Building a 3-D website for your church

Friend, I’ve been to your church’s website, and the news is not good.

The four most common problems I’ve noticed, and in this order, are:

1) It’s outdated. You’re still pushing last year’s Christmas program.

2) It’s neglected.  You’ve got a big weekend coming up (I know, because I’m the speaker!) and there’s not one word on there about it.

3) It’s dull.  Who wrote this, I wonder.

4) It’s too hard to find stuff that ought to be easy.  On one I looked at this weekend, wanting to read up on their staff, I had to check out all kinds of categories to find where they had buried the photos and identities of staffers. Finally found it under “new to our church?”

Half the pastors of churches where I have spoken recently or am scheduled to speak will read this and “just know” I’m talking about their website and be offended. Was I talking about your website, pastor buddy?

Probably.

The “3-D” Website which I’d love to see churches install would look something like this….

1) The identities of the staff would not be buried under three layers of information but somewhere up front. And, the descriptions of each staffer would be written by someone with just a touch of fun in their souls. Instead, they tend to be mind-numbingly dull with a tinge of bragging.  You know, “After completing his Ph.D. degree, Dr. Windful served First Church of Mediumville for five years and then came to us here at First Church of Hotstuff. He’s married to Miriam Hoffstuttler and they are the parents of three incredible children.”

I’m willing to bet five dollars each staffer wrote his own description.

2) Make it simple.  At least the main part of it should be “out there,” clear and understandable and easy to negotiate.  Then, if you just insist on telling us that the ladies group meets on Thursday mornings and such, create a place where we can “go deeper into the church” if we desire.

Most visitors to your website do not.

The people visiting your church website want to know three things: Where are you located, Who is your preacher, and What time do you meet.

Try not to bury that information.

3) This is optional, just an idea:  Tell us something that sets  your church apart.  Its uniqueness.  If you can.  Not all churches are unusual. And if your church isn’t, don’t say it is.

4) Visitors to your site would dearly love to find something funny.

Now, do not tell them a joke. However, if your pastor is like Dr. Mickey Dalrymple and does banquets with the skill of a stand-up comedian, borrow a line or two from him and display it.  “As our pastor says, ‘You’ll love our church–or answer to God for it!”  Silly is good if it’s not too over-the-top.  But just a little, not too much.

Best: Tell something humorous that happened in church recently, or something hilarious a kid said about the pastor’s sermon, or some slip of the tongue in the sermon that brought the house down.

Caution: Do not insert even a smidgen of humor unless it fits your church’s personality. If no one has cracked a smile in your service in the last century, this would be out of place.

5) An idea:  “What first-time visitors can expect at our church.”

Incidentally, do not call them “guests.” It smacks of Walmart calling their salespeople “associates,” like something an agent would do. Call them  what they are, “first-time visitors” or “newcomers.”

If you can answer that question–“What are the first things newcomers will notice about your church?”–then that might be an interesting thing to post on your page.  For instance, at my church, they would notice a) the worship center is almost round, meaning there are multiple entrances, which has caused us to mark the primary ones; b) that the sanctuary and educational building–where the nurseries are!–are not connected, but are in separate blocks from one another. (Parents looking for the appropriate room for their little ones will be glad to see the huge signs on the outside doors.)

That sort of thing.

6) Optional: Consider three or four categories (or headings) on the “home page”–what a visitor sees first when he/she clicks on your church name–that carry the most basic and needed information: Location, Times of services, What’s going on this Sunday, Most important upcoming event(s).

7) And perhaps as important as anything we’ve said before, have the webmaster train at least two people in your office–or two volunteers who can be counted on!–to update the site and insert new material weekly.  And yes, weekly means “every week of the year.”  Keep it current or call it off. (They should be able to do this from their home computer.)

The worst thing you can do to your church website is leave it in the hands of a professional computer programmer (whether a member of your church or someone you hire) for the simple reason that he/she will have limited time. The calls for their services are horrendous and they always have a waiting list of people needing them.  If you are counting on this individual–well-meaning though they are–to keep your website current and helpful, you will forever be hearing excuses: “Pastor, I’m sorry, but the Federal Corporation had a breakdown and I’ve been out there the last 48 hours” or “I had every intention of doing that for you, preacher, but the bank’s computers developed a virus and I’ve been working nonstop to cleanse it.”

By training two people who will be available, you should always have someone on hand to a) delete old information and insert new material the first of every week and b) make last-minute changes at other times you need it done.

Those two workers do not need to know how to do everything, just get into the basic program and delete/insert material.  Personally, I’m past three-score-and-ten and learned how to do that on my own website in about 30 minutes, with my computer-savvy son setting up the program and showing me how. These days, I bother him only about one time every three months with a question.

Church websites are like the sign in front of your church:  If you will keep it up to date, everyone passing will read it.  But if you neglect it and leave old material up forever, it will become part of the landscape and no one will notice it.

A pastor reading this is wondering how to do this, how to make these changes.  The answer is simple; doing it a little less so….

1) You do need someone computer-sharp to set up the website the way you want it (not how he/she insists it should be!).  You will want to insist that the installer make it so user-friendly that the office secretary or a volunteer can enter the program and make additions.  Furthermore, they are not finished until they train the workers.

2) Where do you find those two workers?  If you have office employees, you have your answer. If not, you need to “pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth workers,” as our Lord said.  Pray and then pass the word to several key leaders.

3) Should you announce to the congregation that “We need two volunteers to maintain our church website….”?  Only as a last resort.  You run the risk of the last-person-on-earth you want handling this stepping up and volunteering, and you not being able to refuse. Ask God, then follow His directions.

4) You must monitor it.  Go to the website at least weekly and notice everything. Then, periodically have meetings with your two workers to get their input, hear their complaints/suggestions. If you don’t do this, like everything else on the planet when neglected, the process begins to deteriorate and break down.

Make your church’s website Three-Dimensional.  (Pastors who live and die by three points all beginning with the same letter of the alphabet will want to know what the three D’s are.  I have no clue.  In this case, it’s simply an expression which means full-bodied and complete.)

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Building a 3-D website for your church

  1. Bro. Joe,

    Thomas Hammond – with NAMB – does a training he calls “Making Your Church a Visitor Friendly Church.”

    One of the first things he says is not to call them visitors; they are guests. He says the differences between the two are important.
    A VISITOR is some who usually arrives without notice, whose presence was not planned for, and will not be around for long.
    A GUEST is invited, his arrival is planned for, and the expectation is that a guest will stay.
    An example He uses is going to a hotel. He says you are never called a visitor at a hotel; you are a guest. The reasons are those above.
    The truth of the matter, in my opinion, is that you can call them just about anything, but if you don’t treat them as you should what you label them will mean nothing.

  2. Joe: Good article. Another word to use for the people or someone who may have visited more than once. The word is “participant”.
    In welcoming, the Pastor could say, “to all who are participating in our service today etc” would welcome everyone. He could say that, if you happen to be first time participants, we would appreciate your filling out one of our participants card.

    Where I was serving when I retired the building had a front door and a side door. Guess which was used the most. The side door was next to the parking lot. Often I made statements that we were the “side door” Baptist Church.
    No one got upset. Many would smile and continue to use the side door.

    Don Cole

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