Out of the blue I was recently invited to the Christian Blog and web Awards as two of the web sites that I designed had been nominated. The Phatfish site was runner up in the "Best Worship Blogg" category, although bizzarely the site is not a blog and is really about the activities of the band and only loosely related to'worship'. This is the first year of the Christian 'Bloggies' and although the event was well run, the categories and nominees were something of an odd mixture - maybe as the awards become established and mature over the years they will gain a little more credibility and consistency. Anyway it is great to have work recognised and to be wined and dined free of charge, even if the awards were slightly haphazard.

As with all award ceremonies, one always has to ask what's the point? On the positive note it is great to encourage Christians to raise their standards in using the web to get the gospel message out there and communicate properly. It was good to see some really excellent causes like Stop the Traffik recognised. Also it provides a networking opportunity for Christians involved in the online world to support encourage and honour great work. A more negative view might be that the media as an industry is notorious for this kind of indulgence and self-congratulatory exercise.

As a Church website designer I was most intrigued to see what won the "Best Church website" category. The winner was Kings Church Manchester - a decent website with the typical content found on established church web sites and adequate, if not outstanding design. Apparently the judges had 'hundreds' of nominations for this category and although KCM is a good website I could think of many other church websites that are far better. Anyway I'm not trying to carp about the winners or the judges decisions, but it does raise a very interesting question - what constitutes a great church website? That is one of the questions that this re-launched blog aims to address.