Ministers: get your face on your church website

Washington Metro — the main subway and bus provider — is really trying to shape up its public image and service following the retirement of the last director, best remembered locally for his golden parachute.

All hail the Interim General Manager, Dan Tangherlini. Hubby and I have first-hand knowledge of his responsiveness. Does he sleep? Things really do seem to be changing. Normally you feel like you’re taking your life into your hands when you ask a subway stationmaster a question — much less commit a minor infraction — but last weekend one said hello in a non-menacing fashion. And you can get a system-wide bus map on the bus rather than going to a central office in a subway station, no less. (A lot of bus-riders, myself included, ride the subway infrequently.) And there are bus stop specific maps that make it very clear where a bus goes from a subway station. Lot’s of nice changes.

But none quite so comforting as Dan’s picture showing up on a lot of the promotional material and posters Metro makes. Good. Putting a face and a name to an idea (better service) makes me feel that there’s someone in charge who’s really going to care about my straphanging concerns.

OK ministers, what about you? For reasons I cannot fathom, so many ministers I know don’t have a page about themselves on their church website. Or no photo. Or no clear photo. And don’t make it easy to find.

Make it easy to find. Make yourself easy to find and identify. It isn’t about your ego; it is about giving newcomers a sense that your church and pastorate are “put together” well.

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

1 comment

  1. Equally important — photos of your education director, and of your child care providers — parents want to see the people to whom they will entrust their children. My $.02 worth.

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