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Effective Church Websites for Emerging Generations

http://www.hesed.com/churchwebsites.pdf

From Frank Johnson via the Churchsite-Chat Yahoo group.  I’ve read Frank’s “immigrants vs. natives” explaination before, and it’s a nice way to illustrate how younger folks view the web.  I’m still struggling with some of Frank’s points (I’m not ready to recommend church web sites *not* post their location, service times, etc as I firmly believe there’s an audience for that information too), but did come away convinced of the need for more personal stories -  posted with faces - for Ridge Point’s new site. 

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

  1. Frank Johnson on July 29, 2003

    Mike: saw your reply on Churchsite-Chat.  Wanted to take a look at your church site again (I’d visited it before, but couldn’t remember the url), so I cam here to your business site hoping to find the link.  Lo and behold, here’s a mention of my white paper!

    Just a note to say that I didn’t intend to say that church websites should *not* contain location, service times, etc. - only that they shouldn’t be the most prominent thing on the site.  I’ll have to revisit that section and do a little rewriting to make it more clear.

    Thanks!
    Frank

  2. Dave J. on July 30, 2003

    The problem with Frank’s paper is that it creates more issues and problems than solves them.  But that is what makes it good.  Will need to study the referenced sample site to see how this thinking actually works.

    Root summary: you need to better pitch your product in terms your customers understand.  (Hears voices…“but churches don’t do marketing.”)

  3. Frank Johnson on July 30, 2003

    Yes, you’re right Dave - I didn’t attempt to solve any problems.  The purpose of the paper was to raise questions more than anything else - to be controversial and at least somewhat shocking.  I’m of the opinion that we need to be shocked out of our comfort zone when it comes to these issues.  My approach certainly isn’t right in all situations and that’s why I didn’t offer solutions for every situation.  But I do think the questions need to be raised.

    Thanks again for your feedback - I appreciate it.

  4. Dave J. on July 31, 2003

    I make my crack about marketing because it would be impossible to nail down who or what is in charge of marketing our church.  Doing a website has to be a step toward defining that (like you did Mike).

    Frank, you’ve expanded the possibilities for a church website’s possible purposes.  I’m really excited!

  5. Frank Johnson on July 31, 2003

    Mike - I think you’ve hit on something there. 

    I’m sort of on the bubble with the immigrant/native or modern/postmodern analogies.  I’m 43 years old, so if we go by age alone (a mistake, I think), I fall in the immigrant/modern camp.  But a lot of my familiarity with web stuff probably puts me in the native/postmodern camp.  But when it comes to web use, I’m much more of an information gatherer (immigrant) than a socializer (native).

    So coming to the realization you are struggling with (that community features of a website can help attract postmoderns to our websites and ultimately to the community of believers) is something I’m being dragged to kicking and screaming.  <grin>

    The other challenge this creates (at least for me) is convincing church leadership (firmly in the modern camp) that it’s a good thing to make avenues for conversation between believers and unbelievers available on a public church website.  They are generally too scared of what might happen.

    I’d be really interested in hearing some feedback from you (once the new site is up and running for awhile) on how much of a problem you encounter with this type of thing (my guess is it’s going to be very minimal).

    Frank

  6. Frank Johnson on July 31, 2003

    The other thing which occurs to me is whether it might be helpful in the scenario I am advocating (profiles and interviews of people in the church) to also give those people a blog right alongside their profiles/interviews.  Also forums that relate to their life experiences and interests. 

    I’m working on a web-based city reaching project right now that will (if I can ever get it off the ground!) incorporate the interview/profile idea.  I was going to also include some form of web-based instant messaging.  Forums and blogs would be a good idea too.  I’m going to have to think about that.

    Frank

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