WFX – Indianapolis 2008

This past Monday I left the warmth of North Carolina and flew to Indianapolis. I arrived to a cold evening in the 30’s — I’m not sure what I expected, I guess it’s a nice reminder of why I live in the South. Several on our flight were wearing shorts and t-shirts. I at least had a light jacket, but I shivered as I waited for the shuttle bus to take me to the rental car area. It’s not too far to downtown from their airport, so in about 20 minutes I arrived at my hotel. The window in my room looked down on the tall war memorial monument that marks the center of the city. All the streets radiate from it.

I was there for the Worship Facilities Conference and Expo — the center of the “growing church” world. All the various information paths that an expanding ministry would need to know radiates from it too. I’d been asked to speak as part of the Digital Church track for their conference — The 10 Commandments of Church Web Design. The picture above shows you what I saw from my podium. I had about 140 Pastors, administrators and techies all in one room — and I got to talk about one of my favorite topics! It was a great experience.

I was able to meet so many great people and hear them share about how God is working in their ministries. It seemed like everyone I talked to was getting ready to build, looking into multi-site campuses or in the process of seeing their new campuses being built. God is doing a mighty work all over the nation!

So many people asked me about additional details of my talk — so I decided to share it, commandment by commandment, over the next several weeks. I’ll add points to it according to what’s going on here at PinPoint and personally in my life. If you want the PDF of the presentation, feel free to email me (mark@pinpointcreative.com) and give me a little background about your church (as well as your name, position, and contact info) — don’t worry, we keep the information private — and you’ll get on our email list to receive our quarterly newsletter that has church related information, tips and tricks. You can always get off the list at any time by clicking on the bottom of our newsletter.

As I deal with each commandment, be sure to add comments, ask questions and give me some examples of how you’re doing it. It’ll be fun!

So, my seminar began by me saying, “The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for years on end, they tried to do what was right, but ultimately God looked down on them and saw that it wasn’t good enough. So he called Moses to the top of the mountain, and in a flurry of smoke and earth tremors, God gave 10 commandments to live by. Those who follow them will be successful and happy.”

The Church today is trying to do what’s right when it comes to Church Website Design, but we see that most church websites aren’t living up to the expectations of the people going to them. So, let me introduce (without earthquakes and pyrotechnics, of course), the 10 Commandments of Church Web Design…

Up next… Commandment 1: Thou shalt love your content