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Research study on making church websites outsider friendly and evangelistic
Ceri Longville, a student at Redcliffe Bible College in Gloucester UK, has just published her college dissertation on church websites.
http://internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/945
The concept of website credibility - why should visitors believe what you say?
It is said that people make very rapid assessments of people, situations, magazine covers, websites – just about anything. See Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Quite remarkably, in two seconds, our brains will compute a range of variables and give us an instant impression, which is often quite accurate.
http://internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/654
Welcome and assimilate church visitors - avoid de-evangelizing trap
Matt Neace writes, “I was at a conference a few years ago where they told the story of a church that looked as though they were really thriving: they had about 500 people attending, and had many outreach ministries reaching their community, and many people were coming to Christ and to church through their ministry. The problem was that the church was not growing in numbers – people were leaving as quickly as they were coming in.”
http://internetevangelismday.com/blog/archives/533
Using social bookmarking systems to draw people to Christian websites
Social bookmarking is a way of storing links that you like, and sharing these ‘collaborative opinions’ with other people. The best known system is probably del.icio.us but there are many others.
http://internetevangelismday.com/socialbookmarking.php
Free church website tips: build an effective evangelistic church site to reach your community
Design and build a website to reach the community
“A church is the only organization that exists primarily for the benefit of non-members”
– William Temple
“Week in, week out, more visitors turn up at our church on a Sunday because of the website, than anything else”
– King’s Church, Kingston UK: a church site design using these principles
http://internetevangelismday.com/church-site-tips.php
Church website design help: tool to evaluate or improve church website design to reach outsiders
Your church website has enormous potential as part of your outreach strategy to reach into your community. It can be like an enticing ‘shop window’ and virtual doorway to draw people into faith and fellowship. However, many churches do not understand how to design a website that will do this effectively. This self-assessment questionnaire helps you evaluate your site, and creates a detailed free evaluation report with advice to help you consider new ideas or aspects of the site that could perhaps be modified. It will also help you in planning a new website.
http://internetevangelismday.com/church-site-design.php
Church webmaster page: design, plan, build or upgrade good church websites to best reach your community
Church websites are an essential part of local churches’ public profiles to their communities. Indeed, in some parts of the world, church websites draw more people into face-to-face church activities than any other method. Church sites outnumber all other types of Christian sites by a ratio of 5 to 1. Church sites could therefore be powerful outreach tools. However, research reveals a discouraging picture.
http://internetevangelismday.com/church.php
Church evangelism: short story about using your church website for evangelism
“We need more lodgers,” said Maria Silversmith to her husband Milo one evening. Ten years back, they had bought their large rambling house to accommodate six children as well as two elderly relatives. With only the two younger children now left at home, the house seemed achingly empty, even with the presence of Tim their lodger, who had become like one of the family. “Let’s make a webpage, then people looking for lodgings can easily find us,” suggested Milo.
http://internetevangelismday.com/church-evangelism.php
Golf parable: best practice or wrong way for church websites to reach the community with appropriate evangelism
You can’t miss Stonylands Town Golf Club if you take the winding back road out of town. But if you are in any doubt, the signboard says it all: “Stonylands Golf Club. Member of the Federation of National Golf Clubs. Est. 1924. Secretary: J S Peasworthy, BSc.” There follows in smaller letters, “Private Property” and without apparent irony, “No ball games”. The style of the sign is almost identical to the original 1924 version, as you can readily see in the photographs of The Opening displayed in the clubhouse foyer.
http://internetevangelismday.com/golf-parable.php
Defining Christian web pages on the X Spectrum Scale - a diagnostic tool for outreach
In the missions world of church-planting, a helpful C1-C6 spectrum has been devised to define the degree of contextualization that a church is using in relation to the culture surrounding it. The concept has been developed by strategists John Travis, Phil Parshall and others. In conjuction with Create International, we propose a similar categorization of X1-X6 to define the conteXtual positioning of Christian websites (and indeed other media – radio, video, and literature).
http://internetevangelismday.com/x-spectrum.php