However, the web site must bear witness to faith and directly share community. Faith stories shared by real people through text, audio, and/or video show the congregation’s commitment to its belief. These stories with pictures of people sharing community together help the visitor to hear the witness, while the gentleness of the Web’s passivity enables them to explore the beginning of their faith at their own pace. A site must be rich with good quality material attractively arranged and clearly organized. Religious language must be minimized or very carefully defined. Every effort must be made to engage the visitor through an exploration of faith in daily life, not just pious meandering.

In many important ways a well-managed congregational web site will gently integrate congregational communication into the everyday lives of members.

In the future, as congregations develop web sites to facilitate their work, it will become increasingly possible to search the Web for exciting initiatives being reported in other churches’ web sites. The Web will become a primary way that church leaders share ideas with each other and begin to communicate about more effective ways to develop congregational mission.

Pictures and write-ups from past events can be linked into the calendar following the event to create a kind of multimedia history of the life of the congregation, which can share valuable insights for newcomers and long-time members alike.

It is important to remember that online community is different from the physical community of a congregation. Face-to-face community is often held together by charismatic, articulate leadership that has roots in the physical presence of individuals. Online community actually favors those who write well, are thoughtful, and are kind. On the Internet, shyness is less of a barrier and can actually enable empathetic caring and witness. Age, gender, race, physical impairment, etc., are not nearly the barriers to online community that they are in the average local congregation. A faithful venture in witness through the Internet may be able to draw on a congregation’s untapped resources and release new power for mission.