Looking back at the Geek and God podcast series Bob and I just did on websites, I don't know if we ever gave a great list of reasons a church should have a Cool and Useful website. So, here is my list, or business case if you will, of why a church should invest in their website and have one that doesn't suck.
1) Your Face To The World: In this age where billions of people are on the Internet one of the places many people look to check out a place, including a church, is their website. Often sites like Yahoo and Google will directly link to a churches website from the local search results. For an example click here.
2) Cost Effective: Let's face it. Paper is not cheap. Not to mention the bulk of paper that people just throw away. To host a website can cost less than $10 a month for most churches and ministries. If you go get a good design and setup that can be a few to several thousand dollars. That is relatively inexpensive compared to a lot of paper printing over the long haul. Plus, most people in, at least, the urban and suburban USA are on the Internet (over 2/3 of the population in those regions). Sure, for some people you will still need some paper. But, the number of people needing paper is shrinking while the number of people wanting the information on the Internet is growing.
3) Easy to update: A website, when done right, should be easy to update. If there is a change to something, a new event, a special notice, or just your regular weekly news it's faster and easier to do it with a website than to do it with paper. (This may take some time to get used to a change.)
4) Culture: The bible says to, "..go and make more disciples..". To go to the younger generations specifically means to go to them in the virtual world (Internet) and the physical world. We can't ignore either world.
That is my short list. Anyone else have any thoughts?
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