Creating Church Websites That Reach Outsiders

[webguide]

The web/digital revolution is changing how we think and communicate, in ways we are only starting to see. Its impact will be as far-reaching as the invention of the printing press. That changed the world for ever, enabling the Reformation and Renaissance, plus effective evangelism and discipleship.

Christians have been slow to take up new mediums and use them for evangelism. Even now, 10 years after the effective birth of the Internet, the overwhelming majority of Christian websites have been written purely for Christians. And, when we do finally take up a new medium, we have often tried to squeeze it into the mould of a previous medium. For instance, radio was used in a church format – sermon, hymns and prayers, not the way that the medium works best. Similarly the Web is not primarily a way of distributing online tracts or sermons. We must understand its nature in order to use it effectively.

No website has an automatic audience. The Web is a ‘pull medium’ – in other words, people usually choose to visit a website because it is about a topic that interests them. Most non-Christians are not searching for Christian material online. Therefore, we need to create pages on secular interests and felt needs, if we are to connect with most non-Christians. This is called the ‘Bridge Strategy’.

There are a many ‘bridge’ sites on different topics. Try these:


http://www.hobbitlore.com Tolkein books and Lord of the Rings film
http://www.tothenextlevel.com – sport
http://www.hollywoodjesus.com & http://www.movieglimpse.com – films
http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources.community.php – local interest community sites
http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/evangelistic.php – many more examples


There is another group of websites which by weight of sheer numbers has the potential to reach into the community …

Church websites – tragic missed potential

“Week in, week out, more visitors turn up at our church on a Sunday because of the website, than anything else,” says Gordon Thorn, webmaster for King’s Church, Kingston, one of relatively few church sites which are welcoming and accessible to non-Christians.

Church sites have great potential to reach people in the community. But very few church sites are designed with non-Christians in mind. Yet it is possible to create user-friendly welcoming church sites, which avoid Christian insider language, and actually relate to non-Christians.

12 principles for church site design:

1. Most church websites are designed entirely for their members, or exclude non-Christians because of their choice of language and content. This is the main reason why church websites fail to reach into the community. A church site must communicate with three very different target groups:
• the church members
• Christians moving to the area who are looking for a new church
• non-Christians in the community
This ‘three-way stretch’ is a challenge, but can be achieved. If you wish your site to reach non-Christians in the community, make a conscious decision that this is to be an over-riding priority for every aspect of the site.

2. Take time to consider the needs and viewpoints of non-Christians. We cannot reach those we do not understand. The first task of an overseas missionary is to learn the surrounding culture. Although we are immersed in our own culture, we may not understand it, or the needs and pressures that most non-Christians in our society are facing.

3. Avoid all ‘churchy’ jargon and ‘Christianese’ language throughout the site, especially on the homepage. Non-Christians, almost by definition, do not like or understand these words. This even applies to the navigation menu. Many churches have a menu link called ‘ministries’. This is actually a jargon word meaning ‘what we do’ or ‘what’s on’. Much better to use neutral alternatives like this.

4. Non-Christians may have negative images of Christians: boring, killjoys, judgmental, etc.
A light-hearted, informal, witty website may help to counteract these misconceptions. Opinion polls show that evangelicals are increasingly perceived in a very negative light, in almost all countries.

5. Christian outreach often fails because Christians do ‘megaphone proclamation’ from behind the protecting walls of their ‘ghetto’. A church website should not aim to be an impersonal electronic ‘cut and run’ tract distribution system. Its primary purpose should be to draw people in the community towards real relationships with real people within the fellowship. Most conversions result from relationships.
Thus the primary task of the church website is to convince non-Christians of these things:
• our church is made up of ordinary real people
• we understand their life problems
• we are community, family, and there is an unconditional welcome waiting for them
• in that context, God can meet them and help them

6. Church is people: the home page should have at least one photo of a church member. This is absolutely foundational to good communication, yet infrequently done. Although you can also use a photo of the church building on the home page, this is impersonal – however attractive your building may be. Inside the site, include more photos of real people. Make sure you have permission to add these pictures to the site. Never include full names or personal information about children and young people.

Internal pages on the site can include photos of both the outside and inside of the church building.
If potential visitors feel themselves to be familiar with the building and the people, they are more likely to make the quantum leap of visiting the church.

7. Include some ‘meet our members’ pages. These may well not be full-blown testimonies, but brief informal first-person profiles, with ‘real’ information about their lives: jobs, places of study, likes, hobbies, pets.

8. All links, page titles, and sub-headings should sound enticing. The use of query marks can make something seem more interesting: ‘What happens at Teen Link?’ rather than ‘For Teens’. If testimonies are used, they should be completely free of religious jargon, exaggeration and sentimentality. Non-Christians can see through religious veneers easily! “Everything in my life is now permanently wonderful” does not ring true. Such well-meaning statements do not honour God.

