Friday, February 01, 2008

Your church's website...

...probably stinks. At least, that is my take after visiting literally hundreds of church websites over the past two years. This article was fascinating in two regards: 1) that someone could actually write a PhD dissertation on church websites; 2) that her main suggestion was that links communicate far more than text on a website.

I think that last point is probably right. However, most church websites don't have much in the way of text or links; and they certainly aren't crafted with a seeker or potential visitor in view. How to communicate the ethos of a church, especially to a millennial/X-er seeker, continues to allude most churches (and other organizations, including seminaries, for that matter).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

check out the flash at my old church...
www.trinitynorfolk.com

Tony said...

I'll look forward to reading the article. This is certainly a serious problem. We have produced a self-assessment tool for churches, to help them develop their sites so that they are actually accessible and enticing to outsiders:
Church Design Tool and are also about to publish a parable story called 'A tale of two golf clubs' to illustrate the same priciples. Feedback on the design tool will be gratefull received.

Blessings

Tony

Anonymous said...

This is very true. In fact, when I was looking for a job I could pretty much tell whether or not I would be interested in working at a particular Church by simply scanning their home page.