Introduction
Let's hear from some Church webmasters
Other Christian website experts say...
More expert advice...
Conclusion with an important example site...
Recently, the CWM Community members met in our forums to put together a list of what kinds of features can or should go on a church website. Read what your piers are recommending and add to the discussion yourself.
This article is a ?play-by-play? summary of the discussion that took place. This should catch you up on the discussion. We encourage you to join in with your own comments.
Sean Buscay began the discussion with suggesting the following features for Church Websites:
A tour of some sort to take people to through key information and an introduction.
Directions and contact information.
Pictures showing the church, the people, and events (to give visitors and idea that this is the kind of place they?d want to visit)
News and Events
Sermons and Christian education material
? A statement of Faith
Community member Jim (JAAulde) who runs (old link) recommends adding a method of looking for answers to life's questions, i.e. a searchable Bible. One free and popular tool for this may be found at The Bible Gateway, in this section: Adding a Bible Gateway form to your page . Other helpful bible search tools have been recommended by our community members in these threads: Bible Search Tools and Bible Software for Website
The CWM Community
www.christian-web-masters.com/forums/The CWM Community is made of web designers, webmasters, and others with a passion for the web and cyber-ministry. You are invited to join them.
Introduction
Let's hear from some Church webmasters
Other Christian website experts say...
More expert advice...
Conclusion with an important example site...
Chris, who runs Tiger Green Productions and the church website Franklin Community Church has added a visitors page to his church website. You can view his example here. Note the detail and the writing style.
Chris says,
"Create a visitors page. I can't stress that enough. ?Our monthly stats indicate the visitors? page is number two in most-visited pages."
Pete (webcat2003), the webmaster for Campton Babptist Church , recommends:
Church History
Information about staff and lay leaders
Forums!
Sermons and teaching in audio format
The CWM Community
www.christian-web-masters.com/forums/The CWM Community is made of web designers, webmasters, and others with a passion for the web and cyber-ministry. You are invited to join them.
Introduction
Let's hear from some Church webmasters
Other Christian website experts say...
More expert advice...
Conclusion with an important example site...
David (macfoto), reminds us that in addition to location to add "times for services" for those that are new to the Church. ( See David's Site on the: Scenic Fraser Valley)
Brett (Faith Internet), a Christian web hosting provider who ran Faith Internet before returning to work on his PHD, answers the question of what should be on a church web site by saying,
?The answer: It depends. Before you start putting things on your web site you need to have a clear vision of the purpose of the site. You need to answer this question: What is the purpose of the site? Advertising to visitors or creating community for church members. It has been my experience that you can not effectively do both. It is a big mistake to try to accomplish two differing purposes with the same site.?
Brett?s point is probably the most important to first step when considering what to put on a church website.
What is your site's purpose?
Who is the primary audience?
How can you effectively serve both an internal church member audience while using the site as an invitation to potential visitors?
Careful planning and consideration is important.
Community member and CWM forum administrator Paul (bobbymac) recommends a welcome message from the (senior) pastor of the church. He says it helps strengthen the connection between the church and the website.
Paul also recommends a list of activities that the church is involved in - things that may appeal to visitors, such as sport and recreation, craft, helping the poor, gardening, etc.
The CWM Community
www.christian-web-masters.com/forums/The CWM Community is made of web designers, webmasters, and others with a passion for the web and cyber-ministry. You are invited to join them.
Introduction
Let's hear from some Church webmasters
Other Christian website experts say...
More expert advice...
Conclusion with an important example site...
Paul says,
?You also have to consider how people enter your site - they may not visit your front page first, so making links to the visitors page(s) available throughout the site is important.?
To see a great example of an inviting Church website in Australia visit Paul?s church website.
Community member Scott (livetoserve), lets his passion for youth ministry show when he says,
?I think that a church site needs to stress it's youth ministries... Can't stress the youth part of a church enough. The youth are the future of the church.?
He recommends a section of the front page devoted to just youth ministry with activities, outreaches, youth meeting schedules, upcoming conferences, events, etc. Along with a welcome from the Senior Pastor, it would be good to have a welcome note from the youth group.
Scott knows what he?s talking about when he speaks of youth ministry and the net. He runs Live 2 Serve Ministries a top Christian chat ministry on the web.
Now let?s here from a youth pastor who also runs his youth ministry site.
Pastor Ekku says:
?I think it is also good to have pictures (about the church, activities etc.). When I visit other web pages, it?s also great to see, who are they and what are they doing!?
The CWM Community
www.christian-web-masters.com/forums/The CWM Community is made of web designers, webmasters, and others with a passion for the web and cyber-ministry. You are invited to join them.
Introduction
Let's hear from some Church webmasters
Other Christian website experts say...
More expert advice...
Conclusion with an important example site...
The recommendations wrap up with Aaron (Sketch), of Emmense Technologies and Live the Worship giving us a link to his all time favorite church site: The Bridge.
Aaron points out that the site:
Is visually appealing
Speaks in layman's terms
Has front page links to their major ministries as well as dominant links to information about them.
Has front page announcement info
Draws people to come further into the site by not giving too much info up front but enough to get the user interested
Thanks to all the CWM community members who contributed their ideas and recommendations. It is truly a blessing to see the community come together to provide their experience for the benefit of other Church webmasters.
The CWM Community
www.christian-web-masters.com/forums/The CWM Community is made of web designers, webmasters, and others with a passion for the web and cyber-ministry. You are invited to join them.