We all know that today’s society is technology driven. Most homes have computers and some form of a broadband internet connection. And so many of us carry small computer around with us all the time with the smartphones of today becoming more and more powerful with each day.
For too long, the church has lacked in utilizing the technologies, but we are finally starting to catch and also becoming the leaders in a lot of techniques that are out there.
In this series, I am going to tackle some steps that I see for having an Effective Church Website.
1. Avoid the Clutter.
It’s hard to not post examples of this but I don’t want to be accused of calling out people. But the great thing about a website is that you are allowed to have more than one page. I look at a lot of websites for churches and ministries and there seems to be a tendency to post way too much information on the start page of the website. It’s information overload.
I visited the website of a church in my local town a few days ago and this is what I saw on the start page of their website:
- Schedule of Services
- Welcome Message
- Church Picture
- Vision Statement
- Mission Statement
- Java-based Slideshow (Not Javascript)
- Today’s Scripture Reading
- Visitor information including directions and an embedded Google Map
- Contact information
- Scrolling list of upcoming events
- Statement of Faith from their denomination
- And my favorite, the infamous “Hit Counter”!
So as you can see there is a lot of information on this page. A picture would explain better, but as I stated, I do not want to point anyone. What was thrown together on this one single start page, could have been spread out over about 5 to 6 pages.
Churches have a tendency to utilize what I call the “Junkyard Effect”. We keep throwing stuff onto the page with no sense of order. It’s clutter at it’s best.
A church website should be treated just like any other business website. It is a representation of who that church is and who the people that attend that church are. We would never place random objects up on walls in our church that who no correlation between them. We need to take this same approach with websites.
So, my advice. GET RID OF THE CLUTTER!!!! Take all of that random information, find out what you really need on your website, and find other spaces (preferably on separate pages) to place it.
I’ll give you a little information. We have found out at my home church that our website has become a very effective tool to bring people into the doors. On the front page of our website (www.bethelchurch.info) you will find a rotating javascript based image slideshow that is a feature area for ministries and upcoming events. This area changes weekly. You will also find beside a very brief welcome message. Below this you will find a list of upcoming events, a list of worship songs from the previous weeks, and the most current 3 podcasts from our pastor.
I encourage you to take an educated look at your church website and see if there is clutter on it. If you feel that you are not the write person for that, find a business who specializes in website development for churches and ministries. (This is a hint by the way and a blatant plug for my services!).
Good luck and check back for Part 2 of the series “Steps For Effective Church Websites”.
