In part 2 of our series documenting the redevelopment of my church’s website I described the preliminary vision document I wrote for the site. Having written out a rough description of how I envisioned our new website would look and function, the next step was to work with important groups in the church in order to have their input into the design and to help them get on board with the project. This is a vital part of the process that is often overlooked and dotted with pitfalls.
Meeting with the Church Staff
I hadn’t finished the preliminary vision document when our executive pastor, Tim, called to discuss the website some more. After talking through some functionality issues, I expressed how if I was going to lead the redevelopment of the church website it is vitally important that the staff be on board with it and commit to using it, and in particular that he and our senior pastor embrace it to the extent that they are willing to champion it to the congregation and the rest of the staff.
Tim agreed. With the church finance board meeting only 4 days away and knowing that waiting on the approval of funds was a huge potential delay, he asked “Can you speak with the staff today in about 2 hours?”
I did. We had what I thought was an excellent hour-long conversation with all seven church staff in which I presented my vision for the new website, asked for feedback and suggestion, asked about their wants and needs, and addressed some concerns. In particular I wanted to emphasize the excellent appearance of our current site and my strong belief that we need to switch to a site that uses a Content Management System (CMS).
The staff had lots of good questions and comments:
- “Maybe we don’t really need a CMS and could give every staff person and ministry team leader a lite version of Dreamweaver so everyone could update their pages.”
- “Even if we get a CMS, what is going to change to ensure we update the new site?” I responded by saying, “You as a staff have to recognize the importance of having an excellent, up-to-date site, and Tim will have to help hold you accountable.”
- “Can the homepage be updated with current announcements and the current sermon series?” I responded by saying yes, but we still have to determine whether the homepage will be part of the CMS or a static web page that gets manually updated.
- “Can the student ministry have its own section that would have its own look, its own calendar, its own information?” I responded by saying that if the goal is to have a unique site totally free from the “odor of adults” then the best solution would be to have a separate site, which could either be a CMS or done with web development software. Looking back, I would say though that even if we get students their own site we would still want information on the main site for parents, so the place to start would be to have a student section on the main site and then in a later phase work towards getting a separate student site in addition to the main site.
- “Will we be able to transfer everything on the current site – pages, calendar events, blog?” That’s a question to ask the OCC designer.
- “When staff update pages, will that go live immediately or the changes go into a queue for an editor to review?” That’s a question to ask the OCC designer.
- “Can there be place for permission slips and other documents?” Yes.
- “Can there be a photo gallery?” Yes.
- “How much will this cost?” We will get an exact figure when we get a proposal from OurChurch.Com, but my guess would be in the $3,000-$4,000 range.
I mentioned that another feature we can include in our site is event registration. We can eliminate all the paper sign-up sheets and do all sign-ups online. However, before we decide to do that, you have to decide if you can embrace that as a staff. There will have to be training involved. There may be pushback from ministries and attenders of the church who think it’s too complicated and want to continue to use paper forms. We would also need to acquire a couple of computers to put in the lobby so people could register for things.
I also stated that if we go forward with this, my goal is to see every regular attender of Cypress registered on the site and receiving the e-newsletter. I want to present overviews of the site after both services 3-4 weeks in a row. We will want to champion this in announcements. We will want to come up with other ways to encourage and incentivize people getting signed up.
The Outcome
With the staff’s input we decided to include the document manager, photo gallery, and event registration in the initial redesign project. We also decided that the homepage should be a part of the CMS so it could be easily updated, and that it needed to have its own template in order to maintain the excellent appearance. Additional functionality could be added later as the soon-to-be-organized web team helped to shape the vision for the future of the website.
With the staff on board and the vision for the new website getting clearer, we were ready to talk to OurChurch.Com about redesigning the website. Could we get answers to our design questions, make the remaining design decisions, and get a proposal from OCC before the finance board meeting in 4 days? Find out next time… 🙂
Lessons Learned
As stated in the opening paragraph, this step of collaborating on the vision for the website is an essential part of the process and it’s a tricky one as well. I believe a lot of church websites fail to live up to their full potential because the web administrator falls into one of these pitfalls.
