Review website Mission Australia

By Marjolein Voortman

These days, the Internet becomes a more and more important and even required way of informing people about organisations. Their websites make it possible not only to provide essential information about their goals and mission, but also to do this in a way that makes it possible for viewers to actively involve themselves in the organisations and to determine what their own role can be, in terms of achieving the organisation’s goals through their policy. Considering the speed in which people tend to surf the Internet, it’s needless to say that the direct and indirect quality of these websites are of great influence on their effectiveness. I will now review the website of Mission Australia.

Inspired by Jesus Christ, Mission Australia exists to meet human need and to spread the knowledge of the love of God. This is the official founding purpose of Mission Australia. It indicates a direct link to Christianity and is further supported by a quite famous quote from Matthew and another one from John, both sported on the mission and goals page. The website is obviously trying to make us move; the “Donate Now” application is continuously present and we are also informed about the possibility of adding them on Facebook and MySpace. The latter are quite important, as it makes a direct connection to websites that are incredible popular among youngsters and therefore will be able to make a relatively ‘unpopular’ topic (at least for an important part of the younger generation) more accessible, maybe even for non-religious youngsters.

When it comes to the layout, there have been made some smart choices for this website. The colours, black, white, grey and red, are quite calm without being boring, which makes it pleasant and easy to look through all the information. The ‘News’ application has been made a moving one, so that is draws immediate attention. The language that is sported throughout the entire website is welcoming and accessible. Also, there is the opportunity of making every page into a printable one, which is very suitable for them who are not too keen on spending that much time in front of a computer (older people, for example). Noticeable is the fact that Mission Australia tries to personalize the website by showing us their main employees – in word and picture - and adding clients’ stories and news articles that tell about specific families and communities that are helped by them, and in my opinion they succeed in this. Because the website provides a huge amount of information which is vital but can be a little dry here and there, it is important for the viewer to have the opportunity to read about the stories and the actual consequences of the deeds of the organisation. Also, the website provides us with the story of how the ‘mission family’ did arise, which makes the viewer feel even more involved.

Mission Australia is at some points very explicit about their Christian motivation on their website, and explain their moves simply by stating that “Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. So, we also ought to lay down our lives for others. (John)” There are still quite a lot of people who feel that God and the Internet do not go well together, for God is not a machine, but a spirit (Henderson, 2000) The Mission Australia website however forms a good example of how the Internet is turning out to be a quite unique new way to bring religion further into the world, without being cold or disenchanting (Jakobs, 2006). That being said, I am quite surprised that apart from the mentioned quotes, there’s hardly any mentioning of religion on most of the site’s pages. This might be because they feel this is obvious enough, considering the explicitness of the quotes on which the viewer stumbles almost immediately when entering the website. By not “rubbing it in”, I, as a non-religious viewer, still felt welcome and comfortable into their organisation.

I think this website is a very effective one, mainly because of the accessibility: for young, old, religious, non-religious, Australian, non-Australian, computer nerd and computer hater. Not only is this in general a positive effect of their website, but it also is consistent with the message they are trying to send out to us: a message of support and love, including everyone.

References

Henderson, C. (2000), The Internet As A Metaphor For God?, Cross Currents, vol. 50, no. 1/2

Jakobs, Doris R, (2006), Understanding Religion And Cyberspace, What Have We Learned, What Lies Ahead?, Religious Studies Review, vol. 32, no. 4, p. 237-242

www.missionaustralia.com.au