Share Your Church » Building Your Web Ministry

Pastor’s Blogs

Rodney — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:18:03 +0000

“There’s no way our pastor will blog. I’m not even sure if he knows what a computer is.” I hear that a lot, and in a lot of cases it may be true. However what your pastor doesn’t know is that he probably already blogs, he just doesn’t do it on the interent. Each week when he writes his article for the newsletter, it’s a blog post. When he writes down a thought for the week in the bulletin, it can become a blog posting. Pastors have been blogging for ages they just didn’t know it.

So what does this mean for your church today? I’m glad you asked. It’s time to introduce your pastor to the internet. Not just as an information gathering tool, not just a place to waste your time or rot your mind (hulu.com), but as an outreach tool.

Here’s a real world example. Someone new moves into your community and begins their church hunting by researching it online. They come to your online brochure and think it looks like a nice church. Then they click over to another church down the road and up front and center is an article the pastor just finished writing. The pastor shares how the silly things kids sometimes say really get us thinking on the deeper things of God sometimes. On top of that, the site features upcoming activities and last weeks sermon. Which church do you think they’re going to visit this coming Sunday?

Some pastors just blog their lives. As interesting or various things occur the pastor writes abot it. Some use it to build up to the Sunday sermon, others just put up a random thought or question each week. No matter how you would like to do, DO IT. Christianity is not about a religion, it’s about a relationship with Christ. It’s time to start using your website to build relationship and not only share your life, but to share your church.

Your church’s story

Rodney — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:40:49 +0000

Part two of our Web Ministry transformation series on Share Your Church looks at the story of your church. This is a much more encompassing view of your church’s story that is traditionally thought. On a church’s web brochure the church story would consist of the history of the church. When you look at a web ministry the church’s story is much, much more. On a ShareYourChurch site the church story consists of

staff blogs – one for each staff member

member testimonies – can be written or video testimonies (not necessarily just salvation testimonies, but also how God is moving in their lives right now)

member articles – articles that members write to share their feelings, thought, opinions

This way your site is updated on an extrememly regular basis and new content is constantly being added. This keeps the front page fresh and allows visitors to your site to always have something new to read.

Incorporating member aticles allows your church to share it’s faith in new and exciting ways all the time. From economics to politics to a brand new gadget, the article area allows people to relate modern events, activities, and items to their faith and Christian worldview.

The member testimony area allows people to share spiritual insights, Biblical interpretations, experiences that have drawn them closer to Christ. This area will be the hardest to get going, but once it has begun should be the fastest growing area of your ministry site.

Staff blogs should be the easiest to omplement and to steadily grow. Simply have each of your staff write an article each week for your church’s e-newsletter (or print newsletter) and incorporate this article into the website.

Looking at your church-story in a ministry focused perspective automatically increases the ministry that your web site becomes, not only to other members of your church, but also to the greater community at large. Sharing your church-story is truly one of the biggest ways to ShareYourChurch.

More than looks.

Rodney — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 03:00:46 +0000

Part one of our Web Ministry transformation series on Share Your Church looks at how your web site looks. I know, I know, we all teach our kids that looks aren’t important. If this is completely true, then why do we worry about what they wear? Your websites design is a very important aspect to your web ministry. You have about 2 seconds after someone arrives at your site to convince them to stay. This is less about the looks of your site and more about the presentation of the information on your site. A web brochure will give you all the information you need, a web ministry will give you current relevant information on the front page (or easily accessible) while keeping older information archived, search-able and ready for easy referencing. A plain web site will probabyly turn away some guests, but a poorly organized site will send them away frustrated. Feel free to take a look at our portfolio to see what I’m talking about. Let us help you Share Your Church.

Web Brochure or Web Ministry?

Rodney — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:20:58 +0000

What is a web ministry? How does it apply to your church’s web site? Many church web sites are simply a brochure placed on the internet. Many of these “brochure-sites” are very well put together and look great. Some of them do a great job at presenting information about the church. Unfortunately, if a visitor wants to find out information beyond church location, service times, and a few pictures, these sites reach the end of their usefulness. How can you turn your church’s place on the web from a web brochure into a web ministry? This series of articles will seek to help you Share your church with the world, not just your church’s information. Here’s a few items to include in a web ministry site. (we’ll be going over these one by one in the coming weeks)

1. More than looks.
2. Your church’s story.
3. Pastor’s blogs.
4. Constantly updated calendars.
5. Your church at work.
6. Always provide the Gospel.

I look forward to sharing with you and having you share back. It’s time to Share Your Church.