Pitfall #1: Skipping this step entirely
One of the biggest mistakes a church web administrator can make is develop a vision for the church website and then just start on it without any input from anyone else in the church. Sometimes an energetic volunteer will see the church needs a new website and will take the initiative to create one without any input from anyone else in the church, perhaps just with an OK from the senior pastor without discussing any of the details. I’ve also seen where the senior pastor will take the initiative and either create the website himself or start getting proposals from web design companies. No matter how smart you are and how experienced you are with web design there’s no way for one person to know the needs of an entire church. Usually, when things are done this way the church ends up with a website that few people use.
Pitfall #2: Imposing an inflexible vision
Another mistake some web administrators make is to develop a vision for the site and then present it to the staff and board as if God inscribed it in stone on a mountain top. This is usually characterized by meetings in which web administrator (or pastor) uses phrases like “The website will look like…” and “The website will do…” Often times the person leading the web design effort is taken back when others begin to ask why, offer suggestions, or talk about alternative solutions. He or she can walk away from these meetings feeling frustrated and attacked. Meanwhile the staff or board leave the meeting feeling like their opinions weren’t considered and wondering whether this is the right person to lead the website development.
Pitfall #3: Having no vision
While having an inflexible vision creates problems, on the other extreme having no vision at all creates its own set of problems. In this case, the web administrator goes into the meetings with a blank sheet of paper and simply asks everyone what they want. Everyone throws out their ideas and then the web administrator goes off and tries to make everyone happy. Good ideas may not get voiced, bad ideas may get implemented, and after the site is built people are left wondering “What exactly are we trying to accomplish with our website?”
The Collaborative Approach
I believe the best approach is for the web administrator to develop a preliminary vision on his or her own and then go to groups that are vital for its success – senior leadership, staff, the finance board, key ministry teams, and the web team if there is one – and ask for their help in shaping the website. Some suggestions concerning these meetings:
- Present the vision as “preliminary.” Let people know that you have some clear ideas about how the website should look at function but want their input. Use phrases that imply subjective opinion like “I envision the website…” and “I believe the website should…” rather than absolutes like “The website should…” and “The website will…”
- Set aside more time for asking questions, providing feedback, and offering suggestions than for presenting the vision.
- Prepare questions ahead of time. You may need to ask specific questions to get the discussion rolling.
- Validate comments and suggestions. Use eye contact, body language, and affirming responses.
- Listen and take notes. You are not treating people’s comments and suggestions seriously if you’re not willing to write them down.
- Consider the authority/openness you want to convey. During these meetings you want to convey both a sense of authority (that you know where you’re going) and a sense of openness (that you are listening). Depending on circumstances you may want to project one more than the other. The way you dress, whether you’re sitting or standing, whether you’re around the table with everyone else or speaking in front of the group can communicate whether you’re “one of them” or “out in front of them.”
Benefits of the Collaborative Approach
Using this collaborative approach to developing the vision for the church website has several benefits.
- Demonstrates leadership. Having a preliminary vision gives people confidence that you know what you’re doing and where you’re going.
- Demonstrates thoughtfulness. Having a preliminary vision shows people that you have put considerable time and thought into the plans for the website.
- Demonstrates humility. By asking for feedback and suggestions, it shows that you realize you don’t know everything. Others’ opinions and perspectives matter.
- Results in a better website. Other people understand their ministries, their volunteers, and the people they serve better than you do. Even if your ideas are great, if people are unwilling to use them they are worthless.
- Creates ownership. One of the biggest factors in determining the success of a church website is whether the church leaders and staff “own” the vision for the website. If the senior pastor is not involved in shaping the vision for the website chances are he won’t mention it from the pulpit. If the ministry team leaders are not involved in shaping the vision for the website chances are they won’t help keep it updated or emphasize it among their teams. If the finance board is not involved in the shaping of the vision for the website they may not fund it.
- Creates a sense of anticipation. If you do it well, once you start sharing your vision for the new website with key groups within the church, they will get excited about
What do you think about the collaborative approach to developing the vision for your church website? Got any war stories where you took this approach? Or maybe when you didn’t?
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3 Comments
Very well written. Sounds like you have been to a Leadership Summit recently;)
Ah, so it didn’t all go in one ear and out the other. 😉
Yeah, the cool thing is that the development of the preliminary vision and meeting with the staff was done before the leadership summit. So, Hybels’ talk about vision affirmed what I was already doing.
If anyone else is interested in Bill Hybels’ talk about involving others in the formation, refinement, and declaration of vision, you can find it at:
http://www.liveintentionally.org/2007/08/09/leadership-summit-1-bill-hybels-vision-to-die-for/
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