More and more would-be first time guests will visit your church’s website before they ever walk through the doors.
In fact, it’s easier to spend a Sunday afternoon googling local churches, and reading through their respective websites, than it is to get all the kids bathed, dressed, fed, loaded into the Tahoe, unloaded, registered, and wrestled into an oh-so-unfamiliar Sunday school environment just to “try out” a new church for the first time.
Let’s face it, your website will either be a bridge or a barrier for new church members. If this is true, and I believe it is, how can you make it a bridge?
We’ve blogged before on the basics of good web design for a church, so if you’re looking for a high level checklist, check that out.
But what’s got me thinking about all of this again is the fact that we’re reading the book Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley and, as usual, it’s loaded with practical wisdom on web site design. OK that’s not exactly true. But in his usual fashion, Andy delivers a Z-Pack of principles that transcend a single application.
For example I found this gem:
What people complain about communicates their understanding of the vision.
But when I read it with my web developer X-Ray goggles on, it said, “What people complain about your website communicates their understanding of the vision for your website.” Chances are if you have a church website, someone’s complained about it at some point!
Three things to consider:
- Your church should have a vision.
- Your vision should be clear on your website.
- Your vision should be accurate on your website.
If you don’t have a vision, then you probably have bigger problems than your website. Go address those.
If you have a vision, it should be obvious on your home page before you even scroll.
If you have a vision articulated already, make sure it’s accurate. Are attracting the type of visitors that stay? What’s your bounce rate? The vision on your site may not be matching up to what is communicated on Sunday morning.
We look for opportunities to connect with people who are disconnected from God, and sometimes you’ve only got one shot (one first impression) to make it stick.
Tom says
Again, your skill with a pen has masked the hair line.
But seriously, I dug this..
Dewitt says
Great post!