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Are
parish web sites worth the effort? by
Graeme J. Davidson & Zena Moran,
November 2000
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"Does
it matter what we put on the church web site as long as
we have one?"
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Plenty
of parishes launch their own web site with high hopes of e-evangelism
—
proclaiming
the Word from the 'browsertops' at little cost and effort.
And the result
after the initial flood of eagerness and curiosity has faded?
The
hard reality is that many average-size parishes report five to
twenty hits a month —
and some of those were search mistakes!
One
upstate New York church with 1200 regular members and a church
school shows an average of 135 hits per web page for the last
year — 11 hits a month. The front page, with a large picture
of the church stained glass windows, gets more hits. But few people
bother to enter the rest of the site. Hardly surprising. It takes
half a minute on a 28.8Kb modem to download those windows. And
who wants to see them? Stained glass windows enthusiasts and the
faithful who see them every Sunday? Is that why they put up the
web site? Or was it to provide information about the parish?
50% or more
of church members may be online and spend a typical half an hour
a day on the Net, but they don't log on to their own church site.
Why? What's wrong with parish web sites? Are they really worth
the effort?
Why church
sites miss out
There
are plenty of reasons offered for the poor hit rate on church
sites.
- The
information is out of date — maybe the web expert has left
and the new person is full of promises but is poor on delivery
or doesn't have the time.
- The
information is irrelevant — how many want to download a
sermon given 18 months ago? Or read a report about the last
conference the clergy went to? Or the trip the choir made to
a concert 5 months ago?
- Poor
welcome for newcomers to the area — maybe it provides information
about the church building, the clergy résumés, and gives times
for church services, but no information about the church's theological
style, a map of how to get to the church, what is available
for children, or way to join.
- It's
difficult to access and navigate the site — maybe the site
was developed by those who have high speed Internet, or wasn't
designed with expansion or navigation in mind.
- The
content is bland and boring — written by someone who doesn't
understand the basics of journalistic writing or it features
the church leaders to the exclusion of other people and activities.
- The
site is not-interactive — there's no way of getting in
touch or commenting, and if you can, no one responds.
- It
has quickly become a burden and a bore, falling on the all too
broad shoulders of the parish office staff who may be poorly
trained to cope with the new technology and have other pressing
concerns.
Web religion
can be successful
Studies
have shown that about 7% of adults and 12% of children who use
the Net check out religious sites. In a survey of religion and
the Internet in the Washington Post on April 10 last year, sociologist
Ken Bedell discovered that nearly 80% of the 600 respondents said
the Internet played a role in their spiritual lives. Some logged
on to Web religion three times a week and over half admitted to
submitting email prayers. Most of these respondents were obviously
getting something they needed. But did they find it on a parish
web site? People also check out parish websites as part of their
research into which church to visit in your area. The site becomes
a window into the soul of the church and showcasing stained glass
windows, the organ, and clergy résumés is going to be a major
turnoff as they are all about parish and clergy egos.
Why,
what and who?
There's no doubt that for most churches the Internet is the way
to go. It's immediate, cheaper than postage and worldwide in distribution.
But
don't rush to the HTML editor or the Java scripting until you
take the first step of establishing the purpose of the web site
and a practical strategy for reaching the target audience. And,
if your church is already on the web, it can still be worth a
re-evaluation.
Establish
why your church wants a web site, what it is for and who it is
for. Here are some typical reasons:
- For
the parish to present itself — a parish notice board in
cyberspace
- To
inform the parishioners and others about key people, news and
events — an easily distributed parish newsletter
- To
welcome newcomers, reach those who are housebound, seldom seen
or who have left
- To
evangelize beyond the parish boundary
- To
share resources, sermons, study materials, prayers and ideas
with others on the web
- A place
for prayer requests to be sent and prayed about at a prayer
group
- To provide
online counselling or to answer questions
about the faith and the Church
- Because
everyone else is doing it — seems like a good thing to
do and shows that the parish is 'with it'
Whatever
the reason, the whole parish must be behind the initiative, otherwise
it will be treated as a marginal 'nice to have' activity to appease
the parish computer nerds.
Start small
Don't
feel the need to be overly ambitious. Maybe your church needs
to think of growing into the web by starting with a simple online
notice board — church name and theological style, times of
services, children's programs and group events open to anyone,
and contact details. It also helps to provide links to key resources
and other sites. It mightn't get a million hits, but it will get
across essential information, be easy to navigate and it won't
need constant updating — until the parish is ready to go
to the next phase in its site development.
This could include biblical education, study guides and other
avenues of spiritual development, while a third stage might be
making the site more interactive.
Follow-up
articles
10 key ideas for proclaiming the Word from the browser
tops >>
more
10 ways to improve parish web design >>
more
|
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also
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The
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Best
bible resources on the Net >>
more
Are
parish web sites worth the effort? >>
more
10
key ideas for proclaiming the Word from the browser tops >>
more
10
ways to improve parish web design >>
more
Was
Jesus a member of the Essenes? >>
more
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