Take a quick look around the Web and you will see that in general, the Church is still woefully behind in terms of design and strategy. Yes, there are several examples of great church web design out there, but for every one of those there are 10 church websites featuring dozens of animated GIFs and the MIDI version of “Shout to the Lord” blaring upon page load. There are even more websites that are not that bad, but still they just exist—they’re not actually used on a regular basis. If your church falls into one of these groups, do not be ashamed, but know that a shift in your web strategy can mean huge growth in several areas for your ministry.
When a church decides to digitize, often times the process is where things go wrong. The good news is that building an effective website is not as difficult or expensive as you might think. Hopefully, this will help you establish your web strategy and modernize the way your ministry uses the greatest communication tool of our time, the World Wide Web.
In the Beginning
First things first: money. Every conversation about a web overhaul starts with budget. Unfortunately, many churches stop the conversation at this point, assuming that a nice, effective website costs too much. A few years ago, this may have been the case, but right now the market is flooded with freelance web designers and the cost of the technology is cheaper than ever. Decide early on how much you have to spend on the project and go from there.
Now that you have your budget you can start asking the next big question: “Does my church want to have a website or do we want use our website?” This is not semantics; it’s a serious consideration. A website that you simply have functions much like a digital pamphlet or brochure. It will highlight ministries and give the vital information (location, contacts, service times, etc), but the content will not change much from week to week. This type of website is cheap and easy to make, but it’s not what I’d consider a current church website strategy.
A modern site is one that actually gets used on a regular basis. This type of site has all the vital information in obvious, easy-to-find places, but the site also functions as a communication hub and connection point for your church community. The content is updated regularly and includes videos, resources, and feeds from social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Naturally, it costs a little bit more to create this sort of site, but much of that cost is in the upfront development. For many churches, it’s well worth the cost to have a centralized hub for your church to connect off-campus.
Next, pick a team of key ministry leaders, volunteers, and regular attendees to act as a focus group for what you want from your new site. As local church leaders, sometimes we think we know what our church members want without ever asking them. A focus group could help reveal things about your church, not to mention your website, that you never knew. Ask, “What things do you like about our current site?” and “If we had unlimited resources, what would be your dream for our site?”
Making the Parts
At this point in the process, you should have a pretty good idea of what kind of site you want and what you want it to do for your church or ministry. It’s time to start shopping. First, get bids from designers. A quick Google search can yield good results, but you can often find great designers with church backgrounds via the blogosphere or your contacts at other churches and ministries.
Most designers will be able to help you with the next step: picking the tools. The modern site will require a Content Management System (CMS)—a backend that will allow you and your staff to edit the content of the site without knowing HTML or contacting the designer. Basically, the designer builds the site and then gives you the keys. There are several options out there for a decent CMS, but they each have their pros and cons. For instance, WordPress (www.wordpress.org) is free and easy to use, but you’ll have to rely on forums and message boards for technical support if something breaks. There are also several options out there for ministry-specific CMSs.
Other tools that will come in handy during your process are productivity tools. Once you select a single point of contact within your organization to work with the designer (this ensures consistent information), you’ll also want to establish a standard means of communicating with the designer. Check out online collaboration and file-sharing tools such as Basecamp (www.basecamphq.com) and Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) and ask your designer if they prefer email, chat, or phone communication. Skype (www.skype.com) works great for this because you can use its chat client to discuss small stuff, use it to make voice calls for the important stuff, and use screen sharing for the heavy stuff.
The first item to tackle with the site itself is the site map or structure. How will your information be organized on the site? What should go where? Remember that you may be inclined to organize your site the same way your ministry departments are set up, but this probably will not make sense to newcomers. Try to avoid internal language when putting together the site map.
Once the site map is complete, the fun can begin. If the site map is the skeleton and the content is the flesh, the design is the skin. The designer can start creating comps that convey his or her vision for your new site. (Comps are essentially pictures of the website with non-functioning links and static art that are intended to direct the creative process for site development.) After several rounds of design comps, you should eventually land on a look and feel.
While that part of the process is taking place, you need to think about the actual content of the site. When I worked at a church, one of the mistakes we made with our last site was deciding to parcel out the writing of site content to individual ministry leaders. After all was said and done, our site’s copy was incredibly inconsistent because 20 different authors with 20 different writing styles wrote it. In hindsight, we could’ve hired a copywriter to work with our ministry leaders to write the copy. This option would’ve given the text on our site a unified voice, which we sorely lacked.
Putting It All Together
You’re almost there. You have a plan, a process of making decisions about the site, and the three main components of your new site (backend, content, and design) are under construction. Now is a good time to start creating buzz within your church about the site. You can reveal a design comp, highlight cool features, or slightly modify the current site to reflect the upcoming change.
During the construction stage, you may not hear from your designer for days on end. Chances are he or she is locked in a basement with dry Red Bull cans and empty Funyuns bags scattered around the computer monitor, engaged in a world of Matrix-esque code. This is totally normal. Trust that once your designer has finished, he or she will emerge from the cave with a long, hidden URL that will allow you to see your brand new site for the first time.
The next few weeks will be trying and will feature a flurry of communication among your staff as they comb through the site. You will find bugs, errors, broken links, and missing pieces. The best way to handle these is to set up an email address (fixme@yourdomain.com) that people can use to notify you of issues.
From this point, launch is next. You will continue to discover problems as more people browse your site, but take some time away from your site after the launch. This project has probably consumed you, and you need fresh eyes before you can properly evaluate it post-launch. Use this time to catch up on other projects or just read an old-fashioned book. This might also be a good time to talk to your designer about a retainer or some sort of agreement that gives you a few hours of follow-up each week to fix bugs or make adjustments. A retainer is usually cheaper than a flat hourly rate, and you’ll likely need your designer’s post-launch services more than you realize.
Beyond
The Web and your church are constantly growing, evolving, and reshaping themselves. A good web solution will allow you to make changes and will not become a barrier for your people. Expect to realize things about your ministry that you didn’t know previously. For example, your people may be more web-savvy than you thought. They may even use the Web so effectively that you can cut printing costs from your budget (you can also jump on the oh-so-trendy, “We are green!” bandwagon). Either way, you should observe a sense of unity and clarity that effective web communication brings to your church body. You will also experience growth from a website that speaks clearly to prospective visitors.
Every church is different and has different needs, but this very Communication process will help you discover what those needs are and how to meet them with your website. In all things, remember that the Internet and your ministry website are just tools that God has allowed us to use for His glory. Therefore, let’s do what we can to create websites that effectively communicate who we are and what God is doing among us.
Nick Asolas is a web strategist and designer who lives in Arizona with his wife and two sons. He currently works with Tipping Media (www.tippingmedia.com), a small company that creates web and social networking solutions designed specifically for churches and faith-based organizations. Nick blogs sporadically at www.nickasolas.com.