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What are churches for? What are church websites for? Surprisingly, only a small minority of
church sites have any link explaining the gospel. Even fewer explain it in accessible terms relevant to non-Christians. And a
tiny percentage of sites carry any testimonies of members. So it is refreshing to see a church site that has been designed
with a very clear evangelistic emphasis right from the front page. Rupert Line in Australia manages the Elizabeth Church of
Christ site and writes:
"When I first started thinking about the website for our church, I looked around the web for ideas; my wife and I looked at
a lot of church sites, to work out what made a good site good, and vice versa. The pastor of the church and I always wanted
the focus to be evangelistic, not inward-looking. Very early in my searching, I came across the Web Evangelism Guide. I
gobbled it up, and there were many, many fantastic ideas. I then set out to do our site largely based on that. So, there is a
church section (quite a large one), but it's very unobtrusive from the home page. There is no jargon on the site, except for a
page devoted to explaining it! There is a page to explain the gospel as clearly as I could write it. There is an 'Answers'
page, which is growing, and again, tries to give clear, honest answers to common questions. There is a testimony page, but
it's called 'Changed Lives'. The testimonies are, as far as possible, written in the style set out in the Guide. There's a
page called 'Spirituality' (again, note that it's not 'Religions', but the more catchy 'Spirituality') which compares and
contrasts major religions. We tried to make the site as appealing and un-offputting as possible to the non-Christian surfer.
The layout is as professional as we could come up, with considering that I am only an amateur web designer."
http://www.elizabethchurchofchrist.org
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