Every once in a while I come across a church website that is clearly run by someone who “gets it.” That happened this morning what I ended up (by a rather circuitous route that I don’t even remember now) on the website for Park Community Church in Chicago.
Park Community Church is a “non-denominational, contemporary Christian church” in north Chicago. No, not Presbyterian, but that doesn’t matter – the lessons I learned about church websites in the first four minutes on the Park site are applicable to ANY church website – including yours.
Church websites speak to two distinct audiences: insiders and outsiders. The insiders are the folks who already attend your church – members and adherents. These people come to your church’s website wanting to know what time the Bible Study starts on Tuesday or, perhaps, find out what they missed on Sunday while they were at the cottage. Hmmm.
It’s that other group, the outsiders, that have the most to gain from your church website. These are the people that have either never been through your door – or have been once or twice and want to figure you out. It is to this group that you are most vulnerable to first impressions. If your website is an afterthought, or is too “insider-focused” – that is the impression you will give to those who visit looking for a church home.
Lesson #1: “I’m New Here”
Park’s website balances the two audiences well. Most of the links on the home page are actually for “insiders” but don’t feel that way because they’re more images than words.
The most prominent words on the home page – right below the name of the church itself, is the phrase “I’m New Here”. This is a clever way to engage the visitor by placing the phrase in their voice and an assertive one at that. An alternative phrase, “New Here?”, puts the visitor on the defensive – the knee-jerk response being “Me? No, I’m not new… what made you think that?”
The “I’m New Here” link leads to a page that explains what Park Community Church is all about – in concise and simple language.
Lesson #2: Links – lots of them!
Once you’ve identified the “outsiders” and convinced them to click on a link just for them (see Lesson #1), you’d better have something compelling for them to read. In most cases, the information most relevant to an outsider are already found elsewhere on the site – so help them get there with lots of links to other pages and sections of your website.
Lesson #3: Be helpful!
Two links on Park’s “I’m New” page stood out to me as wonderful examples of being helpful in ways that are counter-intuitive.
The first is a recognition that a large percentage of people looking for a church are probably new to the area – and certainly any Christian new to an area would be looking for a church. Park acknowledges this need by offering a “New to Chicago” page with lots of info and links to websites that explain everything from the Chicago Transit Authority to restaurant listings and where to get Cubs tickets.
The second example of being helpful is even more counter-intuitive than the “New to Chicago” page. The “Looking For a Church” page would seem, at first, to be a little redundant – if they’re on a church website haven’t they already found one? Not so. Park seems to recognize that if they’re on the outsider page, they haven’t fully found a church home – so they offer alternatives. The page lists a handful of other Chicago churches, primarily non-denominational, with links to their websites. Wow. Confidence and grace rolled into one little web page.
These are just three quick lessons learned in just a few minutes on a site run by folks who “get it” when it comes to designing a church website. What lessons have you learned from other people’s websites?
This site is one of 90 on the