Inertia

I’ve been building web sites since 1994, back when each page was lovingly hand crafted and slowly placed in the server. Web sites are in my blood. I’ve grown old with HTML. I’m so intimately involved in web sites that I dream about them and speak HTML as a native language.

But, not every one is like me.

Imagine that.

Some people actually think that building a web site is difficult and expensive. Some people think that they don’t know enough to be able to create one. Other people think that web sites only exist in the realm of those techie guys and geeks.

Some people are afraid.

I want to tell everyone that putting up a web site is cheap and it’s easy. There are a couple technical things to know, but there are a couple technical things to know about driving a car too. Setting up a DVR can be tricky. If you can figure out how to use a cell phone, I think you can set up a web page.

The basic steps involved are:

1. Register a domain name.
2. Rent space on a web host.
3. Install wordpress.
4. Pick a theme and activate it. (one click.)
5. Write content.

That’s it. There are no more steps to setting up your very own web site.

Want a free site? That’s even easier! In that case, you only have the last two steps. Go to WordPress.com, sign up, pick the theme and start writing. You don’t have as much control, but it’s free!

It seems that the biggest reason that more people aren’t doing this, is inertia. They think that it’s hard and they are afraid. It’s easier to site on the couch and watch TV.

If your church does not have a web site, why don’t you go to http://www.wordpress.com right now and create one. Don’t tell anyone about it quite yet. If it doesn’t work, you can bail on it. Play with it. Put in some content. Change the theme a few times.

When you feel like it’s pretty cool, go tell someone at your church about it.

They won’t like how to you did it or what you wrote about something. They won’t like the color. They’ll ask you to make changes.

What will happen then is that the question will be the color or the content or the style or something. It’s no longer about “Do we need a web site at all?”. Now it’s “What kind of a web site do we want?”.

Make their changes and you’ve done it! The world is a better place. Your church will have a web site, more people will attend, members will better know what’s going on, and everyone will be happier.

You might actually be responsible for someone knowing Christ. Isn’t that better than watching TV?

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 9:42 pm and is filed under church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.