I had been going to my current church for over 2 years when I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to say something.
The website was straight from the 80’s, and I got hives thinking about it.
Okay so that may be a little harsh, but short of having the trail that follows your mouse around… well you get my point.
I am a self taught PHP geek and WordPress freak. Having made a small movie review website grow to 5k a day visits, one that is a local supply of movie passes here in Baltimore, and more, I have had my share of coding adventures.
From SEO, to traffic, to plugins to server side admin, I have been there and maintain most if not all of it while working a day job as a security administrator for an EMR. WordPress has been my “second life” for years now and I have googled my way into learning more about it everyday. I cannot write code from the ground up but I can do a mean reorg on a well done foundation. CSS has become somewhat of a competitor of mine, always trying new things or figuring out where I missed a <div> or what not really turns my inner geek on.
But, back to my story.
The website needed to be loved and cared for and it was not getting either. We were hosted with a company who didn’t even offer a backend or ftp access. It was a pure CSS backend where many templates equaled one out of date website. In the early stages I found out that an absorbitant amount of money was spent on the current design along with a princely sum for monthly maintenance, of which none was being done.
The Culture
The culture was something that needed to be tackled first. And very lightly at that. Volunteers are the worst kind of help, I had once over heard a friend say after working at a church for more than a month. So how was this going to go down? How could I go about treading lightly without hurting anyone’s feelings?
I am not a light person, I am an in your face and blunt person. Whether you want an opinion or not you will get one and it wont be one that is dumb downed for your listening pleasure. The culture became something, that in the end, would stretch me as a person in more ways than one. The culture was set in an old fashion mindset or should I say stuck.
The church is a funny thing in and of itself. The ways I went about my normal daily work, reporting to one person and worrying only about what they thought, was very backwards in this new culture in which I tried to maneuver.
Something that became harder as the days and weeks went by. One would think you find a template or start coding for a website but nope, that is not how it worked. There were meetings, there were phone calls and more meetings. There were outside folks who wanted to be in and inside folks who wanted out. There were feelings involved and they were getting hurt.
Only a handfull noticed I was trying to help not hurt. All I wanted to do was create for them and all they wanted to know was why? Why? Well that we can save for another post!
A Greater Vision
In speaking with the director of the church, on more than one occasion, I had convinced him of a larger vision for the website. One of social media, bridging of gaps and filling in local area holes. This was not going to just be a website, it was going to become something larger.
We set out just talking about it, just between a few of us. Well that was our first mistake. In the past the culture at our church was everyone wanted to be included and needed to be included. So setting off on the wrong foot we started including a few more folks bit by bit.
The pastor was sold and was (and still is) very amped about the idea of spreading God’s word to many more folks through such an easy avenue. The elders were on board also but had other things to worry about. We included the the current webteam of two in on our idea and that is where it got nasty (see part 2 coming up of the Church Web Redesign series).
The culture was becoming more of a managing factor than we had thought to begin with. The logo was something that a very large amount of committees had their hands in deciding. The current website had a lot of blood and tears on it, but was dying a slow painful death at the hand of stagnation.
Well I had the backing of the Pastor and director of the church and we set out on an exhausting adventure that we hoped would pay off.
PatrckB says
“Volunteers are the worst kind of help.”
I resemble that remark!
Thanks for a great post. It reminds us techies that it’s about the people and not about the technology.
Matthew Snider says
Thanks man for the kind words. Wait till you read part 2. Should be up soon – it’s all about Volunteers!!
Graham Brenna says
I recently went through this very same process. I feel your pain and anguish. I am on staff at my church… and am very much the “blunt… in-your-face” guy. I don’t like beating around the bush. Throughout the entire process I had the backing of our communications pastor. Which helped out a lot. But there are definitely things with “the church” in general that I feel like I’m being seen as the guy who raises hell just for the sake of seeing a cute little guy with a pitchfork. When in all reality… I have the best interests of the organization at heart. I’m just not afraid to say the hard truths.
Go you for getting a new website for your church! It’s a lot harder to do than people think. And there were certainly times throughout the process where I thought I had bit off more than I could chew.
Matthew Snider says
Thanks Graham for showing me that I am not the only one who is crazy out there!