The GrapeVine, Titusville, Florida
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Not Enough Information online about Ministry Groups

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Not Enough Information online about Ministry Groups Empty Not Enough Information online about Ministry Groups

Post by Admin Mon Apr 13, 2015 11:31 pm

I have yet to find a website for any church in the Titusville are that provides an open door to fellowship thorough an invitation to attend functions outside of the church service.  The front door of a local church is no longer the physical door of their building.  For a church to welcome others in their community to know them, they must have means to initiate relationships online. The typical church websites in TItusville fail to be the front door of the church because they fail to provide direct access to develop relationships with members of their church.  For me to get to know members of your fellowship,  I should not have to attend your church service, call or email your church office, or even give you my contact information.  Websites fail to provide direct contacts for ongoing regular fellowships that occur in non-church environments.

Take a look a the typical Titusville church website. A ministries information page lacks enough information to be useful to anyone that has an interest in taking part in any of the church ministries.  The page lists a number of ministries by categories, which is only a start. It only serves as a list of what ministries the church has.  However, there are no working informational links on the page, and so that page does very little to invite anyone to attend any of the ministry groups listed.  The typical church website requires interested parties to attend the church to find out more.

If the intention of a ministry is for outsiders to come to their church to find out more,  then many will overlook them for a ministry that they are more comfortable with.   A webpage must present an invitation.  No, not an invitation to attend your church, but an invitation to start a relationship with your ministry.  Scottt N Smith explains (How to grow your church using social media) a website is just for that purpose to start a relationship with people.

The greatest amount of church growth comes from relationships developed outside of your church.  So if you want people to come to the church, you need to provide access to get to know your people at a neutral place, not at your church building, and your website needs to be the doorway to those places.

A churches' Schedule page should not just shows all the activity at the church building.  As a visitor to the website, If their schedule page only show activities at their churches facilities, then  I assume then all they do is at church, and they have no community-based fellowships.  If they had community fellowships then were are the links to tell the church community how to be fellowship with them outside of their church ?  How does anyone that may have an interest in them find out anything without having to attend their church ? Such websites fail to provide an access to building relationships with their church members outside of their church building.

I'm not just picking on one church. It seems that the majority of the websites I looked at in Titusville do not provide a complete invitation to anything other than perhaps their services at their church. Many websites do mention their fellowship groups, but I have yet actually find one. Why not ?  Because there is not enough information online for me to know when, how, where, who and the why of their fellowship groups .   I should not have to call around to all the churches or fill out all of their email forms for more information.  Visitors are not club enrollees.  People want to be invited and welcomed into a place already prepared for them.  They should not have to 'apply' to find an invitation to fellowship with Christians. Why don' t churches take advantage of sites like, Meetup , as an open door and tool for managing their fellowship groups ?

The website is the new front door to a church.  If people must visit the church to find out more information,  instead of using the door that they are comfortable with (the website), they will just look elsewhere. (some other ministries website that provides information about when, and where to meet other than the church building)

Even providing a phone number or contact information is not good enough, especially for the Millennial generation.  According to a Barna Study, they may tell you their first name; but that is all.  They don't want to give their last name,  address,  email address or phone number away and end up on another mailing list or getting more Spam-mail.

If you cannot provide a thorough invitation about your ministry fellowship groups (- home/cell group, men's group,  youth,  ladies,  motorcycle club,  senior bowling etc.)  then you might as well not post it online.   Take a look at Meetup.com for ideas. Post your meetings there and on your church website.  Ministries need to sell their home cell groups.  They need to pitch them. The website needs to provide who, what, where, how , why and when about the groups.  The groups makeup - intended age groups and purposes need to be clear.  Who is the contact person - the host (not the church office) - for the group and how does someone reach them.

If churches are to grow, and if Christians are to enjoy fellowship beyond just their cliques, then ministry websites must pitch their home groups with open invitations, complete enough to generate interest, and thorough enough to be informative and provide access to those interested in developing relationships with other Christians, without having to leave their church and go to yours to find out about your fellowship groups.

Admin
Admin

Posts : 19
Join date : 2015-03-27
Location : Titusville, FL

https://grapevinetitusville.board-directory.net

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