Your church might need a new website. But you might also have other underlying communications issues that need to be fixed first. Here's a quiz you can take to see if a new website is necessary.
We once spoke with a potential client, let's call her Maggie. Maggie, a gifted communications team volunteer, contacted us because her church’s leadership team determined that getting a new website was a top priority. Our team looked up the site and quickly discovered that she and her leaders were wise. If they hoped to reach people in today’s culture, then they definitely needed a better online presence.
But, as we took time to get to know them, we discovered that, like so many organizations, their communications issues went much deeper than any new website could fix.
So before you start a website project, make sure you’re not just doing it to cover up a bigger problem. In Maggie's case, a new website would likely just give them a prettier version of their poorly organized and poorly presented information and cause more tension for the church behind the scenes.
Here are 10 questions to help determine if a new website is the answer:
- What is our most prominent struggle when it comes to communicating with our congregation?
- How would this be fixed by a new website?
- How smoothly do our current internal communications run?
- How does our staff currently communicate with our congregation apart from the website?
- How would a new website improve, change and affect our communication with our congregation?
- Who currently updates/manages our website, and how well are they accomplishing that task?
- How are we communicating with guests within our current website and outside of our current website?
- How would a new website improve or change how we communicate with newcomers?
- How are we currently highlighting our mission, vision and primary messages on our website and outside of our website?
- Have we been completely honest with ourselves in our answers to these questions? Are there any problem areas we could dig into a little deeper?
What are some of the underlying issues your church is dealing with right now? If you feel like it's definitely time for a new site, message me and I’ll send you some tips on how to make sure it’s built for ministry and not just marketing!
