Creating Community on Your Website
In our first article of this 3 part series, we talked about how technology has brought about a change in how society interacts and how this has affected the church, to carry on from that article we are now going to look at ways that you can use your website to strengthen the church community. If you have not yet read the first article in this series, then click here to read Belonging to Church in the Digital-Age - What Does it Mean to Belong?
Websites can easily become static boards of information, however for many in the community having a church website can be a vital link to their community.
This is especially true for those who cannot always attend church for various reason such as work commitments, disabilities or any other reason that prevents them from being able to regularly attend church and weekly meetings. It is important therefore to think about how your website is aiding the building of community within the church. We will cover some aspects to think about below.
Be a source of information
At the heart of every lively town, you will often find a thriving information centre; providing relevant and up-to-date information about events happening in the church is the first and foremost key area to get right when thinking about creating a community with your website.
By making sure that the website is being kept fresh and current, you will be able to increase the number of visitors coming to the website as they start to view it as a trusted and reliable source. Make sure to mention in your Sunday notices to ‘check the website for details’ to remind people to visit the website - this will soon start to become the natural method for people to gain information.
One way to do this is to put a calendar onto your website to display your events (to add a calendar to your Church edit website then click here)
Always make sure that you are using the homepage effectively too to promote your events, you can read more about what your homepage should contain by clicking on this link.
Include audio files, videos and resources
For those who cannot attend church or the weekly meeting, they can keep in sync with church wherever they are if the right resources are kept on the website. By including Sunday’s service on the website, members can easily keep in step with the church. Think about adding sermon notes - with Church Edit websites, you could even create a members only area where members can login for more personalised notes and content.
Adding a weekly video from the leadership team to your website is another great way to personalise the website and help members keep in touch, this doesn’t need to be a long video, just a short 3 minute video from the church leader that can help spur the church on into the next week, or perhaps an encouragement at the end of the week. This could be on the homepage, or on a members only page depending on the nature of the content. With Church Edit, it is easy to add a video onto your website, click here to find out how.
In the final part of our Belonging to Church in the Digital-Age series we are going to look at ways that the church can interact with each other within the digital space, and the tools that can help equip the church in community building with technology.
Our team are always on hand if you would like to discuss any of the elements featured in this article. You can call us on 0121 651 1120 or send an email to hello@churchedit.co.uk