Everyone knows the value of a digital presence in today’s society. Practically every church has one. But having a website and using it effectively are two very different things. When was the last time you truly evaluated the effectiveness of your church’s site? In our latest report, Say What?! Key Research on Church Communications, we uncover three critical gaps in most church websites.
1. Study resources are one of the least offered components online. A few years ago, Willow Creek’s Reveal Study suggested that personal study of scripture is one of the greatest catalysts for spiritual growth. Yet today, only 25% of churches provide study resources online. Our society is one that seeks “on-demand” content available at any time from any place. It seems that online study resources would be a valuable tool for discipleship if more churches developed them.
2. Very few churches offer live streaming of their services. Live streaming has become an increasingly popular tool among churches. The technology allows individuals who have never attended a church to get a much better understanding of it before physically attending. However, we were surprised to find that only 15% of churches are actually live streaming services.
3. More churches communicate their beliefs than their vision online. The website is the often the first place unchurched individuals look before visiting a church. It would seem that the vision of why a church exists and where it is heading in the future would be more compelling to this group than sharing the details of theology. Yet more churches share their beliefs (88%) than their vision (71%) online. In our experience, many churches actually misunderstand their beliefs to be vision.
Is it time to take a fresh look at your website? Our latest report is filled with action steps to help you improve in this area. You can also gauge your performance with this Communications Scorecard based on nearly 200 churches. Best of all, this report comes at no cost to you! We simply want to resource your team to get unstuck.
