church website

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had to contend with a new normal. Phrases like 'social distancing' and 'contact tracing' weren’t familiar terms until a few weeks ago. Large gatherings aren’t safe anymore, so we’re all turning to online forms of meeting and communication. This, of course, includes weekly church services. With state governors ordering people to shelter in place, church leaders were left scrambling in recent weeks to ramp up or start from scratch with online streaming services and more.

With the recent events requiring us to worship from home in many places around the world, church apps are proving themselves highly valuable. Whether you have a church app, or you're looking to get one, how do you encourage digital discipleship through the platform?

Your church website is a crucial component for both church engagement and outreach. It serves as a central hub for members and congregants to learn about your ministry. It is also the gateway to important information for visitors and community members who are considering whether your church will be their home.

If you’ve ever stood in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, looked at the hundreds of choices, and then walked away without choosing one, then you’ve experienced analysis paralysis. Options are supposed to be good, right? What happens when they become overwhelming?

In the last 15 years of writing and publishing about church technology, I’ve seen quite a few websites come and go. Some folks start out with gusto only to find that publishing excellent content on a regular basis can’t be a hobby if success is the goal. One such site, Church Relevance, which was founded by Kent Shaffer in 2006, is under new ownership and quickly gaining traction in providing valuable content and insight for church leaders. 

WordPress is an extremely versatile and well-supported website content management system (CMS) solution. It works for anyone from a small blog to major corporations--and even churches. In fact, nearly 35% of the internet runs on WordPress.

Church Websites have evolved from glorified online flyers, to digital front doors, to spaces where Ministry actually occurs. Today’s hardest working church websites serve to attract and welcome guests, provide clear instructions on how newcomers can join in worship, and accomplish a bevy of ministry-specific goals, such as facilitating online giving, spreading the word about missions, finding classes, recruiting volunteers, live streaming and storing sermons, and offering opportunities to connect with the unique message a church is putting forward. 

Your church website is the digital front door to your church. Essentially, from the very first time someone views your homepage, you’re making an...