Lessons learnt about running an effective, "successful" church may be translated into running an effective website. And vice versa. Let me briefly highlight three aspects of an effective successful church:
1) the "content" needs to be of high quality - meeting the needs of the visitor to the church, and encouraging visitors to return;
2) the quality of presentation needs to be very good - so that people find the presentation attractive, easy to explore, and find what one wants;
3) the church must be promoted so that people actually know about it - especially through other people who find the church significant and want to share this with others.
How often is our church experience a shoddy, second-rate experience? And what connection is being made with real people's lives and needs? Erudite sermons with careful explanations of biblical background and even references back to the original languages and cultures - but with nothing for a teenager, or a person in a midlife or other crisis, to actually do. Not really meeting the needs of the visitor.
How often is the experience for new-comers a bewildering embarrassment? Who ascertains discreetly how much help they need to feel comfortable as new-comers in this community? So that visitors are gently steered through anything baffling to find what they are really after, while regulars are not made to feel like first-time visitors every time.
Finally, think of church communities or organizations that are wonderfully, well-organised machines, with great internal communications, and wonderful programs, teaching, and experiences for those "in the fold". But there is no connection to those "outside the fold" either promotion or service.
In the above three paragraphs the word "website" can easily be find-and-replaced to read "website". There are lessons here for webmasters as well as church pastors. Three legs on which the stool will stand: (1) high-quality, significant content; (2) attractively, meaningfully presented; (3) promotion to encourage visiting. True for pastors and webmasters.
Each of the three elements mentioned needs to be present for a successful website. High quality material on a site that cannot easily be navigated or poorly presented is not going to be satisfactory. A beautifully presented and well-organised site with excellent material - but no one knows about it and no new visitors ever come - is not what most webmasters are hoping for. Links leading to a site with uninteresting and well-out-of-date material, or poor end-user experience, only leads to frustration - and certainly no re-visiting.
1) the "content" needs to be of high quality - meeting the needs of the visitor to the church, and encouraging visitors to return;
2) the quality of presentation needs to be very good - so that people find the presentation attractive, easy to explore, and find what one wants;
3) the church must be promoted so that people actually know about it - especially through other people who find the church significant and want to share this with others.
How often is our church experience a shoddy, second-rate experience? And what connection is being made with real people's lives and needs? Erudite sermons with careful explanations of biblical background and even references back to the original languages and cultures - but with nothing for a teenager, or a person in a midlife or other crisis, to actually do. Not really meeting the needs of the visitor.
How often is the experience for new-comers a bewildering embarrassment? Who ascertains discreetly how much help they need to feel comfortable as new-comers in this community? So that visitors are gently steered through anything baffling to find what they are really after, while regulars are not made to feel like first-time visitors every time.
Finally, think of church communities or organizations that are wonderfully, well-organised machines, with great internal communications, and wonderful programs, teaching, and experiences for those "in the fold". But there is no connection to those "outside the fold" either promotion or service.
In the above three paragraphs the word "website" can easily be find-and-replaced to read "website". There are lessons here for webmasters as well as church pastors. Three legs on which the stool will stand: (1) high-quality, significant content; (2) attractively, meaningfully presented; (3) promotion to encourage visiting. True for pastors and webmasters.
Each of the three elements mentioned needs to be present for a successful website. High quality material on a site that cannot easily be navigated or poorly presented is not going to be satisfactory. A beautifully presented and well-organised site with excellent material - but no one knows about it and no new visitors ever come - is not what most webmasters are hoping for. Links leading to a site with uninteresting and well-out-of-date material, or poor end-user experience, only leads to frustration - and certainly no re-visiting.