We just came home from our Sunday evening service where I met a young man who visited for the first time. He reminded me of myself. So I began thinking about my first visit to church.

My experiences have helped me to see visitors from a different perspective. I can relate to how they feel and what they are thinking. This is something we should all be able to do. If you really want to understand, make it a point to go to new places where you do not know anyone. On your next vacation try visiting a church where you do not know anyone. This will help you understand.

Have you given much thought to what they think? Like most of us I am sure you want your site to look nice and be professional. But have you looked at your site from a first time visitors perspective?

When someone comes to your church it is because they have a need in their life. They need help with a particular problem, they need friendship, or they need direction in life. Your online ministry mirrors these same needs. We must pay attention to how and what we offer online to our visitors.

Here are 3 things that will help:

 

1. Allow your visitors to communicate with you.

Do you have a place for people to submit prayer requests on your website or blog? Is this on the front page or can people get to it easily with one click? If not, seriously consider making this change. This can be tied to your outreach ministry and can generate additional leads. But most importantly you are ministering to their needs. Make sure these requests get forwarded to someone who will pray specifically for these requests. Some people will not want to visit a church, but in a moment of desperation may try to find help online. Be there and be prepared to receive them.

For an example public prayer room visit my personal blog

Build Your House on The Rock

2. Make your site visitor friendly.

Make them feel like they are part of your own family. Does your church have cell groups or something similar? If I visit your site how quickly can I find out when and where my group is meeting next. This is very important! New people may feel afraid to ask or not know who to ask. They may take a look at your website just to see if they can find out. Make it easy for them to find out the who, when, and where. If possible give them a way to send an email to the groups leader from that page. Make it convient and easy for them to contact leaders in your church.

3. Empower your people.

"The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what's going on so they can do a lot more than they've done in the past."
- Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft

Your church website should be plugged directly into your workers. As I mentioned before if a user submits a prayer request, it needs to be routed directly to the person who will be praying. If it's a request for information about sunday school, make sure it is directed to the proper person who can respond in a timely manner.

If different people will fill these positions at different times, then setup the an email address on a free email service like Gmail.com. This way volunteers who are scheduled to "Man the phones" can log into the email account from anywhere. If you are afraid of publishing these email addresses directly on your website because of spam or some other reason, then have a webmaster setup a submission form that will route to the email address. This can be done quickly and easily.

When your people are plugged directly into the online ministry of your church you empower them to work. Most people want to help out, but sometimes they do not have the proper tools. Plug them into your online ministry and make it easy for them to serve. Connect your visitors with your members and you will have a formula for success.