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For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? - Luke 14:28
There are many reasons for people to consider having a church website. Some may wish to give their church a presence on the internet. Others might desire to bring their church in to the twenty-first century. Still others might have a desire to communicate with church members or to provide a way for church members to collaborate. Some may already have a church website and need to find ways to improve it. Whatever has brought you to this point, the first thing that must take place in the development of a church website is that a church must make the decision that it needs a website. Either formally or informally a church must ask the question of whether the benefits of having a website justify the costs of having a website.
The costs of a website may include the funding for the website as well as the labor that is involved. Some large churches may be able to pay a company to build and maintain their website, but there is always somewhere else that the money could be put to good use. Medium and small churches may have little choice but to rely on volunteer labor. The amount of labor required to maintain a website can range from a few hours per year to one or more people working full time.
A website requires a server. Some organizations offer free or low cost server space, but for a quality website a church should expect to pay more than seventy dollars annually for server space. There are other expenses such as domain registration and software that push the bill higher. Even so, a church that budgets a hundred dollars a year and utilizes skilled volunteer labor can have a good website. Some churches may be able to do it for less, but this book assumes that a church can scrape together one hundred dollars.
In many cases, the benefits of a good website can easily outweigh the cost of having a website. One of the benefits is that people looking for a church can find information about the church. In some areas there are hundreds of churches. A person moving into the area may visit a few churches that are near their home, but as they expand their search they are less willing to visit a church without additional information. A church website can provide them with enough information to make a decision on whether to visit the church or not. The church website can provide people with directions explaining how to find the church. The church website can provide contact information. These things, when added to other things the church is already doing can encourage people to visit the church.
A church website provides an additional medium through which church members can be kept informed. A calendar of events can be made available that lets people know what is happening. Members who missed a Sunday or misplaced their church bulletin might visit the church website to see what is happening during the week. It can provide information about ministries of the church. Some churches use their website to allow small group leaders to advertise their small group to other church member or even those outside the church. Some church websites make audio or video recordings of sermons available. A website can be used to allow people to sign up for various things. A website can be used as an online card catalog for the church library. The possibilities are nearly endless.
Because churches don't operate on profits and contacts don't equate to dollar signs, it is hard to put a value on the benefits of a church having a website, but the contacts a church can make through its website can range from a few hundred per year to several thousand. The people that walk through the church doors as a result of viewing the church website will likely be a small percentage of that. Churches that are located in sparely populated areas will tend to make fewer contacts through their website and churches that already have name recognition in densely populated areas will have more contacts. The majority of churches will fall in the middle.
A very important thing to consider when deciding whether to have a church website or not is that there is probably at least one person in your community that will look for information about the church on the internet. The internet is becoming the tool of choice in finding information about people, businesses and other organizations. Having a presence on the internet allows your church to have more control over what information is available.
One should not assume that every church should have a website. A website is a lot of work and it requires someone or a group of people to be willing to spend long hours working on it. If people are not available to do the work or those who are unable or unwilling to make the required commitment then it is better for a church to not have a website than to have a website that is poorly maintained. A website that is out of date or has links that are no longer valid gives the same impression as having boards over the church's windows would give a person passing by. A poorly maintained website makes it look like the church has closed its doors. This is not the impression that a church should be giving potential visitors.
The church website is more than a few pages of text and graphics on the internet. The church website is more than an electronic church bulletin. The church website is a ministry. The a good church website will touch people's lives and can minister to people that the church would never be able to contact by any other means.
The church website should live and grow with the church. A website is not something that can be checked off of a list once it has been put into place. A website is not like a church sign. Once the church sign is installed it can be checked off the list as being done, but a church website is never finished. There is always something that needs to be done. The calendar must be updated frequently. Photos must be added if people are to see them. An article must be written occasionally. If a Sunday school class has changed rooms then the class location information needs to be updated. When a new ministry is created the website must change. In a living church there will always be something happening that needs to be reflected on the website.
The web ministry of a church is partly an outreach ministry, it is partly a teaching ministry and it is partly a support ministry. There is the potential of touching more lives through the church website than through any other ministry, but don't expect it to solve all of your problems. The other ministries tend to be more effective on an individual basis than the web ministry. This is why it is important to recognize the support ministry aspect of the web ministry. Yes, it is possible to reach the lost and attract new members through the website and yes, it is possible to teach using the website, but there is no risk that the church website will replace the more traditional methods of doing these things. The real benefit of the church website comes in the way it can enhance the other ministries of the church.
One ministry that the web ministry might enhance is the Sunday school or some other small group ministry. PowerPoint is becoming more prevalent as a teaching tool. A teacher might like to provide his PowerPoint slides to his students by posting them to the church website. The teacher might use a online application as a teach tool for his students to use during the week.
The pray ministry can also be enhanced. The Prayer Leader might like to make a dynamic prayer list available to the prayer warriors.
Another ministry might provide a list of things that are needed. As people make a commitment to provide each item the list would be updated. The possibilities of a church website are nearly limitless, so it is very important to consider the specific needs of the church and its ministries.
The most important part of any ministry is the impact it has on the lives of people. If the church web ministry is not going to have an impact on the lives of people then there is no reason for a church to waste time and resources developing it. If a church decides that it needs a website then those who are responsible for developing this ministry need to take great care to consider how it impacts the lives of others and what can be done to improve the impact it has on people's lives.
In making the decision concerning a website, a church must decide whether having a website will help it to accomplish its goals. A church needs to consider whether it has the resources needed to put a website on the internet and to maintain the site. A church needs to consider whether it has the volunteer labor needed or whether it will have to hire someone to do the work. This alone can make a big difference in the total cost of having a website.
When everything is considered, many churches will come to the conclusion that the benefits of having a website outweigh the cost of having the website. If this is the conclusion to which you have come then this book is for you. In the pages that follow you will find a step-by-step approach that will take you from a state of having no website to having a website that meets your needs, is attractive and is easy to maintain.
If you already have a website you may find some sections that cover material that you already understand. Rather than skipping this material completely, please skim through it. You may find that some of the ideas presented here will help you to make improvements to your existing church website.
Many of the exercises in this book are based around a fictitious church call The Stone Chapel Church. The exercise will take you through the steps of developing a website for this very average church. If the church actually existed it might be very much like your own church.
In the book you will find the code that is required to develop a website. The code is also available on book's website (http://ChurchWebsiteDesign.TimothyFish.net). To get the full benefit of the book you should ignore the code on the website and type the code in by hand. Anyone who has spent much time developing software will tell you that a great deal can be learned about a language by typing someone else's code into the development environment. This book requires action on your part. Even if you copy the code from the website you will need to write code to support your own website needs.
The Stone Chapel Church website is more than just a simple website. It is the basic framework that is needed to have a easily maintainable website. If you follow the examples with your own website then you will have a website that is a pleasure to maintain rather than a chore.
This is a chapter from the book Church Website Design: A Step By Step Approach.