How Every Church Should Communicate
Communication is important for your church and ministry. Your church web site gives you the power to communicate in a more cost-effective way than any other communication medium in history. We have seen the following mass communication platforms develop over time:
- The printed book
- The printed periodical (newspaper/magazines)
- Radio
- Television
- The Internet
As these has been introduced, the newer medium has not replaced to older one(s). So, for example, the TV did not replace the radio, nor did it eliminate it. It just added another layer of communication by which organizations could reach out to a lot of people at one time.
For your ministry, your web site gives you a tool that transforms how you communicate. The sheer cost for your church to write a book, take out an ad in a newspaper, on radio, or on TV is prohibitive. Most churches in North America have fewer than 200 people. These churches do not have budgets that can even consider using any of these mediums.
Your church web site on the other hand has a cost but a much smaller one with a much broader scope and reach than any of these other mediums. As I have said before, it is important to invest in your church web site. The payoff is the opportunity to each those inside and outside your church community. Best of all, you reach them on their terms and time, not by being invasive and interrupting their lives when they are not ready for the interruption. A well developed site and communication strategy enables you to speak through the site, make the interaction engaging through the use of audio, video, stories, and sharing your organizational “life” with those who want to listen. Also, unlike the other channels, your web site if developed correctly allows you to have two-way conversation. You are not just yelling out your message…you speak and your community can speak back…forming a dialogue around subjects that are filled with compassion and hope.
Please, take you church web site seriously. You must be a good steward of your resources and leverage this communication medium so you can communicate effectively and with excellence – to spread the greatest message on the planet.
Image courtesy Flickr: Naku
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Comments
Dave, this is good stuff.
Do you have some suggestions for HOW to foster two-way communication through a website? Or how Facebook/Twitter factor into that?
Just some thoughts.
Thanks for the excellent question jr – I responded with a complete post:
http://navigateyourmarketing.com/2009/10/27/how-to-foster-two-way-communication-through-your-church-web-site/
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