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Scope and Purposes of Church Web Sites

Amanda Sturgill a
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Department of Journalism, Baylor University.

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Scope and Purposes of Church

Web Sites

Amanda Sturgill
Department of Journalism
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Baylor University

Although the availability of Web sites created by congregations has been the subject
of some coverage in the popular media, little work has been done in academia about
the structure, scope, and intended uses of Web sites by churches. Evangelical Chris-
tian churches are interesting because they have an ideological interest as well as orga-
nizational interests. This study presents a descriptive first step. We content analyzed
church Web sites looking at both included content and presentation modes to see if
the sites focus on evangelistic goals, organizational goals, or a combination of the two.
Implications of this work for churches are presented and implications for site design
for other types of organizations are considered.

Like other organizations, Christian churches (henceforth called the church) in

America have been establishing presences on the World Wide Web for some time,
and one estimate is that more than 150,000 churches had a Web presence in late
2001 (Thumma, 2001). Because churches are faith-based organizations, the role of
church Web sites is somewhat uncertain. At one level, churches are organizations
and, as such, are presumably subject to organizational pressures and features that
shape organizational communication. On another level, churches see themselves
as heralds destined and designed to communicate messages about the kingdom of
God to others. This article analyzes church Web sites to begin to explore the ways
in which Web sites function for churches.

CHURCHES AS COMMUNICATORS

The role of communication has been seen as important in the church from its in-
ception when Christ’s disciples were told to “Go into all the world and preach the

Requests for reprints should be sent to Amanda Sturgill, Department of Journalism, Baylor Univer-
sity, Waco, TX 76798. E-mail: Amanda_Sturgill@baylor.edu
 166 STURGILL

gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:20, Revised Standard Version). In fact, as
Schement and Stephenson (1996) noted: “The work of the church is fundamen-
tally communication” (p. 273).
Ramo (1996) reported that religion has often used technology precociously to ad-
vance itself. For example, the early Christian and Hebrew scriptures quoted some of
the earliest books, and Gutenberg’s first work was a Bible. Ramo traced the relation of
religion and technology for 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian cuneiform tablets.
Churches also see communication as purposive. Emmanuel (1999) noted that
the World Association of Christian Communicators has written Christian princi-
ples of communication as follows:
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1. Communication creates community.

2. Communication is participatory.
3. Communication liberates.
4. Communication supports and develops cultures.
5. Communication is prophetic.

These principles suggest that the church has seen several values in effective
communication. Craig (1977) noted that Ivy Lee, considered the father of public
relations, was the son of a Methodist minister and gleaned some of his early ideas
about communication from watching his father work.
Churches also use communication to shape the identity they present to the pub-
lic. Thompson (1999) suggested that the location of a church and its positioning
are important to the church’s future. But identifying location and presenting a
church identity, he wrote, should be secondary to the ideological goals of the
church: “Knowledge of the environment is necessary, but it must be used wisely,
toward faithful purposes” (p. 39).
Schultze (1996) stated that evangelical church members tend to agree that the
principal function of the media is evangelism and that secular media threaten val-
ues. Evangelical churches (in which Schultze included Southern Baptists) have a
dualistic view of the media, seeing them as both a powerful tool of Satan and a pow-
erful tool for salvation.
In the early 1980s, the church was instructed that any mass media church ef-
forts needed the modern computer. Why? To generate mail-merged financial ap-
peals (Cardwell, 1984). Today, many books give instructions for televised minis-
tries, televangelist has become a job title, and theological seminaries offer courses
on Christian communication. Schultze (1996) noted that evangelicals in particular
are disinterested in religious tradition, remarkably protechnology, and “strive to
popularize their culture” as “expert marketers of religion” (p. 69).
Only limited work exists on the structure and function of church Web sites. The
Pew Charitable Trusts Internet Project did an e-mail survey of church and syna-
gogue Web masters to ask about the structure, development, and purpose of their
Web sites (Larsen, 2000). The organizations were much more likely to use the Web
as a one-way communication vehicle. They found in a related telephone survey
 CHURCH WEB SITES 167

