Church Websites and Their Ownership

Today's lesson is for those people who don't know much about having a website, and a pitfall your organisation may encounter. Before I go on with my situation, even if you don't read any further, please know the following:

• Your church really does need a website. (I'll come to this in another post this week)
• Your church web domain must be registered in the name of the church, and not in the name of an individual.
• More than one person should know how to use and update your website, and they need to know the relevant passwords and login details.

What follows is the events as they have been told to me edited and abridged.

This situation started a long time ago.  A good few years ago now, a website was created for the church.  The site was good for its day, but more recently it was starting to look a bit dated.  There were a few website sins, like a busy background image, and some dead links.  More seriously, the content was out of date.  You were invited to contact the church about services that were no longer running, and there was a contact button that was taken out of use, with a note underneath it inviting you to phone the church instead due to the volumes of spam.

When I new I was to working there, the first thing I did was to Google the place.  I was met with a website that looked a bit tired, and I thought that this was something I could offer to help with.  OK, I'm no web design expert, but I had experience with Wordpress, and I thought I could give some assistance.  I was told by my supervisor that I had best not, as someone else in the congregation saw the site as their pet project.  No problems - I'm here to do the Ministry thing, not the Webmaster thing.  The website has been one of those things that isn't the biggest thing for the church to be dealing with at the moment.

Some time around the start of December, the site disappeared completely, to be replaced by a holding page provided by the hosting company.  I mentioned this to my supervisor, and he said he would look into it.  Christmas came and went, and then on Tuesday of this week I received an email from my supervisor.  The original webmaster wasn't that keen on progressing the website and I was to create a website for the church.

Knowing that the Treasurer had recently paid the hosting bill for the church, I sent him a quick email asking if he had account details for the hosting company.  I needed to know what we were actually paying for in terms of space.  He didn't have anything, and referred me back to the original webmaster.  What I did know was that the domain was owned and paid for by the church.

Well I sent the webmaster an email asking if they could please give me the login information.  In the webmaster's reply on Wednesday morning, they asked the purpose of the noticeboard I was to create.  They said the original site was never intended to be a source of internal news, and suggested there were a number of forms of social media which would cover what I am trying to add.  Note that at no point up until now have I discussed my plans for the site with them, having been asked not to by my supervisor. I was not given the requested login information.

I replied in a rather long email giving my plans for the site, and also how I felt it would be appropriate to move the church email over to @churchdomain.com.  I closed with a further request for the login information.

Thursday was my regular supervision meeting, where we discussed plans for the website, and the reluctance to supply me with the appropriate login information.  After my meeting I went to the church office and contacted the hosting company.  They told me that they would supply me with the appropriate information.  So when Friday morning came, and the company hadn't been in contact, I thought something was up.  I had a quick look at the church domain, and the old website had reappeared.  I phoned the hosting company and they told me the webmaster had been in contact, and allegedly he had told them that I wasn't part of the church.  So the only way for me to get the login information was to send an email from the church office email account to the hosting company.  Only then would they be happy to release the information.

The church office is a few miles away, but I went there, sent the appropriate email, and finally I obtained the correct information. My first action was to lock out any other users, followed by me creating a "coming soon" page instead of the old website.  Finally I sent an email to the webmaster stating that I had taken control of the domain and that further information should come from the minister in the first instance.

I still have a feeling that this may run for a while, and may still cause me problems.  Throughout all this, I have had the support of my supervisor, and I really appreciate the trust that he has placed in me.  

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This has actually been a reasonably good learning experience.  I have came along when there has been a situation or conflict that has been brewing for quite some time.  I have been given a task to do that will may require me to take one side to achieve an outcome.  I have tried a reasonable approach, but I have been placed in a situation where I have had to take firm action and take control of the website.  Nobody really wins here, and I will still have to work with the webmaster for other things in the future.