3Sixty Creative Blog

If you have ever wondered why its worth putting time and effort into your church website and online presence you should read this excellent blog post:

http://www.flockology.com/2010/03/church-digital-marketing.html

In summary:

• Google (together with a few other search engines) is the first place look for anything these days (including churches) and it has mostly replaced printed resources such as the phone book.
• The internet is where people 'live' - The church needs to meet people where they are and use every means to spread the gospel.
• Your website is probably the place many people will form their first impression of your church. For example If I have any contact with an organisation I will routinely check them out online first to get background information and get a feel for them and their values. Put the effort in, keep your website and online information up to date and attractive.

Church website CMS (and member management system) provider Church Insight have recently re-designed their website together with a long-overdue re-work of their their corporate identity. More importantly they have changed their pricing structure and improved online support and documentation.

The new pricing model

After replacing a per-member fee with a 3-tired approach, CI have now moved to 5 'plans'. All features are available, whichever of the 5 plans you're on. Plans now start at a reasonable £20 + Vat per month (£240 per year) All other hosting, support and maintenance charges, system upgrades including fixes and new features are included within this. Most customers will now get more functionality for the same price or less. However Plans 1-2 will be charged a hefty 50p per minute for telephone support.

The main differentiators between the 5 different price plans are:
1. The number of users & contacts on the system.
2. The level of support (phone support, an important thing for some. Starts at Plan 3 of 5).
3. The amount of storage and bandwidth you have for media, audio & video files.

For more information see http://www.churchinsight.com/pricing

Support and Documentation

Church Insight now has it's own separate support site: www.shareinsight.org. This is a vast improvement on the old site with far more in-depth articles and resources to help you learn to use their system. For the average user this will provide a very useful reference. However it is not (yet) comprehensive, for example there is no mention of how to use the very complex 'Theme Park' used to build the site templates. More videos are due to be added soon.

Church Websites that reach Outsiders

In the last year, over 500 churches have used Internet Evangelism Day's church website self-assessment tool and received the free evaluation report that this provides. Each report provides a comprehensive list of suggestions for action that will enable a church's website to better engage with outsiders in their community. http://www.internetevangelismday.com/church-site-design.php

Using Popular Culture

Suppose God sent you a letter. And in it, He offered you a gift - a simple evangelistic approach similar to the parables that Jesus used. Something that would engage with people?s interests, and employ a common language and experience. Would you want to use it?
Internet Evangelism Day is convinced that this is exactly God's heart, and that He does indeed offer us a resource which is grossly under-used for ministry: contemporary culture ? the world of film, TV, music, theater and books. http://www.internetevangelismday.com/popular-culture.php

New Speaker Panel Launched

Internet Evangelism Day has a panel of speakers available for conferences, Bible College modules, or ministry consultations. They can address a wide range of digital ministry topics, in a number of countries. http://www.internetevangelismday.com/speaker.php

Bible College Training

Internet Evangelism Day has released a suggested curriculum for digital ministry, that Bible Colleges and seminaries may consider using or adapting to their own needs: http://www.internetevangelismday.com/curriculum.php

Building Informal Networks for Internet Evangelism

In several countries and regions of the world, informal networks of ministries are dramatically enhancing overall fruitfulness. When web evangelism teams combine with radio and literature ministry and local church networks, there is huge crossover synergy for effective evangelism and followup of inquirers. It is a model that will work in any country. http://www.internetevangelismday.com/building-networks.php

After extensive research and testing I have now completed a comparison of the 4 UK church website Content Management Systems. It is intended as an independent and factual comparison of features and another tool for churches investigating their options. I intend to do a more in-depth review of each system in the future.

You can view the chart on my website here or download a PDF version of the chart here.

6 months of using Twitter - useful, irrelevant or a revolution?

When I mention Twitter to friends who are not yet using the service, usual reactions are either to dismiss it as "more noise I don't need in my life" or "why do I want to hear the dreary details of strangers lives?". Having been using Twitter now for 6 months I thought it would be useful to look at the case for and against and sum up the experience. Is this just a passing fad or are we experiencing a communications revolution? Is it worth the time and effort or should I turn off my computer/mobile and do something more useful instead?

