Small Parishes Face Unique Challenges, Websites Can Help

Blessed Sacrament Parish in Bridgeport, CT, has a small and humble membership of about 200 families and is one of the smallest parishes in the Diocese. Having a small parish, a tight budget and a limited staff can be a challenge, so the parish Reverend Fr. Reggie Norman decided that Websites from Our Sunday Visitor was one way he could communicate with his parish at a reasonable cost.

"Knowing parishioners go to the website is amazing," said Fr. Norman. "A website is imperative for small parishes. I have a part-time secretary and a part-time [Director of Religious Education] that works 16 hours a week. The rest is reliant on me.”

Having a website is a simple way to strengthen the communication effort for any parish and is currently helping Blessed Sacrament to reach their audience in a cost-effective way.

"We save on paper and time by having sign-up forms online. [Parishioner's] can get information on the web, fill it out and bring it in. Having information online cuts down on a lot of time spent on the phone," said Norman.

Having a website hasn't just saved them time, it's also served to inform outsiders on their ministries. "It’s also a great opportunity for people outside of parish to get an idea of who we are and what we’re about."

Visitors can learn more about the parish's ministries, see photos and videos of recent events, check the parish calendar, and even learn about sacraments.
"It's a one-stop-shop for them," said Fr. Norman. And according to Norman, the benefits aren't just for the visitors. "If I can streamline and be more effective through technology, it allows people to contact me on a constant basis. The fees we pay are reasonable -- even for a smaller inner-city parish. It's the best value for a good product.”

Fr. Norman admitted that he was concerned about the technological learning curve. Given his current responsibilities, he was unsure if he’d be able to take on more by learning how to create and maintain websites.

“You can customize it in an easy online environment. You don't have to learn programming,” he said. “Now it's second nature. I'm putting in my bulletin weekly and I don't even have to think about formatting or how I’m going to do this.

“I can tell whether I like something or not by how involved I get. There were times when I was up all night working because I just didn’t want to quit.”

See for yourself how easy it is to use Websites from Our Sunday Visitor. 

Schools need great web sites too!

Does your parish have a school associated with it?  How about diocesan schools or high schools?  Who administers the web site?  Are you able to allow various organizations to update their section of the site?  Our schools are making great use of technology for tuition payments and reporting grades,  but we appear to be missing opportunities to communicate distinctive competencies,  and mission.   And in many cases we don't have a means for alumni or other donors to contribute to the school electronically.

Schools have had web sites for quite some time.  The challenge is maintaining them.  So often a talented parent or student provides the service for the site and then moves away or graduates.  New content management systems such as Radius Web Tools make it very easy for non-technical people to maintain content on the web site.  In fact there can be several people who are able to update their part of the web site.  By providing easy-to-use content management tools,  the school can create and maintain a web site regardless of who matriculates.  And the school can incorporate a tool for electronic donations on the web site.

We have seen some really good examples of parish and school web sites which reflect the relationship with the parish as appropriate to the organization.  Check out St. Agnes in Phoenix, who elected to use one system with a clear distinction of school and parish.  Notice that St Agnes school also prominently offers Online Giving as an option to donate to the school.

Another example is St Thomas Aquinas in St. Cloud, FL  who has the school identified in the menu structure of the parish web site. 

Review your school web site and let us know what you think!

While you are at it don't forget parish youth groups.  The content management system is flexible enough to allow them to have a section on the parish web site that they maintain. 

Engage and Inform Your Parishioners - Use Your Website

Where do we send our parishioners regarding questions about the Faith? Certainly the pastor, deacons and associates are all good sources, but they are not always available. Does your parish have a decent library?

It is more likely that parishioners will search the web for their answers. Why not have them find the answers on the parish website? Should we not take responsibility for providing basic information about what we believe and why? As we become more accustomed to finding information on the internet, we also must step up the level of information we provide.

First we must raise the level of priority of the web site as part of our parish communications. As part of our planning we must consider who our website is reaching. Usually we think of the site for visitors, so we include schedules and bulletins. But we also can make the website a source for our parishioners, by including great information about what we believe, and also daily meditations and news articles that help inform us. We won't attract people to the site regularly unless we have interesting and useful information available there.

Research from Villanova University, and the Archdiocese of Boston indicates that parishioners are looking for more than a glorified bulletin when we look for information about parishes. And others are looking for a home that welcomes them. Our Sunday Visitor is helping to meet this need with Catholic content built into websites.

For a couple good examples of parish websites, visit: http://www.stannecsg.com/ and http://www.sacredheartquincy.org/.