I’ve had it with Church Web Sites. The next person that tells me that their church really has to get on the web, I am going to disagree with them! How about that? From a Church Tech guy!
OK. This is a reaction. It is a reaction to the fact that so many well intentioned “tech wannabes” have set up horrible web sites. It is a reaction to the fact the many churches have perfectly good web sites … but never update them. It is a reaction to the lack of follow through by the church staff and congregation to really make the web site worthwhile.
The reason why this happens is because Churches don’t ask the questions that any self-respecting business should ask before they go on the web:
- What should be on a web site?
- Who will update it (REGULARLY)?
- Will anyone see it?
- Will anyone want to use it?
It reminds me of the myriads of business owners in the early 2000’s who went around muttering to themselves “I’ve got to get on the web … I’ve got to get on the web”. When you asked them why they wanted to get on the web, they said that they needed to get on the web because that is what everyone is doing.
WAKE UP PEOPLE! Who does something successfully “just because someone else does it”? When my kids say that we need to do something “because Sally’s family does it”, I tell them that we don’t do something just because everyone else does. I would imagine that nearly every father and mother has had that conversation at least one time in their lives. But, somehow, we didn’t translate the fact that “doing something just because someone else does it” is a bad idea in our own lives. Let me give you a hint: Putting up a web site does not make you a technically savy congregation. In fact, putting up a poor web site is worse than nothing because it has diverted you attention from something else that could have been more valuable to build up the kingdom of God.
On the other hand, if someone wants to be on the web because they have compelling and interesting reasons to be there … I say “Go for it”. Next, I ask them who is going to keep it current and fresh. Here are two simple rules that anyone putting up a website should follow:
- Any Web Site should be compelling and interesting or it should cease to exist.
- Any church web site that isn’t updated regularly (and I don’t mean every couple of months) should be deleted.
So it’s time. Let’s make web sites that actually have a purpose and a benefit for people to go to them. Let’s update the content so that it doesn’t have last year’s “events” on them and pictures of the previous leadership or pastor, etc, etc, etc. If we can’t do that, let’s get rid of them. There are still too many “businesses on the web” that only have a single home page! But never mind … they are “on the web”!
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