyware, or modify your content.

Now, I'm no security expert myself, but there are precautions we can take to discourage or minimize the effects of hackers:

1. Make Backups Of Everything - This can be as simple as storing a ZIP file with all of you files in it on a seperate computer. When you have a copy of everything, if you do get hacked then you can restore your site to where it was before getting hacked.
2. Keep All Packages Up To Date - If you are using a Content Management System or your own dynamic content setup, make sure you (or that your hosting company) keep your server up to date with the latest versions. Often, updates are made to these packages for security reasons as often as they are for new features.
3. Watch Your File Permissions - If you're using a Linux host, make sure that all your files and directories are not set to CHMOD 777. That means that anyone can edit any of your files, add files or delete existing files; and even a new hacker can get in and modify your files. With other OSs, make sure that your files are not set for public or anonymous writing.
   

So those are a few pointers to get you started. Remember, if your site gets hacked, it's not the end of the world. Learn from the experience, and you'll help keep it from happening again.

 

Yea, you just read that right. And, yes, this is a Christian site!

Over the weekend, I read a lot of blog articles that linked to a church website that prominently features scripture from Luke 4:7, where Satan is speaking to Jesus. Now, I'm going to allow that church to save face and not point them out directly, but I would like to use this as an example of what not to do. As the person in charge of content on your church website, it also becomes your responsibility to use proper biblical context.

Now, last week I posted a story about the Ten Best E-Ministy Practices, with one of them being "Do your best, then post it", saying that in today's internet, errors are ok because they can be fixed. Today, I want to emphasize that statement, but constrain it to typographical and grammatical errors. These errors occur and shouldn't impact the nature of the content you are trying to convey. However, misleading biblical reference and using scripture out of context can have a long-lasting impact. Once people see an example of biblical illiteracy, it can be really hard to live down. It takes away the authority of the local church, and reflects poorly on the church as a whole.

So, while mistakes are sure to be made, do your best to demonstrate your church as biblically literate on your website. While doing so may not lead to many noticable benefits, not doing so will lead to numerous detractions.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and ended up saying more than you wanted? You've probably seen the commercial with a wife and husband talking to a company about internet security while the husband keeps blurting out information he probably doesn't really want people to know. While mildly amusing, the commercial better hilights one of the key concerns of the internet: privacy.

When discussing church websites, there are three main privacy concerns we must address: Names, Photos, and Member Information.

Names is simply on this list because some people can be funny about having even just their name posted online. While most people are more than happy to see their name posted out in cyberspace, some people are afraid that it may be used to gather information on them. So, to be safe, always ask if it's ok for you to use someone's name on your church's website.

Photos can be a tricky item as well. Much like names, most people are more than happy to see their pictures online. They also add to the overall appeal of the website as they show people involved in the church. However, some people may not be as welcoming, so be sure to run it by them real quick and respect people's wishes if they do not want to be included.

Another concern with photos is safety. Try to avoid using photos of people with nametags, especially children, or at least blur the name out. While the likelihood of an individual using the image and name for the purpose of wrongdoing, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Lastly, and probably most relevantly, we also want to protect member information. While an online member directory is a great resource, we do not want to publicly advertise the addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of our members for every mass-mailer, telemarketer, and spammer out there. If you do want to place a member directory on the web, please make sure that it is in a secure section of your site (i.e. password protected or only available to approved members registered on your site). Otherwise, you should probably stick with either a printed directory distributed to members or a directory file that can be e-mailed directly to members.

Regardless, be sure to protect the people that you include in your church's website. If they've entrusted you with information or images of themselves, it's your obligation to protect what they've give you to the best of your ability.

Ads are everywhere on the web now, and can be as much of a nuisance as a help at times. Ads are put on websites for all kinds of reasons. Some people use them to try and make a living, while others use the ads to pay for basic site fees so that they can provide free services (like this site).

And now that advertisements have permeated the vast majority of the internet, it would be easy and almost natural to try to put them on your site. However, if you are talking about a church website, then this becomes a very dangerous road to walk for several reasons:

1. Most churches are non-profit organizations - by placing advertisements on your page you may cause visitors to question the church's priorities
2. The church is an outreach tool - just as with many outreach tools, it costs time and money to be effective. The main focus of the site should be what the church can give to visitors, and not what it can get from them.
   
3. Ads may not always provide appropriate content - since many ads are now "context sensitive", meaning that they try to pick good advertisements based on the content of your site. However, certain keywords can trigger ads for illicit websites, and this reputation risk is on that is not worth taking.

While I have only come across a few church websites that have encountered this problem, it's something that I'm sure has crossed many a webmaster's mind. In the end, the use of advertisements just "looks bad" for a church for so many reasons. They really are something to be avoided.