Creating Your Church Website - Part 3
Evangelism on the web
Evangelism is one of the most important parts of the church, and the internet can be used to help us with this task as much as the previous two uses mentioned.
Evangelism websites - like any other evangelism media - should be targeted at a specific group, meeting a need in a given community. If you've got a group in mind and you've thought of a fantastic way to reach them online, that's great. Be aware though, that starting an online ministry is a hard process if you don't have the real-world contacts to back it up. People won't visit your website unless they have a reason to look for it.
I guess what I am trying to say is – don't get confused into thinking that your church website has to be evangelistic, because it doesn't. Evangelism is a whole different sport.
Some things to think about if you're designing an evangelism website:
- Who is the target audience of this site?
- How can I make the site appealing to this audience?
- What characteristics do they have that I can match in order to relate?
- What am I trying to say?
- How can I make my message relevant to the users?
- How are they going to respond?
must be more, engaging
high school students
For example look at the Must Be More website that I am involved with, aimed at teenagers who are initially reached through a high school program organised by Campus Crusade for Christ Australia. This is important to note because even though the site is essentially evangelistic by nature, users do not approach it cold but are given an idea of what to expect from their real-life meeting with Campus Crusade. They will only really visit the site for more information.
Sites like this are great, and form an important part of outreach, especially to young people.
However, you're really getting to the stage here where you need a designer and a web tech to build the site for you. You'll want a site like this to be slick and well-made, and most likely graphically and contentually complex.
So have the big ideas, but get a pro to do the hack work.
Conclusion
The web is an increasingly important medium in today's world, especially useful for gaining information.
Make sure your church has at least some information online and consider building an online community. Of the three different ways your church can use the internet, evangelism is definitely the most work and the hardest to get right, but it too is important.
You should consider using a real web designer to make any site you decide to produce, but if you've the time and knowledge you can have a go at doing it yourself with some easy tools to help you.
For more information or advice on getting your church website up and running - or anything else - you are welcome to contact us.
