Dearlings. I was doing some research just now and came upon a church website that is all too typical in its confusing lay-out. I was looking for one stinkin’ bit of information: “who is the minister here?” After clicking around in vain I found a pastor’s message under “Ministerial Profile.”
Misleading language, first of all. A ministerial profile is something we use in the search and call process. Please do not call your web page a ministerial profile. Call it something that people can understand and feel welcome to read. How about Minister’s Message? Or Pastor’s Welcome?
Second point — not on this website but on many others I see: MINISTERS ARE NOT CHURCH STAFF. We are not hired, but called. Your tradition may use different language, but the basic idea is the same: clergy are not church staff. Lay people have a hard enough time understanding the complexities of clergy employment, review and compensation. Don’t further confuse the matter by including the minister on the church staff page. I mean, it’s fine to be listed on a roster along with church staff, but not if there is no other place on the website for the minister to include a message of welcome.
Third: do not fill your page with text. Keep your message short enough so there’s room on the page for a photo and some white space. I cannot stress this enough: people do not stay on a web page long enough to read a long essay. Have you ever seen the acronym “TLDR?” It stands for “Too Long/Didn’t Read.” Trust me, visitors to your website just want to have a general sense of what your ministry is about. Don’t bombard them with your lengthy doctrinal pronouncements or a long, earnest opus about the Church. Welcome them. Invite them to come to church. Tell them something about yourself. Put an e-mail link on the page and let them click it if they want to be in touch. And remember that a picture is actually worth 1,000 words, which I think are worth about $39 these days. Include a friendly, recent photo of yourself!!
Got that? Okay, let’s repeat together:
1. Be welcoming!
2. A minister is not on the church staff!
3. Don’t blab!
4. Smiles, everyone, smiles!
Class dismissed.
I like these points. So many websites run you round just trying to find that “one stinkin’ bit of information”. Arrgh.
Tip for any website: find someone — who doesn’t know much of anything about your group — ask them to cruise your site and try to find various important item. Items that you are sure are OBVIOUS. While you watch. Without giving any hints. See what they cannot find, what they look in the wrong spots for, what they miss. Then get a couple more to try it. Fix what they trip over. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I absolutely agree that church websites are often a stinking verbose mess. However, I have language quibbles:
In the Episcopal Church, all the baptized are ministers so saying “ministers” wouldn’t work in that context. [Okay, so Priest-in-Charge or whatever… – PB] Additionally, some clergy are in fact staff, being hired directly by the rector. But if you’re not a church language afficionado, I would argue most people simply want to know “Who runs this clambake?” They neither know nor care if you’re called.
I think a Contact Us tab is usually the most direct way to go. But, man, are there a lot of bad church websites out there. Address and service times on the home page, people! Don’t make me beg!
[I won’t argue about the minister being staff – I don’t care that much, I just really care when he or she is listed on a page with all the other staff members and hasn’t bothered — or hasn’t been asked — to make any kind of statement of welcome and introduction on the site (in addition to the welcome on the main page). It’s one of the first things people look for. ALSO, physical address!! So I can put it in my GPS!! – PB]
My pet peeve about congregation websites is the fact that so many make it difficult to find when the services are. That information should be front and center on the homepage.
Please, oh, please, UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE! Some of them haven’t been updated in months, if not a year or more! People who might be interested in visiting you can tell you’re not all that interested in helping them do it!
As an early-30’s pastor, I do not have a “pastor’s welcome” on my website, because I have NEVER EVER read one of these on anyone else’s website, even when I was not yet a pastor and looking for a place to go to church. Maybe I am odd, but I think people are trying to get a feel for what the church is like, and the pastor taking up too much real estate just makes that trickier. I’d like to know who the pastor is, for sure, and making that info easy to find (i.e. at the top of the “staff” page with an inviting picture and a nice description) is key, but I don’t see the need for a separate “welcome” from the pastor on the website.
[The great thing about the internet is there’s no “real estate!” You just add a page. No one has to pay rent on it. And while you may not look for a word from the pastor, it’s the first thing many of us go to. Never decline to do something that may connect you to more people simply because you yourself have no need for it. By the same reasoning you could decide that because you don’t drink coffee, you won’t make any for your visitors. Short-sighted. – PB]
Not only should service times be front and center along with the address of the church, but if you are deviating from your standard times for a picnic, joint service, summer break, whatever, then that information should be front and center and posted more than 24 hours before the event.
Check out my friend’s church, stpaulsfoley.com. One of the best church web sites I’ve ever seen.
My ultimate website pet peeve is calendars that are months (if not years) out of date.
We set our site up with a “live” calendar that the office staff can quickly and easily update. Visitors can click on the event and see details (room, contact person, a brief summary of the meeting).
Our church website has been active for about five years. Generally we have a very brief “welcoming message” from the rector (one paragraph) with our service times, types of service on the home page, List of people in charge including the rector. Bible readings for the week and a quick map to the church.
We have tabs for everything else like “rector’s page”, Bible Study, ACW, Choir, etc.
How often should the information be updated, like the welcome message? I’m thinking twice a year? It’s not season specific as it now stands.
I sat my 76 year old Mam in front of the website and asked her to tell me what time the services were. She found them. I asked her the phone number of one of our wardens, and she found it. She was looking for the address and phone number of the church, and she found it. That made me happy, that someone who does not use technology was able to find what she needed easily.
Personal pet peeve are the flashing images that change a dignified website into a circus fairground…dear gawd, just say no to chaser lights…
[Eeek! I have never seen that before, what an assault on the eyes! Great idea to sit mom down and see how well she does finding what she needs. I don’t think a Welcome needs to be updated often at all, or seasonally appropriate – just friendly, informative and communicating the spirit of the pastor/rector and congregation. Others may feel that they should write a new welcome for every season but that sounds like unnecessary extra work to me. – PB]
You might be interested in this column I wrote that was published March 9.
http://www.toledoblade.com/TK-Barger/2013/03/09/The-basics-still-apply-on-the-Web.html
PB, somebody needs a website intervention, STAT!
I’m starting seminary in the fall and the limited-residency program I’m in includes a site placement that doubles for my denominational internship requirement, so I recently did some preliminary research to develop a list of potential sites for my advisor to work with. I’ve got a good starting list, but one church didn’t make it because their website is so 1997!
I couldn’t figure out anything about the minister beyond a first and last name! Nothing about their ministry, no bio, didn’t find any photos of people (though I admit I didn’t dig through every page) — in short, it’s a website that’s clearly a secondary information hub for people already familiar with their community, and not the “front door to the world” that will draw people into it.
(I’m not going to link to it as a bad example. It’s a nice little town and I wouldn’t have minded going there and they’re probably nice people, they just have a dreadfully uninviting website…)