Gotta Serve Who?
by Glenn White
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The Digital Church Bulletin
Bob Dylan’s song “Gotta Serve Somebody” is true, especially when you’re building a web site. After you surf the web for
some time, you’ll notice many church web sites look like digital church bulletins. There’s a mission statement here, an
announcement about a ladies’ breakfast there, and the usual staff info for church members. If you get real lucky, the information
may be current. This happens for two reasons. First, the unchurched are not the target audience. Second, the web is seen as a
passive medium and not an interactive medium.
The Who?
When building your web site, you’ll need to define your target audience. Church planting is all about evangelism. Therefore,
your web site probably should avoid looking like a church bulletin with a nice picture of a church building on the front page. By
the way, the graphics with the strongest pull on web surfers are people pictures.
Provide Relevant Resources
What should you put on a web site for the unchurched? Resources, tons of
resources. Provide relevant resource links for the
unchurched on your front page. The front page is probably not the place to put your mission or vision statement. It may be
important to you and your team, but the truth is, the unchurched probably don’t care.
A good example of a church providing relevant resources is Bay Life
Community Church. Spend some time at their site and notice how friendly it looks for the unchurched. While you’re there,
check out their Spiritual Resources.
The key to the Bay Life site is that it doesn’t look religious or churchy. Your web pages shouldn’t look churchy if you expect
to reach the unchurched. You may want to spend some time and really think through what resources your unchurched target
group is looking for. A spiritual resource to start your own list of links is Interview
with God, a flash media presentation available in eight different languages.
Litter on the Information Highway
In the haste and compulsion to put up a web site, many businesses and organizations built, but don’t maintain, web sites. Today,
thousands and maybe millions of abandoned web sites litter the information highway. Have you ever landed on a web site and
noticed the site was updated in 1999? What do you do? You usually leave and look for information that is current. Outdated
information is only more litter on the information highway.
How do you avoid becoming a cyberspace litter-bug? Think of the web as a living organism constantly growing and
changing, and you will be halfway there. The web is an active, not passive, medium. More than that, the
web ideally is
interactive. This means your web site should always be changing, expanding, growing, and highly accessible. Your church
web site should be alive and very accessible. In other words, a little like God.
Next: Make Your Web Site Come Alive!
Copyright 2001 © Glenn White.
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