that middle-age, African American women were more likely to get religious infor-
mation online than were other sex–race combinations (Larsen, 2000). About 20%
of people in the national survey used the Internet to search for religious or spiritual
information.
The Pew study also looked at effects of using networked communication tech-
nologies (Larsen, 2000). One advantage for users is the ability to obtain informa-
tion about a church without making the implied social commitment of a visit.
Churches also reported using e-mail to communicate within the congregation of
members and regular attenders. The most frequently mentioned purpose of the site
was to attract visitors to come to the church. Other key purposes were to promote
the presence of the church in their community and to support the basic activities of
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the church.
Church Web masters intend the sites to function, at least in part, as external
communication. A similar study was done by Thumma (2001) in which 63 surveys
of Web masters found that the sites were usually initiated and maintained by
church members. About half of the respondents said the sites were targeted exclu-
sively to the general public, and about half said the site was a mix of public and
member use. Only 7% said they maintained a site for their congregation primarily.
Thumma (2001) found that the sites were usually created by lay volunteers.
Some denominations provided plenty of help to congregations in setting up Web
sites— particularly mentioned was the United Methodist Church. The Southern
Baptist Convention provides extensive help to member churches as well.
Suggestions for maximizing the Christian potential of media have extended into
new forms such as online communication. Dart (2001) admonished that having a
Web site designed only to convince people to visit the church is worse than no site
at all. Internationally, the Southern Baptist Convention offers several streams of
advice on design, programming, and content and offers hosting for church sites.
The organization suggests that sites be used to build “a sense of community” for
those both internal and external to the church (Casolara, n.d.). Jimmy Draper,
president of LifeWay Christian Resources, said in a press release on the denomina-
tion’s Web site: “We have the best of all messages to share and we should convey
the Good News with quality in any medium, including the Internet” (Southern
Baptist Convention, n.d.-a).
The LifeWay materials further suggest there are three major benefits to having a
Web site:

1. It supports the local church body.

2. It extends ministry opportunities outside of the physical neighborhood.
3. It is a tool for communicating the gospel.

Additional reasons might include giving information to potential visitors, im-

proving internal communication, and saving money on mailings. External popula-
tions might include homebound church members and college students away at
school (Southern Baptist Convention, n.d.-b).
 168 STURGILL

Thus, the suggestions given to church Web masters for communicating with the
general public in a single direction and attracting visitors to the church seem to dif-
fer from such possibilities as evangelizing on the Web site and expanding the realm
of church ministries. This may be, in part, because of the role of the church as an
organization.

CHURCHES AS ORGANIZATIONS

In addition to being evangelical bodies, churches are also organizations that are
subject to the pressures and exhibit the characteristics of organizations. Schement
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and Stephenson (1996) stated that “the development of new religious products—
radio and television programming, Internet and satellite religious connections—
places religion on the same plane with commercial products” (p. 269). Schement
and Stephenson argued that an analogy can be made of the church as a business
and the congregants as consumers shopping for a comfortable worldview. This
implies that religious institutions engage in marketing and branding like other
businesses.
Behaving as an organization could offer an explanation for the proliferation of
church Web sites. Flanagin (2000) noted that institutions as a whole act as a form
of social pressure on other institutions. Under conditions of high uncertainty, orga-
nizational pressure can cause the institution to make a change. Flanagin’s study
found social pressures to be quite significant in predicting adoption.
Some work has also been completed on Web site purposes of for-profit organiza-
tions. Esrock and Leichty (1999) suggested that, for organizations, Web pages serve
more actively information-seeking audiences. They also provide information for a
presumably interested audience and allow for multiway communication. The same
Web site can serve the needs of a variety of audiences, seemingly in a customized
manner. In addition, organizations’ Web sites can be used to both communicate
with and circumvent media gatekeepers. This might be less important for
churches, who tend to create much of their own media (Craig, 1977).
Vaattyam and Lubbers’ (1999) study of Fortune 500 companies’ Web sites found
that 90% of sites had overviews, lists of products press releases, and financial infor-
mation about the organization. They also found that most sites provided “machine
interaction,” whereas few provided opportunities for “human interaction.”
Esrock and Leichty (1999), in their content analysis, found that, although most
sites they surveyed provided information about an organization and its products,
only 6% of sites had information for employees. About 88% had news releases on
their sites and typically included a news release archive. Usually, these contained
text and still photographs only. Only two sites seemed to have content designed to
present the organization’s view on current issues (such as the environment or gov-
ernment policies). Likewise, Flanagin (2000) noted that organizational Web site
uses include giving information to clients and customers while also gaining infor-
 CHURCH WEB SITES 169

mation from the same and generally increasing the flow of information between or-
ganizations and others.
In her analysis of for-profit versus not-for-profit organizations’ sites, Henika
(1999) defined an Internet presence site as a site that is a virtual presence for a firm
and its offerings. A good site adds value to the organization for the user, she wrote,
and interactive sites (machine interaction) encourage the user to spend more time
at them. This creates brand recognition.
Haley, White, and Cunningham (1999) noted that this use of a product to de-
velop a brand identity may be true for Christian institutions as well. “Some Chris-
tians have embraced marketing as a tool to make Christian values more appealing
to American youth,” they wrote (p. 1). The authors conclude that Christian prod-
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uct users do perceive “Christian” as a brand.

