Sunday morning was the official launch of the new design of www.irvingbible.org. Outside of my work at the seminary this is my first major project, and I’m excited to get it online!

IBC wanted to step away from the traditional church website that focuses on static information, and give users a window into the life of the community. The concept is ‘IBC Stories’, a place for people to share stories of ministry, life change, and fellowship, and for the community to know what’s going on. This is a pretty bold move, but IBC is nothing if not forward-thinking.

This is a pretty minimal design, so that there wouldn’t be any design elements to distract the user from the stories shared on the page. No flash, no frills; just a little bit of jQuery and a healthy dose of CSS. The beauty of this website is that it’s strengths all lie in the content and its organization, and not in the visuals. It’s about the community and not the designer.

I think that we may be looking at the future of large church websites. Or maybe I just hope we are, so I can be in on the start of the next trend…who knows.