A Church Voice

Churches & Web sites

Before you or anyone else sets down some HTML for your church or parish Web site, invest some time in working out what you want to accomplish. Consider the needs and desires of your members, your programs, your ministries.

Do you want to promote your church to the local or wider community? Do you want to be an information resource on the Web on some topic? Is your primary aim to bring in more church seekers?

Think carefully about how to be accessible to those with WebTV, older browsers or computers, or slower modems, and to those with disabilities who use other browsers entirely.

Do you want to buy a domain name? How do you choose a helpful domain name? Do you want to coordinate with your denomination locally and/or regionally?

Costs for good Web site hosting and domain name purchases can be fairly low, with excellent value. Sites can be developed in phases. Volunteers can add content to a design that's in place. Maintenance can be limited according to how frequently the Web site information changes.

The following Web resources for church, parish, and religious Web site design issues are those I've found particularly helpful. The first four Web resources are excellent discussion starters for your church or parish community. See also my newsletter archive, Web site tools. and design and printing resources.

Think before you start flinging HTML around

Reviews of good church web sites

Guides and information

Other resources

Art, icons, images