Ben Dubow, the pastor of St. Paul’s Collegiate Church at Storrs in Storrs, Connecticut has written a masterful article for BetaChurch.Org called Ten Things To Know About Your Church Website.

Ben begins his article with these words:

Eighteen months ago I knew virtually nothing about websites, web design or anything else .... But after a year of working through website stuff for the church, here is what I’ve learned.

And Ben has learned a lot! And even better, it seems to me that Ben has learned the right things! His analysis is spot-on!

If I could somehow imprint one part of Ben’s article on every church leader’s mind and heart, it would be this:

Do not follow the path of least resistance...you will regret it.
I almost made this mistake. I knew we needed a website so I thought something was better than nothing. And in today’s world you can get a website up and running pretty quickly and pretty cheaply using services like Register.com or using a volunteer with frontpage. If a website is all the things we have been talking about, then take the time to strategically think through what you are trying to accomplish.

Now go and read Ben’s article in full. Nail it to the door of your office and call it “Ben’s 10 Theses on Web Design for Churches!” Well, okay — maybe not, but please read it!

Walt Wilson’s column in the December 2005 issue of Christian Computing Magazine is all about podcasting. It’s a great challenge to churches to take advantage of this technology, and the article also has some interesting thoughts about the advantages of podcasting over traditional radio and television. The article requires Adobe Reader. 

Michael Lukaszewski, pastor of Oak Leaf Church (a new church plant in Cartersville, Georgia), started a blog this year called You Can Know God. Besides the intriguing title (which shows promise of having an outreach element to it), Michael has a simple but great word about keeping church websites up-to-date: The Church That Doesn’t Care. Nothing earth-shattering, but something that we can easily forget as busy church webmasters. Thanks for the reminder Michael!

Here’s an interesting article on search engine optimization for churches: Search Engine Marketing For Pastors.

While I wouldn’t agree that the keyword meta tag has much importance these days, the rest of the article (especially the emphasis on fresh content) seems very helpful.

Here’s another good article on search engine optimization for churches, this one by the guru of internet marketing, Ralph Wilson: Beautiful Website, Invisible on Search Engines — Why?.

Here is a very innovative and valuable project. PlanterBlogs.com is, in their own words, “an aggregator of the personal blogs of a diverse group of church planters. It is an opportunity for current and potential church planters to learn from the experiences of their peers. This collection of blogs is meant to offer a range of views in planting style, personality, and theological background.”

What a great idea!

About a month ago, I had a nice conversation with Drew Goodmanson, an elder at Kaleo Church in San Diego. Kaleo is doing some innovative things on the web. Drew is also heavily involved in the development of Ekklesia Systems, a new standards-compliant content management system for churches (actually, it’s a lot more than a content management system, but it’s easier to point you to their site than try to capture the breadth of the system in just a few words).

One of the things Drew and I chatted about was the use of church websites to draw unbelievers into community. During the conversation, Drew mentioned Kaleo Church’s success in using a targeted page on their website about pre-marriage counseling to draw unbelievers to their regular gatherings. Drew writes more about the successful strategy here.

Steve Evans of Bridge Chapel Christian Church in Liverpool is saying that offering sermons in podcast form has increased attendance at Bridge Chapel’s regular services. This was interesting to me because it flies in the face of my conviction that we should be careful about podcasting sermons. To get a better sense of my perspective on the issue, see my earlier articles on podcasting:

Outreach Magazine Articles
NY Times Article on Godcasting
Videoblogging Article
Godcasts Growing In Popularity
Podcasting and Video

My perspective in the past several months has moved a lot more towards a positive outlook on podcasting, largely due to some of what Mark Batterson has written on the subject.

I still believe that a podcasting church should be careful to teach those who participate in their gatherings, that the gathering of the church is not primarily something to be watched or listened to. Instead, it is something in which all are called to participate (1 Corinthians 14:26).

As more churches get involved in podcasting (which is obviously a certainty despite my hesitation!), it will be important I think, to quantify the results as much as possible. I first learned about this article from Blogging Church, but it’s also being talked about at Church Marketing Sucks. The question and commentary from James Higgenbotham in the comments at Church Marketing Sucks is a very important one it seems to me and suggests the type of quantification that I’m thinking about here.

One of our readers, Graeme, recently wrote me with this question:

Have you come across anything new in the technology field that allows the deaf and hearing impaired to be included in contemporary church worship services? I personally consider there is something “out there” that (for instance) converts voice to text to include the deaf and hearing impaired and also two other groups : English as a second language and visual learners.

Through an employee I have become privy to the isolated world of the deaf and want to see our church provide a way to include these members of our society. Signing is not an entirely practical solution in the postmodern church because of the variety of speakers and hosts who do not entirely work from a prepared script.

Does anyone have any ideas for Graeme? Please use comments to contribute your ideas so we can all benefit.  Thanks!

In the middle of a blog post about the effectiveness of using movies (such as The Passion of the Christ, Narnia, and The Da Vinci Code) for evangelism, Dan Kimball made this statement:

I sort of find it kind of sad that the church has to get so excited about films to do evangelism, rather than being excited about the ongoing relationships we have with those outside the faith for evangelism. It feels weird that I would invite someone to a movie to explain what I believe in rather than letting my life and what I can be talking them about personally would be.

Although Dan’s article is not directly related to the sorts of things I usually talk about on this site, I do feel his post is worth reading in its entirety, so I’d encourage you to head on over to his blog.

I’d like to comment, though, on the portion I have quoted above. Dan’s right - personal relationships with unbelievers are the key to effective outreach. I’ve said it before — a demonstration of authentic Christian community is the foundation of all effective outreach (cf. John 17:21-23).

But where does that demonstration of Christian community begin? In one-on-one personal relationships with unbelievers. As we befriend unbelievers (primarily for the sake of simply being their friends, although we certainly hope that they will come to know Christ), they will begin to see what life with Jesus is all about in the interactions between us and our believing friends. They will be exposed to authentic Christian community.

The problem many believers have (and which I had for several years after being converted to Christ and still have, albeit not to the same extent) is that we don’t have personal relationships with unbelievers. We’re often too busy with internally-focused ministries of the church to actually befriend people outside the church. Astounding in light of Jesus’ call to take the good news to those around us, but still true.

Bringing this discussion back to digital outreach, my question is this: “How can we use digital evangelism approaches (websites, blogs, digital tracts, screen savers, wallpaper, etc., etc.) to be the catalyst for personal, one-on-one relationships?”

A relatively new church plant and a client of Strategic Digital Outreach, The Bridge Church in Atlanta, Georgia, recently underwent a heartbreaking tragedy:

Early Saturday morning a tragic auto accident took the life of one of our church family and worship band members, Michael Jones.  Michael is the son of Bill and Anne Jones who have been instrumental in helping start The Bridge Church.  Also injured in the accident were several band members and friends.

Urgent prayer is needed for Shea Hickok, the daughter of our Worship Pastor Steve and Susan Hickok.  Shea is in critical condition and on life support with severe damage to her lungs.  She is at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon.  Also injured is Luke Hickok, with broken ribs and a concussion, and Rachel, a friend of Shea and Luke, with a punctured lung.

Immediate prayer is needed for these young adults and band members whose lives have been altered by this tragic event.  The Jones and Hickok families need us to urgently intercede for them.

The primary reason I am posting this is to ask the readers of this blog to pray for Shea Hickok, as well as for the Hickok and Jones families.

Secondarily, I think that the blog which was started almost immediately to keep friends and family updated on Shea’s condition represents a marvelous use of modern technology to rally the Christian community around a common cause. The comments in themselves are a joy to read.

Visit The Shea Hickok Blog