In our first post of the series, we discussed (and hopefully with you evaluating) your current church website regarding who the content is currently for…in the sense of audience(s). If you haven’t seen or done that, you will benefit from doing that first, here: Website – Part 1
Now, let’s talk about who your church website should be for…
You’ve probably heard some stat that something like 90% of people who visit your church will go to your website first.
The only problem with that stat is that it undersells how important your website is for outsiders & visitors! It may be 90% given older people not using technology, but for anyone under 55 ish and certainly younger families and singles, the number is probably 100%.
So, that sets some framework for our question: Who should your website be for?
Your website is the front porch of your church–to put it in Southern hospitality terms. In the South, you go to someone’s house for dinner and traditionally someone comes out onto the porch and greets you. They welcome you and might show you a bit of the land. You might have a seat and a lemonade–even BEFORE you enter the house! That’s what your website should do for outsiders–people who aren’t church-going, lost, don’t know you and you don’t know them.
Now, you may say: “Wait a minute! What about our members and regular attenders? You want us to build a website for those we don’t know when we have all these people already here?” Great question. Thank you for asking because I was just headed there…
Two things to note:
1)We are, of course, not suggesting that you can’t or shouldn’t put content for your members & attenders on your site. If you have a calendar of events, bulletins, updates to capital campaigns, a log-in section for members for prayer requests, and other matters. These are all appropriate (and others not listed) and make sense.
But, this is not what your website should be for. And when you present these things, you would do well to present them in a way that outsiders understand them and feel welcome. Every piece of content is telling outsiders something about you and your church.
2)The second thing to note is that many Reformed church websites are already geared far more toward members & regular attenders than outsiders. So, if that’s the case, is your website getting a lot of use by your members and attenders? The answer in most cases will be no or not so much. Not that they don’t go there for events or other content, but the websites that are already targeting members and attenders aren’t flourishing in that goal, so there’s plenty of room to shift the focus to outsiders.
This isn’t the fault of the members or the website. It’s just that you have so many other ways to communicate things to members that they don’t actually need a vibrant website for them. You have a bulletin, Sunday announcements, and an email list. You call, text, or see them. The regulars don’t need a vibrant website. The outsiders and lost who don’t know you do.
What about Reformed people moving into the area looking for a solid church?
No problem. You must communicate to them that you are Reformed. Agreed. But you will do that naturally with how you talk about things—a few phrases and they will know right away, “Yeah, they’re Reformed.” You’ll have plenty in your statement of belief for them. If you have 2 services that tells them a lot. The fact that OPC is somewhere on the site, tells them almost everything.
So, we agree that Reformed people moving into the area are an audience for your site–and an important one. But the site isn’t for them. 5% of the site will tell them what they need to know…maybe even just the OPC and listening to a sermon.
What about evangelical Christians and church-goers who aren’t Reformed?
We are going to talk about all the categories, but for now, let’s treat everyone that ISN’T Reformed as an “outsider” and think about what it means that your website should be primarily for them.
Exercise: Last post, you evaluated the home page on your website. The next post in this series is scheduled for 2 weeks from now. In those two weeks, take a little time and with this post in hand or on the screen, look at your church website and make some notes about what kind of content you could add and/or change to make it more welcoming to outsiders. No rules at this point. Just draft a list of thoughts and ideas that come to mind. Be specific if you can. Having such a list will be helpful for our next post.
(This series is important to us and we welcome your feedback and questions, and you are welcome to share your exercises with us (we’ll keep them to ourselves). Email us at: opchomemissions@gmail.com or reply to the email that got you here.)