Before You Publish: A Checklist for Church Web Pages

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Before You Publish
A checklist for the church committee
from Joyce Kiely, Linden Street United Methodist Church

Print this page (File, Print), make a copy for everyone on the committee, and go through it together before your church's page goes on the World Wide Web, and again whenever you change something big. Every question should get a check mark. If one can't, that's the thing to fix first.

Church: _______________________________
Date of meeting: ______________

THE FIRST THINGS A VISITOR LOOKS FOR

[ ]	Service times are at the top of the front page, in large type, and they are correct for this season.
[ ]	If the times change in summer or for holidays, the page says when.
[ ]	Sunday School times and classes for all ages are listed.
[ ]	The street and town are given, with directions from the nearest highway.
[ ]	The page says where to park and which door to use.
[ ]	The page says which entrance has a ramp, and where the elevator or ground-floor rooms are.
[ ]	The page says, honestly, what people wear.
[ ]	The nursery is described: ages, hours, and that two adults are always present.
[ ]	There is a short welcome from the pastor, with the pastor's name, and the pastor has read and approved it.

KEEPING IT CURRENT

[ ]	Every page shows the date it was last updated.
[ ]	If there is a calendar, one named person updates it every week. If no one can, it has been taken off, and only the things that never change are listed.
[ ]	Nothing on the page is for an event that has already happened.
[ ]	Someone knows how to post a weather cancellation by six in the morning, and the radio stations are on the same list.
[ ]	Christmas Eve and Easter times have been checked by two different people.

PEOPLE'S PRIVACY

[ ]	The member directory is not on the page, in whole or in part.
[ ]	No one's home address or home telephone number appears, including the pastor's.
[ ]	Every adult in a photograph has said yes to being on the Internet.
[ ]	Children appear only in group pictures, with no names next to faces, and a parent has signed a permission slip for each child.
[ ]	Every prayer request on the page was posted with the permission of the person it's about (or their family), asked in so many words.
[ ]	Prayer requests come down after two weeks unless they are renewed.
[ ]	Nothing on the page says when a particular family will be away from home.

WORDS AND MUSIC

[ ]	No song or hymn words are posted unless we have asked whoever holds the rights, or the people who sell our song license, and been told yes for the Internet.
[ ]	Where we'd like to share the music, we give the title and the hymnal number instead.
[ ]	Sermons posted on the page are the pastor's own words, posted with the pastor's permission.

WHO'S IN CHARGE

[ ]	One person is in charge of the page: _______________________
[ ]	One person is the backup, and knows how to make changes: _______________________
[ ]	The member name and password are written on a card, sealed in an envelope, and kept in the church safe.
[ ]	Someone reads the page's e-mail at least every other day, and answers within a day when possible, within a week always.
[ ]	The committee knows who to tell when something on the page is wrong.

THE LAST LOOK

[ ]	Two people have read every word for spelling, especially names.
[ ]	Every link has been clicked and goes where it says.
[ ]	Someone who has never been to our church has read the front page and could find us on Sunday morning.

Approved by the committee:

Pastor: _______________________________ Date: __________

Person in charge: _______________________ Date: __________

Backup: _______________________________ Date: __________

You are welcome to copy this checklist for your own church, and to change it to suit. I'd only ask that you leave my name at the top, so that if something in it turns out to be wrong, people know whom to scold. Questions: [email protected].

Last updated Monday, September 13, 1999.

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