1Cor 12:12 “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”

As I reflect on the verse above I think of the future of our web ministry and how we can make it more effective. The answer is in developing an effective team comprised of individuals with very precise and clearly defined roles. We need more parts in this body for it to work better in the future

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A ministry is very similar to a business. Usually the owner of the business begins doing everything. He/She is the Director, Accountant, Marketing Manager, Sales Manager and so forth. As the business grows it becomes increasingly difficult and sometimes impossible to operate it effectively alone. The answer to this comes in delegating the roles to others who are capable of rising to the challenge.

Our website ministry will and must have a similar story to remain effective and soar to new heights. Our features on the website continue to increase (and they have to increase if we are to remain relevant). We need to have a good team and strategy to deal with our growth.

The main challenges of a website in this age are to remain up to date, interesting, relevant and being able to cater for the different needs of our diverse audience. This can only accomplished if we have a carefully structured team of enthusiastic people working towards these goals.

What is the best team structure?

I don’t have the best answer to this question, but here is a possible approach to building an excellent team to meet the challenge of running a church website.

I have identified the following possible roles:

1. Producers – These are the people producing the materials such as preachers and teachers
2. Reporters/Recorders – These are the people recording sermons, writing transcripts, writing reports on church and ministry activities, etc
3. Web publishers/editors – These are the people in charge of posting content to the website and editing existing content.
4. Web Administrators – These are the people in charge of ensuring that all website users can access the appropriate website resources. For example, they would create user accounts, backup the website and deal with the technical issues related to website users and day-to-day running of the website.
5. Web Designers and Developers – These are the people responsible for designing the website, implementing new features, looking at the feasibility of suggested features and the overall technical issues related to the website

As in the example of a business, how structured a team should get depends on how big the website gets and the available human resource. A good approach for a new website would be to start off with one Web developer who does everything and steadily move to a more structured approach as proposed above. The structuring should be proportional to the growth. As the website grows in size and complexity, you have no choice but to have a more structured team in order to maintain its effectiveness and remain efficient.

Note that other team structures are possible. For example, you might need a Manager to oversee the overall website ministry and trainers to train new members. You might need more or less publishers depending on the size and you might have individuals transcending several roles, etc. The important thing to keep in mind is that with growth a structured team is needed to stay effective and efficient.

If you are a member of KBC and feel that you can help us with any of the roles identified above then please contact us and tell us what you can do for us