CHURCHES AS MEDIATED ORGANIZATIONS

Other researchers have theorized that having a Web site may be part of what cre-
ates the organization. For example, Cooren and Taylor (1997) suggested a role of
mediation, which means that, as communication occurs, it creates agency, which
in turn creates artifacts. An example in religion is when people talk to others about
conversion. This creates the agency of evangelizing, which in turn creates evange-
lism. When communication is mediated, the resulting object (like a Web site) has
characteristics of both the communication act and the medium.
The creation of an organization through a Web site can then affect the individu-
als who are involved with the organization. Scott, Corman, and Cheney (1998)
suggested that individuals become “attached” to organizations and demonstrate
this by behaving in a way that is in the best interests of the organization or in accord
with the wishes of the other members. As these individuals behave, they leave arti-
facts that become part of a shared history, which creates artifacts that guide future
interactions. The labels we develop as we belong to organizations help form our
sense of identity. It is possible to identify with multiple levels in an organization
(professor, professor of journalism, employee, and so on).
For outsiders, a desire to not be labeled by an organization may help make
church Web sites appealing. Dawson (2001) noted that being able to try things vir-
tually may draw participants into an online experience that they would avoid in
real life. It can also be convenient. As Flanagin and Metzger (2001) noted, a na-
tional survey found that Internet users heavily rely on the Net for finding informa-
tion that they consider valuable. Respondents felt that online information was as
credible as television, radio, and magazine information. Flanagin and Metzger sug-
gested that improvements in technology may be making richness distinctions less
important. Thus, the Web could be a substitution for the relational aspects of visit-
ing a church and, in some cases, a preferable one.
 170 STURGILL

The literature suggests that churches may see Web sites as instruments of evan-
gelism, corporate reputation builders, or community extenders that provide virtual
substitutes for relational experiences. This study examines how the church Web
sites reviewed were designed to meet these objectives. With regards to providing
ideological information, this might include information created and maintained by
a church or links to information created or maintained by others. Research ques-
tions include the following:

1. Do church Web sites provide evangelistic information?

2. Do church Web sites provide links to evangelistic information?
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With regard to information about the church as an organization, this might include
information about the church itself or information about the denomination with
which the church is affiliated. Research questions include the following:

3. Do church Web sites provide information about the church as an institution?

4. Do church Web sites provide information about the denomination?

Other questions of interest are:

5. Do church Web sites provide interactive opportunities?

6. Do church Web sites provide links to the larger physical community?

Finally, although a church may have ideological as well as organization goals, an in-
teresting question is whether one or the other prevails in the Web presence of the
congregation:

7. Do churches emphasize either organizational or ideological information on

their Web sites?

METHOD

This study was a content analysis of Southern Baptist church Web sites. Baptists
were chosen in part because they are expressly evangelical. Baptist churches also
tend to have high-involvement organizations for adults such as Sunday morning
Bible classes and midweek clubs. There is also denominational support for develop-
ment of Web sites in the form of consulting, templates, and Web space. Generally,
Southern Baptists retain the autonomy of local congregations, which means that
the Web site content is completely up to the local church. Finally, an index of
Southern Baptist Web site links exists. More than 1,000 churches are listed at
http://sbcsearch.founders.org/churches.html as of October 2001. As McMillan
(2000) noted, the choice of population for a study of Web content is often fraught
with difficulty because of difficulty in locating reliable, up-to-date indexes, among
 CHURCH WEB SITES 171

other reasons. We recognize that the sbcsearch site may not represent the entire
population of Southern Baptist churches with Web presences, but we did compare
the site with others that link to Southern Baptist Convention church sites and
found this index to be the largest. However, probable inadequacies in the popula-
tion development would result to a threat to external validity of the findings. Fur-
ther, because of the liquidity of the Web as a medium, sites can change easily and
often will change over time. Therefore, these results may be limited to the state of
church Web sites at the time of the study.
A total sample of 303 were chosen using simple random selection in which each
Web site was assigned a number between 1 and 1,033, and 303 numbers were cho-
sen by a computer using a randomization algorithm. Several church Web sites were
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visited to develop coding categories for the content analysis of all Web sites in the
sample. Then, each site was visited and coded according to a category sheet (avail-
able from the author). Intracoder reliability using the code–recode method and
calculated by the Holsti formula was 98.5%. Data from the coding sheets were en-
tered and imported into SPSS for Windows for analysis.

