Starting a church website

Wanna start a website?  There's options to start, such as a free web presence.  It's a start.  Easy enough to pitch to the congregation because of the price, but how much will it be worth your time?

One could recommend Google's Blogger, which while originally meant for blogging, is great for something highly personalized; but frankly, you are probably looking for something more business savvy, right?  So for an inexpensive option, consider Wordpress.

Sign up for a blog at www.wordpress.com by click on the top right orange button.  Create basic pages (known as tabs) such as:  service times and location; who we are; what to expect; church history; meet the staff.  Fill them as you go.  Also, I suggest not letting people know of the site until you are somewhat satisfied with it.  What will help with that is getting a nice look.  Consider this theme to get you going:  http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/christian-sun

But understand, a web presence is not as important as a web ministry.  That is truly forward-thinking, where it's not just for the people visiting, but also for the people you have.  That is why I recommended to my congregation to use MemberConnect.

For instance, take a look at the menu.  The left side is the visitor version, which all see automatically.  But when provided with a user name and password, by simply signing in just below the Main Menu and your personalized ads, you have an “inside” web ministry, that helps “connect members.”  It becomes your private social network, where families don’t have to worry about facebook or twitter or myspace.  It’s manageable.

There are many modules one can use and I’m just starting to introduce them.  I would like to see the prayer modules improved, so it can be more organized and useful for ministry.  For it to be truly interactive, I would like each page to have an option of feedback, for that page.  But there is no option to do that.  If we could, then people can respond to a posted prayer with their personal prayer, words of encouragement, even thanksgiving for when the prayer was answered!  I used to be a prayer chaplain at  www.ThePrayerRoom.com who did an excellent job at an interactive prayer system.

Our congregation uses prayer circles so it’s something I can overlook, but still would like to have for the future.  No product is perfect, but I’d still like to see this improved.

My website is taken time to shape and form.  But that’s exactly the point, because a congregation thinking ahead is better than a congregation that self-satisfied.  Gotta start somewhere.  What are your thoughts, solutions, gripes, hopes?