Yesterday Tom and I prepared to visit a church that shall remain nameless in this post.  It is a nice little church located in the Akron area.  One of my friends is pastor at the church.  Saturday I looked up the service time on the church website and found it listed as 11.  Sometimes I call to confirm the service times but usually I trust the website.

So Tom and I went to this small church, arriving about 10 minutes before the service was to begin.  People were talking and laughing. One man came up and introduced himself.  We spotted the minister and headed toward her, noticing as we did, that people seemed to be putting things away rather than preparing for a service.

The pastor smiled and hugged us and explained that the service started at 10, so we had missed it.  I told her we looked up the service time on their website, and she said that no one maintained the church website and that the service time, obviously, was wrong.  Tom and I went to church yesterday, but we did not worship with a congregation.

This points out the importance of maintaining a church website.  At the very least, someone should have deleted their website or made sure the service time was listed correctly.  With the prevalence of information online these days, it is important for a church to maintain an accurate online presence.  If not, you are basically hanging up a “Visitors Not Welcome” sign.

Pay phones are obsolete because of cell phones.  Phone books are extinct because of the web.  And churches that don’t maintain an internet presence will soon be just as dead.

Take a minute to look at your church’s website.  Is it attractive?  Are the service times accurate?  Is it easy to get directions?  If I was coming to visit your church would I find the information I need?  Websites don’t have to be fancy or expensive to be effective.   Your church’s website is an important and essential part of your church’s ministry.