RESULTS

Of the 303 church Web sites selected, 52 either had bad links or led to sites that
were not sites for individual congregations. They were therefore excluded, yielding
a final sample of 251.
The coding units for the sites were grouped into larger categories of evangelical
material, organization information, interactive features, and demonstrations of al-
liance. Table 1 shows the prevalence of evangelistic material on the Web sites
viewed. Denominational literature for the Southern Baptists states that they view
the Bible as an authoritative presentation of religious doctrine.1
Group members are also likely to suggest a methodology for reconciliation with
God as found in the Bible and as summarized in one of several different “plans of
salvation” (for example, http://www.sbc.net/knowjesus/default.asp or http://www
.campuscrusade.com/Tracts_and_Booklets/4_laws.htm). These are often found in
religious tracts. Baptists also consider sermon delivery to be expository in nature as
the pastor illustrates and explains Biblical texts (Shaddix, n.d.). Both plans of sal-
vation and sermons were coded as evangelistic in nature.
Table 1 shows prevalence of ideological information on the sites (Research Ques-
tions 1 and 2). As the table indicates, many of the evangelistic functions were in fact
links to others’ presentations. When a plan of salvation was presented, it was typi-
cally used from another source (such as that presented in a tract) or was a multimedia
presentation made available for churches to use on their Web sites. This suggests that
churches did not commonly create their own evangelistic material.

1Recent denominational conflict has occurred over this issue; however, most churches that con-

tinue to ally with the Southern Baptist Convention would affirm the authority of Christian scriptures.
 172 STURGILL

Table 2 shows prevalence of organizational and denominational information on

the sites (Research Questions 3 and 4). To determine categories of information that
might be organizational in nature, several criteria were used. Use of logos and sched-
uling information were seen to serve the same purpose as a phone book or newspaper
advertisement for a church—to promote the church’s presence in the community.
Information commonly found in a corporate annual report such as logos, mission
statements, and biographies of organization executives were also considered organi-
zational features. Church newsletters tend to have the kinds of information included
in the other categories and were therefore considered organizational information as
well. As Table 2 indicates, showing the church building and advertising the address
and service times were the most popular organizational presentations, suggesting
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TABLE 1
Number of Web Sites Containing Material Designed
to Convert/Evangelize the Usera

Web Site Item Yes

Links to other religious information 155

Presentation of “plan of salvation” (link and direct) 140
Link to Bible study materials not on church’s Web site 113
Text of pastor’s sermons available online 63
Bible study materials available on church’s Web site 43
aN = 251.

TABLE 2
Number of Web Sites Containing Material Designed
to Present the Church as an Organizationa

Web Site Item Yes

Worship service times 230

Church address/phone number 222
Photos of main church building 210
Weekly schedule information (nonworship) 191
Listing of church staff 174
Special church event listing 143
Church mission statement 135
Photos of other buildings 106
Biography of pastor 99
Biography of other staff 71
Pastor’s welcome to visitors 70
Church logo 69
Photos of church activities 33
Church newsletter 47
Church policies 27
aN = 251.
 CHURCH WEB SITES 173

that the Web site is, in some way, an extension of a newspaper or phone book adver-
tisement. Another commonly observed feature that was not coded was a map to the
church or a link to driving directions.
Research Question 5 asks whether church Web sites encourage interactivity.
The initial review of Web sites to develop coding categories suggested that truly in-
teractive features were not generally found on church Web sites. This was particu-
larly true for sites that required sophistication in Common Gateway Interface
(CGI) or other server-side programming. Electronic mail was by far the most preva-
lent type of interactive feature (Table 3). It should be considered that using e-mail
links, although permitting users to communicate with persons in the church, does
not make it easier for nonstaff members of the church community to interact. Some
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churches also posted a directory of e-mail addresses of members of the church. Al-
though these categories did constitute ways of encouraging interaction, they, by
and large, did not encourage interaction within the confines of the site.
There was some effort made to ally the individual churches with the sponsoring
Southern Baptist Convention denomination or with individual state conventions.
Very few churches, however, used their Web site to mark a presence in or alliance
with their physical community (Research Question 6). When other logos were
used, these were typically links to other church-related programs such as Promise
Keepers or were logos from Southern Baptist Convention programs like True Love
Waits, an abstinence program for teens. Other evidences of community involve-
ment included features such as local weather forecasts or links to pages about the
city where the church is located (Table 4).
Finally, the individual component features in each category were added and di-
vided by the number of features in the category to glean a comparable measure of

