If you think your church website works for visitors, you're probably dead wrong. In my investigation of church websites I've found that most of them are understandable if you were brought up in the church and are just looking for a different church home. But, with a large segments of the population being unchurched and the church having an outreached based mission this fails to aide us in the very mission Jesus called us to do. Let's take a look at what we are doing and how we can focus this part of our site so it works for the mission and not against it.
The Current Situation
At random I picked another church website from Church Relevances Top 75 Church Websites. This site is very clean, easy to read, and has many great design principles. But, the site is targeted directly at Christians who are unhappy with their church. The "It's My First Time Here" link is simply a pop-up that says the site was designed for that person. The statement in the middle sums it up when it says,
Even if most churches don't want to admit it, church has become notoriously boring and disconnected from our everyday lives. Most of us gave up on church years ago. After all, when's the last time you got up on a Sunday morning and thought about going to church instead of reading the newspaper or sleeping in?
Who is the target of this message? Someone who is unhappy with the church. What about the person who doesn't even know the church? This is targeted at the at unhappy Christian and not that non-Christian.
When it comes to hip sites and classic sites there is a common target. People who are already churched. Other sites don't have such an overt message. They may simply have a welcome message, a map to their church, and information about service times. What does this mean to someone who is unchurched?
2 Types of Visitors
Church websites have to deal with 2 types of church visitors. The churched and unchurched visitor. We are great with the churched visitor. We understand them. We can see where they might be unhappy, and they understand our church talk. The unchurched person is completely different. Here are X tips on how to change your site to be more unchurched visitor friendly:
- Limit church words on your homepage. The church has a lot of really descriptive phrases. Churched people know what salvation, sanctification, and ministry mean. An unchurched person doesn't know these words. To them, it's like reading a foreign language. That means it's frustrating and a turn off. Don't use them.
- Assume you will have unchurched people visiting the site. Do you assume that someone who doesn't know about God will visit your site? If your church is doing outreach and people know those people are outreaching they will check out your site. Are you prepared for them? Do you know enough about their perspective to minister to them when they show up?
- Show events other than services. Someone whose visiting may not want to come to your services but instead come to check you out in a different way. Show them some other options.
- Have an unchurched person review your site. Find someone who isn't churched and have them review your site. I'm talking about someone who has never attended church, isn't a believer, and doesn't know what the church is about. Take their feedback seriously.
- Have other information options on your site besides worship times and a faith statement. The church is about education, intelligent faith, and a supernatural God. Have something on your site that talks about this and what it means.
These are just a few suggestions. Do you have a suggestion you'd like to share? If so, please post it in the comments. This is a common task that we often do poorly. Any suggestions that help us focus in on our outreach mission are not just welcomed but greatly needed.
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