Top 10 Reasons for a church to be on the web

Introduction

When I started telling my friends about doing a website for my church, many of them gave me puzzled looks.  "Why would a church have a website?", many said.  That inspired me to think about this subject.  The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became of the important role the web can play in the Lord's work.

I eventually sat down and put my thoughts on paper.   I've published them on my website so that you, too, can see why a church needs to consider being on the Internet.  So, in the spirit of David Letterman, here is my "Top 10 Reasons for a church to be on the web" (I'll list them in ascending order, however):

1.  Share information about your congregation so that people moving to or visiting your area will know about you.

When you travel, don't you like to know about where you are going, what you are going to see, and what to expect of the place and people you will be seeing?  I know that I do.  In the past, before I would go on a trip I would make sure to:

• get a map of the area I am going to visit.
• get AAA books concerning hotels, restaurants, places to see, etc.
• ask friends who have been there what they recommend.

I'm sure that you have done the same.  Today, I still do that, but instead of the traditional methods of getting the information, I now use the Internet.   Chances are, you do to.  The web is full of information about cities.   You can find out about tourist attractions, hotels, and restaurants.  You can even get your maps & driving directions.

About a year ago, I went on a business trip to West Palm Beach, Florida.  I knew that the area was well known for its golf courses, so I decided to see if there was anything about them online.  There was, at least for some of them.  I read about several courses on their webpages, or in information listed on some community pages.  I ruled out a few that didn't impress me.  Then I found Emerald Dunes (www.emaralddunes.com).   Wow, what a golf course!  The site was beautiful, and very informative.   A map and driving directions were included.  As was a hole-by-hole description with tips for playing each hole!  I was so impressed, I just had to play it.  I printed out the pages so that I could read the tips on the flight (as if they would really help my golf game!!!). 

So, what's my point?  When I am going to another town and am going to be there on Sunday, I am going to plan on worshipping in that town.  I would like to know if there is a church, where is it located, and what to expect when I get there.  I'd like to know just a little about it - what time do they meet, do they seem to welcome guests, what does it look like.  These things may seem trivial, but to a first-time visitor they are not. 

Just think, if a visitor has already received detailed driving directions on how to find your building, seen a picture of what your building looks like, seen a picture of your elders and minister, and gotten a good feel for the style of worship that you employ, aren't they going to be much more comfortable when they walk through your door?  Of course they will.  It will make the visit an all-around better experience for them if they know what to expect.

Similarly, this can also be a big help for people who are relocating to your area.  A person that is moving to town wants to find out as much as they can about the area.  If they find your website and like what they see, you will have a headstart on making them feel comfortable enough to place membership with your church.

And don't forget about the old adage, you only have one chance to make a first impression.  A well designed website, that adequately prepares the first-time guest as to what to expect, will lead them to having the best possible first impression of your church.

2.  So that people in your community will know that you are there.

How many churches in your community can you name?  Since you are reading this, I'll assume you are pretty involved in your church and you can probably name quite a few.  But, researcher George Barna has found that most unchurched people can only name maybe one church in their town! 

Do the unchurched people in your community know about you?  Do they know what you do?  Do they know what you stand for?

If you think about the churches that you know about, chances are

• you either know someone who goes there,
• you yourself have gone there,
• you have had some type of involvement with them (organizations, sports, etc.)
• you have heard about them via some form of word-of-mouth or advertising.

We don't like to use that last word when churches are involved.   It sounds too commercialized.  But, in reality, churches need to do some advertising.  One church I attended decided to start a new ministry called "Community Awareness" (notice that we avoided the words "advertising" and "marketing").  But, simply put, the purpose of this ministry is to make the community aware of the great things that we do.  In fact, that is how we came about developing a website.

Let's be very honest here.  The old ways just aren't cutting it any more.  Door-to-door evangelism just does not open very many doors.  Churches have to find new ways of solving the same old dilemmas.  The Internet provides an exciting means for doing just that.

