It's About Time...To Post Worship Service Times Prominently on Church Websites

Posted by Chris Thompson

Posted: June 12, 2008 - 9:48 am

In previous posts I've noted the importance of determining the church service time options for the church you intend to visit. The yellow pages are not a great option due to schedule changes, e.g. summer worship schedules, and once-a-year updating. This leaves each churches website as the next best option for finding this information.

My findings
I took an indepth look at the websites for the six church visits posted so far and found a mixed bag. I urge every church webmaster or web designer to make prominent posting of church worship times a first priority in design and updating. I've listed my findings below. I took the liberty of scoring website performance for church service time availability by church. By clicking on the bolded church name, you will also be taken to each website to see for yourself.

GOOD
St. John United Methodist Church
Church worship times shown on the first screen in your line of sight without requiring scrolling or clicking to find.

FAIR
Anchorage Baptist Temple
No church worship times listed on initial screen viewing area. Located on a Fathers Day link far down the initial page, they could also be located via a clickable link toward the top of the initial page Very busy screens make it difficult to find what you're are seeking. The many illustrations remind me of those supermarket register tapes with all the advertising printed on the back.

First Presbyterian Church
No church worship times listed on initial screen viewing area. You must scroll to the very bottom of the screen to find them. They are shown in a tiny typeface.

ChangePoint
No church worship times listed on initial screen viewing area. They are located at the bottom of the page in small type. I clicked all over this site without success until I finally scrolled down and found them. Their website uses a lot of small type making it harder to read which may have contributed to this dilemma.

Faith Christian Community
No church worship times listed on initial screen viewing area. They are located by clicking FIRST TIME GUESTS and selecting the Come Visit Faith! option. I liked the Google map opening up at the same time. This was the only church employ a map like this. Faith's first screen takes forever to load which may be due to the loading of active content. Other than these things, their screens are uncluttered, very readable, and well laid out. Faith's website proves "less is more".

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
First Congregational Church
No church worship times shown anywhere on the first screen. Located by clicking the Worship & Music button. Very small typeface thoughout and hard to read.

login or register to post comments