The Main Purpose Of My Church's Website Is To:
Hey Phil - one choice missing from your poll is "provide a connection between the church and its community" which is not quite the same thing as reaching non-Christians, or providing resources.
(IMHO) A good church website should be interactive - two-way - that is, it should allow the community to "talk back", through comments, forums, contact forms etc. It should allow the church to connect with the community throughout the entire week (not just on a Sunday).
Too many church websites are either "billboard" sites, just advertising the church, or "event calendars" which (might) list what is happening at church this weekend... They need to be far more than that.
In this age of myspace, facebook etc, people expect far more from the web, and we need to rise to the challenge and deliver it!
I'd like to echo the comment posted by pete. I realize that most churches that have a website that enables true "two-way" communication are early adopters, but I for one really wish our church would implement that. We have a great sense of community already but its hard to have a meaningful or in depth discussion in the context of a Sunday church service or a Small Group meeting during the week. Those events are very structured as they should be. As such, deepening relationships in that atmosphere is just hard.
I know online community isn't for everyone but for many it can help grow relationships and extend communication and discussions that begin two minutes before Church starts on Sunday morning.
My Church's website is basically a billboard right now, but I think I have the Pastor's ear about redesigning it. I agree with the other posters that say it should be a two-way communication tool.
I'm going to the "Geeks and God Web 2.0 Conference" in July and we're going to be talking about these issues. More here: http://geeksandgod.com/conference
Good question, Phil.
Hey Phil, are you aware of what happened a few days ago with one of Prestonwood's ministers? Here's a clip of Jack Graham's response during his Sat evening service.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/st ...
.... is lame.