I Want A Clover Site!
So here’s the deal… church websites are notoriously… uh, how do I say this???
BAD!
They’re kind of known for waving the armpit stained flag. It’s like one of those jokes people say that poke fun at themselves and yet they’re somehow okay with that because they know it’s true. Something that goes like; how many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?… CHANGE?!?!
So what can we do about ridding the local church of this bad website phenomenon? We can promote the lucky charms out of Clover Sites!
To steal a line or two I heard from Tony Morgan on more than one occasion, and I’m paraphrasing here, the church is supposed to bring simplicity to our lives… not clutter. (That’s biblical by the way). So why are our websites cluttered with information that nobody reads?
It’s a one-sided relationship. The church views the web as a place to promote their agenda. No interaction with the audience. No stories of life change. No solutions to help people experience community or discipleship online. At best, you may be able to watch a video of a service, but you certainly won’t have the opportunity to engage a conversation with others about what you’re watching.
Essentially we’ve taken the Sunday service bulletin and we’ve put it on our website. That’s the web strategy for the Church today. “Here’s who we are and what we’re doing. Join us!”
So here’s what we need to do. It’s pretty simple, the lines are not blurred here on what is right or wrong, it’s clean cut… it’s short, sweet and to the point. (unlike that last sentence)
Check out this video
Clover 60 Second Video from Clover on Vimeo.
If you attend my church… please help me get a clover site. 
I’ll take donations towards our web overhaul. Seriously. Do I look like I’m joking?
Funniest line : "the armpit stained flag" – I don't even know exactly what that means, but it had me laughing out loud!
I'm not really sure either… it just came out and I liked it
I never quite thought about it like that. The church website has two functions or better yet, two types of people it's trying to reach. The lost and the members of the church. Depending on the personality of the church it will be reflected on that site. I've been working with churches as far as their websites and the biggest thing we try to get them to do, is to not only put the bulletin information out there, but get things out there that will help the people know more about God. I'm not sure if you purchased that website from cloversite, but if you still need one, we can design one that has customized graphics and all the features a great church website should have. Prayer room, evites, podcasting, and so much more. Thanks for the post, I have a renewed desire to make sure our websites have so much more. email me if you need anything info@camnio.com or visit us at http://www.camnio.com
Thanks for your thoughts. We are going forward with Cloversites. Set to launch in February. I am not taking any copy from our current site for our new site. It is being written from the ground up. I'm getting away completely from the bulletin board approach. We are talking about implementing a wordpress MU blog site for our communications department.