The case FOR using Twitter

1. Getting to know people

Although not a substitute for real face to face relationships, it can enhance the relationships you already have and allows you too keep in loose contact with people you know only a little or don't have time or opportunity to hang out with in the real world. For example I am a member of a large church and can't hope to get to know even half of them. However an increasing number are on Twitter and with a simple "follow" I am able to get an insight into their lives and some of the things happening amongst the church community that I would never otherwise be able to do. It also allows you to meet interesting strangers and chat in a way you would rarely do in real life. This represents a golden opportunity to reach people outside the church.

2. A resource for general information

Probably the single most useful aspect of Twitter is the links that are shared. Many times I have clicked on links to web pages that are fascinating and informative, sites that I would never have otherwise heard of or seen. Information, ideas and pictures that broaden our understanding of the world, of God and each other.

3. Being part of a shared experience

Twitter allows a group of people to experience an event and pass comments and feedback as it happens. I have twittered other church members during sermons (this is actively encouraged in some churches) and there is often extra insight, a new angle or just witty comments on the sermon that can expand and deepen one's thoughts on the subject. It can definitely become a just an unhealthy distraction (or an escape if bored) but with care is definitely an enhancement. One can also hear the group commenting on a news story, or an event such as a football match or TV show as it happens even though they maybe located around the globe. This kind of global interaction can really add to the excitement a make you feel part of a shared experience.

4. A 'group mind' that you can call on for advice and help

With a network of people instantly contactable at your fingertips it is easy to pose a simple question and get quick responses. "What time's the meeting tonight?", "Anyone know a good electrician?", "Is the new U2 Album any good?" "where's the best Italian restaurant in Brighton?". Most people love to give advice and opinions so you will usually get quick answers.

5. Build a network of people that you can influence

Assuming your tweets are interesting and worthwhile, you will start to build a group of followers and this gives you the chance to influence them in a small way. Whether its offering them links to good websites, commenting on events or offering a glimpse of your lifestyle you can become an online force for good. I run a campaign website as a small sideline and have a twitter account, tweeting a couple of times a day only about issues relevant to that campaign. The number of followers for this 'single subject' twitter feed is ballooning.

6. Promoting events, websites or business

This is the more controversial aspect of Twitter. Many see Twitter as something that is mainly for personal use and are becoming dismayed by the increasing use by PR and marketing people to sell and promote brands and companies to clients and customers. However it is possible to engage an audience by being a good 'net citizen' and avoiding blatant marketing and blatant self-promotion. Good practice is to make subtle and occasional 'promotional' tweets mixed with stuff that is interesting and useful to your followers.

The case AGAINST using Twitter

1. An addictive distraction from life, family or work?

Anything that takes time away from your main focus in life should be carefully considered. Twitter could become addictive to the point that we are always thinking "what's happening now?", "what have I missed?", "I must tweet this..." There are already plenty of distractions that can de-rail us from our main purpose of in life. Time spent with family and friends is also precious and we need to be careful we don't spend more time with the laptop than with people. Are we wasting our employers time when we should be working? If Twitter becomes your idol then it's time to re-think.

2. Just a flow of information that is of no interest or use

If not used carefully, Twitter can just send us a stream of information about stuff that is of little, help, use or importance and it just becomes another noise to add to email, the web, TV, radio, texts, phone calls etc. Information overload is a hazard of modern life. We need to control the flow of information and not let it control us.

3. Pressure to tweet regularly and be clever, interesting or witty

Once you establish yourself as a regular twitterer with a following you can start to feel under a constant pressure to be engaging and keep on tweeting or you will loose people's attention and the momentum you have built up. My advice is that if Tweeting has stopped being fun and just become a hassle, take a break, the world won't end.

Some quick observations

There are loads of people out there who know far more about Twitter than I but here a few of my observations:

1. Dont try to follow too many people probably more than 100(?) and you will start to get lost in the noise and be unable to get a grip on what's going on. If you must follow masses of peolple then use something like TweetDeck that offers groups and filters to help you focus on your favourites.

2. Don't Tweet too much mundane personal info "In the toilet", "on the train" will not add much to the sum of human knowledge, become annoying and probably get you unfollowed. However interesting personal info is important and helps people get to know you eg "been reading John Piper and feel challenged" or "Tired after a long week and looking forward to weekend away".

