Turning Your Church Website Into A Ministry Tool

So, I just joined a church, and while checking out its website, I got all geared up to make it better. So I sent a letter to one of the pastors. We'll see how long it is before I get smacked! Heh. Anyway, check out my letter. Feel free to add your own analysis of the site.
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Pastor,

I recently completed the 101 class with my wife, and am currently part of Ken H.'s small group, and am joining the worship team.

However, as I listed on my 101 submission form, by day I am a Business Systems Analyst, specializing in web applications and web site design and usability.

ANALYSIS OF CURRENT SITE

I am not sure who is in charge of the current southwinds web site, but I would love to help serve that team with my expertise. My initial superficial review of the site revealed the following items/areas that could be improved:

• main site logo disappears on internal pages (only shows on first page)
• left and footer navigation is inconsistent and overlaps
• contact information is hard to find since it is on the "how to find us" page
• staff email is advertised as being on the site, but is not
• second level left navigation area is mostly blank, and is in an atypical location
• weekend message topics are a bit out of date, and the name is confusing - are they future topics? If they are past topics, are they really useful without transcripts or audio available online?

I don't want to step on anyone's turf, because I know when it comes to web sites and other creative endeavors, people have put their best into them and appreciate gentle criticism at best. However, feel free to pass my email on to whomever should read it.

EXPANSION OF THE SITE FOR MINISTRY

There are many opportunities for ministry via the web site, including the following:

1. Removing common errors on the site.
It would be good to do a quick review of the following items to make sure we are not making common mistakes.

2. Do a quick mission statement and user task evaluation for the site.
We should decide who our target users are (truth-seekers, church-seekers, current members), decide how our site can meet their needs (what tasks they are coming to our site for), and then we can design our site architecture around those needs. These needs are already partly met on the site, but they could be expanded to include (some of these are already present)

• directions to church
• statement of faith
• contact information, including staff email
• upcoming sermons
• past sermon audio / transcripts
• staff blogs (more on that below)
• bible study materials for members
• list of small groups

3. Add timely sermon transcripts or audio.
The tape and audio ministry people could look into converting the recorded sermons, or directly recording them into a digital medium (since we have Macs in the back, I'm almost sure we could record directly to .mpg or .mov files) which would allow us to offer them on the site. See the following site for a good example: http://www.npc-dublin.org/Sermons.htm

4. Staff Blogs
Christian blogging is taking off, and church staff can really connect with the increasing number of people searching for truth in cyberspace. See this great article from Leadership Journal. Also, siteorganic.com has a good "rate your web ministry" survey.

5. Other uses for our site / internet in ministry

• men's accountability
• up to date events calendars
• effective small group follow-up

I'm sure this is an overwhelming amount of information, but I'd love to be part of a team brainstorming about how the web site can contribute to the churche's goals of ministry. It's not just an online business card anymore! :D