Website Lightning Demos
A "lightning demo" is a demo of a "competitor" product, or non-competitor product that offers insight
Other Area Churches
When considering web hosting options, it was helpful to look at the websites of other area churches to see what web hosts and functionality are popular among churches in the same demographic. See below for a critique.
Calvary Chapel
Pros:
- Nice, logical look to website, with prairie color scheme and pictures of wheat
- Layout makes good use of white space
- Easy to navigate menu
- Sermon MP3 files posted weekly
- Up-to-date calendar
- Photo albums hosted directly on website
- Prayer requests accepted via website
Cons:
- Blog out-of-date
- Sparse photos with no reference to year
- Lack of link to Calvary Chapel's often-updated Facebook Page
- Lack of share buttons
First Mennonite Church
Note: First Mennonite Church's website theme was changed after this GitBook was made
http://www.fmcprettyprairie.org
Pros:
- Live video streaming with video archive and "message" resources updated weekly
- Share buttons
- Up-to-date calendar
- Messages accepted via website
Cons:
- Somewhat outdated looking design; gimmicky lighthouse gif at the top of site; use of whitespace could be better
- Drop-down menu slightly convoluted
- Lack of obvious photos = missed opportunity
- Apparent lack of a blog
- Archive looks as though it stopped being updated years ago
Note: First Mennonite Church has a private Facebook group, rather than a public page
New Jerusalem Church
http://prettyprairiechurch.org
Pros:
- Up-to-date blog posts
- Up-to-date calendar
- Online donations
- Facebook share and like buttons
- Facebook page like buttons
- Messages accepted via website
Cons:
- Commonly seen WordPress template used
- Color, photo choice/editing could at times be used to better effect
- Pages have a very widget-ty look and use of white space could be better
- Pictures and videos page looks as though it stopped being updated years ago
- Could do with a direct link to New Jerusalem's often-updated Facebook page
Notably, New Jerusalem Church is using the very popular WordPress Twenty Eleven theme. I also considered this template for Pretty Prairie United Methodist Church because the global United Methodist Church offers this template as part of its hosting platform. But, I decided to forgo it in order to have something unique to Pretty Prairie United Methodist Church.