In Him,
JD

1.  You are not ready to make the investment.  Websites generally will cost your church between $300 and $5,000 to start and their will be other monthly and yearly fees to keep it going depending upon what you want it to do.  If your church is struggeling keeping ahead – your tithes just aren’t where they need to be – you might want to wait on starting a website.

2.  You don’t have volunteers or the time to keep the site updated.  Volunteers or a staff member with the time to keep things up to date is key when it comes to a church website.  It needs to be more than just a billboard with some basic information about the church (although that can be a start).  Keeping calendars up to date, photos recent, sermons recent are all good ways to keep your members coming back, and hopefully telling their friends to check out your site.

3.  You, the Senior Pastor, or Deacons, don’t think you need a website.  If the key leadership in the church isn’t on board, then the idea is more or less dead in the water.  They must be, at least, open to the idea and willing pray about the idea.

4.  It would not fit your congregation.  If your congregation is still in the dark ages when it comes to technology, it may not be the best way to spend money.  You have to look at who you serve.  While around 75% of the US population (as of 2006, I’m sure it’s higher now) are internet users, that still means that 25% are not – maybe your church is made up of those individuals.

All in all, the decision to have a website has to be left up to each individual church.  There are ways to overcome each of the above.

In Him,

JD

One of the biggest reasons to have a website is to reach out to your congregation and the community you serve.  Keeping people informed on what is going on in the church, what is happening with the congregation, news, calendars, phone lists (password protected of course), devotionals, thoughts from the pastoral staff, and so much more.

Reaching people who are not in your community.  We are called to spread the gospel throughout the world – a website is a good start to reaching those not just around the corner, but around the globe.  The internet is boundaryless – it reaches beyond what we could ever hope to reach as a single church congregation.

As much as a Church staff tries to be available 24/7, it can be frustrating for them answering the same questions frequently or it can be frustrating to those trying to get information but getting hit with voice mail everytime they call.  Having a website with information that is easy to obtain can help eleviate some of this frustration that staff, volunteers and members of the congregation feel at times.

Church websites can allow for another way to plug members of the congregation in.  They can take sections of the site and be in charge of it.  This allows members to feel needed and beyond that it gives them another way to serve Christ witht he gifts that he has given them.  If they are good photographers, they might be interested in helping with a photo gallery or if they are a good writer they may want to help proof or write sections of your site.  There are so many opportunities – even for those without ”technical” experience.

In the next day or two I’ll look at reasons not to have a church website.

In Him,

JD

In Him,

JD

UPDATE:  Looks like I’m just about there everything appears to be working.  Now just to do some page changes and we’ll be set.  (2-12-2009)

In Him,

JD