So, with working with church websites for the past 6 1/2 years, I thought that I might share some of the things that I think about when it comes to website development and how it can be used in the church. I have compiled an initial list of sites and ideas that I believe would be beneficial to to begin thinking about. I am going to break it up into the following posts and I’ll try to post each night:

Churches that do websites well
Social Networking sites
Blogs and Podcasts
Web 2.0 vs. Web 1.0 Websites
AJAX websites (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
Churches that do not do websites well

So, with that said, here we go!

http://www.takethejourney.org/home.htm
- Note that they are incorporating Flickr in their website for their photos.

http://www.vintagechurch.org/
- Note the ease of navigation – They do the BLACK theme well, the colors work well.

http://www.the-river.org/
- Please note two things:
1. The use of a community portal (http://the-reef.org) for the members of the church to be a part of
2. The use of Google’s calendar program on their front page with all of their events on it.

http://www.lifechurch.tv/
- Couple of things:
1. FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH – this is maybe the coolest and fastest Flash, How do they do that?
2. Locations: click on a location and each location shows what’s going on at that location.
3. Does the Black theme on the secondary pages as opposed to the primary page – interesting concept
4. Online Store (http://www.lifechurch.tv/store/) uses an Open Source program called OSCommerce (http://www.oscomerce.com/)
5. OVERALL: What you don’t see is a complete other website behind this that is part of the church community portal

FYI, I THINK ALL OF THE SITES LISTED ABOVE USE A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM CALLED DRUPAL
(http://www.drupal.org)

http://www.skylinechurch.org/ (the obligatory Wesleyan Church)
- Couple of things:
1. Style is CLEAN and CRISP. This is a very popular concept, using white as a primary part of the website
2. Ability to build community online (Classified section and Community Involvement on front page)
3. PODCAST OF SERMONS – Essential if we want are “in it to win it” (Thank you Hillary Clinton).
4. PDF of Weekly bulletin – NOTE: The pastors sermon outline is NOT shown
5. ALSO about the Bulletin – The Bulletin MATCHES the website which MATCHES the church – this is called Branding

http://www.yorktownbaptist.org/
- Please note some things:
1. FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH – Constant but very suddle flash throughout the site. Watch the front page.
2. Ability to give online
3. The site is fully integrated with a software package called Fellowship One – (http://www.fellowshipone.com) Might be worth checking out and seeing what their software does and thinking about how you can adapt it or incorporate it into your site.

That’s it for now, have a great night!