Grace-centered United Methodist Church Websites
How Effective Websites for the United Methodist Church Should Work, But Often Don’t
I actually grew up in the United Methodist Church. I remember from my early childhood when my mother volunteered to help teach Sunday School to classes of bustling kids. Champlin United Methodist Church lay directly across the Mississippi River from my hometown of Anoka, Minnesota.
Later, as I grew, I discovered the joys of long youth group trips to northern Minnesota packed into rusting church vans (or even school buses—this was 1980s after all). Even though my life’s path led me away from UMC membership, there’s always been a warm place in my heart for United Methodist Churches.
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 United Methodist Church 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.