Churches: Your Website is About Your Mission

I've been a pastor, I've worked for churches, I get it. Money is tight and you want to spend it on what really counts: Ministry. People. Many times, when it comes to a church's website, we find anyone in the church with a copy of Photoshop and turn them loose on the world wide web. After all, a website is just like a telephone book entry, right? Just a place where people can find out our address and service times?

Well, not really. These days a growing number of people (especially those under age 20) consider the internet their primary source of information in their life. Young people are almost constantly connected to the internet via any number of social networks and, increasingly, via their web enabled smartphones such as the iPhone.

It is almost certain that someone considering visiting your church will spend considerable time on your website before they ever step in your building. Especially when it comes to the un-churched who are extremely uncomfortable just walking into your church to visit. People want to belong before they believe. That means they'll be on your site to get the 'vibe' of your community. They'll be listening to your preaching and reading your blog posts; trying to determine if they could fit in as part of your church. And that, my friend, makes your website about mission.

The Stats

According to Christian Computing Magazine, 77% of new church attendees (under 3 months attending) said that the church's website was important in their decision to attend that church. 30% of these new attendees first heard about the church through it's website.

Let's put these numbers in perspective. How many visitors did your church have last year? Let's say, for the sake of easy math (I need all the help I can get), that you had 100 visitors last year. If your church's website was a turn-off to potential visitors, or worse, it didn't exist, you can immediately cut that number down to 70. Now, I suppose to be fair, these lost 30 could potentially hear of your church elsewhere and still find their way to your doors. With a poorly designed site, however, you're not likely to see these folks. Regardless of the order in which they hear of your church.

Of your 100 visitors, 77 of them (an overwhelming majority) considered your website an important part in their decision to attend your church. Should you lose those visitors due to an outdated or nonexistent site, your left with a measly 23 visitors for the year. Far below your potential 100. Hence my premise that a church website isn't a clerical detail. It is about nothing less than reaching people for Jesus.

The Plan

CCMag concluded that at the forefront of your church website's strategy should be moving people into community and involvement and letting them into 'who you are' at your church. As I said earlier, your website visitors are searching your site to see if they could fit in. A well-designed site will reflect the personality of your community through its design. Are you clean-cut and polished? Grungy and urban? Family focused? All of this can be part of the design scheme if you are intentional about communicating who you are when planning the look of your site.

Perhaps most importantly, where do people go from there? So they've visited your site and (hopefully...) like what they see. They're considering a visit, but maybe not ready for a Sunday Worship service. Might you be able to connect this visitor with a small group right from your site? Does your church offer a podcast which could allow this person to listen to a sample of your teaching from home? Is there an event calendar where this seeker could find another event which they would feel comfortable attending (say, a coffeehouse)?

This is missional web development. This is planning your website to be an evangelistic tool to connect the un-churched, de-churched, and whatever-else-churched to your church. So take a minute and consider your church's website. Consider the potential. How can your site reach more people for Jesus?