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- Damazio 3:16


Top 10 Church Website Mistakes

Posted on November 15th, 2006 by catalyst into the Biblical Parody category

This is an old blog post, but kind of funny. As written by Tony Morgan from Granger Community Church, here are the Top 10 Ways to Keep me from Visiting your Church, because I Visited your Website:

  1. Avoid telling me what's going to happen at your church this weekend. I found churches that had weather reports but nothing about their upcoming weekend service. I found two churches that had prominent information about upcoming golf scrambles (which I appreciated as a golfer), but nothing about this weekend's service. Why would I come if I don't know what I'm going to experience?
  2. Put a picture of your building on the main page. After all, ministry is all about the buildings.
  3. Use lots of purple and pink and add pictures of flowers. Really. Are you expecting any men to show up? And, for my benefit, please don't put any doves on your website. Doves scare me.
  4. Make me click a "skip intro" or "enter site" link. I don't have time for that and it's very annoying. If I have to wait for something to load or have to click around intro pages to get to the real information, I'm probably going to skip your church service.
  5. Add as many pictures and graphics as you can to the main page. My life is already complicated. I don't have time to figure out what's important at your church. If you dump everything on the main page, I'm assuming you don't know what's important either.
  6. Use amateur photography. And, for the record, it would be helpful to have at least one normal looking person on your site. Do us all a favor and hire a graphic designer, a professional photographer or purchase some stock photography.
  7. List every single ministry you have at your church. Frankly, I don't care what ministries you have. I just want to know whether or not I should visit your church this weekend. My first step isn't the men's Bible study or joining your church's prayer partners ministry.
  8. Make it as difficult as possible for me to get directions, services times, or find information about what will happen with my kids. It's important that my kids have a great experience. If you can't convince me that that will happen, I'm probably not going to risk visiting your service.
  9. Put a picture of your pastor with his wife on the main page. That tells me it's all about a personality, and I see enough of those people on television. I actually found one church that had not one but two pictures of the senior pastor on the main page. He was looking mighty dapper, though, in his fancy suit.
  10. Try to sell your church rather than telling me how I will benefit from the experience. I don't care how great your church is. I just want to know if visiting your church will help me and my unchurched friends take our next steps toward Christ.

Thankfully, City Business Church (the blog) has neither a pastor nor a building. So we're doing okay for know.

6 Comments To This Post

  1. Henri S. said:    

    I think you should offer to license the logo for this blog to some of the churches… it would be better then some of the logos I’ve seen on some websites.

    And plus.. isn’t there “truth in advertising”? :)

  2. living life said:    

    11. Only update your website every 2 years. …. You calendar of events from April 2005 are the most current. Does that mean your church has closed its doors since then?

  3. John444 said:    

    Catalyst said:

    Thankfully, City Business Church (the blog) has neither a pastor nor a building. So we’re doing okay for know.

    Hey! Did you guys demote me? ;) :mrgreen:

  4. John444 said:    

    When I first moved to rural IL in ‘99, I put up a church web site - registered and paid for the domain name and hosting myself. There was lots of information, but it wasn’t as dynamic as Mr. Morgan suggests above. More of a brochure for the church. It was something to do while waiting for work and a way to contribute / communicate.

    Everything was fine until I linked to Charisma magazine (?) and then the church board decided the web site needed a committee to control it. I played along for a month or two, until the committee got down to discussing fonts and colors, and then I left it to the committee to maintain, after showing them how of course.

    The site went unchanged for nearly 3 years after I left that church. Perhaps committee rule is the reason for those ‘cob web’ pages Mr. Morgan seems to be talking about? ;)

  5. glisan2butte said:    

    for God so loved the world that he did not send a committee…

  6. Mark said:    

    HA HA HA HA HA Oh I have to laugh. The joys of “religion”. Sell it like a used car, with a smiling face of a guy in a suit. Does anyone remember California’s “Cal Worthington”, the Ford dealer? “Cal Worthington Ford, where the freeways meet, in Downey”. ha ha ha ha ha As Jesus said, “they shall know that you are my disciples by your website”. yeah rite! ha ha ha ha ha

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