Comments on: The Coolest Thing I’ve Seen On A Church Website

By: Jonathan Malm

Jonathan Malm — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:20:18 +0000

This is perfect! This made me want to make our own directory for Corpus Christi, TX.

By: ScottMcClellan

ScottMcClellan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:16:47 +0000

Funny.

By: The Prayer Coach

The Prayer Coach — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:01:10 +0000

While I agree this shows the heart of Park as working with the body of Christ to minister to the Chicago area, this idea can also have an added effect for search. If a Christian moves to the Chicago area, they will search for "Chicago churches." Having a list of churches in the Chicago area will help Park's site come up. Unfortunately, it does not seem that Park has considered SEO as a channel of advertisement.

Even so, this expression of their heart is of greater worth to God.

By: Looking for a Church? How About These Instead of Ours? - ChurchCrunch

Looking for a Church? How About These Instead of Ours? - ChurchCrunch — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:46:49 +0000

[...] this idea first found by Collide Magazine which shows Park Community Church hooking up visitors to their website with alternative locations [...]

By: Lonnie

Lonnie — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:23:17 +0000

David, I don't follow…they are also not linking to porn sites. Every church is going to have a worldview that will align with some organizations and differ from others. I think this is way-cool. If they linked to everyone, it would creep me out.

By: Mona

Mona — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:16:54 +0000

We have a hard enough time getting people to stick around; we're certainly not going to point people away. If the Holy Spirit want our people to attend other churches, He can direct them to (and that appears to be what's happening.) We don't ever want to stand in the way of the Spirit, but at the same time, we don't want to make it any worse than it is.

Please pray for our pastor, after years of faithful service, we had to sell back one week of his Hawai'i timeshare and get rid of the boat all together.

By: Steve L

Steve L — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:21:31 +0000

I think it shows more of a city-wide tranformational focus and the importance of reaching the city through ALL churches. Good job Park Leaders. Then Chicago can use its global influence to help tranform the world.

By: Terrace Crawford

Terrace Crawford — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:42:11 +0000

I've never seen that before either. AWESOME. --Terrace Crawford www.terracecrawford.com www.twitter.com/terracecrawford

By: Tim Schraeder

Tim Schraeder — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:16:20 +0000

Wow, thanks Scott!

Adding that little page to our site was an intentional decision and was an idea that I wasn't sure would go over well with our senior leadership, but it did!

We have many people who are new to the city and we are also aware that we aren't a church for everyone. So, instead of acting like we're the answer we wanted to point people to other churches that we have relationship with and that we support. The heart behind it was that at the end of the day we didn't care so much about people coming to our church as we did people going to A church that would help them grow in their spiritual journey. The churches we've listed are ones we have relationship with and ones we'd have no problem suggesting.

An unexpected result of listing these churches is that we've heard from a number of people that us doing that made them more convinced that they wanted to come and check us out. Obviously, not why we did it, but definitely a perk.

At the end of the day we don't see the other churches in the city as our "competition." Our competition is the things that people give their time and energy to outside of the church. So if people find their way to our church or the other church on the corner, we all win.

By: Avin Kline

Avin Kline — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:10:06 +0000

It is definitely clever, but I'm not sure how it is effective – not saying it isn't, but I just don't see it.

I suppose it does in communicate to the user that the church is more concerned with the user's life than their own growth – if that's the goal, than it's probably effective.