I have always felt that one of the biggest problems in a local church is that much of the membership is totally left out of the picture because they are not offered or cannot find a way to participate in the church activity or ministries.  In my opinion this is also true for church web sites.  If the church web site is only a static set of pages that the Internet user can only look at - and continually see the same pages day after day then you can imagine how interest in such a church web site will die out very quickly.  The same is true of most all people who walk into a church Sunday after Sunday and about the only thing they can do with their time there is watch the show up front which itself is oftentimes very static - week after week.  These people don’t last very long in that sort of church. 

What church web site developers need to do is build community into their sites where the members can experience relationships and take part in the activity and ministry of the church through the site itself.  We should ask ourselves more, “What can I put up in this site to get others to participate in it (not look at it) and at the same time enrich their spiritual experience and grow in and with Jesus?” Chat rooms are nice, but I don’t believe that they are all we can offer.  This site, boyink, is getting closer to the target by having giving me and others the opportunity to send in a comment (i.e. participate) - and who knows, maybe I will be back again and again because someone had the good idea of not isolating his site to all static stuff (just look at stuff - don’t touch stuff).  And then in the end I too (and others) may profit from this interactive environment both intellectually and spiritually.  What we need to do in our church web site development is to get dynamic (php, jsp, asp, sql database engines) and open the web pages up to participation and community.  Let people be people and share together in community.  I am not trying to make this sound easy - it is not.  But I do believe it is not impossible.

My 2 cents worth.  God bless everyone.

Many churches and church leadership are not ready for this type of interaction in the church body. They are used to a “command and control”, top-down communication style where they spend time creating/crafting/writing/editing/revising and polishing up a message before letting it flow down the organization.

This sounds a little like what the Pharisees must have been like during the time of Jesus.  They loved to lord over others and dictate the laws.  If we read the scriptures we will see that Jesus himself didn’t have too high of an opinion of the Pharisees.  If churches and church leadership are not ready for interaction in the church body – how long should we wait until they are ready?  Should we wait 1 year, 2 years, 10, 20 – 50 years?  If we are destined to only listening to the results of creating/crafting/writing/editing/revising and polishing – from a one sided leadership (autocracy) what kind of spiritual growth, what kind of ministry experience, what kind of Christ centered testimony will we on the other end develop by sitting in pews like bumps on a log without the ability to interact and put our hearts before our own brothers and sisters in Christ, where we might be able to cry out for help in prayer when we need it, where we might lift our voice to give a helping hand to a weaker brother or sister in need We need to realize more, in the building of church web sites, that the “church”, which is the “called out ones” (eklesia), is a spiritual structure without walls that is made up of God’s children (believers in Christ Jesus) who are lead and directed by the Master himself and not by an autocratic clergy. 

The thoughts of letting everyone in the church have an equal voice, of being questioned, of conversations happening, of “what people might say” - scares them to death. = fear

The Bible teaches us that, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18).  Yes, these guys have a problem.  We need to pray for them.

Building church web sites is an exciting challenge and one of the most opportune vehicles available today for evangelising the rest of the world and thus hurrying the day that our dear Lord and God returns to this planet.  There are 100s of ways to get involved in this thing.  Give it a shot, try getting involved.

Bless you all.

Mike, I read about the site switch over at your former church.  I was sorry to see your site go.  IMHO it was one of the best church sites I ever saw.

It has inspired me to go the same direction with my church’s website, though your situation has put some caution in me.  Still, I have spoken with my pastor and he seems very supportive.  I may make a blogger out of him yet.

In any case, my goal is to start a conversation.  Hopefully many conversations.  With the community especially, not only with the congregation and the community in our area but with the internet community at large.  Maybe I’m too idealistic, but your efforts Mike, as well as Dean over at HealYourChurchWebsite.com have put an idea in my head as to what a church site could be. 

And I’m not letting go of it until they beat it out of me and pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Our tech team has discussed the issues surrounding having a bulletin board type of system on our site in the past. We opted instead for more of a small moderated approach so that we can have prayer requests on the site. Prayer requests can be private or public, and the ones that are public have to be approved first. Our reservations for a more open system is the possibility of gossip or personal information, and we do not have the resources to monitor a complete board.

We also added three areas which are updated frequently; devotionals, bible trivia, and daily bible verse. We also have mailing lists to communicate with people.

We are always looking for more ways to engage our church community through the website, but at the same time want it to be a safe environment for all. I don’t think that it’s about control, I think it’s about not letting destructive and divisive talk in. I would love to know your thoughts.

Just a thought of a way to decrease confusion.

In the comments you could possibly program some comment highlighting in and clearly mark comments from the pastor, church members, anonymous internet users, etc.

Anyways, it may be a technological solution to some of the concern about open discussion.  Or it may not.

I’ve also seen comment systems that allow any user to flag offensive posts.  Flagged posts are immediately removed and later moderated.  Thus there’s a sort of honor system, and offended people are empowered to do something.

Anyways, just some thoughts.  Personally I think some of the objections of the church leadership can be overcome with a technological solution.

To the larger issue:  I think there is a problem if christian leaders are so afraid of offending that they cannot allow any opportunities for members to share and discuss in a public forum.

In my own frank opinion, the “leadership approved” message is no more likely to change someone’s life than than a corporate memo would.  What is the goal of the church website?  What is the goal of the church?  To train and empower christians for ministry, and to spread the message of Christ.  How are we to do this through a website?  We’ll muddle through somehow…

I agree that web surfers looking for a church would use the site for directions and for times of service.  A picture of the church would possibly intensive their interest in the church.  However, it is going to be the “Events” of the church that will spark a new-comer’s interest.  The church must have current events on the website on the first page.

Secondly, the content must be current.  A church that keeps it’s website current will require a lot of maintenance and updating.  I know, because I currently webmaster a church website.  The information is updated every Thursday and is kept current on the church events.