Vineyard Columbus was able to see the big picture. A website is not just about the user; it also involves the staff that maintains it and the church it represents.
Vineyard Columbus is Able to Measure Their Ministry Goals Online for the First Time
Lead by their senior pastor and author, Rich Nathan, Vineyard Columbus has become the largest church in the Associate of Vineyard Churches. Beginning in Westerville, OH, there are now four campuses spread out across the Columbus, OH area working together to be a relevant church that does not exist for itself, but for Christ and for the world.
Their Goals
- Fresh, user-friendly design
- Vineyard Column was working on a deadline and needed their site as quickly as possible
- More intuitive CMS for non-technical staff
- Rethink content organization and strategy to make information easier to find
- Integrate Arena church management system to keep events in one place
- Directly speak to the growing number of newcomers
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The Situation
When Vineyard Columbus came to Monk Development, their site’s design wasn’t a total train wreck. It wasn’t on life support and certainly wasn’t the worst site around. As their Pastor of Joshua House (the twenty-something community of Vineyard Columbus) said, “it was generally functional.” Sure, it had some real room for improvement but it worked.
However, Vineyard Columbus was able to see the big picture. A website is not just about the user; it also involves the staff that maintains it and the church it represents. For VC, content was cluttered and hard to find. Maintaining a complex Content Management System (CMS) as well as a separate church database was taxing and confusing. And perhaps the greatest downfall to the site was that it did not connect users to the content they needed.
“I would strongly encourage other churches to use Monk Development because they are the experts at technology and they let us do what we’re good at: the ministry of the kingdom. Trying to do a quality website in-house means that you have to become an expert in all kinds of things and who has time for that?”
Jonathan Rue
Pastor of Joshua House, the twenty-something community of Vineyard Columbus
The Solution
Vineyard Columbus sought to take the user along the same journey they would experience if attending their church by providing Next Steps and Ministry information. They built their entire navigation structure and site map to reflect the natural flow a newcomer would take from visiting for the first time to becoming a member. They wanted their church’s mission to be reflected online with measurable, realistic results.
MonkDev partnered with Chris Merritt of Pixelite Creative in order to create the fresh designs of Vineyard Columbus’ site. VC prioritized both their design and build budgets to focus on new member engagement, creating a custom template for their “I’m New” page. To continue their user’s journey online, a robust ministry landing page was developed to feature their many serving opportunities. Their events were also built to link out to their existing church management software for a seamless user experience.
The Stats
Vineyard Columbus was never able to pull analytical data from their site before. With their new site, they were able to track influential statistics for their ministries and congregation. They now know where to focus their efforts and how to measure if they are successful. Their top 3 most visited pages are:
- Sermons (Watch & Listen)
- I'm New
- Ministries
They were also able to compare their online traffic with what they were recording in person each weekend. This type of tracking and more will help VC better create and track specific ministry goals and improve their online performance.
The Services
