Best Practices in Internet Ministry

March 20, 2009 at 5:44 pm Leave a comment

I dislike the term ‘best practices.’ My experience is that most best practices, aren’t. But, there are always exceptions. Dave Bourgeois, Associate Professor of Information Systems at Biola University recently presented a workshop for the Center for Congregations, “God in the Tubes: Developing an Internet Strategy for Your Congregation.” Dave did some really interesting research on congregations and related non-profits who use the internet as part of their work. I like Dave’s research because it affirms many things I’ve been saying! Here’s a sampling:

Only 36% of the respondents felt their Internet ministry was successful
64% of organizations with an annual budget >$10,000 reported success vs 30% or less with budgets under $1000
Organizations that integated outside services like Flickr and Youtube reported up to 45% more success than those that didn’t
Organizations that integrated social networking tools… Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. reported 24% more success than those that didn’t
Organizations who had volunteers build the web site reported success 16% less often than those who did not (that’s a -16% success rate)
Collecting data or research in preparation for developing a web ministry, 52% of organizations that answered “yes” reported success, compared to 26% success for those who reported “no”

Check out the rest of Dave’s best practice data at http://genesys11.com/fileadmin/user_upload/genesys11-InternetMinistryBestPractices.pdf. For more information on Dave and his research check out http://godinthetubes.com.