Episode 511
Things That Every Church Needs On Their Website & Amazing Grace















According to Lifeway Research, the majority of people moving to a new town utilized in-person visits to churches (69%) and recommendations from family, friends, neighbors, and/or colleagues. And, Amazing Grace was first sung in 1773 on New Year’s Day at Lord Dartmouth’s Great Hall in Olney, England. John Newton wrote it to accompany his New Year’s sermon from 1 Chronicles 17, encouraging worshipers to remember the Lord’s “past mercies and future hopes,” the Museum of the Bible records in an online exhibit.









http://media.blubrry.com/goodnewsfortoday/gn4t.s3.amazonaws.com/Episode511.mp3












Host
Brandon Porter
Resources
8 things I would look for on a church’s website if I were looking for a new church
The Voice of the Martyrs
John Newton’s Amazing Grace maintains eclectic appeal at 250 years
 

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Transcript










According to Lifeway Research, the majority of people moving to a new town utilized in-person visits to churches (69%) and recommendations from family, friends, neighbors, and/or colleagues.
While less common, movers also use church websites (40%), social media sites (32%), online search tools (30%), and phone book or local advertisements (12%) in their search.
Chuck Lawless offers these eight things he thinks every church needs on their website to help communicate who they are as a church:
 A doctrinal statement. A website that includes no doctrinal statement still speaks by its silence—saying at best that nobody was thinking about theology when they put the site together.
 A church history. The history need not be a long account, but I would want to know how and when the church started. I would also want to know how many pastors the church has had, especially if every recent pastorate didn’t last long. Consecutive short pastorates usually tell us something about the church.
 Congregational pictures. I want to “see” the church before going there. Done well, pictures show potential guests the demographics of the church. Just be sure to indicate in some way that the pictures are not just stock pictures; they’re pictures of current members.
 Conversion stories. Few churches include this suggestion, but I’d want to know that God is transforming lives through the church. Brief (2-3 minutes), well-done, recorded testimonies from church members under a heading of something like, “Stories of God’s Life-changing Power at _______ Church,” will unquestionably grab my attention.
 Missions stories. Again, I realize a professor of evangelism and missions who also works for a missions agency would want this inclusion. Nevertheless, the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) is not optional for any church—and accounts of the church’s work to reach the nations would help me better understand the church’s focus. Here’s another case, too, where recorded testimonies would be good.
 Service recordings. I’m not alone in wanting to know the music and preaching styles of a church I might attend. Both really do matter. Poor worship music and/or problematic preaching would be at least a “caution flag” to me. Recordings cannot adequately take us into the service itself, but they can give us some sense of the church.
 Pastor and family story. Even in a church with a plur...

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