3. Dont Tweet too much. There is no hard and fast rule about how often it is advisable to tweet but I know I get annoyed when I see that same person filling my twitter feeds with endless chatter, however interesting they may be.

4. Don't follow automated Tweeters (a give-away will be that their tweets come from something like TwitterFeed). They are just trying to build a huge following, probably as an ego-trip or to make money without putting the effort into properly tweeting themselves. Another give away is that their tweets are usually in bursts, around 10 at a time and lack focus or personal detail.

5. Tweet links to photos when you can. A picture can convey a lot more than words. I find them particularly interesting when they show a an event that I was unable to attend or people I know.

6. Don't just follow anyone. If someone you don't know starts following you, avoid just following them back straight away. Look at their profile first and try to gauge if they will add interest and substance to your network.


[Baltant self promotion] Follow me on Twitter

Internet Evangelism Day has launched a new blog, Digital Evangelism Issues. It highlights the potential for digital outreach, brings news and ideas, and enables discussion and feedback about related issues.

Since I reviewed Church123 and Church Insight (see previous 2 posts) all 3 of the leading UK Church website content Management System providers have been developing and improving their products. I will write in-depth reviews later this year when I have had a chance to fully evaluate them (by doing live church website projects). In the meantime here is a quick overview:

Church Advance

The 'new kid on the block' is beginning to gain momentum as their small client base grows. First impressions when using the system is that from the designers point of view, it is by far the best. Probably very slightly more demanding for novice users than Church123 but ultimately very flexible and a pleasure to use. CA are adding new features at a good pace and these include a brilliant form-builder, a powerful and easy to use calendar and podcasting support. For novice users there is a built in guide which literally walks you through the set up. However documentation and online help remains a bit patchy but this is being improved.

Church123

C123 have recently launched a brand new version of their system. Highlight features include: great podcasting support and management built into the system with a huge storage allocation for sound and video media. Although the system looks much the same it is also faster to use and has better cross-browser and Mac user support. There is now the facility for RSS news feeds from the site and improved online support and documentation. Their excellent FREE telephone support is a real winner and neither of the other CMS providers can match this. From the designers perspective there are still some annoyances but the system is very much targeted at non-technical users.

Church Insight

This hugely-powerful CMS and church management system continues to develop and add new features. Improvements over that last year include; better support for audio and particularly video uploads, some small improvements to the way content is created and laid out, simpler more search engine-friendly URLs and many developments to their shop and e-commerce facilities. However there is no sign of them addressing the terrible table-based web page code generated by the system or the very steep learning curve for new users.

Overview

Church123 (C123) is a church website CMS product developed by a small established company based in London. Serving customers across the globe, they are highly recommended by many leading Christian organisations such as The Church of England, The Baptist Union, The Methodist Church of Great Britain and the Evangelical Alliance.

C123 is has been designed very much with the non-technical or novice user in mind and with lots of 'safety nets' to prevent users making mistakes. The 'back-office' system is accessed by your Internet Explorer browser and has a simple wizard to get you up and running. You can choose from the large range of 'off the shelf' design templates (which vary in quality from the very good to very mundane) or you can employ a designer to produce a bespoke template (such as the examples below). The main site editing functions will be familiar to anyone who has used a word-processor such as MS Word and it is simple to edit text and add photos. More advanced page layout options can be achieved using the built-in table builder. There are useful options for embedding content from 3rd party websites such as a YouTube movie, An Amazon Product, a scripture from BibleGateway or an RSS feed from another site. (C123 does not produce it's own RSS feeds) There is also a good form builder to create a contact form and email addresses are encoded to help prevent spam. There is full support for up to 2 levels of navigation, (although you can manually create further levels but they won't appear in the main menus) and a built in link-checker which will check for dead links. The system will also prevent you uploading images that are too large for web use (a common mistake by novices) and will re-size them for you.

There is well-implemented support for editing permissions - ie. you can have multiple site editors but restrict individuals to certain pages they can edit. You can also create password protected pages for a 'members-only' area.

It is possible to add podcasting support (most commonly used for sermon downloads) to a C123 site. This requires you to register with a third party service (such as Switchpod) and is not built into the system, however once configured, it will fit pretty seamlessly into the site.

