In the last 10 years we pastors have heard from a variety of voices that our churches needs to have great websites. Well, I think it started out that we just needed to have a website. That gave rise to a whole raft of awful looking websites that would have made Miss Pacman proud. So then the call came for good websites. Along the way it was pointed out that our websites were static and uncool. We were left with the impression that it needed to be interactive with up to date content. Now I'm getting calls telling me that, for a monthly sum, I can be provided with a product that will be like Facebook for just my church.
My current opinion (I reserve the right to change my mind) is that church websites should provide basic information about your church and leave it at that. I want my church website to be a place where people can get the information they need and nothing more. It shouldn't be ugly but I would even be pretty lenient with that.
I figure that if the online lives of the people in my church revolve around my church website we have a problem. If you want to use a Facebook like product for your church why not just use Facebook? I suppose some may use safety as the reason but my inclination is that it has more to do with power and control. It also supports the refuge theology so prevalent in churches today.
So I prefer the people in my church to get a life and be salt and light in a world that needs it. If they need info on some church activity then visit my church website. If visitors need information about us, have at it. Other than that I'm just not going to waste my time.
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5:46 PM
As our church "webmaster" I am under pressure to provide all sorts of Web services to the church that (a) should be as slick as possible, (b) shouldn't cost anything, and (c) doesn't require anyone else in the congregation to do any actual work. So be it. So our Web site is pretty basic, and I've farmed a bunch of stuff to various Google properties - Blogger, Calendar and Groups, to be exact. Even so, a lot of it is stagnant (as is our Facebook group) because no one else wants to be involved (read as, "provide any sort of content whatsoever"). So every three months or so when forministry.com sends me a warning about our site being inactive I log in and make a trivial change just to keep it active. Now I am also wrestling with our (free) provider's email forwarding service not working (again), but we want to keep it because it has our domain name in it. Arg.
So I agree with your KISS principle on church Web sites.
At least you aren't going the other way - I've lost count of the number of pastors who are also "freelance Web designers." It's great to be bivocational and all, but that field is getting a bit too crowded, IMHO.
6:40 AM
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