ChurchNet Websites

Setting the Scene

Introduction

Before getting technical, you need to gather a set of information that you can then plug into the website to get you going. Here we outline precisely what that information is.

Remember, your website will only ever be as good as the content you provide. Content is king.

Click here to download a Word Document, to help with information gathering

First Things First

2. Site Basics

Laying The Right Foundations

Your new website will need some basic information to tell visitors who you are and how to get in touch. This can include some degree of branding with the use of colour and images.

Your website will need a name - perhaps the name of your benefice.

You'll be asked for 3 main images, so you should think about putting into your image folder an image for each of the following:

• A Logo - see more on that below
• Something that sums up the whole website, for a welcome image
• Something that represents the worship that happens in your patch

You'll need to decide which contact phone number and email address you want as the main website contact.

You need to include a few paragraphs that you'd want to say to a visitor to the site to explain what you're essentially about. This is your welcome message. You might include what your vision is, what your values are, the sort of things you're doing, what visitors to your churches could expect to encounter, and so on.

You can opt to include a sentence, introducing what you do, for the top of your homepage, and/or an introductory sentence for your contact form.

You'll have the option of using your website to collect information for baptisms, so you need to decide whether or not you want to have a special baptism enquiry form available to your visitors.

Finally, you'll have the option of including a prominent link, which might be to a set of shared documents on a different website, as a shortcut to a special page you want to have on your website, or something else.

So what do I need to do now?

For now, all you have to do is:

• Decide on a name for your site
• Decide which email and phone number you want as the main website contact
• Write a welcome message
• Decide whether or not you will make use of the baptism contact form

"No man is an island, entire of itself" - John Donne

3. Churches & Community Groups

Each Parish Church will have its own pages within the main website, attached to one of the locations.

For each church, you will need to obtain:

• A photo
• A strapline
• A short description
• A written history if desired
• A postcode if a map is required

Getting down to business

5. What We Do

Website Wide Activities

Identify core activities that happen across all or most of the locations.

For each activity:

• Obtain an image
• Write a one sentence summary
• Write a full description
• Categorise the activity
• Optionally, sub-categorise the activity

If a set of activities groups together, you can define a top-level category for them, and assign different sub-categories. For instance, you could start with top-level categories such as "Life Events" to include activities such as Baptisms, Weddings & Funerals; or "Courses", to include Alpha, Parenting, etc.

Remember, this is for all or most locations, so think about things open to people in all locations (e.g. courses, youth clubs, etc.); or things common to all or most locations (e.g. baptisms, prayer, etc.)

Groups of Activities

This example is for the category "Life Events" and sub-category "Weddings":

Standalone Activity

This example is where there is just one category for "Youth" with no sub-categories needed:

Church/Group Specific Activities

You can also add specific activities for individual churches or community groups within specific locations.

For example, you may have flower arranging or bell-ringing that only takes place in one church. These activities can be attached to that church.

For each church/group activity:

• Obtain an image
• Write a one sentence summary
• Write a full description

A Church Activity

This example is for flower arranging in St Augustus Church:

'I was glad when they said to me, "let us go to the House of the Lord"'

7. Worship

Make sure you have to hand your regular pattern of services for each parish.

For example, you may have a monthly 8am BCP Communion service at one one parish, and an afternoon Cafe Church twice a month in another parish.

The system allows for weekly or monthly patterns.

So what do I need to do now?

Make a list of all the regular services that happen in each parish, noting the following:

• What the service is
• If it is monthly, which week of the month. If weekly, which day of the week.
• Where it is
• When it starts (and optionally finishes)
• Who usually leads

Creating an identity

9. Create A Logo

Why?

A logo is an important element of branding, and gives people an instant visual clue as to who you are. It is an opportunity to communicate something about yourself.

The website displays your logo at the top left-hand corner on all pages. The site comes with a default image, but this can be changed to make the site personal to you and reflect your identity.

How?

If you don't already have a logo, there are various ways to go about getting one:

• There are services that will design a logo for you, at a cost of anything between £5 and £100s
• There are free online logo creators
• There's a range of software you can install on your computer - or you might find you already have software that could do this
• You could ask a friendly graphic designer, perhaps from your congregation, to design one

Click here to download a Word Document, to help with information gathering

Click here to proceed to 'setting up' section