I expect there is more to what John calls the “Post Method”, but the challenges covered in this short MP3 recording of their talk include:

• Who is your audience?
• Who will champion this plan and strategy?
• Who will execute this plan and strategy?
• Who will not be participating?

I speak later in the afternoon, but some of the speakers ahead of me are entertaining some great questions from the audience about how to get their organization focused on the right site visitors and how to select the best Content Management System. My hope is to be able to address some of these kinds of questions in the Q&A time after my presentation.

There is a matrix that has been around for a long time that allows you to select the Content Management Systems you have heard about and compare them functionally. Check out CMSMatrix.org to do that comparison. [Update] John mentioned that http://php.opensourcecms.com/scripts/show.php?catid=1&cat=CMS%20/%20Portals is a good option for actually test driving the CMS you are interested in checking out. [/Update]

I’ll include my presentation slides in this post after I speak this afternoon. If anyone has any followup questions on my presentation, post them in the comments to this post.

In fact, for ministries wanting to build a website of less than 25 pages, WordPress is a sensible default since there are now website focused themes like VibrantCMS out there that makes it dead simple. The only thing you really give up in WordPress as Content Management System is photography placement options alongside the text in pages and posts.

So, this morning when I heard again that WordPress would be redesigned in the back-end, I got excited. The dev team has made very few backward steps over the years with the interface and things keep getting better and better. One thing they have managed to do consistently is work well for all types of blogs, whether that be single-blogger once a month posting or multi-author blogs with 25 posts a day.

My only complaint the last three years has been that the editing/drafting box wasn’t wide enough to leverage my 17″ Macbook Pro’s display… or any wide display for that matter. Well, they now seem to be on a development track to fix that one as well. You can check out all the WordPress 2.7 Wireframes here, or sneak a preview by checking out the image below.

Besides the wider writing area, I also love that the menu has moved to left-side and is now collapsable. It may just be that I am viewing this in mono-tone and it is appealing to my minimalist senses, but it appears to me the interface has a more Google Apps feel to it as well. Other improvements seem to be a sharper focus on tagging, more accessible media tools, searching and filtering of things, and the presentation of where you are within the application.

The whole design now seems to be focused on getting things done and taking action on your blog. To quote the wireframe documentation:

All screens in list/column format now repeat column headers, bulk action controls and pagination at the bottom of the screen to prevent unnecessary scrolling. In addition, actions links in these screens have been moved to the left column, directly beneath the primary item title or excerpt.

 

See, every week people from mid-sized mega-churches ask me a) for referrals of web developers looking for work (I dunno if there are any) b) for general advice on getting a decent website off the ground, or c) how to improve what they have. Much of the time I save the requests and hit them all at once when I am in the mood. Last night though I couldn’t take it any more and went off a bit on one unsuspecting friend who really just wanted a). I kinda feel bad, but there are some big truths in my response that I thought I would share. You are just going to have to show me grace and look past the unprovoked, frustrated tone.

Here is what I said:
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The Church Webmaster is Dead

I took a look at your current site and your job description for the position. What you seem to be asking for is the old concept of a webmaster. Listen to me very carefully my friend, as I am going to give you what churches normally pay me to tell them. Having launched two of the largest church websites out there, I am going to step out here and give it to you straight because if you guys don’t get focus in this area you are going to find yourself spinning your wheels and wasting time in the quantity of years. I have paid the price of this mistake already, but take it for what it is worth.

The Webmaster is Dead. Besides, web developers don’t function well in dark rooms by themselves; they need community of other uber-nerds and have a high need to be understood. The type that would take your job listing are temperamental, naive, and really just want to work for themselves on a desert island or for Apple/Google/Yahoo like all the other successful web developers.

What a Church Really Wants

Ultimately, what you really want as a church is someone that is willing to take the responsibility for all things web and own it so you don’t have to. You think you need a geek since you aren’t one and websites are technical. But don’t think a web dev can just get some instructions from the CFO or Dir of Comm and go run with it. This stuff is much more complicated than that because it involves messaging, community, design, technology, planning, staff politics, and people’s preferences. One person can not do all things needed for web in a decent sized church.

My Not Humble Enough Recommendation

I would recommend you reconsider hiring a single web developer who neither reports to the Dir of IT or Dir of Comm (unless your CFO really, really gets Web 2.0 and digital communities), and do these three things:

• Read this article by me: http://churchcio.com/small-church-website-building-tips
• Read this article by me: http://churchcio.com/to-build-a-church-web-site-plan-the-project
• Hire yourself a great web marketer who can do web writing and blogging for you, drive your digital community, focus on search engine optimization so you bring new visitors in your local area to church, build inbound links from other sites, as well as steer/manage a quality vendor partner in the right direction. If they sneak in some programming and system administration in also, fantastic!

Next, consider….

• The site you have is 50% phenomenal and 50% unexecuted. The base design and artwork is brilliant and you should not abandon it. Rework the top navigation drop downs as they are old school, get over the fear of scrolling… cause your users are way past not knowing how to scroll, and have a better default on the left side column than blank.
• As solid as your design is, you need it implemented into a content management system (instead of custom scripts on a page by page basis that you can’t easily change) and it needs to be reworked such that you can expand the pages. Consider having http://www.busynoggin.com/my-approach/ implement the http://webempoweredchurch.com/ content management system like many other churches (including Stonebriar & Christ Fellowship) have done.

