All posts tagged church websites

We Recycled Our Old Website

by Tim Schraeder on 09/09/2010 in Church Communications, Park with 15 Comments

Last fall, in partnership with MonkDev/Ekkelsia360, Park Community Church donated our old website design to a church plant that needed a solid web presence.

Our old site design was great but we had outgrown it. You can read more about the backstory here.


Instead of letting our old site go, we wanted to do something with it that could help build another church’s web presence and that’s where the idea for giving it away was born. After talking with Drew Goodmanson and his team at MonkDev we agreed to find a church plant that was in its final stages of being launched and bless them with the gift of a website. Park donated our old site design and MonkDev donated their time to help make the site customized to the church as well as donating a free year of service on CMS.

Over 30 different churches applied and in the end we selected 2 Pillars Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, to receive our website. They had been using WordPress very effectively, but definitely needed to get a solid web presence as they began to spread the word to their community about their church.

2 Pillars will be holding their first public service this weekend and with it have officially launched their new website!

Huge thanks to MonkDev/Ekklesia360 for making this possible! To 2 Pillars, we pray for God to continue to bless your ministry and hope this website helps you effectively communicate and spread the word about what God is doing in Lincoln.

In all of this, let me say this: sometimes it’s OK to recycle. Recycling is different than copying. Recycling maintains some original properties but recycled material can take on new forms. In this case, you can see echoes of Park’s old site, but it’s now something completely different that better suits the needs of 2 Pillars Church.

If you’ve seen something work somewhere else or are inspired by something you’ve seen… don’t copy, recycle. Reshape and reform what you see to fit the needs of your unique context.

The Truth About Church Websites and Effective Online Outreach

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2009 in Church Communications, Echo 09, Notes, Principles, Social Media, Web & Email with 3 Comments
  • Drew has a passion to help churches use technology to do outreach, build community and advance the Gospel.
  • 2,600 churches use Monk Development technology.

I’ll post Drew’s notes on this when I get them, they will be more accurate than mine! ;-)

Are church websites effective tools for outreach and evangelism?

  • John 17:18… as you have sent them into the world so I have sent them into the world.
  • Facebook is now the “5th largest nation in the world.”
  • The world is online so we need to be.
  • 64% of wired Americans have used the internet for spiritual or religious purposes. – Pew Research Study
  • 0.17% (1 person) said they were not a Christian and influenced to go to the church as a result of visiting the church website.
  • 60 million Americans say they use the Internet to make big decisions.
  • 6% of churches have Gospel presentation on their websites.
  • At present, church websites are ineffective tools of evangelism.
  • One possible reason… if you’re not a Christian, you’re not going to go to a church website to learn about God.

How are people finding the church website?

  • On average, 25% are on a search looking for it.
  • 43% are direct.
  • 30% are clicking on a referral.
  • What does search hits mean? Non-Christians are finding your site.
  • Direct traffic typically means its people in your church, who know.
  • The search represents the content of your site and how well it’s laid out.
  • The higher the direct traffic, the higher the community involvement
  • Referral means your online presence elsewhere.

During usability studies, 88% of web users went to a search engine first to accomplish a task.

Traditional church marketing has its message and you hope it connects with the person’s situation… online searches allow us the opportunity to be a “just in time” church based on what people are searching for.

  • Life change – reach people when they need the church the most. (depression, marriage, health, death, illness, transition).
  • Think about your town and how you can optimize the life changes people face in your community.
  • People stay on a page for about 45 seconds… what are you going to do with that time?
  • What are you going to do with the traffic that comes to your web? (Wherever it comes from!)
  • Church websites are an effective tool for reaching Christians.
  • 16% of people say that the church website is the first time they heard about the church
  • #1 area people went on websites for information for new people… how are you thinking for that population?
  • Many churches are creating websites for internal purposes, but what are you doing to connect people on the outside.

There’s three populations of people who visit your church website: visitors, beginners (3-6 months), and regulars (6+ months).

  • 30% of people who were new to the church said the website is where they learn about the church.
  • 77% said the church website was very important in making the decision of whether they were going to visit your church or not.
  • A church’s website is people’s first filter to find a church.
  • Spend your homepage connecting with first-time visitors and new people to your church.

