Choice of words used on the site is very important. All the church ‘jargon’ is wasted on non-Christians. It makes them uncomfortable and as mentioned before, they may not understand what’s really meant by the terms. Non-Christians may even feel inadequate because they don’t know what some words mean, and go no further on the site. Even a word like ‘fellowship’ can be misconstrued, but clearer if relabeled ‘activities together.’ The whole point is to make them want to stay and click around.
Non-Christians think church-goers are stuffy, judgmental, boring killjoys. Some humor is always good on a web site, everyone likes to laugh and everyone understands funny whether it‘s a funny photo with a caption or if it‘s a joke. Humor and light-hearted titles can make a non-Christian hang around a little longer, and want to see what's inside.
Polls show that evangelism is increasingly viewed in a negative light. Give fellowship a higher priority and a different name.
A Church Is Its Congregation
You want the visitors to your church web site to :
- See the people as ordinary, casual, real people.
- Understand that the church understands their life’s problems
- Know that it is a community, family place where there’s always a warm invitation extended to them anytime they want to come.
- Know that God can and will help them.
Church is all the people that attend it, not the building and that should show clearly on the site, with clear directions, address and phone number. A free map of the area can be linked to with a phone number for people to call if they get lost. If people feel they are going to get there easily, they’re more likely to come.
There should be testimonies from members. Not just a churchy testimony, but one that includes where they’re from, what they do; a bit of information that lets someone get to know a little about the member as a person with a job and family.
Something Fun Please?
Blogs, games, forums and fun stuff can be offered to the users as stuff to do and a reason to come back again and again. Updated content is a priority in this respect.
There should be an area where teens/children can play and spend time in a safe, Christian atmosphere.
Other pages where there’s more secular content should be included, too. Just not up front. Let them click around and get used to the place before they stumble upon more serious stuff.
The site should demonstrate a willingness to accommodate people with disabilities. It can be written in the programming so that a person could enlarge the font so they can read it easier. The site can say if they have level access, lifts, loop system or large print bibles.
Let Your Church Show
The best photo you could put on your front page is a face! The front of the church is standard on a lot of sites, but so blah and common. If a site MUST have a picture of a church on the front page, it should at least be a picture on a sunny day at a time when there’s a lot of smiling people around it. But a face is much warmer, more personal and more inviting.
Just remember, everyone has a site, but only some are successful. Try to be like the successful ones and be geared toward reaching non-Christians in a friendly, inviting manner. Use user-friendly words and phrases for links and page titles. No jargon, non-Christians don’t like that, and let them see Who the church is by the real, welcoming people that represent it. Have something fun that people can spend a little time doing or come back to do again. Maybe it’ll start some communication that will turn into something better, later.
Have fun creating and make it a place you would like.
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