Many of us now do our shopping online and even for those who don’t like to actually buy things over the Internet, almost all of us spend time researching the items we are going to invest in, in front of our screens.

It’s the same with church.

Unless they have been personally invited by a Christian friend, virtually every new person we welcome into our church services today will have found out about us on the web via the church website.  For every person who walks through the doors on a Sunday morning for the first time, how many more have looked at the church website only to invest their time elsewhere?

There’s a good article here from Trevin Wax on what a church website should accomplish.

Rather than just a series of links to news stories and announcements about upcoming events, the website should be a means of revealing your church.

He then lists the following 5 ways how a good website can effectively reveal a church to those who are looking for a place to worship.

1. A clear, easy to find “Statement of Beliefs”

2. Basic boring information – contacts / what’s on / directions

3. Staff and leadership page

4. Podcasts and/or sermon videos

5. Social media buttons

Increasingly the church website is our shop window.