How do you do ministry through your website? Is that even possible? Yes, your Church’s website can and should be doing ministry. There are many approaches to this, but the first step should be an assessment:

• What is the purpose of your website?
• Who are you trying to minister to?
• What are the resources that you need?
• What resources do you have available?

When you first put together a web site, you may have just been getting on the bandwagon. After all, other Churches in your area were developing websites, so why shouldn’t yours do the same. That may have been enough of a purpose to convince the board to fund the site. (Sometimes the costs can be quite a hurdle.) But you should ask yourself now, what is our purpose going forward? Is it to invite newcomers to Church? Is it to keep the congregation informed? Or is it to provide a way for shut-ins to stay connected with their Church? Or maybe you really want to share the great teachings of your staff with as many Christians as you can reach. The web opens the door to a community of faith that exceeds your local boundaries. People that would never be able to visit your Church can find inspiration and growth through your website. The Gospel can and does reach the whole world – via cyberspace. Who are you trying to minister to?

Resources include not just the finances but all of the information sources that you depend upon for content. This will certainly include staff members, who may be intent on promoting an upcoming event or small group. It will include Church members who lead committees and want to share information about what the committee is doing or when the next meeting is. It may even include community leaders – e.g. scouting, civic groups, etc – who need a way to promote events. But it can also include denominational leaders – e.g. a Bishop’s message about a state wide event. Your web ministry will certainly include sermons and teachings by your preaching staff. Do you provide the sermon as a video, audio, and/or text file? How about a followup discussion in an online forum about this week’s sermon. And you probably have a Church calendar of events and meetings, so people can look up the time and place. But how about announcements of inclement weather and/or natural disaster responses. The possibilities are incredible. Just be sure to tap into as many information resources as you can, and organize the website so that people can find it easily.

For more information, check out these online resources:

Top 10 Best Practices for Web Ministry
Website Ministry