Humm, maybe start with a nice mock up on a localhost to demo for the pastor.

Might help sell it if you talk about security, cost (free), maintainability, and the community (availability of modules). Start basic and then say "we can also add this and this and this" but have a list of items that would interest him and the church.

But most of the time it doesn't matter how neat the backend is, the way people evaluate the website is how it looks (images are always important in this regard).

Couldn't hurt to have a list of drupal run church sites as well.

Thank you. That was basically my plan. I thought I could just assemble the site in MAMP and run the server from my laptop, allowing me to go into his office, bring it up on his computer, and show him how it works. Would that be a good approach? There is not much fundamentally wrong with our site now (www.acclife.org), but I know that it could be so much better with a drupal site instead.

I too am excited about the possibility and potential of my church using Drupal. Here is some of the supporting material I've collected.

• http://zivtech.com/videos/the-case-drupal-why-open...
-cheaper
-quicker to market
-large and active community
-lots of smart people using it
-scales well
-lots of add-on modules
-flexible

- Lots of tools that can be built and used for ministry

-calendar
-blog
-embed widget
-ecards
-organic groups
-forums
-online forms
-photo gallery
-etc

(demoing these features for him or at least showing him other ministry sites using these features will work much better than just listing them off)

• If your church plans on planting other churches (having multiple campuses) then this Texas A&M case study on multisite might be useful http://drupal.org/node/314624

Sites Built in Drupal
• http://abcfamily.go.com/abcfamily/path/section_Hom...
• http://bobdylan.com
• http://www.ledzeppelin.com/
• http://www.missionmetallica.com/
• http://www.britney.com/
• http://www.fastcompany.com
• http://www.mtv.co.uk/
• http://www.linuxjournal.com/
• http://opensource.org/
• http://web.sourceforge.com/
• http://www.spreadfirefox.com/
• http://flex.org/ (by Adobe)
• http://www.popsci.com
• http://www.sanyo.com.au/
• https://www.pearljam.com/
• Several NHL sites
• United Nations site http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/
• http://public.icann.org/
• Sun Microsystems https://slx.sun.com
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org
• Electronic Arts (EA) http://www.battlefield-heroes.com/
• http://universalmusic.com/
• REM http://tour.remhq.com/
• Nike’s Beijing Olympics site
• http://news.van.fedex.com/
• AOL http://dev.aol.com and http://corp.aol.com/
• http://www.mikebloomberg.com/.
• http://www.novell.com/communities/.
• http://research.yahoo.com.
• http://harvardscience.harvard.edu
• http://www.lifetimetv.com/
• http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com
• http://www.foxmovies.com
• http://discoveryclub.de
• Grateful Dead Dead.net
• Sony http://myplay.com
• Creators of Second Life http://lindenlab.com
• NASA http://appel.nasa.gov

Hope this is helpful to you.

and if it is, well, I won't say much about that.

Do not be discouraged, though, passion for this will be part of the deciding factor.

Remember one of the primary rules of 'selling' - solve a problem. If the person does not perceive there to be a problem, they are not likely to buy a solution.

Take some time to get to know the goals of your pastor where the web site is concerned and how it fits with the overall ministry goals for your church. Find out if changes to the way they approach the web are appropriate.

A leader or pastor doesn't care about technology. They care about getting things done. So, think like a leader and give them a demo. Something hands on.

Does the leader want to be able to easily edit the material on the site? Maybe manage a church calendar anyone can get to? Put a demo together for these and show them how easy it is for them to update the calendar or edit the material on the site.

Start with what they want to get done and show them how they can do it.

I explained the benefits to our pastor and cast a vision for what I would like to see the site to do for our members, and he gave me the full approval to pursue it. Needless to say then, I will be on the forums lots asking for help from the Drupal geniuses on here! Thanks

and if it is, well, I won't say much about that.
Do not be discouraged, though, passion for this will be part of the deciding factor.
Remember one of the primary rules of 'selling' - solve a problem. If the person does not perceive there to be a problem, they are not likely to buy a solution.
Take some time to get to know the goals of your pastor where the web site is concerned and how it fits with the overall ministry goals for your church. Find out if changes to the way they approach the web are appropriate.