Carrubbers
Christian Centre
or: Nine steps to building a church website [and the pitfalls along the way]
by Colin Peckham, former Website Ministry Leader, Carrubbers Christian Centre.
Thankfully in Carrubbers, we had no problem here, although I have heard of churches who have decided to go ahead, and then placed so many committees in the way that the thing never gets published! And others, considering the internet to be evil, shun it altogether. Imagine what would have happened if the church a few hundred years ago had avoided the printing press? True, there is some really evil stuff out there. But we don't stop printing the Bible just because someone has used paper and ink to print a pornographic magazine!
Having the go-ahead to proceed is one thing, but planning the site and implementing it is something else entirely. I learned HTML by looking at the source code of other websites. I have never really become familiar with WYSIWYG tools - I find them complicated! Although I now work professionally in web design, simple text is still good enough for me. Then get down to making screeds of paper plans, and getting good material from your church's ministry leaders... It's enough to add years to your life. I cannot over-stress the planning! Lay out the site on paper. Does it make sense? Is navigation intuitive? Carrubbers Online runs to several hundred pages. All these must be clearly accessible, and logically laid out.
In one word: beware-of-people-offering-free-hosting!! Even (or should that be 'especially'?) Christians! We ended up moving a bunch of times before we settled at our Edinburgh-based host. Buy the domain name. (Although you could do better that carrubbers.org - in a shopping mall in Denver, Colorado, a puzzled man pointed at the logo on my T-shirt and asked in a bewildered tone "do you rub cars?" much to the amusement of my friends). If you can't get your own name, try for something memorable!
Add new things all the time. Keep an eye on script archives for new ideas and possibilities. Never let the site remain static for long. Why not offer email, if you have a domain... or what about discussion boards? There is lots of stuff out there that is free or nearly free which you can add at your leisure. Try not to go down the remote hosting route though - as far as possible, host such items on your own site. Carrubbers Online is one of the oldest Church websites in Scotland - but hopefully, one of the most innovative! We had a pastor once who's catch-phrase was "We never say 'but we've never done it that way before.'" That could be ours too.
You have two types - those who know your church, and those who have never heard about it. There has to be something for both. For those in your church, why not make your church database available behind a firewall (observe the Data Protection Act!), so reducing those infuriating 192 calls to the pastor? What about home group questions and Bible study notes? Prayer requests? What about the visitor who knows nothing of Jesus? Or the general Christian public who are genuinely disinterested in the "pride with which we announce Mrs Puddle's new baby, Duncan." What about RealAudio sermons? Something we have introduced recently. Of course, you will need lots of space for that! You really are only limited by your imagination, and by your ability to keep everything up to date. Is it really clear what the site is and who you are? Imagine your reader is from a distant planet (or the USA...) and has no idea of your country, city, town, far less your church.
As much fun as it is to work by yourself, I soon found the need to bring others on board. We have a tester who lives in Los Angeles and a programmer who designs custom scripts in C. Also we have a small team of updaters who are each responsible for one or more pages and continue to update them without supervision. Get a crew you can trust!
Use common sense when putting things online. Remember that, nice as it might be for your congregation to read a missionary prayer letter online, think about who else is reading it... Are they working in a sensitive area? Is everything they say really suitable for a global audience? Apply this rule to prayer requests and anything else you put up there. Don't shoot yourself in the foot in the effort to fire off information to your congregation!
You will face criticism. Some of it valid and good - others misguided and foolish. Learn to tell the difference between valuable suggestions and the lunatic fringe! This is not always easy.
Trust God for inspiration, help and acceptance of your site. Pray for those who visit it. We have had wonderful responses to Carrubbers Online. People whose lives have been changed through what they have read and listened to. The web can be used for Jesus, it should be used for Jesus. Fishing in cyberspace can be exciting!
