The 10 Commandments of Church Websites
Category: Design...
Posted Thursday, July 08, 2004 at 02:39 PM [GMT-6]

I've been asked to do a presentation at an upcoming regional Sunday School Conference hosted by our church. This annual conference gives smaller churches throughout the area the opportunity to get some hands-on development and training that they wouldn't be able to otherwise afford or attract.

My topic is pretty general: "Church Websites 101." It's supposed to be a quick primer for churches that don't yet have websites, or that have neglected sites they want to improve. I'm thinking about adapting a presentation I did about a year ago in another venue, entitled "The 10 Commandments of Church Websites." The attendees will be mostly pastors and education ministers.

Here are the 10 main points (TSN - Thou Shalt Not; TS - Thou Shalt; we're using the KJV for this purpose):

  1. TSN: Covet thy neighbor’s bandwidth [keep page size small]

  2. TSN: Write for the web like thou write thy sermons [avoid text-heavy pages]

  3. TS: Know thy audience [who's your target?]

  4. TSN: Drive out the lost nor confuse the saved [avoid religious jargon and confusing navigation]

  5. TSN: Forget the promotion of thy site [publicize your site...unless it's lousy]

  6. TS: Remember the “poor and afflicted” [make it accessible]

  7. TSN: Bring an ugly website into thy neighbor’s home [make it pretty]

  8. TS: Remember the updates and keep them regular [make it timely]

  9. TSN: Collect personal information without proper notice [respect visitor privacy]

  10. TS: Make thy site an entrapment to search engines [make it SE friendly]

If you have any suggestions or tips for improving this list, I'd love to hear them. If I incorporate them, I'll even give you credit in the presentation, charitable soul that I am.

If we have time, I'll also present "The 7 Deadly Sins of Email." But that's for another post.

Update (7/9/04): Christopher posts his list of things to avoid in your church website over at Spare Change.

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Comments

Here's my contribution.

TS: Choose a domain name that can be quickly typed and remembered.

TS: Remember that not everyone is impressed with Flash animation.

TS: Remember to practice KISS (keep it super simple) with web design.

Posted by: shannon at July 8, 2004 04:31 PM

Shannon, those are all good suggestions, and I cover #2 & #3 in other "commandments." #1 is problematic, however, since you don't always have a choice about your domain name. The simple ones may already be taken. Plus, if you can't afford a standalone website, you'll have to take what your webhost gives you. Just try to avoid picking a host such as "www.heydudeletsparty.com" because there's very little you can do to salvage an url like "www.heydudeletsparty.com/redeemerlutheran"!

Posted by: Eric at July 8, 2004 04:48 PM

Actually I just reposted one of my older posts over at Spare Change that kind of deals with these issues. My points are a little more specific than yours though.

You may find the post here: http://www.twosents.net/blog/archives/001822.php

Posted by: Christopher at July 8, 2004 11:00 PM

Well, I know I'd appreciate keeping any photos of Jan Crouch off of the site.

But maybe that's just me.

Posted by: Julie at July 9, 2004 12:47 AM

Julie, I suspect you've found the one issue that might be successful in uniting all denominations, for the first time in recorded church history! ;-)

Posted by: Eric at July 9, 2004 01:04 PM
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