Church web sites can be a cemetery for outdated information and worse – spinning barrels and other animated graphics that shouldn’t be. Perhaps a blog can be the cure for what ails church web sites.
The technology makes web publishing easy and affordable and lets your church web site be more than a glorified brochure. A blog can foster and encourage online as well as offline community, and make your site a regular destination for church members.
Blogger and pastor Jordon Cooper has long encouraged church blogging, suggesting churches should start their own blogs in an April 2002 article on Next Wave. He argues that stories we have to tell are the attraction, not staff bios or the history of buildings. A church blog can be a way to give voice to those stories. More recently Daniel Miller has pointed out that no one has taken Cooper’s advice, but goes on to examine the potential benefits of social technologies for the church.
If your church does want to take the blog leap, the Corporate Weblog Manifesto might help. Author Robert Scoble (Microsoft’s technical evangelist) offers 20 practical tips in a free PDF. They’re aimed at corporations, but the same ideas could be applied to churches.