3. Take the saving message of Jesus Christ to all corners of the world - even those where missionaries and Bibles are not allowed.

I know you know this, but there are many places in the world where we cannot take Christianity - at least not legally and at great risk.  Communist China and the Muslim countries are closed off to our missionaries.  Only in the last decade or so has the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe started to fall.  Areas that we may be in today, may be off limits next year.  We simply cannot reach every person through the traditional missionary methods.

The Internet provides an exciting opportunity because there are people, millions of people, behind these walls of isolation that have access to the world wide web.  Through their searching, they may find your church.  And, the message you send them may introduce them to Jesus Christ. 

I know that the chances are remote.  I know that there will probably be very few reached by this means.  But we must try!  The costs are too small to not try.  The Internet is being used to spread much filth and many lies - this is our opportunity to share the Truth!

4. To answer frequently asked questions about Christianity.

Let's face another fact.  Christianity does not always get a "fair shake" out in the world.  Hollywood and the news media spread all kinds of false propaganda about what Christians stand for.  Movies, TV programs, news and magazines often spread lies or focus on radical fringes.  They distort what the Bible says and distort what Christians say.  We cannot rely on them to tell it the way we want them to, because they do not have any reason to tell it our way.

The Internet gives us a vehicle for telling it "our way".   Explaining what we stand for in our own words, using our own images, explaining with our own examples, using the Bible the way it is meant to be used.  You can think of it as an online tract that anyone can access, and you can constantly update it, revise it and improve it.  How valuable to you is that? 

Consider how many sites have FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions).  Think of this as a chance to explain the things that you feel are most distorted about your views.  This can be valuable at a local level or from a global view.  The news media sometimes calls it "spin doctoring".  I call it telling the truth in your own words.

5. Share your beliefs, concerns and ideas to fellow Christians as a way to help them with issues that they may be struggling with.

If you are like me, you struggle at times with various aspects of your faith.  Maybe you are going through some personal strife, or perhaps you're wrestling with how to approach an issue for a class or sermon.  Maybe you are working with someone who is having difficulty and you just don't know what to say.

From time-to-time, I search the Internet for something to help me with my questions.  I have found several sites that often just have the right thing to say that lifts my spirits.  Heartlight (www.heartlight.org) is my favorite of all Christian sites.  They have a way of saying the right thing at the right time that just has a positive impact on me.  There are many others, it's almost unfair to begin a list.  But, whether it's a David Chadwell article on the West-Ark page, or the Daily Wisdom page, I can often find something that hits the right button.

At Middletown, we have recently added a monthly motivational page.   It has a scripture text, a thought, a prayer along with a scripture-inspired image.  We hope that someone will find the words that they are looking for when they surf through our site.

6. Easy, timely communications to your church family.

The web is, first and foremost, a communications medium.   Therefore, what a great reason to use it - communication!  Many churches suffer from poor communication.  Churches try everything to straighten it out, yet nothing works.  Phone trees, Brothers Keeper's units, assigned phone-callers, you name it - nothing seems to work.  E-mail can help this situation (not solve it).  

The fact is, the best way to communicate, is to communicate in every way possible.  Some people read everything that comes across their desk, while others throw most things away.  Some people screen their phone calls, others love to talk on the phone.  Some people use e-mail, others don't.  E-mail is just another form of communication.  It will work for some people - others will have nothing to do with it.

Let me digress for a moment and talk about how I don't think the church should use the web.  There are two areas where I don't think the Internet - in it's present form - should be used.  I do not think it is effective for timely communications, or safe to display personal information.  Let me address each of these.

Timely information.  The Internet itself requires a person to go and find information.  If you use your web page to keep up-to-date information on what's happening this week, the chances are most people won't use it.  That's because people typically don't go visit a web page on a set schedule.   Typically they browse to it whenever they have an inclination, or whenever they've been encouraged to do so.