From a technical standpoint, the code generated by church123 is good. The vast majority of C123 templates are crafted in CSS. This is beneficial as it makes sites quick to load and particularly user friendly for those with disabilities. With over 130 templates to pick from and custom designs available there is plenty of choice. Their menu system produces easy to navigate accessible menus avoiding hidden scripting, fly-outs or Flash (all of which can cause accessibility issues).

C123 websites produce tidy URLs based on the page names you choose, so a typical URL will look like this "http://www.churchname.org/alpha" This is good from a usability standpoint and helps search engines indexing pages.

For more information about C123 see their website where you can try the system for free. Alternatively call their friendly help desk on 020 8949 6005.

User Experience

The interface is clear, pleasant, generally well-designed and mostly self-explanatory with useful hits & tips that appear alongside some of the editing tools. However some of the interface features are annoying and can really slow you down when initially constructing your site. (For example the user is forced to do regular 'site re-builds' and page 'reloads' ). Pages you are editing appear in pop-up windows and it does feel like there are some unnecessary extra steps to achieve simple tasks. What the system really needs is an 'advanced mode' which would allow confident users to by pass the extra steps put in place to help the novice.

Support

Undoubtedly C123 offer the best support of all the CMS providers. They offer free telephone support to all their customers and you can call them any time and speak to a friendly human straight away who will answer your queries. The simplicity of the C123 system should also mean you probably will not need to ask for help very often as most aspects of the system are easy to master. There is no documentation on their website but they do provide a real goldmine of general advice about church website design.

Pricing

Pricing is very straightforward - £195 per year + VAT for the UK (international pricing is available on their site) and that includes everything - the CMS hosting, email and support. Without doubt this represents great value for money and demonstrates C123 are focused on serving churches ahead of making money.

Example sites:

I have provided bespoke template designs for these clients: (and the churches have subsequently added and amended pages themselves)

Revelation Church (London)
Queens Road Church (Wimbledon)
Andover Vineyard
Sutton Christian Centre
The Well Church (Blyth Valley)

Conclusions

Pros: Simplicity, designed with the non-technical user in mind. Exceptionally good value for money. Provided by a small friendly company who are adding new features (albeit slowly). There are only a few restrictions on template design so a C123 site can look great if you have a good designer. Excellent free telephone support makes customers feel valued and supported.

Cons: Some features are restrictive for experienced users. Some of the extra functionality such as calendars and blogs utilise third party solutions. This may mean logging in to a second system on occasions (however, it does give you the pick of the crop such as the Google Calendar). There is only proper support for 2 levels of navigation so if you are planning a large website, C123 will struggle. (You can manually add links for further levels). Users have to run Internet Explorer web browser for Windows to edit sites (Apple Mac users will either be forced to use a PC or run Windows emulation software). That said, sites generated with the system can be viewed in any browser.

It's probably not for you if: - You are a large church and need a website with more than 50 pages, want advanced interactive functionality such as e-commerce or member management features, have technically proficient 'power users' who could become frustrated with the restrictions in the system that are designed to help novices, are die-hard Mac users.

It's probably for you if: - You are a small-medium sized church, have a limited budget, need something really easy to use and want to get up and running quickly with a minimal investment in training, want free helpful telephone support.

As promised, I am going to provide an independent review of the 3 leading UK Church website Content Management Systems (CMS). They are Church Insight, Church123 and Church Advance. There are a few other minor UK church CMS players, but I have close working relationship with all 3 of these providers so I can write from experience and offer a balanced first-hand view.

Overview

Church Insight (CI) is a product of a well established company called Endis who are based in Cambridge, UK. With a team of developers and an international customer base, it is by far the largest of the church CMS providers. This is a big advantage as it means Endis have a substantial team and the CI product is actively being developed and upgraded monthly to meet the requests of its customers and all users benefit from these upgrades. It is vital to understand that Church Insight differs significantly from the other offerings in that it is not just a CMS, but a whole church member management system. Each member can have their own log-in and administer their own details and preferences. This allows the church office to send mail-outs to members, saving admin and postage costs. Most importantly the site can be made to show different content for logged-in members than for general visitors. This is important as church websites need to appeal to both potential visitors as well as church members. CI offers a vast amount of additional functionality specifically tailored for churches.

