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You Should Surf Your Missionary Website With Your Mama!
By chris | March 22, 2008
Well, I said only your Mama reads your missionary website, so I went and asked an actual mother (and a few other people) to take a look at some missionary websites and give feedback. You can log on to this West African Missionary site that was very well liked by our “Secret Surfer” Mom. Our Secret Surfer Mama gives a page-by-page account of what she likes and doesn’t like and why in her notes below.
She’s not a professional marketer or website designer (BTW: stop designing for those people! If you are, you are wasting your time!), she’s a regular Mom who is highly active in her church, a vital part of her community, and loves the Lord very much. She’s proud of her missionaries and wants to support them, but she doesn’t have all the time in the world to figure out a complicated or boring missionary website. In short, she’s like a lot of people who come to your website.
You can learn from her by paying attention to how she uses the site. Notice how she connects with the information. Notice what makes her tune out and what causes her to tune in!
Also learn from this site’s designer, there are a lot of great ideas here for your missionary website!
Here’s what our Surfer Mom said verbatim:
1. Home page: Right off the bat this site introduces the missionaries, their work with and through the efforts of people stateside, and introduces the people groups of West Africa in a very real and personal way.
2. The map. Right on the home page…it says, “This is the specific geographic area that we are talking about here.” It helps that this geographic area is on a recognizable place on the continent….but since I am a very visual person, every time I see a map of Africa from now on, I will have a mental connection between what I learned from that map, what I read on this site, and the people who live in this part of Africa. Too often we make the mistake of thinking that people in other parts of the world know and understand our geography as well as we do…that is not the case. This site educates about the area without talking down to the reader. Good job!
3. On the “Explore” page. I really like the top part that has the fast facts and a repeat of the map. But the lower part of the page will receive one of the few negative comments that I have….it’s very “churchy.” The language on the entire rest of the site (yes I read it all) is very personal….like a letter home from an old friend, but this one section uses church terminology and feels formulaic…almost as if they used an old 3-point sermon outline for this part. My suggestion would be to be more human and heart felt in this as well.
For example, under the subheading, “Co-labor” I would have included something along the lines of working side by side with African Baptists. And I might even point out that African Baptists (which I assume means African people who are ministering among their own people and beyond) are facing the same struggles against Islam and African Traditional Religion as non-native missionaries and volunteers, but that they also face a more personal form of prejudice since they may be viewed as suspect for turning away from the religion of their forefathers.
I’m not certain about my facts here, but this section seems as if it was taken verbatim from an IMB brochure. Not every person who reads this site will be a Christian from a Southern Baptist church. We need to avoid “churchy” language whenever possible and speak to all those who read these pages.
4. The “Go” page is very informative and to the point. Good job here. In very concise language, this page does a good job of sharing the opportunities that available. It’s fabulous that it’s kept to one short page with links that offer more in-depth information if the reader desires to know more….and I think they will.
The way this is written invites the reader…no…. it COMPELS the reader to read more, the way a great novel compels the reader to turn just one more page, or to read just one more chapter before putting the book down. More than other sites, this site makes use of personally inviting language that is professional, but at the same time warm, friendly and inviting.
5. There is one page on the site that mentions that the people of West Africa are all about relationships….this site invites a personal relationship between the reader and the missionaries already working in West Africa.
It also shows that those personal relationships are necessary - not only between the missionaries living and working in West Africa, but also between the West African people, the missionaries, and the people and churches back in America. It will take all of us to share the love of Christ with every person in West Africa…and the “Go” page invites us in many ways to participate in that relationship.
6. Even the color scheme on this site is warm, cozy, and inviting.
7. I especially liked the People Groups page. I tend to gravitate to the pages that tell me about the people…not programs or someone else’s idea of what God needs to do in a people. When I read about the people of West Africa (or any other location) and I hear their stories, read about their culture and traditions, God speaks to my heart about them and their need for His love.
To see their faces and to see pictures and videos of them in and around their homes makes these people real in my heart as well as in my mind. On this site I was struck by the picture of the mom holding her child - and the child has a two bottles of something strung together and draped across him …. I’m guessing that these bottles have something to do with a traditional religion and without any explanation this picture makes the need for Christ in their lives very real to me.
I could go on and on….
8. Ok…the last page, “West Africa Missions Resources,” brings it home. GREAT job!
Overall, what this site does is that it makes it personal. From introducing the people groups (while acknowledging what is good and lovable about them) it also shares their deep need for Christ and His love. This site shares with the reader that the people of West Africa have open and loving hearts but that those hearts are lost without Christ.
Topics: Missions |
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:46 pm
A link to this post will be in the March 26, 2008 issue of Regional Community Development News. It will be on-line March 27 at http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/ Please visit, check the tools and consider a link. Tom