Before we start delving into ministry web design it’s super important to address the elephant in the room named Politics. When it comes to ministries there are a lot of passionate people who are giving their time, skills, money and resources to see that ministry grow and function. That being said like most things designing and redesigning your website can be a volatile subject.

Redesigning:
Let’s start with redesigning for example. Someone at some point built your website. That someone was probably told by some one else how to design it. And then there’s the person who’s been updating the website all these years. Redesign can feel like the hard work they put into creating the website has been taken for granted or worse isn’t liked.

These are valid emotions and perspectives that should be addressed and thanked. Maybe even reworded before moving forward. A simple award of recognition for those people who have gone before you on the daunting task of designing your ministries website.

These are the people that have the closest relationship with your website and may prove to key players in your upcoming process.

The Ministry:
We can’t forget why the website is there in the first place and that’s for the church or ministry a.k.a the people. Churches and ministries are made of a wide range of people; technically savvy and the technically challenged. The tech savvy will be ok with the changes knowing that nothing in the tech world remains stagnant. They can deal with the ambiguity of moving forward. The technically challenged on the other hand are often resistant to change and rightly so. Change brings frustration and throws off the status quo. Change is scary. You may want to discuss having a website training event or launching event to brief everyone on the changes that are about to take place. Transparency is essential and letting your people know that you have a plan on helping them adjust can help ease fears and reluctancy to make change.

You can even say “feel free to go on our website and submit feedback about any concerns you may have regarding this project”. When they come back saying they had trouble finding a way to give that feedback you will have the perfect opportunity to connect that frustration with the need to redesign your website.

The Staff:
Choosing who will be working on this project is incredibly important. This isn’t a who’s in and who’s out club but it can easily feel that way. It’s not about choosing who will agree with you the most. It’s about getting the right people who are creative, who understand your ministry, who are great at managing content, and who can give specific feedback to one another when things get hard… and they will get hard.

These people will be who you depend on to make sure that things get done and adhere to what you agree on as a team. Make sure you pick people who are passionate about the project at hand. The last thing you want is for the people you depend on to be flaky and slow to act.

Know the HPPOs:
It’s pronounced ‘Hippos’ and it means the Highest Paid Personal Opinion. The HPPOs are the people who call the shots but aren’t really involved enough in the project to understand why their face isn’t on the home page… You know who they are (or it could be you). This is a term derived more from the business realm but has legitimacy because they can exist in any ministry. In order to work with the HPPOs you want to make sure that you do everything with clear purpose and is objective.

Sometimes it’s takes some psychology skills to get them to think that what you’re doing is their idea. It’s not that this is dishonest it’s that it’s about being persuasive and limiting their feedback on pivotal elements while allowing them specific control on other areas. It’s not easy!

In closing you need to be conscious of the people around you. Those you work with and those that you work for. Make sure that you think about these people before you start talking about any type of major web projects.