The idea for today’s article was sparked a message on the Christian-web-masters.com forums by the leader of a church web team that just completed a new site for their church. He states:
“There is a general feeling with some church members that the web is not a worthwhile tool and that other folks are too old to learn or use a computer. Some think their ministries will continue and a ‘new tool’ will not be useful or applicable to their efforts.”
His plan is to do an open house that includes a demonstration of the new site in the sanctuary using the video projector.
That got me thinking… How should a church webmaster deal with pushback from the congregation concerning a new church website? How do you get the congregation to buy into the new site?
(Let me interject here that my comments here are not aimed at this specific site or webmaster but are intended as general advice to all church webmasters.)
First of all, I love the idea of an open house with a live demo. If possible I would do it immediately after a service so people are right there and don’t have to make an extra trip to the church or even leave their seats.
One concern, however, is the tendency of us techies is to focus a presentation on the features and what the site can do. If you go off on Flash animations, opt-in newsletters, content management systems, and so on most eyes will glaze over. Even those people who “get it” may leave saying, “That’s cool, but so what?” The key is to paint a vivid picture that helps people visualize two things: how the website furthers the mission of the church and how the website will help them.
How does the website further the church’s mission?
To answer this, first you have to know the church mission statement. Second, I hope you designed your site with the church’s mission in mind. If not, well, you could be in a world of hurt. You may need to completely redesign your site. Sorry if that sound harsh, but if your church mission statement is to reach your community with the Gospel and your site is primarily made up of information for members, then the fact is your site is not helping the church accomplish its mission. Go back to the drawing board.
You should be able to stand up in front of your congregation and say, “Our missions statement is… Our website helps us achieve that by…”
While missions statements vary, there are some things that should be a part of every church mission statement. If part of your mission is to reach your community, then I hope you’re able to say your site is designed to be helpful to visitors. You should be able to say something like, “The website makes it easy for church seekers to find the information they are looking for such as a description of the church, contact information, a map and directions, a brief video introduction to the church, and a video of a recent service.” Maybe you don’t have all those items on your site, but you should be able to describe how you designed the site to give a prospective visitor the information and the comfort level they need to get them to your front door.
Most churches also have discipleship as a part of their mission. If that’s the case, I hope you are able to say something such as, “The website provides information about opportunities to get connected, grow spiritually, and fulfill your purpose in life by helping others.” A bit of advice about ministries and websites, rather than simply describing the ministries be sure you help to answer two vital questions for the reader: “Is this ministry for me?” and “If so, what is my next step?”
How can the website help me?
I believe you have to address this question at two levels. On one level, you have to paint a picture for the “church consumer” who is looking for what they can get out of church. You have to describe for them scenarios where the website will be helpful for them. Forget when the Thursday pot luck dinner starts? Check the website. Were you sick Sunday and missed Pastor’s sermon? Listen to it online during the week. Is God nudging you to help the needy? Check the website to see how you can serve.
On a second level, you should cast vision for those who are serving on ministry teams using specific examples to help them see how the website will improve their ministry. For your student ministry volunteers, you’ve got a youth group trip coming up and the night before you leave a parent calls and can’t find their kids medical release form. No problem, you give them the link to it on the website, they print it, fill it out, and bring it the next morning. For your church board, instead of answering same questions about the building program over and over again, now people can check the website for regular updates and frequently asked questions.
For more information, visit our website
Beyond helping people understand how the site fulfills the mission of the church and helps them, you also need to get people into the habit of using it. The great thing about a church website is it has the unique capacity for complete information. You simply cannot communicate everything there is to know about the church, events, and ministry opportunities in verbal announcements during services, the church bulletin, fliers that get handed out, or even the 25 page monthly newsletter. Your senior pastor and other ministry leaders can help people get into the habit of using this great resource by concluding every written and verbal announcement with these six magic words: For more information, visit our website.
Prove it
Finally, even with a live demo, endorsements from the pulpit, and constant encouragement to visit the website, there will always be some holdouts, particularly older people who don’t want to change. That’s life. Regardless of whether people buy in initially or not, though, ultimately the onus is on you, the webmaster, to prove the value of the site. If your site regularly includes old, inaccurate, or incomplete information, it will lose even its most ardent supporters. You have to be relentlessly consistent in updating the site. If people experience it to be a reliable resource of up-to-date information, eventually even most of the naysayers will come on board.
What do you think? How would you try to get a reluctant congregation on board with a new website?
10 Comments
We’ve recently reworked our website – and have opted for a two fold approach. 1) a site for the public 2) a site for our members (which is in building process).
Our site for the public is intended to inform the public about our church as well as give opportunity for exposure to the gospel, including a gospel presentation and some sermons.
Our secondary site will be accessed via password and will have directory information as well as items specific to church life (ie announcements, sermons etc).
It is a challenge to engage a congregation in understanding the relevancy of a website. We’ve made up “webcards” (the size of business cards) that we leave at our information booth. These can be given out by our congregation or picked up by visitors that want to know more about our church. This has been effective.