E-mail is much more effective for timely communication because it is a form of "push" technology.  Actually, it's probably the originator of push technology.  "Pushing" information is when you send the information out to the user, instead of waiting for them to come find it.  PointCast and Microsoft's IE 4.0 Channels are more modern versions of push technology.

A combination may be to "push" out an e-mail message, telling the user to surf to the website and look at something.  Often I will do that on sites when I've added a new feature.  I like to encourage the regular visitors to come back when something has changed.

Personal information.  I am not an advocate of putting personal information on the church website.   I really don't believe that a casual visitor to your website needs to know about Mrs. Jones gall bladder surgery or that the Wilson's are going on a week-long vacation to Myrtle Beach.  The first one invites strangers into a persons private problems, and the second opens the door for potential burglaries when a family is out of town.  I really don't think there is much of a risk of this - but I would rather not open the door for one. 

The only way I would put personal information on a website is if it was in a member's-only, password protected area.  The down side is that it then becomes inconvenient to the members.  I do not think you would get very many visits, because people tend to not to like to have to go through the extra steps involved in putting in user id's and passwords.  Besides, they will probably forget their password anyway.

Also, be warned, if you put personal information on the web, you are opening yourself up to a rebellion from someone who values their privacy.  When I put the Middletown site online, I included some pictures of church activities.  One of the pictures was of two of our young girls (one of them was my daughter).  The girls were not named, no phone numbers or addresses were given.  It was just a picture of two girls getting food at a potluck.  One of our members had a major problem with this.  She was convinced that a predator would find this site, would track down these girls and kidnap them.  Needless to say, her fears were unfounded.  But, if a person can react that way to a picture of two children, with no form of personal information, how would they react to putting actual person information on the web?

Mailing Lists.  Now that I've digressed, let me return to how I believe churches can effectively communicate using this technology.  Let me encourage you to consider one more form of e-mailing.  Create a congregation mailing list.  Mailing lists are a great way to communicate to each other.  Mailing lists have these nice features:

• Privacy

  The member's names are private.  You can choose to share the mailing lists member's names, if you so choose.  But be sure that you tell them that when they sign in.

• Easily maintained

  Each member is responsible for maintaining their membership information.  If they change their e-mail address, it is their responsibility.  It makes list maintenance easy.

• You can gather demographic data on your list members

  If you are a large congregation, it can be useful to know the demographics of the people who participate in the list.  It will give you clues to what portion of the congregation you are communicating with using this medium. 

Another nice aspect of mailing lists are their versatility.  Generally, there are three types of lists:

• Discussion:  Any list member can e-mail to the whole group.

• Moderated:  Any member can send a message to the list owner, who then decides whether to send it to the group.

• Announcement:  Only the list owner sends e-mails.   This is a popular marketing form today.

I encourage you to consider using mailing lists for your congregation.  And, you don't have to stop at one.  You can have one for all members, one for teens, another for ministry teams, etc.  And, best of all, you can get them free. 

7. Provide study tools (outlines, research, sermons, etc.) in order to help those who are trying to learn more, and those who are preparing for their own classes and sermons.

A preacher told me a while ago that he would never have to write another sermon again.  He had found the power of the Internet! 

I'm not going as far as saying that you'll never have to worry about writing any more sermons or preparing for any more classes.  But, I will say that you can get a lot of great information out there. 

Just think of all the information that has been packed into various commentaries and religious texts over the years.  You needed a very expensive library to have all of that information at your fingertips.  Not any more!

When preparing for lessons or sermons, I like to search around and gather ideas from other people  The great part about the web is that there is so much variety.  Each person expresses things in their own way.  We can find those people who have a way of expressing something that really helps us.  I encourage you to look at how you can use these tools to improve yourself as a teacher, preacher, and as a Christian.

Another digression.  There is also a lot of false teaching out there in cyberland.  And since anyone can put up a website and publish their thoughts, you need to scrutinize their thoughts just as you would anyone else that you did not know.   Remember, just because someone is published on the web, it doesn't make them credible!  (Not referring to myself, of course!)

