Christway

[Poimen]

Hi all,

Here is the start of the website for my church.

I'm an ammature (and my wife, the professional, is to busy with the paying jobs to help right now) so please don't snicker at my piece mill work.

But I would like your feedback (constructive feedback of course ) on what we have so far.

Thanks

Christway Church

[RamboPreacher]

looks good. easy to read.

I have a personal preference against the anglo-americanized "white" picoral/representation of Jesus, though. - but that's just a personal preference issue.

[jinjer]

It looks easy to use and easy on the eye. It is not very modern tho', just my opinion Also, if it were mine, I would not put a link to Emmaus Way board. There is so much discussed on there that a new or not churched person should not see yet. It could be perceived that many of those statements on the board are representative of your church, which they are not.

Jinjer

[Gerald Creasy]

DUDE! You're linkin to RZIM!!!!

Awesome.

[soulsearcher]

Looks beautiful, Chris. Easy to get around. The little word "independent" is a downer IMHO.

[Poimen]

Looks beautiful, Chris. Easy to get around. The little word "independent" is a downer IMHO.

Yeah, I knew you didn't like that from that thread nearly a year ago.

Thx for the compliment.

[Poimen]

DUDE! You're linkin to RZIM!!!!

Awesome.

My wife and I just love his broadcasts.

I really enjoy Adrian Rodgers as well (lwf).

[Poimen]

It looks easy to use and easy on the eye. It is not very modern tho', just my opinion Also, if it were mine, I would not put a link to Emmaus Way board. There is so much discussed on there that a new or not churched person should not see yet. It could be perceived that many of those statements on the board are representative of your church, which they are not.

Jinjer

Thx Jinjer.

Not very modern, aye? Care to elaborate? What do you envision when you say modern?

Would you say it is better than mediocre?

As for EW -- I'll take that into consideration. I had not thought of it (that link) from the perspective of the unchurched.

[Poimen]

looks good. easy to read.

I have a personal preference against the anglo-americanized "white" picoral/representation of Jesus, though. - but that's just a personal preference issue.

Thanks Brent!

I hear ya. But like I said, I'm an ammature and piecing together whatever I can find that looks fairly nice (at least until my wife makes me the custom site she promised she would).

Oh, yeah! Almost forgot...

Jesus wasn't white ???

[EagerBeaver]

It looks easy to use and easy on the eye. It is not very modern tho', just my opinion Also, if it were mine, I would not put a link to Emmaus Way board. There is so much discussed on there that a new or not churched person should not see yet. It could be perceived that many of those statements on the board are representative of your church, which they are not.

Jinjer

Thx Jinjer.

Not very modern, aye? Care to elaborate? What do you envision when you say modern?

Would you say it is better than mediocre?

As for EW -- I'll take that into consideration. I had not thought of it (that link) from the perspective of the unchurched.

It is a good start. I like the graphics.

I think what Jinjer may have been referring to is the use of Times New Roman font in the headers. I tend to use either Arial, Trebuchet MS or even Lucida Grande for post titles. A lot of people in the late '90s or on free sites like Angelfire and stuff used Times New Roman fonts because that was the only font they offered.

Otherwise I like the layout. It's good.

[dolfan]

Very nice looking. I think the image of Jesus is nice, but comes across to me as needing some more, I dunno, "vintage" context. If I'm right, you're trying to communicate, "Hey, we're not old fogies, but we do believe the ancient faith of Jesus." Great. That image is helpful, but the pastoral scenery doesn't communicate that as much as it just communicates, "we're from the churchy and we like it that way." Oddly enough, I think a little stained-glass or some other "vintage" type of image would work well with that one of Jesus and the lamb, all of it over a perhaps plain, darker background where your current pasture image is.

I'm like others on the word "independent". You've got it small font, which is alright, but to me it just says, "We don't really belong anywhere, and we're doing this by ourselves." Or, it could mean "shoestring", as in "we're broke and have nothing to offer but ourselves", which may be true and may be perfectly sufficient, but not something you want to phrase or convey on a website. I'd lose that word, because truly, you aren't independent and won't be if you succeed in your mission. Now, I know there's another Christway down that way, and you want to distinguish yourself, probably. So, how's about "missional" instead of independent. Or something even more open faced and less-churchy sounding, "community", which is overdone perhaps but may be the right word for your church and what you're aiming to do.

[jinjer]

Like those said before me, the not modern portion to me is the picture of Jesus and the font. While I like the thought of a picture of Jesus, I think there are others more modern that speak to what people are facing today. I also do not like the term "independent" and I know that this was discussed previously.

Jinjer

[rough_rider]

It kinda reminds me of a JW or LS group at first glance...

[dolfan]

I hadn't thought of that, Roughrider, but now that you said that ......

See what you get here? People think of everything.

[Poimen]

Thanks all. Your input is duly noted and considered.

As implied, this is not the final version, nor is it the permanent site.
I'm just trying to get something together for now, to actually get us on the web with a decent presence.

As for the word independent, there is not anything I can do about it. It is the churches official name, it's plastered across the church sign, etc. I understand the concerns about the term and it's implications. It is something I inherited and will have to work with.

I had Ariel, and related fonts to begin with and really clashed with the header, logo, etc. TNR was close enough to the logo font to blend. I can play with that though.

I actually wanted to make some images for all of that. But, being the ammature that I am, it was easier to get the ball rolling just using text links for buttons.

Like I said this is piece mill work. The basic template came with the header art work for free. I doctored it to add our logo, and have started adding nice effects to the overall appearance.

I hope to add date/time stamp buttons in the future, some nice widgets (like an events calendar), a pod cast, God tube videos, etc.

Since I'm using word press when we design the professional version all of the content will be transferable as it were.


Give me more, I appreciate the extra sets of eyes.