9. Consider a ‘New to this site?’ visitors link on your homepage. This enables you to offer a particular welcome to an outsider. But – very important – this is not a ‘let out’ so you do not need to apply these strategy tips to the rest of the site. The entire site must be user-friendly to non-Christians. A new visitor page should be very welcoming and written in plain language. It needs to provide all the information a potential newcomer to a church meeting would require.

10. Games and fun stuff are attractive and make a site ‘sticky’ – that is, encourage repeat visits, because of the interesting or new content. You can include online games within a children’s/teen area of a site. Or even make them available for everyone! (Incidentally kids/teens areas of a site can have a different, almost stand-alone, design style, in order to achieve their purpose. There are many sources of free games in the ‘Flash’ format that you can add to a site.

11. Consider adding some ‘bridge strategy’ pages to the site. You can create pages about secular topics of local interest, which will draw people into the site. These might include local history, events, pictures, or a page of best secular community links.

12. Demonstrate a specific welcome for people with disability. Explain what facilities are available for mobility-impaired people: level access, lifts, etc. Is there a loop system for hearing-disabled?

Summing up: the overall impression of the site must of a gentle, loving, enticing welcome. But of course, people who then visit a church meeting must actually receive a welcome! There are many shocking stories of first-time visitors being only spoken to by an usher as they enter, if they are lucky. It ought to be self-evident, but all churches should train their members to speak first to someone they do not recognise, after (and indeed before) any meeting.

More tips on church website design:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/church-growth.php

What if we have no-one technical in our church?
There are Christian ministries who offer what are called ‘CMS template’ site-building systems. These provide ready-made church sites, in which you add text using your browser. Very little technical knowledge is needed. You can also build a ‘bridge’ site around your own hobby or interest using these systems. Church123.com is such a system. Here are others:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources...h-template.php

The needs worldwide
There are even now relatively few effective outreach sites in the English language. In other languages, the situation is desperate. A highly web-literate country like Japan has a tiny handful of outreach sites. The potential to reach the 100 million web users in mainland China is vast. And the Web offers a vital route to reach many of the ‘10-40 Window’ hard-to-reach countries in Africa and Asia.
http://aibi.gospelcom.net/missions/c...et_nations.htm

Not just for techies!
We cannot emphasize sufficiently: you do not need to be technical to do web evangelism. There are many opportunities for online mentoring/counseling, writing, or ‘chat room’ witness, which need no technical ability at all. CMS systems also enable almost anyone to build a site.
http://ied.gospelcom.net/vacancies.php

Why not hold a web awareness day in your church?
The Internet Evangelism Day site offers downloadable resources for you to build an awareness spot into your activities – a great way for your church to learn more.
http://ied.gospelcom.net/index.php

[nathandiehl]

Tony,
flipping nice stuff here.
very usefully!

[ChaplainPaul]

I have discovered on my sites that people are searching for life related solutions and problem focused information. The more content related to life I write, especially in the area of hot topics, the more visitors I have seeking that particular bit of information.

[webguide]

Thanks, yes this is something I'd like to emphasise more. Can you give a bit more detail - or examples - of the sorts of life problems that really attracted readers.

Were these on an actual church site?

Blessings

Tony

[ChaplainPaul]

Sure Tony:

First of all, let me say that I have just been building websites for 2 years and I am still a novice. But I do buy into the concepts of SEO or Search Engine Optimization, which simply means website builders match the content of their site to what people are typing into their Google searches, yahoo searches, or MSN search tool.

My site is not a church website but the visitors usually come because my site has a career change focus, yet with a spiritual focus.

As I search the terms they used to arrive at my site, I see life related terms. For example, several hundred people came to an article I had on garage conversion.
Maybe they though it was how to get a garage saved but the truth is they were people looking for help in adding living space to their homes by enlarging their garage.

I write articles on job related topics, healthcare issues, relationship building, writing how to's. I also attempt to rid most of the articles of Christian jargon unless the focus is deliberately spiritual.

Now lest you think my purpose is to deny the faith, let me just say that using spiritual keywords attracted either very low paying adsense ads or some offbeat cult paying to use the term.

Any appeal to spirituality would bring palm reading advertisements or tarot card ads. For a while, my adsense ads were for a Pentecostal preaching magazine.

I believe a church would be better off to register a domain geared to life issues and let the members of the church write to the topics. A forum format much like this one would be a tremendous way to do this.

Focus a site on parenting, dealing with depression, travel guidelines or a specific geographical area or city. Make sure there are enough visitors to sustain a specific niche over time.

[webguide]

Thanks, this is a great description of the bridge strategy in web evangelism!

By the way, Internet Evangelism Day
is coming up
and you may also be interested in our new
church website assessment tool

which can also be syndicated into any other website.

blessings

Tony