Why Your Church DOES NOT Need 'Just' A Church Website (What You Need Instead)
Does your church need a church website?
I think your answer to that question will depend on a lot of things.
For example, if you already have a church website, it is easy to say “YES”, and if you don’t, you may want to say “NO”.
Please, hear us out before you conclude.
You do need a church website.
Confusing, right?
Just read on.
This is probably going to be one of the best articles you’ve read in recent time, and I need you to please, read it carefully.
In 2012, 56% of church attendees said a church website played a huge decision in picking a church to attend.
56% of church attendees said a church website played a huge role in helping them pick a church to attend.
This is 2020.
That's not even all because...
94% of consumer search for local organizations online according to a recent report.
So, let’s be clear, you absolutely need a church website but not just a website.
A good church website is the gateway you need in this new age. Your church’s website is the frontline for your entire ministry. It is your most important marketing tool you ever need in this new age because we are experiencing the biggest shift in communication in 500 years.
There are 5 things you church website need before you can beat your chest and say, you do have a website.
We’ll get to those shortly but I need to ask you this…
Does your current church website consistently attract new first-time visitors and establish new members or does it chase them away?
Does your current church website rank top in your city and your country?
Has the website increased your seed collections?
Does it easily build trust? 94% of church website users say they won’t use a site they don’t trust.
Does it position you and your church as a place of influence?
I could go on and on.
In this day and age, a lot of pastors focus more time and energy on building physical structures and asset while paying almost zero time to building serious digital assets.
A lot of things have happened in history that made it practically impossible for churches to meet.
For example, the 2020 COVID-19 virus is one that will not be forgotten in a hurry.
Churches globally are shut down.
At that stage, what will help you as a pastor are the digital assets you have.
Imagine having 13,329 watching you LIVE.
What about having all the seats in your church filled?
I often tell pastors, if you want to spend money and time to build a physical cathedral, which I think is a great thing to do, you also need to spend money and time to build your digital assets.
Why?
Your digital assets automatically makes you a church without walls.
It’s always a tough thing for some pastors to do massive investment in digital assets and tech but it doesn’t have to be.
You need to ask yourself, do I want to spread the goodnews, make an impact or just want to build a church building to have worshipers come in?
If you are spending $50,000 to get a physical structure for worship, you need to spend atleast $18,000 to also get digital assets.
Don't scream, I've seen churches who spend way more, and the result is there for them.
I know a particular pastor who has invested massively on digital assets, and it has grown his ministry beyond what he can ever imagine.
You know, early in the days, the Television made a lot of pastors famous.
Right now, it is increasingly expensive to get on TV, and the impact of the internet is something we all can't explain.
Infact, marketingchat research shows that people now spend more time on the Internet than TV.
Here’s the fun fact…
No matter how powerful and useful your messages and teachings are, if it doesn’t get to MORE people, people will not be impacted by you.
The reason most televangelists spend millions of dollars to stay on TV is because;
1: They believe they have a message that can transform the world.
2: They want to ensure it gets to the people it is meant for.
Take Pastor Chris for example, at one time, he was simultaneously on 5 Television stations.
If you go to Television A, you’ll find him.
You tune off to Television B, you’ll find him staring at you.
Unfortunately, 93% of pastors can’t afford that.
Although Pastor Christ isn’t doing that anymore but the interesting thing is that the Internet can give you that same exact “omnipresence” effect.
Think I don’t know what I’m saying?
Enter Apostle Joshua Selma doesn’t run a church.
He runs a ministry that meets once a month.
Funny thing is that his ministry is NOT located in the best of cities.
It is located in northern Kaduna, a city that has a lot of Muslims.
He had done everything within his powers to get his messages to the world but for many years, it was all frustration UNTIL…
He started using digital assets, then, he exploded.
As we speak today, he’s the most invited guest minister that I know of right now in Nigeria.
He said nothing has made more impact in his life than the internet.
WHY?
First, he has a great message.
Secondly, he got digital omnipresence.
Thirdly, he focused on impact, and not having a cathedral somewhere.
So, what type of church website should you have?
Now, I’m going to sound a little confusing again.
You don’t need just a church website, you need what I call The Internet Omnipresence Ministries.
That’s what you need, and not just a church website that really don’t make any serious impact in your ministry.
Let’s be honest, most pastors have a church website but it is not making any impact in their ministry.
The Internet Omnipresence Ministries will help walk total strangers and turn them into loyal followers of yours.
It’ll also help you spread your messages around the world, and get both local and Int’l invitations if you seek that.
This post isn’t about what the IOM can do for you, so I’m deliberately not going to talk more about that.
Let me highlight just 5 of the elements that you need to thrive as a pastor or church leader in today’s world.
There are about 12 powerful elements you need to consider.
Consistently Generate New First-time Visitors, Fans and Members, 24/7
One of the major reasons your church needs a digital assets is because you want to have more visitors, fans and raving members.
Your want your church website to have people “walk” into your church.
That’s exactly what you want when you build a physical structure.
First, you build a great edifice because if you are like some pastors, you want your members to have some level of comfort, or because you feel you want more people IN.
However, the downside of things is that, it is not 24/7.
Most churches are not opened 24 hours in the day,round the clock.
So, you need to be able to “generate” visitors and communicate with them 24/7.
Imagine being on the bed and waking up in the morning with loads of emails or even SMS from total strangers who love what you are doing.
People whose lives are transformed as a result of the message God gave you.
There are two sets of visitors, fans or members.
Set 1 are the people who are within your local environment and walk in physical as a result of what you do,
They saw you online and decided to pay you a visit.
If you have good nurturing system in place, you will eventually be able to establish them as your members.
