Church Websites – More Thoughts

In addition to many churches not stating what they believe on their websites, I was struck how many promoted their pastors over and above Biblical content. Now I realize that in some cases this is a thin line and a judgment call; but promoting pastors often focuses on personality and not substance. Yes, I think it’s good to say something about the pastor and staff, but when I look at bios to try to learn something that matters in a pastor’s background I often come up short on church websites. In the area where we live if you drive down major roads it isn’t unusual to see billboards promoting not churches, but rather the pastors of those churches.

Here is an excerpt from a website that is actually pretty mild, but it caught my attention a while back:

“Not your typical pastor. Pastor Smith is an avid runner and helps coach a local high school basketball team. He and his wife have a daughter in high school and a son in middle school.”

Comparatively speaking, this isn’t too bad in terms of self-promotion, but the reason it caught my attention were the words, “Not your typical pastor.” What does this say about other pastors? Don’t other pastors run or have other interests in addition to preparing sermons and caring for people? Don’t other pastors have spouses? Don’t other pastors have children?

I’ve known a lot of pastors and I’m not sure what a “typical pastor” is – unless the website is invoking a caricature, which it probably is, and in which case this is a pretty sad statement. Why put other pastors down? If I were this particular pastor I’d be embarrassed.

If websites are going to be about image, then let it be about the image of Jesus Christ and of that image in His church.