ELCA Website Development: More Than Just Making Ends Meet
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Websites Aren’t Just Tools for Your ELCA Church, They’re Your Front Page to Mission
Take a look at the image above. What does it communicate to you? How does a virtual worship experience differentiate itself from a F2F one? (Especially after the covid19 pandemic of 2020-21.)
The Evangelical Church in America (ELCA) has for a while been a progressive marker within mainline denominations in the United States. However, like many other mainline protestant denominations, they too are struggling to survive.
All this is happening in plain site, when ironically many other non-denominational and much more conservative (law-based) congregations are thriving. In the hopes of making themselves relevant, some congregations can forget that beginning any effective campaign to outreach must first begin with a clear vision and move that work into the mission of change—all while retaining your well-loved traditions and grace-centered theology. Sound easy enough? Not one bit. And that’s where leaders within the ELCA (among which I used to also count myself from 2000-2010) need to reflect a web strategy that makes sense.
And, of course, hiring someone to do the leg work, preferably someone who knows a thing or two about theology, web design, SEO strategy, and how best to train church staff to use their site to its greatest potential.
The thing is, mainline denominations have changed so much today. That isn’t to say that the recent pandemic may have affected this as well. But certainly this has been a trend throughout the past decades. Families are smaller, yes, this too. But people are, oddly enough, more disconnected from each other from what historically had been a social trend for centuries.
The good news is that a grace-centered church website can help your church! Church websites need to be both practical and convey what your ELCA congregation is about.
In particular, churches need to look which core principles they wish to portray, with both their current membership as well as others they seek to serve. For one, I would enjoy the opportunity to speak with your congregation, either virtually or live, to energize your staff and parish in the opportunities a great website provides to any community of grace-centered faith.