Here is a thought: You would never give out an old flyer to promote an upcoming event. There are reasons for this beyond being absurd.
1. Our website is a reflection of our church. There was a time when churches would use their church window or an outside sign to promote themselves as well as upcoming events. Today, websites are those windows, except they are more far reaching and powerful. When people see that your website is not updated they think your church is not updated. When people see that your website is shutdown, they think your church is shutdown.
2. Our website is our cyber address for all thing informative. I have found that there are 2 old staples that are faltering, newspapers and television news. People no longer look to television or news print to find information any longer, where do they look? They look to the web. Now you may say, “Well, I still read the paper or I still watch the news.” Well you are probably someone that still says, “We need to reach the ‘young people’”. You get my point. The church needs to put serious thought into their web identity. A friend of mine who works for NBC in Los Angeles told me something interesting the other day. NBC is canceling their 5pm news report because it was viewed by only 15,000 people in all of Los Angeles County. I was like, Whoa! He said, “It’s because of the internet. People can get their news there. And they can get their news quick.”
If we are going to stay effective in the internet arena, we need to put serious thought into our web identity. People fear what they do not understand. You better believe, they are going to get their understanding through the web.
Pastor Al
April 7, 2009 at 12:39 am
Thanks for putting this up Pastor Al. Its encouraging stuff since were in the process of re-doing our website here in Burque hahaha I still remember the first time I told you where I was from! Thanks for everything have a Blessed day
April 7, 2009 at 3:00 am
I agree 100%. A church website is a reflection of the church. What would you think about a church if you pulled into the parking lot and the grass looked like it hadn’t been mowed in months? Yet, there are churches that don’t keep their website updated and they expect people to pull in and see their church in a positive light. Keep it updated or pull it down!
April 8, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Great post. I agree %100, we have been trying to build our online presence from day 1 (maybe day 3). FYI any church that was to start a site can look at http://www.startchurchsite.info.
April 10, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I give out our web URL every chance I get. It’s a great tool, because some people are just not ready to come to church, but they will go online. It’s good for people who do come to our church, too and need info like journey group addresses, event info, etc. Your blog helps people feel they know your heart, which is important as we grow, because you just can’t meet everyone. I know you try to, as a lot of us do, but WOW there are LOTS of new people!