mobile friendly churches?
Seeker-sensitive and seeker-friendly churches have been the buzz for decades. Could mobile-friendly be next?
Happened to browse to the Seacoast Church website, and surprised to see that they have a mobile friendly website specifically for iPhone:
Amazing, isn't it?
Seacoast's mobile version of its website especially got my attention because during one of my trips, I wanted to visit a certain (unnamed) church. But its home page was 99% Adobe Flash driven. I only had my iPhone. When I clicked on the one "about" link in the footer, it said the website was getting a complete overhaul. No service times. No directions. So I didn't get to attend that (unnamed) church. If I mentioned the name, you'd recognize it. Ahem.
Know of any other churches with a mobile-friendly or iPhone-friendly website?
[update 10/27] Also found New Hope Christian Fellowship Oahu has a iPhone-friendly website
-- DJ Chuang, Leadership Network Director
We've put quite a lot of work into our mobile site over the past year. It's iPhone friendly, but not specifically designed for it -- we wanted to make sure it would work well on other mobile devices using the same URL.
It's far from done, but it's getting there.
http://m.mtbethel.org/
Posted by: Mickey | October 13, 2008 at 07:26 AM
We are working on our mobile site right now. Go to m.hhbc.com to check it out. Remember, it's still in beta!
Posted by: Jeff Wilson | October 13, 2008 at 10:08 AM
We built a simple mobile site in a few hours. It's nothing amazing, but it does get our content in a lightweight and more accessible form for mobile devices.
http://m.theaterchurch.com
You really hit on a great point though, DJ. A mobile site is great, but even websites built for common browsers used in desktop operating systems can still be accessible for mobile devices if constructed carefully and intentionally. Of course, the same site can be a disaster on alternative devices if poorly built.
Posted by: David Russell | October 13, 2008 at 10:53 AM
We've got a mobile site at http://www.fbcbelton.org. Of course, you have to be using a mobile device for it to return the mobile version. It's also far from perfect, but we're aiming to get the most important information out. This post has me going back to the drawing board on a couple of things I've forgotten to include. Thanks!
Posted by: Matthew Irvine | October 13, 2008 at 01:22 PM
Yes, a well constructed website meant for desktop viewing can be read on the go with a mobile device. A site designed for mobile devices, however, allows you to deliver content that is relevant to the context of the viewer. For example, someone viewing the site from a mobile device may be in the car and frantically looking for directions, not the mission statement. A site designed with the end user's browsing environment in mind can be much more effective and less frustrating to navigate on mobile devices.
Posted by: Granata | October 13, 2008 at 01:56 PM
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Posted by: Mhairi P | October 15, 2008 at 01:20 PM
We use Wordpress for our CMS so it tends to work fairly well automatically with mobile phones (at least my Blackberry views it quite well). We're playing around with several other options as well to build a specific site for mobile phones - including a new Wordpress plugin.
www.encounterthis.com and
www.encounterthis.com/blog
Posted by: Jonathan Blundell | October 15, 2008 at 01:51 PM
Thanks for all the comments! By the way, we've got a mobile version of this blog at http://digitalatleadnet.mofuse.mobi/ - I know, it's not the most friendly URL, but it does work.
Posted by: djchuang | October 16, 2008 at 07:47 PM
http://communitychristian.org is mobile-friendly too.
Posted by: Tom Greever | October 16, 2008 at 09:16 PM
Thanks for your information. Most of the posts in the blog is really valuable. Regards
Posted by: Custom Essays | February 04, 2009 at 03:47 AM