Church websites – a special opportunity

Church websites can be an integral part of a church's outreach to the community and beyond. However, the majority of church websites, apart from listing times of meetings, do not take the needs of non-Christian site visitors into account and fail to use the potential of this medium. Yet the Web is proving a powerful tool for churches whose sites are designed for non-Christians. Writes Pastor Bob Meyer:

"Nearly 100% of the people who visit Pinecrest these days come as a result of finding us on the website. It is by far our most effective 'advertising' to let people know we exist."

There are many ways to make a church page user-friendly to non-Christians. And it is much more than just tacking on a 'way of salvation' link at the end. From the earliest planning stage, the needs of non-Christian site visitors should be considered. The language and style should express welcome and hospitality. There must be no sense that 'this site is a private noticeboard for insiders'. There can be fun, humor, self-deprecation and informality. 'Welcome' should be the underlying spirit of all the writing and graphics. Christian jargon should be avoided where possible – or explained when used. Sadly, without trying to criticize, it seems that the majority of church pages are written mainly for their own members. Yet church sites outnumber all other Christian sites by a ratio of about 5 to 1. They can play a significant role in evangelism.

An article by NAMB recently stated:

"One of the most basic aspects of an Internet evangelism strategy – particularly for a church – is to include direct links to some of the dynamic, interactive presentations of the gospel available on the Internet. One online respondent wrote that while visiting many church websites she had learned a lot about churches and staff – but not how to meet Jesus. As an unbeliever she wrote, 'It seems to me that churches would tell lost people how to be found.'"

NAMB offers an evangelism kit for church sites, plus a growing range of resources.

Other surveys of church websites have also revealed a tragic absence of elements which could make their pages seeker-friendly. Download and print out this valuable 10-page PDF article: Seeker Sensitive Church Web Sites.

This site – with its many connected pages – also offers a range of strategies that will help to reach outsiders. The more welcoming a church page is to non-Christians, offering attractive features and resources to encourage them to bookmark the page and keep returning to it, the more effective it will be.

Exceptional examples

Here are some exceptional church sites which utilize many of these seeker-friendly strategies. After each link, there is an 'ethos' page by the webmaster or pastor explaining the strategiy and effectiveness of the site. 'Analyze' offers a page of analytical questions so that you can compare these sites and learn from them:

• Pinecrest Church | Ethos | Analyze
• Elizabeth Church of Christ | Ethos | Analyze
• The Bridge Church | Ethos | Analyze
• Brandywine Community Church | Ethos | Analyze
• NorthRidge Church | Ethos | Analyze
• Southside Church | Ethos – and plans to offer the template for other churches to use | Analyze

Sites like these really work.

Evangelistic strategies

• Virtual tour

  A church site should give visitors an advance sense of what they will find if they make a real physical visit to the church. This is highlighted in this excellent overview. The featured church sites above usually do this well.

• Accessible language

  Although a church site is of necessity 'about' the church and aimed at least in part at Christians, nevertheless use a style and language which makes it accessible and understandable for non-Christians.

• Answers to problems

  Many non-Christians still look to a minister for help with many problems of life. Some church sites offer answers to common problems, and/or pastoral counseling by email or in person. Though not part of a church site, Running on Empty offers help for problems in a style very accessible to non-Christians. There are many online resources for email counseling and specialist groups for specific problems.

• Children's corner

  Children's pages, perhaps with online games, can advertise and draw kids in to the church children's activities. Kidsranch is a great outreach page which you can use as a ready-made children's section for any church site. Link to it using a narrow top frame and it will operate as an integrated children's section within your own site. There are, sadly, very few evangelistic children's pages which are not similar to Sunday School lessons and assume a high level of familiarity with the Bible

• Games and competitions

  Even older people like games! There are many sources of free online games to enhance your site and make it sticky. It is possible to offer an online competition, perhaps for children, where the answers are found on various of the site pages or on other designated pages. This concept could be used in many ways. Self-marking quizzes are also possible.

• Seasonal information and special events

  An evangelistic explanation page can be built around Christmas or Easter, and tie in with the church's seasonal program.

• Humor

  People always warm to a humorous approach. Church sites can be enhanced by cartoon graphics. There are a range of syndicated cartoons which can be added to a site with a few lines of code.