Triperspectival Design

  • Normative
  • Existential
  • Situational
  • What do you want to communicate about your vision?
  • What behaviors do you want the visitors to imitate?
  • 82% of beginners say the website was important in their participation in the church community.
  • 45% said it was important for their spiritual growth.
  • 73% said the website was helpful in their evangelism efforts.
  • 76% of regulars said the web was still important in their involvement in their church community.
  • 47% said it was an active part of their spiritual growth and discipleship.
  • 52% of regulars said it was important in sharing their faith.
  • 82% of regulars visit the church website at least once a week.

Web Development – Developing a Church Web Strategy

  • Internet Presence Management – how and what is your presence online? We have to develop a strategy and lead our people that way, or people will be all over the place. Where are your people online? What are they using? Is all your info on Facebook? Google Groups, etc? Think about the principal issues and how you’re going to accomplish them.
  • Website Development - what behaviors do you want from people?
  • Community Development - how are you going to engage your community? How do you create space for community online and use Facebook missionally?
  • Church Management - online donations, event registration, etc.

Beyond the Web 2.0 Noise: How to use the Internet to Disciple & Create Real Community

by Tim Schraeder on 07/29/2009 in Church Communications, Echo 09, Notes, Social Media, Web & Email with 1 Comment

Drew Goodmanson serves as CEO of Monk Development and is co-founder/pastor at Kaleo Church. Monk is an internet strategy and development company. Drew often speaks at conferences about how churches can use the internet, his blog is recognized as one of the Top Church Blogs, he wrote a chapter in Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution and his company’s services are used by thousands of churches and ministries. Kaleo Church is a missional community, multi-site church planting movement in San Diego, CA. Drew spends much of his time thinking about church planting, web missiology and blogs about it at goodmanson.com.

—
Monk Development and a number of other faith-based media outlets are sponsoring a study of the Church online… looking at how churches are using and interacting with social media and the web. [Check out Drew's blog for more.]

Some results they found…

  • 51% of participating churches are on Facebook
    - Churches are using Facebook as an extension of their church.
    - More informational, used more as communications vehicle, less of a community building presence.
  • Limited use of MySpace, Second Life, GoogleGroups, etc.
  • 21% on Twitter
  • A small number are using a members portal or private community site (Unifyer, TheCommon.org, 360Hubs, etc).
  • 82% of surveyed churches didn’t even know about the different products out there.
  • Encourage your church to register your church name on different social media outlets so you have rights to your name.
  • Church networking and community sites have made little inroads into the church.
  • A problem with all of the different avenues out there is that there’s not a collected, central spot to communicate from… especially if your church is not leading the way and providing a consistent platform for people to use.

Social Media Desires
What feature/funcationality are people in our churches looking for from our church websites?

  • Event Sign-up/RSVP’s.
  • Post Prayer Requests.
  • Connect People to Service Opportunities.
  • Connect with Small Groups.
  • Integration with church website.
  • Resource sharing.
  • Ability to access TV/phone directory.

Congregations didn’t care about:

  • blogging
  • ability to post classifieds
  • ability to post photos in photo galleries
  • ability to post jobs

Most mainstream social networking sites do no offer churches the seamless solutions they seek.

Questions to Ask on Building Community

  1. Is virtual community real community?
  2. What is Biblical community? How are we living out Biblical community in a real way?
  3. How can technology assist in this process? It can assist, but it cannot replace. It must drive people into real relationships.

Discipleship

  1. How many of you feel like you have been discipled online? Online discipleship is a dangerous thing when it’s done outside of real life relationships. It’s more than courses, training and learning… it’s about relationships.
  2. How can technology assist this process? There are tools and resources we can use to communicate and enhance discipleship.

Most church online media is used for communication, contact, event and small group management, etc. Primarily focused on “us” and not focused on the individual and not contributing to building community, connecting people, etc.

Top challenges of using social media in churches.

  • Amount of effort required
  • Identifying appropriate goals/ROI
  • Fostering real community
  • Cultural resistance from congregation or church leadership.

For more information about the State of the Church Online Study, click here.

Also, check out the Cobblestone Community Network, a new tool designed to help the Church be the Church, online… designed by Drew + his team at Ekklesia360.