alexschwindt.com

homosexuality and church planting

One of the most difficult questions church planters hoping to reach a new  generation will have to wrestle with is the question of homosexuality.  For many postmoderns this issue is a pass-fail in the search for a spiritual community.  Spiritual entrepreneurs today need to understand that this issue has come to be about SO much more than a particular form of sexual expression.

Instead of trying to explain what I'm talking about, take a listen to a friend of mine named Emily Nixon.  Emily is someone who's walked about from Christianity because she can't reconcile her own deepest values with the church as she sees it today.  Take a listen to a conversation we had over at Homer's Coffee Shop . . .

Sound familiar?

church and the web

As I was doing to research on church planting and technology I stumbled upon an article from Christianity Today which reports that 80-85% of people are making their initial connections to a church based on the church's website.  This study is almost 18 months old at this point, so this number may even be higher by now. 

Unfortunately, this statistic 'feels' very true.  I say unfortunately because most church websites today stink.  Many of them feature irrelevant graphic design, confusing navigation, outdated technologies, a shocking lack of basic information and first-time viewer awareness.  As someone who's been designing ministry websites for almost ten years I've found the ratio to be something like seven bad sites to every decent site.  The ratio is something like 15 to 1 for great sites.