TABLE 3
Number of Web Sites Containing Material Designed
to Allow Users to Interact With the Church or Othersa

Web Site Item Yes

For more information e-mail link 183

Pastor e-mail 152
Other staff e-mail 138
Webmaster e-mail 115
Ability to submit prayer requests 89
BBS or guestbook 57
Ability to read prayer requests 34
Feedback form 26
Online sign-up for church activities 17
Printable sign-ups for church activities 5
Online donations 0

Note. BBS = Bulletin Board System.

aN = 251.
 174 STURGILL

TABLE 4
Number of Web Sites Containing Material Designed
to Show the Church as Allied With a Larger Communitya

Web Site Item Yes

Link to denominational information 165

Other logos 109
Denominational information on church site 66
Listing of missions or service opportunities 36
Articles from news services or other publications 21
Calendar events for entities other than the church 7
aN = 251.
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TABLE 5
Indices of Purposive Elements of Church Web Sites

Name Index

Organize 122
Evangelize 85
Interact 74
Community 67

the various features (Table 5). As the table shows, the index value for promoting
the church as an organization was much higher than the index value for providing
interaction or promoting allegiance to a larger community or evangelizing (this dif-
ference was statistically significant at the p < .05 level, χ2 = 95.7), suggesting that
organizational information prevailed over ideological for churches in the sample.

DISCUSSION

It is evident from this study that church Web sites are designed for a variety of pur-
poses. We found that the promotion of the church as an organization was quite im-
portant and was followed by the evangelistic function of Web sites. It is interesting
to note that the organizational information was usually a local creation, whereas
evangelistic information was not. In addition, 92% of sites had the schedule for the
church services, whereas only 56% had a plan of salvation as a part of the site.
The ideas that communication creates community or that it is participatory did
not seem to be developed in the Web sites that were examined. The idea of com-
munication supporting and developing culture was somewhat supported by the or-
ganizational information and denominational links, if one considers a denomina-
tion to be a culture.
The Pew study found church Web masters primarily wanted to attract visitors to
the church, which did seem to be a focus of many sites (Larsen, 2000). Supporting ba-
 CHURCH WEB SITES 175

sic activities of the church, another goal, did not seem to be strongly supported. In the
LifeWay materials, supporting the church, extending the ministry area, and commu-
nicating the gospel were listed as goals. The evangelistic component seemed to be
met by some of the churches. Extending the ministry area was questionable. It is pos-
sible that providing access to evangelistic material through links only is valuable in
reaching others, especially if it makes evangelistic material more likely to come up in
search engines. However, the churches’ lack of links to nonchurch sites makes it un-
likely that a surfing Web user will come upon that information. Overall, the Web sites
seemed to meet only some of the stated goals of church communication.
The reasons for the structure of the site are difficult to know without actually
asking the site builders. However, it seems that promoting the church as an organi-
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zation (or attracting visitors) was of major importance in the sites examined. There
was little attention spent in developing relational aspects of the site that might in
some way extend the church experience in the online realm. Although the sites did
have evangelistic components, they often seemed to follow more of an organiza-
tional model of promoting the entity rather than a message the entity had to share.
This study is limited because of the sample and because of the methodology.
Using all Southern Baptist churches had the advantages mentioned earlier but also
had disadvantages in that the results are only possibly generalizable to similar enti-
ties. Future studies that compare across denominations would be useful and could
examine questions about the beliefs of the denominations and the effect of that on
the denominations’ Web presences. It would also be interesting to see if church
Web sites differ from others of the same denominations on the organizational–ideo-
logical dimension.
It would be interesting in future work to examine in some detail, perhaps quali-
tatively, the processes that churches go through in designing, creating, and main-
taining their sites. This process could be compared with processes found in existing
human factors analysis. It would also be interesting to compare churches with
other ideologically based organizations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to acknowledge the contributions of Jessica Thacker, a master’s degree grad-

uate of Baylor University, for her work helping to develop coding categories, cod-
ing the sites, and proofreading the final article.

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