The problem with these sets of members is that if they travel to a different location either as a result of work, marriage or whatever, you'll lose them.
However, your church website should be able to generate them,24/7.
Those days, one on one evangelism use to be extremely effective but not anymore now.an area that has the "high income" people.
For example,if your church is in a middle income earners location, you may not be able to 'break' in.
Why?
Because 1:1 evangelism has to be physical, you get to meet the people,1:1.
That's where a good digital asset comes in...
You're able to reach people anywhere in the world even in their pyjamas.
The second sets of people are those who you may never ever met PHYSICALLY but they love you and what you do.
These sets of people are the virtual members.
They watch all your videos and follow you keenly.
Sometimes, they invest more in your ministry than those physical members.
If you get an invite to speak in their city, they are likely going to be there.
The problem is that these days, we intend to consider church growth as numbers.
Let me explain...
We use the tangible metrics to to calculate church growth.
By the tangible, I mean, numeric.
How many peoples do we have on Sundays?
How many branches do we have?
How many seats are filled?
We focus so much on the number of people who came INTO the church.
However, the best way to calculate church growth is the non-tangible.
The non-tangible church growth calculation is when you calculate based on IMPACT.
It is possible that you will have physical members but you are not making as much impact as what you're making in the life of a virtual member.
You have virtual members allover the world, who love what you're doing, they support you but you've never met them.
Whatever be the case, a system like The Internet Omnipresence Ministry will help you generate these members on a consistent,predictable basis.
Build & Establish Trust Easily.
Your church website is the gateway for your church growth.
People need to have great first impression about you BEFORE they can trust you.
Once they trust you, they would easily become fans and run with your vision.
So, what's the easiest way to create that trust?
You need to have a system that builds that trust without anyone having to even talk about you or your ministry.
The thing is, these people are allover the internet, chances are that they have not heard of you before.
For them to "convert", they need to trust, and before they can trust you, your digital assets needs to have a great first impression.
It's not that you are a bad person or that your messages are not great or anything like that. Most times, it has nothing to do with you but the experience they have had before.
No one wants to be hurt twice, so people are naturally careful.
If your system doesn't build immediate trust, the people will never convert.
Donations,Seeds & Sales
Let's be honest, for your message to get out to the world, it requires alot of money.
Jesus gave us the gospel free but it would require money to propagate it effectively. You need consistently inflow of funds.
However, you do not want to do that in a creepy way.
You don't want to beg,manipulate, arm twist or cajole people before they support your vision because God wants us to give cheerfully.
You want to have a proven system that will make people donate to support your vision even without you asking them.
It is great to ask people before they give you, what about if they give you BEFORE you ask?
Isn't that better?
Ofcourse, it is.
It is not enough to have a third party payment gateway or all your bank details on your church digital assets,it is about having a system that runs effortlessly, and 24/7.
Similarly, your digital church growth system should allow you sell your products or anything else you want to sell.
As a church, you don't want to position yourself as the typical 'sale dog' or greedy capitalist, there's a more effective way to do it.
The Omnipresence Effect
What do i mean by "the omnipresence effect?"
It is the ability of your church and your messages to be everywhere at the same time on multiple channels.
As a preacher, you have a message, no matter what that message is, it is a story.
For example, maybe you always see destitutes on your streets or perhaps, and you feel that isn't what God created them for, or whatever you message or story it, you need to know this...
That message has to be in the faces of everyone at the same time.
That is how you build 'omnipresence effect'.
The more people see you, the more the hear your message, the more the intend to want to listen to you and 'follow' you like Peter followed Jesus.
The more solid your 'omnipresence effect' the higher your authority will be. Your message is supposed to be everywhere.
For people to hear your message and listen to you, they must first perceive that you are a credible pastor, to make it easier for them to perceive you as such, your message has got to be everywhere, in their faces.
Take a look at all the known ministries, today, it is what they did.
You want them to say...
"I'm seeing this face everywhere i go on the internet"
Imagine having thousands of people across all your digital assets at the same time, you'd become a very strong voice.
Every pastor has the potential to be incredibly famous, and transform lives.
Let me quickly add a note of warning, you are a church, not a business. You need to be careful how you do it, if you do this wrongly, it can backfire.
Rank Tops On Google
A recent study shows that 93.4% of church website do not rank tops.
If you go to Google right now and type "TOP CHURCHES + YOUR CITY/COUNTRY", will your church show up?
Some pastors have beautiful digital assets but it is completely empty.
Imagine having a 10,000 capacity auditorium but having only 20 people inside. People should easily find you online, and for that to happen, you need to rank on the first page of Google.
Conclusively, just having a church website isn't enough in today's age, you need to have a comprehensive digital asset that runs 24/7.
Again, if you can afford to spend money and time to own a befitting physical structure, you need to spend the same resources to have digital structure.
There's a 500 years shift in communication, the world has changes. Certainly, the way we spread the gospel can not remain the same old way.
There are 168hours in a week, if your services are just 3hours/week, what happens with the balance 165hours?
How are your people being impacted?
If you own a complete digital asset that grows a church, you'll see that your members and non members will have a 24hours opportunity of being with you.
In most cities of the world, it is not possible to leave your church open for 24hours but with a system like The Internet Omnipresence Ministry, you have a ministry/church that is opened for 24/7 to people worldwide.
I believe that if virtual brands like Amazon, Jumia and many others can become multi-billion dollar companies,the church too should take FULL advantage of digital assets.
The great news is that a few churches have started to do that (and they are seeing massive results) but the question is, is your church one of them?
If not, what's holding you back?
Leave a comment below, we'll respond to all of them.