Being in a phase of fund discovery where we are actively pursuing churches, I've had the opportunity to call many churches over the last few months and see many church websites. Most of the churches I've been contacting are small churches, many even have no regular staff outside the pastor. I've been in many churches of that size, even members of them and it is my preference to be a part of a smaller body of Christians where I feel like I can really get to know people.
Something that clearly suffers in many such small churches is the outward appearance. Sometimes this is the care of the grounds or the condition of the carpets in the sanctuary, but I've been communicating mostly through the phone, websites and email. Almost all the churches I've contacted have had websites. The quality of these sites vary, but many are clearly amateur. That only bothers me because I know that it wouldn't be really hard or all that expensive to get something more solid up and it would be worth the investment. Alongside that is all the pastors with yahoo, aol, hotmail or other free providers for their email. Many even own their own domain and are hosting a website on it, but they don't host their own email. I suppose this is a pet peeve of mine. I've been looking for opportunity to share services like Google Apps with these churches. The one church I've been able to do this with has put Google Apps to use and seems to have run with it. They've been using it for several months now.
What I've been more surprised with and have little understanding for is the churches who don't even have an answering machine, or have an answering machine with some generic default message which doesn't allow me to leave a message. In contrast, what a joy it is to have someone pick-up the phone after the first ring and cheerily greet me in a friendly and personal manner. Then when they know what I'm looking for, offer me various resources that indicate interest and knowledge of the church and are open to answering my questions. I'd say that even when the information I'm given is that they won't be taking us on for support, I prefer this response on the phone to waiting 5 rings and hearing "There's no one here to take your call now beeeeep click"
If you're a pastor or leader in your church, please call your church office every once in awhile, then go to the church website and try to see it all from a stranger's perspective. That first impression is hard to brush off.