Dear all, our website is the first offering, and will develop as time and resources permit. It was developed to both publicise the church to our own people, but also to draw in others from the Kingdom and beyond. We are still learning and trusting God to show us the way to use the internet for Godly purpose. It seems evident to us that if you want to contact and enthuse under 25’s you must have a web presence. We are also keen to show how a relatively small church can generate a significant Kingdom presence, this is in line with our mandate, which is to be a resource to the Kingdom of God. Have a look at our site and see what you think. It waas designed and built in house, and needs lots of work but at least it works. One of my real hates is church web sites that don’t work- how frustrating it must be for folk looking around the net. Yours in Christ, Mark Dodd. Mannahouse Ministry Centre
If I may jump in on this conversation as a new website owner, I feel there are many good things about a church hosting a website. I also would think that some “older” folks would take offense to the statement “too old to learn or use a computer”. Go to your local libraries and see how many “old folks” are learning how to use computers and the Internet for research, keeping in touch with friends from the past and things like that.
First I want to point out that a website is a tool. Use it the proper way and it is worth it weight, use it the wrong way and it is like throwing money down a black hole. Think about it for a second, the first preacher to use a radio or the first TV evangelist to reach millions of listeners, how many, and I am going to change the terminology from “old folks” to doubters said it was a waste or it will never catch on. Look at where it is today. The Internet is not only a tool for people to sell goods, do research, keep in touch with friends and family all over the world but also a place where the church can reach out to the world. I feel that a church today that wants to grow has to use every tool in its power to for it’s outreach. Just to add a couple of other points about the power of a good church website. The area I live in is one of the fastest growing areas in the state. With families moving in to our area every day a website search of churches in the area could cause a good church to be missed if they do not have one online. In the past I may have used the yellow pages but right now the only thing I do with that book is use it as a doorstop. Another thing that our church has done, besides giving a potential member a view of just about everything you want to know about our church, it has also been use during times of crisis. We live in a hurricane active area. The church has gone to the website to advise people if the church was going to be in operation during inclement weather. We are now working on hurricane awareness, and preparedness side of our website, which not only is an outreach but also a community service. This is a powerful tool and use the right way should be embraced by all of the non-doubters.
Your brother in Christ, Jim Howard
Not to be the cynic — but why spend much time developing a web site for a congregation that doesn’t want one? Or needs to be educated that it needs one?
I’m not being harsh — but I still stand by the fact that most congregations just need 5 good static page web site.
My experience shows that unless web sites for congregation emerge out of services the actual needs of the congregation — then most of what passes for a church web site is not used and designers get frustrated.
So does that mean no church web sites? No, it just means that every church doesn’t need a web site with a CMS or opt-in newsletter or RSS feed or blog.
I’d rather all these volunteer and pro designers spend more time finding a real hungry audiences and building solutions for them — rather than trying to convince an unwilling congregation to visit YOUR web site. I’d rather them just start using the web for spiritual formation rather than to support the local church.
Just my 2 cents.
Jim, just to clarify that statement “too old to learn to use a computer.” I agree with you (and I think the webmaster of this church’s site does as well), that many older people are quite comfortable with computers and more and more are getting online every day. It was some of the naysayers in his congregation that were saying a church website is not worthwhile because older people wouldn’t use it.
Tim, thanks for your perspective. That’s a good point that a church website should not be the tail that wags the dog. It should emerge out of the goals and needs of the church.
In this day and age, I doubt there are many entire congregations that don’t want a website. What I think many, particularly “mainstream denomination” churches deal with is a generational divide where the majority of the congregation would find a website very useful, but a vocal minority is resistant, probably the same minority that resists changing the color of the carpet, adding a video projector, and signing contemporary worship songs.
sir, i believe that the main mession God gave to us as christians is to preach the word to every creature in our world. which mean get the word by all means to the people. you see, people respond to defferent thing and many in todays world are shouting themself out of the public. and this are the most poeple who need the world.
Internet is one of the most effecient tool in preaching to the unreached. it brake alot of bandries and came be tolorated by alot of people bcause of it’s nature. i know, somebody is not ther talking to them about christ but they getting to see for themselfs that ‘s realy the massage about christ.
make no mistake about it, many people all over the world today are getting saved through the internet. i have alot of testemonies to back this so let your church be a part of this ban wagon of soul winning for christ. the issure is get the people to understand the advantage of it. they will accept it.
When we first developed our website (a little over a year ago), few people really took advangate of it to its full potential. That didn’t discourage me, because I knew that quite a few in our congregation don’t use a computer and don’t really care to learn. The point in making our website dynamic was to reach those who do care, who do have a computer and who do care about rss feeds and podcasts. If we can reach people through different methods, we need to reach out through those methods!
Our website used to be a static 5 page website that nobody ever went to, now we’re getting many visitors (for us) who are downloading the sermons every week! We’ve recieved dontations from people who have found us through search engines to help fund our youth outreach, and so much more.
Pardon my ramble, but my point is that we live in a changing culture. We need to be learning to change our methods of teaching and reaching… But we can never change the Bible. It is still relevant today, but many times the way we try to preach it is not…
Isaiah Henni
Youth Minister
Christian Church of Riverton
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I believe that because of globalization it is inevitable that the church has a strategy that uses the resources that are available to bring the gospel to people.
I liked the article.
Paul,
Parabéns pelo artigo muito bom.
I from Brazil.