(UNDATED) Whenever I lead a communications workshop, I show church Web sites that miss the mark: out-of-date designs and content, a “provider driven” and not “customer driven” focus, too many photos of buildings and clergy and not much apparent thought to what a visitor might be seeking.

Then I show the Web site for Saddleback Church, a four-campus megachurch in southern California whose pastor, Rick Warren, will give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20. His selection has ruffled some feathers because of his conservative theology.

“This Web site is the `gold standard,”‘ I say, not because it espouses a certain theology, but because its methodology is superb. The site shows people, not buildings, and a broader diversity than most churches show. It changes constantly to stay fresh.

The site anticipates a visitor’s needs for belonging, meaning and purpose, and it wastes little time trumpeting the congregation’s history or traditions.

The clear path for navigating the site suggests a clear path for navigating the congregation and embracing its faith. In stating the congregation’s transformational agenda, the site is honest and appealing. The message is open doors, open groups, open classes, hundreds of ways in and yet a clarity of purpose, not a grab-bag of easy, half-hearted solutions.

“I don’t agree with what Rick Warren preaches,” I tell church leaders. “I think his book, `The Purpose-Driven Life,’ is pablum. But we can all learn from his methodology.”

And that, in my opinion, is why Warren makes an excellent choice for a presidential inauguration in troubled 2009. He seems pragmatic and open-handed, a welcome change from the doctrinaire and closed-minded clergy who have plundered national politics in recent years. Even though I disagree with Warren’s negativity toward homosexuality, I sense that, unlike many Christian leaders, he hasn’t hung his entire ministry on this one crowd-pleasing issue.

I hope Warren’s selection signals an era of pragmatism in American politics, marketplace and religion. Ideologues managing our economy and foreign policy led us to the brink of collapse. Stubborn executives clinging to failed ideas and ignoring marketplace realities led major corporations into bankruptcy. Politicians seeking donations entrusted the nation’s personal and community wealth to financiers whose rapacious folly is a staple of American history.

Religious ideologues poisoned the well of community good-will, making terms like “Christian” and “evangelical” into arrogant labels that any sane person would avoid, and rendering us helpless in the war of ideas with Islamic extremism.

It’s time for a better methodology, one that’s grounded in undramatic values like effectiveness, responsiveness and acceptance. Does a program work? Are lives being enhanced? Is attendance growing or shrinking? Can our institutions and citizens pay their bills?

Forget the seduction of right-opinion. When a congregation, school, company or agency opens its doors, does it do and say anything that justifies the doors being open? Do teachers and preachers convey passion? Do vendors play fair? Do leaders demand excellence, not high salaries? And do any of us learn from failure?

If faith communities or any institutions want to contribute to the national renaissance that we so badly need, they should learn from success stories and not cling stubbornly to failed ideas and ineffective methods. They should embrace best practices and accountability and allow room for other people’s beliefs and interests.

The necessary path forward won’t be paved with doctrine, but with a pragmatic attention to outcomes.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

KRE/DSB END EHRICH