While a website can be a terrific internal communications tool — a great way to connect 24/7 with your members — its potential as an outreach effort for your church is even greater and much more important.
So when you write for your website, write not for your members, but for your visitors — people who are checking you out because they’re looking for a church home.
Here are three things you can do to make your site user-friendly and welcoming:
• Publish a detailed calendar that’s current and complete; give your visitors lots of ways and reasons to connect with your church, even if they’re not sure about coming Sunday mornings. Include groups that use your space but are not otherwise part of your ministry. If you rent or give away space for yoga classes, A Course in Miracles groups, AA meetings or Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) chapter meetings, put those on your web calendar, with all of the basic information about all groups. (Who are they? Include brief descriptions and links to their websites for more information.)
• Whenever you publish a notice about any service, meeting or event, provide clear and complete information. Use the journalist’s convention (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How? (plus How Much? and So What?) to answer all of the usual questions.
• Avoid using words and acronyms that are commonly understood in New Thought but not necessarily beyond (”Truth principles,” “SEE,” ACIM for A Course in Miracles). Insider language gives those who don’t understand it the impression that they don’t belong. So define “Truth principles” if you use the term. Spell out A Course in Miracles and briefly describe it.
When you express a warm welcome through clear, complete communication on your website and follow that up with a friendly and sincere personal greeting, you’ll find that those who found you on the web are coming back — not just for A Course in Miracles, but for Sunday services and, before long, for your new member class, too.
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Filed under: Internet use | Tagged: Church websites, Friends of Ministry, Weekly Web Tips
