{"id":34372,"date":"2022-09-10T21:25:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T02:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/churches-and-the-web\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T21:25:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T02:25:56","slug":"churches-and-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/churches-and-the-web\/","title":{"rendered":"Churches and the Web"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At his well-read blog, Ed Stetzer shares news of a new LifeWay study on the expanding use of the web by churches. He quotes from a <em>Christian Post<\/em> article based on the research: &#8220;Though most churches have a website, there is a divide between congregations that use their sites only for one-way communication and those that maximize their online presence with interactive technology. That is the finding of a new LifeWay Research study sponsored by Axletree Media, one of LifeWay&#8217;s partners in the Digital Church initiative.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The survey of 1,003 Protestant churches found that while 78 percent have a website, less than half of those congregations use their sites for interactive purposes [such as] obtaining and distributing prayer requests (43%), registering people for events and activities (39%) and automating more church processes (30%).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A majority of congregations with a website use it for one-way communication, the survey revealed. A full 91 percent provide information to potential visitors online and 79 percent provide information to the congregation. Fifty-seven percent encourage increased attendance and involvement among the congregation and 52 percent solicit interest in ministry or volunteer opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many churches are using their websites [similar to] Yellow Pages&#8217; ads characterized by basic information and infrequent updates,&#8221; said Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research. &#8220;This is in sharp contrast with churches that use their websites [as] a bustling church receptionist registering people for upcoming events, collecting prayer requests and obtaining volunteers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is nothing wrong with using a church website to give directions to the church or state the church&#8217;s beliefs,&#8221; McConnell added. &#8220;However, we must realize&#8230;people expect to be able to interact online without having to drive or make a phone call to the church.&#8221; (Click here to read the full article.)<\/p>\n<div style='clear:both'><\/div>\n<div class='the_champ_sharing_container the_champ_horizontal_sharing' data-super-socializer-href=\"https:\/\/www.preaching.com\/articles\/churches-and-the-web\/\">\n<div class='the_champ_sharing_title' style=\"font-weight:bold\">Share This On:<\/div>\n<div class=\"the_champ_sharing_ul\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style='clear:both'><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At his well-read blog, Ed Stetzer shares news of a new LifeWay study on the expanding use of the web by churches. He quotes from a Christian Post article based on the research: &#8220;Though most churches have a website, there is a divide between congregations that use their sites only for one-way communication and those &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/churches-and-the-web\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Churches and the Web&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}