Happy Friday!
Here are my seven favorite church websites:
- Mars Hill Church
- National Community Church
- Willow Creek Community Church
- North Point Community Church
- Fellowship Church
- Victory Church.Tv
- New Hope Christian Fellowship Oahu
Take a look at them and tell me what you like… and dislike.
If you’ve read any number of my daily blogs, you will know how much I CELEBRATE CREATIVITY! Since God is the master creator and we were created in his image… I believe we should be CREATIVE TOO! As followers of Jesus Christ, you and I ought to LEAD THE WORLD in CREATIVITY.
Whereas, the church must hold to sound doctrine and faithfully carry the foundational truths of our enduring faith to each new generation. And whereas we must retain in our hearts that PEOPLE and RELATIONSHIPS matter the most. We should leverage every available technology for reaching lost people with Gods love!
Here in our ministry, we used to have the worlds best graphic designer/ web developer. Time changes everything, he stepped into other things… and we haven’t been able to find another like him!
- When I consider the level of ministry taking place everyday here on this blog site… and the DIFFERENCE were already making for so many people around the world!
- And when I consider the epic level of ministry taking place EVERY week at Destiny Family Center!
- And when I consider the size of our DREAM and ALL THE ARCHIVED STORIES of transformation!
- And when I consider the amazing POTENTIAL we’re sitting on!
- When I consider these things, I have to ask myself…
What if???
- What if we had a new graphic designer/ web developer… and we were able to 100,000 times our REACH?
- What if we could 100,000 times the quality of our streaming video and other media ministry content?
- What if we could BETTER INTERACT with people like you from every nation of the world?
- WHAT IF we really did COME TOGETHER ON PURPOSE to form the LEGENDARY TRIBE of my wildest dreams?
We would HAVE THE TIME OF OUR LIVES for sure… working together with beautiful people worldwide… building tomorrows better world!
Maybe you already KNOW the guy or gal who can HELP us make this happen? The right person needs to have an uncommon level of MEDIA INNOVATION… and the heart and desire to start as a VOLUNTEER!
THAT MY DREAM… what’s yours, and HOW CAN I HELP YOU GET THERE?
I hope todays blog inspires you to DREAM BIGGER, LIVE BOLDER, AND MAKE A FAR BIGGER DIFFERENCE with your amazing life! As with every morning, I just finished praying for you all… so, feel the difference all day long! Please, leave your inspirational comments and HAVE A SUPER FRIDAY everyone!
Please keep in mind that these are only my humble opinions and they all are pretty nice sites in their own right but since you asked for it here goes:
New Hope – Too busy. I also don’t video w/audio or any audio for tha matter starting automatically. It drives some people nuts. People who may have Internet radio or some other audio already playing (as I do often) don’t like that.
National Community Church- I like it
Willow Creek – Love it!. Somewhat simple yet has everything you need.
Mars Hill – very nice – Notice it has video available on the front page but includes a play button so if you want to watch it is up to you which is a nice touch.
North Point – nice site but doesn’t move me
Fellowship Church – I can’t decide
Victory Church – Original looking. Again, I don’t like auto play if it includes audio.
Mars Hill is my favorite Michael! Its over the top on graphic design… very easy to navigate through… and the video content is the best I’ve seen. It opens FAST and the quality is SUPURB! I actually felt a level of personal TRANSFORMATION after only five minutes on their website. Way to go Mars Hill!!!
Thanks for the great thoughts Michael!!
Hey Pastor,
I don’t like critiquing other church sites but I know this is just my opinion and I am not a professional at ALL!!
Mars Hill- That one I liked best. The layout to me seemed “viewer friendly”. I felt like they put thought and care into the layout of their site.
For example:
“I AM NEW” was first and upper left corner and IN BOLD which tells me that church cares very much for NEW PEOPLE and wants to get the info about them to them easily.
Notice they have “location & Services” next (again tells me HEY this is where you can find us)
then “News and Events”, then,
“About US”- most websites and most all website templates have “About US” as the 2nd tab. This tells me this Church is “not about us”
Then Give”
I really like the video they had on the homepage and I watched it too. I liked the fact that it did not play automatically when opening. That is distracting when trying to read and view pages.
Their graphics were awesome!
National- Is my 2nd favorite
The page is neat and orderly. It too has everything right very “eye pleasing”
I like that they also have a spanish option
I love the layout
The Media play changes scenes but it is at a slow pace and that is good. It does not start automatically and that is good.
North Point- It was ok. The layout was good. Nothing really grabbed my attention there. Needs more color.
Fellowship- The media scenes flips too fast. Too distracting.
Victory-The audio starts automatically and that distracts me and takes away from what I wanted to read on the site.
New Hope- Too Busy-too cluttered and again the audio is automatic and I think you know what I feel about those sites now:)
missed one- Willow Creek- its ok. but after reviewing 1 and 2 top favorites those win hands down if I had to vote:)
Chuck,
Love the blog and the links to the websites! We need someone who just does web stuff full time! it is hard to keep up!! We have over 150 viewers on http://www.bethellive.com each week and I am afraid we are not pulling the net in and it soooo upsets me!
Love you guys,
Stephanie
Is this THE Stephanie Dalton on the Chucky Balsamo blog site! Hurry up someone get this lady a CHAIR and a glass of ice water! Stephanie, really… it’s an HONOR! I love you and your AMAZING husband, Pastor Marion Dalton! Thanks for all the mentorship you’ve given us over the years!
I agree with you about needing a full time web person. And I will pray this for Bethel Harvest Church! Please pray the same for us!!
Way to go on the 150 LIVE connections EVERY SUNDAY! I just went to your website http://www.bethelharvestchurch.com on Wednesday… and saw your ONE LOVE campaign! AWESOME stuff!
Yeah, with the quality of ministry you guys have… you REALLY need to be getting it out to the farthest corners of the earth! I love what your doing already… and I cant wait to see what’s next!
Thanks for dropping in Stephanie! Please slap that man of yours a great big high five for me! (smile)
I can feel your pain with respect to losing your designer. I’m the only one in our church that does any kind of media ministry. We record the service every week to DVD and are stepping into streaming live on Ustream. What I wish for is that some of the youth would pick up the torch and help out with this ministry, but they are too busy texting each other to volunteer.
“Yeah Des… if the church was better able to INSPIRE our people: young and old… to lend their talents back to the God who gave these talents- we would be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE. I think this has to be one of my biggest sadnesses in life and ministry: living in a world of so much WASTED POTENTIAL… watching so many Christians use their greatness for building every kingdom but the one REALLY MATTERS.”