For those of you who have church web sites.....are they worth it??

Do they really have an evangelistic outreach?? Is that what they are for?? If not....what are they for?? What purpose do they serve?? Can you point to people in your church who came as a result of your website??

Just trying to determine whether it's worth the money and effort.

Thanks!

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Answers

I would use the web site for member enrichment, more than outreach. If used properly, members can have access to a LOT of items of interest, Bible study helps, past messages and studies filed by subject and cross-filed by Scripture passage, etc.

They can help in directing a searcher to your congregation, if you have a very easy to remember, or figure out, web address. Something like FirstChurchOrlando.com ... or ChristianChurchLexington.org ... many people can find those. It's when you don't have your own domain name that it becomes a hassle: www.aol.members.firstchurch/html ... ones like that are HARD for people to find.

Just some thoughts.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Danny...

Without a doubt they are worth any cost...but there are ways to keep costs way down. Our site ( http://www.christianpages.org/fort ) was produced and is maintained 100% free. The people who do this, do it as a ministry for church's for free. They are Tom and Patty Pickering of Pourhouse Productions (good friends who live in Kewanee, IL).

As far as whether or not it is used...I have had probably 25 contacts directly from our site alone. People who are moving to Des Moines will find us on a search engine and then surf our site...if they are interested then they drop an e-mail which comes directly to me. I respond as they request more info and we have had three families who have visited our church directly from the web and one family who is a regular attender.

This is completely new. No phone calls prior to, no personal visits. Simply e-mail only.

What you find is that people do a lot of "shopping" for all kinds of products on the net and churches aren't left out of that.

I admit that when we go to a different town I jump on the net and look at hotel prices and local attractions. People do the same thing with churches.

The main key is to get listed on some major search engines though.

People use the net just like they do the yellow pages and most of us certainly want listings in the yellow pages.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Danny - I also agree with Michael on the oot searchers. BTW -- Pourhouse Productions is GREAT! I would contact them. They will even put your web page together for free ... as a non-profit group ... but I would suggest some financial renumeration for them, as this is their job.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

It's worth would depnd upon how computer literate the area is. In Fort Lauderdale, there was only one person that I know of that came because they saw the web site. I kept a lot of studies and such on there for, as Darrell called it, member enrichment. Also a lot of links.

The cost was free. I met the owner of my personal provider and he offerred to host it. He even paid for the domain registration. But since I left, there's no one there to keep it going.

Here in Seattle, we've had at least 5 inthe past 3 months who visited because of the web site. A lot of people, due to their experiences, are leary of speaking to the preacher or someone from the Church. They are comfortable with getting their questions answered by anonymously scouring a web site. I have had emails regarding something said on the site, as well.

I am currently looking into having my sermons put on there using real audio. This would work well in several capacities. Bible Book of the Month catchup, hospital stays, travellers, etc.

It's a tool, like anything else we would use. If your congregation is computer savvy, use it. If not, it's not worth the time or effort (and it does take effort to keep it updated.

btw, the site address for Ft Lauderdale was/is www.cccflorida.org and the one here in Seattle is www.crownhillchurch.com. Having an easy to remember name is extremely important as well.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

I like having a site as a supported ministry. It's an easy thing to point missions teams to as they are looking for information (have to know they use the net though). Anyways, my site is www.umstl.org and it is hosted free, with no outside banner ads. I pay for the domain registration ($15/yr) + a one time $30 set-up fee to microworld.com.

God bless, Scott

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Danny,

Yes they are well worth the investment. Ours is used mainly for advertising the church and news for the congregation. It costs us a total of about $150 per year and attracts quite a few people who are moving to the area. We also have a big Yellow Pages ad that costs $147 per month. We have a check off on our attendance slips where people can mark where they first heard about us. It used to be 2 to 1 the Yellow Pages over the internet. In the last year that has been reveresed!

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Well.....we decided to give it a try.

Here is our new web site.....

www.kentchristian.com

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Hey Danny,

Except for that scary picture in the "staff" section, it looks great.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Unfortunately, in the last church I attended (and fled), the vocal minority was opposed to the church spending even the meager amount it did on the church website, and did everything they could to hinder it's success, calling it into question at every single board meeting for an entire year, even though every one of their questions were answered at every single meeting. Eventually rumors of scandal and fraud were begun (the church had some sort of secret program on the site that was taking ppl's credit card numbers and funneling money into my and the pastor's pockets somehow). When I left, the church's website was removed within the week. Very sad. The church I am currently going to uses the web with great effect, even webcasting the pastor's Sunday morning sermon now. What a difference an outlook makes.

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2002

PS. Professionally speaking, Danny: Good start. Clean, simple. I like it, it has potential. :)

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2002

John -- From your last and previous posts, sounds as if you were going through H - E - double L at your last congregation!

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2002

That's putting it mildly.

My mother-in-law went back there last Sunday. Mostly old people there now ... but my weren't they happy old people. "Its so nice here now that those people are all gone and we have it the way we want it ..." I thought, "What ever happened to the way He wanted it?" In 10 years there won't be a church there ... if that.

-- Anonymous, April 02, 2002

The problem with most people in churches today that object to websites as being "extravagant" or whatever, is that they don't think big enough, they don't think globally. I wanted to use our church website as a point of contact with shut-ins and with the wired youth, as a place where our church members could communicate with its missionaries, etc. And here's a prime case in point as to why church websites are a good idea. I met a friend on the internet, a 16yo girl who lives in Illinois. She's seeking the Lord and I need to get her plugged into a church. Of course, I'm no where near Illinois, so I looked up churches in her area using crosslink.org, and found two close to her. One had a very well done and interesting website, the other had no contact information online other than name and address. Guess which one I would recommend to that young girl?

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2002

I can't contribute a whole lot that is different. In view of my move, I was not able to post much of anything and I wanted to post to this thread. To me a website says, this church is moving into the 21st century trying to relate to the world in a way the world understands. Phone calls and cold calls do not work as they did 30 or more years ago. A website with accurate information to me, lifts a church's profile in the area it serves.

I have been in small communities where my website was never hit. I am now in a capital (Baton Rouge, LA) area and I should have greater activity. But all in all, I would still have the one in the small town, as it did not cost but the future good may be profound. IMHO!

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2002

The January 13, 2002 issue of the Standard is dedicated to Focusing on the Internet. If you don't have access to this issue I can mail it to you.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2002