1	Designing Your Congregation’s Web Site A non-technical view of what makes an effective web site.
2	Overview Proliferation Trends Features Audience Simplicity Demonstration Technology Focus Resources Questions
3	Proliferation What religious information can be found on the web?
4	Proliferation Web pages by keyword: A Google search on the word “church” returns 96.9 million pages. 1.2% of 8 trillion pages in Google database. Searching for “Bible” returns 45.4 million pages.
5	Proliferation Google Web Pages Found: 28,900,000 – Catholic 12,300,000 – Baptist 7,140,000 – Methodist 5,080,000 – Presbyterian 4,060,000 – Episcopal 1,180,000 – Church of God 734,000 – Church of Christ
6	Trends What is out there and who is looking at it?
7	Trends Pew Internet & American Life Project “Faith Online” – April 2004 64% of wired Americans have used the Internet for spiritual or religious purposes Those who use the Internet for religious or spiritual purposes are more likely to be women, white, middle aged, college educated, and relatively well-to-do.
8	Trends 38% of the 128 million Internet users have sent and received email with spiritual content. 32% have gone online to read news accounts of religious events and affairs. 21% have sought information about how to celebrate religious holidays. 17% have looked for information about where they could attend religious services.
9	Trends Congregational life on the Web: 83% say their use of the Internet has helped congregational life – 25% a great deal. 81% say the use of email by ministers, staffs, and congregation members has helped the spiritual life of the congregation to some extent – 35% say it has helped a great deal. 91% say email has helped congregation members and members of the staff stay more in touch with each other – 51% a great deal.
10	Trends Activities of online Religion Surfers: Looked for info about their own faith 67% Looked for info about another faith 50% Emailed a prayer request 38% Downloaded religious music 38% Given spiritual guidance via email 37% Bought religious items online 34% Planned religious activities via email 29% Subscribed to a religious listserv 27%
11	Trends Activities of online Religion Surfers: Downloaded sermons 25% Gotten ideas for ways to celebrate religious holidays 22% Sought spiritual guidance via email 21% Gone online to find a new church 14% Participated in religious chat rooms 10% Played spiritual computer games 5% Taken an online religious course 3%
12	Features What is already on or desired on web sites?
13	Features What Sites Do / Plan With Their Sites: Encourage visitors to attend 83% 9% Posts mission statements, sermons 77% 12% Links to denomination & related sites 76% 11% Links to scripture studies or devotions 60% 18% Posts schedules, meeting minutes, internal communications for the church 56% 15% Posts photos of congregation events 50% 29% Posts youth group material 44% 27%
14	Features Links to sites that assist with congregational administration, 40% 8% Links to community sites such as local media, government, or festivals 33% 16% Has material promoting missionary or evangelical work 31% 15% Seeks ushers and volunteers for congregational work 19% 14% Prayer requests 18% 22%
15	Features Solicits volunteers for projects outside the congregation such as soup kitchens or shelters 15% 14% Posts material on non-faith related services in the community such as after-school programs 15% 12% Posts information on volunteer needs in the community 13% 15% Has a sign-up feature for classes & programs 8% 21%
16	Features Has material promoting legislative or social justice action 9% 11% Allows online fundraising 5% 7% Webcasts worship services 4% 12% Provides discussion space for study or prayer groups 3% 13%
17	Audience Who will be viewing our sites?
18	Audience People Viewing Your Site: Unchurched or Seekers Travelers Studiers Family
19	Audience Unchurched or Seekers: Usually local Likely had some other initial contact Want to know more about the beliefs Needs to feel comfortable and informed
20	Audience Travelers: Christians looking for a place to drop in Need driving directions and meeting times May have concerns about “soundness”
21	Audience Studiers: Located worldwide Looking for lesson materials Listening to sermons Learning songs
22	Audience Family: Directory information and photos Prayers & needs Calendar of events / birthdays Discussion via email and forums Photo albums Assignments & Statistics Song-leading information
23	Simplicity What makes sites easy to use, find and remember?
24	Simplicity Rather than difficult or long domains: ch-of-christ.?????????.or.us centralchurchofchrist????????.org ????????church_christ.??????????.com ????churchofchrist.com ??????-church-of-christ.org ??-coc.com
25	Simplicity Domain name items to avoid: Dashes: church-of-christ Underscores: church_of_christ Abbreviations: coc Less common suffixes: .org .net
26	Simplicity Use easy domains with meaning: ToChristBeTrue.com StandInAwe.com MineNoMore.com HeBoreItAll.com HeStillCame.com SomewhereListening.com AnywhereWithJesus.com
27	Simplicity Problems are prevalent too: 1,380 pages with “Chruch of Christ” Watch your spelling and grammar!
28	Simplicity Things to avoid: Animated drop-down menus Usually Javascript or Flash (requires certain browser security settings or download and install plug-ins) User cannot see all choices at once Tracking problems / Click wrong item
29	Simplicity Things to avoid: Animated Images Additional load time Distracts from valuable content Background Images Makes content difficult to read Looks outdated Intro Pages Waste of time
30	Demonstration (Web) What all can a web site do?
31	Demonstration (Email) What can be done with email?
32	Technology How is this accomplished?
33	Technology Relational database to store & organize information SQL MySQL Access Programming language: Active Server Pages (ASP) PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) Coldfusion
34	Technology Database + programming allows: Highlighting content by individual Making content date dependant Write fewer individual pages Eliminate duplicate information Build custom links Allow users to post and/or update data
35	Focus What should we portray?
36	Focus What are we supposed to preach? Jesus the Christ (Acts 5:42) The Gospel (Acts 16:10; Rom 1:15; Rom 15:20; 1 Cor 1:17; 9:16,18) The Word of Faith (Rom 10:8) Glad Tidings of Good Things (Rom 10:15) Christ Crucified (1 Cor 1:23) Christ Jesus as Lord (2 Cor 4:5)
37	Focus We think we need sites to… Defend Doctrine Show or Prove Soundness Preview Our Building
38	Focus We really need sites to… Show Our Concern for Souls Centralize Family Information Privately Communicate Family Matters
39	Focus Church of Christ sites often stress: The Church Building – through photos A Proper Assembly – 5 acts spelled out How to Follow – 5 steps to salvation
40	Focus Our Communication Should Stress: Family of Christ – photos of people Proper Lifestyle – joyful daily service Who to Follow – Jesus and His promises
41	Resources Where might we learn more?
42	Resources KnowMyJesus.com – copies of anything you might want. HealYourChurchWebSite.com – good suggestions regarding site design PewInternet.org – research on what is going on with religion and the web.
43	Resources AnvilStudio.com – free MIDI software Snitz.com – free ASP-based forum Yahoo Groups – moderated email delivery
44	Questions? Thank you for your kind attention. ~ Steve