Since 2008, the United Reformed Church (URC) has been resourcing churches by helping them to establish their online presence.
This has been achieved through iChurch, which helps churches to build and maintain an attractive and fully featured website as part of their mission and outreach.
iChurch is an out-of-the-box, one-stop shop that’s fully supported and cost-effective. It’s ideal for churches; whether they’re starting out with no experience, have expertise, or are wanting to take their existing website to the next level.
The Revd Dr Sarah Hall, Group Minister for the South-West Hants Group of URC Churches and Minister of Avenue St Andrew’s in Southampton, said: “iChurch has enabled us to include more people in the mission of our church.”
Churches are encouraged to build teams of members to contribute to the site. These members will be trained and supported by iChurch, reducing the burden of responsibility falling on just one person. This ensures sustainability, as well as a regular flow of up-to-date information and news.
Churches supported by iChurch include local ecumenical partnerships, area groups, Synods, and churches within other denominations. The resource enables churches to upload news content and photos, advertise room lettings and more recently upload their services for people to watch and listen to later.
Dr Hall continued: “iChurch has been very helpful for us to use our church website to host audio services for those who cannot attend worship in-person, as well as scans of material from our church archives, housed in an upstairs room, for others beyond the church to be able to view.”
Church websites do not only serve as an internal noticeboard for church members to keep up-to-date with, they are also used for community outreach.
In Halifax, Heath Church has had an increase in traffic and interest in their Parish Nursing Service due to the presence of this information on their websites.
“It is so simple to make changes and add new content to an iChurch website,” said Reuben Watt, an iChurch team member. “This is achieved by using some open-source software called WordPress. This, alongside the 20 plus tutorial videos and the training sessions that iChurch regularly hold, has meant that it has never been easier to bring your church into the 21st century through a website.”
Lawrence Heath-Moore, creator of iChurch, who also serves as North Western Synod’s Central Area Mission Mentor, said: “Back in 2008, I was shocked at how invisible churches were on the web. I understood the reasons: websites were hugely costly in terms of software, expertise and maintenance, out of reach of the average local church.
The gamechanger was the very first website designed on WordPress, which I used as a blogger. The adage is, ‘If you can use Word, you can use WordPress!’ That was when the iChurch vision was born: a template with all the heavy lifting of design and function done that could be used out-of-the-box, or fully customised and developed as users became familiar with the software. I wanted it to include and keep pace with all the cutting-edge developments in website technology, as well as encourage churches to get stuck into developing their mission and outreach online.
So, the Windermere Centre ran the first ‘Website in a Weekend’ course in April 2008. iChurch has grown to reflect the huge changes in the world of websites, and churches. That original vision still lies at the heart of iChurch, and hopefully, at the heart of your own church’s vision for its discipleship and mission in the digital age!”
If you would like to learn more about iChurch, you can do so here.
The team would love to have a chat with you to see how they can be of help. Get in touch here.