Websites

[Eric Frey]

OK, so you need to understand that I am not at all tech-savvy. Nor do I have alot desire or time to spend on with maintaining a website. But I do desire to have one that looks nice. Is simple. Communicates effectively, is easy to update, and is pretty cheap. HELP!!! PM me.

[Jim Abrams]

Eric,
I am neither tech-savvy nor burning with a desire to spend time on website. Still we are in the process of developing one. I found the articles by Andrew Howard a great place to start. The first one is Web Development for pastors and the second is Web development for pastors 201 The articles are found in the first two issues of "grace and peace" magazine.

[Gary Creely]

I have a couple thoughts here that could be helpful. The first is spending time on a church website may not seem glamorous, within your gift set, or even what you are called to do, but it is likely some of the most productive work you can do for the church you serve.

Speaking from my own experience, I took a small struggling church with an aging congregation. Most of the people at my church at the time I arrived would have very little interest in a website. They had a Faith highway website that was at least a start. I should pause here to say I do not recommend Faith highway. Anyway, I redid the site and am reasonably pleased with the results.

I have been here now for about 14 months, and in that time every visitor who was not connected to somebody in the church had been on our website before they came to our church. It would be difficult for me to overstate how important a church's website is, particularly in the area of outreach. So if you do not have a competent layperson to maintain your site, in my opinion your time doing so would be time well spent.

with the criteria you mentioned looks good, doesn't cost much, easy to keep up to date, ect.... I recommend http://www.squarespace.com/. if you commit to two years I would recommend the middle option known as "advanced". For what they offer I believe this is a great deal. The other recommendation that I would make is to pay a professional photographer to come out and do a photo shoot of a service, and maybe even a special event. That will likely cost as much as two years of square space, but you would end up with a professional looking product that would be a notch above the majority of church websites out there. frankly it is quite often the church that does have the "technically savvy" person who ends up with some of the worst websites. The reason is they are trying to hand code the site, and although they may be technically savvy it is very likely they are not gifted graphical designers and you end up with a really lousy page. I only say that to say not being technically savvy when it comes to website design may be your greatest asset.