  Even consider a specific humor and jokes page too. It would also show we are human, can loosen up, and don't take ourselves too seriously! It is possible to use popups to offer punchlines to jokes, as well as answers to questions, Bible references, and word definitions.

• Community news and activities, plus start-pages

  The church web-site can be a focal point for community news and appropriate secular activities in the area. This is a useful way of identifying with the community, which will encourage frequent repeat visits from non-Christians. You could maybe build bridges with other local organizations, and offer them this 'noticeboard' opportunity. If they don't have web-sites of their own, they may appreciate it. If they do – you can link to them, and become a recognized starting point for appropriate local web-sites – even perhaps local businesses.

  Community sites as outreach are potentially very effective. This type of 'Community Portal' page can also be a co-operative venture between different churches in a town or area.

  Any such page can be offered to visitors as a start page. See how First Baptist Tallassee has offered their homepage as a start page for Christians (with instructions for how to setting it in the browser) which includes a number of useful Christian and secular resources on a huge range of topics, with the wise use of 'frames'. This is a very significant idea. A start page need not necessarily be the homepage; it could instead by a purpose-designed page elsewhere on the site. If a start page can offer, together in one place, a selection of valuable and carefully-selected local and national secular resources, even non-Christians may consider using it. Users can even be offered the technically-sophisticaged option of personalizing a start page with a section of their own bookmarked valuable sites too.

  A further service to the wider community could be a swap-shop or for sale/wanted column using a Bulletin board or similar approach. Bulletin board discussion of local issues is another possibility.

• Calendar of events

  You may want an online calendar of future church (or wider community) events. Calendars Net offer a free interactive web calendar hosting service. There are many alternative ways of achieving the same thing, e.g. this free program or other scripts and resources.

  What are called 'Content Management Systems' allow calendars and other web-page information to be updated via a browser by someone other than the webmaster. Different church departments can post news and events without bothering the webmaster. A growing range of software products are available for this purpose, and are particularly appropriate to a larger church website. A simpler way of achieving some of the same functionality uses Blogging.

• Sermon summaries and Bible studies

  Some larger church sites include the text of recent sermons – sometimes even in audio or streamed video. An exciting concept to consider is that of a seeker-friendly evangelistic email Bible study. This has enormous potential for inquirers to study and ask questions in an anonymous non-threatening environment.

  Pastor Josh Hunt also refers to the importance of choosing what he calls Readers Digest topics in sermon preparation: starting with a problem or felt need, then showing what the Bible has to say about it. Readers Digest certainly knows how to communicate with its readers!

• An evangelistic section

  Although the entire site should be friendly and welcoming, you can also include a specific evangelistic track within the site. These can include the various types of approach outlined in the rest of this Guide – testimony, apologetic, help with problems, etc.

  We humbly suggest that a link to such an evangelistic track from the homepage should not be "Are you saved" or even "How to get to heaven". These are potentially off-putting words which don't even mesh with the concerns of most non-Christians. Lower-key, 'further back', approaches about find meaning and purpose in life, or help with the problems we all face, are likely to lead more people into an evangelistic track.

  Testimonies of church members can be a powerful addition, especially if written in a style suitable for non-Christians, yet so few church sites feature them. Here's a welcoming church site in Texas that has put testimony links on their front page using a photo as an image map – an effective idea.

  Check Angie's story – a testimony tutorial using three different styles – but only two of them will effectively communicate with non-Christians.

  Of course, an effective evangelistic track within a church site can also have a worldwide outreach – because anyone will be able to find the individual pages using a search engine.

  Rather than writing all your own evangelistic material, you can instead link to the best available. There are many world-class evangelistic pages and core gospel presentations to link to, as well as pages for new Christians. It is even possible to link to such pages using a narrow top frame so that the visitor remains within your site. The Web was designed for this sort of content-sharing – we do not need to constantly 'reinvent the wheel'.

• Evangelistic books

  You can offer direct product links to evangelistic or other Christian books direct from your site, perhaps with reviews and 'gift ideas', using an affiliate arrangement to an online book supplier. Choose a company which can offer direct product links to specific books and has an easily-understandable shopping-cart procedure. Or you can recommend books available on the church's bookstall – or even have a book lending service for people (including senior citizens or disabled) in the community.

