Church Web Design

For the most part, web design services cater to any business or organization that desires to have a presence on the Internet. Many website designs are fairly straightforward and probably represent a rather traditional approach to business or to an organizational philosophy. On the other hand, many website designs are very innovative and perhaps captivating by movement and sound and original graphic layouts. These websites no doubt capture the more "outside the box" thinking by the organization wishing to capture a particular niche market with a more nontraditional approach. It is the very same thing when it comes to church web design. Thousands of churches across the country have fully realized the power of the Internet to reach a myriad of Internet users that would otherwise be clueless about their ministries.

A revolution began in the middle of the seventies when many churches began recognizing the need to become more relevant in how they presented their message. Most were very careful to preserve the message itself, but argued that the way the message was marketed was dated and ineffective. Of course many other churches stood on the other side of the divide embracing a much more confident assurance in the power of tradition and so the great divide became somewhat like the Continental Divide in some religious eyes. When fast forwarded to the late nineties, church culture had fully embraced the influence of the Internet to be an ally in reaching the more than half of America's population that did not attend church at all. As the embracing became more passionate, both the contemporary and the traditional philosophies to ministry rushed to build websites to invite, inform, teach and evangelize the local citizenry, and if someone stumbled across the website in Croatia and could read English, all the better. So now both IBM and the local church around the corner needed web design services but for much different reasons.

For some local churches, designing a website is harder than picking out the color of the new sanctuary carpet. If five people are on that carpet committee, rest assured that at least five different favorite colors will emerge and each color will have passionate committee member proponents and reasons for the choice. Church web design is much the same because for many church members, the mission for their local church has never really been spelled out so that everyone is on the same page. So the questions begin to arise about whether there ought to be a lot of symbols identified with faith, should the site have a lot of pictures about the building, should there be pages for statements of belief, should it be splashy and real sleek looking, should there be audio samples of the music, video clips of sermons, lots of pictures of children, videos of activities or perhaps should the site be more like a brochure, highlighting the history of the congregation and picture of the sanctuary and the pastoral staff, with all this representing a conservative approach? "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." (Matthew 28:19)

Spiritually sensitive web design services that especially cater to church web design know all this history and are ready to help each individual congregation sort out the important from the unimportant. Perhaps these unimportant might better labeled as pet themes for some members. A local congregation web design for the 21st century is one that will give church committees plenty to think about in terms of what to include and what direction to go. But not matter the choices made a website, unless very poorly designed, can be an asset to congregational marketing and establishing a larger footprint in the community. So what can professional web design services offer a local congregation?

Here are just a few of the possibilities from web design services especially adept at church web design. For example, adding a blog link to the website will give visitors, members and others a chance to share worship experiences, testimonies, prayer requests and other information. Making it easy for office staff to put forms on the website for sign-up sheets, applications and registration forms is very helpful, as well as the ability for members to make contributions, payments, tithes and other financial transactions. The website for a church can make podcasting a standard part of the ministry for say, a weekly commentary on the preceding sermon topic. Some church web design firms include the ability for website visitors to actually send emails from that site, inviting others to view the site or come to an event.

Churches can easily make the mistake, however, that a website alone will drive people in to their fellowship. The same mistake has been made over the years regarding every new approach to ministry that has seemed successful at a local congregation somewhere. Buses, drama, contemporary music, satellite churches with satellite TV, life application sermons and every other approach works some places and doesn't in others, but pastors are often caught looking for the next big secret to be revealed to enhance and create church growth and powerful ministry. The reality is that the early Christian church saw powerful growth without a single bus or a swish website. What attracted people then to the church is what will still attract people today: a group of Jesus' disciples who truly love each other without conditions and who are committed to loving the world of people around them with reckless acts of love and kindness.

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