Seems perfectly acceptable to me.

Where do I click to donate blood - nothing says christian here until I start scrolling down - the cross looks like a medical cross inscribed on a drop of blood, not a christian cross. the logotype and color scheme says web 2.0 dating site. It's an bland skin on top of an otherwise proven board system.. The site has no niche and no purpose on first view (a site that builds....what?) The first targeted forum is below the page 'fold' and the images suggest nothing. You actually have to click the "purpose" link to see what's going on. That's very poor impression building and probably won't monetize like you hope (if it's a commercial site). Get a google analytics account and narrow your focus down to the top viewed pages and start working on knocking down what will be an outrageous bounce rate. It's a christian forum, but if you're going to successfully market it, you'll have to narrow your topics, not expand them - besides .. you can visit any off topic area of any given forum to see yahoos mouthing off about war and politics.

-Jon

Is that body text condensed? ew.

Easy to navigate, nice and bright with great colors, really snazzy design elements there for the title...

Honestly, i wish this board looked that good. I would be hitting it up far more often. ^ _ ^

^uh huh.

Light blue text on light green backgrounds gives me headaches. Can't read it.

Why is there a girl's face, and only her face, in the header? Apart from the logo (is it a placeholder or an actual church logo?) it looks like a dating service site,

I'm inclined to think it's random: When i was looking at it, it had a boy and a girl laying down all happy like.

but i'll agree that if you have more than just the original image, the images could convey that it might be a dating site.

Everything seems to have a nice feel to it, but I agree with the two different images that come up with each load they would be okay without the orange drop with the cross inside, it is so eye catching that it really throws you off about what the fourm is aimed at.

Woof! Thorough examination has been wrought!!!

OK, at first glance my initial reaction was that I liked the opennes and vibrancy of the colors. I knew the purpose of the forum because I read the small text at the top. If it's possible to add larger text to the big open header I would, but I know how restrictive those things can be.

I think the others are right: you could easily get the wrong impression from the site. If you have any leeway on the cross image or the tagline, I would change it. Try something more direct "Building Christian Community"

I've worked on exactly this same type of project and they can be pretty daunting. They seem to work better if attached to a highly focused group, like a particular (and large) church. Otherwise, the diverse Christian community has got other places to go.

While some of the critiques here are pointed, you may glean some truths from them that may help you succeed in the long term. The forum sys I put together, for example, got no traffic at all. Save yourself a long and painful demise by carefully considering the above suggestions.

So far as colors and design: nothing original there, but it's fresh and inviting to me. Don't give up, but it's not done yet!!!!

DOWN WITH MEEKRO-SIFT!! I assume you have tested for compatibility though. the average 4y/o has more web design ability than i have, but with my limited knowledge i know about uninformed ma and pa who have enough trouble turning the magical inter-web box on.
I like the color scheme, personally. The blooddrop seems a bit odd to me, but perhaps it part of a larger identity.

I agree with many of the comments above - but as for some new comments:

The "Welcome to Blenndi" text that follows the header is two lines of very long text on a 17" 1280x1024 monitor, with a maximized window. Rather than reduce my browser size, I just closed it.

The forum descriptions venture towards these long text lines as well. You should put these bodies of text in a smaller container to force line breaks more naturally.