Turning this around, I believe that it is a great ministry for a preacher, or any Christian for that matter, to use the web to share their work.  Just think, you may have that one thought that some preacher in a far-away state is looking for.  He could, in turn, express that thought in his sermon to his congregation. Someone in his congregation may be touched by that very thought and it could change their life!  You will never know the impact your thoughts may have on someone else.

At Middletown, we have received several e-mails from people thanking us for putting our sermon and lesson resources on our site.  One person told me that a lesson they found was exactly what they were looking for.  Another expressed how much they enjoyed reading our minister's sermons.

8. Promote your mission work - potentially opening new avenues for support.

This is a growing area on the Internet.  I routinely get e-mails from people asking for support.  Generally, I must admit, I dismiss them.   We have plenty of mission work to support and we are not actively searching for new opportunities. 

However, I have had a few e-mails come across that made me think, or gave me ideas.  I have shared a few of these with our elders.  Once again, it is one of those areas that is currently unproven.  But, I do think it is a possible that the web may help some mission works.

Also, on a similar note, your mission work may give an idea to someone else who may start a similar ministry with their congregation.  You may not get the financial support, but you may still help spread the good news in another, less obvious, way.

9. Communicating/networking with other Christians, former members, friends, members of other congregations, etc.

Similar to the thoughts pertaining to communicating with your congregation, you can use the Internet to communicate with other Christians. 

I have found old friends via the Internet.  I also keep in touch with some former members of our congregation that have moved away.   I encourage them to visit the webpages that have pictures of my family so they can see how my children have grown. 

I have also made friends with other Christians over the Internet.  Some of these are people that I have never, and probably will never meet.  But it is fun to talk to them, share our ideas and try to encourage one another. 

I find communicating via the Internet and e-mail to be much more fun than traditional letter writing.  It's faster, more interactive, and you don't have to worry about paper cuts!

10. Provide an outlet for technical and creative people to express their faith (1 Peter 4:10).

Finally, This is the one that relates most to me.  I believe that each Christian is expected to use his or her abilities to further the cause of Christ and communicate the Gospel. 

1 Peter 4:10 is a verse I like to refer to.   I realize that Peter is talking about spiritual gifts, but I believe we can apply it just the same.  He tells us that each person should use their gift to serve others, thus administering the grace that God has bestowed in its various forms.   If that doesn't describe the Internet, I don't know what does.  The world wide web is certainly known for its various forms!

In the past, technical people did not have many ways to use their skills to help spread the Gospel.  The best they could do is maybe help the church with setting up and using a PC.  Some may get to set up membership and visitor tracking software.  But now, in the age of the Internet, a technical person can use his or her abilities in many ways. 

I can safely say that eighteen months ago I had no idea how I could use my skills to help spread the Gospel.  Other than occasionally filling in for our minister when he was out of town, and teaching the occasional Bible class, I was not that involved in evangelism.  I never really felt like I was using my strongest assets.  Now, I have helped put two churches and one ministry on the Internet.  I hope to soon help several more.  I have formed a small business that my wife and I run from our house.  We are trying to do what we can to help churches and ministries reach out to the world.

Paul compares the church to the human body in 1 Corinthians 12.  He points out how each part of the body must do their part for the body to function.  Finally, I feel like I am able to fully use my skills, thus fulfilling the role that I was intended to fill.

Conclusion

These are ten ideas that came to mind one day when thinking about how important the Internet can be for churches.  I encourage each and every church to consider whether the Internet is a worthy mission field for them to invest in.  It is fun, inexpensive, and full of potential.

If you are interested in putting your church on the web, but don't have the resources to do it yourself,   please contact me at johnj@inspiredtechnology.com.   You can also visit my website www.inspiredtechnology.com.  We provide a wide variety of services ranging from web design and hosting, graphics design and consulting.