Church website advice?

[daniel.vos]

Good morning,

How many of you are webmasters of your church websites?

If so, what advice would you give to church planters who want to set up a church website?

 

[Edward]

Not a church webmaster, but I set up the original site for the Southwest Church Planting Network (it's now professionally done, and looks much better than my efforts). There have been some threads on the subject here on PB, but I'll start you out.

1. Don't use Flash. If you do, make sure that a non-Flash version is available. But the less Flash, the better.

2. Do tell when and where you meet. Give directions and a map.

3. Tell what to expect, worship style and apparel.

4. Tell how to contact the church/church planter.

5. A brief statement of distinctives.

6. A brief bio of the pastor.

7. Links to helpful materials.

8. Don't put time sensitive materials up unless you know that someone will keep that section updated weekly.

9. Make sure that the AC's search page has the link to the site.

 

[crimsonleaf]

Just to add to that (I'm building my own church's website) when giving contact details please include an email option, as some people are too nervous about speaking to anyone directly.

We've also included a "listen online" page where a reader can listen to sermons we're recorded and made available, searchable by speaker, scripture, date or subject.

 

[Edward]

Just to add to that (I'm building my own church's website) when giving contact details please include an email option, as some people are too nervous about speaking to anyone directly.

This should be either a response form, or a dedicated email address separate from the Pastor's email, as it will draw spam and possibly hate mail.

 

[Vasahond]

Oh, and might I suggest Wordpress? It's a perfect base for creating a church website. I host several on my own webserver, and I also have been approached concerning my own church's website. They also utilize Wordpress; it's pretty great.

 

[wtleaver]

Here's some good info:

http://www.mediaserve.com/knowledgebase/111/What-do-you-recommend-to-power-a-church-website.html

 

[Caroline]

Edward's advice is excellent. Also, keep a copy of passwords, and other log in information so that if your web designer forgets/ leaves the church/ gets run over by a truck, you have the ability to maintain control of the website.

Put pictures of people on the site. It helps give the impression that people actually attend your church, which is always helpful. Also, put a picture of the pastor with his bio. If he is a severe-looking man, put his wife and kids in the photo to mellow it out.

The most useless websites are those that do not tell where the church is or what time it meets, have only one photo of the actual church building and none of the people (or especially those with no photos at all or random landscape photos), are not updated regularly, or the church has lost control of it entirely because the designer moved to Outer Mongolia to realize his dream of herding yaks.

And I have said this before, but I will say it again: update the website. If the church moves to a new location, change the address and directions on the website. If the church gets a new pastor, change the bio and photo. Don't leave pictures of people who have left the church on the site (it depresses all current congregants when they go to the site and see a huge collection of photos of everyone who used to attend). Don't leave announcements up from three years ago--it makes it look like your church has died.

But a well maintained website is an excellent tool for any church, and these days, a lot of people won't attend without checking it out online first.

 

[irresistible_grace]

Edward's advice is excellent. Also, keep a copy of passwords, and other log in information so that if your web designer forgets/ leaves the church/ gets run over by a truck, you have the ability to maintain control of the website.

Put pictures of people on the site. It helps give the impression that people actually attend your church, which is always helpful. Also, put a picture of the pastor with his bio. If he is a severe-looking man, put his wife and kids in the photo to mellow it out.

The most useless websites are those that do not tell where the church is or what time it meets, have only one photo of the actual church building and none of the people (or especially those with no photos at all or random landscape photos), are not updated regularly, or the church has lost control of it entirely because the designer moved to Outer Mongolia to realize his dream of herding yaks.

And I have said this before, but I will say it again: update the website. If the church moves to a new location, change the address and directions on the website. If the church gets a new pastor, change the bio and photo. Don't leave pictures of people who have left the church on the site (it depresses all current congregants when they go to the site and see a huge collection of photos of everyone who used to attend). Don't leave announcements up from three years ago--it makes it look like your church has died.

But a well maintained website is an excellent tool for any church, and these days, a lot of people won't attend without checking it out online first.

 

[thbslawson]

Wordpress is great, but also wix.com. Both will cost you a little for a domain and hosting. Wix runs about $99 per year. Very intuitive and easy to setup. No programming skills required.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

I use Google Sites for the format/template and use a third-party hosting site for the domain/server space.

It took me about a day to initially set it up and about 15 minutes with the hosting site to get it online.

Every week it takes me about 5 minutes to update it with the relevant information.

www.ellisvillepres.org