One of my current top priority projects is the implementation of a new website for our church. This project has had two primary phases. Phase one is the choice, purchase and implementation of a new church management software. Phase two is the web design itself. In phase one, we chose Church Community Builder and expect to transfer all of our membership data this coming week. Stay tuned to this channel to see how that goes.
Phase two is the design of the website itself. As you can see from the attached photo of the front of our church, we have plastered the web address in bold letters so everyone in Mansfield can find us on the web. Yet none of us are particularly happy with our current Flash-driven website. We think we have two potential companies (Synergema or Element Fusion), who could help us with the project. But we need to give them some idea of what kind of design we want so they can give us a reasonable quote for the design work. For their sake and ours we hope to be able to avoid THIS from happening. Watch this video and then continue reading!
So, we are reviewing some of the best of other church websites and creatively thinking about how we would like ours to look. Yesterday I came across three other articles that could be of help to us.
The first two articles come from Digital at Leadership Network, which is filled with great articles on church web design. The first post I read asks the question: "Does Your Church Website Serve Two Masters?" Dean Peters of Heal Your Church Website (another great resource for us!) addresses the truth that we have in mind two very different audiences, and yet are trying to serve both with the one site. Here's an excerpt:
First, we have the Visitors. These are the people that found your URL next to your listing in the phone book (you have it there, right?), on the side of your bus as it drives around town (it’s there too, right?), or perhaps just through searching the Web (Google’s local search will play a big part in this). These folks are perhaps looking for a church home, and have come to your site as part of their search.
On the other side, we have the Members. These are people who already belong to the church and/or are regularly active in various activities and groups. And for the sake of argument, I'll use the term “Member” loosely, implying not just members on your church rolls, but also those whom attend various church functions and/or services regularly and are somewhat involved in the operations and activities of the church.
Needless to say, these two groups have vastly differing needs and expectations for your Web site.
I have seen several different churches who actually split the website for this reason. When a person enters their website, they view a page that makes them choose (self-identify) who they are. If they identify themselves as a visitor they are taken to one website designed just for them. If they identify themselves as a member they are taken to another website. Personally, I'm not sure I like that approach. The costs of the split web design must be higher. Plus I'm thinking that what the guest really wants to know is this: "What's it like to be a member there? What can I expect?" I hope our website can become a window into the really great things that's happening here - and I want to show that to both members and to guests!
A second article that has been helpful to me also comes from Digital at Leadership Network. Tony Steward, the Online Community Pastor at LifeChurch.tv, identifies three different church web audiences, #1 the primary home manager, #2 the church shopper, and #3 teenagers and young adults. Here's an excerpt:
Most church websites look like they are for the elders or deacon board of the church. The site is mainly the “who we are / what we believe” static statements and pages. Can I be honest and let you know that neither first timers or your members really care too much about that information. Of course it needs to be there, and of course it is good to have up on the site.
But most church websites I’ve come across not only have that information up front, but they have organized the site the way that elders / deacon boards / staff are used to looking at the information. It is setup like a budget spreadsheet / ministry index - instead of a site for who your real audience is and what they are needing when they come to your site.
Finally, I read with interest this recent post by Cynthia Ware of The Digital Santuary. In "4 Simple Steps to Improving Your Website," Cynthia writes:
Recently there have been more examples popping up of church websites that display some of the emerging trends in interactive web presence. Static web pages, those that provide service times, location & an uninteractive front page, are being transformed in response to the new values presented by the new media. As has been talked about so often here, a couple of these values include interactivity and fresh content.
Cynthia recommends that a really great church website will include on the front page these four things: #1 - streaming Video, #2 blogs, #3 podcasts, and #4 fresh content. I checked out one of the sites she listed, Westwinds Community Church. I liked the Blog link they had on the sidebar. Clicking on that brings up four weblogs of the lead team. By reading these blogs, one really gains a sense of what is happening behind the scenes at Westwind.
It's clear that the design of our church website will say so much about who we are as a church. We want to get it right. I'm anxious to get there (the destination)! But the research for the project (the journey) is fun too!
