How high maintenance is your church website?

For what will it profit a man if his church website is the slickest in the Internet if he has to forfeit a month's collections just to change the welcome message?

If you haven't guessed by the play on Matthew 16:26 (&/or Mark 8:36, &/or Luke 9:25), or the somewhat wordy "bad church web design poster #006," the topic of today's "sermonette" is website maintenance.

You see, there's a dirty little secret that professional web developers such as Tim Bednar, Mike Boyink, and myself have known for years:

Creating and designing websites is alluring and hi-profile work - whereas maintaining code and a consistent stream of compelling content is difficult and is about as glamorous as the janitor who keeps the church toilets clean.

A point made all the more sharper, like a pointy stick in the eye sharper, when you fall into the trap of having that college kid studying home on spring break create for a really super-click Flash-based church website that everyone - and only - those in his age group and demographic can 'really appreciate.'

Then the train wreck occurs sometime in early October when said student is back at art school and your poor church Secretary has to post updates from those in the field on summer mission programs.

Sound Familiar?

If not, just give it time. Since 2002 when I started out on my crusade to teach, rebuke correct & train others in righteous web design I've seen literally hundreds - perhaps thousands - of church websites that went down this path to obscurity and frustration.

And this is why we find churches equipped with data-driven content management systems, or at least driven-by a reasonable blogging system, providing pages with excellent search engine rankings and the visitors and conversion rates to show for it.

Sound Good?

Okay, so if I've sold you on the concept that maintenance is the key to a successful online ministry, then perhaps then I can also convince you and/or your church to engage in the following processes to keep it going for years and years even though your resources are tight and your time tighter:

• Establish a web ministry team comprised of the following mix of talents:
  • a member of the church staff
  • a software developer type
  • a hardware geek
  • a graphic artist type
  • a word-smith
  • a marketeer
• Consider employing a content management &/or a logging service to render your church website such as:
  • TypePad,
  • Blogger,
  • WordPress,
  • Drupal,
  • Church Community Builder,
  • E-Zekiel,
  • Fellowship Technologies,
  • For Ministry,
  • MercyTree,
  • SiteStrux;
• Engage in a formalized design process before writing a single line of HTML/code that includes:
  • reviewing what's out there
  • understanding your neighborhood
  • setting attainable goals and objectives
  • establishing minimum requirements
  • defining an informational architecture
  • creating a project plan
• Execute a development plan that includes the following steps:
  • designing a prototype
  • soliciting user feedback
  • building the system
  • testing functionality
  • testing use cases
  • testing loads and bandwidth
• Follow-up with a maintenance plan that includes:
  • user education
  • staff training
  • analysis of web analytics
  • data & system backups
  • disaster recovery drills
  • security audits
  • error-log reviews
  • checks of search engine ranking
  • software upgrades
• Security ongoing success with:
  • rotating in/out new members to your committee;
  • occasionally testing new applications and technologies;
  • periodically soliciting feedback from seekers and church members;
  • make sure there's a line item in the church budget for the website.

Sound Too Hard?

Now if you're panicking a bit over some of the items above - don't sweat it. If you've took my advice to create a team that includes both a hardware and software geek, you're good to go on those issues like "use-case testing" or "disaster recovery drills."

And if you're too small to do the above - again, don't sweat it - simply figure out what you can do from the above list with what you've got, never forgetting that putting up a website is easy - it's the maintenance that's a killer.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,  saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:28-33

(psst: oh yeah, in case you didn't figure it out, you click on the small image of the poster above to get to the really-big version you can print out and nail to the door of your church)

-- Dean Peters, HealYourChurchWebSite.com

Comments

[stephen shields]

what a truly fantastic post, dean. you rock!

[Cynthia]

Brilliantly succinct, Dean. This should be required reading for any pastor considering a first-time church website. It's equally helpful for upgraders.

You listed content management options like Fellowship Technologies, etc. Do you consider the ones you listed to be the best options? Are others out there just as good (ie Ekklesia 360, Shelby, etc.) What should we "watch out" for?

[Peter]

I'd have to put a plug in for something like WEC as well (a CMS based on TYPO3). Could also consider options such as Joomla or Drupal. I built our newer church website based on WEC and turned over just about all of the administration and content management to the staff members. I handle new functionality and will eventually get around to tweaking the look/feel, but actual content is now pretty much up-to-date. The last site looked a little better, but nobody could change the code and the person who built it had left the church.

I'm not sure that I'd treat Shelby/Arena, F1, ACS, etc as Content Management options. They can tie in to your church website, but aren't really designed to _be_ your church website. Still, if you can link them, they can be useful for some of the basics.

And I'd agree with the above, this is quite a helpful post. I wish we had more people who fit the other parts of the talent pool you put forth. I fit the techie side, but am hardly a web designer, wordsmith, marketer, etc. Still, it's good to have up to date content, even if the site is a little plain and needs some tweaking. :)

[Iris]

Thanks for all the data. However, there are probably many pastors a bit like me. [I am not a pastor, but a Rev. who is the CEO of an interdenominational Bible teaching ministry]. I do not have time nor resources for big dollars here, yet need a good web site (www.psalm19ministries.org) with lots of information posted and constantly changing. I am not a designer, so was able to have a missionary design our front page and he used Front Page. Not having the time to learn that software, I purchased a small program from a company named Serif (www.serif.com). I use their Web9. I was able to download our site into my computer, add pages, put in pictures, data, and on and on. I am able to get into it easily and change whatever and then get out in no time at all. I really do recommend their program [now out with Web10]. We already had our server set up, just needed an easy way to work with the site. This does that wonderfully well!
Serif only works with PC, so I do it on an older one at home. My ministry is all Mac and very happy to be so. I pray Serif decide to do some programs for Mac soon.

[Dean Peters]

Some good comments - and even better questions above.

Gimme a day or three to respond.

[Peter]

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