For the past three and one half years Netminister has been working with churches and ministry partners to extend the reach of Jesus Christ via the Internet and by building up technology infrastructure.
Why you may ask? Because churches by their nature have decided that being secure means being old fashion. Case in point, I spoke with a pastor of a church that was over 100 years old who basically told me that "we haven't ever needed a website before and I don't believe we ever will." He went on to expound on the virtues of how his church had been wonderfully blessed and was still the same church they had always been. When I asked if he had air conditioning when the church opened, he said no. Subsequently, I inquired if he knew if there was indoor plumbing when the church opened to which he replyed no as well. Then I asked if there were soft seats when the church first opened to which he also replyed no. So three things that are not "necessary" to the mission have been added to the church over the past 100 years or so. Therefore it would make sense that sometimes, the way we do things should change. Notice I didn't say the message should change but the method should - it certainly had in that church.
The message should never change, Jesus loves you and He gave His life as an payment for what you could never repay. All you have to do it accept.
From the beginning of television, most churches rejected the need to participate. Instead the old vision was that change is for others - we will keep doing what we have always done. The problem was that what we had always done, personal interaction and relationships was being changed by television. To a great extend it was changed by radio, but television brought the visual and the audio together. Along the way it speed up our lifestyle giving us the immediate need to know that has blossomed into a powerful force that basically means if you read the manual, there has been an upgrade - if you could have read the manual in the first place. Now there is nothing wrong with a fast pace lifestyle - that is not the reason for this, but there is a need to recognize that with that lifestyle the methods of communication have changed. And if you are not going to adapt your are going to be extinct.
It took the Internet only one forth the amount of time to gain wide acceptance that radio and telvision took. So if you are not online, you can be pretty resonably sure that people are not going to find you. The old saying just 20 years ago was "no sign is a sign of no business." These days that should be no website is a sign of no chance to be seen - doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well but you get the picture.
So what should a church do? Be careful. Why careful? Because the website has spawned a wonderful industry of folks who know a sucker when they see one. And most churches do not have the technology savvy to know that what they are getting isn't right. So how do you know? What is the big insight?
Simply let it grow. Times and contact information are fine, but they are not the sole source of information for the site. And they do not give a person the need to to return to develop a relationship. What does you may ask? Blogs, photos, sermons, devotionals anything that is something that changes that meets a need. There is it. Pretty simply? Too simple you may say? Hardly, it works. Think about all the sites you have grown to depend on - Yahoo, Google, AOL, etc., each one provides a need for you: weather information, news, sports or just general interest all come together to meet that need you have. So if you are thinking about a website, please call us. But if you are going it alone, make sure you meet the need, otherwise what is the point?