• A virtual magazine

  A magazine style gives opportunities for articles on almost anything, and it doesn't all have to be necessarily 'Christian'. Lifestyle, gardening, hobbies: anything that interests people will bring in web visitors. Email newsletters can be offered too – perhaps a regular one for church members, and maybe also an alternate low-key one aimed at fringe people or non-Christians in the community. Check the newsletter at Women Today Magazine to see how to write an email newsletter for non-Christians.

Understand the culture

We need to understand the so-called post-modern culture we live in, if we are to communication effectively to people. It is also vital to understand how people become Christians, and how to communicate to those with different levels of understanding: the Gray Matrix is a remarkably revealing concept which helps us to see this more clearly. It is entirely biblical to address these issues and have strategies for communication.

Working together in co-operation

Church websites should not be one-person ministries. Indeed, in some situations, they need not be one-church ministries either.

The most valuable – indeed the only – resource in any fellowship is the people. Although overall control of a church site will be in the hands of one administrator, he or she does not need to do everything connected with the site. There could be many gifted 'underemployed' people in the church with spare-time on their hands, who could handle email advice, email friendship, writing, etc. Internet evangelism is an opportunity for many in your church who might not otherwise find a satisfying ministry – including the retired, disabled or people who are just plain shy. They may need training. Give it. (Also consider training church members, perhaps particularly the young people, in chat room evangelism – it is a powerful means of witness.) Incidentally, offering IT/Web skills training to the wider community can be an effective outreach.

All the churches in a town or locality can get together and create a single website between them. Each church can have its own section with independently-updated information – and perhaps its own webmaster (or designated person with 'content management' browser-updating access). Each would work to a common agreed format and style. Such co-operation offers advantages:

• It sends the message to the general public, who couldn't care less about our minor doctrinal differences, that we are actually proclaiming the same message and are not in competition.
• It gives the opportunity to carry a range of common material which might be beyond the scope of a single small church and webmaster – including community resources and other approaches suggested on this page.
• Alternatively, such an town or city-wide site can be a portal to individual church sites, yet provide additional material too.

Publicity for church sites

Include the church URL on every item of printed church material, every press release or advert, and on the church noticeboard. An easily remembered domain name URL will help potential visitors. Printed contact cards can carry details of your church web-site. There are other ways of making your site 'sticky' – i.e. bring back return visitors.

Screen-savers can be used directly to promote a church website.

Register the page with Church-finder directories plus Christian and secular search engines. It is also vital to get a good page rank in a local search by ensuring that your street address, town and zip/postcode appear on at least the front page. [More on this] This will enable people to find your site on a search engine 'local search'. It may be appropriate to register different pages within the site separately. This is particularly important for evangelistic pages – each page should be designed as a logical entry point from the Web, and have its own carefully-designed unique title, description, and content tags.

Online ads can be used: Charlevoix Church pay a modest monthly sum for a banner add in their local online paper. They also use greetings cards as a way of bringing people to the site.

With the increasing use of mobile phones and other hand-held devices, some churches post limited information onto a site designed for mobile access.

Of course, your site should include directions on how to find your church, including parking and bus routes. You should include a map. There are sources of online customizable maps for US, UK (1), UK (2), Australia, and other countries. Alternatively, ask a graphic artist or company [2] to draw one or two maps for you showing both routes to the church and a street-level map with parking, bus-stops, landmarks, etc.

Questions to ask

Here are some well-designed church sites: Willow Creek | Morningside | St. Mary's Cheadle | Oakland UMC | Trinity Nazarene | Ginghamsburg | Berean | Ebenezer | ToonGabbie | Fellowship Church | Westover Hills Church | Other recommended sites (US) | Other recommended sites (UK) Take time to analyze both content and design. Compare the different appraches used, also looking again at Pinecrest Church | Elizabeth Church of Christ | The Bridge Church. Learn from the good elements of style, as well as those parts which may be less successful. Take notes under different headings. Ask yourself questions on the check-list. Try to put yourself in the mind of a site visitor who is not a Christian. Better still, find a non-Christian who is prepared to look at the pages with you and give his/her answers to these questions.

