Web Site Review For Northern Hills Christian Church
Here is another review in our series on Colorado church web sites.
Web site:
http://northernhills.cc/
Rating:
3.5 crosses out of 5
From the site:
"Elders provide oversight of the Leadership Team and the spiritual direction for Northern Hills.
The Elders and Leadership Team develop the vision and the directional plan for Northern Hills.
The Leadership Team, Staff and NHCC Owners execute the directional plan for Northern Hills.
The Teaching Team communicates the vision and direction of Northern Hills."
This requires translation.
In 2006, founding pastor Dennis Thomas was forced to resign when his board turned against him. The result was the departure of many families who made Northern Hills Christian Church one of the most serving, and fastest growing churches in this state of Colorado.
The church's governing body model, described vaguely on its website, can be found more commonly among the Mormon Church than the New Testament. They play by their have rules and have a multipurpose facility that houses both sporting events and worship service to manage.
The overhead of this campus is high, and the Spirit-filled worshipers who once fueled the church with labor and money have been repelled by the elders who currently sit on thrones ala the Pharisees. The once-small church once located in a strip mall in a northern Denver suburb, grew into this facility. It was designed with the 1980's megachurch model in mind, and plans to expand it more still exist, stalled by political objections to the hostile take over.
The fact is, when Rev. Thomas was in charge, good intentions grew into what the web site promises.
But this review is not about the church. It is about the web place. make no mistake: God responds to worshipers, and even among the distractions of Man, God is worshiped there.
The home page is flashy, the result of software provided by local web designer Luke Bodley, a self-proclaimed recovering drug addict, and currently the Executive Director of Heaven Fest. His boasting to local business owners on how to use My Space to reach the masses has been addressed, using automated advertising tools on social networks like Facebook, without paying Mr. Bodley royalties for his consultation. His slick software produces fast-loading, knowing web pages that are no longer a novelty.
Never consider a church by its website.
The dwelling of the church, and several means of contact to its many departments give it the appearance of being large and prosperous.
If Northern Hills Christian Church's web spot could be compared to a movie poster, it would be The Stepford Wives.
After clicking around the site for a few minutes, I found the links themselves worked well. However, when it came to gathering information beyond the church's street address, phone number, email, and statement of beliefs, information that is advertised to be readily available is not... nothing has changed.
After meeting with Mr. Bodley in 2007, he was eager to narrate how to achieve a given web design effect, but was on the fence about taking on another project as his desire to emcee musical venues dominated his time. His attention was divided, and it shows on this web site. I would compare Bodley's artistic style to the Shakespearean character of Bottom of A Midsummer Night's Dream, so engrossed in the art he's sharing with the world, he stops in mid-performance to explain to the audience how it was done.
At first, everything seems functional and too-good-to-be-true. The more one clicks, the more one realizes that its design was not thought all the way through before being uploaded. If the site were a GPS system, it would be recalled.
After attending this church for several months in 2007, in protest to the aged, inaccurate directory of its "Life Group" directories, one of the elders stated, "There are literally thousands of churches in the area. Maybe you need to fetch one of those." After the coup this church's board did to their founding senior pastor, that's exactly what many families did. Public relations failed to bring the fellowship back to where it was before pastor Thomas left, and even the first-year outdoor music event failed to do more than incur debt and frustrate local residents over awful traffic management.
The fact that the church sits on a narrow allotment of Highway 7 doesn't help; its weekly-populated gathers, of love or midweek studies, stunted by horrible traffic and parking conditions. Just image several thousand cars trying to maneuver your driveway.
The ideal family or individual who will fit good into this church will likely have the following characteristics:
1. Wealthy.
A few wealthy people currently finance the majority of the ministries, including the overhead of this multipurpose campus. The working-class communities that would otherwise support it have either been unable to b the economy, or been told by elders that they are not welcome there. Imagine the city council from Footloose glaring down on Kevin Bacon at the end of the film.
2. Members of a look protection program.
Anyone seeking to maintain a coarse profile and only voice their ministry desires through their financial giving will enjoy the stage shows and brief biblical seminars; emphasis on brief.
3. No need for fellowship whatsoever.
Unless you are already related to those who attend, or your needs are already met by the average telemarketing call, the intimacy received by new members of First Bank from their branch managers is more authentic than the love of Jesus advertised on this web site. The web site shows photos of happy, smiling, compassionate people, but know that none of these photos were taken on-site.
Gape it for yourselves. A lot can change in three years.
Service times published on the site are accurate, as are phone numbers...we didn't send any emails to confirm if any of these are working.
Fair remember to advance early, for traffic is a genuine concern.
Our web site rating: 3.5 of 5 crosses. The church: no comment. Attend and you tell us.
Web master, if information is not available at press time, omit it. Many dead-end web pages. The web master is not responsible for the management of the real church.
Next: Calvary Chapel Broomfield.
Cory Parella is a pastor, movie producer and author in Denver, Colorado. His books include Jedi To Jesus: The Making of a Christian Filmmaker.
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Filed under Translation Equipment For Churches by on Dec 28th, 2011. 
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