Good For Nothing Websites

Tony Morgan, one of the pastors at Granger Community Church, wrote an intriguing article for his blog a few days ago entitled “Good For Nothing Websites.”

In the article, Tony talks about a few different websites of companies, organizations, and individuals for which he has a certain passion. The manufacturer of the car he drives. The baseball league in which his son plays. His favorite professional baseball team. A leadership organization to which he belongs. Authors whose books he enjoys (or has enjoyed in the past). His old bank and his current bank. What seems to come out of his article is that he consistently uses the websites which offer him something, which in fact are useful to him. Those that are not useful are ignored.

Then he asks a pointed question: “Does your church have a website.” Although I had to read his article 2-3 times to at least come to a place where I think I get his point (I can be dense at times, especially at the end of a long work day!), I’m still not positive. Maybe it’s meant to say different things to different people.

But here’s what I got out of the article and the question: Does your church have a useful website? The answer to that question, I would say, depends on a couple of things:

Who do we want to see using our church websites?
Is what we offer useful to them?

Unless we answer the first question, we’ll never be able to answer the second.

From my perspective, as you already know if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, I want to see unbelievers using our church websites. And the most useful aspects of a church website to unbelievers are the stories of real people in our congregations — their joys, their struggles, their interests, their hopes and dreams, their crushing disappointments, etc., etc. Not their Christian testimonies. But their stories.

The real stories of real people will be intriguing to unbelievers because those stories are the stuff of real life. Are you telling the stories of the people in your congregation and are unbelievers in your local area intrigued enough to want to meet the people in your congregation in face-to-face relationships. Is your church website, through its stories, drawing people into the authentic community of Christ lived out in the everyday lives of the believers in your area?

Posted by on 04/13/06 at 04:13 PM

The Collective Voice!

Clif Guy continues the discussion:

Frank, this makes a lot of sense to me. So the question is, how do we become better storytellers and learn how to weave stories into all of our ordinary content we post to our sites every day?

contributed on 04/15 at 06:56 AM

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You may be interested in reading these articles which enumerate core principles of the strategy we advocate:

Effective Church Websites For Emerging Generations
Investigating the various ways in which a church's website can be targeted toward unbelievers in a church's local community.

A Strategy For Local Internet Outreach
How can the internet be used for evangelism and outreach while maintaining an environment of authentic Christian community?

Flawed Follow Up Or A Flawed Philosophy of Evangelism?
The ease with which we can “share the gospel” online can actually short-circuit the God-ordained process by which unbelievers are brought to faith.

Should We Include A Gospel Presentation On Our Websites?
Should conversion be our immediate goal in our internet evangelism efforts?

A Strategic Opportunity For The Church
A proposed strategy in which a church would use short video profiles of members of their congregation to entice unbelievers in their local area to consider the value of a local congregation’s ministry in their own lives.

2 John 12
Is there something incomplete about digital communication?

Wed, December 03, 2008 at 07:19 am
Frank thoroughly impressed with the professionalism of the WebTrends Ad Director team http://ping.fm/EuHLl

Sun, November 30, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Frank interested in finding good resources (blogs, books, etc.) on cause marketing.

Fri, November 28, 2008 at 11:57 am
Frank contemplating a line from "O Holy Night" - in His name ALL oppression shall cease

Tue, November 25, 2008 at 08:31 am
Frank exhausted but gratified after today's Scene7 imaging launch on telescope.com!

Mon, November 24, 2008 at 08:05 pm
Frank @benwiles although you made me think about OneNote again. I think it might have feature to allow you to forward a website to OneNote

When the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association wanted to use the internet to promote their city festivals, they turned to Strategic Digital Outreach. Read more ....

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Web Development
Designwise Studios
DirectSteps
RockBeatsPaper
SparrowStyle
Turtle Interactive

Content Management
Expression Engine

Web Hosting
DreamHost

Email Management
Constant Contact

We work with several different organizations in exploring ways in which digital means can be used to reach an increasingly digital world. Some of these organizations are more traditional clients. Some are friends. All are our partners in the gospel (1 Corinthians 3:9). Invariably, we learn as much from them as they do from us. Here is a sampling:

David & Linda Arzouni
Assemblies of God missionaries to West Africa, based in Mali (the land of Timbuktu).

Assemblies of God
The Northern California and Nevada District, based in Sacramento, California.

India Prayer Drive
A 21-day prayer drive through the nation of India.

IreneDias.com
Although the suffering they face is severe, this is not a story of despair, but of an incredible faith and even more of an incredible God who sustains His followers with lavish grace, extravagant kindness, and unrelenting love.

Luis Palau Evangelistic Association
Proclaiming the Lord's Good News to the millions of people who have yet to respond to the Gospel.

Sacred Ink
Joyfully declaring the gospel to the tattoo subculture.

Santa Cruz Bible Church
Their evangelism department focuses on marketplace ministries.

ShareFest Santa Cruz County
Churches in Santa Cruz County, California join together to become a bridge from the church to the community through work projects designed to bless the community.

TimeOut Conference
Enabling a deeper relationship with God and more effective relationships with people.

Wake Up! Santa Cruz
Presenting the claims of Christ to the business community in Santa Cruz, California.

These are projects which we have initiated (either individually or as members of a team) in our efforts to use digital means to spread the gospel:

MissionEquip
MissionEquip.com was established to provide resources to missionaries and short-term missions teams traveling worldwide.

ChristianCruz
ChristianCruz.com is a localized portal for believers living in Santa Cruz County, California.

Prodigal God
ProdigalGod.com, a work in progress, is designed to provide biblical instruction to the wider body of Christ through the use of video teaching segments and written articles.

Christian Screen Savers
ChristianScreenSavers.com offers a selection of high-quality, inexpensive Christian screen savers which reflect biblical themes. Proceeds from the sale of these screen savers are used to support the work of Strategic Digital Outreach.

Blogs I Read

Adventures Of A Web Evangelist
The Appian Way
BetaChurch.org
BlogMinistry
BlogRodent
Boyink Interactive
Carpe' Digital
Christian Web Trends
Church Beauty
Church Communications Pro
Church Marketing Sucks
ChurchTechToday
Church Website & Blog Ideas
digital.leadnet.org
Digital Ministry
The Digital Sanctuary
e-vangelism.com
Effective Church Web Sites
Effective Web Ministry Notes
Equip Blog
Evotional
GodBit
Goodmanson
Gospelcon
Heal Your Church Website
If Jesus Had A Website
Leave It Behind
MicroExplosion
Outside The Box Ministry
Sacred Digital
So You Want A Church Website?
The Ultimate Issue
Web Evangelism Issues

Good For Nothing Websites

Blogs I Read

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