Members need quick access to church information. At the same time, churches don’t want to publish all information to public; today’s world has raised new security concerns.

If your church feels the need to make some members’ info available on the web but only to certain users, there are several approaches. The basic approach is to have certain sections of your site visible to all, but accessible only with a password. I’d deem this the least attractive. People can become suspicious of “No Trespassing” signs on a church website; just what are they hiding? Maybe most people understand this, but since there are other solutions to this problem, I don’t see the point in possibly offending your visitors.

Another tack is to set up a separate site for members. This can be done in many ways; a lot of churches use Facebook for their members, posting private information in a closed group on that site.

More and more, it’s becoming easy to assign different levels of users on a site. Members sign in and are able to see parts of the site that are otherwise invisible to other users. To me, that’s a more elegant solution. I’d love to hear how your views on this issue.

Here are some basics that members need:

• A calendar of events. It’s easy to set up calendars today. I recommend using Google Calendars, but there are lots of options. A good calendar will not only tell you when and where, but also provide a map to the location, have contact info for the organizers, etc.
• Contact info for church leaders and event organizers. Make sure the church phone number is readily available as well.
• Access to recent bulletins. This is especially helpful to those who travel over the weekend and to shut-ins.
• Sermon downloads. Once churches had an active tape ministry. Little by little, the download is replacing that.
• Links to ministries that the church supports. If you support missionaries, non-profits or other ministries, your members should have any easy way to get more info about those efforts.

Beyond that, there is much you can add: photos, discussions, blogs… What are some of the things you can think of? What can a church offer on its website that would be of special help to its members?