Leadership Institute – Web Empowering Your Church

Posted on October 8, 2006 by Jim Walton

This is a continuation of my notes for the COR Leadership Institute. These are somewhat random but give some of the content of what was discussed. This session was given by Mark Stephenson, Director of Cyber Ministry and Technology at Ginghamsburg Church as well as Director of Web Empowered Church.
10-6-2006 1:00pm

#1 Build a team
Teamwork is required
Many unique skills and gifts
Leadership/Management
Writing/Editing
Video Editing/digitizing
Graphic web design/creation
Data entry and file reformatting
web and software dev
web server mgmt
time consuming and critical

Reflection team – 25 or so people write devotionals
content team is larger than the tech team

team culture – God only deserves our best

mentoring works better than classes for training
rarely provide hardware or software, people usually already have it
young computer experts are ideal team members but not necessarily ideal web team leaders
watch for burnout
define processes

#2 Decide on content
you go a site for content, not for the appearance
target your audience
non Christians, Christians, seekers, kids, youth etc
what does the target audience care about?

content cyber tips
start with static content first – frequently changing content is most difficult to maintain
understand your audience – adults want interaction, younger people want interaction
Make gathering/creating content #1- getting content is the most difficult challenge
dont post personal phone numbers/addresses w/o permission – we don’t post them at all and we alias all email addresses
dont violate copyright laws

#3 organize your site
it does not matter how great the content is if you can’t find it
poor organization is common among church websites

organization cyber tips
group content by major topics/sections – less than 10 major sections
use terms the target audience understands – avoid church talk or cool names
can include a list of quick links too- pages in the website of special interest
maximum 2 mouse clicks gets to desired info – 1st click- narrows the audience 2nd click – get to list of desired info 3rd click- choose specific info 4th+ click – get extra detail

#4 choose a style
check out other church websites
check out non-church websites
keep a consistent style throughout
use the artistic gifts throughout the church
include what is distinctive about your church
keep it simple

#5 create domain name
pick easy domain, buy abbreviation and full name

seo
great website with well organized content
html/xhtml compliant http://validator.w3.org
get other legitimate websites to link to yours
ensure the right words are in your website – watch out for words in graphics
use alt and title tags for graphics
don’t pay for search engine submission

#6 choose technologies and tools
choose server platform – linux or windows cost is a factor

cms

informal communication from a person out to the masses, the reader can comment, as well.

saddleback says church people will take 1 email per week, cor sends 2 per week. scheduled is better than random, then people will anticipate it.

don’t host your website at your church, obviously bad, use an actual datacenter

internet ministry worth at least $1/day, don’t scrimp with shared hosting

we don’t advocate an internet only church – the internet cannot think or love or hug

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