  This will allow your communications people, other staff, and your web marketer to manage content in minutes rather than hours. To do that, you will need to get the original artwork from the designer, have the changes you want mocked up (wireframed), and have the site design spliced up and coded for the content management system. Turn-key, expect to spend 2-3k on the design work and 6-10k on the implementation. This is a much better (and faster) investment than hiring a web developer and praying he “gets it”.

• Ask and teach every Dir and Pastor to blog three times a week within a defined set of guidelines and strategy that isn’t restrictive but purposeful. It is like sitting down and writing three information focused emails… most anyone can do it.
• Consider integrating Unifyer with your website and ministry.

Wrapping it up

So this was so much more than you asked for, and even a bit presumptuous on my part, but it is my gift to you my friend. I offer this instead of recommending one of my web developer friends come have a bad experience at your church… but if you stay centered on your current direction of wanting a single web developer doing the heavy lifting on everything, the ones doing stuff for churches mainly hang out at http://godbit.com
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Note that my comments on church web developers were focused on the type that would take the do-everything job that was being listed, and not a commentary on all web developers. I just have a prejudice that the best web developers work on a team, work at dev firms or large companies, or are hired guns who freelance and know how to rock it (these are my favorite). Sorry in advance to any of you web developers working solo for churches who are pouring your life into ministry. God may make a way for you that he hasn’t made for many before you. Best case is He brings you co-laborers who can help you at the church where you already are and bring you the relief and organizational alignment you need to be successful.

What I love about blogging is that I left a partially thought through comment on his site last week and then he gives me kudos today and places my thoughts alongside his wisdom such that I come out looking like a champ! The reality is that he has some great nuggets in that little post including Web Sort and Adobe’s Website Production Management Techniques.

In a beautiful example of what goes around comes around, I am today beginning work with my team on the Information Architecture for a new site we are trying to crank out by the first two weeks in December. David’s help could not have come at a better time!

I think the site will be a great free resource for younger pastors and prospective seminarians. I really respect Roger Barrier and his soft-spoken but confident approach in sharing his thoughts on the life in Christ. The site is packed with content including Podcasts, Devotionals, and Sermon Series. One of the podcasts includes my sports pastor buddy Derrek Engeler who brought this project to me in the first place. It is always great to get his commentary on almost anything.

Anyway, after another 3 weeks of supporting the client with training I am done with all freelancing for the next few years. If some consulting or speaking opportunities come up I am all over it, but I am through building web sites on the side and being the middle-man project manager outside of my day job.

First of all, Stuart, bless you and all those out there like you with willing hearts who want to contribute something via the web. I pray you can get it done and done in a timely manner.

It is impossible for me to download 7 years of thinking about this stuff into a simple post, but let me get you started with just a few tips:

1. Don’t over reach. Understand your churches needs and the expectations of those who care about the project.
2. Don’t get too many people involved. If it is a small site, keep the total team smaller than 5 … including decision makers.
3. Know your audience. Is it insiders or outsiders? Is it local people or people new to the area?
4. Focus on your churches message and mission. What are you on about? What kind of church are you. Use stories and editorial type content to show who you are.
5. Make sure you have enough budget and resources. Don’t do the project as a lay person without that. Free labor is enough that the church can spend some money on this.
6. Decide if the site is large enough to need a content management system or not. I would say anything larger than 50 pages needs to be on a CMS.
7. If you go with a CMS, don’t build it from scratch. Learn more in a slideshow I did for MinistryCom a long time ago.
8. Know what pages you need and have someone qualified do the writing. Have them do it before you organize your site (Information Architecture) and design anything.
9. Decide what the photography budget is, what kind of photography you have of your own people already, and how it will be used. No photography is a bad option, bad photography is a worse option.
10. Stay the course by managing the project as you would any technology project. Establish a scope of work early and stick to it. Don’t budge and let the head pastor dream or dictate after you start.

I realize some of these may not be doable in your environment, but this is sort of a 101 to building a church website as lay person. I tried it once and failed, and then made a pitch to a church to come on as an employee to get it done. Still took me four years to do it great. This is hard stuff, but stay encouraged about the impact it can have on the life of the Body. It is well worth the effort if you have most of the above.

If anyone has any questions, please post them in comments. My time is limited with me moving to a new role at a new church, but I would be happy to help if I can.

Overall I am incredibly pleased with the outcome of the site. But l am also glad people are commenting about the good, the bad, and the ugly about the site. It’s the best way for us to get better! As I have said before, no website is perfect or will stay perfect. To all those churches out there struggling to get a new site launched, remember that the most important thing is to get something out there that is better than what you have and then improve it continually over time. Having a great visual design and sturdy front-end coding are great foundations on which to build out your site over time.

In other news, we are well on the way to having a Spanish translation in place for the site. We are also moments away from getting the Google Sitemap live. Finally, this week we launched the Stonebriar blog.