In addition to the basic website CMS, some of the highlight features of CI are; member management- the Church has the ability to send mass emailings to everyone or different groups within the church. There are events calendars integrated into the website - ie. you can set the pages to display a calendar of forthcoming events which update automatically. There is excellent support for uploading and management of podcasts and video. There is support for rotas, email reminders and a booking system for resources such as PA equipment or room hire. It is possible to set up online event registration - people can book and pay for forthcoming events online. There is support for e-commerce - ie. the church can have it's own online shop at take a percentage of revenue from sales.

CI has lots of support for interactivity which can provide channels for feedback and discussion is likely to become more and more important to a generation increasingly used to being part of Facebook and other online social networking sites. There is extensive support for forums, for example general discussion about the Christian life or a place to put all those small ads and save printing that sheet, or simply for blog-like comments on articles - whether church-wide stuff on discussion documents among elders, children's workers or musicians. Consequently, the church can increasingly become a community that's interacting online - not just at meetings. this can really help with a sense of involvement & belonging. This can also really help church members in remote mission situations - they still feel connected to home base.

The CI back-office allows many people to access the system simultaneously and levels of permissions can be set. For example the church secretary might be sending an email out to small group leaders while the children's ministry leader is updating rotas and syllabus information that are viewable only by the logged-in members of the children's worker's team.

CI is unique from the graphic designer's pointer of view. Instead of designing and coding, then supplying the template to them to integrate into the site, the template design is actually constructed in the system via the browser, using the 'Theme Park' area. This has the advantage that changes to the design can be made at anytime without involving help from CI staff. However, the while the Theme Park is fantastically clever, it is hard to use and requires the designer to spend considerable time learning to use it. There are also some limitations (although not a big issue) on what the designer can do, for example there must be a horizontal navigation bar with drop-down menus, and must include standard CI header and footer components. General updates to page content (as opposed to template design) using the layout editor are reasonably easy to achieve using a series of 'components' such as articles, images, calendars etc that you add to your page.

It is not possible to cover the full spectrum of CI features here. There is more information on the (rather lacklustre) CI website and if you contact me I can put you in touch with people who can give you further info.

User Experience

While CI is hugely powerful, the downside is that it is fairly complex to master. Although it is administered using just your Firefox web browser, the interface it not especially user-friendly and is frankly poor in places by modern standards. (eg. multiple pop-up windows, slow re-draws and unnecessary steps to achieve simple tasks) CI has been around for 7 years and it's interface is relatively old technology which makes for a slow and clunky experience. However although slow at times, it does actually work as advertised and it is possible to become proficient with it in time. To learn to use CI properly, church staff will need to attend training courses run by Endis. Although it may seem daunting at first, the investment in staff training will pay off as the power of the system saves time and money in the longer term, particularly as membership grows.

For the technically minded, the CI system produces web pages that are table-based. This is old technology and has been superseded by CSS. Although users see little difference in their browser, CSS-based pages are quicker to load and most importantly, are more disability standards-compliant. (ie work better for blind people using audio screen readers). This is a significant technical issue which CI needs to address. CI does however provide "low graphics" versions of the pages which is a rather crude 'stop-gap' solution to this problem.

Unfortunately CI websites produce untidy page URLs, eg a typical page URL will look like this: "http://www.churchname.org/Group/Group.aspx?id=28574". This is not great from a usability standpoint and is not ideal for search engines indexing pages. However CI will resolve simple URLs so you could type in "www.churchname.org/alpha" and it would go to the Alpha page.

Support

CI provide paid-for training courses as the first stop for those learning to use the system. (Usually 2 days at £200 per delegate) In addition to training courses, there is some documentation on their website, although for such a complex system it is rather inadequate but this is slowly being improved with video tutorials etc. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed which provides news of their monthly updates, dates of courses etc. They also provide slightly reluctant telephone support. They will answer your questions but prefer people to do their training courses.

