• Two churches design pages that mobilize
• Great Ideas highlights helpful church sites
• Missions Webpages: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Share Your Ideas

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TWO CHURCHES SHARE THEIR WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

After perusing hundreds of missions web pages, we interviewed missions leaders at Santa Cruz (CA) Bible Church (www.santacruzbible.org) and North Point Community Church in Atlanta, GA, (www.northpoint.org) to learn how they had gone about developing their pages.

Defining the Purpose
Both churches began by reviewing their vision statements to make sure that the content they were choosing for their site aligned with and supported their overall missions vision. North Point suggests, "If you don't yet have a clear strategy or priorities, creating a website will help you begin to clarify your primary goals." Santa Cruz also spent significant time identifying who was and wasn't their primary audience.

Both churches decided that they wanted their web pages to serve as a mobilization tool--a way to move members of the congregation to global action. North Point's specific goals included:

1. Keep it simple, practical and useful.
2. Make it vision oriented--get people excited about the big picture.
3. Emphasize prayer.

They also tried to anticipate where their missions program was moving and oriented the web pages to facilitate future directions.

Content and Layout
At North Point, a small team of people began by storyboarding* to identify key content areas and lay out their ideas. Making it intuitive was key--they wanted their site to be easy for the casual visitor to navigate. Eventually they decided to designate the three central areas of their global outreach program (Partnerships, Leader Training, Short-Term Trips) as the hot buttons on their missions homepage.

In one of a series of brainstorming sessions, Santa Cruz listed the key elements of their missions program, and then narrowed them down to just the most crucial points. Because they preferred to have visitors hungry for more information rather than inundated with too much, they were brutal in their editing process.

In the initial development of their pages, both churches divided up the writing duties between two individuals. Santa Cruz also made it a point to have many others, both those familiar with missions and those relatively uninvolved in global outreach, review and edit the copy. Six drafts later, they were on their way.

North Point suggests funneling all website information through one person before handing it to the web designer. This helps to assure that all content is consistent. They also recommend using lots of photos and a variety of colors to create visual interest and make sure that pages are never boring--a prerequisite they believe to attracting people to return often to their site. They also try to get missions ideas and events advertised on their church's home page as a hook for visitors to follow links into the missions pages.

Security
Both North Point and Santa Cruz are committed to ensuring that their missionaries are comfortable with what is posted on the site and that no information there could possibly damage their witness. North Point does not include any workers in closed countries; missionaries in other locations are given the option of whether to have their names and other information appear.

Keeping It Current
At North Point, one person is responsible for editing and adding new copy. Church members are regularly asked to honestly critique the site's content and organization. Questions include: What excites you on our site? Was it easy to find the information you wanted?

A final suggestion: Santa Cruz tries to avoid publishing material that quickly becomes dated. Missionary information is updated about once every six months.
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* In storyboarding, a brainstorming group jots ideas on 3x5 cards. Participants then arrange the cards in a logical order, discarding those they agree are not needed.

GREAT MISSIONS PAGES ON LOCAL CHURCH WEBSITES

Would you like to visit some church websites that do a great job of presenting global outreach? DualReach has identified a number of key characteristics and websites that illustrate them. Check out this month's Great Ideas resource.

HOW TO DEVELOP GLOBAL OUTREACH PAGES ON YOUR CHURCH'S WEBSITE

If you have been inspired by other churches' sites and are ready to begin developing your own dynamic webpages, download this practical missions websites tool that will guide you and your team through the process of creating an effective electronic missions mobilization center.

SHARE YOUR IDEAS

How has your church helped future missionaries prepare for their ministry? Have your pastors and/or missions team mentored or trained men and women who sensed God's leading to cross-cultural ministry?

An upcoming issue of Synergy Newsletter will introduce the best ideas suggested by our readers. Email us at comments@dualreach.org, and tell us what you have done in missionary preparation.