An interesting article published by News from Agape Press came out yesterday attempting to address this issue: are church websites now a luxury or a necessary for outreach in the near future? Mostly they have some statements that aren’t too surprising like:

…almost 90 percent of churches that typically have 200 or more people attending worship on Sunday morning have a website. That compares with 60 percent of mid-size churches (100-199 people) and 28 percent of small churches.

And

Small churches often don’t have the budget to pay for technology, or the staff or volunteers to implement it…[But] the increased use of technology in churches has a real potential to widen the gap even further between small churches and medium or large congregations.

And

…among ministers under 60 years of age, 56 percent are at a church that has a website; whereas just 35 percent of pastors older than that lead a church that has a web presence

Although these numbers don’t surprise me much, I want to comment further. Just because a church (or a ministry) has a website doesn’t mean that they are doing well in online ministry. That is why I created this blog: to try and help ministries and churches to move from just having a website to having a web ministry.

David Wayne (aka Jollyblogger), a blogging pastor in Maryland (who told me about the article), also provides some interesting and thoughtful comments on this article. He comments

In my limited experience, the church continually stays about 10 years or more behind the curve of technology and communication.

Further he suggests

…churches that want to get on the web need to go to more of a blog driven format.

I tend to agree with his thoughts on this also. However the danger is that just blogging won’t, in and of itself, make your internet presence effective for ministry. But it is a good step. I’ve had the idea for a while of a model where a church website would just be a network of blogs (David mentions this idea also). I wonder if it would be more effective that way just because it’s more authentic and focuses on building community and relationships. I’d love to get the chance to do something like that at some point.

In the meantime we continue to press on. I encourage you, internet evangelist, online minister, and church/ministry web person, to continue looking for ways to incorporate ways of making better use of the web tools we have today to connect with your audience. It’s not just about having a site or letting people know you have a site. It’s about using that site so that it becomes a place for ministry. It’s about changed lives.