Pricing

Until recently, CI was charging a hefty 75p per church member, per month (eg. a church with 500 members would pay £4,500 per year) for the complete system but has recently re-structured pricing to a more friendly 3-level system. There is not space here to detail exactly what each level offers but essentially; Level 1 (£65 per month) offers the CMS and member management and mailing tools, Level 2 (£130 per month) adds audio & video support, the ability to edit site templates and e-commerce features. Level 3 (£260 per month) is the complete feature set and includes, online resource booking, member tracking, a dedicated shop and advanced database management. It is possible to 'buy down' additional specific features if you don't have the full Level 3 package .

Example sites:

These are some of the best CI sites (from a design point of view). Remember you will see the content for the general public but logged-in members maybe seeing something quite different.
Church of Christ the King (Brighton),
City Hope Church (London),
City Church (Cambridge),
Woodside Church, (Bedford)
Fusion UK (students),
Alpha USA (Chicago)

Conclusions

Pros: Powerful and has huge potential to revolutionise communication within churches. 'Future-proof' and makes more sense, the larger your church becomes. Great support for interactive and online networking features which are increasingly important. Could save huge amounts of money in admin costs - postage, printing etc in the long-term. Support for online-booking of events etc and e-commerce built into the product. Always being developed by an established company with new features rolled out free each month. There is nothing else quite like CI available anywhere else.

Cons: Relatively expensive, especially if you just want a website CMS. Steep learning curve requires big investment of time and money by the church in it's staff to make the most of it. Old table-based webpages and clunky user interface. Documentation and support could be improved. Poor range of 'off-the shelf' templates - you will probably need to pay a designer to create bespoke templates.

It's probably not for you if: - You are a small church, only want website CMS features, have a very limited budget, don't have the time, staff or resources needed to really make full use of the features. Smaller churches may want to consider the Level 1 option if they want something that can grow with them, but if you just want a basic CMS then there are other mores suitable alternatives.

It's probably for you if: - You are a large church (400+ members), want to invest in a 'future-proof' system that will cope with significant growth, want member management features and e-commerce functions, Want member log-in and 'web 2' type community and interactive features.

A good stock of current photographs is a pretty vital 'raw material' for any website project and indeed most church publicity materials. Good photographs will aid good design. When commissioning photography for a church website here are some of the issues it is good to consider:

Avoid a series of mugshots. Try to capture people in action - talking, relating together, working together and doing things. Avoid loads of shots of people gawping at the camera. Try to document church life as if the photographer is invisible. Think of it as if your are telling a story not producing a rouges gallery.

Try to avoid using flash where possible. Unless used skilfully, flash will often cause red-eye, unnatural skin tones and odd effects. In general you will get better photos where there is natural light rather than under artificial lighting.

Consistency of style - try to use only 1 or maximum of 2 photographers so that you have a consistent visual style throughout your website. Different photographers will produce very varied results when given the same brief. Also it is better to take a lot of photos at the same time with the same lighting. For example an evening meeting under artificial lighting will look very different from a morning meeting in daylight.

Avoid 'artistic' cropping and rotating of pictures - the designer may want to do cut-outs, make montages or use photos in a way you had not thought of. Photos with the tops of people's heads missing and unusual rotated angles are often not helpful. Leave the cropping and orientation choices to the designer.

When you do need portraits (eg. photos of leaders), try to get consistency. if possible photograph them in the same place and time with the same light. Try to get the subject to relax, tell jokes and try to get them to forget they are being photographed and avoid the 'rabbit caught in headlights' expression.

Take 3-4 shots of each subject - the chances are if you are shooting a group of people at least one person will have a weird expression in a shot. The more shots you take, the better the chance of the perfect shot.

Happy faces are best. We are trying to project a warm welcoming friendly face, grimaces, frowns and strange expressions will put people off!

Variety is best. Try to get a broad cross section of photographs showing different ages and ethnic identities. Church is for everyone avoid focusing on just one type of person.

Get permission. Make sure the congregation is aware when a photographer will be present and that if someone is unhappy being photographed give them an opportunity to opt-out and ensure any photos they are in are not used. Be especially careful photographing children and that you have parents permission.

If possible commission someone to be permanent 'church photographer' to capture special events as they happen. Websites keep people interested and coming back if there is recent material and is frequently updated. Highlighting events that have happen helps give people a flavour of church life and provide a great historical document of your church growing and developing. These photos will also be useful when you come to prepare publicity materials for the next event. Also when there is an outstanding testimony, get a photo of the person and get in on the website quickly - good news is worth sharing.

