Webchurch experience, using Rainmaker Platform (Retail Version is $165/mo).
Your first question is likely, “What’s a webchurch?”
I created a demo WebChurch site for you to experience it yourself. Then we can hop on a free call to answer your questions if you want.
Click here to experience it for yourself.
To answer that question, let’s begin with how you define a church.
Is a church the physical structure the congregation meets in?
Or are the people that associate themselves with the church, the actual church?
I see a church as the people.
As the sum of the connections between those people, aka congregants, both visitors and members alike.
A webchurch is the digital representation of your church.
Combine a website property specific to the church along with helpful emails to spur increased communication between everyone.
The webchurch experience documented in this post was more than six years in the making.
One thing to understand early and often?
Never let ’em make you speak tech.
No matter how many tech buzzwords they throw at you, always know it’s your message that matters.
Your ministry.
The pieces forming the experience (and their technical terms such as autoresponder sequence, free digital products, membergroups, landing pages, email lists, et al) are trees.
The WebChurch, which empowers you AND your ministry leaders, is your forest
Who did I specifically craft this webchurch experience for?
- You lead a local church
- You’re NOT a digital native
- Modest budget
- Passion for your mission
- Vision for your congregation
The WebChurch merely serves as an amplifier for the actions of your church team.
This is accomplished by organizing and focusing communication with the complete congregation on as close to a personal level as possible.
The Webchurch experience focuses on delivering a personalized message for each ministry member over the life of their relationship with your church.
This goal of the experience is to move people from the stranger view to the visitor view and on to the member view.
Let’s Walk Through Views 1 thru 6 That Strangers See
View 1 – Stranger view on the home page
This is your view when you land on the home page but are NOT logged int. Call-to-action is for the site visitor to introduce themselves by joining the virtual congregation as a visitor.
Clicking the CTA button leads the stranger to the next view.
View 2 – The Visitor Sign up Page
Simple landing page for creating an account with your webchurch. Think of this as the digital equivalent to a first time visitor with your church filling out and returning a visitor card.
View 3 – Almost There Page
Email communication is important, so the first time they sign up with your Rainmaker powered website, everyone must confirm their email address by clicking a confirmation link emailed to the email address they provided.
View 4 – Email confirmation link
This email is sent automatically by your Rainmaker Platform powered website once a new email address is submitted for inclusion on your email list.
View 5 – Success Page
The visitor has successfully introduced themselves to your webchurch, removing the stranger view and putting the visitor view in their sights..
View 6 – Home Page – Visitor View
The home page is the primary page for your congregation. Now that they’re logged in, they see either the visitor or member view, depending on where they are in their relationship with your WebChurch.
To Recap
The WebChurch is a first step in dividing your website visitors into groups to speak to them more directly on each page of your site.
Not to mention each email you send them.
If you’re wondering what happened to the fifth video, you can watch it here (It’s about working with me).
Here’s how the lifecycle of a webchurch member is laid out in order.
- Phase 1 | Stranger View
- Introduce self and confirm email address
- Phase 2 | Visitor View
- Join community group
- Phase 3 | Member View
- Join Additional Applicable Ministries
- Kids Ministry
- Youth Ministry
- Womens Ministry
- Mens Ministry
- Join Additional Applicable Ministries
- Phase 4 | Volunteer View
Adding additional ministries is simply a matter of replicating the components from one of the five included ministries.
Take the demo for a spin webchurch demo here. Check into availability of my personal attention here.
P.S. There’s almost nothing I love more than answering questions, so please comment here or email me directly with your questions, comments, or concerns about my WebChurch strategy.
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