It’s an easy concept to grasp, for one who lives and breathes technology. Want to expand your company? Get a website. By now most companies have websites. And many of them are very good websites. Some, however, need work. Not just in the programming department, but in the imagination department. In the vision department. And we all know what a big thing “vision” is nowadays.

According to David Lee King, libraries have physical branches where you can do things: Search the catalogue, ask a librarian, check out a book, read the newspaper, etc. He then takes it a step further to consider a library’s website as a type of “digital branch”. And then he asks the salient question: Can you do the same things in the digital branch that you can do in a physical branch? And unfortunately, all too often the answer turns out to be no. All too often, he says, websites become simply signposts, pointing to the physical location. And that is bad, because there is an entire world of digital people out there who will never check out the physical location.

I think this goes for churches too. Perhaps more so, even, because what church have to offer is intangible. Thanks to Obama, we know now that you can market change. You can market hope. But salvation, man, that’s just something that we need to get the word out. So let’s put on our imagineers hat, just for a moment, and think outside the box. Let’s think outside the church as a traditional one location, three service building.

What if the church were everywhere?

What if someone from Australia could be just as encouraged from our well-designed and well-thought out website as they could if they came to our physical location? Wouldn’t that just be a glory to God? Wouldn’t it be truly spreading the gospel to all ends of the earth if our website got regular visitors from 30 different countries?

What is keeping the church from expanding in this direction? Fear? A lack of knowledge? A lack of personnel? A lack of faith?

I can understand them all. Fear of the unknown world. A fear of technology. A lack of knowledge about what is out there and how a website can be made and used. No one to maintain the website, let alone set it up. A belief that no one will care or ever see the website. All very valid. And all can be overcome, though perhaps not easily.

Firstly, let’s think about the fear of technology. Coming from a rural church, I understand this more than most, perhaps. I think that many people (not just Christians, though they may be more than most), simply see the internet as something to connect to to get your email. Maybe the more web savvy ones will pay their bills online, or check their bank account, or use the online yellow pages. But mention one technical thing about it, or new social networking application, and their turtle-reflex snaps in. It’s over my head, they think, so they stop thinking about it. Or they dismiss it. Or, even worse, smile tolerantly at your geeky-ness in an “isn’t-she-cute-in-her-obsession” kind of way.

The latter two excuses, a lack of knowledge and a lack of personnel can be rectified. Learn how to make a website. It’s really not rocket science or anything like that. You don’t have to have a computer engineering degree. Kids have websites. The information is easily accessible, and if you can follow directions, Web Sites for Dummies will take you step by easy step and you’ll have a workable website in no time.

So for today’s post, let’s get out of our turtle reflex and understand that the church’s website is not just a side hobby, but is integral for the spreading of the Good News. Let’s start thinking about our website as a church “branch”, and as such, as a reflection of the One we serve. And the one that we serve is Great and Mighty. So why shouldn’t our website be too?

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Next post, I’ll be expanding this topic and thinking about the ways that the church website can be useful as a “branch”, and some of the technologies that can make it happen. If you have any ideas or things that have worked for you, I’d be glad to hear them.