Do some preliminary sorting of photos yourself - don't supply thousands of images to the designer (He will probably charge you for hours spent sorting them) Although it's good for the designer to have some choice, at least delete shots that are obviously rubbish. You may need to get approval for use for some photos before you give them to the designer.

Use a good quality digital camera where possible - it is cheap and flexible. Anything over 3 Mega Pixels (with the camera set a maximum resolution) is fine for use even in printed items. If possible supply the photos at high-resolution straight off the camera onto CD to the designer. (A few photos can be sent by email but avoid attachments totalling over 10Mb). The designer can down-sample them to a size suitable for use on the web. It is not problem to go down in size but scaling images up will produce messy pixelated results.

You can download this guide as PDF here to keep and print-off for your reference.

Many churches are waking up to the fact that their website can be the main point of contact for visitors to their church. Beyond that the internet is a also a great opportunity for Evangelism and there are many great evangelistic sites (An example is one I recently designed "What's Life About?" site, written by Trinity Baptist Church, Tenterden).
The Internet Evangelism Coalition (IEC) is promoting Internet Evangelism Day on 27th April. This is an opportunity for churches to focus on using the web as an evangelistic tool. More imporantly than the actual day, the site has lots of resources, testimonies and suggestions about how churches can make their websites more effective for outreach There are also some 70 tips for effective church websites. This is a very useful resource (although I would have some minor issues with some of their design advice) and prompts us to consider how can you make your church website more friendly to outsiders?

Before you begin any web site project you must consider how the site will be maintained and updated after it is launched. In the early days of the Internet many websites were essentially online brochures, which carried basic information about the organisation but were not regularly updated or very interactive. There is still a place for a the simple 'brochure-type' church websites that are an initial point of contact and provide 'fixed' information about when and where they meet and what to expect on a typical Sunday. With the advent of 'Web 2', websites increasingly becoming more like a living community, updated daily with users making regular contributions. (World-class examples of this are FaceBook, MySpace and Flickr.) If you want your church website to be 'sticky' - i.e. attract regular repeat visitors, it is vital to keep it up to date. Examples of what can make a church website sticky could be; Sermon podcasts (Provided each week), details of times and locations of midweek and other meetings, details of the next Sunday; who is preaching, who is leading worship etc, reports and photos of recent events... the list could go on.

Running a church website effectively will involve a serious commitment and I would highly recommend the church appoints (and funds?) a website manager who is responsible for updating the site on a weekly or even daily basis. In parallel, I would also suggest you find a photographer (ideally within the church) who will record church events, not only to provide a library of images for the initial site design, but to add to the site on a frequent basis.

Manual updates V Content Management System
Before the site is designed you have a VERY important choice to make - will the site be a manually coded and updated or will it be built on a Content Management System?

A manually constructed site may be built using software such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage on a PC and then uploaded to the website hosting space (Which you will have to purchase yourself). Any changes have to be done on the PC using the software and then re-uploaded. This requires someone who is technically competent and willing (your 'IT guy') and usually means you are reliant on the co-operation and availability of just one individual to update the site. However this could be slightly cheaper (if your 'IT guy' is a member of the church and not charging for updates) as you will have to pay fees to the CMS provider

Using a CMS involves a third party who will provide a clever software system that allows any authorised users to access the site using a 'back-office' where they can edit the site easily using just a web browser (from anywhere in the world) and will not usually require a great deal of technical know-how. Your website designer will provide a template to the CMS who integrate it into their system. The huge advantage of this is that a team can run the site that doesn't need lots of IT skill and can be quickly updated. The CMS will usually include hosting the site, email and many other features that would require a great deal of work to add to a manually built site.

Church Website Content Management Systems.
The primary function of a content management system (CMS) is to allow the content of the site to be managed and updated easily, ideally without much technical expertise required by the website manager. At the very least a CMS should allow to website manager to edit text, upload, photos (and other file formats such as PDFs and MP3s) add and delete pages and 'publish' the changes to your website. There are many other functions offered by CMS that I will discuss at a later date.

In the UK there are several companies providing specialist CMS for Churches. I will provide an independent review of these soon. They each have strengths and weaknesses but I would usually recommend that any church website is built using a CMS.