Content Aggregation and Church Websites
Joshua Porter wrote an interesting article early last month entitled “Home Alone? How Content Aggregators Change Navigation and Control of Content.”
It’s a very interesting article about how content aggregators (search engines, blogs, news sites, links pages, etc. - virtually any form of website or software which gathers content from other digital sources and presents them in an aggregated fashion) are changing the way people receive information, and I would strongly encourage you to read the entire article. I’m going to touch on one point he made and how it possibly relate to church websites, but I think the whole article has some very important things to say to us as Christian webmasters.
Here is an excerpt which I found especially compelling:
Aggregation hinges on gathering content from other domains. This dramatically affects the search for content. Users no longer need to start their search in the domain where the content lies. In fact, they almost never do.
The reason this interests me so much is because it dovetails with something I think churches often fail to realize when they launch or add content to a website: unbelievers are not coming to our websites. Most unbelievers aren’t interested in what we have to say because they think we are irrelevant.
People aren’t coming to our websites looking for information. They are using search engines. They are using newsreaders to read RSS feeds. They are visiting directories. But they aren’t coming to our websites. Very few people in today’s society are actively looking for a church and then going on the web to find one.
It reminds me of a quote from Reggie McNeal’s book, This Present Future (thanks to Jordon Cooper for the quote - I have the book at home and have read it, but I’m away from home, needed to quickly find the quote I was thinking of and knew that Jordon was a big fan of the book, so I was pretty sure I could find it at his site):
...You can build the perfect church--and they still won’t come. People are not looking for a great church. They do not wake up every day wondering what church they can make successful. The age in which institutional religion holds appeal is passing away--and in a hurry.... Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world--people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them.
The overwhelming majority of unbelievers are not going to Google and typing in “church santa cruz” and hoping to find a church in my area of the world. Same goes for your area of the world. Unbelievers are not coming to our websites because they think we have the answers to their problems or because they think we can tell them how to live a fulfilling life or because they think we can show them how to make a difference in their community or because they think we have the best path to spirituality.
And so if we want to speak to unbelievers, we have to find ways to draw them in. I’ll say it again - we have to find ways to draw them in.
That’s why I think that church websites should be focused on what the unbeliever is thinking about, what her passion in life is, what the overwhelming life problem he is facing is, etc. We should be addressing the needs of those who suffer from cancer, the interests of those who are avid gardeners, the life passion of those who are devoted to surfing, etc., etc. The most natural way of doing this is to present people within our congregations who also suffere from cancer, who are also avid gardeners, who are also devoted to surfing, etc. and tell how their relationship with Jesus shapes their suffering, their hobby, their passion.
See our white paper for some expanded thoughts on this approach.
Thanks ultimately to Brian Bailey at Leave It Behind for the pointer to the Home Alone article.
I believe that the internet provides today's church with a historic opportunity .... to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love in ways which could only have been imagined in times past. The objective of this website is to explore the various ways in which today's technology can be used to spread the gospel around the world.
