Church Web Design
Frustrated With Your Webpage?
Here’s a question we get asked a lot these days: “Why doesn’t our webpage look like yours?” That’s a good question considering that your homepage is the number one means of determining whether someone visits your church or not. Gone are the days of upgrading your Yellow Pages ad to 2X2″ and placing a grayscale photo in it.
You are now in competition with tech savvy Millennials who know more about web design and Social Media than you know about the minor prophet Joel. Perhaps you had a freelance computer geek in your fellowship who did the best job he or she could do under the circumstances. You may have even paid high-dollar for someone to design your site a few years back. But guess what? The world is moving faster now than ever.
Graphic design and the clothing you purchase have a lot in common. The styles change every two years. Templates that are used for webpages are getting more powerful, stylish and appealing every year. Whatever template your developer used a few years ago is already outdated.
Church Web Design Secrets
Allow us to share a few secrets about about designing a webpage for a church. The first thing you need to consider is that most church websites look alike. Nearly everyone copies the same logical progression for presenting their church to the public. Don’t make this mistake and you already have an advantage. When you surf the average church webpage, it looks something like this: “We have a music ministry, a children’s program, a youth ministry, a staff and some media. Click on our links, and we’ll show you all the times we meet, and how awesome it would be for you to try us out.” Blah, blah, blah. It all looks like a souped-up church newsletter, and we’re being kind.
Do you want to set your church apart from the parade? Do you believe that you are any different from the church down the street? If so, here are some things to consider. First of all, the lead pastor needs to take a high degree of interest in developing the webpage. This is true regardless of how creative your web designer is. He can’t put your heart, your vision, or your voice into the overall look of your webpage if he doesn’t have access to it. The most important sermon you are preaching to the watching world right now is preceded by a www. So guard your webpage like you do your pulpit.
Church Web Design Consultants
Secondly, while your web designer probably knows a lot about hosting and html, in most cases, he doesn’t know much about church, theology or you personally. You need someone to guide you in how to present what you have to say. I can’t emphasize this next point enough. It’s critically important for you to get your message and branding out there in a visually compelling way. There will never be another soul born on the planet who is just like you. If what makes you special in God’s creation can’t be seen or read on your webpage, it’s a crying shame. You only have one life to live and one ministry race to run. As the Apostle Paul said, “Run to win.”
Thirdly, your church members need to be taught how important it is to use the social media tools that we will build into your webpage. Nearly every member of your congregation has a social media platform. Are you leveraging this for the glory of God? You should be, because it’s the new evangelism. Are you giving them the tools to drive people to your webpage? Do you know there are things that you can do to increase the likelihood that your webpage will come up more often in Google’s search engine results?
OK, they didn’t teach you this stuff in seminary. But that church meeting in the coffee shop down the street is the wave of the future. They get it, and if you’re not speaking their language, an extinction class meteorite is about to slam into the atmosphere of your church. Don’t be a dinosaur.
DNA & Church Web Design
Briar Patch Consulting has a team of creative people who rock at web design. They understand how to pull the DNA out of your church and place it into your webpage. If you hire us to help you in this, the first thing we will ask you to do is start writing. Get out a piece of paper, a pen and write down WHY you have given your whole life for the cause of Jesus Christ. Tell us what you want your church to be in the future. Write with the kind of passion that King David and the Apostle Paul wrote when they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Lay it all out there and put some guts into what you have to say. Shoot clean and straight and don’t mince words. Somewhere there is a fire burning within you. That’s what we want your city to see whenever they visit: www.how we’re kickin’ the devil’s butt.com.
Church web design is our specialty.
