By Darrel Girardier
Churches often run into the problem of people fighting for space on their website homepage. In one sense, it is great to have people be passionate about their area of ministry. But as church communicator, it is your responsibility to determine who is allowed space on your homepage and who isn’t.
What ministry leaders within your church often don’t see is that the majority of people who view your website are first-time guests, not repeat attendees or members. Communicating this information to other ministry leaders so that they understand your reasoning behind keeping the homepage of your website simple and focusing on one call-to-action.
Your Church’s “Front Doors”
Think of your church website as the outside of your church building. What signs do you have outside your church? If you’re like most churches, you probably have one main church sign containing the time and date of your worship service and one additional banner promoting an upcoming event you church is hosting.
Your website is the digital exterior of the church and should be handled similarly. Your church’s homepage should display the time and date of your worship service and your biggest upcoming event. When you approach your church website with this strategy, you stop overwhelming visitors and start making your church more accessible and welcoming to guests.
Be Flexible
Over time, you will most likely make a few compromises about what you allow on the homepage of your website. That’s understandable! But because of that, it is important to clean up your website every six months or so. Look at your website through the eyes of a guest and ask yourself, What is utterly important for every visitor to know about our church and what are the things that don’t apply to them?
Things that don’t directly apply to your visitors should not be featured on your homepage.
Adapted from Training Pathway: Church Communications. Check out more training videos on Ministry Grid.
Darrel Girardier is the Digital Strategy Director at Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, TN.
