Congregational Web sites:
Our New Front Door

When InterConnections last wrote a comprehensive article about church Web sites in 1998, 40 to 60 percent of our congregations had them. Now the figure is over 90 percent.

Increasingly, it’s the way that visitors find us. Many congregations report that most of their visitors, even if they’ve learned about the church or fellowship in another way, have checked it out on the Internet before making that first visit. Web sites are our new front door. They not only tell visitors about our theology, they tell them what kind of service to expect and even what to wear.

And like a front door it’s important that a Web site be welcoming. That means it must be attractive and up-to-date. But not so attractive that it’s hard to read, says Deborah Weiner, director of the UUA Office of Electronic Communication. “The key to good Web site design is ease of navigation and clear information that is attractively, but not elaborately, presented.”

Some tips from Weiner: Focus on the elements that a seeker from outside your congregation will be looking for. These include name of congregation, location, time of service, brief history, programs offered (and how to find out more), and something that shows what the “inner soul” of the congregation is about.

Weiner notes: “I particularly love what some congregations have done to create a sense of welcome and show their character.” She likes the Web site of the River of Grass Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Southwest Ranches, Fla. (141 members), “that shows users their navigation path and conveys a sense of the congregation’s liveliness through its simple, clean site (www.riverofgrass.org).

“I am also impressed with the changes that the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Tex. (504), has made (www.firstuu.org). The pages are welcoming and inviting, using a template for consistency. Materials are kept up-to-date and are focused on basic information.”

Ted Pack, webmaster at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County, Modesto, Calif. (130), adds, “You can look at some Web sites and make the assumption that the designer thought artistic design was more important than the information on the page,” he said.

Use a text size that most people, including those with imperfect vision, would find readable. And be consistent. “Every page on our site (www.stanuu.org) has the same look, the same colors, the same heading, the same footing. This is visually reassuring to viewers.”
Some congregations have struggled with who has authority to put items on the Web site. One person wrote to the UUA’s PR-L (public relations) e-mail list a year ago: “The problem is politics. One person in the church seems to believe she should have anything she wants posted on the Web site, and where she wants.”

Prevent that situation with written procedures, says Bob Mathwich, webmaster at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill, N.J. (290). He has written two 2,000-word documents about the congregation’s Web site. The first document covers the site’s purpose, history, objectives, and structure, as well as its rules and policies, how it is governed, and who is responsible for what parts of it.

As Web manager, Mathwich manages the site, adding content, doing periodic updates, assuring that the site remains compatible with the World Wide Web, and monitoring the UUA electronic discussion group, Websters. If he has a question about posting something, he consults a six-person Web site advisory group.

The second document that Mathwich wrote includes technical data about the Web site including how and when to reregister its domain name, who the site host is, and who provides technical support. Mathwich said he wrote the documents in part for himself because, “I forget things. And also, I’m a great believer in the value of preserving history.”
A third document including the passwords needed to operate and change the site are contained in a separate, confidential memo that is kept in the church office.

Most webmasters adopt precautions to safeguard the privacy and safety of members. A Web site is different from a church newsletter that goes only to friends and members of the church. A Web site is open to the whole world.

Web site rules that most congregations follow: no personal e-mail addresses without permission—institutional aliases (e.g., circlesuppers@firstchurch.org) are much preferred. Others include: no home addresses or phone numbers. Personal items about people in the hospital or on vacation, should be excluded. Likewise, the Web site is not the place for the newsletter to report that “the back door is frequently found unlocked.“

Keep information current. If you’re not able to keep the Web site updated, keep it simple either by having a static page that simply has a letter of welcome, contact information, a simple map, and time of services or by keeping all time-sensitive material on one or two pages.

Focus the Web site on your congregation’s mission and goals, and take care not to use it for advertising personal services or expressing personal opinions. In short, use the UU Principles and the congregation’s mission and vision statements as a guide for everything that appears on the Web site.

Finally, make sure that the congregation itself owns the “domain name” (Web address) for its Web site. One Midwestern congregation got itself in difficulty when its webmaster, who had registered the church’s domain name in his own name, was asked to leave the church because of a personal issue. In retaliation, he blocked church access to the Web site and put negative material on it. It took the church six months to regain control of its domain name and Web site. Also, make sure you don’t let the domain name expire. There are people who look for these situations and then offer to sell the name back to you for an exorbitant amount.

Janet Schwartz chairs the Community Awareness committee at the River of Grass congregation in Florida. Her committee is responsible for the congregation’s Web site, which is maintained by several volunteers.

“It’s been very much a group effort,” she said. “When our congregation was formed in 1997 we set out from the beginning to be a welcoming, growing congregation, and so everything we did on the Web site was measured against that. The Web site is the congregation’s vision of itself. And our Web site is intentionally designed for visitors, not our members.”

No one person can add something to the site, she said. “Often an item will be written by one person, reviewed by another, and posted by a third.” She said that helps ensure that the Web site “accurately reflects who we are.”

RESOURCES
If you would like more information about the documents that Bob Mathwich wrote in support of the UU Church of Cherry Hill, N.J., Web site, he can be contacted through the Web site at www.uucinch.org.

The UUA-sponsored e-mail list, Websters, is open to all congregational Web site editors. A second UUA-sponsored email list, ecc-l, is for those who wish to discuss electronic communication matters. Subscribe to both these lists through www.uua.org/lists.