40 Days - Torrington, WY

[sstress]

I just got last minute notice that Torrington just kicked off 40 Days of Purpose so I added a promo to the homepage. I know this program has been done at many churches over the last couple of years, but this is the first time for Torrington.

http://www.firstbaptisttorrington.org/

Anyone have familiarity with the program? I kind of struggled with the wording, but I think it'll work. I'm open to ideas though. Should I build a landing page? If so, what should I put on it?

Thanks for any thoughts (or URLs of good examples) on the subject!

Thank you all! And Happy New Year!!!

[GuruGreg]

I don't think I can say how little I enjoyed doing that series at my church almost two years ago. Not to say that it doesn't have it's benefits, but since it is geared as an introduction to Christianity and having been a Christian for a number of years now, it was the equivalent of reading a book on fractions after completing a calculus course. Most of the benefit I reaped from our small groups were not in discussing the book, but in bonding with others in that setting. It was much easier to have more open and more personal discussions with 10 people than in the congregation setting.

Good luck with it though...just make sure to get as many non-Christians invited as possible. Otherwise, the series just won't be very fruitful.

As for you site, the 40 Days banner definitely dominates the page, and I'm not sure how good of a thing that is on the main page. It may be better suited to be a smaller box on the left, and have some text about your church in the main area. Otherwise, it may look like they've missed the start of the series, so they may not come until it's over because it appears to be the only thing going on.

[sstress]

Thanks for the feedback. I too went thru the 40 days program 2 years ago, but moved away right at the beginning of the program. But I did recognize that its greatest strength was as an outreach tool.

You also gave me some food for thought. The site is a new one, and I put it together with very little guidance and feedback (you'll notice most of it is photos that I took, mostly). It needs more meat on the homepage. Even scheduled bible studies, etc could be added to the homepage. Anything to help give it a greater sense of urgency and overall activity.

Thank you very much! I'll re-approach that entry page :)

Michael

[sstress]

Ok, homepage has been updated. Its gettin' better! I removed the single dominant image, added a left promo rail, and worked to create a more intimate setting.

http://www.firstbaptisttorrington.org/

[JackWolfgang]

Ok, homepage has been updated. Its gettin' better! I removed the single dominant image, added a left promo rail, and worked to create a more intimate setting.

http://www.firstbaptisttorrington.org/

The site looks wonderful visually, but the HTML does not validate. Many (if not all) of the validation problems are caused by not specifying ALT tags for your images. ALT tags are important, especially for a graphics-heavy site such as this one. Here is how a blind user would hear your site:

Page has seven linksWelcome! First Baptist Church, Torrington, WY dash Internet ExplorerTable with one column and thirty-four rowsTable with five columns and twenty-nine rowsTable with one column and sixteen rowsTable with one column and eleven rowsLinkGraphic slash home underline promo underline gallery.jpgLink Tour of First BaptistLink Installation CelebrationLink The Hanging of the Greens Link Men's BreakfastLink Tour of TorringtonTable endTable endTable with one column and eleven rowsTable with two columns and four rowsTable with three columns and three rows Sunday Sunday School nine colon thirty am, Fellowship ten colon twenty dash ten colon forty-five am, Worship ten colon forty-five am Tuesday Bible Study six colon thirty pm Wednesday Bible Study ten colon zeroam, Power Prayer six colon zeropm, Choir six colon thirty pm, Bible Study seven colon thirty pmTable endTable endTable with one column and one row If you have any questions, comments, or prayer requests please feel free to email me at Link fbctorrington at aol.com dash Pastor Rick Table endTable endTable endTable with three columns and one rowTable endTable end

Two reasons to care about this:


"Why should you care whether such people [with disabilities] can browse your site or not? Because they matter to God, too." --Gillaspey (http://www.greatchurchwebsites.org/accessibility_intro.php)
"a speaker pointed out that the Google search engine is the biggest blind user on the web." ... "Looked at (sorry) another way, Google's aggregate readership makes the search engine much like a blind billionaire." Zeldman (Designing with Web Standards, Second Edition. page 335)

[sstress]

Doing the best I can! I just have to get in the habit of alt tagging.

Thanks for the reinforcement!

God bless,
Michael