I’ve been doing some research lately on what form a church web presence should take. Here are some interesting reads that I’ve found along the way.

Jordon Cooper: Technology and the Church. Outreach Marketing personifies the analog worldview that the church still has. A quick look on their website show their products, door hangers, JUMBO door hangers, signs, and banners. In their and much of the church’s eyes, outreach and communication is paper based and analog. Still trying to figure out how to reach the last generation instead of the next one. With each day the gap between the analog church and the digital culture continue to grow wider.

Thomas H. Walker: Creating a Congregational Web Site That Is a Venue for Mission. A very year-2000 justification for Christian web communities, but not a bad place to start. Via Dale.

Owen Briggs: Design Rant. ‘Separating Style from Content’ This phrase is a semantic minefield. Some people hang up when they hear this. Can we relax a little? The people who say this do understand that form and function are part of each other. It’s humbling to see that Owen wrote this a full two years ago. This is an excellent overview of the differences between traditional media and the web for the aspiring web designer.

A. K. M. Adam: Technology for Congregations Part Two. Starting a congregational conversation online opens up a tremendous means for collective self-discovery.

Dale Lature: Creating A Congregational Web Site. People of theological communities, people of the Church: sit up and take notice. ‘Get a Clue.’ Tell our story, and start by telling yours, and encourage others to do the same. We can do this. Many people have. Let’s put some investment into increasing the value of the network by bringing our faith to bear on it. Lets ‘be present.’ That takes more than putting our bulletins and calendars and directions to the Church–and even our sermons on a web page. We need pictures, people, their stories, and the chronicles of our journey with a God who calls us to penetrate at all levels of society. Lets not be ’strangers’ in the culture that is cyberspace. I would love to see from Dale a more thorough explanation of how we use the web to connect our stories to the message of the Gospel (note: some minor editing in this quote).

Alistair Begg: My Times are in His Hands (talk at Cedarville University). I say to you again: one of the distinguishing features at this point in history of the Christian, is not simply our continual trotting out of our testimony, but is the distinctive way in which we view the passing of time and the events of life as they confront us.

Ever get the feeling that you need to be consuming less and creating more?