Norwich church website wins national award

JasonBaldryChequeCFA Norwich church website won the award for Most Engaging Small Church Website at the prestigious Christian New Media awards on November 1, bagging a £1,000 prize for the church.


The awards were established eight years ago to celebrate and encourage excellence in Christian engagement online. The awards focus attention on the people and projects that can serve as examples of best practice for the benefit of the Church.

St Thomas’ website was designed by Jason Baldry. Jason was approached by St Thomas Church when their old website went down due to a virus attack. Having produced a few websites before, Jason agreed to help in whatever way he could. The decision was taken to develop a new site with the objective to create a modern and contemporary site that played to St Thomas' strengths in social networking, multi media production and their extremely active leaders. Jason said, "I didn't want to create a website that simply adhered to some of the more general characteristics seen in other church websites, but rather one that was striking, different and eye catching, with high quality content at its core."

WebsiteTrophyCFJason works in IT and found creating the church website a way that he could use his interest in technology and his design skills to assist his church. Jason said, “I enjoyed the design aspect of creating the website and the challenge of how to present the information about our church in an accessible and appealing way.” The website features recordings of Sunday talks, regular blog entries from church leaders, an events calendar and links to the church’s growing social media channels.

Jason said, “Winning the award was a great encouragement. I was suprised to be there given the quality of the other sites. I feel really pleased I can be involved with St Thomas' as it grows."

The awards ceremony followed a one-day digital media conference featuring 30 sessions and 35 speakers on a range of topics to explore how the digital revolution can help transform people’s spiritual lives, churches and communities.
 


Pictured above: Jason Baldry was awarded with a £1,000 cheque for St Thomas' Church.

Jason has created a number of websites and is keen to offer his design services to other local businesses and charities. Jason can be contacted on jason.a.baldry@gmail.com

Click here to visit St Thomas Church website