Questions: the Check-list

Welcome Is the site welcoming to a visitor? If so, how? Could you say: "That's the sort of group I would like to belong to". Language It is a church site, but does it also have 'churchy' language? Would a non-Christian understand Christian terms used? Can they be rephrased in another way without loss of meaning? The Gospel Is there an explanation of the Gospel on the site for non-Christians? How is it linked to from the home page? Is that link enticing or off-putting to a non-Christian? Where does the presentation start - by telling people they are sinners, or does it take a more gentle approach and address issues and problems that readers face, before leading them into the spiritual answers? What assumptions does the presentation make about the reader's previous understanding of the faith? Is it written for someone who has a church background and knows something of the Bible? Or could a total newcomer make sense of it – someone who has never been to a church or read a Bible before? Usability Is it easy to move round the site? Do the links on the homepage explain what you will find on the other pages? Is the 'Title' attribute used in links, so that an enticing and more detailed description of a link pops up when you hover over the link? Can you tell "where you are, where you can go, and where you have been" – the key elements of good navigation. If drop-down menus or other advanced navigation features are used, would they make sense to a non-technical inexperienced web user? How fast is the page to download using a normal dialup/modem on a busy day? Finding the church Is there a clear map – both at street level and for out-of-town visitors? Is there a church car park or nearby public parking? Is it free? Does the site explain clearly how to reach the church by public transport?

Disabilities Is it explained how people with disabilities can travel to the church and move around inside the building? Ramps? Toilets access? Is there a loop system for hearing-impaired people? People A church is people, not the building. Are we introduced to any real members of the fellowship? Pictures? Testimonies? And not just the senior pastor either. Are there others, perhaps nearer to our own age, gender, or ethnic background, that we can perhaps more easily relate to and identify with? Youth and kids Does the site explain youth activities? Does it encourage a young person visiting the site to make the potentially very hard step of attending an activity for the first time? Is there a picture/email/phone number of the youth leader? Are there pictures/bios/testimonies of younger members? Do the young people have freedom to write material for their site page? Are younger kids/toddlers welcome? What facilities are there? Got a problem Many non-Christians still see church as a place where problem-solving is available. Does the site explain how to receive help and counsel for any sort of problem? Design style Is the use of color appropriate to the site? Is the overall balance of graphics and text pleasing and restful to the eye? Why? Are navigation links crowded and giving you "information overload"? Is most of the important homepage content "above the fold" – i.e. visible without much scrolling? Is there sufficient contrast between text and page background? Are there elements which would prevent a color-blind or visually-impaired person easily using the site (red text on green, fixed-sized fonts which cannot be increased in the browser view choices, etc)? Is the web-designer trying to impress with gimmicks? Is the page 'fluid' – i.e. does it work well at different screen resolutions without forcing horizontal scrollbars?

Making church sites the easy way

A majority of churches do not yet have web-sites, often because they do not have a member with webmastering skills. There are a number of template-site  providers who make it possible for churches to create sites without understanding the HTML language. Editing is done using a browser page.

If you wish to build a church site using HTML, but have never made a website before, there is only one place to start – at the bottom. The best way to learn is to do it. It is not rocket science to write simple pages. There are many websites and books to help you – have a look in your local library. There may also be evening classes in your area to teach webpage writing.

We offer an email discussion list for church webmasters as well as the twice-monthly Web Evangelism Bulletin.

Check the interactive color page to see how pages look with different color backgrounds, font colors and faces. The webmaster page offers a range of tips and resources.

Other resources to help you

• Hosea offer lots of easy tips if you are planning a church site.
• Examples of good sites from the Baptist Observer.
• Heal Your Church Website – challenging our ideas.
• Churchsite Chat: email discussion list for church webmasters.
• Web Evangelism Bulletin: news and strategies about online evangelism:

Mission resources

A church which also has a vision for outreach beyond its area and nation will be blessed. Mission links on a church site will encourage church members to see the needs of the whole world. Mission Network News gives a daily email roundup of latest news from around the world, plus a newsfeed which can be added to any website. Operation World links to a range of useful sites.

Links for Pastors

Pastors.com | Pastors Bookshelf | Mapping Center for Evangelism and Church Growth | Christian drama scripts | Pulpit Helps Magazine | BlackandChristian.com

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