Evaluate Your Church's Website

From ASSIST News Service:

By Michael Ireland

WHEATON, ILLINOIS (ANS) -- Churches often find it difficult to know how to build sites that will engage with outsiders in their area. They ask: “How can our church website help us reach out into our community?”

Churches can now receive a free customized 15-page report about their websites, enabling them to develop strategies to reach outsiders in their communities.

And this year’s international web outreach focus day -- Internet Evangelism Day -- will be used by churches around the world on Sunday, April 27, 2008.

Churches can now use an online tool to evaluate their website.

A new online tool has been released by Internet Evangelism Day, which provides churches with a free 15-page evaluation report. Users assess their own website by answering 55 simple questions on the tool questionnaire.

Their customized report is immediately displayed online, ready to print or save. Its recommendations are tailored with specific practical suggestions, based on the questions that were ticked. View the design tool here:
www.InternetEvangelismDay.com/design

A church site which has been prioritized for non-Christian visitors can be remarkably effective in reaching the community. "Week in, week out, more visitors turn up at our church on a Sunday because of the website, than anything else," writes one growing church in London UK.

Church leaders have welcomed this new resource:

“Most church websites are not evangelistic. The new Church Website Design Tool can help rectify this problem. This is a wonderful tool,” says Dr. Bill Gordon, Evangelism Response Center, NAMB.

"There is no silver bullet for a great ministry site. However, this checklist is an invaluable tool to identify critical areas for improvement. Every church should study this regularly and act on it!" adds Gary McClure, LifeWay Ministries.

“I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day,” says Dr John Stott.

This Evaluation Tool is just one of a range of pages at www.InternetEvangelismDay.com that help Christians learn to use the Web to reach the world.

Internet Evangelism Day also encourages churches to hold a web awareness focus day on or near 27 April 2008, to explore this huge potential. Their site offers free downloads (PowerPoint, video clips, drama scripts and handouts) so that churches can create a custom program of any length from two minutes to an hour.

Internet Evangelism Day is a project of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, a group of major ministries involved in web ministry, based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton. Website: www.InternetEvangelismDay.com