Papa John’s Pizza announced yesterday that they have eclipsed the $1 Billion mark in internet sales. I personally have been ordering pizza from them this way for two or three years. It is easy. I can see my options without having to ask someone to repeat themselves. I can easily order my families favorite pizza, a half sausage, half sausage and mushroom with out confusing the person taking my order. Papa John’s beat other pizza chains to this internet ordering phenomenon. Now Domino’s and Pizza Hut have joined in to try to balance out the landscape.

Now, this made think about how churches use their internet presence. Are we fully taking advantage of the opportunity here? A recent post from a church marketing blog polled readers what they thought the number of churches that have a church website was. Most people fell in the 0 – 50% category. The actual number…62%. But, maybe the better question is, how many churches represented in that 62% are getting the most out of their website? I have encountered people who thought investing into a website was wasted resources. I am sure that people even within Papa John’s corporate structure thought ordering pizza online was nuts. Innovation is nuts, but if it were mainstream, it wouldn’t be innovative now would it?

One of the most innovative churches I have seen using the web is Lifechurch.tv. Now, I don’t always understand all that they offer online, but they are reaching people most are not. They are the Papa John’s of churches.

How does your church website work for you? How could it work better?