Ouch! I think the lag in websites is because most members of TEC are TEChnically challenged.

This is the kind of thing that makes me wish I knew how to write a grant. Considering how much I want to work for the Episcopal Church as a web content manager and information architecture developer (to say nothing of my mad skillz as a former goth DJ and occasional humorist), I wish I could launch my own business doing so on a per-project basis.

But perhaps this is the time. I just accepted a position as new media editor for another association, nowhere nearer to my vocation, but it will afford me the chance to prove I have the chops to grow organizations through online media. And nothing would make me happier than being able to do exactly that for Episcopal Churches.

...I'm not so sure a slick church is where I would want to be...
Pamela Grenfell Smith
Un-Slick Person

Wouldn't it be nice if all of our scattered, shattered, bits and pieces of inadequate budget were gathered up and put into webdesign?

We have a fund that annually 'grants' $500-600 to about 40 different agencies. What could we do with a bit more responsible stewardship?

Susan O'Shea
Seattle

Whether you like these web sites or not, they are professionally designed. Good web design is a combination of technical knowledge and proficiency in graphic arts, and the good stuff doesn't come free. You might ask the folks at Episcopal Cafe what their budget was.

Paul and Pamela are both right. We're not seeking slick, but we're fooling ourselves if we're not professional about our appearance and our content.

In this age and in the age to come it's simply good church business to invest in good web design.

And if your bathrooms and Sunday school rooms smell musty or worse you've got the same problem. Weeds overgrown in flower bed? Ditto.

We have been recommending a firm called Simple Updates to our parishes in the Diocese of Washington. They offer a service that is relatively affordable, and an array of templates that look just fine, as long as you don't go out of your way to make them ugly. (You'd be surprised at the number of organizations that do this.)

The problem with most parish Web pages is less that they are unattractive (although that's part of the problem) than that they are out of date. People haven't yet realized that there are a variety of packages on the market that make it possible to update a web site simply by learing how to type.

Another problem is that people tend to use the INTERnet as an INTRAnet, so a newcomer visiting a parish Web site might learn all about things that are of interest to parish leaders and longtime members, and little or nothing about what the place is actually like.

Jim, that's good advice. Using a content management system can make updates much easier. If updating the site becomes easier, it is more likely to get done.

Are there any software packages you would recommend?

Hi Paul, we are always on the look out, but at the moment our favorite is Simple Updates. at simpleupdates.com. To parishes in our own diocese we offer free hosting and design help and a pretty user-friendly interface for free.

These parish sites use Simple Updates. Some paid for muchmore custonm design work than others:

http://www.stdavidsdc.org/
http://www.ccpk.org/
http://www.stgeorgesdc.org/

As a footnote to Jim's comments, I find that developing the partnership with simpleupdates was a strategic move that both meets the needs or churches and orgs for a very affordable and manageable system, but is one that also feels safe to the parishes, coming from within the diocesan framework, which continues to be a need many congregations put importance on. I have other cms options including of course open source such as the popular Joomla, or Elexio (another solution designed for churches we have an agreement with but beyond most of the small church budgets).

Having helped a number of parishes through the process now, I also think that LCWSS (lame church web site syndrome) is more than often as much a symbol of the fear and the avoidance that accompanies that. My job is often to be a translator to effectively help vestry members, staff, volunteers, and clergy to understand what the hell all this stuff is about in words they can understand, and break it down into building blocks they can process.

This process also helps them to feel they are not alone, and that we (or maybe, me) are there to help them do this, and that other parishes are making this journey too (ie dont panic folks, the flock is not fragmenting!). Yes true, a number of them have zero sense of taste for their sites, but helping them with good templates and a content system is a definite start. I have a goal to get many more of our churches into a cms. Each project is more instructive than the last, and working with only one or two vendors ends up being amazingly helpful and manageable as far as ongoing support and relationships.

Peter Turner
EDOW IT Services Mgr